THE LATEST FROM LEADERS DICK, ANASTASIA & CORMAC
CORMAC MCMANUS – 10KM
If only all my runs were as perfect as my last three which included a 5, 6 and 7k with beautiful scenery and 20 degrees on your back it makes running so much easier , yes I’m on holidays for a week in Tenerife and unlike previous holidays I did get out and run and hope to get one more in before I return , my plan to work on my breathing and pace seems to be paying off as both have improved and as we are now into April the training schedule is getting interesting at the last stages and hopefully some longer runs.
ANASTASIA CASH – HALF MARATHON
I’m really enjoying running these days, honestly I never thought I’d say that.
I will admit there has been some long runs where instead of finishing the full distance I’d planned to do, I decided I’d better get home to do some housework instead.
It’s hard to come up with new routes to increase the distance, but many acquaintances have thankfully provided viable options.
I started to develop some slight hip pain last week but once I listened to my own advice (!) and began to do my rehab exercises, that pain thankfully settled down. It’s true what they say; we can all give advice, but sometimes it’s hard to listen to your own advice. I’ve reached just over the 14km mark now, I’m feeling comfortable with it. Slow and steady is what I’m aiming for.
DICK WALSH – 10KM
Another weekend of Rugby magic for the Irish provincial teams to keep us all up beat during our training. I’m hoping the chocolate Easter Eggs were kept to a minimum while still enjoying the fun with the kids during the mid-term break.
We’re now approaching our pinnacle period of training as we look to count the remaining four weeks before we take to the overall goal we set out eight weeks ago. The 5K run at this stage is in many ways our warm up and to think at the start of this we were struggling to run a simple 1k, it’s a great achievement in such a short period of time.
But there is no time to dwell on how great we are doing we now need to crank it up a notch. We should all be pushing our 7/8k runs and starting to improve on our time for each 1k run, while mixing each day with a more relaxed easy jog.
The last few weeks have been good but I over did it last Monday thinking I was ready to push myself more. It didn’t help that I was suffering a little from the flu which made me feel worse, I ended up sick and physically weak. Make sure you know your limits and avoid too much over load. Keep smiling and have a fantastic two weeks training. And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake, And no birds sing.
His use of the words ‘horrid warning’ in the second last stanza are the only hint in the 12-stanza poem that we possibly have a choice in these matters, there was a warning, there existed an option. So do we? Do we have a choice? Perhaps we don’t know until we encounter it, but personally, I’ll run with the words of Tennyson, from his poem ‘In Memoriam’: ‘’Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.’