Tag: run

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Damn. I love it…

NordicTrack 1750

It is huge. It is ugly. So heavy that we needed neighbor to help us to bringing into the house… But, men, I love it.

Some years ago, I really enjoyed running on the treadmill. Getting up in the morning and being in gym before 6 AM when they were opening door. Then morning run for an hour. Maybe little bit longer. And then work. I always was choosing same treadmill. Setting speed and watching netflix on my mobile. I could just go… I really enjoyed it. Couldn’t understand how running on the treadmill could be boring for anyone. I know that you were running in the same spot for long but it was running. Then you could always watch movies, listen to music and don’t stop for traffic. What was really great, at least, for me was that control which you had when was running on treadmill. You were setting running speed as you wanted. So easy to train intervals, uphills, sprints. When doing recovery run there was no chance that on some point you will start to run faster and completely waste recovery session. I think that for me treadmill is a tool to get you better at running. And I like it when gym staff was referring to me as ‘our gym hamster’ đŸ˜‰ Read more

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Just to be fit again – continue

Fitness journey

This supposed to separate post but I think that would be just continuation of one – Just be fit again.

So, now I’m 5 months after starting my journey into getting fit again. I think it is going good. I have shaved some not needed fat from my body đŸ˜‰ That is very good. At this stage I’m just 1 kg short of losing 20 kg altogether. But weight is not everything, I actually got some muscle. What I was trying to do on my own for probably last 2-3 years eventually was done with help of PT – Mark O’Regan – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-o-regan-419b1986/?originalSubdomain=ie. He created for me weight training according to my goals. I was looking for loosing weight and getting leaner to be able to run. So, Mark created plan, added me to application where he could monitor my progress. I was asked to send pictures of my meals. Ye, that was hard to change what you eat. First, portion size reduction, remove as much carbs as possible. Eat mostly proteins to help with muscle grow. And that what is happening for last 5 months. Training program is changing all the time to accommodate my results. I’m not best with food but still trying to get only protein and avoid pure carbs (bread, potatoes). So, this is my journey to get fit again. Read more

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Running is …

running road

I started running because I desperately needed a way to vent. That simple. There were days when all I wanted to do was scream. Scream out of anger, frustration, lack of control of simple things. Knew I needed a release. The thought of running has been with me for a while before I ventured on the 1st run. It’s been bubbling for a while, growing on me. Left it until late, until such time that I felt the only way to handle it was to start moving or crack (and not in the fun Irish way). Read more

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You were very angry… I didn’t know.

Angry Alan

Yesterday my Wife has read my old blog posts and she told me something she wasn’t aware about how I felt couple of years ago when I wanted to come back to running. That was time when I had those three crashes on my bike (two broken elbows and a rib, all separate crashes). She told me that she didn’t know that I was so angry back then. Read more

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Czech once again

Sunset

Landed in Prague and what a difference. You could feel the spring, almost summer. Temperature about 20 and more, sunny, refreshing breeze. Nice weekend in front of us (maybe running in such a condition would be challenging but besides that… no complaints). Taxi into Old City to leave our luggage in the hotel (not best but will do, in the heart of Old Town) and of for walk. This time we were staying in the different part of the town. That was most rewarding. Close to all places we wanted to visit and as well allowed us to discover different places which we never have reached being in Prague last year…

Even arriving to Old Town after 6 PM we still had plenty time to enjoy Prague that evening. Walk towards Main Square and we found couple of interesting museums to visit. Found nice shop with souvenirs (actually different to ones offered in all other places). Have checked how far would be from our hotel to marathon start line (whole 600 m, you can’t get wrong with that). And long walk around Old Town, looking for restaurant with traditional Czech food and Kozel beer. ‘Stare Casy’, not far from our hotel. Food was good, beer better (that night I skipped the beer but had one after marathon). Spicy goulash with knedliki. That was really nice evening. Weather nice, great surroundings, it was just beginning but we already knew that visit will be too short. Came back to our room to take a rest. Realised that our room is nice but cosy, not to mention about fourth floor. I was planning to go for a small run in the morning before Bozena will get up and actually was able to do that. We decided to have nice, big breakfast in one of the restaurants on the way to marathon expo. Couldn’t wait to see some of my running buddies from Runczech. Expo was in the same place as last year, in Exhibition Centre. Size-wise similar to Dublin marathon expo but definitely more additional attractions. If you don’t know or haven’t seen yet unihock or poll dancing (sport not erotica thing) or rock climbing expo was place to go. As usual plenty boots with running gear (couldn’t resist buying Adidas shoes – Prague Marathon version) and nutritions. Opportunity to talk to promoters of other marathons. Question almost always same: ‘Would you consider allowing international runner to pace your marathon?’ From these discussions I know that for example: Athens marathon is not using pacers and Amsterdam marathon has own pacing team so it is hard to get that job. But, I have left my details to those who said that they would consider new member of the pacing team. Now, I will wait for any info from them. No high hopes but never know. It was almost 1 PM and all pacers should be introduce to runners now. Almost whole pacing team went on the stage to give small pep-talk and tell runners who will be pacing what time. As I was called ‘European pacemaker’ I got little bit more ‘air time’. I was ask to tell everybody about my running adventure and pacing and give any advise to to participants. That was kind of strange feeling but I thought my ‘small speech’ wasn’t too bad. Yep, I thought so but in the evening I have watched the video taken by Bozena and it was terrible. Need to work on that. But we had a ball on that stage. Laughing, shouting, trying to stop our ‘leader’ who was very, very talkative over the mic. Trying to remind him that he told us that we all should say literally 3 words. We did that, Michal not. Cause of him it took much longer that it should be. Our official marathon training session was in danger of being delayed. We had to go back to ‘Running Mall’ (Runczech official location) cause trying was starting there. I literally made it two minutes before time. We lost Martin on the way or he just got ‘Lost in Action’. We run without him then. Every year they are organising that training session for runners who would like to participate. Last year was much more runners cause the group from Beijing marathon joined us. This year their session was day before and according to Michal it was busy. Last year Prague marathon had one partner – Beijing, but it looks like marathon is growing and now they have new partner. And this is great one – Berlin marathon. That is now showing how Prague event is evolving. All going in the right direction. Still small-ish event. Over 12000 runners from which almost 9000 are running marathon rest marathon relay. They are saying that they could easily increase that number in total to 20 K but that would involve changing the route and move the event from surroundings of Old Town. Organisation great, plenty of marathons could use Prague as an example. Ok, just got of the topic, back, back… Official training. Usually it is just couple of km done in the park with some stretching exercises and some running ones. Same time this year. Little bit more running – 8 km (in addition to my 11 km in the morning) but laughing again. Met doctor Tomas who is running barefoot for ‘Doctors without borders’. Please support them if you can. Doing so much for kids and adults in countries where medical help is not available for all. By the way, Tomas got really great time, just above 3:50. You need to consider tram tracks and cobblestones which are the part of the marathon route.

Usually I’m not participate in official trainings and avoiding all that PR stunts surrounding marathons. But Prague is different. I just love being there, running. So, after training we have been invited by Bozena’s colleague for a lunch. We have visited highest restaurant in Czech capital which is in TV broadcasting tower. Would call it posh. Lunch and then some time to spent in Old City again. Relaxing during walk. Setting mind to run with others and trying to ‘tell’ my body to relax with pitstop thing next day. latter in the evening I had to prepare running gear. Everything needed to be ‘Made by Adidas’, as usual. Not favourite brand to run in but has to be done.

About marathon you can read in next post. This one will be just about tourists in Prague. After marathon we decided that we can rest little bit and walk around, buy some gifts and have dinner. Saw Macintosh museum – crap. Ohhh, we went to the concert. Must say that classic music was actually nice. Next day I went for recovery run. Brought back pacing flag to ‘Running Mall’. Explored new running routes. After run we had nice breakfast in hotel restaurant and spent last couple of hours on enjoying Old Town. We visited museum of sex. We went to gallery to see work of Mucha. Had a salad for lunch and with sadness we had to leave Prague. But we will come back next year and again… pacing.

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First time in ages

Spooky medal

Maybe not ages but long, long time. East Antrim Marathon Series marathon over May long weekend, Carrickfergus coastal route. Little different than the one from end of the last year. Instead of going all the way to Belfast airport and back this time it was three loops. Weather better than last time. Again, cause Carrickfergus is about 2 hours from home so overnight stay was needed. Stayed at Larne, nice small town north of Belfast. Spent one night in very friendly guest house – Derrin. Owners created warm atmosphere. Got upgraded to bigger and nicer room cause there was no guests that weekend. Even if that was Belfast marathon weekend, long weekend and quite good weather. Like that town, even spending just couple of hours. Beautiful view of hills and sunset… If will need any accommodation near there I will use same guest house in same small town.

Next day short drive to Carrickfergus. Looked like a nice day. Sunny, some clouds. Weather was ok, but I remembered that last time running there was actually quite challenging for me. Back then my body was in bad shape and coastal breeze wasn’t helping. This time was similar. Instead of worn off body – IBS, breeze same as in December. Just little bit more sun, actually at the end of the run I had sun burns. On the spot I was informed that route has been change slightly. So, three loops instead of one here and back. Didn’t know what to expect from my body. I wanted to try run, if possible, constant pace (some inclines there so not really possible) to get 3:45. Time which I will be pacing on my next marathon in Prague. First and most important thing was not to charge again too fast on the beginning. 3:45 is 5:19 per km pace. I was going little bit quicker now but still knew that I can’t go faster now even if I can. So, that’s done. Kept my cool. I knew that on each lap one way there are two inclines. Not too big one but running these six times could be irritating. On that day my main focus was on ‘do not stop for pitstop’. I knew if I will not put my body under bigger pressure I should be fine. That is why running with slower but stay pace was so important. First loop was ok, but straight after second incline I knew that I’m still not prepared to run same pace whole distance when route is not flat as a pan. But… I have tried. Said to myself that if I would need pitstop I have 3 loops so twice passing toilet at the end of each loop before finish. During fist loop I was thinking too much about ‘guts’ issue. Haven’t focused on the run. That almost cost me one stop. Had to relax more and go with the flow. Relax body, pressure just when running up the hill. That was the whole idea and I think I have delivered that exactly. Must say that I have weakened quite a bit at lap number three. Still was able to get my time exactly what I wanted – below 3:45. Probably would be 2-3 minutes less if marathon wouldn’t been 600 m longer. This time I’m not blaming GPS signal cause whole route is on open space, no thee coverage, no buildings disturbing signal. So, marathon was little bit longer… But who cares?
Lesson learned. At this stage when body not under constant pressure I can run without toilet breaks and body acting ok. Body not under pressure means about 3:45 marathon time. Be relax and enjoy, speed and endurance will come back…

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Croom Gets Moving

Croom Gets Moving

One of my running friends Siobhan is organizing walking/running event and she asked my to pass details if I can.

So, if you are not too busy on 17th of March you can join the event. At 10AM in Croom, Co. Limerick there will be too events held – 6 K walk/run and 10 K run. More details on the Facebook Page – Croom-Gets-Moving-17th-March-2016-6K-Fun-WalkRun-10K-Run and if you are interested or need more info please send email to events.croom@gmail.com.

Enjoy…

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3:26:55 – for now is good…

2016 Lilliput medal

First marathon in 2016. Still not ready or at least that how I feel. But I had to try. Try myself. And besides that there was AGM after the run. So, I was on the road again, driving towards Lilliput to see my running friends and to run with them. Lilliput is not even a hour drive so early morning and into the car. Morning was actually grand, not too cold and it wasn’t raining…

Arrived there just before early starters begun their race. Had to wait for them to pass the gates of Lilliput Adventure Centre and just after that I could park the car, register and start my preparation for the run. Form not the best but my biggest concern was (still is) IBS. If I will be able to run without pitstops? This time was ok. Better than on the training sessions. No more talk about that. I always liked Lilliput route. It is flat, which should make it fast. But there is as well some parts of the loop where you are running not on the road just on the trail. In fact, one loop has less than 10 km and trail makes over 5 km from that. It could be tricky part. Last year, when it was freezing that part was hard to run, very slip. This time it was warmer but couple days before it was colder and wetter so trail potentially could be quite bad to run. But again it was ok. I was over thinking all. I should just focus on what was important- steady run without breaks. Time wasn’t important, but was I would be happy to get 3:45. So, steady pace of 5:18 per km. 6 months ago would say that running at that pace would be a jog but now, at the beginning of the recovery process that is a running pace for me…

Start just after 9AM. In my mind one idea – stay at your pace, do not run faster. I was tempted to run after the faster runners but knew that could cost me much (walking in later stage). Stay behind, run your own marathon. 5:18 seems to be slow or… Anyway, I have started little bit faster. 4:57, pace for marathon time of 3:30. Silly, isn’t it? It was. But did another silly thing. Went faster. Was feeling great and happy after small loop and half of the big one that suddenly decided that should go faster. Why, oh why? Why not sticking to the plan? That is my problem – why planning if I will ignore it later. This time wasn’t too bad. Until wind kicked in on the 3rd lap I was managing around 3:25 time but after little bit wind in the face I have slowed down. I could feel it, could try to keep the pace but didn’t want to loose energy before last lap just to get 3:25. Same amount of energy, just slow little bit down. Most important was to finish without stopping and I did that. Time 3:26:55 was actually much better than I have expected…

Little recovery time after run and MCI had AGM. Decisions, new board, growing club. Changes… great club.

Plenty pictures but not me on them…

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Make a Wish – help

Make-A-Wish

Christmas it the time of the year when you start to think about these less fortunate and maybe sometimes unlucky…

This year I have decided that I will support Make-A-Wish foundation which is helping sick children by granting them their wishes. It will be better if I will use theirs description…

Make-A-Wish® grants wishes to children aged between 3 & 17 living with life threatening medical conditions.

Each year,  children around Ireland bravely struggle with life-threatening medical conditions and emotions such as anxiety, despair and an uncertain future. Having their wish granted to be a firefighter or a ballerina for a day or meet their favourite sporting celebrity boosts their strength and outlook on life, in addition to providing joy Read more

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What you are missing when you are sick…

Missing this one

It looks that end of the year will be time when IBS will be coming back. Crap… Last year I wasn’t able to spot the beginning of the RETURN and I have was still trying to race every weekend. Tried in Clonakilty, had to use toilet about every 7 km. Ended up walking with my Wife almost 20 km. When walking could avoid pit stops. Then was Clontarf where I had to DNF cause of time on the half way (couple pit stops) and had to bring my Mom and Wife to airport. Had to finish in 3:30 or under to manage that. And cause of IBS that wasn’t possible. And than was famous ‘Lock up the year marathon’ where I have spent over 20 minutes in bushes. It took me couple of weeks to put sickness back into remission. But if I would spot earlier symptoms, especially when I was running previous races or on the training sessions I could start intensive treatment earlier and probably stay out of races. Same thing this year. But now I’m little bit more aware of all simptoms. I know that remission is gone and sickness is back. Decided that I need now to stop running races. I will be training but need to be healthy again to seriously race again. For now training and medication. My last marathon run where I wanted to get 3:25 (that is ok time for me now when my body is so beaten up after whole year of running) suppose to be one in Ballina…

Still dust hasn’t settled on my crap display in New York City marathon and I was back in Ballina trying to race. Of course I have stayed with Daria and Cezary. Couldn’t miss opportunity to visit them. And still don’t know why do they like me? Mystery for me. Anyways, arrived at their house Friday evening. We had our usual catch-up chat. We talked as well about preparations to next day marathon. That day was again a long one but you cannot have it any other way if you are with Lubinski family. I was glad that I was with them that weekend… Bozena was gone again on another conference and I was still in the bad shape after New York. Week before NYC I was running in Venice and was great. So, what has happened in New York was very disappointing. I was blaming jetlag, marathon logistics and hunger. Whatever reasons for that were I needed quite ok run to bounce back. So, was really looking forward to that run. Marathon day looked more as usual run day. 6 AM woke up, light breakfast and coffee. Toilet after that and another one. Shower done. Ready to be on the starting line at 8 to have time to register, help with putting up race clock. Got my bib number, gave Daria buggy for younger one. I was ready to run. Plan for the day was to get between 3:30 and 3:25. I was feeling good. Was little bit cold and wet but that was ok. Almost ideal for running. So, after long, really long ‘speach’ given by race director – Cezary, we have started. Straight away you could see group which was going to run strong and was going to fight for a win in the race. I was somewhere behind them, at least on the beginning. I wasn’t racing that day. Just wanted to stick to planned pace and keep going. First stretch over 2 km up the park path, slightly up. All great. First turn into ‘The Hills’ of Belleek Forest. After that there is first noticeable uphill. And that was place where I felt that something is wrong with belly. But at the downhill it was ok, so I thought that I will be able to control it. All I needed to do was not to push too much on the inclines. Try to relax. But another up and another and I knew that pit stop will be needed. Will I finish first lap without stopping? Not so lucky. When finished first lap I was just 12 seconds behind 3:30 time. Not too bad. Hopping that rest of the run would be without any nasty surprises. Again long first straight and was ok. Was feeling much lighter. But again when ups and downs came I knew that guts will cause problem soon. Is that actually happening? Not even 10 km and two pit stops. Unfortunately that was reality that day. I had still 1 km to finish second lap. I was asking myself if I will be able to continue and if that is the end of the toilet visits? Decided that I will review that at the end of the second lap. But before I reach the end of that loop I knew that another ‘number two’ will taunt me in next 2-3 km. I hate that sickness. Forcing you to do plenty walks from your sofa to toilet every day. And it is getting worse when running. So, dedicated that I won’t be enjoying the run that day if I will be force to stop at least once every lap. I had still 6 laps in front if me. I had to DNF. Cezary was asking me if I maybe rest little bit I will be able to continue. Maybe but I was there to enjoy running not thinking all there time where I can stop or when I will stop. I just pulled off. And I think it was right decision. Remember when I DNF for the first time it was a disaster for me. I was grumpy for next couple of days. But now I knew that it was a good decision and cause I have already run so many marathons this year I took it quite good. I think. Didn’t make any sense to force myself into continuing that race. Lesson was learned from last year. I could go on and suffer but why? Recover and be back stronger…

That day I have spent most of my time with Daria’s and Cezary’s older son. We have played games, watched TV. I was relaxing. Daria came back late afternoon and Cezary in the evening. We have plenty of time to discuss what has happened that day. Cezary gave me his views at IBS. Was sad, not cause I have to drop out from the race but that I won’t have that nice medal in my collection. But knowing Cezary next year medals will be at least good as this year if not better…

Next day weather was horrible. Rain, wind. We were all happy that such a weather wasn’t during marathon run day before. But me finishing early haven’t seen that circumstances weren’t as good as on the beginning if the run. We couldn’t go even for a walk that Sunday, so we just sat in the living room trying to stay calm when both kids were trying to beat crap of each other. Lazy morning and early afternoon but I had to go back home and pick up our dog in the way down.