False Alarm; It Didn't Get Difficult

Week 5 was a breeze. The long run was 17km (about 10.5 miles) and the temperature just over 20 degrees Celsius. It started raining heavily within minutes after I got back. Thunder and lightning and rain like a shower. I was inside, feeling accomplished.

The first 15km were easy. I'm not kidding. They were easy and fun. After that I got tired. A nice 30-minute walk to finish. No, wait, it wasn't actually all that nice because my legs hurt but they hurt less than after last week's (shorter) long run. I call that progress.

I ran through St. Anne's Park in Clontraf/Raheny. There are some cool places there that I did not see. I got a bit lost and only saw civilised lawns, too many people, and a dog park. The dogs were cute, running and playing all together.

But, yes, there are some less manicured areas that I must find and explore next time. All photos are credited to William Murphy.

 Some fake ruins.

 I may actually have been there. Look at those trees.

Two laps around the outside of St. Anne's Park is about 5km; it is not large by any means but there is wilderness there that I need to find next time.

Tired of silence and sick of music, I started listening to Iain Banks' Whit. Rest in peace, Iain, my favourite author. I have only read one other of his non-science fiction books and I love all of his Culture and non-Culture sci-fi. I like Whit thus far.

I submitted my undergrad dissertation yesterday. A day early but these things are best done with time to spare. I have been studying part time and working for full time for four years; it feels strange not to worry about university any more. For now.

Week six's long run is 12km and week seven's is 20km. Still no injuries yet. I signed up for a half marathon in the end of September, a month before the full marathon. It will be my first race; I never wanted to do 5k and 10k races.

Is This When it Gets Difficult?

Week 4 completed. Fourteen weeks to go.

Is this when it gets difficult? This week's long run of 15(.5) kilometres* (not quite 10 miles) was pretty hard. 

It was a beautiful day. You can't see the boats but there were loads of sails up on the Clontarf bay.

 Two weeks ago the grass was green. It hasn't rained in a month so things have got a bit crunchy. It didn't bother all the people chilling out on the grass, reading. I tried not to photograph any in case they wouldn't have liked that.

These two tracks up there have been created by runners and walkers, not cars. They are the reason I run there. Oh, and the sea breeze and wide open space.

I used to rent an apartment in that house. On the second floor where the big circular window is. It's 30m from water.

Time to turn around. It was low tide; the greenery you see there is not grass, it's seaweed. It all gets covered in water during high tide. During low tide, one can see people in their wellies digging for somethig. It may be mussels. I saw a dead dog there once, covered in seaweed. Maybe it was just seaweed shaped like a dog.

 

These flowers belong to the pea family, I believe. I found them right near the midpoint of my run. They don't seem to mind the lack of rain.

This route is there-and-back. I normally prefer a circular route where I don't have to double back but I am yet to find one that is not entirely pavement. The only issue with this particular route is that on the way out, the wind blows right in my face but on the way back it's from behind so it's not as cooling. I was seriously thirsty afterwards. I had brought a little 250ml bottle of water with me but I guess it was not enough.

The entire 15.5km took me 1h 40m. My last kilometres were all over 7min/km. It was just so hot

Weekend long runs get longer from now on and midweek longish runs will also lengthen. I am still injury-free and I have no new blisters. Once the heat is over my times may start to improve.

*kilometres are what the French call miles.

Hot in the City

It's a beautiful day, they said. Days like this are rare in Ireland, they said. Go and enjoy, it will be grand, they said.

It was not grand.

I nearly died, let me tell you.

My calves did not hurt at all during the third week's long run of 9km.Everyone who has ever started exercising something new knows that there will be pain for the first weeks and it is okay to work through it if it is muscle pain. Only if it's muscle pain and you know that it's not something else. The only way muscle tissue gets stronger is through use.
Sunday was hot. The entire last week was hot and this week will be too. The average temperature is around 25C in the shade. You may think that this sounds pleasant or even lower than you prefer your summer to be but for me it's uncomfortably hot - I don't tolerate heat well.

I wanted to stop as soon as I had turned around for the run back, only after 5.5 kilometres.

A cool wind is just about the only thing that gives hot weather a semblance of normality. In Dublin the average wind speed seems to be around 20mph (yes, miles, so...30kph) from experience; I'm sure official figures disagree. I have run in wind over 35mph (55kph) and it is hard going. Yesterday it was somewhere between 25 and 30km/h. As usual, when running by the shore, the wind was from east, right in my face. It was not easy but by the gods it was pleasantly cool.

On my way back, however, the wind stopped intermittently and heat took a toll on me. I'm the person on the bus who passes out when the windows are closed and I'm standing up. I'm the person who passed out in class once because it was too hot.

As soon as my 9km were done I walked and it was such a relief. The walk home took about half an hour and I managed to take a few pictures. I cross the river Liffey on my way out and back.

There was a new boat in dock. She was called Sea Cloud II. What the hell is a sea cloud and what happened to the first one?

My brain was wonky from the heat so this is a rather pathetic attempt at photographing the Samuel Beckett Bridge. It's a suspension bridge and one can feel it move when walking across.

Many a young lad jumps off the bridge in the summer on days like these. Every time I see them I hope that no one has tossed a bike off the side. Am I getting old because I don't want the stupid kids to impale themselves on a rusty broken trolley and die a horrible death, bleeding into the murky brown waters of the Liffey?

Looking west off the bridge one can see the Dublin city centre. 

 

To the east and south (also north, but that is behind me) is a rather sterile concrete and glass jungle of office buildings apartment blocks, the IFSC - and right by the water sits the old Ferryman pub, a pre Celtic Tiger relic that remains popular, unlike half the apartments in the IFSC that sit empty, expensive and unwanted. Like most pubs, The Ferryman has lovely flower arrangements hanging outside the windows but I don't think you can see those in the picture. Those arrangements are almost the size of a tiny car.

I took an accidental picture of my foot. These shoes are actually huge. I've misplaced my ankle socks and had to run in these long 1000-Mile socks instead. I bought these because they are double-layer, not because of some snake oil compression crap.

Close to home there's a railway bridge. The sound of trains does not bother me in the least; I don't notice them when I'm home. I lived close to another railway a long time and distance away.

Under the bridge lives the Pizza Troll.

The Pizza Troll eats a large pizza every Friday, leaving behind the box and crusts. This weekend I counted three big boxes and three little ones. Either the Pizza Troll had friends over or it had been dumped by another troll and sat there crying and binging on meatballs, mozzarella and pepperoni. I took a picture of the leftovers as well but it was NSF humans.

As lovely as the sun is - and I really do miss it when it's cold, overcast and raining like the average Irish summer - I hope the heat stops soon because I'm not sure how safe it is for me to run like I did on Sunday. I didn't bring any water; I'm sure that did not help but carrying around a bottle seems cumbersome and sweaty. Hip-level belts have never worked with my body type, they don't stay in place, so I wonder how a hydration belt would sit.

My 'lap' times were very stable around 6:30 per kilometer with only a few seconds either way, which was an improvement of about 20s over last week's very painful run. I'm not fast but I'm fine with that because this really is not about speed. It is an experiment in endurance for me.

Adjustathon

No one told me that I needed time to adjust to new shoes but you know what, even if they had told me, I would not have done it because I'm difficult like that.

Saucony Kinvara 4s have a toe to heel drop of 4mm. Apparently that is rather low and apparently one should alternate with old shoes to make sure one's body adjusts.

Pfffft. My old shoes were too small and there is no way I am wearing those again. Never ever. Not for running.

So then. Sure, the first two runs last week were fine. My calves hurt a little. The third run on Thursday was more painful but I had a whole day to recover so pfft, fine.

The weather was perfect for an Irish summer day on Saturday. I was hot but whatever because summer! Summer in Ireland! What is this mythical summer thing that I have not seen in eight years?

Summer happened and a 12km run happened. I used to live in this nice area called Clontarf. Clontarf is on the Clontarf bay and there is a walkway with a wide strip of grassland along it for a stretch of several kilometers. On a good day it's rather popular.

It was a good day. Sailboats on water, people on grass. Dogs running, people running, people walking, cycling, reading, sleeping on the grass. A dude boxing an invisible opponent, not too many kids running around.

I really should have taken pictures but the picture-taking device was strapped to my arm, GPSing away.

I find it easier to run on a dirt trail but for most of my runs I have to make do with pavement. I have pavement right outside my door, why should I bother to drag my ass farther?

What I'm trying to say is, it could have been worse. I may have had to run my 12k on pavement. But I didn't because actual grass grows in Clontarf and indeed the nicer areas of Dublin, whether plebes are allowed on it or it taunts us from a respectable distance in tiny front gardens.

The last 7k were painfully painful but my calves are almost all right by now, Monday afternoon. It's just muscle pain and as the muscles are stretching and getting stronger, I expect the problem to be gone by the end of this week.

But yes, you should alternate shoes if you buy new ones that are different from your old ones. Unless you are hard and stubborn like me in which case, enjoy the pain.

Oh, oh! Big news! I got a tan. An actual tan! I look slightly toasted. It's amazing because Ireland gets sun for about an hour each month, no joke.

Beach Bum

Last weekend I went to Lahinch in the windy west of Ireland. It looks like this:

Source: James Horan

Sometimes it does this:

Source: Lahinch Surf Experience

Lahinch is one of Ireland's better-known surf villages. It's a lovely one-street village on the Atlantic.

Yes, we did surf, or at least try. I failed horribly but it was two hours of immense fun. The water was about 12 degrees Celsius but did not feel cold in a wetsuit. No, I did not pee in my rental suit, although I am certain many who had worn it before had done exactly that.

Before surfing, though, I ran. I felt like this:

 

Source: DogDays

I ran for about an hour. I accidentally closed Endomondo right after starting the run so I don't really know the distance but I'm going with 9km.

There were jellyfish on the sand who could not all have been dead yet so I picked up a few and threw them back in the water.

On Friday, we went to the Cliffs of Moher. It was raining and misty so the cliffs looked a bit otherworldly:

On the way I met slugs protecting their young:

Interspecies love:

A few fat slugs thicker than my index finger:

 And an eerie tower rising from the mist:

This is O'Brien's Tower. It was more eerie than it looks in the photo above. Just as we arrived at the tower, it started raining hard and we left, trying to avoid stepping on myriad adventuring slugs.

Saturday afternoon after running, surfing and rather indulgent milkshakes, we went to the tiny village of Doolin that hosts several tourist shops, a real Irish country pub and a wonderful chocolate shop where I spent less than I probably should have.

Doolin also hosts the Northern hemisphere's largest free-standing stalactite in the Doolin Cave. The stalactite is bloody enormous:

Source: Doolin Cave

The stalactite is about 7 metres long, weighs over 10 tonnes and is, if I remember correctly, 700,000 million years old. This stalactite has grown faster than stalactites normally do, which is why it has reached this size at quite a young age.

Before descending into the cold, damp and awesome cave, I met Bob the rooster:

Sunday it was time to drive back to Dublin. Roads in rural Ireland are epic:

Source: Car Rental Ireland

No one actually does 100km/h on these roads.

Ireland is small, one can get to any other point in the country within four hours. This drive took less than three. Once back in Dublin, I went to have my running gait analysed.

Good news! I already knew I was a forefoot runner, duh, but I found that I run with a neutral gait. This sadly means that instead of interesting, multiply-padded fancy shoes, I get to wear boring neutral shoes. I bought a pair of Saucony Kinvara 4s.

Size 44. I have freaky feet. My big toes are my longest toes and they need lots of space when running. Unlike what most people think, most people's second toes are actually longer than their big toes. I have lost two toenails because of socks and shoes that were too small. I can't wear sandals this summer, boo-hoo. Whatever, I have freaky feet, so be it.

In women's shoes I can be from 40 to 41.5 or even 42 in some that fit especially small. They don't make women's shoes in size 44 so men's shoes it was. The toebox is roomy and this is exactly what I need.

I took my new, big neon yellow shoes for a run yesterday and although I could only find a random pair of cotton sports socks, I had no new blisters nor pruney toes after the run. Epic shoes!

The training plan for this week has three 5k runs and 12k on Saturday.