Not enough words for the craziness

I cannot put into words the craziness of the past 24 hours. I will try my best to put it in to bullet points:

* yesterday noon went to the supermarket to buy a big food shop for planned Christmas party dinner

*2p.m headed to training in Santry after preparing food to be ready to cook in evening

*2.30 p.m training away with no idea that dublin is turning into a huge ice rink

* 5 p.m left Santry stadium

*7 p.m still in traffic in blizzard trying to get home, still holding out hope for party

*8 p.m car gets into trouble and I have to abandon it nowhere near home.

*8.30 p.m walk to friends house after 3 falls in snow and 1 emotional breakdown.

*Spend next two hours in warm friends house plotting journey home and generally feeling sorry for self.

*Peter rescues car and we try to drive the 10 minutes home

*10 minute drive takes 1.5 hours.

*Arrive in house at 11.45 p.m

*Feel very sad about all the food that did not get cooked/eaten.

*Wake up the next day i.e today and everything is just as bad....

AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Make the craziness stop.

DOR

Grrr go away frost...

Most people know I'm a big home bird but today it was hard to be home. My session was some over distance runs with A (known from such productions as the cover of Irish runner annual 2010!!!!!!) and then runs over 6 hurdles. The track outside was ten times better than it has been in recent weeks but it was freezing and there was a fair bit of ice on it. We had time targets which we hit but the conditions made it a lot tougher and I didn't feel as good as I've been feeling. Thankfully though there is light at the end of the tunnel because I go to South Africa after Christmas. I cannot wait for South Africa. I'm super excited at the thought of it.

You will all be pleased to know I have started my christmas shopping. I still have loads more to do but at least I have a few a little bits and pieces.

My other half has been away training and gets home tomorrow which is great news and making me feel nice and festive. I can't wait to spend Christmas together.

Be good people.

DOR

Loving it

Hi All,

Firstly a huge congrats to the Irish U23 lads who won GOLD at the European X country. What an amazing result. Super athletics news. Well done guys.

All is great here on training camp. Sessions are going well and it's much easier to train out here than at home because of the sun. Plus there is no Dublin traffic to contend with either.

A definite highlight of our camp has been Ailis and I attending hip hop dance class!!! where we are staying was having a week of dance classes all different kinds of dance for anyone who wanted to go so we decided to sign up for an hour of hip hop. We were kinda thinking that with all out sprinting and weights training we may just be world class dancers but bad news we do not have a future as world class hip hop dancers! i think A was good but I was crap!!! I did laugh hard for the hour though. I don't think I'll be able to listen to the song billionaire without images of Ailis and I attempting to do a full choreographed dance routine and looking very very silly coming into my head.

Today is rest day but it's back on the track tomorrow for another session. Mmmmm loving the track in a crop top and shorts. Panic is starting to set in due to the fact that I have done zero Christmas shopping though!!!!!!!

Ok gotta leg it.

DOR

In a far away land

Hi!!!!

I'm away training in the canaries at the moment. It is amazing to be away from the snow/Ice/Cold for a while.

It is crop top and shorts gear over here. Pure bliss. I have to leg it because internet isn't great here.

Will update soon.

D X

Diva tantrum

Most of you who read this blog know at this stage that a certain 1 year old labradoodle is the boss of me. I've tried really hard to avoid this but it is impossible Berlino is the boss.

Yesterday I decided that Berlino needed to be trusted a little more. Normally if I go out I leave her in the kitchen. I decided to leave her have access to the kitchen the dining room and the front room. This took a lot of trust.

Unfortunately said dog decided to teach me a lesson. She threw somewhat of a diva tantrum whilst I was out. I can only assume the message she was trying to convey went along these lines "How dare you leave me at home. I am the boss of you. I am so unimpressed at you so ha ha look what I did in the living room"

In other news the snow is melting. Yipee. It's still not good enough to run outdoors but it is getting better. Today I ran over hurdles for the first time since September. I'm not going to pretend I was awesome because I wasn't. That's kinda the way it goes I need to go find myself some rhythm. If you have any rhythm send it my way....

Byeeeeeeeeeeeee....

DOR X

World of chaos update.

Soooooo I woke up today and crossed my fingers and hoped that the snow would be gone. Alas all the hope in the world did not melt the snow. In the absence of melted snow I've taken a glass half full approach to this situation.

The first good thing of today is that I could get out of my house and go to Santry to train considering lots of people can't leave their houses this was a blessing. The next is that I collected shiny new training hurdles. At this point in the blog I need to say thanks. I arrived in Santry with the shiny hurdles in their box and luckily for me Stephen and Philip (the guys that work their) put them all together for me. Lets be honest it would have taken me forever to put them together so thank goodness for the lads.

The final good point of today was that Mark came back from holiday so he was in Santry for some weights time. It was nice to have him back for weights (even though having a certain Ms Fiona O' Friel be my step in weights coach was a pleasure).

I'm super tired from training so I'm going to have an early night.

Sleep tight everyone.

DOR

Foodie blog 1

Some of you may know that I am big into food. I love to cook and spend a lot of time thinking about food. This started from years ago realising that a diet of chips, beans and sausages in college does not make for a fast Derval.

On top of needing to eat well to run well I just love food and love figuring out ways to eat healthy food and still eat nice food.

I have been meaning to do food blogs on this blog for ages but better late than never so here is the first food blog.

My topic is vegetables. I have never been a big fan of vegetables and can be described as 'fussy'. This means that I have to be inventive with myself to eat vegetables. I make soups regularly full of vegetables (today I made tomato and basil soup).

For this first food blog here is a recipe for what I see as healthy, tasty coleslaw. I made this last night and had it with roast chicken. Then today I had the remainder of it with pan fried scallops, yummy!

Tasty Slaw

Celeriac

Carrots

low fat creme fraiche

Wholegrain mustard

Lemon

Salt & Pepper

Grate the celeriac and carrots. Put it into a bowl. Add 1-2 tablespoons of creme fraiche and mix through the celeriac and carrots. Add 1 teaspoon of whole grain mustard and mix through. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

If you are bored and make this I hope you enjoy.

D

Snow is falling all around....

Well Hello There,

I am currently living in a world of chaos. Ireland is one of the worst places to be when it snows. As a people we seem to deal with snow badly, maybe it's because we don't get it very often but whatever it is the world outside my front door has turned into chaos.

A few things to report. There is about a foot and a half of snow outside my front door this has resulted in me becoming best friends with my wellies. Everywhere I go at the moment I'm wearing totally ridiculous wellington boots because if I don't wear them my feet get soaked through my trainers.

Yesterday it took me 2 and a half hours to get home from training. it usually takes me 30 minutes. At one point I didn't get out of 1st gear for an hour. Then at another point some hero decided it would be a good idea to drive up the hard shoulder to skip all the traffic but this is where the snow was the worst only to realise he was about to get his car stuck then he just drove right in front of my car and I nearly crashed into him. I kid you not the red mist descended on me, I had to take a lot of deep breathes to fight the urge to get out of the car.

Primarily I run on the outdoor track. Right now the outdoor track is covered in snow and ice which means running on it is impossible. The only saving grace is that I can run on the indoor straight in Santry. The sessions are completely different to the training plan because it is only 60 meters long but I would be totally lost if I didn't have it this week.

My final snow related piece of news is random. So this morning I was just about to get into my car when I noticed one of my neighbours was stuck in the snow. I went over to help push the car out of the snow. I was kinda delighted because I secretly felt that all my hours in the gym would be shown. I was pushing the car with all my strength and then something really embarrassing happened. I was pushing so hard but I put my hand on the brake light at the back of the car and smashed it! So this guy that I offered to help ended up having me smash his back light in his car. Bad Derval, no more super hero car pushing.

Next week I go away training and with this world of chaos I cannot wait to get myself out of here.

Wrap up warm wherever you are!

D x x x