Aerlingus we are not friends anymore

Hi All,

Hope things are awesome wherever you are. I'm just about to rant so feel free to stop reading if you're not in the rant reading mood.

Here goes, I booked and paid for an aerlingus flight to my first couple of meets in Europe. After I had a little calf issue I decided to start racing a few days later. This meant that I needed to change the original flight but I had to wait until today to change the flight because I was testing my calf over hurdles today (more on that after the rant). I rang the aerlingus helpdesk and spoke with a lady and explained my situation. She advised me that I would have to pay a change of flight fee and the fare difference which meant that it was going to work out way more expensive than the original ticket. She advised me to do it online so off I went home to change the ticket.

When I went to change the ticket there was an issue with changing it because I had also booked Ian's flight at the same time as mine. The system would only let me change Ian's flight which was not what I needed to do. I started to try to ring the helpdesk and could not get through "We are open 8 a.m to 5 p.m please ring within these hours or alternatively please see aerlingus.com" Please note that I was ringing at 2! So after 45 minutes of trying to change the ticket online and at the same time trying to get through to someone from Aerlingus I had to take a break to get ready for work.

In the car to work I tried the number again and actually got through to someone who put me through to someone else. After waiting on hold for 12 minutes a lady called Monica told me "you are too late now you buy new ticket" at this point I really feared that my head was going to explode and that there was going to be bits of Derval brain scattered all over Dublin. I tried to explain to her that I had tried my best to figure it out and that in fact the problem was with her system plus nobody was answering their phones and not me but she merely told me "there are people waiting to talk to me write a letter to customer service"

The end result is that I have to buy a brand new ticket and now because it is so close to me leaving it is going to be about €400 on top of the €120 I originally spent. To end this little rant I would just like to say Aerlingus we are not friends your customer service is absolutely terrible and you have issues with your online system. Please enjoy the extra money that I am paying you which I would much rather use on something else.

Ok I have taken a few deep breaths and my rant is over. I was running over sprint hurdles today and it was a big day because I was testing my calf. The test was good the calf was happy out and I had a great time running against Iano out of blocks. Iano ran a big p.b in his first meet last weekend so fingers crossed for more fast running from him. The plan from here is run a couple of meets next week. It's so exciting to be back in the world of racing.

I'm sitting here watching Graham Norton and the amazingly talented Ed Sheeran has just come on. I'm off to watch him. His album is so so so good, it can even lift my spirits today!

Bye Bye,

Derv xoxo

Back on the track

Hello Hello,

As usual I'm very busy. I had 7 days off from running to let my calf recover from a little strain. In my time off running I did some different sessions. I had two pool sessions which consisted of running in the deep end with an aqua belt on to keep me upright. The pool is totally different to running on the track which made it a nice change but two days in there is long enough. I'm not much of a swimmer and could not do it everyday.

I've been busy with weights, physio and functional movement training in the past few days. Whenever I have a little niggle I always find that I'm way busier because of all the bits I have to do to get back.

The good news is that I was back on the track today. I was sprinting and felt 70% better than last week. I was running flat out from blocks so it was good to feel so much better. I just have to hope now that I feel good tomorrow come hurdle time.

That's all,

DOR X

Vet clinic and Scan

Hi All,

I'm back in Dublin after my time in Fuerteventura. It has been crazy busy since I've been back. I went in to the vet clinic in the D.S.P.C.A to do a little bit of reception work last night. It was really lovely to be back there but it was super busy. I hadn't been on reception for 3 weeks so I was a little worried I would have forgotten everything but thankfully it was fine. There were lots of cute dogs and a couple of cats in with their owners last night. I'm always excited to see what animal will come through the door. I had one night a few months ago when their were loads of hens in to be treated, random eh?

In other news I had to go see my sports doctor today because I've been having some pain in my achilles. It's not bad and I can run flat out but I wanted to be careful and not do any damage to myself. I ended up in the MRI machine to get it scanned. The MRI machine is always a strange experience. You are in this little tunnel and can't move while the machine takes all the images. Plus the machine makes a really loud ticking type noise which means that you have to wear headphones and earplugs. I'm so used to having different parts of me scanned that I drifted off into a mini sleep today during it.

The result of the scan was that I have a little strain on the top of my achilles at the bottom of my calf, this means I need to get in the gym for a week and do no running. The doc put some needles in my calf to loosen it out and help it recover. I hate needles so that bit was a bit crap All in all not too bad though. A few days of cross training never killed anyone.

The day has been fairly busy because I was in the gym before the scan and doctor. The gym session was good, I was doing a lot of functional work. Yesterday was weights day so today was loads of little exercises to keep everything moving well.

If you are in the Dublin area and need a Vet please do remember the vet clinic @ the D.S.P.C.A

http://www.dspca.ie/vetclinic or 01 499 4780

Also if you are on twitter you should follow the clinic to find out all the goings on up there @vetclinicDSPCA

I will keep you all up to date on the few days cross training.

DOR X

Packing the bags

Well it's come to the end of my stay in Fuerteventura and time to pack the bags and go home. I've had a good camp here. I needed to get stuck into the hurdles which I did so I'm looking forward to getting home now and progressing from there. I managed to break two hurdles and bruise one foot out here so I better leave before they run out of hurdles for me to break. The hurdles are getting there but it is baby steps. This past two weeks I've been lifting a bit heavier which has been good. I love weights and it's been good to throw on some heavy weight on clean and lash it up.

The camp with the lads was really good fun and surely I have some abs from laughing at them. I even managed to convince them to come clothes shopping with me so at least the camp was a little bit girly.

I'm super excited to go home to get a cuddle from the lovely Madra, my other half has just left Dublin for an event in Miami so I'm gonna have to wait a couple of weeks to see him. Olympics year is busy, busy, busy.

Time for me to finish packing.

Next time I blog it will be from my home with the lovely dog.

I'm Excited,

DOR X

Jumping some hurdles and making plans on the sunny Island

Hi Peeps,

All is great here in Fuerteventura. I'm not trying to rub it in but it really is good to be in the sun for a while. Sean arrived a few days ago and it's now officially a complete male zone I'm living in. It's quite nice to be honest. I'm the only girl so I have my own room and when I'm bored of the lads being lads I just wander in here. For example right now they are all parked on the couch watching some complete lads DVD and I've been in my room reading celebrity gossip online. In fairness they are great company 99% of the time and are awesome at just sitting around having completely random conversations.

Anyway onto some running talk as this blog is kinda a running blog. Today was hurdles out of blocks which I love to do. We arrived at the track and the room to the hurdles was locked. My initial feeling towards this was pure irritation but then low and behold someone found a key. Off I went to do my session. Before hurdles I did some sprinting with Ian, this was loads of fun because we are racing each other a bit. I'm going to confess that Iano always beats me (He is way faster!) but this little voice in my head tells me everytime I toe the line against him that I have a chance so I always try really hard. Today yet again I did not beat him but I was sprinting well.

The hurdles were done seperately to work on technique. The best way to describe where I'm at right now is like so: I need to go one step forward but in order to do this I have to go four steps back, work hard and be patient. Today was literally working on basics and being very patient. It was also my first day out of blocks since last September.

After training we went for a bit of a spin in the car. My boyfriend comes here to train and had told me about a place with lovely beaches so off we all went in the car. We ended up in a nice little coffee shop right on the beach.

This evening we had a few minutes where we sat down and looked at video footage from training. It's good to look at it because something that feels one way when I run is actually often very different when I look on the camera. It was good to have Sean point things out and then I can go work on that tomorrow.

Out here I've had a chance to sit down and chat through races with Sean for the indoor season. We have come up with a provisional plan for meets so now we just need to see what happens in the next few weeks. This plan was etched out in the loveliest little bakery in this town, surely coffee and cake is the best way to speed???!!!!!!

Time for me to get some zzzzzzz's before tomorrow.

Bye for now,

DOR

Life with the lads

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Mine was crazy busy but lovely. I got to see loads of people I haven't seen in ages and spend some well needed time in my hometown. That has all ended now and I'm here in Fuerteventura on training camp. Usually when I go on camp I always room with Ailis and we pretty much end up doing everything together for the duration of the camp but unfortunately she has not been able to come. Please read her own blog and you will see why http://www.sportsnewsireland.com/athletics_irish/71868/. She explains her current situation far better than I could and it gives an insight into just how tough she is.

I have found myself on camp with just the lads. So far it is just myself, Ian McDonald and Danny Kavanagh here together. Thankfully the lads are awesome and they are very entertaining but it is definitely strange not to have Ailis here. I do miss her loads. I've been cracking on with training and doing all my sessions with Ian. He is always ahead of me so I just try to make sure it's not too far ahead and that I'm running well.

Yesterday we had a running session scheduled on our programme. We arrived at the track and it was completely locked up. Open or closed track the session is scheduled so we did what all athletes would do, we found the lowest wall and figured out a way to climb in. The breaking and entering took about 10 minutes. I'm not great with heights so it was a case of do not look down and get into the track as quick as possible. The session was tough but went really well. All in all the scaling wall activity was well worth it.

Outside of training we are just relaxing. It's so funny to be with the boys all day long. The topics of conversation are very different! Whilst it would be entertaining to let all you blog readers in on the things discussed I'm afraid I can't do that to the lads. I'm officially one of the lads.

I gotta go as I'm driving to the airport to collect Sean. He arrives this evening, yet another male. The lads definitely can't replace Terrie and Ailis but they are very good substitutes until I'm back with the ladies.

Bye from Sunny Fuerteventura,
DOR XOXO