Fundraising - 2 Great Organisations, 5 Big Challenges

Its pretty much an annual event... me doing something strenuous and then asking for money to support a cause or a campaign. With your help over the past few years we have sent water pumps to Africa, supported a mostly unacknowledged group in Polio survivors now dealing with Post Polio Syndrome (my Dad being one of them). We also helped out a little boy Matthew with Autism. There is no change to the programme this year and I hope with your help to support two great organisations Temple Street Children's Hospital and Educate Together Swords.

I started out in January to run 2015 in 2015, I also knew I would take on a number of big events this year however I was not quite sure where I would focus my fundraising attention. In April, Jennifer my youngest fell ill and spent a week in Temple Street. On the day we took her to AE, a two year old was brought in following a car accident. To see how the staff responded and despite the traumatic situation the way in which they cared for everyone that evening was so inspiring. A week in a children's hospital is a sad, happy, emotional, inspiring and very moving experience. Jennifer is perfectly fine now but of course Temple Street is still a very busy hospital. I have a target of €2,000 which I will split with Temple Street and Educate Together and I am sure the team in Temple Street will make good use of €1,000.

Educate Together is the patron body of the growing network of schools in Ireland that are run according to the Educate Together Charter. It is an independent NGO that runs schools that guarantee equality of access and esteem to children "irrespective of their social, cultural or religious background", are learner centred in their approach to education and are run as participatory democracies, with respectful partnership between parents, pupils and teacher, This is directly from Educate Together however as a parent of a child who goes to an Educate Together in my view they are very special schools. From the energy and passion of the teachers to the support and involvement of parents it is a great place to spend time for the kids and parents. I hope with your help to support the team in the school build a sensory garden and soft play area.

The ground is clear, but more to be done!

As always I will keep you up to date on progress and the stories afterwards. If you want to help you can make a donation here 

March Review.... more like what's happened in the past few weeks.

I have not stopped running it's just that a few things got in the way of writing and updating.

I had a great end to March,  smashing the target I had put in place for the first three months. Although I feel I may have low balled the numbers. That said for what I needed to do outside of running,  move house, work, spend time with the family I may take the kudos.

Running for me is about the movement and getting out in the fresh air. I have a competitive streak and that came through in a race I entered in March. On the morning I felt strong and I felt I could really push.  And that's what I did, I wasn't quite up to the standard of the first three finishers but I can from 7th place to finish a respectable 4th. What was even better Angie and the girls were there and we had a really nice time as a family in St. Anne's Park. 

April was a slow start I was staring down 167 miles but I felt fit, strong and ready for the challenge. My Monday class with Dinny Collins is really adding to my strength and I feel so strong in my legs for the first time ever. Although April didn't turn out as planned, poor Jennifer got sick and spent a week in Temple Street. She is doing great now but what a scare! I also lost my mojo, my diet went astray and I started enjoying a few extra glasses of wine! But I know what I need to do and I am committed to get back on track. I want to get my fundraising up and running and I feel once I commit to raising money there is no going back.

7.6 miles per run for the next 209 running days is what I need to do! I did 7.68 today in my new Saucony ISO Zealots!

Its game on! 

A Big Week

As its Sunday there are a couple of things to reflect on. First this has been a big week for mileage.. I have logged the most miles in one week!

My previous record week was in July 2011 when I has training for my first Dublin Marathon. I am also on an 8 day streak... I am pushing for 10 and to be pacing to my yearly target by the end of March.

Lastly today was Mother's Day, we had a super day. Breakfast in bed for Angie, me taking care of business around the house and we went to the St. Patrick's Day 5km. Hannah and I have done some 5km's before but today we logged official times! Both Abby and Hannah came in ahead of me and I lost 5 -1 in a game of tip rugby with Hannah... Good times

A Lucky Win!

I originally planned to work on body strength once I got to July. Of course every time I run I am working on strength but I also believe it is important to strengthen the parts of the body I don't use when I run.

I entered a competition on Facebook, with my usual belief of "not a chance". I need to change that because I am starting a 10 week core/abs workshop with Dinny Collins of Fingal Kettlebells. I will keep you posted on how it goes but also how it is impacting my running.

I normally run on Monday nights, however if I multi - task I should get the miles in getting there and back.

Running as a mode of transport

Last night I needed to pay a guy who did some work for me in the house and I needed to walk the dog! So I did this....

Solmonath Review

The Roman month Februarius was named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritualFebrua held on February 15 (full moon) in the old lunar Roman calendar. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. They were added byNuma Pompilius about 713 BC. February remained the last month of the calendar year until the time of the decemvirs (c. 450 BC), when it became the second month. At certain intervals February was truncated to 23 or 24 days, and a 27-day intercalary month, Intercalaris, was inserted immediately after February to realign the year with the seasons. - not my work directly, taken from Wikipedia - I thought it would be useful to add some detail about the shortest month of the year. 

Reading further on Wikipedia I found this historical names for February include the Old English terms Solmonath (mud month)  - Interesting February was the month I added a lot of mud to my runs! I have posted about this already but some great videos and articles got me into the mud this month and I really liked it. I have signed up for the Urban Trail Race in St Anne's Park next weekend. 

Back to what this post is all about a review of February. If you have been reading my previous posts you will know I missed my number in February. That said here is some of the detail on the Mud Month...

I ran 89.19 miles in a total time of 12hrs 30 mins. My average pace was 8.83 miles per minute. The fastest run was 6 miles at lunch time on February 24th. The slowest was 5 miles on February 28th in Dubai. But I did stop to take pictures and admire the views along the way.

The breakdown per mile in my different shoe types was; 9.82 in my Asics, 29 miles in my Inov8's and 46.12 in my New Balance. My New Balance are the fastest shoes this month.
Surfaces types varied this month with the addition of some trail and urban trail environments which were great - Majority still on roads and footpaths at 61.29 miles. I did do 22.72 miles on trails and believe it or not I logged some sand whilst running in Dubai.

I also started using a heart rate monitor this month, I averaged 143 bpm. I still have some experimenting to do with this piece of kit so more to come on this one in later posts. It turns out "We did'nt start the fire" by Billy Joel is a good song to match a run at 143bpm. I never listed to music on a run.

A couple of other interesting facts from February, it was Valentines Day, I moved house, ran on two continents, first time to run in temperatures above 25 degrees. I also put together 8 days in a row running - which was a first for me. All in all a pretty good month but I fall 23.71 miles short of my target.... 

Picking up the pace in March to stay on track.  

Some pictures from the past few weeks.