This week was very much a rinse and repeat of last week, in terms of work and training. Every day in work is a learning day, and I suppose all this training has to count for something too. Certainly, I feel a little better, even if the body is creaking a bit. I was talking to someone about running recently, and I mentioned that as I get older, it takes that little bit longer to warm up. So those first few kilometres can feel a bit wearisome at times. Then, I added, as an afterthought, that actually, it takes less and less time before I start to feel a little worn out at the other end of the run.
It occurred to me that at some stage, these two points will eventually overlap, and then, dear readers, I think it will be time to hang up my boots (and my many pairs of runners) and find a new hobby.
But until then, we soldier on.
Tuesday’s run was 11k in the park. What I have termed the ‘boundary run’, or the ‘just turn left’ run. It’s about as far as you can go if you don’t want to overlap yourself and start doing loops but stay in the park. It wasn’t particularly pacey but as Gary’s target this week was 50k, I knew I couldn’t skimp on the miles.
Thursday, as I have noticed before, was more of a slog. I managed 12.5k, taking in the canal, and as you can see from the photos, I lost the light before I got home. Such is the joy of finishing work at 5.30pm and heading straight out the door for your run.
Which only left the long run at the weekend, and as before, with work now on Saturday, and family commitments on Sunday, I got out around three in the afternoon and had about 4k under my belt in the park before I took the Clonee Road out towards the canal. Curious to see how the towpath renovations were proceeding, I stayed on the canal ’til Deey Bridge, at which point the works begin, and the barriers were, in theory, erected to prevent us from accessing the canal until further notice.
As this is Ireland, some helpful souls had pushed these aside and I was free to tip on down the towpath in its various states of completion. Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that it’s not complete at any point yet, but you can see the various stages of underlay, crushed blinding and kerbs. It was actually quite pleasant to run on for a while, and then at Pike Bridge, the canal and I parted company and I toddled around Carton Demesne for a few kilometres, wondering if at any stage I might get knocked out by a stray golf ball.
I ventured as far west as Maynooth village before assuming the position on the canal once more, and heading for home. I clocked up the requisite 27k or so to bring my total to just over the 50k mark (and I am also too embarrassed to report that this put me on top of the leaderboard once more for the week). Almost. You hear me, there, Risa? 🙂
And so that’s it for another week. Other far more important things are happening in the world, and some of these seem to happening at a speed that you don’t normally expect, especially for geopolitical shifts, which tend to be more glacial than avalanche. But here we are, as they say…
Ireland – it is little or no favours you ever did me or my poems when I was alive.
I have this terrible feeling that sometimes after I’m gone you will swing into your usual rearguard action so posthumously, in advance, stick it up your arse.
Pat Ingoldsby, RIP
The poem above about the Book of Kells is another of Pat’s. He was a feature of Dublin for many years; one of the characters of the city, I suppose you might say. As he alludes to in his irreverent sign-off poem to the nation, all that ‘character’ bollocks is fine and dandy, but it doesn’t pay the bills.
unironedman 
I keep coming back to the bit about when the two points overlap. That was a tough transition for me, made harder by all the well-meaning folks who dissed my ideas for lessening joint strain while keeping my fitness. The message was clear: “Hang up your dance shoes, stop practicing Shao-Lin, and resign yourself to Yoga.”
I did none of the above. My suggestion for that distant day when your points reach life-changing proximity? Modification and moderation. We don’t have to give up the body-taxing things we love to do. We have to understand that when those points start converging, upping the number and intensity of our workouts gets us the opposite results of those we’re trying to achieve. Moderate daily (or nearly so) workouts, no-rush warmups, extended cool-downs, lots of ice and hot soaks, and anti-inflammatory-friendly diets are what keep old bods humming along.
You’ll be winning marathons long after those points converge, Dec, mark my words. In your age group, of course. 😉
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No, you are absolutely right, as always. I suppose the flip side of that coin is when we also stop enjoying it, overall.
One of the aspects of this aerobic training is how well the breathing adapts. I’m still amazed at the old bod; getting home after maybe three hours on the trails (at no great pace, naturally), and the breathing is under control and relatively normal.
As to those moving points… I am also banking on gaining enough wisdom in the interim to be able to moderate, as you suggest. It’s not typically been a well-worn concept in my world 😉
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Moderation, yep. I still suck at it. 😉
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