here is bloody hot. today the temperature reached 31c and it wasn't the hottest day. what really bugs me, though, is the high percentage of humidity.

as you know i did some allergy tests and apparently i'm allergic to some silly substances and now i've got to check all the products and food that i use daily... i just hope this is not going to be a waste of time and that my eczema will go away once and for all. i was housebound until thursday and that wasn't pleasant (you can see the different phases of the allergy tests in the pics). thankgod there's got air -con at my parents' and staying in was the only way for me not to sweat and compromise the tests.


since thursday i have been to the swimming pool twice: i swum 1,5k the first time and 2k the second time. so that makes it 3,5k which is 2,2 miles. not too bad considering that when we swim the effort is allegedly 4 times harder than when we run. today, I braved the weather and went out for a 5 miler. i can say only one thing: it was HOT!!!!!




Juneathon is over and JJ gave me permission to complete it, despite my problems. so, here is my GRAND total:

18/30 done (i started on june 5th)
miles done in june: 78,90 (bike + run + swim = am I ready for triathlon or what????)

there you go!!

here it's incredibly hot and i am hating it. i've never liked the heat. i can only take it if i am lying on the beach, which it's not happening.

i couldn't run on friday 'cause my tendon was still aching. i used my bike instead to move around my village. i didn't do much, maybe a couple of Ks, but I have taken nice pictures:

on saturday afternoon i had a wedding to go to and since i still couldn't run i decided to go to the swimming pool in the morning. there's a 50m outdoor swimming pool in my village and that's really a great thing. i wanted to complete 10 lengths so to do 500m. i hadn't been to a swimming pool in 2 years and i wasn't sure i could do it. after the first 4 lengths i felt tired but suddenly i found myself sailing and i managed 20 lengths for a grand total of 1k!! i was really quite pleased with it.

yesterday i walked quite a lot and my tendon seems finally healed. i wanted to try running on it today but it seems that my juneathon might be over. i went to the dermatologist today. i have had a nasty eczema for the last 2 years and i'm getting really annoyed about it all. finally i decided to ditch my homeopathy remedy and go to see a specialist. i did some blood test and the doctor said that everything is fine and that the only thing left to do is to carry out some allergy tests. so my left shoulder is now patched up with silly adhesive things (i don't even know the italian name for them) and i can't do much until wednesday, when they take them off. funny. he said that i shouldn't do sport 'cause i shouldn't sweat, and here i am, sitting at my desk writing this post sweating like mad! this aint't right!

not sure whether it makes any sense for me to carry on the juneathon challenge, which i have clearly failed!

i banked 5 more miles today. but now i'm limping. my achilles tendons is hurting. i guess that for the next two days i will have to do something else for juneathon....damn!







15/30 done
miles done in june: 71.09

I woke up at 3.15am and the taxi picked me up at 3.45am. I think that early flights should be made illegal! once home I spent the whole afternoon in a comatose state. I slept for a couple of hours and then I went out for my juneathon. 5 miles which were more like torture. I was really tired and it was quite hot for my standars. I should take inspiration from JoggerBlogger and go out early mornings. not that I can do his milage....



there are no parks in my village, but there is a really long stretch along a canal ideal for running. there are always many people running there as it avoids getting killed on main roads by italian drivers. they don't really care, as you might be aware. the only problems of this quite beautiful and peaceful route are the mosquitos and the lack of shade.

I will go for a walk soon so that I can take some pictures and show you the place :)


juneathon
14/30 done
miles done in june: 66.09

this is going to be my last post from ireland before I go to italy for 3 weeks. I'm going to stay with my parents; my mum will drive me mad but at least I won't have to worry about cleaning, cooking and all that. I can concentrate on my writing and running; plus, I can go to the nice open air swimming pool and do parts of juneathon there. It's a 50 metre one and that's how I like it :)

today another busy day on my bike.


it's almost a 7mile route (out and back).

I had a few things to do today in different parts of dublin and since I don't have a car and the trasport system here is quite lame, I used my bike. I did 8.5miles + 2 hours of horrible shopping to find a dress for a wedding I'm going to on saturday. not really sure about the dress...but who cares?!

yesterday i felt much much better. my mind was working and i was finally making some progress with the article i am trying to finish. so i decided to skip my run and take advantage of a rare moment of inspiration. i knew anyway that i was going to town to meet some friends so i decided to walk there and back as my juneathon activity:









i walked quite briskly and as i was walking i felt like i could have conquered the world. whatever is wrong with me, whatever it is that doesn't make me get a permanent job... i'll fight it. total of 2.77miles yay!

today..it was just great. I did 13k which is 8.09 miles and this is the longest i've run since the newry marathon. and it felt great!!! i decided not to go to phoenix park and thought that maybe the 10 miler that i had in mind was a bit too far for me right now. so i decided to go to sandymount and then, since the cars around weren't that many, to come back following a nice road full of trees, amazing and huge georgian houses which are now embassies. it's nice to run in dublin on a sunday morning. everybody is in bed with a hungover so it's a totally different place. quite and peaceful almost.


i was thinking...maybe i should take pictures to show all the juneathoners the beautiful canal and amazing is sandymount, but as i said in one comment to jb's post, i don't like to have things with me while a run. but I have some pics of the route which i took during my walks so i'm using those. it's kind of cheating and it's nothing like the beautiful london parks or cornwal landscape but that's the best i can do. this is sandymount:



while i was running back home i met that guy who asked me out, had a nice evening chatting away and then didn't call me back and ignored my texts. i didn't push him into the canal as i said i would do if i saw him...maybe next time. i'm too nice!! and what is it in dublin that you meet the same people day in day out???? this would have never happened in london!

10 and 11/30 done
miles done yesterday and today: 2.77 + 8.09 = 10.86

I THINK I AM BACK!!

miles done in june: 45.59

yesterday for juneathon i did A BIG FAT NOTHING!! I guess that being so down in the last few days, feeling sorry for myself, thinking at times how bad i am and then how good i am, it's only that people cannot see it...i guess that all that has taken its toll on me and when it was time to go out for my run i felt completly exhausted!
sorry guys!
what happens next? have we decided what to do with losers like me?? :) I am planning a higher milage for the weekend because i've decided to put up a fight..they won't have me!
let me know what the deal is and i hope it's not going to be corporal punishement!!

been in a bad mood all day and the run didn't help.

5 miles done and dusted

9/30 done
miles done today: 4.97
miles done in june: 34.73

finally a decent (-ish) run today. am I recovering from the last 2 marathons? who knows! I managed 40 mins and 4.35 miles and I didn't feel in pain for the whole duration of the run. so maybe that's a good sign. let's see how it goes tomorrow.




today I went and bought one of those fitness balls. I have cancelled my gym membership and I'll do some excercise at home. it took me ages to inflate it 'cause it come with a silly little pump but I did it. i'll have to watch the dvd included in the package to see what kind of exercice i can do o it other than abs. i am sur it's going to be fun....

oh...and I have entered the overseas ballot for FLM...not that I trust the way they do things but there's no harm in trying, right?

8/30 done
miles done today: 4.35
miles done in june: 29.76

just a short walk today to go to the restaurant :) but every little helps....says someone!!


7/30 done
miles done today: 1.8
miles done in june: 25.41

I am watching the pretty little girls playing (and losing) against holland in the european cup, maybe i should read a book instead, i will feel much more happier. first, they should all have a hair cut; then, they should learn how to play with dignity passion and skills. i should be their coach i think!

today i went out for a lame run, an even more lame than yesterday's. i wanted to do 30 mins but ended up doing only 22. my legs haven't recovered yet from the 2 maras in a months and from a very demanding preparation for them. i am so glad that i have joined the juneathoners otherwise i wouldn't be doing much before the beggining of july, when preparation for the next 2 maras in autumn start. even though i feel tired (and quite discouraged from my lack of fitness) i'm running every day. i hope that counts for something.

this is today's route (away from the canal):


6/30 done
miles done today: 2.5
miles done in june: 23.61

my legs didn't feel quite right but i went out all the same for a lame run....but a plegde is a pledge, right? and after juneathon continues....erm...i know...it has just started, but there you go! i went to the small park next to my house today instead of following the usual route along the canal where i alway see the guy who asked me out and never called again. one day i'll push him into the canal just for the fun of it.

they have built tennis courts in the park, nice ones really, not like those in downhills park in haringey where i used to live when i was in london. but at least those had some sort of nets in the middle of the court. here not nets as yet so not sure what's the point of having a nice tennis court.

anyway 5/30 done!



miles done today: 3.11
miles done in june: 21.11

yesterday i took my friend around dublin and i decided to replace my juneathon run with a juneathon walk which probably won't happen again. I HATE WALKING! my legs hurt today much more than they normally do after a LSR!!! we walked for hours on end and so lots of dogs and runners and kite surfers and ate icecreams :) the great thing was that we managed to catch up on 2 years of gossips and that the weather was glorious. so overall i had a fab day.

i didn't take my garmin with me so i used the pedometre map to check our milage and these are yesterday's routes:

morning:

afternoon:

juneathon:
4/30
miles done today: 7.7
miles done in june: 18.9

very short run today. i have a guest this weekend and it was nice to run with someone else for a change. we did only 2.68miles but at least day 3 is done and dusted. not much time to post. i'm exhausted. good night juneathoners :)

juneathon:
1st: none
2nd: none
3rd: none
4th june: 4.21mi
5th june: 4.35mi
6th june: 2.68mi

total: 11.24mi

i bought something today which i may regret soon: a tanita body fat scale. not only does it give you the weight but also the body fat - body water - body muscle percentages. I tried it this afternoon and i didn't like what i saw. i'll try again tomorrow morning and from then i'll start another challenge this time to myself: lose weight before dublin marathon (october 27th). the target is 60kg...let's see tomorrow what's the real starting point, but it should be around 66kg.

i went out for a run today again. i normally run from 3 to 5 times a week so running every day is quite a new challenge for me. i will have to find new routes though and maybe a bit more adventurous. nothing happens along my route: no creepy men, no crazy cyclist (I'm a cyclist so maybe i just don't dotice them)...nothing. i only see lots of people and cars and runners and swans.


did 4.35 miles (7km) in a very slow pace which felt quite fast... :(

juneathon:
1st: none
2nd: none
3rd: none
4th june: 4.21mi
5th june: 4.35mi

total: 8.56mi

well, i've joined in BUT i'm not sure what to do now. i'm waiting for instructions. i got it all wrong and i thought juneathon was a challenge to run 100 miles during june, but that something jogblog is doing. it's not running to and from different tube stations, i know that for sure, that's warriorwomen's job

JUNEATHON is different. it challenges you to run every day of the month. right, I got that now :) and i'm on!! but joining in today without having run yesterday and the day before yesterday now...that's a bit complicated and the masters (JJ and JB) are trying to find a solution to my special case.

in the meantime I'll just skip the fact that I did 4,64 miles on sunday.

today i went out for 40 mins and after 1 min my crappy mp3 run out of battery. so i set off without music under the rain to put the miles in (still thinking at that stage that i needed to complete 100miles this month). i did 4,21 miles and this is the proof (even though my sporttracks is set in ks):

now, i know that all the people involved in the variuos challenges have lovely gadgets. i don't. but i have a lovely pic of mine: my new fetchie t-shirt (is this a gadget?), my garmin 205 and my crappy mp3....only 512mb :)

waiting for the verdict....

juneathon summary:
1/30 runs
4,21 miles

I have been very quite these days. I had a blogger friend over from italy so I took him around dublin and we did a nice run (my first after newry) in phoenix park. we walked like mad and if i had joined the juneathon i would have already won - well, if they make up their mind that is and decide whether walking counts or not!!
saturday though was taken over by my obsession with the most amazing and difficult race ever that some of my italian blogger friends were doing: the passatore 100k. i was getting live updated by friends who were there supporting and i could not concentrate properly on my guest :) every marathon runner in italy knows about it and many dreams of completing it; very few manage to do it. i am not thinking of doing it NO WAY, i am just fascinated by the idea that someone could run so long and on such A difficult route. one of my blogger friends finished among the first 4 italians and he will now join the national 100k team for the world cup...whoohoo!!
simone, the-winner-of-connemarathon-simone, is thinking of doing it and I'll be his support on a bike...that should be amazing.

PS: I HAVE JOINED THE JUNEATHON CHALLENGE....YAY!!
I don't have a nike thing and after what i've read on my bloggerfriends' posts i am not going to buy one. my gorgeous garmin will do the job.

JUNEATHON: day 4 - mile 0!! (i'm doing great eh?!)