"Cos Monday I'd go drinking,Tuesday I'd go drinking,Wednesday I'd go drinking and on Thursday too And Friday I'd go drinking, Saturday I'd go drinking Sunday shur I'd go for wan or two Hey! Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints you'll have an auld pint Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints,Pints lovely cans"
Pints-The 2 Johnnies
Jaysus another week in the books, they don't get any feckin' easier but I now have 35 miles logged for August and it's only the 10th.......how did that happen......read on.........
Monday August 4th A solid start to the week a 5 miler in 86 degrees w/ 34% humidity,I was eyeing up a potential 30 mile week w/ four 5 mile runs during the week, plus a 10 miler on Saturday......as the auld fella used to say" it's not a lot when ye say it quick"........
Tuesday August 5th Uh Oh the start of the slippery slope, had to settle for 4.5 miles as the 84 degrees but more importantly the 48% humidity got the better of me and the proverbial "cheque was in the mail" for Wednesday.........
Wednesday August 6th BOLLIX!!!!!! 65% humidity I might as well have been running in a Turkish fuckin bath....... had to settle for 3.5 miles and believe me it was an effort to log 3.5 miles.........suddenly my projected 15 miles had dipped to 13 miles, and now I was looking at 6 miles on Thursday to put me back on pace to beat the 28 mile weeks I logged the weeks of March 24th and April 14th.........
Thursday August 7th Desperate times call for desperate measures and I figured if I could utilize the Schuylkill River Trail over Kelly Drive maybe the breeze off the Schuylkill would help combat the humidity which continues to be my fuckin kryptonite ......emm the best laid plans of mice & men........Had to settle for 4 miles off 8.58 mile pace my splits were:8.53-8.25-8.59-9.36..... as you can tell from the final mile the 48% humidity in 82 degrees had taken it's toll 17 miles not the 20 I was aiming for and even w/ 10 miles on Saturday I'd come up a mile short,11 miles would only equal what I've already done and frankly a leap of 4 miles from last weeks 8 to 12 was too great an ask so while I could in theory equal my longest run of the year (10 miles on March 2nd) I was going to come up short on the weekly total,I'm not Barbie and I can't have everything but it's still frustrating to be that close and come up short.......
Sunday August 10th So I pushed back my long run by 24 hours, I woke up Saturday and knew something wasn't sitting right in my stomach, maybe I ate something that didn't agree w/ me or the stress of another frankly frustrating week had caught up to me,either way I wasn't willing to risk a blown long run by being gung ho when I another day to do it, as my former coach once said " listen to what your body is telling you" and what it told me Saturday was "not today champ"
Had to bide my time again as the humidity at 7 am was 87%......NO not a typo that was the fuckin humidity but by being patient and playing the long game and waiting it out seven hours lo and behold at 2pm it was 37% and 86 degrees
Logged a brisk opening mile of 8.21 which was probably too rich for my anemic blood but once on the trail I got into a rhythm 8.43-8.55-8.52 but I could feel the proverbial "cheque in the mail" waiting to be cashed 9.38 for mile 5.......a year ago and in fairness the last couple of years when I've toiled w/ issues getting double digit long runs under my belt my go to move was fold the tent, piss on the campfire and do the "walk of shame"home.........I'm beyond tired of this,last year in my prep for Dublin I couldn't buy a double digit run and evidently my running credit didn't extend to loaning double digit runs which would explain why I recorded my slowest times ever for most if not all of my distances from 5k to 26.2 miles........
I walked back to Lloyd Hall at the start of Boathouse Row to take on some water from the water fountain and to be 100% honest I wasn't sure if A I'd get going again and B if so how far would I get but once I got back on the Schuylkill River Trail I began to run.......9.30 for mile 6 at this point I was just thinking 1 mile at a time not the whole five, 9.31 at mile 7 thanks in no small part to some arsehole on a bike who nearly took both me and himself out going through a space that wasn't wide enough going under the Chestnut St bridge. yes I appreciate you raising your hand to say "my bad" but your recklessness nearly cost both of us
9.36 for mile 8 I was now at the end of the Schuylkill River Trail in Grays Ferry,stick or twist if I continued towards home via Grays Ferry Avenue I'd only log 9 miles.....I wanted 10 so I headed back along the trail towards the bridge which was just over a mile b4 looping back for the fourth time over said bridge and towards the end of the trail and more importantly 10 miles 9.36 at mile 9 and 9.44 for a 1.32.27 time off 9.15 mile pace
Pre run I might've looked at 9.30 mile pace and a 1.30 finish but again being 100% honest speed and pace were not the goal, the goal was 10 miles and somehow I did it......now I'm not the type to brake my hand patting myself on the back to begin w/ but I'm also mindful that the difference between a pat on the back and a kick in the hole is about a foot and a half.....give or take.......
It's been a rough week w/one thing or another but I got through it,Roddy Doyle's classic "The Complete Two Pints" has helped, I have lost count of the PMSL moments on my way to work and sometimes at work when I need a pick me up, starting tomorrow the annual Septa{ regional mass transit }Tunnel Blitz normally 2 weeks ....this year a fucking month ends and I can go back to my 20 min commute to and from work and immerse myself in two auld fellas in a pub in Dublin talking pure shite......it's the little things in life sometimes that mean the most.........
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