Thursday, September 24, 2009

Me And Sam

The grammatically challenged Anonymous Coward tried to wind me up:

No pictures of manchester derby?

Only too happy to oblige. What about that one:



Seeing a gloryhunter being thumped is always worth a picture, which goes to show once more that good things can come out of bad situations.

Anyway, the real reason why I started talking about things not running once more is the fact that there isn’t much to talk about running. On Tuesday my HR had been sky-high on the climb up to the Devil’s Elbow and I decided to take it easy again, which meant 5 slow miles yesterday morning. Then I checked my running logs from the weeks after Boston, where I saw that my HR had generally been higher for similar runs than now, and decided not to worry too much. As a test, I ran the exact same course as on Tuesday again this morning, and the difference was stunning. I checked my HR at the point where I had reached 172 bpm just 48 hours earlier, and was very pleased to see it almost 10 beats lower. Just as telling was the world of difference in my legs. I felt so much better I found it hard to believe that we are talking about the same runner here. Since things were going so well I added a set of strides once I had left the hill behind me. Basically, I ran both faster and easier than 2 days prior, which means I can get a bit more adventurous over the weekend. The weather has been really decent this week, which is supposed to last for several more days. After the washed out summer we deserve a few days of sunshine before the winter darkness sets in.

Oh, and Sam (that’s the trophy won on Sunday, for those not in the know) is being shown around the Killorglin schools today, causing great excitement amongst the kids. They do make sure to brainwash them early.

And if you think it’s just the kids who get excited, have a look at this:



It’s quite possibly the worst photo ever, but that is indeed me holding the real, true and original Sam Maguire trophy. A fine cup it is too! To any Cork people reading this, it’s really heavy, but of course you’ll never have to worry about that.
23 Sep
5 miles. 40:14, 8:03 pace, HR 144
24 Sep
8.5 miles, 1:07:50, 7:59 pace, HR 150
incl. 7x100 strides

7 comments:

  1. Ah ha ha. After that I would be inclined to promote Bellamy to club captain. Let's hope the pesky pitch invader gets banned from home games for his own safety.

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  2. ... who never won an All-Ireland, Richard.

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  3. that's one awesome looking cup!

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  4. So the All-Ireland is like the AFL Grand Final?

    Interesting about the improved HR readings - shows how long it takes to recover from a marathon.

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  5. Ewen, first of all, Kerry have been in green and gold forever. I suppose you also think the English nicked the name of a certain Northeastern town from your own Newcastle?

    But yes, the All-Ireland is comparable to your Grand Final. And did you know that Tadhg Kennelly is now the only person to have won both an AFL premiership and a Senior All-Ireland Championship? Impressive or what!

    I hope the sand storms didn't knock you out.

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  6. Good one Thomas. We can't escape our colonial roots.

    No I didn't know that - very impressive! I knew about Jim Stynes though. The Grand Final is just over - Cats beat the Saints 80 to 68 in Irish-like conditions - cold and wet.

    Sydney got the worst of the dust. It was dusty here, but welcome rain has settled it now.

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