Child Prodigy #4

It was supposed to be bed time last night, but Maia has her own ideas and her parents have long learned that she is better at negotiating than them. When she instead demanded a marker for drawing, she got one. 5 minutes later she had produced this masterpiece (and no, Ewen, Rick and Grellan, the writing at the top is not hers). Keep in mind that she is still a few days shy of her third birthday. Her big sister used to produce a string of outstanding drawings for her age (well ... I think they were outstanding) but has since taken to reading and writing instead. It looks like her mother's artistic talent has made it into yet another offspring. And by the looks of it we're a very happy family. Not entirely sure about the head count though.

This week is all about recovering from the marathon. The legs still felt a bit sore on Thursday, which is why running from Stillorgan to Belfield probably wasn't the best route choice due to the downhills on the way there. Mea culpa; I still don't know South Dublin that well but I get reminded of how hilly it is on every visit there. The pace would have been a bit slower and the HR a bit lower had I not given in over the last mile and let the legs turn over a bit faster. I can't help it, running faster is more fun that running slowly, even 3 days after a marathon.

I had to get up reasonably early on Friday to run because we would be driving back home later that day. The clouds looked rather dark, but they had been doing that on the previous days as well. I had just reached the turnaround point when the heavens opened and I got thoroughly soaked. It was the first time in ages since I had to run in such heavy rain - probably since the Cork marathon in June. It was fun.

Unfortunately I hurt my back when loading the car. I should probably say I re-hurt it, because this is the third time in a year that this area is hurting. Sitting in the car for several hours didn't exactly help either and I'm still in pain today. Running doesn't seem to have any influence on the pain level; it doesn't aggravate it and it doesn't make it better either.

I did grumble having to get up at 6:30 this morning for my run. Niamh pointed out that strictly speaking I did not have to get up, but ask any runner and you will get a different opinion. It was very windy and I had to fight a nasty headwind all the way to the turnaround point, but got paid back handsomely on the way back home, which is why the pace was a good bit quicker than on previous days. It still felt reasonably easy. The rest of the day was spent in Tralee where the older 3 kids spent the entire day in various Halloween-related workshops, which went down very well indeed. On the way home I managed to track down seemingly the last pumpkin in Kerry for carving. Now if only the kids could agree on a design without fighting ...

28 Oct

7 miles, 57:57, 8:18 pace, HR 150

29 Oct

9.2 miles, 1:14:06, 8:03 pace, HR 153

30 Oct

10 miles, 1:18:03, 7:48 pace, HR 154