Not much to report

Rob hit the nail on the head in the comments when he said that I never expected to write the words “only 51 miles” all together like that (he also managed to return my slacker jibe from several months ago). Well, I guess it means my running has come along quite a bit in the last year. So far this week doesn’t feel any easier than the previous ones; it’s mainly the long run that will be significantly shorter.

I had to get up early yesterday for my 11 miles run, and still felt very tired. One of my resolutions for this training cycle was to get more sleep. I have improved in that respect, but not enough to be satisfied. It’s just not that easy to go to bed at 10 pm consistently, and even if I manage I usually end up reading a book instead of going to sleep immediately. I guess there is still room for improvement.

My quads are quite sore, which I guess is an after effect of Sunday’s strides workout. I haven’t had such sore legs in a while, and in a typically perverted runner’s way it feels good, because it reminds me that I’m doing a lot of work. I guess the soreness will be gone by tomorrow, I did a slow 5 mile recovery run today, and those runs usually clear up any tiredness in my legs.

Cian delivered yet another masterpiece of destruction the other day. Niamh and I were watching a film and naturally assumed the kids to be asleep peacefully. Not so, Cian must have gotten up very quietly and sneaked into the guest room, where he found a box full of window paint. These are held in little bottles, which he proceeded to squeeze onto the floor one by one. Then he obviously had great fun in mixing all those lovely colours with his hands – and feet. Eventually he decided he had enough and came looking for us and tell us “I made a big mess”. He didn’t exaggerate. I should have taken a picture, because the sheer amount of paint on the floor was quite unbelievable. Niamh took the boy into the shower to scrub him clean, and I did the same with the floorboards. After an hour or so of hard scrubbing the room stopped looking like a war zone, but of course he also left his imprints all over the doors and sinks, and toilets, and anything else, and I doubt we will ever be able to completely remove all those marks. By now we have learned to be rather philosophical about these … incidents. We had to.

I hope Social Services aren’t reading this blog, or they’ll surely pay us a visit.

12 Jun: 11 miles, 1:29, 8:05 pace
13 Jun: 5 miles, 46:32, 9:18 pace