This is an amazingly clean live version i found of this classic Bunnymen, not sure why i thought of this this morning - maybe corey haim induced...

I went for my long run on Sunday with Jimmy, a friend and Gowran AC Club mate, we ran down on the grass track by the river barrow early in the morning and did 1hr45 - it was a beautiful morning, crisp blue skies, really fcukin' fantastic. Anyway we did our run - about 21km in an easy /  steady 4:45 pace - the rough ground taking the edge of our pace. Jimmy is in top form - i have the edge over him on our head-to-heads from 2009 - but i don't stand a chance against him this year. However, all the way through the run i could feel my left achilles naggin at me and tightening and afterwards within about 10 minutes it tightened up completely. Monday was scheduled as a rest day, and JB shelved my Tuesday tempo run. On the monday afternoon and i got into see star geoghegan and the miracle worker that he is - he sorted the problem, releasing a point in my arch and on my hip and by tuesday i was back running ok again. He basically felt that my weak arches and tight calves were putting the achilles under huge pressure causing it to tighten. Importantly, he showed me two new stretches that I have been doing three times a day and have really helped my calves.  I managed a 75' and 50' steady runs after that- and had a breakthrough today with a really good 10k pace workout - 4 X 8' with 2' recovery session.  I ran 3:42 / 3:42 / 3:38/ 3:38 pace for the four 8' session and never really felt under pressure - in fact coming to the end of the last one i decided not to push but just to finish comfortably.  In total i covered just under 8.71k at that pace and top and tailed it with 15 min warm and down. This was a major step forward from the 6 / 12 / 6 /8 session i did on the 19th of February where i covered 8.58 km at 3:44 pace with over 8' recovery.  I finished off the day at the south east marketing awards in Mount Juliet  where one of our projects picked up a prize and we were shortlisted for another. :-)

Interesting video I found through http://www.daveelger.net from the marathon-advice.com website on the pro's and con's of marathon pace groups. it includes some insightful information for pace group leaders as well as some good tips on how best to use them. After this years Dublin Marathon - this was  a hot topic of debate on boards.ie - but since I've never been altruistic enough to do it; I'm in no position to comment either way! Season 2 - Episode 17 -- Marathon Pace Groups from Joe English on Vimeo.

This week has been motoring along nicely, work is very busy at the moment (a good thing!) - so its been good that this week has been a step back week. I've done two further runs both 50' steady paced runs. The first was on Thursday evening after the kids were in bed around 9:30pm.  The soon to be opened motorway runs by the edge of our village - so it's pretty much an ideal place to run - flat service, good asphalt, no traffic and rolling hills. Ok, from time to time it gets a little windy but you can live with that. I struck out at 9:30, with no 100 in the Pitchforks top 100 albums of the 90's - The ORB's Adventures beyond the underworld on the ipod. It was a beautifully still evening with no cloud cover and a starry sky. The album is class and totally suited the run, laid back, psychedelic and steady. A very good chilled out running album. On the way back on the motorway, i got pulled over by a security guard doing a patrol in his car. I don't know if it was the head torch  or just the fact that i was running at all..but he seemed pretty suprised to see me..anyway, after a quick friendly chat i was on my way. The average pace for the run was a slowish 4:40km ( including the security guard stop and i covered just under 11.5km) This morning (saturday),  i did another 50' steady (in sunshine - ttf) over an 11.5km loop on country roads - the route is a good one for morning running - nice downhill for the 1st mile or so and then flat before a gentle rise back to the start. I probably pushed it a little too much on this run and my average pace was 4:23. I didn't wear the heart monitor as i am still getting a rash on my back from the strap so just keeping it for workouts and long runs.  On the ipod was No. 99 on the list KMD's Mr. Hood. - which is a fantastic album - a real keeper - old school hip hop at its best - well produced, funny and ever changing beats upon beats. A real good one...best in show so far. Tomorrow, I have a friend running in the barcelona marathon - who should hit the 2:55 - 2:58 mark , and the club have a team entered int the national inter club cross county champs that are on in Dublin.

So after four uninterupted weeks of training, this week is a recovery easy week. So my schedule from JB includes just 4 X 50' steady paced runs and 1 X 105' pace run - the other two days are total rest. I've been doing my 50' runs at night now around (and around) the village. I've managed to eek a 5 mile loop out of it by running at the very margins but it is as dull as dishwater.  To keep my mind occupied I've taken to wearing my ipod again. I go through phases of wearing and not wearing the ipod; on the plus side it gives time to listen to music and it passes time nicely (especially on long runs) - on the negative I don't like being so disengaged from body awareness and how I'm feeling at any given moment during the run. I managed to get my hands on Pitchforks top 100 albums of the 90s and since 50' is perfect album length  I've decided to listen to the these full albums on my non-workout runs.  In theory i should do this in order from 100 to 1, but i've jumped into the middle but will probably go back to starting at 100 tomorrow. Some of these albums i am very familiar with, some  i know i should be familiar with and the others i have never heard of. Anyway I kicked off with Number 81 - The Breeders POD from 1990. The only Breeder's song i knew previous was Cannonball. According to Pitchfork...

Pod is a blissful mindfuck of a record. Deal may have played coy and seductive throughout, but there was something subtly sinister to her cooing-- like a siren or a schoolgirl concealing a butcher knife, her methods of enticement immediately struck as inherently destructive. This dynamic was fully realized in the songs themselves, which came across like the product of a band caught in a constant cycle of self-destruction and rebirth. Sure, the songs were catchy-- frighteningly so, in fact-- but that just served to make them all the more poignant when they fall apart. Deal's tobacco-stained delivery and Steve Albini's sharp, make-up-free production make songs like "Oh", "Doe", and the unforgettable "Iris" are as oddly wrenching as they are outwardly pretty and well-constructed. More than a decade later, this record remains deliciously inscrutable. Sometimes it's disarmingly gorgeous. Other times it's punishingly gritty and violent. Usually, it's both. Pod 's bipolar cover of "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" perfectly encapsulates the record as a whole-- whether Deal was playing it cool or tearing shit up, she seemed to be enjoying every second of it. -

I was a little less than convinced of its greatness - it did have some brilliantly rocky moments, but all in all it just merged into a single relatively bland indie-rock album. Maybe its a grower. Next, I go back to number 100 - The Orb - adventures beyond the underground. I managed to do my 50' runs at a nice handy 4:30 km pace with an AHR of 146.