Wednesday 31 August 2011

Another 5 miles down

After the weekend of running and walking (did a sponsored 6 mile walk on Sunday), it was back to the training last night. Was not sure where to go but stuck to the old reliable of the Inverin Bogs where the roads are long and very quiet (bar the odd car that flew by me).

My start point last night

One thing about that road is you simply can't beat it for scenery, plus the mix of modern life and countryside side by side. I parked up at the local wind farm, quick stretch and off I went. The evening was ideal for a run, not cold or warm -  just a pleasant evening to hit the road and knock out a few miles.

The long lonely road in front of me

I'm starting to enjoy these 5 mile training runs, i don't really feel the discomfort anymore running them -  even the inclines on the bog roads are getting easier and hopefully will keep me in good stead for the long miles ahead of me. Its a great feeling of peace running in a place like this, and sometimes think I'm blessed to have this kind of quiet when training.

Next up is a 6 mile training run on Thursday in Baile an tSagairt, a serious hill challenge for a novice like myself. So here's hoping that my training is starting to pay off.

Location: Inverin Bogs
Distance: 5.2 miles (8.37 km)
Pace: 8:46 p/mile
Time: 45:38

Tuesday 30 August 2011

A little help would go a long way


I guess this would be a good opportunity to tell people why I'm doing the half marathon next month, I decided that I would get in touch with Western Alzheimer -  an organization that fund care for Alzheimer sufferers in the West of Ireland and offered to attempt to raise some money for them. It's my first attempt at fundraising so am looking at the modest target of €500 to help them out and hopefully exceed that target with a bit of luck.

I have had first hand experiences of a family member suffering from Alzheimer disease, and its a heartbreaking condition to watch a person you once knew disappear in front of your eyes, to the point when you no longer recognize them. If anyone here can help me out and donate I'd appreciate it very much, its a cause very close to me and really want to give it a fair chance of succeeding.

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/mairtin_o_mochain_half_marathon/ is my donations page, if anyone can help i'd be extremely grateful.

Monday 29 August 2011

The first 9 miles are the hardest


I took off for Salthill on Saturday this week to get my LSR in, a bit apprehensive that i may be hitting my wall in terms of distance for training. I suppose with this being new to me this is to be expected, but felt really stressed thinking about how am I going to pace myself? What if i have to stop? What if this is as far as i can go?

The best thing probably is that these questions pop up in my training runs, and hopefully these things will be gone by the time i do the half marathon. But got on with it anyways as I took off from the Claddagh and made my way towards the Prom, consciously trying to keep the pace nice and steady so not to blow up half way down the road. After the first 3km or so, I started to feel like myself again and felt my breathing start to settle and feel a bit more comfortable in my run. As I reached the end of the Prom i headed up the road towards the turn down to the caravan park and started to loop back and was beginning to feel that maybe this isn't my wall just yet.

Into my second loop and coming towards the 13km mark at the end of the Prom I got that familiar sore legs as i knew the hill towards the caravan park was coming up again (talk about mid games), and said "screw it" and just pushed on up the hill. I'm telling you, i never felt that hill so long as i did on Saturday, even though its only about 800 metres. When i finally got to the top i turned left, and was never so happy to see a downhill section and plodded around to come back to the Prom. That was it, 15.25km - was never so happy (and sore) as I was then, such a great feeling.

This time last year this would have been nothing more than me making excuses that i could never do this, and have somehow come this far. Its a great feeling, long may it last :)

Location: 15.25km Galway Bay Half Marathon Route
Distance: 9.48 miles (15.25km)
Pace: 8:42 p/mile
Time: 1:22:30

Just curious if any fellow runners read this (hopefully haven't bored you to tears yet), but what sort of tricks would you have to take the mind off the pain when you know you're reaching the tough end of a race? Would really appreciate some feedback on this and my blog in general as well:)

Friday 26 August 2011

Bogs of Spiddal


Never realised there was bogs up in Spiddal until last night, and some big potholes to boot, which the rain didn't help matters with, so plenty of bog hopping last night :)

Anyways I met up with the local athletics club Tríspórt last night at 7:30 to join them for a group run. Running on your own can be a bit tiring at times and enjoy heading out with them whenever i get the chance. Even the threat of a torrential downpour last night that thankfully didn't materialize didn't deter me.

The course itself was a 7KM run. We ran on the main Spiddal to Inverin road and turned right at the pier road and went up Bohoona for 2KM. At the top of Bohoona we turned left and continued across a bog trail for 1.5KM and then turned left again and went down Salathúna for 1.5KM. This took us out on the main Galway road and headed back to Spiddal for 2KM.

This was a new route for me and thought it was great, always love a change of variety in my routes and the lads and ladies of Tríspórt are great for finding these routes. I can't even find them on mapmyrun.com so that says it all really :) Think it may be time soon to invest in a GPS watch.

Location: Spiddal Loop
Distance: 4.35 miles (7 km)
Pace: 8:28 p/mile
Time: 36:51

Thursday 25 August 2011

Night Run


I hadn't originally planned to stick a run in last night but for some strange reason after getting home at 10 o'clock I just fancied stretching the legs and sneaking in a couple of miles, some would probably call it an affliction, I would call it an addiction :)

Anyways when I got home i settled on retreading an old route which I used to do when I started running last winter, plenty of street lamps so that i didn't have to wander too far off the beaten track. So i parked up and off i went, first time in a long time i wore a hat and hoody for a run which was strange in itself. It's a nice feeling to just  hit the road and get a few miles in, even the wind and cold don't bother me anymore. Going through Carraroe it was so quiet, but just made the run more pleasant for me.

Location: Short Run - Carraroe
Distance: 3.5 miles (5.62 km)
Pace: 10:26 p/mile
Time: 36:34

Back out again tonight for a group run around Spiddal, has just pelted down rain here -  so here's hoping for some dry spells even for 45 minutes tonight :)

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Facing my fear




I've sort of jumped into this blog about 8 weeks into my half marathon training, I'm using the Hal Higdon Half Marathon Novice Plan and have progressed to 13.2km without having to stop. Here's hoping i can keep the progress up.

Monday 22/08/11:
My long run was pushed back to Monday this week due to not been home on the weekend but hopefully will get back to normal after this week. Took to Salthill tonight to follow the route of the Galway Bay Half (well the first 13km of it). Was a bit unsettled by this as i wasn't sure what was in front of me, plus i could be putting myself off the race itself :)


Anyways I found the route to be decent and flat, which is a nice change from the usual runs up Taylor's Hill which i've been doing of late. I reckon that the second loop around the caravan park at the 14km mark will be where the suffering will start for the less seasoned runners like myself. But am delighted to knock out the first 13 and a bit km without stopping. A massive jump since April for me, when 5-10km was the target.

Location: First 13km of Galway Bay Half route
Distance: 8.2 miles (13.2 km)
Pace: 8:31 p/mile
Time: 1:09:54

Fáilte / Welcome!

Hi my name is Máirtín and this is my blog on moving towards a marathon sometime in 2012.

It all started last October after getting married that i decided to take up running (i figured my career as an overweight soccer striker was never going to come to fruition :) ) and took on the Couch to 5K plan to get me started. The target was the 5K Resolution Run on New Years Day of 2011 in Galway, which was my first race in 27:14.

Since then I have competed in several races of 5, 8 and 10k and finally decided to move towards the Half Marathon in Galway on the 1st October and am in the process of training for it now.

So the first target for me is to progress from someone who never ran to completing a half marathon in just under a year.

Hope you all enjoy my blog!