Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A week in Dingle

Sunday 19th July

We arrived at Dingle after dark on Saturday night. The plan was to get in a 12 mile LSR first thing on Sunday morning. I got some route suggestions from a few of the lads on Boards.ie.
I had managed to get an OS map from a late night garage, so with beer in hand (cheers Paul) I planned my route.
I headed off just after 7.00 on Sunday morning, it was lashing rain but warm.
The run took me along quiet country roads – although, I suppose most roads are quiet at that time Sunday morning – the hedgerows were bursting with Fuchsia and Crocosmia, the hills to one side and Dingle bay to the other, what a great place to run.
I took a looping route to Ventry and headed out towards Ballyferriter. Despite the weather I was enjoying the run, at what was supposed to be the half way point I decided to keep going for an extra half mile.
Although the return journey was back along the same roads, the views were fantastic and I was certainly not bored.
A most enjoyable 13 miler.
I had been kayaking last Wednesday and made the mistake of not wearing a baselayer under my wetsuit, so the only downside to Sundays run was the bloody nipples, I didn’t notice during the run but the fecking things are still sore… Ouch !!!

Monday 20th July

We went sea fishing this morning. It was great craic – I did see my breakfast twice – we ended up with a load of mackerel and Pollock. We’ll be living on fish for the rest of the week.

I went out for a spin on the bike in the afternoon. I took the coast road around Slea Head and through Dunquin, Ballyferriter and Feohanagh. The scenery was stunning and to make matters even better I had a tail wind for a good part of the journey.
Traffic was light enough, I’m sure it was mostly tourists in hire cars, the same mini bus passed me three times along the route.
I noticed a strange behaviour from some of the drivers, I don’t know if it’s a foreign thing but some of the cars hung right back, so when there was an opportunity to overtake the fucking eejits were too far away to do so. I didn’t mind but I would love to know why they did it.
On one stretch of road there is a downhill followed by a 90 degree left bend. As I approached the bend I took a wide line (car behind hanging back) to the other side of the road, jaysus, I’m glad that I did because as I reached the bend I was greeted by a river running across the road, now this was not casual water running down the hill and across the road but a mini river and the road had been paved with rocks/stones to facilitate this. I tried to pick the flattest, shallowest part to cross, although I was gripping the bike with everything possible, including gripping the saddle with my arse (well, that’s what it felt like) I fully expected to take a spill in the wet rocks, I’m still not sure how I got across in one piece.
The spin was only about 25 miles but was well worth it for the scenery alone.

Tuesday 21st July

I set out this morning to do a 5 mile tempo run but I knew after the first few yards at the faster tempo that this was not going to happen today. My legs felt really tired, don’t know if it because of the Adidas 5 mile run on Saturday or not but I settled for a slow/medium 6.5 miles.
I got lashed on again, aren’t Irish summers great?
We had a surf lesson in the afternoon. That was a blast, we spent 2 hours trying to catch the right waves and stand on the board. I laughed for the whole time and even managed to get upright on the board a few times (not for very long). For the last half hour I was so tired that I was struggling just to hop up on to the board. I reckon that this counts as a good workout.

Thursday 23rd July

I woke at 4.00am this morning with a stuffed nose and sore throat, managed to doze for another couple of hours but didn't feel great when I got out of bed.
I was supposed to do a tempo run today but after a few minutes I realised that was not an option and settled for 5 miles at predicted marathon pace. The first mile was ok and the second was 10 seconds off pace but it was mostly uphill so I wasn't too bothered. It all went tits up after that.
My legs just stopped working and at the halfway point I stopped to walk around a bit and try to relieve the pains in my calf's and shins. The few miles home were a struggle and I didn't even bother to retrieve the info from my Garmin.

Went sea kayaking later this morning. That was great fun. We paddled across Dingle harbour and into some of the sea caves. We spent a couple of hours in the kayaks so I'm going to count that as a workout ;-)

Saturday/Sunday

I was to do a 13 mile LSR this weekend but both days I've had a sore throat and a bit of a cough so I decided to skip the run until I feel better.
I did manage 2 hours surfing on Saturday, hopefully that will help maintain some level of fitness.

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