Days off

Tues & Wed off

One of these was a scheduled day off, the other voluntary. The foot has improved considerably over the 2 days off. Can still give a twitch every now and again, and the Titleist massages and icing have reduced the soreness on the outside of the foot but left the foot very tight in general. Happy enough that its improved sufficiently to get back out there tomorrow without having lost anything. Going to maintain the icing/massaging routine, and beginning tomorrow a steady course of ibuprofen.

I've always tried to avoid ibuprofen, as well as Alka Seltzer when hungover/got headaches. Part of it is a weird thing I have about 'polluting' my body (which is massively hypocritical when I consider some of the binge sessions I've been on) and part of it is it feels like cheating. I tell myself that without it my body can't handle the training load (or booze in the case of a hangover), and to use a drug to fix it is cheating. I felt the same way about the Fosomax for the osteoporosis, and I feel the same way about Caffeine as a performance enhancer. Just because some dude in an office somewhere decides its legal doesnt make it ok in my mind. That being said, I'm too far down the road in the marathon program that I'm not letting the moral high ground screw me over now. Lets go legal drugs.

DC Action

Fri: Flew into Dulles early Friday afternoon, and despite Jilane's best attempts to blame me for not running, I had intended on a scheduled day off. The combo of 90 degree heat and humidity swiftly followed by a ridickerous hail/thunderstorm definitely killed any ambition to sneak in an easy 4-5 miler.

Sat: Rock Creek park, ~5 miles, 40 mins run. The XC reunion run in memory of Landon Schmitt. Beautiful morning in the district, running with 18 of my favourite people in the world. Only disappointment was the brevity of the run. Fantastic trails despite the bitching of some, but a very enjoyable run given the company and the weather.

Sun: Bike path by Chad's place, ~4 miles, 30 mins. While this weekends running was, well, shit, I am considering this run a success given the ridickerous amounts of alcohol consumed Saturday, the lateness of the wake up Sunday, and the throbbing in my head. Pace was thankfully very relaxed despite Ed trying to engage us in a sprint for the finish. I didn't do that shit in college, not about to start now mate.

Travel back from DC was a nightmare. Went for pints at the airport (do not do this often but I wanted to pass out as soon as I sat down on the plane). Got chatting first to the BBC's European correspondant who is house hunting in DC as he is soon to become the BBC's American correspondant, and then got hit on by a 37 year old single English mother. Never in my life was I so glad to hear the words "Can Eamonn O'Connor please report to gate B24 as the flight is ready for departure" (I will also point out that I still had 30 mins till take off). A quick sprint down the terminal, last person on the plane, on the verge of passing out when the engine on the left side beats me to it. Leads to a 3 hour delay prior to take off, and a very grumpy wee man arriving back in Ireland at noon instead of 9. At least its not like I had anywhere to be.

no longer the drunken idiot?

Saturday: Day off

Sunday: Day off

Frustrating end to the week both from a running and social point of view. This cold got the better of me and I took it very easy to try and get myself right for Monday morning as I'm finally beginning the exercise testing phase of my research and don't want to fuck it up. The reason why I may not be the drunken idiot is that Ireland did the grand slam in the most epic of circumstances on Saturday evening not long after Spurs had done the Chelsea scum. These type of sporting occurrences are beyond rare, and the one place I'd want to witness them is the high stool in fitzers. Alas, I gave in to reason and stayed in, passing up one of the best party night Fitzers has seen in a while. While it was nice to soak in the memory of that last ridiculously crazy 5 minutes of rugby at home, I hate not celebrating sporting events that live in the memory. Have I grown up??? Not according to RealAge.com, who put me at an immature 23.2 years of age. The college dream lives on.....

Never learn

Day off

Had planned on getting a decent length run in today, but went and made an absolute shit show of myself at the brothers engagement party last night and didnt get up till 3pm today. And once up, there wasn't a chance of me running. Picture classic drunk wee man, and the classic drunken mistakes he made previously, and this was last night (thankfully no email writing). Only good thing about today was the 2-1 win for Spurs up at the villa. While it means we did the arsenal scum a favour, it means Spurs should go on for a top half finish this season. While I wouldnt have been happy with that at the start of the season, given where we were 8 games in, I'd have ripped your hand off for it then.

Lazy Monday

Surprisingly was not sore today after yesterdays long run, but was ready to go to bed about 2 mins after getting up this morning. Felt completely shattered all day, so decided to take the day off today and build off it to get a first 6 day week in. That's the plan anyway. 1 day in and no run. So far so good. If only the rest of the week would be that simple.

Wasted day

Spent the morning at a conference on gene expression that was waaaay over my head, and the afternoon at a presentation over an hour outside the city that was a total waste of time. Was planning on taking today off anyway, but would have had to given how the day played out. The consolation is knowing that the dep't christmas party is tomorrow night and I plan on getting into classic weeman drunk mode in front of a lot of people I don't know. Can't wait. 

And today...

Yeah I feel pretty shitty, so am taking the day off. Although I kind of wish now that I hadn't. 

Went to see Burn After Reading (finally) last night, and all I can say is that the Coen brothers have another fantastic film to their credit. Brad Pitt's character is one of the most outrageous and funny people I have seen in years, and can't really think anyone else would have gotten away with it. Plus the fact I was able to completely relate to the script due to an obscene (?) reliance on shit and fuck as a verb/noun/adjective. What a film.

Day Off

No run as planned today after yesterdays crampage-fest. Thankfully the calf is much improved today, and I'm able to walk gimp-free although it is still pretty damn tight. Also, my right calf is noticeably tight today too, so am obviously not taking good enough care of my calves. Part of this stems from having read this really good article on stretching in the New York Times (subscription needed - relax its free). While it addresses the warm-up only, I had been doing less post-run stretching based on the article, and had been relying on my new best friend, my foam roller. But given my recent problems, I may disregard the info, not sure yet.

One serious potential roadblock to my calf recovery is the Abu Dhabi reunion night tonight. Gettign hammered is surely not the proper approach, but I've never really been known for turning down a good excuse to get plastered. However, all going well, I'm planning on a short 3-4 mile jog on the grass tomorrow

Bit of A Bleh Day

Day Off from running

Gym session

Normally I've been going to the gym in the mornings after doing a bit of a run and then running home, but decided to mix it up and see how the body feels doing it on my off day. Should probably do a bit more of a warm up than just 5 mins on the rowing ergometer as the workout felt much more difficult than normal despite being pretty much the same although I jacked up the weights on one or two of the machines, cos lets face it, I'm a goddam beast.

The weather is absolute muck, although compared to whats going on in PVD at the minute I'll refrain from too much complaining.

Generally a quiet day all round. Shout outs to Owen and Jim B on their day of birth. The new skin is to aid DeCoste who couldn't read my blog on his phone in its previous design. Normally I'd take this opportunity to get a good slagging in here, but since he's showing interest in actually reading my verbal garbage I won't complain just yet. Instead I'll just post an incriminating picture