Run Bubby Run: What do you use your buddy for?

Run Bubby Run has been a busy runner the last few weeks and I can’t believe it’s nearly 2 weeks since my last blog entry….and the blob (I think he means blog) as me and Lynchie are called by Adrian Martin (Club Captain) is back!! Anyway after my dance injury I got on holidays I got out for a run on Thur 1st August and did another 90 minute session running about 8 miles....before I went on holidays John wanted me to keep up the 3 runs per week and doing this one today meant I kept to the programme……training on holidays was new to me and before I went I didn’t know would I stick to the plan but after completed the session tonight I was happy that I did. I didn’t want to arrive at training after the holidays struggling to keep up…I was hopeing the training I did while away would pay off and all the hills etc that I ran up would help me somewhere along the way…

Sunday 4th August…arrived at the 10K run that Ballycumber GAA were having…Colm Quinn had been onto me to do it and I said I would. I enjoy doing different runs and they are always enjoyable and it’s a good way to meet up with people and catch up etc. I only arrived home the previous night at 21:30 and I had thought about giving it a miss....we were meant to be home by 14:00 but you got to love Ryanair…here we were in the Airport looking out at the plane on the tarmac but the flight couldn’t leave as it had no crew to fly it…out of all the flight leaving that day the only flight delayed was ours so we had great fun with a 5 year old, 3 year old and a baby….anyway the run was well organised and a great crew from the harriers were there and also it was well supported by GAA players. The start line was about 1 KM from the GAA clubhouse but after getting there (used it as a warm up) we got going…race went well but felt tired and completed the run in 58:06…happy enough considering the hills etc and as Catch Grennan would say to me numerous times during training the following week…”There’s a lot of hills in Ballycumber”

Tuesday night was the first night back training and still the legs were tired…Ciaran was in Dublin and didn’t get back so missed him as we hadn’t run together now in over 3 weeks…spoke to him and he said he’d be back on the Thursday…had a new recruit tonight…the great Robbie Connolly…a guy that works with John and someone who is looking to do the half marathon as well…we did the Mucklagh loop tonight…out the new road and then back through the town…about 8 mile ran altogether after you take in a few laps of the tarmacadam track when you get back….Robbie was going well for a guy that doesn’t do a lot of running but was well able to keep up with us…..said he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to do the half marathon or not but judging on tonight if he keeps it up for the next 4 weeks and listens to advice from John he’ll be grand….chatting to Robbie he was saying he went out last week and he ran 10K but he ran the first mile in about 9 minutes and then some at 10 minutes etc….he was running at a different pace throughout the run and he found the run hard because of this….he felt good at the end of the run tonight as John always keeps us running at the same pace throughout and he said he could see the difference running this way…we normally start our runs at a pace and then as we get into it we might run a bit quicker each mile we do...it might only be 2-3 seconds per mile but after 8 miles the ace might be 20 seconds quicker per mile.

Thursday 8th …no Robbie tonight but Ciaran was back…good banter as usual as we ran out towards Mucklagh again and Ciaran was on fire…he hadn’t run on the Tuesday so he was fresh...I did 5 mile with Ciaran but he had to go early so I did another 2 mile around the tarmacadam track….Ciaran has a lot more daily run information on his blog http://fatdadrun.blogspot.ie/ so check it out.

Saturday 10th.. Some people have buddies for different things…Ciaran is my Run buddy…nothing more and nothing less…this is the way Ciaran likes it and it works for me as well….today my run buddy was away and I was a man amongst women…the girls in the harriers were meeting up at 8am and I asked could I go with them and as expected this wasn’t a problem. I prefer to run with a group….about 12 girls turned up and some decided to do the route of the half marathon and others decided to do a 12 miler…I said I’d go with the group who was doing the 12 milers but I wanted to stop at 11 mile as I’d never run more than 10 before and I didn’t want to get an injury at this stage…about 9 of us headed off together and Mary Mann had a watch and she was able to keep us running at the same pace throughout….carried a water bottle with me and this was a bit of a pain but knew I’d need it so I had no choice…don’t know how many times I said I need to get a water belt during the run…pace started at about 10:20 but got quicker as we went through the miles…we did the long ross run and then headed towards Killina after Screggan Cross and then via Lynally and down the side of Charleville Castle at Mucklagh and then home…my water was gone after about 7 mile and was ok for the next few mile…at about 9 mile Sharon Daly and Miriam Brady looked after me for the water. I stopped after 11 miles as we were in the harriers but the girls continued for a few laps of the tarmacadam track to bring them up to 12 mile….I said I’d stop as I didn’t want to overdo it but to cool down I walked a few laps of the track….I did the 11 mile in 1:53 and was delighted to have finished it..

Since we’ve started our 10 week training for the half marathon I haven’t missed a session yet…for the first few weeks we were training on Wednesday's as well but this only lasted for a few weeks as I found the 3 sessions a week is enough as otherwise the body is tired and the extra days rests works for me anyway…each week we train on Tue and Thur and we have been doing 8 mile on average each night for the last few weeks…we then have to do a long run at the weekend and last Saturdays was the longest run I’ve ever done..

Tuesday 20th we ran another 8 mile and Robbie joined us again and we headed for Mucklagh but on Thursday it was back to the 3 amigos again…John , Ciaran and myself and tonight John said we’d go a different route….we left the harriers and headed for Ballinamere, over the railway bridge at Tullamore Hardware and then a left towards Lynally and then down the side of Charleville Castle at Mucklagh and back to the harriers…the run tonight was 8.6 miles and I did it in under 88 minute…I see Ciaran on his blog http://fatdadrun.blogspot.ie/2013/08/another-7-miles-clocked.html mentioned about his romantic standoff with Clara Walsh who interviewed us the first time on Midland 103 about 8 weeks ago…this is the way I saw it….after we left the studio with Will Faulkner (3 weeks ago) Ciaran was standing outside the door and after the 5 weeks of training he had done he was in good shape…the body was well toned and he was feeling good about himself…if you listen back to the first interview with Clara http://www.midlandsradio.fm/custom/public/files/tullamore-harriers.mp3 there was a lot of flirting between the 2 with Clara saying “Ciaran you’re in good shape” etc and it looked like Clara was coming over to say “Ciaran you’re really after toning up since that last time I saw you” and Ciaran was loving the attention...then there was the awkward silence and you could feel the tension in the air and everyone was waiting to see what was going to happen next. Ciaran was standing at the door and Clara asked would he mind moving out of the way as she had to read the news and you could see the disappointment in his face...Ciaran got very embarrassed as the compliment about his new toned body didn’t come but he knew his buddy would be there to pick up the pieces and I consoled him as we left the studio…as we did our run tonight the 3 of us discussed this incident at length and the story changed a few times as we went around but we had a good laugh discussing it…tune in next Tuesday at 11:15 for our next interview on Radio 3 to see what happens.

Saturday 17th and today was going to be my longest run yet…the group was going to do 12 miler…we meet up at the harriers for 8:30 and there was 8 of us altogether…Aisling McCormack joined us as well today and it was good to see her as I hadn’t seen her since we enjoyed a drink together on the August bank holiday Sunday inside the front door of the bridge house…These water belt have really taken off…everyone I think had one today…we all seem to have purchased one from the new running shop on Cormac Street in Tullamore…Jody O’Reilly a member of the Tullamore Harriers is the guy that owns the shop and if you want any running gear etc…give him a shout as he has everything you might need….anyway we started off with a few laps of the tarmacadam track and then left at the rear entrance of the harriers and towards the court hotel, then back via Cormac st and headed towards Mucklagh…the plan today as to run the opposite way to what we did last Saturday….we had no Mary Mann today and as a result we had no watch but Josie Lalor had an iPhone that had the run keeper app and we checked it now and again…had a good chat with everyone during the run and since we were all running at a steady pace, everyone was able to chat and enjoy the run…I ended up running the last 4 mile with Josie today and we had a great chat. I had spoken to Josie a few times before over the phone but wasn’t aware of it. Josie is manager of Bank of Ireland in Banagher and the bank St Rynaghs Football Club in Cloghan deal with is the same bank and we would have spoken a few times during the building of our new clubhouse….Josie would like to run the half marathon in under the two hours and for the last few miles she upped the pace and I stayed with her…we got back to the harriers in 2 hours and had run just over 12 miles…When I started the ten week training I would have liked to run the half marathon in under the 2 hours but this would mean having to run each mile in 9:14…45 seconds quicker than we are currently running it….so now after learning about how to run a race etc my new target is to run it between 2:05 and 2:10…I think I’ll be in around 2:08 but I’ll only know that on the day….when we all got back we cooled down with a walk around the track and then we had a little picnic of fruit, buns, etc…very enjoyable run and thanks to the girls for bringing me with them the last 2 weeks…here is a pic of the group today taken on Josie’s phone…I didn’t have a camera last week so didn’t get a pic..here is everyone from today..Sharon, Miriam, Aisling, Hilary, Josie, Trish, Dorothy and myself.

Less than 2 weeks to go now until the half marathon…all information is here http://www.tullamoreharriers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=187 so if you haven’t signed up already make sure to do it today..

Tonight now is going to be my last night out until the half marathon and planning to meet up with Ciaran at the Canal Quarters Festival so that we can rehydrate before our run again next Tuesday. Ciaran has no problem if you’d like a photo with him later….make sure to get the pic early if you want a nice one … http://canalquarterfestival.com/

Next week we’ll do the usual Tue and Thur and I won’t be doing a long run again until the half marathon as the Cloghan 10K is on next Sunday 25th August and Ciaran and I will be running in it. This is the 3rd year of the race and its organised by Paul Buckley who is involved with the Ferbane Athletics club and who is from Cloghan. It’s a fundraiser for St Rynaghs Football Club’s new clubhouse and the entry is €20 and this includes a goody bag with technical t-shirt, fruit, drink etc…refreshments will be available afterwards and it’s a nice run with good prizes if you’re into competing….hope to see a few of you there..here is all the info..

CLOGHAN 10K Run / 5K Walk 2013....All runners, jogger & walkers welcome

Sunday 25th August 2013 @ 12pm
Registration on the day - 10:30am at St. Rynaghs Football Club, Cloghan or online at https://www.activeglobal.com/Events/index.cfm?AC=EventDetails_V2&E=189125&HideFrame=1
Entry online: €20 - On the Day: €20
Race goody bag & t-shirt to 1st 100 entrants

Prizes: