0:04

I like to be fit and healthy so the best way I

0:06

know is to just get out there and run. Running

0:09

was an outlet for me to I guess feel

0:11

good about myself and take out some of the angers that

0:13

were going on in my life. Every

0:20

Irish person knows executing a

0:23

proper session correctly is difficult.

0:25

It takes timing, effort, preparation, the right

0:27

people, the right pub, the right trad

0:30

band, access to chips and of course

0:32

really good points. When it

0:34

comes to athletics training sessions not

0:37

everybody knows how to get the most out

0:39

of these things. I know

0:41

one person who definitely does. She's the

0:43

greatest Irish track athlete of all time

0:46

and also happens to be my co-host

0:48

on the Irishman Running Abroad, Sanya Sullivan-Down

0:50

Under. How are you doing? Not

0:53

too bad. We're plowing away here through

0:56

summer which is a bit of an Irish summer down here

0:58

this year or maybe a

1:00

good Irish summer. A

1:02

bit of rain, yeah? Well,

1:05

yeah a bit of rain. It's not what

1:07

you'd expect in Melbourne. It's normally a bit

1:09

warmer but we've had some

1:11

good days and it's been okay. You're

1:14

off to America again at the end of the month, is that

1:16

it? Yes, I am.

1:18

I'm going to go

1:20

to Japan for a race with

1:23

some of Nick's athletes and look

1:25

after them and then I'll be heading back

1:27

to the US to rejoin the

1:30

union at the athletics club and see

1:32

how they've been doing over the winter

1:34

and started off on an indoor track season over

1:36

there or as they now call it short track.

1:39

Yeah. You heard it from us this?

1:41

Yeah, I have heard the mention of the term.

1:43

Why are they calling it that now? Not indoor.

1:48

I think because there's so many indoor tracks that are

1:51

long tracks. Okay, makes

1:53

sense. They're not quite 100 years but

1:55

they're 300 and something and

1:59

yeah it's all to do with it the records

2:01

I think. So now people are sitting, if

2:04

you run a time on a short track,

2:06

there's new chances to set

2:08

records for athletes.

2:10

So yeah, it's just a new category

2:12

I suppose. And I mean, most people think it's a bit silly.

2:14

I suppose it's a bit like

2:16

swimming, they have short course

2:18

pools and cycling, they have

2:20

short course things, I think. Hmm.

2:23

And is it a psychological thing that you think you can

2:25

run around that quicker because it's smaller? Well,

2:28

people used to think that it was slower

2:30

to run on an indoor track because there was a smaller

2:33

track, there was more bends, more laps,

2:35

so mentally it was more draining. But

2:38

now people have discovered that it's actually

2:40

faster to run indoors, and particularly on

2:42

some of the bank tracks

2:44

where you get a bit of spring off

2:46

of them. The weather is

2:49

totally perfect, the

2:51

temperature can be perfect. So

2:54

a lot of people and top

2:57

athletes are taking advantage of this and getting

3:00

their Olympic qualifying times out of the way early.

3:03

Well, Sonia, I have to, as you head

3:05

back to the States to get stuck into sessions

3:07

with the Union Athletic

3:09

Club athletes, this must be

3:11

on your mind our topic for the

3:14

day. And with that in mind, I

3:16

dug out some of your old training

3:18

plans. One particular stood out October 1986,

3:22

Sonia Sullivan's junior training plan

3:25

includes a session that consisted of a 15 minute

3:28

warmup, jogging and stretching, and

3:30

then five, one miles fast.

3:33

The times for these five miles, I

3:35

had to rub my eyes

3:37

and double check if this correct. The

3:40

515, 519, 514, 512 and 520. And for those that are

3:47

not in miles, let's be

3:49

clear that 515 is a 316 per

3:52

kilometer pace that you're running. As a 16

3:55

year old, you must scratch your head, look.

4:00

at that. Those weren't

4:02

the first sessions you were doing. What

4:05

were you doing? Well,

4:07

I mean, I'm not sure they might not

4:09

have been a mile either, you know.

4:11

I mean, that was my version of

4:14

a mile. Okay, because I immediately thought

4:16

everyone around sessions now are programming their

4:18

sessions into their watches, or if they

4:20

aren't doing that, they're doing it recently.

4:23

You had a stopwatch on your wrist, I'd imagine,

4:25

at that time. Yes, and we

4:27

used to, it was always

4:30

a big debate, you know, how far is a

4:32

mile around the track up in Cove, which

4:35

is, I think,

4:37

536 metres around or something

4:41

like that. If you could do math, you might be

4:43

able to work it out, but we never really knew

4:45

how far it was. We used to just guess how

4:47

far it was around that track, and then you'd guess,

4:49

you know, the extra bit that you needed to add

4:51

on to it. And, you know, as

4:54

a part of that track runs downhill, as hard

4:56

as it goes uphill. So, yeah,

4:59

I have a lot of recordings of

5:01

my sessions when I was quite young, and

5:04

some of the times are very

5:06

impressive, but I'm not so

5:08

sure about the accuracy of this. Okay, well,

5:10

you're being very modest there, because

5:13

back then, there was no, there

5:15

probably was a wheel if you had access to

5:18

one where you could walk around and measure it

5:20

out. But generally, your coach would

5:22

have just taken some giant steps and

5:24

counted the metres, guessing totally.

5:26

And that's what they came

5:28

up with. But like, it

5:31

is amazing to have a documentation

5:33

recording these. 16 year

5:35

old you, and obviously at that point, had

5:38

you secured the Villanova scholarship at that point?

5:40

Or was that down the road? Wait, what

5:42

month was it again? October 1986. No, probably

5:44

not. No, I don't think

5:50

I went to visit Villanova in April

5:52

1987. And then I did this after

5:54

that. Right.

5:57

So it was close to that time. Yeah, the way One

6:00

thing with those sessions that people could

6:02

kind of relate to is that even

6:05

though it may not have been

6:07

an exact distance, whatever

6:09

I decided was the mile, then that

6:12

was it. And so

6:14

I could cut every mile was the same. That

6:17

session again, then you ran

6:19

the same, we had the same markers out there.

6:23

You'd have a tree that you would start at and a tree

6:25

that you would stop at. And those

6:27

trees didn't move. Yeah. Well,

6:30

they could just as easily have been long miles.

6:32

That's what I thought as well. It says here

6:34

as well that you said you felt okay with

6:38

most of the reps except the second

6:40

one. And you list

6:42

that you're in your Oregon shoes on

6:44

grass. So that's another

6:47

thing. The Oregon shoes, do

6:49

you know, was that a nickname you had for

6:51

the shoes? Were they actually

6:53

Nike Oregon? They were actually

6:55

Adidas Oregon shoes. Yes, Oregon.

6:57

Okay. Yeah. So

6:59

they were kind of one of the probably shoes

7:02

that people loved at the time. Yeah.

7:05

Not meant for grass though. It

7:08

would just be like running in normal shoes on grass.

7:11

Right. Yeah. Often

7:13

times when I would train on the grass, you

7:15

would wear your spikes just running around there. Oh

7:18

my God. I'm looking at the Oregon's right now.

7:21

People should pull this up. I put it in

7:24

the notes because to say

7:26

the Oregon's look like a pair

7:29

of fashion shoes that you

7:31

might find in a Volca, you had

7:33

an understatement. Maybe

7:36

now. There was no place

7:38

or spongy super foam

7:40

in these. These were basically flats.

7:44

Oh yeah. They were just like regular running

7:46

shoes. Oh no. It's

7:48

not the Gazelles you have there now, are they?

7:52

No, no. I have the Adidas Oregon's

7:54

and they're still selling these. These are still a

7:56

retro shoe. They have a kind of a webbing

7:58

along the side. That was the

8:01

cool thing, yeah. That was the

8:03

cool thing, yeah. That was the tech. So

8:06

let's get into how people screw

8:08

up their sessions. Obviously you were

8:10

a 16 year old kid there

8:12

doing those and you even

8:15

listed second one didn't feel as good as

8:17

the first one. Was that because you went

8:19

too fast on the first one? And is

8:21

that the principal error

8:24

that everybody makes with their sessions?

8:27

Yeah, I mean in a mile it could

8:29

be the first lap of

8:32

the first mile could be too fast or the first

8:34

lap of the second mile might have been too fast.

8:38

It's not always easy to get the pacing right

8:41

but once you find it then you

8:43

can settle in and particularly if

8:45

it's a long session then you

8:48

don't overreach or overstretch the effort

8:50

that you're doing and

8:54

you manage it really well. So a

8:56

lot of that comes down to feel

8:58

and trust in yourself

9:02

that you don't always feel like

9:04

you have to be searching

9:06

for that extra, I

9:10

suppose, pace or the

9:12

extra delivering of a

9:15

time, beating your time from the last time or

9:18

always trying to be faster but trusting

9:21

yourself and having the confidence that I'm

9:24

just going to do this at this prescribed pace here

9:27

and I'm not competing with

9:29

my watch. I'm just doing the session and I'm

9:32

going to do it at a steady pace that

9:34

I'm supposed to be doing it at, not trying

9:36

to be as fast as I

9:38

can because oftentimes you will set a session for

9:40

somebody and they think that

9:43

it's really good if they come back and tell you how

9:45

much faster they are on

9:47

the session. Yeah, I think you're talking

9:50

to somebody that has done that a few times

9:52

and you've sent me a session

9:55

that's prescribed at a certain pace but it must

9:57

have been so hard back in those days. to

10:00

stick to the pace. Now you have a

10:02

watch that beeps when you're going too fast. How

10:05

does a person, if they don't have a fancy watch,

10:08

stay at the pace? Is it just a matter

10:10

of feel and control? I

10:12

think it's down to feel

10:14

and I think probably back

10:16

then over time you

10:19

got a sense of what the pace was

10:22

or you knew what pace you could

10:25

complete the mile in or the

10:27

400 meters or the one

10:29

kilometre, whatever it was you were doing. The

10:32

10 mile run or the 5 mile run, you

10:35

just knew what that pace was. There

10:39

was probably definitely times when you would

10:41

start off too fast and you'd be

10:44

enthusiastic and oftentimes

10:46

the pace didn't really mean anything. It

10:48

would take a few sessions and

10:51

repeating the sessions over and over again before

10:53

you really understood what

10:55

you were supposed to be doing and how

10:58

to get the most out of these sessions.

11:01

That is what people are interested in

11:03

here because as you've explained the two most important things

11:05

each week or your long run in the

11:08

sessions, we are of course

11:10

on the road to Cove. Sonya's hand

11:12

picked a very select group of

11:15

our listeners to train them for her

11:17

10 mile road race in Cove on

11:19

April 7th. You can of course sign up

11:21

for the race. You just go to Eventmaster

11:24

and search Cove 10. It

11:27

is the meet up run of the year.

11:29

Sonya will be there. We'll all be there.

11:31

Listeners of the show from all corners of

11:33

the world gather in Cove

11:35

for a great weekend of running

11:37

crack, meet ups and pints

11:39

of course, proper sessions as well. As

11:41

we head into week three,

11:44

the sessions you have prescribed the gang

11:46

are going to become more and more

11:49

important. Why don't you tell people about

11:51

the session you prescribed for

11:53

the runners this week and what

11:55

the significance of the session is

11:57

in terms of the bigger

12:00

picture of training for a 10-mile race? Yeah,

12:03

well I mean the sessions really are

12:05

just a breakdown of a run and

12:07

trying to be a bit more specific in

12:10

pace and effort. Right.

12:13

Try and allow the other runs during the

12:15

week to feel a little bit easier and

12:18

the big thing with this weekly

12:21

plan that I've written out is that it

12:24

really is just a guide and everybody has

12:26

to look at this and interpret it to how

12:28

it fits into their week. You

12:30

know if you need to move Tuesday

12:33

to Wednesday or you know have a

12:35

day off Monday or whatever it is I mean you

12:38

need to you know bring

12:40

this into your life and work out on

12:43

Sunday evening okay how is this going to

12:45

work for me? Now ideally you

12:47

do the same things over and over again so

12:50

you keep it as regular as possible and you

12:52

try and go at a similar time every

12:54

time when you're doing your sessions because

12:57

then your body just gets used to it and

12:59

it expects that you're going to be asking

13:01

it to put in a big effort

13:03

at this time on Tuesday or on a Wednesday

13:05

or Thursday or Friday or

13:08

whatever day works best for you.

13:11

You know on the weekend if your long run is on

13:13

Sunday morning then you know you

13:16

eventually fit into this little routine and

13:18

schedule and it fits

13:20

around your sleeping, your eating, what time

13:22

you get up in the morning to do the run, who you can

13:25

meet to do it and all

13:27

these things when they all come

13:29

together then you can be most

13:31

productive with your run or your

13:33

session and get it done

13:35

but it really is a general

13:38

plan for everybody that can

13:42

be made specific to you. Right

13:45

and that's the beauty of it. And that is the beauty

13:47

of it and the part as well

13:49

you know to do with the paces is

13:52

that is so individual

13:54

to everybody and only

13:57

you know once you start running maybe you do

13:59

a park run maybe you do a local

14:01

fun run, maybe you've done

14:03

one a few weeks ago, then you

14:05

can from those times or

14:07

that big effort that you've done,

14:10

you can extrapolate out

14:14

the threshold pace. And threshold pace

14:16

is a little

14:18

bit slower than probably what you

14:20

will run for 10 miles. Okay,

14:23

right. This has been a big

14:25

question this week. What the hell

14:27

is my threshold pace? Yeah, you

14:29

explain it. So you think

14:32

it's a little bit slower than what your target

14:34

for the race is, over 10 miles. Generally,

14:36

it is what you would do for

14:38

a half marathon. Okay,

14:42

so if somebody hasn't run a half marathon,

14:45

how would they calculate that based off their park

14:47

run time? If you

14:49

have a park run time, there's calculations

14:52

that you can do. And you can

14:54

get a good estimate

14:57

of what your threshold is. I mean, of course, the best

14:59

way to do it is to go and have a treadmill

15:01

test and you can scientifically

15:03

have yourself, you can get your

15:06

lactate threshold done. And many people

15:08

do this these days. Yeah. It's

15:10

really interesting to do if you have the

15:12

time and you really want to go down

15:14

that route. And then

15:16

you get a lot of information. You

15:19

can, you know, oftentimes in your watch,

15:21

you get a VO, it'll tell you

15:23

your VO2 max. Yeah, I mean,

15:25

even on a Garmin, it will tell you your

15:27

projected 5k time, which

15:29

I always find is freakishly accurate on

15:33

the Garmin. Don't go

15:35

near your fitness age if you don't

15:37

feel depressed. But what were

15:39

you gonna say? I'm amazed that

15:42

my Garmin has given me fine predictions for

15:44

my 5k at the moment and I'm not

15:46

even running. So I'm happy to take

15:48

it. Yeah.

15:52

So look, let's look at that

15:54

session real quick Here. So You have

15:56

two sessions in for people and a 10 minute

15:58

easy warm up with a few strong. Right in

16:00

there to get the legs moving. Them.

16:02

For I had to

16:04

six repetitions of six

16:06

minutes a threshold. Pace.

16:10

And than two minutes easy jog

16:12

or walk in between. and them

16:14

a ten minutes easy warm damp.

16:17

So. For those as six. Minutes.

16:20

Is. There is there solid advice you would

16:22

cause you've coach people of all levels.

16:24

I was forget this that it's not

16:26

just Elite Sanyo coating new coach their

16:28

the of the local high school team

16:30

there in. Melbourne, Kids.

16:33

All sorts. And. You

16:35

must find yourself having to.

16:38

Pay cut to deconstruct things you regard as

16:40

clockwork, and you just know where you do.

16:43

the rap. What? Do you say

16:45

to people who may be are the

16:47

first ever sessions the heck on are

16:49

done a session before. Who.

16:51

What is the guidance he give people there?

16:55

Was this Recession is one. Where.

16:57

He. Really just makes em

17:00

and normal run interesting and it

17:02

breaks it up into pieces and

17:04

eat out. Once you say okay

17:06

hit to watch any go then

17:08

automatically you sachs run differently. you

17:11

pick your feet of you, you

17:13

just. Run and the different cadence

17:15

a different movement and you have

17:17

to find stat movements that you

17:20

can parry for six minutes and.

17:23

So. You don't want to be. Stretching

17:25

over, reaching towards the end of the

17:27

six minutes and you know, huffing and

17:29

puffing and out of breath because he

17:31

shouldn't be that does not. How does

17:34

it sound as fast as you can

17:36

go? This is comfortably hard. so the

17:38

go on. The. Warm up is very

17:40

easy. jogging. Conversation. Pace,

17:43

then. The Thresholds:

17:45

Six minutes. It's just

17:48

a psych unit astride for six

17:50

minutes he just find a nice.

17:52

Tempo and you starting to

17:54

us. and you

17:56

just run along and use those

17:58

comfortable doing this You're not

18:00

out of breath. You're not trying

18:03

to cover a certain distance

18:07

in that amount of time. You're just running

18:09

for six minutes. And sometimes I find useful

18:12

when you do an effort like a six

18:14

minute effort is, if you

18:16

have your watch beep maybe every

18:18

minute or every two minutes, and

18:20

it just gives you a chance to have a little

18:22

check and you can check how's your pace going,

18:25

how's your heart rate going. If

18:27

you can work out your heart rate, if

18:29

you have a windy day or bad

18:31

weather day, if there's a

18:34

couple of hills in there that you have to navigate, then

18:37

you can just resort to the heart rate and

18:39

say, okay, I'm just gonna go on heart rate today. And

18:43

when you do that, then you're purely

18:45

focusing on the effort and

18:47

then you're not gonna push too hard. Yeah,

18:50

so that's something definitely that came up when

18:52

people were contacting me in the group. Shout

18:54

out to everybody in the squad. But

18:57

unbelievably supportive gang, I'd have

18:59

to say they are a select

19:01

bunch that Sonya has picked. Like I said,

19:03

I had no hand in who got picked

19:05

for this. So commiserations that those that didn't,

19:08

we are gonna be putting the plans up

19:10

there in the Strava group. There is a

19:12

Strava train for COVE 2024 group. We'll

19:15

pop all the plans there so you can

19:18

train along and as Sonya says, adjust it

19:20

for yourself. The heart rate thing

19:22

came up because when people couldn't quite

19:24

calculate their thresholds

19:26

and marathon pace or

19:28

easy pace, the

19:30

heart rate's always gonna be there. As you

19:33

said last week, that doesn't really change. It's

19:35

just the who you,

19:38

how fit you are and how efficient you are

19:41

will change. But easy pace

19:43

will still be keeping your

19:45

heart rate in or around 140

19:47

to 144, right? Well,

19:52

again, the heart rate is different for

19:54

everybody. And that's probably more tricky to

19:56

find out than the threshold.

20:00

There's ways of doing it to certain sessions

20:02

you can do to try and figure

20:05

out your threshold heart

20:07

rate, your maximum heart rate. If you can get

20:09

your maximum heart rate, then you

20:11

can do the percentages for the threshold.

20:14

Yes. Yeah. And I think that's

20:16

what I mean. It's like once you go to your park run and as

20:19

Vinny did with me, give

20:21

it a lash, give it as hard as

20:23

you can go, the return will be there.

20:25

You'll see what it is, as high as your heart

20:27

rate's going to go. And then you can go

20:30

to any one of these websites to figure it

20:32

out from there. And if

20:34

you are struggling with this,

20:36

drop us a line, irishmanabroadpodcastatgmail.com

20:39

and I will find an answer for you or

20:41

help you out as best I can. Yeah.

20:44

I mean, what I can do is I can, I mean, we

20:46

can do some pace

20:48

suggestions for people. So

20:50

if you run 20 minutes for 5K

20:52

or 25 or 30 and

20:55

say, okay, well, this is approximately your threshold that

20:57

you would be aiming for. And

21:00

then people can, you know, base it off of

21:02

that. And if we have these windows that you

21:05

can operate within, then you will see which

21:07

side of the window

21:09

you're closer to. And I

21:12

think once you have in your head what your

21:14

threshold pace is, you'll

21:17

figure it out that it's a really nice

21:19

pace to be able to run at. And

21:22

it's not a hard session. It

21:24

wears you down after a while, like towards the end

21:26

of it, you will start to feel

21:28

tired, but it'll be more your, your

21:31

legs will start to get tired. If you're not used

21:33

to it, then you're like you're,

21:36

you're breathing and your heart, it won't

21:39

feel like it's working that hard. It's

21:41

just at a nice comfortable pace. And

21:43

then the other thing with these sessions, when I say four

21:45

to six, this is all

21:48

dependent on, you know, how

21:50

much running you have been doing up to this

21:52

point. Yes. So,

21:55

you know, if you have not been doing

21:57

a whole lot, then you definitely go on

21:59

the lower end. do four. If

22:01

you're not doing anything at

22:06

all then just do two. That's a question again that came up with

22:08

that for a lot of people they've been

22:10

running two days a week and now the

22:12

plan that you prescribed asked them to run

22:14

substantially more than that. In terms

22:16

of throwing themselves into a plan

22:18

like this, they do need to be

22:21

careful as you say. Are you

22:23

saying just lean towards the lower end of things as

22:26

it begins? Yes, I mean if

22:28

you're definitely coming from not a whole lot of running,

22:30

I mean I'm not suggesting that anybody goes

22:32

straight into five days or six

22:35

days running a week, but this

22:38

is activity time and

22:40

you pick out what you can do

22:43

running-wise in relation to what you have

22:45

been doing and then if

22:47

you say if it Wednesday there's an easy

22:49

30 minutes or on Thursday there was

22:51

just a regular daily around 30 to 45 minutes.

22:55

You might be better off going for

22:58

maybe the easy run could be a walk and

23:01

maybe go to the gym and do some pilates

23:04

or yoga. Just fill the time with

23:06

something that you feel is helping you

23:08

to recover from the session the day

23:10

before. Very good. You can go

23:13

for a bike ride or you can go for a swim,

23:15

but if you feel like oh no I've got

23:17

to do all this then you

23:19

can just use that time in

23:22

a better way for you. It

23:25

doesn't have to be all running.

23:27

I mean yeah ideally if

23:29

you're up to that point where you can do all this

23:32

running that's great, but if you

23:34

haven't been running this many days in the

23:36

week then you can't

23:38

just go from running two days to

23:40

running five or six days. It doesn't

23:43

make sense to do that. Yeah, I

23:45

like the idea converting one of the days

23:47

into a bike day or something. Yeah,

23:49

I think particularly here I think on this

23:52

week's free, there's only one day

23:55

where it says easy 20

23:57

minutes or rest, but these other

23:59

days in here like Thursday, Wednesday,

24:01

Monday, they could,

24:04

you know, just as easily be a rest

24:06

day, a cross training day, a

24:09

recovery day where you do some other

24:12

alternative activities, like yoga,

24:14

stretching, Pilates, any of

24:16

these things that you feel will benefit

24:18

you because, you know,

24:21

yeah, running, the more you run, the better

24:23

you will be. But only if your body

24:25

is up to coping with that amount

24:27

of running and you're used to going out for a run

24:30

most days of the week. Very

24:32

good. Well, later on in the

24:34

show, I'm going to ask on you about what

24:36

happens when a session goes wrong? What happens if

24:38

you're in the middle of a session and you're like, this is not,

24:41

this is not happening today? Is it okay

24:43

to go home? All the new

24:45

burr, get the hell out of there. We're

24:48

also going to dig a little bit deeper

24:51

into how it's been going for the

24:53

squad themselves. I myself had an

24:55

absolute nightmare of a week in terms of

24:57

my own health. Went downhill fast

24:59

after a bit of a health

25:01

scare on the Monday and

25:04

picked up the dose that's doing the rounds. Shout

25:06

out to anybody that is struggling

25:08

to get back running after that. I know Kiera

25:10

Cullen, one of our squad members, had the

25:12

exact same experience. We'll get Sonya's

25:14

advice on how to return to running after

25:17

something like that. But now we're going to

25:19

get on the line. One of the organizing

25:21

committee members from the Cove 10, Pete Howie

25:23

is going to join us for a little

25:25

bit of a chat as

25:27

to what you can expect heading down to Cove

25:29

this April. Talk to Kiera on

25:31

18.15.7.1.5.8.1.5. Good

25:35

afternoon to you, Pete Howie, winner

25:37

of most improved athletes at the

25:39

last Irishman running abroad awards nights

25:41

held in Cove in April last

25:44

year. You're now firmly embedded as

25:46

one of the organizing committee, Pete.

25:48

How is it going down there?

25:50

How's all the collaboration? It's

25:53

remarkable. Everyone behind the scenes down here making

25:55

this happen. It's hard to believe

25:58

but it all started. for this

26:00

year as soon as last year finished, you

26:02

know, so much to

26:04

do and to get in place. So

26:07

yeah, you know, it's only

26:09

10 weeks now, it's remarkable how quickly it's

26:11

all gone by. Yeah.

26:14

And you have a lot,

26:16

like obviously a lot to do and

26:18

a lot to prepare. You are not

26:20

running it yourself, obviously. You're going to

26:22

be too deeply embedded in the organization

26:24

of the day. And,

26:27

Sanja, how are you fixed for running it?

26:29

Like I know you are returning to running,

26:31

but what is, what's your timeline for returning?

26:33

Do you think you'll make it this year?

26:36

I'm not 100% sure

26:38

yet. I've not been running at

26:41

all recently. So I'm

26:43

just trying to maintain some level of fitness with

26:45

a bit of swimming and cycling and

26:47

German stuff. But

26:49

I am kind of thinking now that, yeah,

26:51

maybe, you know, especially as we're

26:53

talking every week and, you

26:56

know, connecting with all the people signed

26:58

up, I'm starting to think, maybe I

27:00

should get out there and do a bit of jogging

27:02

and walking at least and see

27:04

what I can look. Yeah.

27:07

But having you there, Sanja,

27:09

as the centerpiece of the things, obviously

27:11

fundamental piece, but the race

27:13

itself must be gathering steam in terms of

27:15

the signups. Are you seeing a big glut

27:18

of signups since January and now that people

27:20

are getting fit in the new year? Yeah,

27:23

I think it's great. You know, soon as Christmas

27:25

is out of the way, you always see these,

27:27

you know, people start to commit, don't they, now

27:29

that we're into the new year and resolutions and

27:33

absolutely like the aim has to be to

27:36

top the thousand entries from last year and

27:38

take it up a level in terms of

27:42

competitors again. So, you

27:44

know, hopefully it keeps on the

27:46

trajectory is going and the

27:48

volume and the numbers get there. So

27:50

last night, the race posted the

27:53

route, kind of a 3D virtual

27:55

reality route. I don't know if

27:57

you saw this on Instagram. And

28:01

I'm always reminded of how beautiful

28:03

the run is and how, you

28:06

know, you guys probably just take it for granted

28:08

that like, you know, that's the route. That's the

28:11

loop we run for this thing. But

28:13

it is stunning the way it goes along

28:15

by the water and then sweeps into

28:17

town. Like,

28:19

is that like, are you both aware of

28:22

how beautiful the run is or is it

28:24

just like, yeah, I mean, where else are we

28:26

going to run? Well, I

28:28

think the nicest the route ever looks

28:30

is on the day of the race. It's

28:33

amazing. It's always been one

28:35

of the best days of the year. So

28:38

we've been so lucky with that, that when you

28:40

do go and run it, you kind of think,

28:42

wow, this is just great. And you appreciate it

28:44

so much, you know, to have this on

28:46

our doorstep. Peter, you get people

28:48

getting in touch now going, excuse

28:51

me, how hilly is this? Yeah,

28:55

you know, you've been asking is it still

28:57

as hilly as last year? Unfortunately, it is.

28:59

But, you know, that route

29:01

you mentioned yesterday, the flyby route that we

29:04

put up yesterday, there was a couple of

29:06

us actually went out on the course and

29:08

purposely just ran it at that

29:10

chat easy to like pace. And it

29:12

really does bring it all back to when you take

29:14

the time to look around and appreciate it and have

29:16

the chat on the route. It

29:19

is by far the most beautiful route you're

29:21

going to come across in any of the

29:23

races around the country. And also, you

29:27

know, like you said, we take it for granted, you know,

29:29

we're out in the we're out on a section or all

29:31

of the course most weeks. It

29:33

is easy to forget how good and how,

29:35

you know, how challenging, but at the same

29:37

time rewarding the courses. But

29:40

we're very excited every time we bring all

29:43

these people down to join us on it. I

29:45

mean, that is what it's all about, isn't it,

29:47

Sonia, is the gathering like it is like

29:50

a return for a lot of people.

29:52

They fly in for this race and

29:54

afterwards the meetup on

29:57

the promenade there for the

29:59

presentation. in the crack afterwards. It's

30:01

such a key part of it. Do you

30:03

have any plans for post-race party

30:06

or get together or is it the

30:09

same as last year meeting

30:11

in the donkey for the other

30:13

type of session? I

30:16

don't know but I

30:19

will definitely keep you all

30:21

posted on it to be honest. I haven't heard

30:23

too much about what's happening after it. There's

30:26

been so much still needs to be

30:28

put in place for before and during

30:30

it. But one thing is for sure

30:32

is that the events will continue

30:35

into the evening some way or

30:37

another. That's the first part

30:39

of our episode. You're going to need

30:41

to come over to patreon.com/Irishmanabroad to hear

30:43

the rest of it. I want to

30:45

give a quick shout out to Ricky

30:48

Wynn and Ian O'Brien who

30:50

are both members of the Irishman

30:52

Running Abroad Strava Group who

30:54

are nominated for the Outsider Awards this

30:56

year. Head on over there and give

30:59

them a vote to extraordinary Irish athletes

31:02

who deserve your vote. Each

31:05

week we do half the episode here

31:07

and half on Patreon. If you're following

31:09

Sonya's training plan, if you want to

31:12

get more from your episodes, the only

31:14

place to be is patreon.com/Irishmanabroad. Give me

31:16

a shout if you want to be

31:18

added to the Irishman Running Abroad WhatsApp

31:20

Group. If you're boring the hours off

31:22

your family would talk of running, this

31:25

might be the place to be for you

31:27

where you can talk to like minded people,

31:29

get answers on questions that your family won't

31:31

have. Just message me

31:33

[email protected]. I'll see you over

31:35

on patreon. One

31:40

of the keys to like maintaining your

31:42

brain mass is pushing past that

31:44

comfortable zone physically, you know exercise

31:47

wise. go

32:00

out the door and engage in the kind

32:02

of exercise that's going to make them more

32:04

relaxed, more healthy, burn off stress.