Training and blogging...

I haven't felt much like blogging here lately. I don't want to write about the kids because this blog's not anonymous and because the kids are fostered there are other privacy issues I suppose.
I'm still training extra hard to build muscle, that's what I was told to do after the physiological tests. I average 3 to 4 days per week in the gym and that's including a little bit of swimming (plus all the running!). If I didn't have to breath the swimming would be going eh....well swimmingly. I'm trying to keep injury at bay by getting regular massage which is painful but I keep telling myself it has to be good for me!

Met some more of the 4nine£ gang last Saturday in Jo's house. Great night, I haven't laughed so much in ages. Great to put some faces to the names especially Jo's little girl!

This weekend I'm doing the Women's Cycling Event in Blessington. Never having even sat on a road bike I hope I don't get left behind....

Blog stuff

I'm taking it easy today. It's one of those days when I'm not able to run, go to the gym and none of my friends are available for coffee. So I have a morning at home, blogging (over at TGU and 4nines).

I've signed up to be a judge at the blog awards, thanks to Damien, Midget Wrangler and Someone Living for the prompt. I know I don't blog that much myself but I read lots of 'em and thought it would be fun to get involved.

Training is underway for Rotterdam Marathon. Well one long run down anyway. The reason I can't excercise today is because I'm having some physiological tests done in Trinity tomorrow and you're supposed to be rested for those. I've heard words like "you run till you drop" so I'm suitably worried. There's needles and blood tests involved too apparently. I'm told that what I'll get from the tests will be that "the heart monitor will become my best friend". I've never been a runner who used a heart monitor. When I race I just run as hard as I can and when I train I just jog. So it will be interesting to see if the heart monitor changes any of that. If I improve then that will be a bonus.

Since I last posted, in our household, there has been 4 birthdays, a Christmas, a New Year and a trip to Disneyland Paris. All has gone well so can't complain. Well aside from the stomach bugs and colds.....and that was just me.
So the focus now is on the Rotterdam marathon in April. I have to knuckle down now to some serious training and stop eating so much rubbish (which is compulsory at Christmas). Im back in the Gym regularly and took my first swimming lesson today. I swim like a person who's panicking. Panicking or drowning. Each time I put my head in the water I flail around like a complete lunatic. I thought swimming was a graceful sport, all muscles and smooth moves. Not in my case obviously.
I'll miss my second lesson as I'm off to France on Friday for our annual trip to the Snow Race. I'll be blogging next week about waste deep snow during the race and my success on the piste (my skiing is comparable to my swimming so that was a joke.....

Plans for next year...

For me this is post number 117 and a year and a month since I started this blog. I started really because I was getting old (in running terms) and felt I wanted to record the running events I was doing. Of course then it became more of a personal blog but you can't help that really. It's not a traditional running blog anyway because I don't really record how much I run (too much probably!)
Anyway I haven't been racing and that's because things have been busy and once you get out of the habit of racing it's hard to get back into it. I ran in the Dublin Senior Cross Country and the Gerry Franham and after that it was just the Duathlon. I've gone and entered for the Rotterdam marathon next April (and the snow race in France in January). My plan was to give the ultras a break for a while and try and do a fast marathon. I know I'm yet to do the marathon I'm capable of. I feel I can get close to 3 hours and now is the time to try. After that I'll go back to the ultras as I already miss them! I won't be running Connemara next year (my favourite ultra) and I'll probably not be on the mountains afetr my experiences this year. One of my ambitions has always been to try an ironman. Just because I've never done a triathlon doesn't seem to bother me (maybe it should). The day I decided to start running I wanted to do a marathon and that worked out ok so I'm hoping that it will be the same for an ironman. I'm in the gym swimming most days but I'm so bad I'm gonna get some proper lessons. I feel that with the kids at school I have the capacity to at least train for it. The UK ironman is in September and that gives me a number of months after Rotterdam. Friends have been encouraging me towards the glamorous ones in France, Austria etc., but they are all in the Summer and I feel that's too close to Rotterdam in April.
Anyway this isn't a post looking for pats on the back, it's more about wanting to get things out of my head.
This year was mad in terms of goals. I ran two ultras early in the year and trained for the Wicklow Round. Then ended up in the European and World Mountain Running Champs, not the most pleasant experiences and not ones I'm likely to get a chnace to run in again but they were totally unexpected so new expereinces are always worth a try. Jungfrau Marathon was probably the highlight but still felt I should have gone faster.

Anyway on the personal front the family has grown from 3 to 5 and that has been crazy, good crazy. Christmas will be completely different with a 5 year old lunatic in the house. He gets excited about having dinner every day so you can imagine how wired he is about Christmas! The house is lit up like the Griswalds and presents are wrapped and ready under the tree.

I've made new friends on other blogs: Team Geared Up and For Nine Pounds and of course our running group Wednesday Night Runners and of course the bloggers who comment here. Thanks for all your encouragement, it's been great to log on and realise someone has dropped by and said something, it's been a real lift.

Team Geared Up has allowed me to write lots about adventure kinda stuff. Things I wouldn't have written about here. I've loved every minute of it and the hard work put in by Robin over there has meant the blog seems to have changed recently and become even more vibrant. He's worked so hard at constantly thinking about what's needed to develop the blog and move it forward.

For Nine Pounds was something I came across via the lovely Midget Wrangler. I first commented over at MW's blog when she wrote a post about her new Party of 5. I loved the fact that she was the most un-traditional-Mummy type I'd ever read. It was hilarious and serious at the same time! She eventually dragged me into the For Nine Pounds cult and I haven't looked back. I don't write as much over there as I'm afraid I'm not as funny or witty or interesting as the rest of them! Anyway we all eventually had a meet up and a great night was had by all!!

WNR is our running group and we've become a very close bunch. You don't go through tough stuff without realising who you can count on and they're a great bunch. We're getting hoodies made up with our newly designed logo and we had a great run and lunch last week, even exchanging kris kindles!

Wow this turned into an epic post! I doubt anyone will read this far!!! Happy Christmas!

Happy Birthday Grace!

Grace is 16 today! Happy Brithday Grace!

Magic 4

I got tagged by toniimarie at Next to Last chapter. And since I'm so bad at blogging these days I thought I'd give it a shot.

What 4 jobs have I had?

1. Worked in a bar at the age of 16. Really liked it but so badly paid and not a good job if you're trying to get up for school in the morning.
2. Typesetter.
3. Architectural office: what I trained for.
4. Construction site work; best job ever. :-)

4 places I've lived.
1. Dublin
2. Dublin
3. Dublin
4. Dublin

4 places I've been on holiday:
1. Jamaica for the all you can eat holiday
2. Virginia/ Washington: the museums, war memeorials, what a place!
3. Italy for everything, food, history, sun, breathtaking scenery.
4. Paris, as a poor student with no money and the sheer romance of it all....

4 favourite foods:
1. Pizza
2. Shepherds Pie
3. Milka Chocolate
4. Duck

4 places I'd rather be:
1. Virginia, or somewhere in America with mountains and sun.
2. The Alps, with nothing but a bag on my back and nothing planned.
3. On the orient express.
4. Disneyland Florida on Thunder Mountain.

Can I tag Midget Wrangler? Cheers Tonii!

What I'm Up to......

I ran in Marlay park this morning and it was the most gorgeous morning ever. Stunningly beautiful. (A lot like that image above, that's not mine!) I had a few of those "great to be alive" moments! Although I'm still running in a little pain but I seem to be ok when I race and in pain when I train. The last thing I did was a duathlon.

Also had a sparkly dress occasion last week for the Athletics Awards of Ireland! Makes a change from mucky runners and tracksuits!

Tomorrow me and the girls head off on a little adventure on the ferry to the UK shopping outlets. Christmas shopping here we come!! Woohoo! I love buying presents!
Ugly Betty is on in a minute.....

Dublin Marathon 2007

I was heavily involved in all things "marathon" last weekend. I've been blogging about it over at TGU and Wednesday Night Runners also.
Firstly there was the expo, then the international breakfast run, then the Kenyan athletes Ugale party in my brother's house, photos here, then the marathon itself. Baggage area photos here.
It's a great event, really professional and so many people give so much of their personal time and effort to make it that way. Tony ran a PB of 3:44, Rob ran his first in 3:42, Niall ran 2:43. I have to do it next year! Fatmammycat has a brilliant account of her first marathon here. Congrats to her!

Today was spent at the kids Dublin cross country and Dublin Senior Cross Country. I think I ran ok, second scorer for Clonliffe, which was a suprise so I'm happy enough. Photos here.

Busy Weekend of Racing!

I swore I was gonna take it easy till about December but I couldn't resist! I did an adventure race on Saturday as a team of 4. A standard adventure race involves mountain biking, mountain running and canoeing (there are variations), all with navigation., You're given co-ordinates and you have to go find controls at them, like a treasure hunt.
Basically I'm no good at navigation, rubbish at canoeing and a complete wuss on the mountain bike and unfortunately for my team mates there was very little running but I really enjoyed it anyway. It's a team thing and you have to look out for each other and work together. We had some problems but that's all in the nature of adventure racing. I was blogging about it over at Team Geared Up and at Wednesday Night Runners.
I then did a cross country in Phoenix Park, well we had to go out there anyway as one of the kids was running a race so I thought "what the hell" I might as well give it a go.
So it was a hectic weekend despite my plans to take it easy.

Good things on telly tonight and tomorrow night about Adventure! Looks like they are well worth watching

stack overflow at line 0

I was organising some photos in flickr (and it got real slow) and it said something like:

"stack overflow at line 0" or whatever.

I thought that sounded very Simpsons.......

Update!

Haven't posted in a while. Things have been busy.
I'm running slowly and painfully these days which doesn't matter much as I'm not training for anything. Be nice to be running better for the cross country season but I know I didn't rest up enough after my last big running events and I'm feeling the effects of it now. It's hard not to run at all, but that's probably what I should do for a week or two. Can't bring myself to do that though.

I'm doing Pilates on Monday mornings. Not finding that much use, but it's getting better.

The kids are getting on great at school, well the little boy is getting into litle bits of trouble but I think he'll settle down soon. He's not used to so much structure, sitting down all day etc. Grace is at Traffic school today! Not sure if that's what it's called but basically she's getting a driving lesson even though she's a year away from even getting a licence. The young girl is running in lots of cross countries and reall enjoying it.

Had a great time at the For Nine Pounds party! You can read all about it over there. It was my first time meeting the gang of bloggers and it was so much fun, I really need to get out more, I actually enjoyed myself.

Still having trouble with noisy neighbours in the holiday home in Wexford so will be avoiding that for a while.

The two girls and I are going on a shopping trip to Cheshire Oaks at the end of November. It'll involve an overnight stay in a hotel and the boat trip so should be good for bonding!

High School Musical Party

Tomorrow night we're throwing a High School Musical party for the 11 year old (girl). Hopefully the new friends she has made in school will come and then they will know where we live and then maybe they'll call round and be lifelong friends. Easy.

We're busy making GO WILDCATS pennants and microphones and trying to theme things. The movie is apparently about basketball so we've bought little hoops to decorate the room and are making t-shirts and little party bags containing lip gloss and the like! I'm heading to the Square to try and get some red and white table cloths (Wildcats colours) and red and white streamers or ribbons but with all the shops taken over with Halloween stuff it's getting hard to find these items.

Any other ideas would be most welcome! (I haven't even watched the movie yet, that would probably help me with the theming.......)

World Mountain Running Champs 2007

Just back from my second trip to Switzerland in 2 weeks! I'm glad to be home and get on with normality for a while as it's been hectic lately. The race itself went ok for me, would love to have done better but at the same time I had something to prove. I had debated pulling out of Jungfrau marathon in order to be fresh for the World Mountain Running Champs the week after. But I had trained for a few months for Jungfrau and was looking forward to it and really didn't want to not run. It's probably odd to some that I thought much more seriously about pulling out of the World Champs and allowing someone else run. But that was how I felt. I was looking forward to Jungfrau and dreading the other!

So I decided to do both.
So I had something to prove.
Because I was second in the Irish trials I wanted to be second Irish home.
And I was, so that initially made me happy and relieved.

But coming 69th in a race of 86 women wasn't going to make me happy for long, but maybe next year I would train properly for the trials and do better on the hills (and not run a mountain marathon the week before, if I did qualify!)

Anyway back at home all is good. Grace is gone to an adventure centre in Fermanagh. I miss her already. Grace is much more like an adult now and I can talk to her about the kids and what she thinks of certain things to do with school or whatever. When she comes home from school it's like another adult in the house, not a kid, and that's kinda reassuring.

The above photo is of me with Jonathan Wyatt, 3 times world mountain running champ, and winner of the Jungfrau marathon the week before. I must put it next to my Paula photo!

Off AGAIN!

Off to Switzerland AGAIN! for the World Mountain Running Championships! Woohoo! Back next week!

Junior Cert Results

Grace is getting her Junior Cert results today. Rather than giving them their results at 9am like every other school, her school have decided in their wisdom to make them sit through classes as usual all day today and give them their results at 3pm. I think it's a bit cruel. And unnecessary. The excuses given by schools for doing this is usually that they don't want the kids to be ceelbrating all day. Well for a start these kids are 15/ 16 and it's up to responsible parents to ensure they are not celebrating at all!

Jungfrau Marathon - the result!

Firstly I am raging I have no photos because the scenery at the Jungfrau marathon was absolutley breathtakingly beautiful. I took some on my phone the day we left, just views from my room but they don't do it any justice.

Anyway the race went well. I was very nervous before hand but that's normal for me; I get quiet and withdrawn the day before, can hardly hold a conversation and am forcing myself to eat. My stomach is usually churning badly the day before but I managed to force myslef to eat a little pasta at lunch and dinner. My phone hadn't been working in Interlaken but Tony phoned me on a friend's phone to let me know that he had to bring the 5 year old to hospital in the middle of the night because he couldn't breathe. Scary stuff, the other kids got a bit freaked out too so fair play to Tony for handling everything. Anyway all is good now and I tried not to think about it too much while I was there.

Race morning is always so nerve wracking, forcing breakfast down you at 6am when all you want to do is wretch! I get so nervous, I don't know why I do it!

Anyway we got to the start and dropped our bags off a few minutes before the off. I just walked virtually right behind the start line which is good because I hate being trapped in the crowds. The atmosphere was really good and like all races people just want to get underway. It wasn't too long before we were off! The race does a lap of the town first, taking up the first 4 or 5k. I think at this stage some people were feeling the heat. The race gradually continues on on roads with the odd hill at 10 or 15k, all the time you're waiting on the "big" climb which you know is ahead. I remember not feeling great at this early stage, still had a jittery feeling and legs were sore. I know that that happens from the sun though, your muscles dehydrate much faster and get crampy, no matter how much water you drink. There was a big town at about half way (21k)that I remember feeling I was tired but that didn't last, because I had some of my fastest kilometres after that.

It's always at this point in a marathon that I start to feel good and this one was no different. I really wanted to get on with it and eat up those kilometres so at this stage I knuckled down to ploughing through these flat sections, dying to get ahead and start the job of the big first climb. It wasn't long coming!

As we headed into the climb I noticed that I was running while those around me walked so that gave me a boost to keep going. It wasn't long before the hill was unrunnable as it got too steep and the turns were sharp as we ascended. It went on for a couple of kilkometres maybe until it eventually turned into gradual hills that were runnable.

I really started to sort of enjoy myself than, the views were incredible and the hills were runnable for the most part if I put my head down and just knuckled down. They start to mark the course in quarter of kilometres at this stage which I though was great because each kilometre was broken down into four maangeable distances and before I knew it I fell like I was heading for home. I can rememeber a feeling at about 35k that it was time to start racing, to take down a few more people ahead of me, to get past all the walking competitors that were now blocking my way. At the 35 to 39 k mark I remember that it was only myself and 2 other women, from those around us, who were actually still running. This is always a good mental boost and as the trail turned into a single rocky track I was skipping around all the walkers to get past! Great feeling! As it gets closer to 40k the track gets very steep and walking is inevitable but I knew I wasn't far from home. The steepness continues till 41 when suddenly you're on a downhill kilometre to the finish. I was flying at this stage and feeling great! I crossed the line in 4.19 with a big smile on my face and was so happy to just have enjoyed the whole experience. I really felt that for me I was only warming up and starting to enjoy myself and suddenly it was all over! Awww!

The finish area had hot showers, hairdryers, massage and was a bit crazy with people so I didn't hang about, the train down to where I had just ran from took two hours! So I only took twice as long to run uphill than the train took to go down! Ha ha!

I never bumped into Mick but I was thinking about his brother Tony along the way. When you're in the middle of something like this and you get those "good to be alive" feelings you realise how lucky you are not only to run but to experience something as incredible as this event. The views and the toughness make it unique, it really is one to do if you run!

After a marathon I usually try and pick out a "marathon moment" but it takes a couple of weeks for certain memories to stand out as the most unique so I will think about it for a while. Thanks to all the commenters who left support, it was great. I had been saying ovber at For Nine Pounds that I had a sore foot that was worrying me, well you know for those 4 hours and 19 minutes there wasn't a bother on my foot, so the sleepless night was for nothing, as they usually are!!

I felt fine afterwards and have had very little stiffness or soreness. I'm gonna make sure not to run too much this week because (and you won't belive this because I hardly can) I'm back in Switzerland on Thursday to run on Saturday in the World Mountain Running Championships so the green knickers get an outing again! I often get a bit low two days afetr a marathon, it's just coming down from the buzz afterwards I think does it, but I'm not feeling that today so all is good!
Interlaken wasn't a great town for shopping but of course, being Switzerland my biscuit box now looks like this:

Away again?

I'm about to find out which is harder: looking after 3 kids or running 26 miles uphill.

I'm off here.

His first day!

We're waiting outside! (I moblogged this but it kept saying COULD NOT PUBLISH). Then I get home and find that it has.....Anyway the two of them went off fine and all is good. I was so proud of the two of them, as if they were my own. I now have an hour and a half free that I don't know what to do with. I'm not running today so besides cleaning the oven or the rest of the house, I'm at a loss. This "stay-at-home-mommy" thing hasn't quite kicked in yet! Just kidding, I'm lovin' it!

We are here!

Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc 2007

Tony is, at this very moment, doing the Ultra Trial Tour du Mont Blanc. I'm getting SMS alerts sent to my phone as he passes through the various stages. But you can also follow the runners on line. Last year myself and Tony finished together in 43 hours.

Basically it's 160km through the Alps, through countries, around Mont Blanc. It's billed as the toughest foot race in Europe and it really is hard. The mental torture involved in just keeping going is incredible, never mind the state of your legs. Anyway he's doing great so far and I've been updating our Ultrarunners blog too as well as Team Geared Up.

I wish I was there.

Worrying about someone doing it is worse than doing it!! Well not quite but you know what I mean. Our account of the event last year is here.