Ireland day 0994. Tuesday 18 June 2024- Running!

Ireland day 0994. Tuesday 18 June 2024- Running

Today’s summary	Woke late and spent the morning pottering around the flat. Then went on a walk and short run (first since my hip repair) then rest of the afternoon doing chores and DIY repairs in the flat. Collected Val from the airport later in the evening.
Today’s weather	Overcast and grey all day, but dry. Moderate northerly wind. Appx 15c

Today’s overview location (The grey mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Walk Run Walk

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

I couldn’t believe it when I woke up this morning and looked at my phone to check the time. It was 10:20. Yes, I had slept for a full ten hours solid last night. I must have been a lot more tired than I realised as normally I only sleep for six or seven. Perhaps the jet lag has finally caught up with me.

Anyway once I had cleared the fog out of my head, I got up and started to consider the day. The first task was to hoover and tidy up the flat a bit. I wanted the place to look decent for when Val comes back tonight! Then my next objective was altogether more risky.

Over the course of our recent holiday, I managed to put on half a stone (3kg) in weight. As a result I am feeling flabby and my clothes are all too tight for me. So while I have been trying to control what I eat better since we got back, I also felt that some more drastic action was needed.

So I pulled on the new running shoes that I’d bought at Decathlon last Friday and decided to go on a (short) run. I’m not really even supposed to run at all on my new metal hips and I have stuck to that guideline rigidly ever since my last operation fifteen months ago. But today I decided that life is for living, and a short run to combat middle aged spread would be the lesser of two evils.

To reduce the risk of damage, I walked along the beach as far as the bottom of Paddy’s hill, then just ran up on the grass, all the way to the top. I chose this route because uphill running gives you a better workout, and also there’s less jarring on your joints as you are going slower. This particular path has the added bonus of all being on grass, which reduces the jarring still further.

I thoroughly enjoyed running and it made me realise just how much I’ve missed it over the last few years. Even though it took me all of five minutes to get to the top, I felt it was well worthwhile. I walked back down via Seamount and the demesne, feeling a bit smug.

On the way, I looked in at the castle grounds where the stage for this year’s concert season has just been finished. First up is Take That, starting this Friday. We will look forward to eavesdropping from our balcony!

Once I’d returned to the flat and had a light lunch (ok well it was battered sweet and sour chicken courtesy of M&S), I caught up on a few DIY jobs in the flat and did a couple loads more washing.

Now I just need to go to the shops to pick up some groceries. Then I might just have a few minutes to watch one or two “teach yourself Spanish” videos on YouTube before heading to the airport to pick up Val.

It’s been an unusual sort of a day, with the late start and the novelty of my first post-hip run, but I’ve really quite enjoyed it. Now let’s see what surprises tomorrow has up its sleeve!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Windowboxes by the station have been replanted with summer blooms and they look beautiful	On the beach – approach route to the Paddy’s Hill run

Looking up through the wildflower meadow to the top of Paddy’s Hill – the path I ran goes through here	Meanwhile back at the castle.. The stage is set for Take That on Friday

Vodafone IE and Eir have installed 5G masts here ready to cope with the thronging masses doing their Instagram feeds live from the concerts. It’s a shame the masts aren’t here all year, actually, as mobile coverage in castle grounds is pretty spotty

Made it! At the top of Paddy’s Hill. Step one on my fight the flab programme