Auld Man Winter Is A Bollox!!!!

"You know there ain't no street like home to make you feel so all alone so many folks to tell you what to do but they don't speak the same language as you, they want to have me here have me and hold me near hold me down fasten and tie but the cars are all flashing me bright lights are passing me I feel life passing me by, gotta gotta get away"

Gotta Getaway-Stiff Little Fingers

This weeks blog is brought to ye by the letter W........Work,Weather,Winter & Wankers........and What The Fuck!!!!!!.........

Monday January 12th While most of the city seemed to be in mourning that the Eagles were out of the playoffs I went about my business of running an easy 5 miles out and back along Kelly Drive,been said b4 and will be said again by me if the Eagles went 17 & 0 in the regular season or they went 0 & 17 it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to yours truly......and if that comes across as callous or uncaring, I don't recall anyone giving a fiddlers when Cork lost the All Ireland Hurling final in July so "turnaround is fair play"......

41.15.5 off 8.15 mile pace, looks like I didn't record the temperature  but I do recall the sun being out, 8.15 mile pace is a tad brisk for an easy run but the fact it wasn't the day after my long run on Saturday probably contributed to that

Tuesday January 13th An untimed 5 miles out and back on West River Drive in 50 degrees.....what's not to love? at this point in the game I had 49 miles logged for the month and we aren't half way through January........brain" don't fuckin' say it!!!!" mouth" what could possibly go wrong???".......were this a movie or TV show the faint sound of suspenseful music would be murmuring in the background.........

Wednesday January 14th The tempo run.....tis a love/hate relationship to be shur!!!! I love the benefits from it come race day{season opener in 31 days time} and I love the fact the following day is a recovery run......I hate how I feel before, during and after it, I know I have push myself and I know if I do there's a strong chance I'll reap what I sow somewhere down the road like.....but feck me if it isn't pure hell at the time......

I will always put my hand up and admit when I get it wrong in a race or a training run.....today I went out too quickly, the opening split of 7.56 was probably a hair too fast, when I saw 7.44 heading up Sedgley Drive for mile 2 I kinda knew that was a bit too rich for my blood......but the feckin' genie  was out of the bottle now and there was little to no chance of getting the hoor back in......live by the sword, die by the sword......

7.58 for mile 3 as I made my way back down Sedgley  Drive after looping over to Popular Drive and back rather than have to feck w/ the off ramp from I 76 on 34th St I tried to take advantage of the downhill to Kelly Drive as I knew the slight uphill to the Ben Franklin Park was going to hurt.....

8.07 for mile 4.......not a surprise, it was a case " shit or go sailing" for the final mile mail it in or dig as deep as I could?.....I went w/ plan b.....a 7.59 split to finish in a respectable  time of 39.45.4 off 7.56 mile pace but no negative split today out in 19.38 back in 20.07.......I get it #thirdworldproblems there are far worse things going on in the world  than me not getting a negative split and or not keeping all five miles at sub 8 min mile pace and that 50 degrees and sunny I just ran in.......take a mental picture boi......might be a while b4 ye see the likes of that again..........{suspenseful music in the background getting a bit louder.....}

Thursday January 15th Hindsight they say is 20/20.....they also say it's a wonderful thing, I knew the temps were about to take a dramatic nose dive what I didn't know was what was lurking round the feckin' corner at work so it's a good job I didn't bottle it when I saw 34 degrees w/ a wind chill that was going to make it feel like 23 degrees

I opted against  a mile and a half out and a mile and a half back along the Schuylkill River Trail in those conditions, I opted for Kelly Drive as I'd only be exposed to a mile along the Schuylkill  River  at the end of Boathouse Row to just beyond the Girard Avenue bridge

42.20.6 off 8.26 mile pace....again a bit rich for a recovery run, but trust me these were  NOT the kind of conditions to be lollygagging or dawdling in, get out there, get it done and get it over w/, at this point I was thinking about a rest day and a Saturday or Sunday long run.....we make plans and God laughs.......

Feels a bit churlish to sit here and bitch about snow in January, the auld adage it's cold enough to snow rang true Saturday & Sunday and while there's a huge part of the Celtic Warrior in me that says feck it fortune favours the brave there's also a voice of reason that says don't be a bollox  and go out there and get sick and or injured and miss a bunch of training so I've spent the weekend looking out of my window at the falling snow in the hope that it won't be around for long and that come Monday since I have the luxury of a day off for Martin Luther King day I do have the option of a longer run than my regular lunchtime 5 miler would afford me....but if I don't I don't it won't be the end of the world

Remember the hindsight comment from Thursday? IF I'd rolled the dice and said ah look it tis too cold to run at lunchtime I'll hold off until Friday I'd have been shit outta luck, I don't wish to go off on a diatribe about work but not only did it fuck me over on Friday to the point I worked  over seven hours straight w/out a break{ if I stopped twice to make tae and twice to take a piss in those seven hours I'm being fuckin' generous!!!!} it also meant no lunch hour, so now my chores had to be done after I left work.....half an hour late.....by the time I got home I'd missed the local 6 o'clock news and weather forecast and frankly I was too fuckin' tired to stay up till 10pm or 11pm to catch them then....l knew there was snowing coming like I knew last weekend it was gonna piss down mid morning so then I was able to get up and get out the door by 7.20am......NOT this fuckin' weekend if I hadn't had me hole handed to me on a plate Friday I'd  been up b4 7am dressed stretched and out the door by 7.20am and the 10 miler would've been in the books b4 the snow began.....I believe 212 degrees Fahrenheit is boiling point, to say missing a run due to work boils my piss is a fuckin' understatement.......BOOM!!!!!!! mic drop......exits stage left.......