New Shoes????? Go Saucony Go

I have been meaning to blog about this for ages but just got a tad bit distracted. Today is a good day to talk about it. I had a killer session this afternoon on the track. Longer runs but at a high percentage (85%) effort for 8 runs. It was lashing rain and very very cold on the track today which made the session extra tough but there was one thing that kept me very happy during this session and that was NEW SHOES!!!!!!

So I am wearing brand new spikes. Why brand new? Well I have a new kit sponsor. I am now sponsored by Saucony. They are a company who are very passionate about running. They exist to make the life of runners easier through great shoes and kit. I am lucky enough to be part of the Saucony team.

Whilst I was hurting badly on the track today I kept looking down at my lovely new shoes and it just kept cheering me up. In horrible lactic sessions I always have these voices in my head telling me that it is really tough but today I kept seeing these pink black and white spikes on my feet and it made the negative voices just a little bit quieter. Towards the end of the session I was telling Sean about the fact that I was really hurting but then I remembered my new shoes and pointed them out to him. He agreed that they are definitely go fast shoes.

All in all a big thumbs up to the Saucony for go fast spikes. If you fancy having a look at all the lovely clothes and shoes go to www.saucony.com.

Song of the day today is definitely Paolo Nutini "new shoes"

Byeeee

DOR

Under the weather Berlino

The past day has been a bit of a nightmare. Our little puppy Berlino got spayed (basically operation so that she can't have puppies and which is preventative for some diseases) It's not a small operation but it was still just a case of dropping her to the vets at 8 a.m and collecting her at 2. She has been so sick and miserable ever since. All day yesterday she lay on the couch next to me in and out of sleep. Then last night she walked (very slowly) out to the garden to pee but then couldn't walk back in and got really upset. She ended up vomiting in the garden and it took ages to be able to pick her up and get her back inside. Then she was put in bed. I was so worried about her that I set my alarm and got up a few times during the night to check on her but thankfully she was ok.

This morning she is still pretty miserable and finding it hard to walk around much. She just seems so sad. Right now she is lying next to me and just looking at me with the saddest eyes ever. Poor Berlino.

Everything else is good. There have finally been lanes painted in santry track. After 6 months of no lanes and guessing what the distances are and where the bends would be we finally will have a proper track again. Now before you go getting too excited there are still no hurdle marks on it. We waited 6 months for lanes so I'm thinking by the summer maybe some hurdle marks???

Bye for now,
D x

Too far...,.

I'm back into propor slog work now. Today I had to run 250 as one of my rep distances. I know it sounds short but when you specialise in running 100m hurdles it feels very very long! It's kinda enjoyable in a weird way. I know the harder I work now the easier racing will be come the summer so I don't mind too much.
Tomorrow morning is gym.
Time to sleep

zzzzzzzzzzz

I'm Back!

Well Hello there people,

It has been a very eventful time since I last blogged. The world indoors has come and gone. Tiger Woods is back playing golf. It is Patrick's day. Berlino is even fluffier. As for me?? I'm very good. I had a super holiday. I won't go into all the details but I spent a week in Miami (I know fun fun fun) and I just completely switched off all things athletics. I was lucky enough to have another sport to focus on. My boyfriend competes in sailing in the Star class and he was racing in Miami. I don't normally ever get to see him race (the whole being a full time athlete thing takes up lots of time) so I took the chance to go and support. He competed really really well and just got pipped into second. I was very proud.

Now it is back to business. I'm very aware of this because of the fact that my arse is killing me! First day back I had loads of squats and I'm really stiff now. It's a good feeling though. I ran today and thankfully my leg felt perfect. The doctor had said that it would be fine with about 10 days rest. This week all my sessions are fairly soft to get me back into things then from next week on it will be a serious training block for outdoors. I'm very happy to be planning for outdoors. It feels great to look ahead to it and talk to team DOR about how we are going to approach things and race plans etc. We are planning on doing a few things a bit differently this outdoor season which I'm very excited about. As the next few weeks come upon us I will let you in on all the plans.

It's way past my bedtime.

Derval xoxo

If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again. ~Flavia Weedn

Bye bye Doha

This has been one of those really really crap weeks. I've had to pull out of Doha. It sounds so dramatic for something so small. My groin felt a little bit tight last weekend when I raced. It didn't feel like anything major. But then in training on Monday I was struggling to pull my trail leg around the hurdle. So I was sensible and just sprinted. On wednesday it was the same situation I could sprint flat out from blocks but as soon as I tried to sprint fast over hurdles my groin was tight. I spoke to Sean and Mark and they decided to get it scanned to try to see what was going on. Scan showed a tiny (as a girl who has had many injuries believe me when I say small) strain on the area where my groin and hamstring meet. I can do everything except pull my leg around a hurdle at top speed.

Something this small will be 100% perfect in 10 days but unfortunately I don't have 10 days. There was the option to inject it and go to Doha hoping that I would be ok. That option isn't a good one because it means risking doing actual propor damage and then spending the next month or so trying to rehab it. Sean wasn't in favour of taking any risks considering the outdoor season is so important. The decision to not race was the most sensible one (even if I cried a lot about it).

It is so frustrating though. I have had a terrible preparation for indoors and yet I ran 8.00 without a huge amount of effort last weekend. Peaking at championships is something that I'm very good at and I was so pumped about Doha. I felt so certain that I was going to run very very fast and now I can't even risk trying to run fast. Also it's hard to hear it being announced on the radio etc about me pulling out because I feel like it makes me sound so fragile but yet I know that I'm very close to being perfect unfortunately I'm just very unlucky with timing. I have been given a week completely off by Team DOR so I'm getting on a plane tomorrow morning and going away for the week. It feels like the best thing to do is just go away and feel a bit sorry for myself for a week and then come back and get ready to be fighting fit for outdoors. I am doing a week completely off everything so I won't be blogging from my mini holiday (I can hear the cries of despair already!).

I've always said that I'm extremely lucky to have some great people around me and here are a few of the points that have been made about this:
*On all my testing I'm better than any other year so it's there I just have to wait til outdoors to show it
*It could be a big injury that ruined my whole year but it is a teeny little strain that will heal very fast
*Sometimes you have to have a little rest and take a step back to really run fast
*No one is running super fast so yes it's a missed opportunity but I'm not being left behind
*This is only a drop in the ocean compared to some of the things I've had go wrong
*Standing on the line and hoping that your leg is ok is not the way to enjoy running
*The only way to fix it is to run even faster outdoor than ever before.

This week I found out that someone took an illegal swipe of my credit card and spent $1000 on it! Thankfully the bank will refund it but this was soooooo not the week for someone to do this.

I'm going to go now as I need to get my beauty sleep before I head off for a week of licking my wounds and getting ready to come back fighting. Fingers crossed for all the Irish team and fingers crossed extra tight for Gilly to bring home gold.

Byeeeeee
Derval