Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Don't Mind Me

Apparently, the prizes given out at the Dingle Adventure race were very nice. Amazing even, according to one competitor. Which is why I can only stare wistfully at the results page, noting that I managed the second fastest 10k time as well as the fastest 1k-sprint time, and that Noddy had the fastest kayak time of the entire field. Our mountain "runner", on the other hand, ... ok, I'll let it go. As a team we came in 15th out of 39 and that's the only statistic that counts and there are no prizes for that.

With the Cork marathon and the DAR now finally out of the way and my knee under control I can finally start training properly, I hope. Since I have no "A" race, I can do whatever I want, but it also means that the training I did for Vienna won't really work here because without a target race you can't implement a proper periodisation. I'll start out with weeks and weeks of base training, but since there will be some races in there, that's not base training as the coach had in mind. It means I won't hit the highest possible peak. That's ok, I suppose, because if there's no "A" race there is nothing to peak for. I just can't bring myself to train like I did for Vienna again. I was training for that single event for 7 months and it took a lot out of me, mentally. I need to re-charge those batteries before I commit to anything serious again.

That all sounds rather familiar, I think. I might start sounding like a broken record.

Actually, does anyone still remember records? It's not the same as a broken CD, and definitely not the same as a corrupted mp3 file. Weird. So familiar once, and now a complete anachronism.

I think I'll cut this short before I ramble even more nonsense. Shorter posts. How am I doing, Ewen?

13 Jun
5 miles, 38:38, 7:44 pace, HR 147
14 Jun
8 miles, 1:02:05, 7:46 pace, HR 149

7 comments:

  1. i'm glad to see that you're not rushing into another race. it wasn't until this morning, while looking through old photos on my blog, that i realized i want to race another marathon again. that said, it won't be until after this 'tri' which means a spring race.

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  2. I find your comments about the slow mountain runner disappointing, were you not slow when you started out at first. I know you were waiting around in the rain etc. I hope he doesn’t read your blog as that’s definitely going to discourage him to sign up to a race event again.

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  3. And I find it equally disappointing that you haven't got the guts to put your name to that. Anonymous sniping is despicable, so you might as well get off your high horse, down there at your place in Cork.

    I make no apologies for being competitive. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.

    I would not have dreamt of teaming up with a competitive team when I was new to running. I still would not team up with e.g. the top teams in the Wicklow Round Relay. Mismatched teams are a bad idea, no matter if I am the slow or fast part of them.

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  4. Apologies for coming across as sniping and for not giving my name. I don’t usually comment on blogs, but felt annoyed to do so this time.
    Maybe I should have phrased my hasty 1st comment better (or not at all) but I did so as I felt admiration for the slow runner – for putting his name forward, and also because I am a slow runner myself (who backs away from such events because of my pace), not that I am on a high horse.
    Granted I didn’t know the full story about it being a completive team, as I thought it was a volunteer basis, but maybe the organiser of the team is more at fault, than the slow runner?
    Enough said by me on this anyway.

    Feel free to remove the comments if you so wish.
    Congrats on the 3hour marathon too by the way, and the blog which I do enjoy reading.
    John O'Sullivan, Cork

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  5. Ok, now I do respect you a lot more and can actually take your comment seriously.

    Come to think of it now it is perfectly possible that he did not realise that the team was so unbalanced. There were about 20 of us divided into several teams and it was always meant to be a fun event. I never expected to win or even place in the race but looking at the results I could not help thinking “what if ...”. That’s all there is to it.

    But honestly, I cannot imagine him never signing up for another event just because of what I’ve written.

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  6. Mmm, well I won't get involved in the team selection controversy ;)

    Yes, you did well with that post. I'm more inclined to read every word (rather than read the first and last paragraphs) if on first glance a post doesn't look like the first 10 chapters of War and Peace.

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  7. Interesting look at 'Knee Pain' and treatment.
    http://inspiretorun.com/2011/06/14/are-you-experiencing-knee-pain-it-may-be-muscular-tightness/

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