unironedman

Winter is well and truly upon us. The bird feeders have been stocked, firewood has been delivered and stacked, and shopping bags are starting to accumulate in the bedroom, with orders not to look inside.

On Saturday, I dragged my weary bones over to Castletown House demense to see if I could make a dent in my parkrun time. I figured I could do some damage, with the fitness ‘bounce’ from the marathon still hanging in the air. After all, I had managed a PB exactly a week ago in the Waterford AC Half Marathon.

Well, the first k was sub-four minutes but that was about as good as it got, and I tailed in on 21.10. I was disappointed, even though I later discovered it was my second-fastest time at parkrun. I was definitely still feeling the effects of Waterford in the legs. I’m 40 seconds away from breaking 20 minutes, and that is going to be a fun 40 seconds to hack off. I’ve never done any specific 5k training, so I may look at that for the new year.

But in better news, Mark is back from his injury, and we did an easy 10k yesterday, so I have my running buddy back. He’s already signed up for the Dublin Marathon next year. There’s no cure for the running bug when it bites.

Just one decent run left in the year before we start the whole madness again in 2019. That’s the famous Lock Up The Year canal trail run. It’s a special event on the local run calendar. Last year I did the full marathon, but this year, I think the half is enough.

Cheers for now.