Back in business

Today I raced in Greece. The good bit is that I achieved my goal which was to finish the race without falling! The bad bit is the time was shite! 13.13. Which in my opinion is pedestrian. Tonight though I ran really worried and anxious because of falling a few days ago. But I won the race so thats good. Plus my cuts are getting a little bit better. I reckon I never ran completely flat out during the race and I went very high over hurdle 10 (the evil hurdle that took me down in Germany). Some days you do everything badly but get down the track and today was one of those. It was a weird meet because no one seemed to know what was happening. We were down at the start of the race and were waiting behind the blocks for a long time before the starter called us to our marks. Then the starter had no pause between the set and go so all of us in the race ran really badly at the first hurdle. Just a really weird competition. I feel good about doing it though and have banished the demons who have been taunting me for the past few days. In your face demons I can run over all 10 hurdles!!!!!
Getting up at 6.30 a.m for bus to the airport.
Time to Zzzzzzzzzz...

Ouch.. Today it hurts

First time for everything...

Hello!
So here I am in Germany. Today I had a meet here. I warmed up and got ready to roll. The usual big headphones, ganster rap etc...I was legging it down the track and having a lovely battle with Nytra (Good German hurdler) at hurdle10 we were together (i like to think I was edging it) and I do love a good battle so I was nice andf happy. Then disaster struck. I hit 10 hard with my trail leg and crashed out of the race. Im talking full on fall. I was falling coming off the hurdle and momentum got me near the finish but I just fell flat out at the finish. On an entertaining side note adrenaline kicked in and I crawled (oh the shame!) to the line. Im not sure why I did this. Somewhere in my brain I had to finish. To make things worse I got a big sympathy clap from the crowd. DOR prefers claps of appreciation of fast runs NOT boo hoo poor Irish girl cant stay on her feet claps!
I qualified for the final due to my heroic/embarrassing crawl. But I rang the boss (Sean) and was told hell no to running after the fall. In fairness I was bleeding on my ribs hips arms and knees so perhaps it was a sensible call.
To finish I have never ever fallen in a hurdles race! Ive always felt it was inevitable but I have never done it. I always look at hrdlers like Lolo Jones or Perdita Felicien and think ouch thats gotta hurt but they must be running fast to lose control like that.
Cest la vie. These things happen.
If I find a video of it Ill post it.
Danke,
D xoxo
ps I have loads of cuts but I think the body came through it fine no muscles or bones hurt. Just a bruised ego!!!!

Back to the everyday things...

I flew back from Budapest late Sunday night and since then it has just been back to the hum drum of everyday life. On Monday I was in the gym at 11 and then had some physio at 1. On Tuesday I had a rest day which was lovely but I spent it trying to get some thesis work done. I also had to go get my car NCT tested, thankfully it passed so no drama there.

Now I'm off to the gym.

Later

D

The Good the Bad and the Ugly!

I’m sitting here on my flight home from the Europa cup (Yeah yeah European team championships blah blah!) As per the title of this blog I shall go with the headings.

The Good:

I came 2nd and broke 13 seconds in the hurdles, 12.80. I’ve never broken 13 at Europa cup nor have I ever got my bum down the track any faster than this outside of a championship race. I was a bit dissappointed at being beaten, I dipped Colin Jackson style but alas today it was not enough for the win.

The relay was second and picked up some valuable points along the way. Second is a very good placing in this division for the relay and it just shows how well the ladies team are doing.

Finally the best part is that our Team stayed up in this division. Hooray Hooray Hooray. Normally we are struggling to stay up but this year the team really nailed it and remained in this division easily. I think we ended up 8th overall, 11th and 12th get relegated. Some of the younger athletes really stepped up and produced some amazing performances. They really showed signs of great things to come in the future and made me really proud to be team captain.

The women’s hurdles standard was super. I think 4 people went sub 13. Also there was a lady in the field by the name of Kallur. Susanna Kallur is an amazing sprint hurdler and someone who I’ve always thought was really great. She is a legend in sprint hurdles, world indoor record holder. She has been injured for a long time (as someone who has had many injuries I understand how shite it is!) and is getting back now. I know how amazing she is and by Europeans I fully expect her to be running very very fast. I think its great for the event that she is back and I’m excited about her and all the girls who will be running fast at Euro’s. If it was easy everyone would be doing it!

The Bad:

My baton change to Ailis in the relay was woeful. I will put my hands up and say I kinda messed it up (yes yes believe it or not I can admit my mistakes) There was a headwind down the back straight and I was running into it. This meant that by the time I reached Ailis I was kinda fecked and just could not reach her at the speed I normally would. I had to scream at her to slow and she literally had to jog to take the baton. These things happen and to still run 44.5 and come second I think shows that the relay team is gonna run very fast at some point this season.

The hurdles were not pretty. I have a lot to do but it’s nothing that comes as a surprise. This week Sean was at the race with me. It was good to have him in warm up and then to see the race. It’s always helpful to have someone who coaches you with you as opposed to some random person. Athletics Ireland have team coaches for events like this but none of them coach me or are ever at my sessions so it’s pointless them being in the warm up area with me.

My final bad point is the pair of extra small knickershorts that I found in my kitbag. As much as I’d like to say I have a tiny arse I’m afraid I do not! Small is even pushing it. Thankfully Ailis swapped her small ones for my extra small. Crisis diverted!

The Ugly:

My flight to get here was very ugly. I had the pleasure of sitting with Thomas Chamney (Yes Chammers I’ve mentioned you in my blog so feel free to give me a shout out in your blog! www.runmadra.com!!!) we were doing the usual talking shite when we started to experience terrible turbulence. I spend half my life on planes which means I’m not a bad flier but I was not loving the turbulence. Then as if things were not bad enough the wing of the plane got hit by lightening yes LIGHTENING! Thankfully Chammers was super calm about the whole thing and convinced me that it wasn’t a problem. He even convinced me that this had happened to him before. When we landed he was all “yeah so that was a lie but I didn’t want you freaking out!” Due to this calmness and quick thinking under stress I predict a lovely shiny medal in Barcelona for Chammers. If he can deal with this situation surely a couple of laps against a few European lads will be a piece of cake.

Right now I’m on the flight home. I got a flight a couple of hours after my race. I race again in a few days and wanted to get home asap. Getting home tonight means that I will be able to see Mark first thing in the morning for physio and weights. I will also get some quality running in this week. I get home to Peter and Berlino which is always lovely. The ugly side of this is that such a quick turn around means I look rough as hell right now! Honestly I look like I’ve been dragged through a bush! Oh well I will not be complaining in a few hours when I get to crawl into my own leaba.

The final ugly point was the wind today in the hurdles. It was 2.1 which meant it does not count as a seasons best. For the time to be legal it cannot be over 2.0. But if you the blog readers are willing to ignore this minor issue so am I. So lets just agree that the real wind was 1.9 and the Hungarian’s read it wrong.

Thats all for now.

Over and Out ,

DOR

Europa cup Ooops I mean European team championships weekend

Yet again I'm trying to pack the bag. I'm off tomorrow to the European team champs which used to be called the Europa cup. I'm bad with change so in my head I'm all "europa cup europa cup europa cup"

I did my first Europa 10 years ago!!! I know can you imagine it has been so long. I was probably the youngest on the team and I was so happy to be selected. A highlight was that my name was put up on teletext as part of the team, it's all about the little things. Well I did awful I was so completely intimidated by the whole thing and just ran like a donkey. I think I ran around 14.3 (Even typing it makes me feel slow!) Honestly it was one of the worst days in my running life but I remember thinking "Right you will fix this eventually" and low and behold the first time I ever broke 13 seconds was on the exact same track in the exact same lane that I ran 14.3. Talk about redemption (even if it did take 3 years!). Anyway enough blabbing about the past. On to the here and now.

I was back on the track today. I had a few baton changes to do with Ailis and Clare then after that I had some hurdles. The changes were good. They are starting to get more efficient each time we practice. My hurdles was fun. Yes fun. Sometimes I forget about the fun and get all caught up in times but today I was just concentrating on a couple of technical points and enjoying running over the sticks.

Enough blogging for now. Time to go back to the packing. Crop top, knicker shorts, spikes, runners etc etc etc....

Fingers crossed for a weekend of fun running and perhaps even some fast times along the way.

Over and Out

Derval

Weights and Sales

Hello hello,

Today was weights with Mark. This week looks like this Flight-Weights-Track-Weights-Track-Flight-Race-Race.

Weights has been good this week. I lifted really well in my clean on Monday and today I was doing lots of snatch and jumps. Jumps I love because Mark measures them and I get to compete with myself. I'm a bit of a competitive freak so getting to look at the measures makes me get really into it. I jumped pretty well. Good measures for now. Just a little below my best from last year which came right before worlds. But every year is a new one so no point in looking back. Right now I'm doing well in my little tests and thats all that matters come late July 2010 is all that will count.

I'm now going to make a confession. I found myself in BT2 today after weights. Today was their first day of their summer sale. I love the BT sale yes I know I am a bad materialistic girl who loves pretty clothes! But hey I could be doing a lot worse things with my spare time. I got a lovely dress and a nice pair of jeans, which is justified because it was 50% off! It was a nice break from lifting loads of weights and jumping over sticks.

I'm off to sleep. I am super dooper tired and gotta hit the track in the morning.

Later

DOR

Another lovely day at the track

Today was yet another gorgeous day at the track. The sun was shining all session long. I love the track when it is really quiet during the day and has only a few people on it, it's very calming for some reason (Note I do not love the track when there are really nasty little men called Mick who shout at me on it-long story!)

My session was hurdles. Long hurdles at that. Which meant runs over 7 and 10. It was nice and I started to feel a bit swifter over the hurdles. Denise (video analysis lady) was there. Ailis was sprinting Anna was doing jumps Ian was doing warm up and Sean was trying to be in all places at once!

Denise is recording a lot of the sessions at the moment and then she sends them on to Sean and Terrie. It is very good for technique and it helps S&T see what is going on in the hurdle runs. Today our main focus for the runs was getting up tall and leaning in to the hurdles. Loads of my race was crap last weekend so I had a lot to work on today. As Sean keeps telling me it is what it is we just keep tipping away at things and it will all work out.

Today I was on the track from 1.30 ish until 4.40 ish so I'm pretty tired now. But thankfully my main man is cooking the dinner (he arrived back last night after spending 2 days driving across Europe after his event, having to get a boat to events makes athletics look easy). Normally I cook but tonight he is doing it. It looks to be chicken fagitas and strawberries for dessert. A friend called Dave is staying with us for a couple of weeks so he will also experience the delights of Peter's cooking!

In non running news I have my thesis to do at the moment. It is really interesting but I'm struggling to pull it together. I need pressure like a race to get it done. I'm not good with a 2 month project but give me around 13 seconds to clear 10 hurdles and I'm all over it! If anyone fancies writing it for me that would be much appreciated....

Gotta go eat...

D

Team Terrie Nail a new National Record

I'm just back from Geneva. The main point of Geneva was for our ladies 4x1 relay to run the time for the European Championships. Not only did the team get the standard but we broke the Irish record! Yay. I was so happy with it. Our squad at the moment is Me, Claire Brady, Ailis McSweeney, Niamh Whelan and Kelly Propor. We ran 44.27. I have no doubt that the team is capable of breaking 44.00. I've thought this for a while so to run 44.27 with loads of room for improvement is exciting. But the icing on the cake is that the coach of the team is Terrie Cahill. Terrie is half of my coaching team and such a great coach. She has a brilliant technical eye and is very good at pulling a team together. I think we are very lucky to have her and huge credit is due to her for her efforts. It's easy to look at the team now and think it has potential but Terrie had faith in us since March and I'm glad we justified her confidence.

The other little point of my trip to Geneva is a small matter of my first hurdles race. I knew beforehand that I have a lot of hurdle work to do but I needed to just start racing. I ran 13.09 to win. The race was very rusty and kinda crap technically. There are a whole heap of things that need to be fixed but the day I run 13.09 and I'm perfect will be a bad one! It feels good to have my first hurdles out of the way and now I know I need to just work my bum off for the next 7 weeks.

I'm home now to my own leaba for a few days. I have two hurdles sessions and two weights sessions this week. Plus my boyfriend gets home from his competing tomorrow so i can't wait to have a few days to bond with him. Then on Friday I get on a plane to Budapest for my next race in the European team championships. I run the relay on Saturday and the hurdles on Sunday. The season is really starting to kick off now, it feels nice! A big summer ahead full of lots of races, it's hard to beat that.

Later

D x x x

P.S I found this pic online, whilst it is ugly from many,many technical points of view (Sean Cahills word about race was brutal!)I thought it was nice to have a pic of the meet up here.

Before and After

The most exciting part of today was that Berlino got her first hair cut. She spent the whole day in the groomers and has come back very very cute! Here is a before and then some after pictures! I guess the readers of this blog probably are kinda interested in more running than puppy so a running update is that today was weights day. Lifted well and felt good. Tomorrow is some hurdles and video analysis.

Bye for now

D

I forgot..

At the moment my boyfriend is in Italy getting ready to kick ass at Europeans (what?? There is a world outside athletics? answer=yes!) So i've had a big minder in Berlino. She is constantly minding me at the moment. We are missing Peter but at least we have each other. Therefore here are some i phone pics of her today......

Saturday=Santry

Back on the track today. Session was super fun because I was doing all my runs with Ian. The session was 80% hurdles 20% sprinting. Our little group is kinda like a family so like all families we like to completely take the P**s out of each other. Today Ian and I kept winding Anna up about being small (she is about 5"3 whereas I'm almost 5"7), I know we sound evil but honestly thats just the way we are and its really entertaining. Then they were mocking me about all my freckles and the fact that (according to Ian and Anna) I have a really muscly back. They claim it looks completely different to the rest of me! During the session I was nailing Ian out of the blocks and kept telling him it was my back that was doing all the work.

Sean was at the session and was very happy with it. Things are coming along nicely. The weather has been so great. Today was gorgeous again on the track. We were there for about 3 hours. Lots of work done.Im posting a video but it is seriously dodgy, after a few seconds the screen turns sideways. It was done on the i phone by Anna who was just messing about. But if your bored have a look. Hurdle 1 is rusty but the rest are ok for now.

Time for me to go to bed because it's back to the track tomorrow. No rest for the wicked!

D

Sunny Dublin

It is super sunny in Dublin at the moment. Yesterday I had a relay squad session. Our women's relay is coming along nicely. Terrie is the coach which is really good because she is very organised and fair. In the past there has often been some issues with relay selection but this year it is very straightforward. Basically turn up to relay practice and the 4 fastest over 100m on times will run. At the moment the team is looking like Clare Brady to Me to Ailis McSweeney to Kelly Propor. Currently Niamh Whelan is the sub but that could change at any stage plus there are a few other girls whi have yet to come into the mix. Our passes are starting to get fairly efficient and I can't wait for us to run now.

After relay practice I went down to Santry to meet Sean for a hurdles session. We did some video analysis which is very helpful. When I look at the hurdles on the video during the session it's much easier for me to understand how to change and fix things.

I spent ages in the track yesterday and the result is that I'm completely sun burnt. I had no idea that I was getting burnt because I was so focused on training. Now my shoulders and back are in bits.

This week I got a big box of kit delivered from Saucony. The stuff is really nice and girly. It's been great having new things to wear everyday.

Today is my day off so I've spent the morning trying to get random things organised. Now I'm off for lunch with one of the girls. It's a tough life!

D X X X

P.S this picture is my view from the track in between hurdle runs yesterday.

The weekend of kinda racing...

Today was super long but I'm wide awake so I thought I'd write a small update. I spent the weekend in Germany. I ran a 100m. I'm not ready to hurdle yet so running a few little sprints is a happy medium. It means that I'm not really racing (cos no sticks) but yet I'm still racing. I tend to start all seasons slow and work my way into things. This may not be ideal in June but generally come championships time I'm ready to roll. The 100m was what I would call grand not super fast but also not slow. It rained hard in Cottbus and made racing the 100m kinda tough. Right at the start of the race I was thinking "awww my bum and feet are really wet" but I got from a to b. I ran 11.70 for third. Also I was having some nerve pain in my hamstring all week so it was nice to get through it with no issues. I'm not the same competitive animal in sprints. When I'm in the world of hurdles I feel super competitive but when I'm sprinting I kinda feel like a tourist in the event, I'm happy to be there but I know it's not home! I just don't love it the same but the faster I run in between the hurdles the better I will be.

Dee Ryan was doing the high jump and Kelly McNeice was doing the 800. Both were happy. Dee is a really good buddy of mine and roomie on loads of trips so it was lovely to spend some time with her. So much so that I made her do a mini interview on my iphone. I'll post it now and if your bored have a peek. Dee is probably one of the hardest working people in athletics and deserves to have an awesome season. Judging by how easy she went over 1.87 in Cottbus I have a sneaky feeling she is in for a good summer. Also she recently got taken off funding (strange decision after she represented Ireland at world championships last year and jumped an Irish record!)and is holding down a job whilst trying to be an international high jumper. Dee deserves every bit of success she gets.

I flew home today. The flight was delayed by a bit and as soon as I landed I had a big weights session to do. Then I collected Berlino (She spent the weekend in my friend Mary's house who owns Berlino's brother and sister). Then I got massage for recovery and now I'm trying to feel sleepy...

Blogging is not gonna make me sleepy. I shall say good night.

D X