Tagged

John tagged me a week ago, but I was a bit busy with the marathon. Since I haven't got much to write at the moment, I thought I'd take the opportunity and play along somewhat.

Tagging is easy. Just copy the following onto your post.
* The rules of the game are posted at the start of your blog post.
* In this case, I'm asking you 5 questions about running.
* Each player answers the 5 questions on their own blog.
* At the end of your post you tag 5 other people and post their names.
* Go to their blogs and leave a comment on their blogs telling them they've been tagged and to look at your blog for details.
* When they've answered the questions on their own blog, they come back to yours to tell you. Got that?

1.How would you describe your running 10 years ago?

Non-existent. I only started running 4 years ago, and I only started training properly 3 years ago.

2.What is your best and worst run/race experience?

I love running on clear nights with the moon and the stars bright enough so I don't need artificial light. Pure magic.

The worst experience was the Belfast marathon, my second marathon and my personal worst. I hated Belfast, the course, the weather, and running in general. On the other hand, it was that awful time that made me train properly from then on.

3.Why do you run?

Simply put, I love running.

4.What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?

I've received so much brilliant advice from the likes of Mike, Mike, Eric, Rob, Andrew and a dozen others that I can't possibly tell what the best piece of advice was. But blogging about running was a godsend for me.

The worst? Don't run too far. Don't run too fast. Don't overdo it ... all of it well meant, all of it useless.

5.Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.

Niamh and me met in Vienna and stayed together for only 2 months until she had to go back home to Dublin. We were separated for 2 years; I still can't believe we actually stayed together.

I'm not going to tag anyone else. Yes, that makes me a bit of a spoil sport.

The running over the weekend wasn't great. The weather was really humid, I was bathed in sweat after only half a mile, and felt pretty crap. If that had happened a few days earlier I would have blamed the marathon, and while that might still be a contributing factor, I think the conditions had more of an influence. Today I felt a bit better than yesterday, probably because I ran 3 hours earlier, and because I wore a singlet rather than a cotton t-shirt. I checked the weather website, and the dew point was basically identical with the temperature early in the morning, with 100% humidity. I'm mainly relieved I didn't have to run the marathon like that.

8 Jun

7 miles, 59:15, 8:27 pace, HR 143

9 Jun

5 miles, 44:10, 8:50 pace, HR 135

Tagged

This is doing the rounds again. My perspective on those is perfectly schizophrenic. If somebody tags me, I start rolling my eyes. If nobody tags me, I feel left out, so thanks, Eric. I'll play along half way - I'll answer the questions, but I won't tag anyone. I just don't like chain letters. Ok, here are 5 facts about myself, some random, some weird.

1. I used to be the nerdy kid at school that was crap at most sports. I was quite good at skiing, though (that was in Austria, not Ireland).
   
2. I can't tell left and right apart. I always have to think, and I get it wrong plenty of times.
   
3. I started going out with that Irish girl in Vienna, 2 months before she went back for good. Everyone said we were mad. Not true, we were just mad about each other. When she left, we wrote a letter to each other every day, for two years. We're now happily married, with 4 children (yes, I'm perfectly aware it sounds like a soppy Hollywood story)
   
4. Despite running high mileage I think of myself as lazy.
   
5. My passport says I've got blue eyes, my wife insists they're green.
   

Let's get back to running. The weather forecast for this week was absolutely foul, but reality was much better than anticipated. It was very windy, both today and yesterday, but manageable. The wind came straight from the north, which explains the drop of temperature; it's now around 4C/39F, but much colder if you take the wind-chill into account. So far I'm still running in t-shirt and shorts, but if it gets any colder I'll dig out the long sleeves and the tights.

Monday saw me back on the 15.5 mile loop around Caragh Lake yet again. I started quite slowly with an 8:20 mile, but got into the groove soon after that. After cresting the highest point of the loop, around 40 minutes into the run, I tend to run the following downhill miles fairly hard, and take it from there. I tried pushing it again over the last 5 miles, but they were against the wind, and the pace doesn't really reflect the effort. I felt good though. The most spectacular sight was a shooting star that came from behind into my field of view and exploded in a shower of sparks. It was quite a spectacle, if short-lived. Running with the headlamp turned off has its rewards. Unfortunately the clouds took over the sky towards the end of the run, and I got drenched once again, which wasn't particularly appreciated in the cold.

Immediately after the run my eyes started hurting, and I could feel them swelling up. It was yet another allergic reaction, most likely to something a farmer had sprayed on the fields. I checked my blog entries, and it last happened in December last year, which is close enough to be called the same time of the year. I'm almost used to that by now, and an anti-histamine tablet took care of the effect, though it left me a bit drowsy for the entire morning. It's a good thing I didn't drive to work.

I decided I need to get more sleep, and stayed away from the computer in the evening. There's always one more website I'm interested in, or one other thing to do, and I tend to stay online much longer than anticipated. The only solution that seems to work is to leave the box turned off entirely. As a result once I managed to go to bed early for once, and subsequently felt very good this morning. I decided to push the pace a bit more than in recent days, but made sure to stay aerobic for the entire workout. It was quite cloudy, which was a shame, because the annual Leonid meteor shower must have been on display. Due to the clouds I couldn't see any of the actual shooting stars, but noticed one bright flash after the other. It felt like being flash-photographed all the time. In the 71 minutes I was out there I counted no less than 15 meteors, and I only counted the ones I was quite sure about. I still managed to sufficiently concentrate on the run to handle a very good pace. But the most encouraging sign was afterwards, I didn't feel tired at all and felt like I could have gone out and run the workout again (though in reality that most likely would not have been the case). I know I've said it before, I feel in great shape and wished there was a race in the vicinity now. I'm aware that you're not supposed to race during base training, I just feel in such good shape that I'd love to test it out for real.

19 Nov

15.5 miles, 1:56:19, 7:30 pace, HR 147
last 5 miles in 37:00 @ 7:24, last mile @ 6:54

20 Nov

10 miles, 1:11:29, 7:09 pace, HR 153

Tags

I tried to ignore the latest game of tag when Eric tagged me (sorry, Eric), but now Waddler has tagged me too and I can’t snub two people at once, can I? I would feel too much of a spoil sport.

This is how it goes:1. Find the nearest book.2. Name the book & the author.3. Turn to page 123.4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page. Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.5. Tag three more folks.

1. I’m at work, and the nearest book is technical. Does it still count?
   
2. “Mastering Oracle SQL” by Sanjay Mishra and Alan Beaulieu
   
3. ok
   
4. Obviously, you can’t use simple date arithmetic, because simple date subtraction doesn’t exclude weekend days. What you can do is use the DATE_OF_YEAR table. For Example:

   SELECT COUNT(*) FROM DATES_OF_YEAR WHERE RTRIM(TO_CHAR(ONE_DAY),’DAY’)) NOT IN (‘SATURDAY’,’SUNDAY’) AND ONE_DAY BETWEEN ‘%d1’ AND ‘&d2’;

   (yes, that's what I do for a living)
   
5. Three victims? Ok, I really won’t be offended if you ignore this, honestly, but I tag Pat, Hilda and Bapp.
   

Christmas Tags

It must be that time of the year again. Jack tagged me.

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? wrap

3. Coloured lights on tree/house or white? white

4. Do you hang mistletoe? no

5. When do you put your decorations up? When Niamh tells me to

6. What is your favourite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Niamh’s nut roast (vegetarian alternative to turkey)

7. Favourite holiday memory as a child? When the parents stopped fighting for a minute or two

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? My evil sisters told me when I was three or four

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Niamh and the kids do that these days

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? It’s pure love

12. Can you ice skate? No, and since a friend of mine got the tip of one finger sliced off, I have no inclination of ever changing that

13. Do you remember your favourite gift? My first computer (pathetic, I know)

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Family time

15. What is your favourite holiday dessert? Anything with chocolate.

16. What is your favourite holiday tradition? Spending as much time as possible with Niamh and the children

17. What tops your tree? An angel

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving. I’ve got three young kids.

19. What is your favourite Christmas song? “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues

20. Candy canes? No thank you

21. Favourite Christmas movie? May I say Bad Santa?

22. What do you leave for Santa? You’re kidding, right?


I have to tag five others now, don't I? Ok then, Liam, Michelle, Jeanne, Waddler and Phil. But don't feel obliged.