Author: mad IT runner

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Murphy’s law…

http://cradlepoint.com/sites/default/files/productdocs/murphys_law.jpg

… “all what can go wrong will go wrong”… and it has.

On Thursday I have slipped when jogging and stretched my hamstring. Not nice. I was trying to avoid guy, who was blocking the path, ‘playing’ with his mobile in the middle of it. I diverted onto wet grass patch and slipped (I know that my lovely Wife will tell you that paths / roads don’t belong to runners, but… it just annoys me when people do not respect others on the road – whether driving / walking / jogging / cycling). Avoided falling but when trying to keep my balance I felt discomfort in my hamstring. Read more

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Ready for Cork…

Officially I’m ready for my first marathon…

Shoes – ready (slightly worn already),
Number – known already, need to pick up before race,
Belt – bought,
Energy gels – tested, know which ones I will be using (no stomach problem after these),
Cap – missing, but not a big problem to buy,
Socks – ready,
Shorts – ready,
Singlet – that was the last piece of the puzzle missing. But I was able to sort that out with help of Martha from company OOYO Sports in Lucan (http://www.ooyosports.com). They have printed for my singlet with my logo and it looks really good. Now the last thing for marathon is weather. Hopefully it will be very nice. Read more

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NB testing

Because I like quite much New Balance shoes I thought that I can ask NB producer to maybe sent me time to time some shoes to test.

It’s not that I just want to get free shoes just had an idea. I’m running about 160-180 km on the streets or gym. Running just in NB shoes, even walks in other pair of NB’s. So just walking advert 😉 Anyway, thought that I can ask them about that but haven’t got any idea where to send email to UK department. But when went on the US version of the website I have found ‘Sports Reasearch Lab’, so basically you can test shoes for them. Only issue is that program is working just in US. So have lied that I’m from Wyoming, but have put in the rest of address accordinally to place where I live. Account was set, administrator probably haven’t got anything against me 😉 I have followed by email saying that I would like to participate in testing program but I’m from Ireland. Hope that will work. Waiting now for reply. Read more

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Some numbers…

At the moment all I can say is that there is not many of bib numbers… I would be expecting to have little bit more of these at this stage.

This year I got just two bib numbers. One from ‘Hell and Back’ (back in February) and recently from Samsung Night Run. Rest of them is from last year: 5 km Tom Byrne in Lucan, 10 km in Maynooth and 5 km Symantec Run. I wish I could run in more races but you all probably know… it’s not cheap. Depends of the race it can be 15 € or even 40 €. But now, when I’m trying to get into marathons it will be more, more… expensive. I will probably need to find a sponsor, who could support me… with my marathon runs… Read more

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Little helpers…

Usually these are helping me to get on my feet again… But not this time, today I was very exhausted. I was falling asleep after I just got my breakfast.

I think I overdid a little bit with training lately. Adding to that late hours of getting to sleep and waking up quite early just left me really fatigue. That’s not a great sign if you are just two weeks before marathon. So have decided to do the ‘off day’ today accommodate tiredness and make sure that ‘off day’ will fall just before marathon… Read more

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TomTom Cardio – running watch

As a runners all of you probably know that on some stage of running, jogging you will need a GPS watch to be able log all details about your runs…

I know that most of runners prefer Garmins but I decided to give TomTom a chance. I’m their fun when it comes to car GPS so for me that was natural choice. I know that first TomTom Nike watch was terrible but… didn’t want to say no straight away. After reading review of DC Rainmaker (best guy regards running / triathlon gadgets) I decided to try – http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/07/tomtom-runner-multisport.html. Another thing was the price. TomTom costs about 2/3 of Garmin watch (similar specs). Still I have use eBay to buy it. Just after couple of runs I knew that it was on of the best buys I ever made. Next on the list was heart rate monitor (as well on the first picture). TomTom is working on the Bluetooth not ANT sensor which makes finding additional accessories a little bit harder. But have found Polar chest strap Bluetooth HRM (recommended on TomTom website) and haven’t looked back since then. Together watch and HRM working like a charm… So much information you can get. For me there is one drawback with that watch was battery life. According to specs battery should last about 4 hours on GPS without HRM, which means that when you are little bit slow runner (for example marathon in over 4 hours) it won’t last (even without HRM not connected). Read more

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Pace bands

http://dimitydavis.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/paceband.jpg

Everybody likes their own Garmins, TomToms or Polars GPS watches… I know that, just love my TomTom Multisport (actually have preordered new model recently)… but when running sometimes you focusining on it too much. You are glancing all the time, just to check what is your time, pace and you are forgetting to enjoy the run (maybe that is a little too harsh, but you are getting the idea). So where the pace bands are kicking in. Read more

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Samsung Night Run 2014 – results

After the race already… Even with injury wasn’t too bad. Bigger issue was congestion on the beginning of that race. You literally couldn’t pass anyone (too many people, too narrow path)… Anyway, my time is below. Considering that last year my official 10 K race time was just over 55 minutes below one is ok (there was over 5000 participants in Dublin and just over 1500 in Cork)… Read more