Ireland day 1192. Thursday 02 January 2025- Newbridge Jog

Today’s summary	We both headed outdoors today, to do longer, faster, walk/jog workouts. Val spent a couple of hours in the demesne and I walk-jogged round the lagoon to Newbridge and then on to Donabate. I managed 15k at 8:30/k which wasn’t too bad, and Val was similar. Came back on the train using my free travel pass which arrived this morning. Beans on toast for dinner, a few minutes TV, and an early night
Today’s weather	Bright, calm, sunny and dry. Light north westerly wind. Appx 4c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The grey 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): Newbridge slow jog

Commentary

After a relatively easy day yesterday, we decided that, particularly as the weather was brilliantly sunny outside, we had better resume our distance and pace improvement exercises today. It’s all part of our programme to shed some of the weight we put on over Christmas and to make some fitness gains in 2025. Call it a New Year Resolution if you like, but whatever, it feels good to be taking charge of our physical and mental wellbeing. Better to be a player than a victim.

We both woke up quite late this morning so the sun was well up by the time we’d had our tea and breakfast. Val headed out into the demesne for her 12k run, but not until she’d given me some lessons in better running technique which should help protect my hips. By this time I was fired up to get out and try the new style. But I had some paperwork to deal with first (yes – Tax was one of those things).

Eventually I was ready to go but just checked our mailbox on my way out. Lo and behold! I discovered that the postman had sent me my free (OAP!!) travel card – so I shaped my walk today to include a train journey, just so I could try it out.

My aim was to do something similar to Val – a longer walk-cum-run, using the new low impact style running. So I waddled my way round the Broadmeadow lagoon, looking something like an old grannie, but successfully avoiding hip pain.

In the end I made it all the way round to Newbridge and then on to Donabate in about 2hours – a good bit quicker than I’ve ever done it before. Though, because the tide was in I had to divert onto the Hearse Road – which I hate. And to make matters worse I took a wrong turn and ended up near the garden centre, which increased the distance I had to run along the busy road significantly.

It was a cold afternoon and as soon as I stopped running once I reached Donabate, I began to cool down quickly. Given that I had 40 minutes until the next train, I found a café in Donabate shopping centre to enjoy a hot drink and something to eat while I waited. I felt well pleased with achieving a shade over 15km at a shade faster than 8:30/km.

I duly got the train back and took great delight in using my new free travel card and was back at the flat by about 4:30. Val had already returned and achieved a similar run to me, so we both spent the rest of the evening feeling smug.

Dinner was a simple-and-easy to digest affair of beans in toast, which we enjoyed whilst listening to a history podcast. A short bit of TV and an early night rounded off an altogether excellent day nicely.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


I had to squeeze along the narrow ledge to the end of Ballymadrough Road to avoid the high tide flood. Concentration required whiles jogging to avoid losing footing and falling in.	The seasonal name of Ballymadrough Road – I think!

The Horrible Hearse Road. A grim name for a grim place	Eventually I managed to get into an adjacent filed and managed to stagger along the edge, carefully avoiding touching the crop. Stumbly going and hard slow work, but infinitely safer than braving the narrow high speed road

Newbridge looking nice in the late afternoon sunshine. I didn’t stop and treat myself to refreshments though, as I normally do. I was determined to try and keep the pace up all the way to the station	Coming back on the train – a driver’s eye view of the new Boradmeadow greenway viaduct. The bridge itself appears to be finished. but as far as i could tell there was still quite a lot of work to be done on the access tracks at each end. Eventually the greenway is supposed to link Malahide Castle to Newbridge House

Woo Hoo! The world is my oyster! (well Ireland is, at least)