I am currently on my break. It feels nice to take a rest because coming up to my last race at the Morton mile meet I felt very tired and my legs felt like bricks. Looking back I think this was mainly because I did a lot of track work in early April and that can only last for so long. But it is something I will know for again.
In saying that though I was very pleased with my season as I achieved my main goal, defending my Irish schools senior 1500m title (Which only a few have done the double) and then winning the National Track and Field Junior 1500m. Two very different races. One going out in 60secs the other in 84secs. Which when I worked it out is slower than my tempo pace!!!During my secondary school athletic career I have made many friends that I keep in contact with all the time and although I did not set the track alight with blistering fast times each year I have made steady progress to set myself up for my college career. This I can attribute to my Dad(coach) and my P.E teacher Tommy Craddock (TC). Instead of running really fast and then getting injured or burned out I was always there plugging away and I think that will stand to me in the long term. All in all I am happy with what I have achieved and am excited for whats to come.
Back to the now, my break. I'm taking a bit of an earlier break this year because of my move to OSU. So instead of running into August i'm going to build the miles up for cross. So after the Morton mile meet I met up with my friend Jonathan Phillips and we headed west back to lovely Sligo. Luckily the weather took a turn for the better so we took advantage.
Our first adventure took place the very next day. We fixed up some bikes and hit the road with my friend Donal. We cycled from my house out to Dromahair, on the way passing through one or two forest trails, only to find Donal's handlebars came loose. After about half an hour to forty five minutes we found people who had an allen key and we were on our way again. Only to find nobody in the town knew where the "Sligo way" trail was. Until we eventually saw it DEAD CENTER of the main street. Shows how observant we were. So we were on our way...again. Cycling over Killary mountain on a dirt road looking down on Lough Gill and the Isle of Innisfree. We thought it was a great idea that is until we hit "The BOG" This is where the road stopped and we were left to trek over mountainous bog with a few logs put down along the way to help us (Little it did). What didn't help at all was Donal's tire going flat. This slowed us even more. So we ploughed on and eventually came to Slish wood. This was a relief as it was tough going through all that muck. We then had to ring Dad so Donal could get a lift home. Johnny and me were left to brave it out. We cycled to my Grannies house from Slish wood via the holy well which, for anyone who knows it, is not the flattest of roads. By this time we were on the road nearly 6hours and hadn't eaten anything so stopping into my granny's for a cuppa was a God send! We eventually got home 7hours later and were truly "whacked".
The next few days we just chilled out and went to town for a bit. On the Monday we went swimming at Rosses point, I was surprised the water was really warm, straight after we took a walk up Knocknarea as it was such a nice day. I have to say I was disappointed I did not have a 360degree camera as the view was spectacular! That night we went down to the forest beside the lake and had a camp fire with a few more of the lads. Again it was a spectacular view, with the full moon shinning on the calm, quiet lake.Hopefully the weather will clear up and we can do it again soon, as for now i'm staying inside because the weather is storm like.
I'm going to take just under a week more of a break and hopefully I will be completely recovered to start building up the miles to have a solid season out in Oklahoma.
Tommy
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