Derval O'Rourke

2012 season has begun

2012-02-01T16:05:00.001Z

Hi all,
It's official 2012 racing has started. I ran my first meet in Vienna last night. I came second to American yvette lewis. I ran 8.16 which is pretty slooooooooow in my opinion but it's a start. I felt quite close to the winner who is running well so I need to just run faster.

I've mentioned that I was having some problems with my calf. I'm happy to report that I got through warm up and racing without any pain in my achilles. I feel like I can move on now and not worry about doing any damage which is a big relief. Part of my head was a bit weary racing last night that I was going to hurt myself which is never a fun way to race.

The bad news from last night is that Ian hurt himself racing. I think he might have done a little tear in his groin. I feel really bad for him because he was running so well in his race and I think would have been really close to the world indoor standard. I'm hoping that the injury isn't as bad as it seemed and he will be back soon. He really does deserve some luck.

Currently I'm sitting on a bus going from Vienna to Linz. Im the only irish person, there are lots of english and turkish athletes. The journey should take 2.5 hours but the bus collected some athletes at the airport and has been going pretty slow so I've been on the bus for 4 hours!!! I've watched the DVD zookeeper and played lots of scrabble on the iPad.I'm bored now though and wish I was there.

Tomorrows race should be a faster race than yesterday as it has some big names in it. I'm really looking forward too it. The first meet I always find nerve wrecking and now I feel just ready to run.

I have absolutely no idea who I will be sharing a hotel room with for the next few nights because there are no other Irish to share with. Fingers crossed the meet organiser has put me in with someone lovely......

I shall report back from Linz soon. If you are feeling cold in Ireland take heart in the fact that it's -15 here!!!!! Brrrrr thank goodness for my big warm coat and hats and gloves.

Bye bye,

Dor xoxo

* quick update . I'm in Linz safe and sound now. I'm rooming with an American girl called brianna Glenn who long jumps. Just found a mccafe which has Internet access and cups of tea!

Aerlingus we are not friends anymore

2012-01-27T22:44:00.004Z

Hi All,

Hope things are awesome wherever you are. I'm just about to rant so feel free to stop reading if you're not in the rant reading mood.

Here goes, I booked and paid for an aerlingus flight to my first couple of meets in Europe. After I had a little calf issue I decided to start racing a few days later. This meant that I needed to change the original flight but I had to wait until today to change the flight because I was testing my calf over hurdles today (more on that after the rant). I rang the aerlingus helpdesk and spoke with a lady and explained my situation. She advised me that I would have to pay a change of flight fee and the fare difference which meant that it was going to work out way more expensive than the original ticket. She advised me to do it online so off I went home to change the ticket.

When I went to change the ticket there was an issue with changing it because I had also booked Ian's flight at the same time as mine. The system would only let me change Ian's flight which was not what I needed to do. I started to try to ring the helpdesk and could not get through "We are open 8 a.m to 5 p.m please ring within these hours or alternatively please see aerlingus.com" Please note that I was ringing at 2! So after 45 minutes of trying to change the ticket online and at the same time trying to get through to someone from Aerlingus I had to take a break to get ready for work.

In the car to work I tried the number again and actually got through to someone who put me through to someone else. After waiting on hold for 12 minutes a lady called Monica told me "you are too late now you buy new ticket" at this point I really feared that my head was going to explode and that there was going to be bits of Derval brain scattered all over Dublin. I tried to explain to her that I had tried my best to figure it out and that in fact the problem was with her system plus nobody was answering their phones and not me but she merely told me "there are people waiting to talk to me write a letter to customer service"

The end result is that I have to buy a brand new ticket and now because it is so close to me leaving it is going to be about €400 on top of the €120 I originally spent. To end this little rant I would just like to say Aerlingus we are not friends your customer service is absolutely terrible and you have issues with your online system. Please enjoy the extra money that I am paying you which I would much rather use on something else.

Ok I have taken a few deep breaths and my rant is over. I was running over sprint hurdles today and it was a big day because I was testing my calf. The test was good the calf was happy out and I had a great time running against Iano out of blocks. Iano ran a big p.b in his first meet last weekend so fingers crossed for more fast running from him. The plan from here is run a couple of meets next week. It's so exciting to be back in the world of racing.

I'm sitting here watching Graham Norton and the amazingly talented Ed Sheeran has just come on. I'm off to watch him. His album is so so so good, it can even lift my spirits today!

Bye Bye,

Derv xoxo

Back on the track

2012-01-26T22:05:00.003Z

Hello Hello,

As usual I'm very busy. I had 7 days off from running to let my calf recover from a little strain. In my time off running I did some different sessions. I had two pool sessions which consisted of running in the deep end with an aqua belt on to keep me upright. The pool is totally different to running on the track which made it a nice change but two days in there is long enough. I'm not much of a swimmer and could not do it everyday.

I've been busy with weights, physio and functional movement training in the past few days. Whenever I have a little niggle I always find that I'm way busier because of all the bits I have to do to get back.

The good news is that I was back on the track today. I was sprinting and felt 70% better than last week. I was running flat out from blocks so it was good to feel so much better. I just have to hope now that I feel good tomorrow come hurdle time.

That's all,

DOR X

Vet clinic and Scan

2012-01-19T19:01:00.002Z

Hi All,

I'm back in Dublin after my time in Fuerteventura. It has been crazy busy since I've been back. I went in to the vet clinic in the D.S.P.C.A to do a little bit of reception work last night. It was really lovely to be back there but it was super busy. I hadn't been on reception for 3 weeks so I was a little worried I would have forgotten everything but thankfully it was fine. There were lots of cute dogs and a couple of cats in with their owners last night. I'm always excited to see what animal will come through the door. I had one night a few months ago when their were loads of hens in to be treated, random eh?

In other news I had to go see my sports doctor today because I've been having some pain in my achilles. It's not bad and I can run flat out but I wanted to be careful and not do any damage to myself. I ended up in the MRI machine to get it scanned. The MRI machine is always a strange experience. You are in this little tunnel and can't move while the machine takes all the images. Plus the machine makes a really loud ticking type noise which means that you have to wear headphones and earplugs. I'm so used to having different parts of me scanned that I drifted off into a mini sleep today during it.

The result of the scan was that I have a little strain on the top of my achilles at the bottom of my calf, this means I need to get in the gym for a week and do no running. The doc put some needles in my calf to loosen it out and help it recover. I hate needles so that bit was a bit crap All in all not too bad though. A few days of cross training never killed anyone.

The day has been fairly busy because I was in the gym before the scan and doctor. The gym session was good, I was doing a lot of functional work. Yesterday was weights day so today was loads of little exercises to keep everything moving well.

If you are in the Dublin area and need a Vet please do remember the vet clinic @ the D.S.P.C.A

http://www.dspca.ie/vetclinic or 01 499 4780

Also if you are on twitter you should follow the clinic to find out all the goings on up there @vetclinicDSPCA

I will keep you all up to date on the few days cross training.

DOR X

Packing the bags

2012-01-16T23:29:00.002Z

Well it's come to the end of my stay in Fuerteventura and time to pack the bags and go home. I've had a good camp here. I needed to get stuck into the hurdles which I did so I'm looking forward to getting home now and progressing from there. I managed to break two hurdles and bruise one foot out here so I better leave before they run out of hurdles for me to break. The hurdles are getting there but it is baby steps. This past two weeks I've been lifting a bit heavier which has been good. I love weights and it's been good to throw on some heavy weight on clean and lash it up.

The camp with the lads was really good fun and surely I have some abs from laughing at them. I even managed to convince them to come clothes shopping with me so at least the camp was a little bit girly.

I'm super excited to go home to get a cuddle from the lovely Madra, my other half has just left Dublin for an event in Miami so I'm gonna have to wait a couple of weeks to see him. Olympics year is busy, busy, busy.

Time for me to finish packing.

Next time I blog it will be from my home with the lovely dog.

I'm Excited,

DOR X

Jumping some hurdles and making plans on the sunny Island

2012-01-09T23:24:00.004Z

Hi Peeps,

All is great here in Fuerteventura. I'm not trying to rub it in but it really is good to be in the sun for a while. Sean arrived a few days ago and it's now officially a complete male zone I'm living in. It's quite nice to be honest. I'm the only girl so I have my own room and when I'm bored of the lads being lads I just wander in here. For example right now they are all parked on the couch watching some complete lads DVD and I've been in my room reading celebrity gossip online. In fairness they are great company 99% of the time and are awesome at just sitting around having completely random conversations.

Anyway onto some running talk as this blog is kinda a running blog. Today was hurdles out of blocks which I love to do. We arrived at the track and the room to the hurdles was locked. My initial feeling towards this was pure irritation but then low and behold someone found a key. Off I went to do my session. Before hurdles I did some sprinting with Ian, this was loads of fun because we are racing each other a bit. I'm going to confess that Iano always beats me (He is way faster!) but this little voice in my head tells me everytime I toe the line against him that I have a chance so I always try really hard. Today yet again I did not beat him but I was sprinting well.

The hurdles were done seperately to work on technique. The best way to describe where I'm at right now is like so: I need to go one step forward but in order to do this I have to go four steps back, work hard and be patient. Today was literally working on basics and being very patient. It was also my first day out of blocks since last September.

After training we went for a bit of a spin in the car. My boyfriend comes here to train and had told me about a place with lovely beaches so off we all went in the car. We ended up in a nice little coffee shop right on the beach.

This evening we had a few minutes where we sat down and looked at video footage from training. It's good to look at it because something that feels one way when I run is actually often very different when I look on the camera. It was good to have Sean point things out and then I can go work on that tomorrow.

Out here I've had a chance to sit down and chat through races with Sean for the indoor season. We have come up with a provisional plan for meets so now we just need to see what happens in the next few weeks. This plan was etched out in the loveliest little bakery in this town, surely coffee and cake is the best way to speed???!!!!!!

Time for me to get some zzzzzzz's before tomorrow.

Bye for now,

DOR

Life with the lads

2012-01-07T16:29:00.002Z

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Mine was crazy busy but lovely. I got to see loads of people I haven't seen in ages and spend some well needed time in my hometown. That has all ended now and I'm here in Fuerteventura on training camp. Usually when I go on camp I always room with Ailis and we pretty much end up doing everything together for the duration of the camp but unfortunately she has not been able to come. Please read her own blog and you will see why http://www.sportsnewsireland.com/athletics_irish/71868/. She explains her current situation far better than I could and it gives an insight into just how tough she is.

I have found myself on camp with just the lads. So far it is just myself, Ian McDonald and Danny Kavanagh here together. Thankfully the lads are awesome and they are very entertaining but it is definitely strange not to have Ailis here. I do miss her loads. I've been cracking on with training and doing all my sessions with Ian. He is always ahead of me so I just try to make sure it's not too far ahead and that I'm running well.

Yesterday we had a running session scheduled on our programme. We arrived at the track and it was completely locked up. Open or closed track the session is scheduled so we did what all athletes would do, we found the lowest wall and figured out a way to climb in. The breaking and entering took about 10 minutes. I'm not great with heights so it was a case of do not look down and get into the track as quick as possible. The session was tough but went really well. All in all the scaling wall activity was well worth it.

Outside of training we are just relaxing. It's so funny to be with the boys all day long. The topics of conversation are very different! Whilst it would be entertaining to let all you blog readers in on the things discussed I'm afraid I can't do that to the lads. I'm officially one of the lads.

I gotta go as I'm driving to the airport to collect Sean. He arrives this evening, yet another male. The lads definitely can't replace Terrie and Ailis but they are very good substitutes until I'm back with the ladies.

Bye from Sunny Fuerteventura,
DOR XOXO

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T21:36:00.002Z

This is a great time of year so I hope everyone is in great form. I just arrived down in the peoples republic. It's super to be home. I've been training really hard the past 2 months and I've had no time to be in cork.

I've been really busy lately and not kept all you blog readers in the loop so I'll try to re cap on what's been happening. My boyfriend travelled to Australia to compete in the world champs. He was away for five weeks all with the sole purpose of chasing an Olympic qualification place. I'm happy to write that he qualified. I was so chuffed and excited for him. Him and his crew, David burrows, have worked so hard and put so much into this that it would have been gutting if they didn't nail qualification in Australia. Thankfully qualification is sorted and now they can get ready to rock in London 2012.

Training has been very tough but enjoyable the past few weeks. Today I did my last session before I start recovery week. I've been doing more hurdles in the past three weeks which has been great. The past month has just been a whirlwind of running, weights, jumps, core and hurdles. I've loved every minute of it. For me training is never an issue, I love this time of year. Each week training is challenging in different ways and it's good to wake up, go to the track and get stuck in.

I've been really busy and there are a few reasons for this but the main one being that I got a job! Ok don't panic I'm not giving up jumping the sticks anytime soon but I feel that it's important for me to have a bit of balance in my life. I was lucky to find that the vet clinic in the dspca was looking for a part time volunteer receptionist. The dspca does such an amazing job helping animals so it was the perfect place to work. I volunteer in the vet clinic which was opened last February and is a vet clinic for the public to come and get all their furry friends their veterinary care. All the staff are amazing at what they do and all the profits from the clinic goes straight back into helping animals in the dspca. If you have a pet please consider using the vet clinic at the dspca, they really are wonderful. Their phone number is 01-4994780

Finally I'm not on twitter myself but a certain furry friend of mine has become active in the twitter world. Berlino has been tweeting away and has even gotten herself a few followers. So if you fancy an insight into the world of a White labradoodle who lives with Peter and I then follow her @berlinolabradoo.

There is loads more I could blog about but I gotta go bond with the family.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

Take care

DOR
Xxx

Back in the real world

2011-11-29T22:32:00.001Z

Hi All,

So the last time I blogged I was stuck in the world of illness and able to do very little. I am happy to say that I'm back to the real world (woohoo) I still have a teeny weeny little cough (you know the type of little cough that looks like you are looking for attention??) but all in all I'm feeling much better.

Normally I would have a rest week this week but because I missed a couple of sessions being sick this week is not a rest week. I thought I would be doing recovery training so I planned on doing a few little projects in the house this week in my down time. So the hall, stairs and landing is getting a new look this week. I've been picking paint colors and carpets. Hopefully it gets done in between my sessions and I don't end up with a half painted house.

I will update as the week goes on.

Time for bed now.

DOR XOX

Life from inside the house!

2011-11-20T15:55:00.001Z

The last time I blogged I was talking about being a bit sick and being off training. Since then I got even worse. My chest infection got quite bad and I needed to go back to see the doctor and get put on more medication. Thankfully now I'm starting to turn the corner and hopefully I get to go back to a little training tomorrow. Being sick has meant that I have not really been out of the house for 5 days. I can see how that might sound like a nice little break but honestly I'm suffering from major cabin fever. It's one thing staying in because you are not bothered going out but it is quite another staying in because you are feeling so sick that going out is not an option.

So from my time being house bound these are the things that I have achieved.

-I did a full grocery shop online and had it delivered, I went with Tesco.com and it was very handy. I've never done this before and I'm totally converted.
-I bought a fan oven which I know sounds random but the oven broke two weeks ago and I've needed to get around to this but have been too busy with training.
- I have been cooking lots of big meals and then freezing them for during the week. Things such as curried sweet potato with coconut & lentil soup, beef tagine, spaghetti bolognaise and basil pesto.
-I have done loads of paper work that I normally like to ignore.
-I have watched every episode of the current Grey's anatomy.
-I have watched the last two twilight films.

Now blog readers you are all caught up with me. I realise that this blog is super boring but accept my apologies and the fact that I have been cut off from the real world for a while!

Bye bye from inside the house,

DOR XOX

Sick Days

2011-11-17T17:32:00.001Z

I'm blogging in full fleece pajama's from my bed. I'm sick. I have a small chest infection and maybe a little bit of flu. I'm asthmatic so I have a tendency to get chest infections especially during the winter. I felt like my asthma wasn't great for a few days and during my session on Tuesday it was much harder work to run fast than it has been for the past 7 weeks. Yesterday I went to the doctor and ever since I've been laying low trying to get better.

It's a pain being sick because all I wanna do is train. I feel too crap to even enjoy the time off. I'm very cranky about it all.

Also today Peter left for Australia. He has his Olympic qualifiers out there. I was the worst company for the past two days because I feel so miserable. Luckily for me he was lovely enough to do an emergency food shop so that I can survive for the next few days. The shop includes lots of soup, ginger, lemon and a little chocolate (don't judge me I'm sick!)

So now it's myself and Berlino here in bed sick and cranky. Berlino is obviously not sick but due to her loyal nature she is embracing the situation fully and lying on the bed with me looking suitable dejected. We are watching Grey's Anatomy and trying to cheer up. Despite the fact that I trained last Tuesday it feels like I've been stuck in forever. Part of being an athlete I reckon is our complete lack of perspective at times so currently I feel like I'm the only sick person around and that this mini flu is the end of the world!

I hope to regain my perspective soon and perhaps even be a little bit less cranky.

(Insert cough, cough here)

DOR XOX

Fun in falun

2011-11-13T10:12:00.001Z

Hi blog readers,I'm having some breakfast and thought I'd give a little update on our trip. Falun is a lovely town. It's not very big but its very pretty. I did a running and weights session yesterday in their indoor training facility. Who dropped in to say hi after hearing that I was there??? The one and only susanna kallur! This is her home town and she was on a rest weekend so she wasn't at the track training. It was brill to see her. Susanna is an amazing hurdler, probably the best technical hurdler in the world. Plus she is just a wonderfully, nice person. Terrie and I went for dinner last night in a little Italian and just talked, talked, talked about the different ideas that had come up at the lectures yesterday. Our approach is very similar to the approaches discussed which is nice to know. Terrie and Sean are world class coaches so it's nice to Be here just looking for the little tweak here and there.Today I will do one more session in the great facility here and then we will get a train to Stockholm followed by a night in Stockholm then an early flight back to Dublin.I'll leave you with one last thought, one of the speakers yesterday described running sprint hurdles at world class pace was like "running through a forest, downhill and blindfolded" interesting thought eh?Dor xox

A place called falun....

2011-11-12T09:56:00.001Z

Here I am in a town called falun in the middle of Sweden. In September I sat down with Sean and Terrie to review 2011 and look to a better 2012. There were a few areas that we all decided we wanted to do a little better at and tick some boxes. One item that popped onto the radar was a European conference for sprint hurdles. That's where I find myself now. yesterday Terrie and I travelled here from Dublin. It is not an easy place to get too but thankfully we made it last night. All day today there are loads of lectures on different aspects of the sprint hurdles. Terrie is attending these and then during lunch I will do a training session. This town has a big indoor training complex with an indoor track so im really excited about going to the indoor track. We don't have an indoor full training facility in Dublin so it's nice to have access to one here.There are 150 coaches from all over Europe here. It's great to see so many people are eager to listen and learn.no matter how good you are at something there are always places to improve. I don't think that a person ever stops learning ways to do what they love a little bit better so hopefully by the end of this weekend we will learn a few things.For now goodbye from falun, Sweden.Dor xoxo

To sum up recovery week...

2011-11-06T21:25:00.000Z

I shall just post a few pictures that give a bit of an insight into my comings and goings this week. Also it's Sunday evening and I'm being a lazy blogger.

Practising my starts next to the Olympic countdown clock. I figure the crop top and knicker shorts would have been a step too far for the onlooking tourists.

Berlino loving the bit of internet browsing. I can only assume she is googling "hot labradoodles" and checking if she is there.

Sunday was spent on a big walk through the woods with my other half and his bro. Berlino was loving the woods. This was a nice break from Sunday hills.

Taking a look out at Wicklow.

So if the Olympic minister lives here I wonder if I asked really nicely would he give me an Olympic medal? Pretty please....ah go on!

Over and Out

DOR XOX

Just touched down in London Town

2011-11-04T22:36:00.000Z

Hi Blog readers,I hope everyone has had a good start to their November. This week I spent a few days in London (in head I'm hearing estelle 'american boy' singing the lyrics "just touched down in London town"). Now I know what you're thinking, that I got all confused about when the Olympics were actually on and turned up 9 months early. Thankfully this was not the case and I was there in a non athlete capacity to relax for a few days with my sister. Even in non athlete mood I really could not switch off from the Olympics. London is just full of the Olympic vibe. It's really exciting to see all the Olympic stuff everywhere. It just made me wanna train my butt off for it!I went to see Shrek the musical. It was so funny and cute. I laughed hard at it. I have to say Lord Farquaad was my favourite charachter. I think it would be impossible to go see this musical and not come out smiling. Outside of Shrek another highlight was going to eat in Jamie Olivers Italian restaurant. I love, love, love good food and this place was super. I reckon no matter what you ordered on this menu it would taste fab.Plus it's very good value.Now it's back to the real world. Another couple of days of recovery week and then ready to hit it hard for the next training phase.Bye for now,DOR XOXO

Bread and butter sessions

2011-10-27T22:18:00.002+01:00

Hi All,

I am totally and utterly wrecked right now. Today was the last training day before rest day and also happens to be the 4th week of this training phase. Next week is recovery week. By this point in the phase my body is super tired but at the same time with each week I've gotten a little bit fitter and the sessions are a higher quality.

Todays session is the session I have been dreading every week. It consists of 250/230/200 metre rep's and it is very tough. For me it is a strength endurance session as my race is only 100m. I knew going to the track today that it would be tough because I lifted really heavy yesterday and my legs have such a build up of work in them from the last 4 weeks that they are not fresh at all. Despite all this part of me was kinda wanting to do the session just to see how much I can take at the moment.

Before the session we did lots of drills with Terrie. The drills are great to do and get me into the right positions to run efficiently. There are a lot of them and on a day like today I just want to get running and deal with the runs.

After the drills Ian and I were so slow to actually get our arses out on the track, I think we were kinda stalling to avoid starting the torture. Which is obviously irrational as there is no way to avoid the session. Each run had a time target. So every time I ran a rep Terrie had the clock on it and knew whether it was slow, on target or too fast. On days like today I have a little voice in my head and it says things like this "run harder stop being such a wimp" "seriously Derval pick your knees up and work" "come on work work work" "It takes more than this to race fast, move it". I'm not sure does everyone have that voice but honestly I could be in complete pain in the middle of a session and the little voice will not let me take it easy. My body would have to shut down for me to stop or not try as hard as I could because something in my head just won't let me take it easy.

During the session I ran faster than pretty much all my target times. It hurt a crazy amount but the voice kept saying "you can go faster than the target times come on come on come on" In between the reps I was seriously in the cranky place because it was feeling so hard. But come the last rep I was very happy with myself and the effort I put in.

Half way through the session somewhere in a lactic filled conversation Terrie and I decided sessions like today are the bread and butter sessions. They are just the backbone of training. Whilst you don't want to do them you know you have too and you know that you will feel better for it. So another week done and some bread and butter sessions ticked off.

I'm going to enjoy every little bit of recovery day and maybe even a nice bar of chocolate.

Bye bye for now,
DOR XOX

Who turned on the rain?

2011-10-24T21:19:00.003+01:00

Oh my goodness it is raining hard in Dublin for the past day and a half. Yesterdays session was a hills session. It just rained the whole entire time we were running up the hill. I'm talking heavy can barely see in front of me kinda rain. After the hills every single part of me was wet. Thankfully today was plyo's and weights which are all indoor so I got to train and look out at the miserable rain.

Alas tomorrow is a big running session so the whole point of my blog is whoever turned the rain on better turn it off by tomorrow morning or else this hurdler will not be a happy camper!

Outside of my weather obsession all is going well. This is the last week of my first training phase. I've been working hard so I'm really looking forward to a few recovery days. I'm planning a little trip to London with my sister during recovery week which I'm super excited about. I can't wait to relax with her and wander around London.

If the rain does not stop soon my training group is gonna start looking like the picture above!

Byeeeeeeeee.....

DOR X

It's been forever blog readers...

2011-10-19T21:24:00.002+01:00

Hi All,

I know it's been a while so apologies for the lack of bonding with you all. I had a great break from the track and then started back into hard training and really have not had a whole heap of time or energy to blog.

I'm back training a few weeks now and it's going well. It is very tough. The training schedule is quite intense and there is no 'easy' session. It's what is needed and what great summers are built on so I'm happy to be working hard but not above being moany about it.

This time of year there are certain things that just become the norm. Here is a list of the ones I can think of:
~Lifting the arms above my head is almost impossible
~Most running days I have to talk to myself in my head and say things such as "do not vomit, do not vomit"
~Getting up the stairs after a session seems like a huge task
~Running up next to the hill of tara on a road and waving at cars as a thank you for not knocking me down
~Wearing 3 layers of clothes when running outside
~Fighting the urge to throw myself on the ground and refuse to run one more step
~Lifting weights that are much heavier than myself

Ok time for me to go to bed and get ready to roll out for another day of winter torture.

Mind yourselves,

D X

Does not start

2011-09-06T08:19:00.002+01:00

Hello hello!

It's been a pretty crappy few days. As you might know I did not race in the world champs semi final. I ran my heat last Friday and came second. I felt really relaxed and good. I went back to the athletes village and relaxed for the day. I got some physio and my calf was a little bit tight but honestly nothing that would concern me (I did not hurt my calf in the heat as people seem to keep telling me!). I was happy and ready to roll on Saturday for the semi and final. But when I warmed up for the semi final my calf was really tight and sore. I thought it would loosen out through the warm up but it just got tighter and more painful. One of the things I do in warm up is fast sprints. I could not do these on my calf. I tried but my calf was way too painful. I consulted with the physio and doctor but there was nothing that could be done. I wanted to go out and try to run but that was unrealistic. I wasn't able to run flat out or get over the hurdles in warm up. About 20 minutes before I was due to go into call room I had to take my name off the list. Sean was there and made the ultimate decision that there was no way I could try to run. Initially I was pretty devastated. I have never ever had this happen to me. There were lots of tears on Saturday night. I have no idea how fast I would have run but I do know that I was very happy with how things have gone before this. 12.84 made the final and I would be pretty confident that I could do that without any problems. Outside of that it would be wrong of me to predict what I could have run because who knows really in a final what will happen.

After this I had to try get myself and Sean back to Ireland. We were due to fly onto Zurich for the diamond league. Thankfully I was able to re route our flights (lots of phone calls, flight waitlists, money and begging!) to get us both back to Ireland on Sunday evening. I was gone from Korea a few hours after my event on Saturday night, for me that was the best thing. It took Sean and I 23 hours of travelling but it was worth it to get back.

So since my return (it's only been a day and a bit) I've been trying to recover from the time difference and just pick myself back up. Honestly I'm not in the complete black hole of depression about this. I have had some really bad days (think Beijing 08!!!) where I just have not been at the races but this was not one of them. This was just bad luck and crap timing.

My calf is feeling good. It is still a bit sore but it's not serious. I still don't know whether it was a little tear or a very bad cramp in it. Either way I think it will be fine in a few days (alas worlds is not on in a few days). I will get some physio work done on it this week.

I had some races lined up for the next two weeks but now I won't be running these. Instead I will take some time off training and start getting prepared to go back into heavy training.

It's not my style to spend too long licking my wounds and feeling sorry for myself. Sport is hard and if it was easy everybody would do it.

I just wish it could have been different. I had a great support team in Daegu. Sean was there with me, the athletics ireland medical team was great and it was super to have the saucony guys out there. I wish I had been able to do more for everyone.

Thanks for the support people. I appreciate it, lots of people are being very kind and sweet.

Also a huge shout out to the most persistent and awesome high jumper in all the land. Ms Deirdre Ryan was 6th in the world! Absolutely inspiring performance from Dee.

This week Peter is competing in the European champs in Dublin so fingers crossed he does awesome and lifts the spirits in our house.

Countdown to London is now officially on!

DOR X X X

Ps

2011-08-24T19:07:00.000+01:00

Love the suggestions from last blog. Keep them coming!!

Keeper of promises

2011-08-24T18:49:00.002+01:00

Hi all,
I promised a blog before daegu so here it is. Its gonna be short because I'm in heathrow about to board the plane. As per usual I was totally dis organised and running around house like a maniac before i left.
It all came down to the following items in my (massive) bag

Hair dryer- as requested by a certain high jumper
Pillow- I love my bed and seeing as the bed would not fit this is the next best option
Trainers by 3- you can never have enough
Spikes x 2- no bare foot for me
Snacks- loads of snacks which include barrys tea, green tea, crackers, dark chocolate, protein bars and nuts
Clothes- I won't even start about clothes because I honestly could dress the whole team if they need me too
Irish kit- the Irish kit is new and to the disappointment of many I have not packed the new zip up, pointy in built boob crop top that I was given ( I kid not it exists). I have packed the regular crop topwhich fits lovely and does not make me have madonna style boobs. I have also packed the massive rain kit that if it does rain I will have room for all of my fellow hurdlers to fit into.
Drugs- not the dirty bad kind the sleeping tablet/ anti histamine/asthma drug kind and lots of supplements like multiple vitamins
New gangster style head phones- could moonlight as a dj if I feel the need
Socks socks and more socks- thank goodness for the generosity of saucony.
Irish flag-love the bit of green, White and gold.
The dog- only joking but I am gonna miss my little labradoodle like crazy

Ok gotta go get myself on a flight for 10 hours, eeek!!!

Til next time

D xxxx

Training camp my style & Swanky ASX

2011-08-21T21:53:00.003+01:00

Hi Peeps,

I'm doing all my last bits and pieces of prep before Daegu. I did my final race in Loughborough last week. It was a 12.87, which on that day I will take. I came second to Jessica Ennis as she ran a p.b of 12.79. Very nice run from her.

Since this race I've been training away and just basically chilling out. Lots of people like to head to big training camps before major champs but that's not the way I like to do things. I like to stay in my own environment as long as possible before a major race. It's great to be able to get my sessions in and then just switch off from it.

I have a few more days at home before I head off. I've got an ipad so I've been trying to get loads of books and films for it. It is a serious amount of travel to Daegu which means I need to keep myself entertained. If you have any good book or film recommendations just put them in the comments below and I'll check them out pretty please. Nothing sad though because I'm a serious softy and having an emotional breakdown whilst watching a sad film on a plane is not a cool look!!!

In other news I'm happy to say that I'm the new brand ambassador for Mitsubishi Ireland. This is a picture of myself and Berlino with our lovely new Mitsubishi ASX. It's really nice to drive and Ms Berlino is delighted cruising around in our new swanky vehicle. A big thank you to all at Mitsubishi.

I promise to blog again before I leave.

Cheers,

DOR

Oh that's a pretty crap surprise...

2011-08-07T22:04:00.003+01:00

So it's been a few days of the not so good racing in my running world. I raced at the crystal palace diamond league event on Saturday and just ran terrible. I was just crap and sometimes thats the way it is. You train and train and train and work your bum off and it just does not pay off on certain days. Thankfully I'm pretty used to the highs and lows of this which makes getting over bad races something I'm used too. Still though frustrating.com!

Yesterday was national champs. I flew back straight after Palace to be able to run. I really enjoy the buzz of nationals so it was good to be able to do it after having a crap race the day before. The race went fine I ran a little quicker than the day before and the race wasn't really competitive. It felt so much easier to just saunter down the track at Santry which was nice after the crappy run on Saturday. It was a bit disappointing that the women's hurdles didn't have more girls there. I wish more of the sprinters would give the hurdles a lash because I feel like there could be a lot of good sprint hurdlers in Ireland.

On to the crappy surprise of nationals. After my race I was told that I had been called to drug testing. I'm used to this so that is no problem at all. But what I'm used too is having to provide a urine sample. Yesterday I had to provide a urine sample and also let them take two vials of blood. To be honest I was hating this. I do not like needles at all. If I need to get my blood tested I always go to the same lady who I know and even then it's something I dread. I have never in any of my races anywhere else been asked to have a blood sample taken so it was kinda a crappy surprise. But I guess if it makes the sport cleaner then fair enough but still I will never enjoy getting a needle stuck in my arm, Gross!!!!!

Ok peeps that's all for now.

Mind yourselves.

DOR X

Flights,delays,buses, b races and a very tough high jumper!

2011-07-22T12:38:00.004+01:00

I promise I'm not making this up, I am sitting in the exact same seat in Amsterdam airport on the net as the last time I blogged. Lots has been happening. If you want a blog full of sunshine and happiness please go elsewhere.

My 6 hour delay last Monday turned into 8 hours. I ended up getting to my meet in Italy at around 2.30 a.m. This stuff happens a bit so I'm used to sucking it up and just running. In my race was Kelly wells who is one of the worlds fastest and I was really looking forward to racing her. The track was a bit head wind ish but that wasn't something that particularly bothered me as I was just really looking forward to a race. So just before the race I got a little surprise. Someone had messed up and put me in the b race, I often end up in b races which isn't a big deal but at this meet the b race was 13.5 pace and upwards. So I was in a situation where out of 9 girls I was the 2nd fastest this season yet instead of being in the top race I was with the slower end. If I want a not very fast race I can run in santry which involves very little hassle and a drive to the track. Getting two flights, an 8 hour delay and a bus trip to a track in Italy to be told on the line that things just got messed up and it's too late to change them is just kinda crap to be honest. There were free lanes in the a race but they would not put me in. I did try to run fast but mainly there was a serious lack of adrenalin I just felt really disappointed.

Next day I drew a line in the sand and just got excited about going to luzurn to race (as an aside luzurn is organised by Terry mchugh the Irish javelin record holder and legend of Irish athletics, he works in Swiss athletics and really is a massive asset to them) to get there took 2 flights and another serious days travel (direct flight was way too expensive) when I arrived in luzurn I was pretty tired.

I was rooming with Deirdre Ryan, which is always a pleasure as she is one of my best friends and all around great laugh. Alas at about midnight the night took a bit of a bad turn. Deirdre got really sick and for most of the night was up getting sick. Rather than just be sick and deal with it dee spent half the night trying to not wake me (very sweet and selfless) I just knew she was in bits though and there was reallly notihing I could do for her. The next day (race day) one of the girls who helped to organise the meet rang a doctor and was trying to help dee feel better. I swear I have absolutely no idea how she got out there and jumped considering how sick she was the whole night. So full marks to her for effort.

My race was in one word shite, now this is the exact word that my always honest coach Sean used to describe it. There isn't really much blogging or analysing I can do about it because it was rubbish. I was crap enough technically and made some mistakes that you just can't do and expect to run well. I felt tired trying to race and ended up being a bad bad hurdler! But I think when I'm on the startline I've put myself out there so there are really no excuses. It is what it is.

That's that though. Two crap races and a very tiring few days chasing my tail around Europe. Right now I'm looking forward to getting home and sleeping a good bit. Also not a fan of having to spend the next 5 hours in Amsterdam airport.....luckily I have the secret klm internet code!!!

Despite all this luzern was a really good meet. Terry does such a good job with it and it really is a pleasure to get to go there and run. Even running the way I did I made it into the top 3 and got a lovely big clap from the crowd which some days really does feel nice! Switzerland still gets to be one of my favourite places to go race.

Mind yourselves,
Derval x

If at first you don't succeed.....

2011-07-18T15:05:00.002+01:00

Well here I am sitting in a cafe in amsterdam airport (on the Internet thanks to a very nice waiter who gave me the secret code to the klm lounge) and I could go to the the bad place. I flew here from Dublin and had a very tight connection to make my next flight. The Dublin flight got delayed and I had pretty much no chance at making the next flight. But rather than accept defeat I did the only thing I knew how I ran and ran and ran. As soon as I got the gate number (d78 in case you're wondering) I just started legging it through Amsterdam airport. The competitive urge kicked in and I was high knees flat out running to get to the gate before the flight took off. It was not a short run so I was out of breath and kinda sweaty by the time the gate came into sight. I picked up the pace only to realise that the flight had left and that the gate was closed. Honestly I was so deflated by this but to make matters worse I had to walk back to the main terminal past all the people I had just sprinted past some of whom I shoved a liitle to get past (I'm not proud of the shoving but I was under pressure!!!).

Now here I am stuck in amsterdam for 6 hours trying to recover from my epic sprint through the airport. Whilst I was starting to get cranky I grabbed a newspaper and I am totally cheered up. Smiling up from the paper is darren Clarke holding the claret jug. I loved every minute of the golf yesterday and was so delighted to see Darren clarke win. Imagine 19 attempts and winning on the 20th! It really was wonderful to watch yesterday.

Here's hoping that I do eventually get out of Amsterdam and get to my races!

Bye for now...
Derval

Very boring DOR

2011-07-14T20:08:00.003+01:00

Hi All,

I am pretty boring at the moment as all I seem to be doing is training, eating (baked a lot yesterday!) and sleeping. But I have been watching and keeping an eye on the results from meets especially how my Irish peeps are doing. I'm very excited to say Ireland has a new World Champion, last week Kate Veale won the race walk in the world youth games. She is world champion, how good is that. Go Kate go....

This week the European under 23 championships are on in Ostrava so I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed for all the Irish team out there. It's a really strong team so hopefully they can perform the way they are capable of and bring home a couple of shiny medals. This competition was the first time I ever broke 13 seconds in the hurdles and came 4th by 1/100th of a second! I have very good memories of it so hopefully there are lots of Irish p.b's and people coming home happy.

Today I was on the track doing some speed work and hurdle drills. It's left me pretty sleepy, at 8 o' clock on this Thursday night I am already in my pajama's and ready for bed. It's official I am boring!!

Next week I'll be back on the race track and hopefully be a far less boring blogger. I hope you like the photo I have added of Berlino, I'm hoping it takes away a tiny bit of my boring-ness!!!

Bye bye...

DOR X

Lovely la chaux

2011-07-03T21:04:00.002+01:00

So I finally started to run the way I have in training today at a meet. I posted two seasons bests of 12.97&12.84. I was so curious about this meet mainly because it often throws up really fast results and like all the cynics out there i have often wondered whether this was some kinda freak track with some suspect settings. If you ever come here for a meet and it is a day like today then the answer is pretty obvious. This track on a good day is literally perfect conditions for the sprinter/hurdler. It is high up on a hill, it has prevailing tailwinds and the surface is super hard. Add into the mix that the meet is very relaxed, no call rooms no bib numbers just warm up on the track (lausanne was a field!) plus because there is so much talk of fast sprint times out of here I think the placebo effect is kinda high! if your average sprinter was to give all their criteria for fast conditions this meet ticks all the boxes. So all in all I get it now regarding this meet and the name it has made for itself.
Despite all my positive talk about this place I did not run a perfect race or anything near it I just started running the way all my training would indicate I should be running. I'm pretty technically ropey due to concentrating hard on other areas of my training with a view to early September. I ran the first 5h really well but then had a bad few hurdles after this and had to work hard in the end. The Swiss girl Lisa urech totally nailed it. Not a huge surprise but still very impressive. She is targeting winning the euro u23 champs in 2 weeks and has been putting in very solid results the past few meets to get ready for it. She has had some great races the past couple of years but also missed some time being injured now i think she is just putting itball together. Afterwards she was just saying how everything just felt perfect for her. Perfect conditions and all her hurdling just came good. Those are the days that us Hurdles run for. By no means was today my perfect day in the season but it was just what I needed right now.
As a final point today's run is also under my qualifying criteria for world champs and olympic games. Rolll on daegu and london.That's a nice sentence to be able to write!!!

DOR

Gotta go get some sleep. Lots more season 2011 to look forward too......

On the road....

2011-07-02T10:23:00.002+01:00

Here I am in the next town in switzerland relaxing before our meet tomorrow. We are all in la chaux de fonds now. Yesterday before our little group left Lausanne we took a trip to the Olympic museum. It was really great to see all the memorabilia. Although myself, gilly and ails did get a little carried away and take lots of photos of ourselves pretending to do other sports. From the pictures it looks like ails will be a great gymnast, gillly is going down the road of winter sports and I'm looking good as a cyclist. If you ever happen to be in Lausanne take a trip to the Olympic museum it is well worth it. I'm typing this on my iPad so I'm afraid no photographic evidence right now.

We travelled to la chaux yesterday evening and when we arrived we went to the track. I thought I was just doing a little warm up but I actually had some hurdle work to do. Terrie is here with us and she is the boss so i did my hurdles as she said. The most exciting part of this was that Merlene Ottey was down at the track during my session. I've met her before and she is a lovely lady. She is hugely impressive in person. She is 51 now and she is totally amazing to watch run. She is such a natural runner. She just glides along the track. She achieved an incredible amount in her career and is still running on the relay team for Slovenia.

I'm looking forward to having a saunter over the hurdles tomorrow. This meet is really relaxed and low key. Plus there are two runs in the hurdles and then relay after. It's the opposite to most meets I do as it starts very early and then goes on all day. I've never raced in this meet before so I'm excited to run here.

Thats all for now...
Dor xox

Frustrating......

2011-06-30T23:58:00.003+01:00

I'm having a frustrating day at the office!!! I ran in Lausanne tonight and ran a bit faster than my last race but it was crappy. There was a wind behind and that actually made it harder for me with the hurdles. Then I had problems with hurdle 4 which just messed up my rhythym I kinda just lost my pace and had to try get back into it. It's frustrating because in terms of training I am doing everything really well and have been doing super p.b's in training which tell me as the season goes forward that it will be great but I want to be great now now now!!!! That is athletics I guess, time for someone to send me some patience.

Also the relay ran tonight which I ran on. To be honest we ran slow. I was on first leg and happy with the way I got around the bend and changed over but some changes were bad and overall it wasn't good. The relay also falls under the frustrating category. Ireland is a small country and we don't have depth but yet we are trying to do races without all the current fastest runners who have decided to focus on their individual efforts. It's an individual sport so it's understandable but it makes trying to get this team running fast a hard task. We aren't the U.S so if everyone isn't in then things become slow and difficult.

Nxt meet is on Sunday in switzerland. Need to get over the frustration by then....

Dor x x x.

Frustrating......

2011-06-30T23:58:00.000+01:00

Izmir..

2011-06-24T17:53:00.002+01:00

Hi Hi Hi....

Last weekend was the european team championships in Izmir Turkey. This meet is a chance for Ireland to compete as a team and every event is counted for points. It's an event that I have been doing for years and one that I think is really important every year. As a country we have come really far and I think it's really important that we represent ourselves well in this event hence why I like to be part of it each year.

As with every other year the event has lots of highs and lows. I was running with the relay on the Saturday evening and the worst result occured. DNF. We did not get the baton around. I was also on the change that the baton dropped. It's hard to say why. Clare Brady was passing the baton to me which is a new running order due to availability of athletes and I guess that may have had something to do with it. It's hard to say but very disappointing. My priority is the hurdles but I think the relay is a good event to be part of and I'm hoping despite all the recent results that the team can do really well at some point this season. Also on the plus side Ailis is over her niggle and she will be a huge help. She is the fastest sprinter in Ireland so not having her has been a big pain.

After a Saturday evening of disappointment I went out on Sunday to run the hurdles. It was my first outdoor race in 9 months! I came fourth in 13.11 into a bit of a headwind. I would have been happier to place higher and to have run faster but the run was pretty much consistent with where I'm at. I am far away from being sharp and technically proficient due to the plan for the season. At the same time I'm not fond of seeing 13 anything next to my name. I came off the track knowing that I had hurdled pretty crap yet I also know that there is a whole lot there to come so I gotta take it. Plus it was fun to be back on the track running outdoors even if I did get my arse kicked. I love a bit of racing!!!!!!

At the end of the weekend we managed to finish above the relegation zone and stay in the first division. All in all it was a positive result for the team. From here on out in the season it's all about getting ready for worlds.

The plan from here is to race in Lausanne next Thursday (30 June) and then a meet in Chaux du fonds on the Sunday (3 July). I'm looking forward to them. Fingers crossed the scoreboard comes up with nicer numbers next to my name......

DOR XOXO

Lots and lots to discuss...

2011-06-07T17:05:00.003+01:00

Hi Peeps,

There is literally so much busy-ness at the moment that I don't know where to start. First things first. I celebrated a big birthday recently. I turned 30! I know what your thinking 30 no you only look 21!!!!! But I must confess that yes on the 28th May I turned the big 30. I celebrated by having a small non party party get together with food, champers and bowling. I know how weird that I wanted to go bowling but I just thought after a few drinks bowling would be really fun and guess what?? It was so much fun. It was very entertaining to see so many of my friends bowling. The night was funny when one of the guys (I wont name names) got slow clapped high jump style and his name chanted every time he bowled. I highly recommend an evening bowling. I spent time the weekend of my birthday with my family too which was also lovely.

I had a little bit of a competitive outing last week. The relay team was in Paris to run a race to kick off the season. I'm going to be honest the team ran brutal but there are many factors involved. Ailis has a niggle and could not race this combined with massive gusting winds (baton changes nightmare) and general under par running by the team made for an absolutely awful day at the relay office. There are two ways to go with this the completely negative route and just say feck it or the positive route and keep the head. I'm more of a positive girl myself so lets just stay calm and see how it all works out in the coming months. Rome was not built in a day.....

After my trip to Paris I got straight off the plane and into the gym for a training session. This was followed by going to Cork. One of my lovely friends got married last weekend and I went home for the wedding. She looked amazing and it was a great day. I was a little bit like cinderella during the afters though and had to get home to bed early before getting up the next day to hit the track. Despite my cinderella-esque behaviour the trip home was totally worth it to be there to see her get married.

I'm starting to think about hurdles racing now. I start my competitive season in Izmir at the European team championships. Worlds this year is a full month later than Europeans was last year which means that all my training has been planned to revolve around August/September. I've really enjoyed all the training since I finished indoors but I am starting to get itchy to get my competitive outdoor season underway.

Peter is getting into all his Olympic sailing campaign so things are quite busy for us at the moment. He is sailing at an event in the Olympic venue this week in sail for gold. So far so good for him so fingers crossed for the rest of the week.

Today I was doing a hurdles session on the track but turned up to realise that there was primary schools athletics on. Luckily the organisers were happy to give me and the group some space on the track which meant that I got the session done. It did also mean that I ended up signing alot of t-shirts/notebooks/trainers of kids and getting a lot of pictures taken with the kids. I enjoyed chatting to them and having good fun with the kids. I love to see kids out running, I remember all the running I did as a kid so it's great to see them all racing down the track. The best question I was asked was "do your pink shoes make you run faster?" of course the only answer to that was yes. The funniest question I was asked was "could you give me some of your luck before I race?" I hope I managed to bring some luck. Who knows maybe the next time I'm at a meet with Usain Bolt racing I should ask him for just a little bit of his luck.....

That's all for now.

DOR XOX

P.S in the pictures are myself and my friend Sandra outside the church after the wedding, then the beautiful bride Eileen and finally me being presented with my birthday cake.

An evening with the Queen (and 1,999 others!)

2011-05-25T17:03:00.003+01:00

Hello Hello,

Hope everyone is in flying form on this wet Wednesday in Dublin. I promised to blog about my exciting day last Thursday so here it is I am finally getting around too it. A few weeks ago I received an invite from the British embassy to attend a function in the convention centre to celebrate the visit of HRH Queen Elizabeth to Ireland. When you consider Irelands history with Britain and the significance of the Queen coming to Ireland it was a great event to attend.

My plus one for the evening was the ever stylish and wonderful Terrie Cahill. It was a nice excuse for the two of us to get all dressed up and be a bit fancy for an evening. The event itself had about 2,000 people. All sorts of people were floating around the drinks reception. During my people spotting I saw Eddie Jordan, The Seoige sisters, Rachel Allen and Keith Woods.

I was lucky enough to be on the list of people who got to go to the 5th floor to be at a reception with the Queen. I was grouped with the Olympic group which was headed up by Pat Hickey. The Queen went around all the groups and was introduced to each member of the group. She had a brief chat with me about the Olympics and London then she was off onto the next person. She seemed like a nice lady and looks wonderful for 85. I had a lovely chat with President Mary Mcaleese a few moments after meeting the Queen. I admire the president hugely I think she is an amazing ambassador for Ireland and seems to be a genuinely warm, lovely person.

After the reception there was a concert that everybody attended in honour of the Queen. The concert was very enjoyable and extra interesting as the Queen was sitting right behind Terrie and I! We resisted the urge to keep peeking behind at her. All in all it was a great evening.

In other news I'm on recovery week which has come at the perfect time. I was doing some jumps and landed a bit awkwardly so I needed to give my knee a little rest. I jarred it a bit jumping over hurdles in training. I was just starting to think that I was pretty good at the jumps but alas I must not be all that good! No chance of me becoming a jumper I'm afraid!

The season seems to be starting to get into full swing. I'm still getting ready to race and looking forward to racing in a couple of weeks. The World champs are on much later this year (hurdles 2/3 September) which means preparing to run fast later on in the season as opposed to early for me. It will be good to do some relay races early to move the legs and get going.

Finally I must give a quick shout out to Victoria Harris who I got to say hi too last Saturday in Santry. I was running on the track while the Leinster schools was on. She was just about to run in the sprint and it was lovely to chat to her. Whats more is I believe she ran a p.b that day so well done Victoria. Super running, keep it up!

Thats all for now,

Derval xoxo

Where oh where is my tan??

2011-05-17T22:45:00.003+01:00

So here I am back from my trip to Portugal. I was there for 2 weeks. The weather was good the whole time and lots of training was done. It was good to be there but at the same time I was really starting to get itchy to get home. You see I am a home bird, now don't get me wrong I will moan and complain about the national debt, lack of jobs, lack of training facilities and the weather as much as the next Irish person but I still don't enjoy being away for long periods of time from the emerald Isle.

I spent the two weeks in Portugal training and really not doing a whole heap else. It was fun to catch up with the other Irish athletes and get the lowdown on everyones plans for the season. I ventured to the cinema one evening with the lovely ladies Ailis and Deirdre, we went to see limitless. If your bored and wanna be a little bit entertained it's worth a watch. Also in Portugal half way through a film they take an intervalo for 20 minutes, how random is that??

Training was good for the two weeks, Sean and Terrie were there for a good bit of the camp which is always super. There was lots of running and weights done so I was fairly tired by the time I got on the plane back to Ireland. For some reason I didn't sleep too great either so I was in serious need of getting back to my own leaba.

The weird thing about going away on training camp is that all of a sudden you are opened up to a whole world of people training on the track and you see people doing loads of sessions. Normally when we train in Dublin it's just us on the track so to be on a track with loads of other athletes from all over Europe is kinda strange. I had two weeks to observe all these other athletes which I feel puts me in the perfect position to judge the difference between Irish athletes on a track and foreign athletes. It all comes down to one thing......drum roll please....... THE TAN! Yes you read correctly all those European guys and girls are tan riddled. They have that gorgeous bronzed skin. There is only so much time a very white, freckled hurdler can spend in the presence of bronzed tracksters before I start to get depressed! Damn my very Irish freckled, pale skin!

Back to now and all is good in Dublin (not a bronzed swede in sight). I spend so much time training with Ian McD and being entertained by him that it's great to be back in our little cocoon (coffee post training on Monday was necessary for Ian, Ailis and I to debrief on the previous two weeks as he was in Dublin while we were in Portugal) This week training is still hard and today Terrie had the speed gates out to time our runs. There is no room for speculation with the speed gates so I had to move my arse which considering how cold it was made things tough but I managed to do well enough. First run I got the pace wrong but after that I was good.

I'm still making some decisions on racing so when I decide the plan I shall update everyone. I know for sure that I'm part of the Irish relay squad that races near Paris on June 2nd but apart from that I don't really know yet.

I have a very exciting day coming up this Thursday but you will have to wait and read all about it on the blog.........

Time for some zzzzzzzz I have a date with Terrie C bright and early to lift some weights and jump around the place (aka plyometric training!).

Later

DOR

Living the dream...

2011-05-04T17:33:00.002+01:00

Hi Guys,

Hopefully this blog finds everyone happy and well. I'm sitting here in a little internet cafe on training camp in Portugal. The Irish team are having a pre season camp out here. Sean, Terrie and Ailis are out here and we are all in good form. It's great to be away and getting some good sessions in. Today we were doing jumps and gym work. Yesterday was running and a bit of relay practice, the relay girls are here so it's a good opportunity to get relay work in.

I would like to blog some major scandal or news from out here but everything is just tipping along nicely. Nothing exciting I'm afraid.

On the way out here I asked the air host how he was and he replied "Living the dream". I figure that's as good an answer as he could have given me and considering I'm out here training it's a pretty good blog title.

Bye, bye from sunny Portugal.

Derval xoxo

Addictive viewing

2011-04-29T10:49:00.002+01:00

Good morning all,

Its friday which means day off and I'm here sitting on the couch with a cup of tea watching the royal wedding. I honestly didn't think that I would be so interested but I'm fascinated by the whole thing. I'm loving seeing what everyone is wearing. It is really exciting!

Ok on other non royal news. Everything is great with me. This week has been lovely in training because the sun has been shining and the sessions have been quite light. I go to Portugal on Sunday for two weeks training which will be great. It's always good to have a little training stint away.

Bye for now,

DOR X

The week that was...

2011-04-21T16:43:00.003+01:00

Just back home and finished my final session of the week. The week was tough but good. Lots of weights leading to missing chunks of skin from my neck and hand but on the positive lifted well and enjoyed myself. Running this week has been hard but we hit our targets and felt comfortable. There were lots of hurdle drills added in which was good for me. The weather is amazing right now. Today I did my session with a crop top and shorts on, how good is that in Dublin in April??

Last Saturday we had our second relay squad and did a bit of passing at speed. None of us are running near our fastest at the moment but it was good to start passing the baton to each other and get a feel for running the relay again.

I got sent some really cool runners from Saucony this week and was very entertained to see what was written on the soles of them. Berlino totally approves of them! Can you see what it says in the picture?????

I'm off to enjoy the sun. Have a wonderful Easter and enjoy the easter eggs......Mmmmmm chocolate.

D X X X

Observations

2011-04-14T22:21:00.004+01:00

These are my random observations at the end of the training week:

Not being able to put on my shoes due to being so stiff from training makes things tough
Lactic acid is not my friend
Getting all my new saucony kit made me very, very excited and made training a little bit easier this week, thanks saucony.
Grateful to neighbours who keep signing for packages full of kit and trainers when I'm out training.
Ungrateful to UPS when they randomly try to charge me for my kit deliveries, grrrr no I won't pay these random charges.
Hard skin and ripped skin on hands due to weight lifting is probably not my sexiest feature.
Do not underestimate anything Terrie Cahill writes on a training programme.
Food and bed are my friends, sleep/eat/train.
Ian McD and A make the mean training much more entertaining with fat knees and squishy bums!!!!!!!
New gift of Orla Kiely laptop bag makes me very, very happy even if I feel too sore from training to carry it!
Ipod training tunes of the week "I need a doctor" Dr. Dre feat Eminem & "Moment for life" Nicki Minaj
Final thought pink is so hot right now!

National Dairy Council Milk it advertising awards

2011-04-13T14:31:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I was at the NDC milk it advertising awards. I have done some promotional work for NDC and was on hand in the aviva stadium yesterday. This was a competition open to secondary schools where groups of kids did advertising projects to promote dairy. I was there to present the awards but I also got a chance to walk around to see all the projects and chat to all the students about what they did.

It was so much fun to talk to all the students and find out what they had done. The projects they put together were really amazing. I was astonished at how good the projects of students so young were. There were some first year girls who were incredible. The ability all these kids showed through their work was truly inspiring and made me very positive for the future!

The overall winners were Mount Temple comprehensive school in clontarf. The winners of the junior category were Scoil Phobail Sliabh Lucra in Rathmore Co. Kerry. Well done!!!

There was some great representations from schools in Cork and in particular I was super impressed by the 5th year girls from St. Patricks. They did a great presentation and were totally engaging. Thankfully I was not a judge because I would not have been able to pick my favourite project and wanted all the teams to win. All of the teachers involved should be very proud of their groups. NDC did a super job with the whole competition and finally the lovely Mairead Farrell from Today fm was brilliant at the event.

It was a great way to spend a Tuesday afternoon, very uplifting. Afterwards I went straight to the track to do a running session with my peeps A and Ian. The training show must roll on!

Masters

2011-04-10T20:04:00.001+01:00

Addicted to the golf this year. Come on McIlroy!!!!! Fingers and toes crossed for him.

Sunday morning hills

2011-04-10T13:06:00.002+01:00

This morning was busy. I dropped my boyfriend to the airport early doors then I went to meet Ailis to drive to hills in Meath. Our hills are in a beautiful part of Meath. It's called Tara and it is gorgeous up there. Plus this morning the weather was amazing. The lovely scenery and sunshine stopped being so entertaining after the second set running up the hill when I was hurting though! Terrie was out with us shouting at us while we were running. She made sure that we worked our bums off every run and were running technically well.

Now I'm back home and ready to go for a little nap to recover.

Enjoy your beautiful Sunday.

Derval x x x x

NO BAD BAD DOG

2011-04-04T20:55:00.003+01:00

This is not an easy blog to write. As you all know Berlino is a major member of my family and hence she is loved very much. Today was the first day of recovery week and my other half convinced me to bring Berlino to the track "sure just bring her for a jog and then put her in the car while your training, she will be delighted to be at the track rather than in the house on her own" Off I went with the dog happy out, Berlino and I training partners. After the jog I put her back in the car while I was doing a little bit in the gym. I was sure to hide my sunglasses as I didn't want anything to happen to them. I came back to a very guilty looking labradoodle. Please note she was only alone for 30 minutes. She had watched me "hide" the sunglasses and when I left her she went straight to get them. Not only happy with finding them she managed to break off one arm, chew both of the lenses and all in all destroy them.

She could not even look at me. She was just sitting there head down bits of oakleys everywhere. I was so upset at her. Whats worse is my other pair of sunglasses were in the bag that airfrance lost on me in January so I was totally dependent on this pair. If there is any bit of sun I train in sunglasses.

I didn't even need to say anything to her. I just opened the door and pointed to the glasses. We drove home in silence.

The house has been very quiet since. To summarise bad bad dog.

P.S On a totally different notes one of my favourite athletes is Jenny Meadows and I just read this lovely piece online with her so here is a link for all you athletics fans out there!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/8426066/London-2012-Olympics-20-questions-with-Jenny-Meadows.html

Ray D'arcy show picture!

2011-03-31T12:19:00.002+01:00

After the Ray D'arcy show on Tuesday we had a quick picture taken for their website. I just did a little bit of stealing and here it is on the blog! Darren O' Neill, Ray, Derval and that fella that does the walks!!!!!

Catch up!

2011-03-30T14:35:00.003+01:00

Last time i blogged properly I was talking about the major decision that was what bar of chocolate to eat on my day off. I got some very good advice and made a decision I was happy with. I ended up in Avoca for Lunch on my day off with Ailis and had an amazing square of rocky road cake. Yum. I took a picture to share my chocolate moment. Thank you all for the chocolate posts!

On to more important things. Last saturday we had our first relay squad session of 2011. It was more about the plans for the coming year than actually running because it's early in the year for us. I had a great time at the session, although I had two sessions that day so I was at the track from 10 a.m to 4.30 p.m it was a seriously long day in the office! Honestly by Saturday night I was just lying on the couch useless to anyone. All in all the relay looks like it's gonna be good hopefully with some fast running and a little bit of luck by Daegu the team will be flying.

Yesterday there was lots going on. I was on the Ray D'arcy radio show on today f.m with Rob Heffernan and Darren O' Neill to chat about sport and the Olympics. The show was really good fun. Straight after I was at the track to do my toughest interval session of the week. Thankfully I survived the session.

After training I had loads of cooking and organising to do. It was Peter's birthday yesterday so I was making lots of food for people and organising a little birthday night for him. I was really busy trying to get everything done. I had literally just finished off everything when the doorbell rang. I assumed it was some early person but that was wrong. It was the drug testers!!!! Yes you read correctly just as Peter's birthday party was about to start the drug testers arrived. So while everyone was arriving and tucking into some nice food I was stuck in a room trying my best to pee!!! Not exactly the way I thought I would be spending an hour of Peter's birthday! Eventually I did pee and was able to get back to everyone. Everyone seemed very entertained by the whole thing. Thats the way it goes when your an athlete.

Hope you enjoyed the catch up blog.

Time for a little sleep I'm cream crackered after training today.

DOR x

Promises promises...

2011-03-29T23:40:00.002+01:00

Long entertaining day today. Gotta sleep now. I will blog tomorrow....

DOR

Chocolate advice needed

2011-03-24T17:11:00.002Z

Hello hello,

Yipee this weeks training is in the bag. There were times it was rough (lots of vomit on the grass yes you know who you are!) but our group survived. Tomorrow is rest day and I cannot wait to rest my weary body. I'm so looking forward to a guilt free bar of chocolate and a cheeky latte. My major issue is which bar. There are so many that I like it's hard to narrow down. Part of me is thinking mint aero but then I haven't had a creme egg recently so maybe go with that or do I just go simple and a bar of dairymilk??

If you have any major feelings towards chocolate bar choice feel free to comment.

DOR X

oh no

2011-03-22T13:30:00.003Z

I gotta go to the track and run long stuff!!!! Gross is the only word I can think of. To add to the torture is the fact that I can barely sit down because I'm so stiff from weights. I think there is a huge chance Terrie Cahill is trying to kill me.

If I don't blog again it will be due to death by intervals.

bye bye

DOR

Sleepy sleepy sleepy

2011-03-21T14:51:00.002Z

Hi All,

Hope everyone is doing well out there. I have to say the only thing that I feel like doing right now is sleeping. Honestly I am sleeping my little head off. I'm back doing tough base training so it is hard sessions. These sessions are strangely satisfying though because I feel like I've achieved quite a bit each day even if right now I can't put my arms above my head because they are so stiff.

It's been a good few days for the Irish. I was in Cheltenham last wednesday when Ireland won 6 out of 7 races in the horse racing and then the week was topped off by Ireland beating England in the rugby. Good times.

Ok time for a nap.

D X

Today

2011-03-14T19:17:00.002Z

Up and attem early doors. No breakfast allowed. Spend an hour in Dublin traffic on my way to the clinic. 7 vials of blood taken (get this done regularly to make sure I'm healthy). Very girly and wimpy behaviour from me during the blood taking. Grab some breakfast straight after. Next stop the gym. Meet Ian McD in the gym. Bonus of bumping into Paul Hession in the gym too. Do a tough session. Drop Hession to the airport. Swing by Deirdre Ryans on the way home. chat with Sean r.e session. Back home into fleece pajamas for afternoon kip. Fast asleep and woken by the doorbell. Its the drug testers for a random visit. Spend an hour drinking fluids and trying to make myself need to pee. Eventually pee (175 mils to be exact!). Drug testers leave and get ready to go meet friend.
Thats all for today!
DOR

That's the end of that

2011-03-09T00:00:00.002Z

So the indoor season has ended. I'm quite happy that it has. It ended up becoming messy with the stop start way it unfolded. I feel really ready to start looking towards outdoors.

This week I'm doing some light sessions and setting things up for the next few months. I'm also being pretty relaxed on myself in terms of discipline. I'm eating anything I want (chocolate/chips being the main components of my diet right now) and being pretty sociable.

I was reviewing my race from euro indoors and came across this post race interview. After you finish a big race before you get a chance to even take your shoes off you have to go through the mixed zone, which is where all the press people are. This is a weird few minutes because all I normally want to do is go straight to see Sean and Terrie. It's part of being at a big race though (even if some people ask completely ridiculous questions!). Here are my random thoughts about 1 minute after the european indoor final!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ_Xh_bGzU0

DOR

Euro indoors 4th-bitterweet

2011-03-04T22:11:00.002Z

Quick blog- in a seriously competitive women's 60 m hurdles today at the european indoor championship I finished fourth. All three girls ahead of me ran superb races but today wasn't the day for me to be in the mix. Christina Vukicevic was wonderful to pick up a bronze after coming 4th the last two euro champs, I was happy to see this for her.

With the little groin strain recently I had about a 3 week period of no racing or limited training. Last sunday I ran over hurdles for the first time and made the decision to try to contest this championship. So two hurdle sessions later and I turned up ready to give it a lash.

I'm really happy to have been able to run 7.9 off these preparations but of course I'm sad that it just wasn't enough today. I would like to be on the podium tomorrow but thats sport.

I represented myself well and am holding my head high. I know with some non interrupted training in that I am capable of going very very fast indoors. hopefully that day will come.

Now it's time for bed and get ready to support Ailis tomorrow. Fingers crossed for her please.

Derv x x x

Sunday day of rest??

2011-02-27T21:57:00.003Z

Nope not today. This Sunday I spent the afternoon at the track with the Cahills playing with the hurdles.

All in all a pretty good way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Hope you had a good weekend wherever you're reading from....

DOR

Saturday night secrets (Food blog!)

2011-02-26T20:52:00.004Z

It's a week before euro indoors and it's Saturday night. I'm in major rest up stage and as my other half is away right now I thought I would share what I'm up too on my Saturday night. I'm cooking and baking. Cool or uncool? Who knows but it is entertaining.

I make a big effort to try to eat stuff that is healthy and also tasty so I spend lots of time on food and trying out different things.

Tonight I had no food planned so I just rummaged in the kitchen and used whatever I had. If you do make either of these change around pizza topping or use loads more nuts etc (whatever you fancy really) These were my Saturday night secret food concoctions...

Tuna Wrap Pizza's

-2 tortilla wraps

-Tin of tomatoes

-grated cheese

-Chopped red sweet pepper

-Tin of tuna

I blended a tin of tomatoes until they were smooth. I used this as a tomato base on both of the wraps. I grated some cheddar cheese (a small amount just enough to melt on the wrap) and put it on top of the wraps. I chopped up the pepper and scattered it on the cheese topped wrap and then spread out the tuna on top of this. I put both wraps in the oven at 150 for 20 minutes (or until they were browned)

I wanted something tasty after the pizza wraps so decided to make myself something. I had loads of ripe bananas which was why I ended up with this flapjack type recipe.

Chewy banana nut bars

Dry ingredients

-2 cups porridge oats

-3/4 cup walnuts/pecans

-1 cup milled flaxseed

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup almonds

Wet ingredients

3/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup honey

3 very ripe bananas

Take all the dry ingredients and put into a large mixing bowl. Melt the coconut oil over low heat, when melted add in bananas and mash then add in the honey and mix the wet ingredients well. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingedients and mix well. Spread mixture onto a baking tray (put grease proof paper on try before mixture) Put the baking tray in a pre heated oven at 150 until golden on top (approximately 15-20 minutes)

I'm off for a cup of tea and banana bar. Mmmmmmm.

DOR X

Love/Hate

2011-02-24T23:24:00.004Z

Right now I

Love.....

-Adele's album 21 and Adele herself

-Running again...Hooray maybe I'm not in the scrap heap after all

-Berlino for insisting on dragging me to the park everyday and it actually being a good laugh

-Butternut squash for being so versatile and lovely to eat

-Nando's restaurant (In Dublin it's in dundrum in Cork it's in Mahon point)

Hate....

-Air France (completely lost my bag and have been a nightmare to deal with. Goodbye clothes)

-Pernickety groin

-Random politicians leaving loads and loads of leaflets through my door

-The guard who gave me a parking ticket for parking on double yellow lines in the snow when I could not see them because of the snow, not an enjoyable way to spend €65.

Getting there...

2011-02-20T23:47:00.003Z

I thought I would do a bit of a blog update. I was at the national indoors on Saturday evening briefly and lots of very nice people were enquiring and hoping for me that my leg was getting better. So for you people that I didn't talk too here is an update. I had some time off and then went back in the gym to rehab. I was advised to take 4 days off to let my leg settle down. In the middle of the season this is never what I want but I'm experienced enough to know when to be sensible. I was in the gym today (which meant I missed all the Sunday action in the nationals) and was able to do a lot with no problems at all. The plan is tomorrow to do some running. I am so excited about this. I have really missed training in the past few days. I love being at the track with our little group and it's crap to have to take some time to recover. I think when I have little set backs it makes me way more appreciative of being able to run. I have had major withdrawal symptoms the past few days. I was kinda sad being in the odyssey but not being able to run. At the same time it's part of the job so I just need to get on with it.

Team Cahill was well represented in the Odyssey. Both Ailis and Ian won the nationals in their events. Ailis ran another p.b this indoor season 7.32. Ireland has a huge tradition in distance running so I think sometimes that people don't realise how quick some of the sprinters run. 7.32 is fast, fast running and I was really happy to see that she was athlete of the meet. Another great weekend running by Mary Cullen was also impressive.

I spent the weekend hanging out with a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in ages. It was great fun to catch up and Berlino got to meet the puppy Blaney and play so all around it was good fun.

Fingers crossed for a good few days ahead.

Mind yourselves,

Derv x

Grrrr Groin

2011-02-16T16:50:00.002Z

Hello hello hello....

Well my stupid annoying groin has taken longer to settle than I hoped so I have to skip racing this weekend. I've had it investigated and there is very little wrong with it but it needs a few more days to settle. I'm good to run but hurdling is too risky.

On a scale of 1-10 of frustrating it is about 100!!!! I don't like to miss races but that's the way it goes. Athletes are not machines! Feel free to send me some patience....

That's all for now.

D X

Indoor 2011 update

2011-02-11T23:46:00.003Z

Hi All,

Well there is so much to talk about and it's late so I shall try to keep it brief. My indoor season has kicked off. I ran at a meet in Linz and was 2nd in a time of 8.16 (very average). I then ran in Lievin (love love love this meet it has cheerleaders and everything what more could you want?!) I came 3rd and ran 8.03 (little bit more respectable).

My two weeks before indoors was disrupted which meant I missed out on hurdles, in Linz I was very rusty but in Lievin I was starting to find my feet. my last session before Linz I fell in training. Outside of the embarrassment (falling over just is not cool) I managed to take a large chunk of skin off my knee so it has taken some time for me to be able to bend my knee. I can now report I have full ability to bend my knee (phew). I have attached a very gross photo of it, hurdlers just are not attractive are they?

Where too now? Originally I had scheduled in to race in Karlsruhe this coming Sunday but that has been scrapped. Instead I'm doing some hurdles work for a week and then I will be back out there racing. I had a tight groin this week and Sean won't risk anything. He is the boss so no Karlsruhe for me.

I need to give a shout out to Mary Cullen on the blog. She ran her first indoor meet in 2 years and ran very well in Lievin. She showed why she owns a nice shiny medal from european indoors. Mary has become an honorary member of our training group in recent times. If she starts to run wicked fast last 60metres in races and dipping like a sprinter Ailis and I will have to take full credit.

Last but not least for those of you baffled at my last very small blog post I will give an explanation. Whilst I was away racing in France it seems that there was another Derval O' Rourke back in Ireland. I read online that the other Derval was confirming entry into races and everything. Hence why I was wondering would the real Derval O Rourke please stand up. So if anyone happens to stumble across her please tell her to behave!

I have a very healthy and tasty banana bread in the oven that I need to go rescue. No more time for blogging....

Derval x

May I have your attention please will the real derval o Rourke please stand up?

2011-02-09T01:30:00.001Z

Sorry sorry sorry

2011-01-28T21:39:00.003Z

I haven't blogged in a while so all I can say is sorry. I was in the real world and blogging wasn't my priority. Somethings don't belong in a blog. So moving on.

I'm starting to get ready to race. It's exciting because I never really got to do an indoor season last year so getting to run this indoors is a bit more special. My very lovely and fast training partner Ailis opened her indoor season last night. Guess what??? She ran a p.b first race out! Check that out for an opener 7.34. The Irish indoor record is 7.30 which I think is very doable (Apologies to my buddy Anna Boyle who is the record holder!) It is exciting times ahead over the next few weeks.

I was down in Cork today for the evening echo sports woman of the year awards. I'm delighted to report that I won. It's nice to win something at home in the peoples republic. All the nominees achieved wonderful things in 2010 but it was very good to have a fellow Leevale athlete Lizzie Lee nominated with me. She has made a big impact on athletics in 2010.

Oh yes the other piece of big news is that your hurdler has cut off all her hair! I wanted to do this for ages and I finally went to the hair dresser and let him do whatever he wanted to my hair. The result is a big big change and some (hopefully) go fast hair.

Bye for now

DOR

Life in Potch

2011-01-08T13:01:00.002Z

Hello hello,

Life here in South Africa is going along nicely. I've started to do some sessions. For the first couple of days Ailis and I were just getting over the long flight and doing some warm ups but now we are into the full flow of things.

Mark arrived a couple of days ago and Sean will arrive on Monday. Mark is taking the weights sessions as usual but is also doing our track work until Sean gets here. Today was a track session which was no hurdles just some over distance runs. The weather is so different to home down here. At the track this morning it was 30 degrees and gorgeous sunshine the whole time but now this afternoon it is thunder storms and raining. The rain doesn't last very long so at least when it rains I know it's short term. Sometimes when it rains at home it can just keep raining for days which is a pain for training.

There are lots of athletes from all over Europe around training. I bumped into Jenny Meadows (800m runner) and her husband at the track today. Jenny has been running amazing for the past two years and has won lots of medals, I've known her for a while so it's nice that her and Trevor are here in Potch too.

I'm trying to make some decisions on indoor racing at the moment. I have a few nice options and need to decide which are best. I'll go through all the races properly when Sean arrives. It's a shame Terrie can't come too but hopefully next time.

On a non running front our guest house is full of animals. There is a very friendly cat, a huge great Dane (who has taken a shine to Ailis) and a funny looking tiny dog. Of course Berlino is still my number 1 pooch but it's fun to have them wandering around. I found the cat fast asleep in my bag under my bed yesterday!

I hear it's been getting cold again back in Ireland. Yuck I do not envy anyone trying to train through it!

That's all for now.

Derv xox

South Africa

2011-01-05T16:55:00.002Z

Hi All,

Happy new year. I hope 2011 is looking good for everyone. I'm in South Africa. I got here yesterday. It's great to get away to do some training pre indoors. The cold at home is just not very conducive to running fast over hurdles.

Flew here via Paris with air france. I'm not gonna lie 10 hours over night on a plane is not great craic. I can't sleep too well unless I'm lying down so I was awake most of the flight. I'm definitely not a long haul kinda girl. Since I've been here I've slept great and now I'm just looking forward to doing some sessions.

Will update you all.

Derv x

Leaving on a jet plane...

2011-01-01T22:52:00.002Z

I'm leaving in 2 days for a month away training. I have 1 million things to get done and I'm trying to do them. Why oh why am I not freakishly organised and on top of everything. Damn my lastminute.com attitude.

I gotta go and fill out 2011 athlete planning forms. Despite a degree and masters it seems these forms are very complicated. Maybe I'm just too blonde for forms!!!

Hope you all had a good Christmas.

D X

Not enough words for the craziness

2010-12-21T17:48:00.002Z

I cannot put into words the craziness of the past 24 hours. I will try my best to put it in to bullet points:

* yesterday noon went to the supermarket to buy a big food shop for planned Christmas party dinner

*2p.m headed to training in Santry after preparing food to be ready to cook in evening

*2.30 p.m training away with no idea that dublin is turning into a huge ice rink

* 5 p.m left Santry stadium

*7 p.m still in traffic in blizzard trying to get home, still holding out hope for party

*8 p.m car gets into trouble and I have to abandon it nowhere near home.

*8.30 p.m walk to friends house after 3 falls in snow and 1 emotional breakdown.

*Spend next two hours in warm friends house plotting journey home and generally feeling sorry for self.

*Peter rescues car and we try to drive the 10 minutes home

*10 minute drive takes 1.5 hours.

*Arrive in house at 11.45 p.m

*Feel very sad about all the food that did not get cooked/eaten.

*Wake up the next day i.e today and everything is just as bad....

AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Make the craziness stop.

DOR

Grrr go away frost...

2010-12-18T22:08:00.003Z

Most people know I'm a big home bird but today it was hard to be home. My session was some over distance runs with A (known from such productions as the cover of Irish runner annual 2010!!!!!!) and then runs over 6 hurdles. The track outside was ten times better than it has been in recent weeks but it was freezing and there was a fair bit of ice on it. We had time targets which we hit but the conditions made it a lot tougher and I didn't feel as good as I've been feeling. Thankfully though there is light at the end of the tunnel because I go to South Africa after Christmas. I cannot wait for South Africa. I'm super excited at the thought of it.

You will all be pleased to know I have started my christmas shopping. I still have loads more to do but at least I have a few a little bits and pieces.

My other half has been away training and gets home tomorrow which is great news and making me feel nice and festive. I can't wait to spend Christmas together.

Be good people.

DOR

Loving it

2010-12-14T17:35:00.002Z

Hi All,

Firstly a huge congrats to the Irish U23 lads who won GOLD at the European X country. What an amazing result. Super athletics news. Well done guys.

All is great here on training camp. Sessions are going well and it's much easier to train out here than at home because of the sun. Plus there is no Dublin traffic to contend with either.

A definite highlight of our camp has been Ailis and I attending hip hop dance class!!! where we are staying was having a week of dance classes all different kinds of dance for anyone who wanted to go so we decided to sign up for an hour of hip hop. We were kinda thinking that with all out sprinting and weights training we may just be world class dancers but bad news we do not have a future as world class hip hop dancers! i think A was good but I was crap!!! I did laugh hard for the hour though. I don't think I'll be able to listen to the song billionaire without images of Ailis and I attempting to do a full choreographed dance routine and looking very very silly coming into my head.

Today is rest day but it's back on the track tomorrow for another session. Mmmmm loving the track in a crop top and shorts. Panic is starting to set in due to the fact that I have done zero Christmas shopping though!!!!!!!

Ok gotta leg it.

DOR

In a far away land

2010-12-11T18:16:00.002Z

Hi!!!!

I'm away training in the canaries at the moment. It is amazing to be away from the snow/Ice/Cold for a while.

It is crop top and shorts gear over here. Pure bliss. I have to leg it because internet isn't great here.

Will update soon.

D X

Diva tantrum

2010-12-05T20:54:00.004Z

Most of you who read this blog know at this stage that a certain 1 year old labradoodle is the boss of me. I've tried really hard to avoid this but it is impossible Berlino is the boss.

Yesterday I decided that Berlino needed to be trusted a little more. Normally if I go out I leave her in the kitchen. I decided to leave her have access to the kitchen the dining room and the front room. This took a lot of trust.

Unfortunately said dog decided to teach me a lesson. She threw somewhat of a diva tantrum whilst I was out. I can only assume the message she was trying to convey went along these lines "How dare you leave me at home. I am the boss of you. I am so unimpressed at you so ha ha look what I did in the living room"

In other news the snow is melting. Yipee. It's still not good enough to run outdoors but it is getting better. Today I ran over hurdles for the first time since September. I'm not going to pretend I was awesome because I wasn't. That's kinda the way it goes I need to go find myself some rhythm. If you have any rhythm send it my way....

Byeeeeeeeeeeeee....

DOR X

World of chaos update.

2010-12-02T21:18:00.003Z

Soooooo I woke up today and crossed my fingers and hoped that the snow would be gone. Alas all the hope in the world did not melt the snow. In the absence of melted snow I've taken a glass half full approach to this situation.

The first good thing of today is that I could get out of my house and go to Santry to train considering lots of people can't leave their houses this was a blessing. The next is that I collected shiny new training hurdles. At this point in the blog I need to say thanks. I arrived in Santry with the shiny hurdles in their box and luckily for me Stephen and Philip (the guys that work their) put them all together for me. Lets be honest it would have taken me forever to put them together so thank goodness for the lads.

The final good point of today was that Mark came back from holiday so he was in Santry for some weights time. It was nice to have him back for weights (even though having a certain Ms Fiona O' Friel be my step in weights coach was a pleasure).

I'm super tired from training so I'm going to have an early night.

Sleep tight everyone.

DOR

Foodie blog 1

2010-12-01T21:50:00.003Z

Some of you may know that I am big into food. I love to cook and spend a lot of time thinking about food. This started from years ago realising that a diet of chips, beans and sausages in college does not make for a fast Derval.

On top of needing to eat well to run well I just love food and love figuring out ways to eat healthy food and still eat nice food.

I have been meaning to do food blogs on this blog for ages but better late than never so here is the first food blog.

My topic is vegetables. I have never been a big fan of vegetables and can be described as 'fussy'. This means that I have to be inventive with myself to eat vegetables. I make soups regularly full of vegetables (today I made tomato and basil soup).

For this first food blog here is a recipe for what I see as healthy, tasty coleslaw. I made this last night and had it with roast chicken. Then today I had the remainder of it with pan fried scallops, yummy!

Tasty Slaw

Celeriac

Carrots

low fat creme fraiche

Wholegrain mustard

Lemon

Salt & Pepper

Grate the celeriac and carrots. Put it into a bowl. Add 1-2 tablespoons of creme fraiche and mix through the celeriac and carrots. Add 1 teaspoon of whole grain mustard and mix through. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

If you are bored and make this I hope you enjoy.

Snow is falling all around....

2010-12-01T18:41:00.002Z

Well Hello There,

I am currently living in a world of chaos. Ireland is one of the worst places to be when it snows. As a people we seem to deal with snow badly, maybe it's because we don't get it very often but whatever it is the world outside my front door has turned into chaos.

A few things to report. There is about a foot and a half of snow outside my front door this has resulted in me becoming best friends with my wellies. Everywhere I go at the moment I'm wearing totally ridiculous wellington boots because if I don't wear them my feet get soaked through my trainers.

Yesterday it took me 2 and a half hours to get home from training. it usually takes me 30 minutes. At one point I didn't get out of 1st gear for an hour. Then at another point some hero decided it would be a good idea to drive up the hard shoulder to skip all the traffic but this is where the snow was the worst only to realise he was about to get his car stuck then he just drove right in front of my car and I nearly crashed into him. I kid you not the red mist descended on me, I had to take a lot of deep breathes to fight the urge to get out of the car.

Primarily I run on the outdoor track. Right now the outdoor track is covered in snow and ice which means running on it is impossible. The only saving grace is that I can run on the indoor straight in Santry. The sessions are completely different to the training plan because it is only 60 meters long but I would be totally lost if I didn't have it this week.

My final snow related piece of news is random. So this morning I was just about to get into my car when I noticed one of my neighbours was stuck in the snow. I went over to help push the car out of the snow. I was kinda delighted because I secretly felt that all my hours in the gym would be shown. I was pushing the car with all my strength and then something really embarrassing happened. I was pushing so hard but I put my hand on the brake light at the back of the car and smashed it! So this guy that I offered to help ended up having me smash his back light in his car. Bad Derval, no more super hero car pushing.

Next week I go away training and with this world of chaos I cannot wait to get myself out of here.

Wrap up warm wherever you are!

D x x x

Let there be light

2010-11-22T12:38:00.003Z

Hi All,

I hope everyone is in good form. Ireland is in the middle of major financial issues involving all kinds of parties which to be honest is really sad and depressing for Irish people but this is not a blog about the economic status of the country so I will avoid all talk relating to letters such as IMF, EU or ECB.

There has been lots going in the past while. Last week was a tough training week but it was good. I got through it well. Ailis is officially finished work so I'm super excited that we will be able to do all our running sessions together. Apart from her speediness, it's just good craic to be training with Ailis. We are trying to organise our training camps pre indoors at the moment. It's a good distraction from the cold and wind in Dublin. We are hoping to do a week in December and 3 weeks in January.

Yesterday I did a random thing. I got to turn on the christmas lights on Grafton Street in Dublin. I was asked to do this a few weeks ago and said yes for two reasons firstly it's Christmas and turning on the lights is a cool thing to be asked to do and secondly I got to donate money to a charity of my choice. I was assisted by Santa who had very kindly taken time out of his busy schedule to pop into Dublin city centre. There was a wonderful choir from Ballyphehane school in Cork (the girls won the all Ireland choir competition recently) on hand to sing and the whole thing was very festive and lovely.

In other random news there was a drama in my house this morning. Last night I left a chicken carcass on the counter top to cool so that I could make some chicken stock today. The counter is fairly high and I thought out of reach of the dog. This morning the carcass was on the kitchen floor mangled and there was a very guilty looking dog by the name of Berlino. During the night the dog had decided to have a chicken feast. The problem is that it is impossible to know whether she ate any bones so I had to ring the vet and get advice. The vet said because the chicken was cooked she was probably fine but to keep an eye on her and make sure she wasn't just lying in her bed depressed. I don't know about you but it's kinda hard to judge whether a dog is depressed or not! I was so paranoid that I brought her to the gym today so that I would be able to keep an eye on her. Thankfully she seems fine in fact she seems to be having the time of her life. She was loving saying hi to everyone in sportsmed (she did get put in the car for the session!) plus the vet said to feed her so she is getting loads of treats and on top of all that she has a belly full of chicken. From Berlino's point of view this was a great plan. Note to self do not leave food on counter tops.

I made the yummiest chocolate brownies last night. Alas I can't really devour them and try to jump over the hurdles at speed (chocolate brownies=chunky monster) so the brownies got left in the gym today for everyone there. I love cooking and wanted to try this recipe so even though I wasn't able to eat them at least I got to make them.

I'm off to have a little sleep. Part of my session today was 4 sets of 10 squats which makes Derval a tired girl.

Byeeeeeeeee

DOR

Quickie

2010-11-17T16:58:00.002Z

I'm sorry this has gotta be quick. But I figured better to do a quick blog than none at all.

last weekend was the national athletics awards. I won overall athlete of the year which I am very pleased about. The Irish athletes are performing really well at the moment so I take it as a big compliment. Also Ailis won inspirational performance of the year, go team Cahill go.

More importantly training is cracking on as usual. This is week three of this phase which means it's tough. Last week for a variety of reasons I felt a bit battered but this week I feel good in the sessions. Lifting well and running well. It's still a long cold winter to go so day by day week by week.

Gotta go get some needles stuck into me, a fairly typical wednesday evening for an athlete type.

Later

D X

The John Murray show- Roy Keane interview

2010-11-10T13:30:00.005Z

Hello Hello,

Hope everyone is in good form. I'm tired from training but it's November so that's just the way it goes. No moaning allowed!

In other news. I mentioned that I went to Ipswich last week to interview Roy Keane. I was on the John Murray show on RTE Radio one to chat about it.

Considering you are reading the blog I figure you might like a link to the interview or perhaps you are just super bored and want to listen to me ramble on and on. Either way here is the link.

http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2010/pc/pod-v-10111021m36stjmsdervalroy.mp3

Later

Derval

Blog of too much to talk about..

2010-11-07T21:59:00.002Z

There is way too much to talk about and I feel wrecked after running up hills today so here is a summary:

-I finally went to meet and interview Roy Keane. It was an amazing experience. Very very impressive person. He could not have been nicer. I could blog all day long about him and how super he was but as stated above the hurdler is tired. I will say though KEANO KEANO KEANO

-Thank you to the IRFU. A few weeks back the IRFU offered to send me tickets to the first international rugby game in the new Aviva. I was delighted and asked my Dad to come with me. Turns out the tickets were in the presidents box (this was one of those great surprises)! I got to watch Ireland play South Africa from the best seats in the house. I love big sporting occasions so it was brill. Pity about the result but full credit to ROG for coming on and turning the game around in his 100th cap for Ireland.

- The weather is kicking off big time here in the Pale. As I was driving home from hills there were council vans everywhere putting down sandbags to try to stop flooding. Right now the wind is howling outside and it is lashing rain. The only place its safe is the leaba!

I need to sleep....

DOR X

Rain rain go away

2010-11-02T21:00:00.002Z

Today was a track session, intervals at 75% effort. Since I've been back training Ailis and I haven't been able to do many sessions together. This has been crap because I miss running with the speed queen that is Ailis but today we were able to train together. Yipee! Add in to this mixture the lovely Ian McDonald and it was just party time at the track. Sadly something rained on our parade. Quite simply the rain. it lashed down today. It just rained and rained and rained. No amount of explaining to the sky that we were having a training reunion session and had time targets to hit would stop the rain. But we did the usual (extra clothes and moaning about the rain) and got through the session. Luckily for us we had Terrie at the track to time the runs and shout instructions at us during the rain soaked session. All the targets came quite easy and despite being totally soaked through the session was great.

Go team.

I see you....

2010-10-30T19:12:00.003+01:00

On this blog there is a section that I can get too called stats and in stats it gives me lots of information. The stats are saying that lots of people are reading the blog from far and wide. It also says lots of people are reading quite regularly also. So whether you are here in Ireland or abroad reading I hope you're enjoying.

They tried to make me go to rehab but I say no no no.....

2010-10-29T23:04:00.003+01:00

Recovery week is also check up week. Today Mark did a few little tests on me. Not the fun tests that I love like jumping and max lifting. The annoying tests like stability and core. The results of the tests kinda decide where I do and don't have weaknesses and this then decides what extra rehab exercises will be put into the programme for the next three weeks.

Lets just say I did not nail all the tests which means I'm off to rehab. Rehab for me is all the usual lifting but with added minor exercises to correct the weaknesses. It's been nice to have recovery week. I was really tired at the end of this first phase so it's good to have a rest. Running was really relaxed all week. I ran with Ian on Tuesday and Thursday.

In the spirit of Halloween we made a scary pumpkin today. It's sitting in the window just waiting to give any passer byes dirty looks. Berlino is pretty unfazed by it though. Maybe I need to work harder on making my pumpkins more evil.

Hope you all have a fun Halloween weekend.

Recovery week and Keano

2010-10-27T17:06:00.002+01:00

This week is recovery week. I still train this week but it is at a way lower intensity and the gym work is more core based. For example today in the gym one of my exercises involved lying on the floor and rolling onto my belly but keeping everything really straight. Sounds easy peasy but it's awkward. I kinda look like a turtle that has been put on their shell and can't get back. Running is focused less on time targets and more on running technically well.

Due to it being recovery week it means I have time to do other things. Unfortunately most of these things are pretty boring. At the moment I have to do my tax return which just makes me wanna go to sleep.

In other news I have something really really exciting coming up. I'm going to be interviewing Roy Keane for RTE radio 1. I have a huge amount of respect for his achievements and I'm really looking forward to meeting him. I'm trying to decide what to ask him at the moment so if you have any suggestions put them in the comments section and I'll see what I can do.

Thanks,

derval

If I used Twitter I would tweet....

2010-10-23T15:35:00.001+01:00

rest day is spent bringing dog to dog park, reading papers, napping and going to Templestreet fundraiser. Lovely.

Saying no...

2010-10-22T18:14:00.002+01:00

I find it hard to say no to things. Even if I know that there is no way that I can do something or if it will be bad for me. Right now for training I train 6 days a week either once or twice a day. I have 1 day a week off which I usually spend trying to recover from the other days spent training. When people request me to do things I have to make sure that they don't effect training. Most of the time I would love to do everything that is requested of me but because I'm only one person it's just not physically possible.

A friend of mine called Declan Lee organises appearances etc for me and he is super at it. He understands about training and about my lack of time so he is great at knowing what he can and cannot commit me too.

The whole point of this blog is that I had to say no to doing something for a running club today. I hate saying no to people and because I know how hard people in running clubs work it is extra hard for me to say no. This particular outing would have meant a long time in a car and it would have affected two days training.

All in all now I feel shite about it!!!! Even though I know that I do lots of little extra things that make a difference, this one no makes me feel crappy.

On a positive note something that I am doing is a Q and A in aid of Templestreet children's hospital tomorrow night. Triathletes Alistar Brownlee and Bryan Keane are also taking part. There will be an auction on the night and they are auctioning off a pair of my saucony racing spikes. It is a fantastic cause and hopefully the turn out will be really good.

Bye for now

Derv

Oh no

2010-10-21T18:27:00.003+01:00

Today the best way to sum up how I feel is "oh no". This week training has been tough. I was back on the track (as opposed to running on the grass). Track is just tougher, the reps are faster and they are more tiring.
Today's session was speed endurance. We had to run a little bit longer and lots of reps. Anything over 200m kinda pushes me into the bad place so today I was in the bad place. I feel I'm just a short and fast kinda girl not a long and fast girl. All you 400/800m runners out there I have respect for you because I just could not do what you do. Anyway back to the point today was a long one. I survived the running but then to make it worse Mark met me at the track to do weights afterwards. This is a new part of training, normally I don't do weights after this session. Legs felt battered from the running so the weights were hard. Now I'm just lying on the couch hurting.
In other news a friend of ours has a puppy called Runty. Runty is super cute. He was abandoned and found in a bag with all his brothers and sisters. Now he is doing great and just really playful. On Wednesday Runty was in our house for the day. Him and Berlino played all day. Then we went to the dog park in Marley Park and the two of them just ran around playing with loads of other dogs.
I need to peel myself off the couch and make some dinner.
later.
D

busy bee

2010-10-17T17:58:00.003+01:00

Hi All,

This week I was really busy. There was actually so much going on that I'm just going to blog about a few things of this week.

1. Cushionstown A.C awards night

I gave out the awards at the cushionstown a.c awards night. This was the second year I've given them out and just like last year it was a really big pleasure to do. There are so many people down there who give their time in a voluntary capacity and who really make a difference to grassroots athletics. Then of course there are the athletes. There were loads of kids there who I met last year and then there were lots of new faces. It's always good to see kids still staying in the sport and of course new athletes are great to see too. The athletes have had a great 2010 season and hopefully they continue on for a super 2011.

2. The Wright Venue

I'm not a big clubber but I found myself in the wright venue last Friday night. The gym where I train (Sportsmed) had a night out as a celebration of how well the year has gone. It was a great laugh and really fun to see everyone out of tracksuits and in normal gear. Plus it was entertaining to see everyone dancing. The Wright Venue is an awesome nightclub. It is huge and has loads of different sections. Great place for a party.

3. Training

This week I was really back into the swing of things with training. There was plenty of weights lifted and lots of running done. Gym work was really enjoyable. I'm a bit better than I would have expected at most of my lifting. Running is good but it's very relaxed so far. Today I was out in Meath with Ailis and Sean doing hills. Ailis and I haven't been running together since the end of the season. I can report that Ailis is as fast as ever and the hill is still nice and steep.

It's starting to get cold now so it will be time for hats and scarfs soon. Brrrrrrr. That's all for now.

D x x x

P.S All week the Eliza Doolittle song 'Pack up' has been on the radio and I'm loving it. It's on repeat in my head!

No more chocolate monster

2010-10-10T22:27:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow is D-day. It is the day that the good professional athlete type diet begins. I've just polished off my final Mars bar (from the freezer and dipped into a cup of tea Mmmmm) and I'm ready to face the world of good healthy eating.

No more baking cakes and muffins. Only healthy run fast food from here on out. I will keep you all posted.

Night night.

Derval

where did you run today?

2010-10-08T17:01:00.003+01:00

Hi guys,

Hope everyone is in wonderful form. Most Fridays I do weights and then I have to do 50m runs on the grass. The running is really relaxed but needs to get done. What I normally do is walk down to the Trinity college campus from the gym and run on the grass there. It's really enjoyable. There are loads of people who run around the grounds and it's beautiful down there. This brings me on to the title of this blog, while I was down there running I was thinking I wonder where everyone else is running today and I wonder is it as pretty as here.

I've been watching a bit of the commonwealth games. It's kinda nice to watch a championship normally I'm running in them. It's a bit of a shame that all the top athletes from the commonwealth are not at the championships because some events don't have many people of a high standard in them. But I love to watch sport so it's entertaining regardless. Last night there was serious drama in the women's 100m. The aussie Sally Pearson (a fellow hurdler) and Laura Turner both appeared to false start but only Turner got DQ'd. Then in the final Sally ran super to win but a few hours later she got DQ'd for the false start. I think it's quite unfair on her. They let her run and she won the race so for her to have her medal taken away is very harsh. If they wanted to D.Q her for the false start they should have done so on the track.

Tomorrow I'm going on a roadtrip with Ailis to see our nutritionist. I'm still eating whatever I like so it will be good to get a kick in the arse!

No more typing the dog needs to be walked.

Later

derval

Day 1-Weights,DIY & Vomit!!!!!

2010-10-04T22:45:00.003+01:00

Today I started back doing a little bit of training. It was weights with Mark. Things are always kinda interesting with Mark in the gym because I never know what he is going to do with me. Today was fine. Now lets be honest I wasn't exactly looking like a lean mean fighting machine but I did ok.

The most exciting part of the day comes from the house. I have a lot of clothes, shoes and accessories. I'm a typical girl and love clothes but add all the sports clothes I have to this and it makes for a whole lot of stuff in the house. I've had this theory that I can't possibly organise any of this unless I have a shoe rack to put all my shoes on. Today after my weights session I took a stroll to Argos and bought a shoe rack. This presented a major problem, it was flat packed and needed to be assembled. DIY is not really the way I roll I'm more a fan of others doing the DIY. But I was home alone and had to man up. I had a screwdriver and a lot of metal to figure out. I got down to it and before I knew it I was the proud owner of a new shoe rack. How very exciting. Now all I have to do is start tidying all my stuff up.

On another note I must apologise to the Ryan's. Deirdre Ryan (Irish high jump record holder) and I went for a little walk with Berlino today. Afterwards we went into her house to have a cup of tea and say hi to her Mum. They got a nice new carpet in the living room and as I was admiring it Berlino decided to have a look too. Rather than just look though she vomited on the carpet. Oh the shame!!! Thankfully the Ryans are dog people and were far more concerned about Berlino than the carpet. Both the dog and carpet are now fully recovered. Carpet crisis diverted.

Catch ya later.

Back in the office

2010-10-03T20:01:00.003+01:00

Hi Everyone,

It has been ages since I have blogged. But a break is always a good thing and I definitely needed to switch off for a while. September was a blissful month. It was wonderful to be able to eat anything I wanted and be able to get to do things I don't normally get to do when I'm in season. These included visiting schools to chat to kids, going on holiday, spending time in Cork, doing some media stuff and socialising a lot more than normal.

Now I'm back in the office. I got my first email today with the first training schedule for preparation for 2011 season. October is a month of getting fit again and putting everything in place for a smooth 2011. For the next week I will still eat loads of crappy food and socialise a bit more than normal but I will start doing a little bit of training again.

People often think that the hard part of athletics is the racing but for me that is the easy part. The hard part is the next three months. The next three months will be putting all the building blocks in place. There are two words that come to mind when I think about it SUPER EXCITED!!!!!!! I know it's going to be tough and really horrible at times but I feel like I have so much to improve on and I can't wait to work my bum off for 2011.

Hopefully everyone is in great form.

Talk soon,

Derval

break break break break break

2010-09-07T23:43:00.004+01:00

Dear blog readers,

I'm sorry but we are on a break. It's time for your hurdler to go on holiday and take some time out which means no blogging until I go back training. Be good and play nice while I'm gone. I shall leave you with a sneaky peek picture of the after party at continental cup. Great night to end a great season.

Bye for now!!!

Derval

GO RAIBH MAITH AGAT

2010-09-05T20:57:00.003+01:00

Ok 5th in 12.99. I'm not going to analyze or discuss right now. I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who wished me the best for the season and who supported me really well. It is very much appreciated. 2010 Outdoor season has been wonderful. Far from perfect but it has been a pleasure. So again thank you for the support. Onwards and upwards next season.

That's a wrap....

Derval xoxo

Not Barry's but still....

2010-09-02T21:54:00.002+01:00

Sitting here in my leaba in Split drinking a cup of tea. No matter where in the world I go I always want a cup of tea. Normally I try to pack some Barry's tea with me on my trips (Don't even think about saying Lyons is nicer!!!) but I forgot this time which means I'm here in my leaba in Split drinking some random breakfast tea. Still though life is good.

I arrived here this evening. We drove from Zagreb. The drive was really interesting because I got to see loads of Croatia which is absolutely beautiful. The hotel is gorgeous. It is right on the sea front. The best part about it is that I have my own room. Just to give you some insight having my own room at a meet is very rare. Normally meet organisers throw everybody in twin rooms because it is way cheaper so I spend loads of time rooming with girls that i have never met before(One of the tough things about being Irish on the circuit is there isn't always an Irish person at the same meet). For example the last meet I was put in a room with Ingvill despite never meeting her before but she was so lovely that it was a pleasure to room with her. Athletes tell each other horror stories about crazy roomies. To get to the point having my own room here is fantastic.

Tomorrow morning i will go to the track and check everything out. I will do some hurdles too. I'm not sure what exactly I have to do until I talk to Sean or Terrie. I can't wait to see the track. I got all my Europe kit this evening. It's really cool and nice to be able to get the opportunity to race for Europe.

It is official Monica Hargrove is my person of the week. She has kindly donated her shoes to me. She is gone to a different race but knew that I was a bit fecked shoe wise so she just gave them to me. I won't see her again this season so she just told me to keep them. What a nice person.

On a non Split note. I'm planning on staying in Ireland for my holiday in September but didn't book anything which now means it's really hard to find a house to rent. Ooops it seems being lastminute.com is not a good thing.

The cup of (unfortunately) non Barry's tea is almost gone, it's time for me to sleep.

Night night from Split,

D X

Two wrongs don't make a right!!!!

2010-09-01T22:56:00.003+01:00

Tonight i ran (I won't say raced because I didn't race I just ran). Lets go back a few hours. I was in my room getting ready for the meet with my room mate. I'm rooming with a really lovely Norwegian girl called Ingvill Måkestad (Who btw ran a fantastic Norwegian record tonight in the 800m well done to her). It was a few minutes to the bus so I decided to put on my trainers. As soon as I took them out of the bag I realised it was not good. I had brought two shoes for the same foot. Honestly my heart just kinda dropped. What a stupid mistake!!!! I love my saucony fastwitch running shoes and have worn them training/warming for racing all season long yet here I was in a big meet with only a few minutes to go with two shoes for the same foot. The only other shoes I have are a comfy pair of flip flops and a fabulous pair of killer heels, not exactly warm up shoe material.

I rang Doyler and he put out the sos to all his athletes to try sort me out with some shoes asap. Thankfully a lovely girl by the name of Monica Hargrove let me borrow her runners for the evening. They were a size too big but I was very grateful for them and to her. I recently gave an athlete a singlet at Zurich because she forgot hers so perhaps it was good karma.

After this the race was crap!!! I don't really make excuses because lets be honest you either run good or bad and tonight was firmly in the bad category. But in way of explanation I've been working really hard on running straight at the hurdle and I was determined to concentrate on that tonight. I ran great for the first 3,i was touching down first ish but then I tipped the 4th and I just lost it. I had a brief moment where I thought of falling in a race earlier in the season and all my momentum just went. I was then just trailing home in a slow, bad way. It's weird though because I know I'm not in a much different place to where I was pre Europeans I'm just not running many of the hurdles well or consistent. I was chatting to Lolo Jones for a while after and we agreed in hurdles you can be way way way slower in a race than your shape and then you run a fast time and it all makes sense. It was kinda nice to hear one of the other girls understanding.

Doyler is driving a few of us to Split tomorrow. I'm excited. It will be such a different experience to be on a European team and I'm hoping that I can do myself some justice. It's bonus time in the season and I want to finish well.

Between now and Sunday I need to find myself a pair of runners to wear!

Bye bye...

DOR XOX

Zagreb

2010-09-01T11:23:00.002+01:00

Hi all,

Just thought id give an update. I'm here in zagreb. it took forever to get here. I was traveling for ages yesterday. It was kinda crappy. The hotel was really noisy last night so now I'm really tired. But its the last week of the season so I need to just suck it up and run.

I'm trying to work on running straight at the hurdle and not drifting in my lane. It sounds easy but very often it isn't! It's all about getting from a to b in a straight line.

Thats all for now.

Hope everyone is good at home!

xox

Here we go again

2010-08-30T22:14:00.003+01:00

I'm packing the bag for yet another trip this summer. I spend so much time traveling during the season. I fly to Zagreb tomorrow. I fly Dublin-frankfurt-Zagreb. It means I will spend a lot of the day traveling. It's something I'm used too at this stage. I will probably spend most of the day watching series 5 of "House" on my laptop. I love that tv show.

It's weird to be in the last week of my 2010 season. It feels good though. I wasn't supposed to be racing in Zagreb, it was a last minute decision. I would rather go off and race than spend the next few days at the track training. I'm at the stage of the season where I just don't relish the thought of training. It's almost time to have a break so rather than being on a track in Santry I'll get my bum to a racing track in Zagreb and give it a lash.

Everything else is fairly quiet, I can't really relax and have the craic until next week. But then I will really have the craic.......countdown is on!

Years ago I found this quote and it has lived in my training diary ever since. In the last week of my 2010 season I think it's a good quote to throw up on the blog. I hope you like it as much as me...

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

Bye for now,

D X

"That's not my name that's not my name"

2010-08-28T19:04:00.003+01:00

I've been meaning to write a blog about my name for ages. So when I race abroad nobody ever gets my name wrong it's all "Hi derval/How are you derval". You see foreign people have no idea about this Dervla person. Alas when I'm in Ireland there is a whole lot of Dervla going on. A few things people (You would be surprised how many) have asked me about my name over the years:

Are you sure its Derval?

Did you say Gerbil?

Do you mean Dervla?

Is it Dervla on your birthcert but you prefer Derval?

Sure is Dervla not the same?

So to clarify my name is Derval. No I'm not named after a small rodent. No LA at the end. Nope I didn't change it and no Dervla is not the same name.

I used to get cranky about the whole Derval/Dervla thing but now I kinda find it funny. There are a lot of people who have known me for years and no matter how many times I tell them they still say "How are ya Dervla?"

That brings me to the point of my blog title. Any time I get called Dervla instead of getting cranky I just kinda sing the ting tings sing "Thats not my name"

So this blog is dedicated to all of you who get called the wrong name too!

Enjoy!

Derval (Not LA!!!!!!!) xox

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN4YMli-Esw&ob=av3e

PS Sorry for lack of video and just link but I'm not technologically advanced enough to upload the video!

Baby steps!!!! Roll on split...

2010-08-27T21:05:00.000+01:00

Brrr it's Brussels

2010-08-27T12:46:00.002+01:00

Here I am in Brussels and let me tell you it is cold outside. It's really windy and cold. I'm hoping that the weather gods take some sympathy on me and make the weather a little bit nicer for tonight.This meet is super and there is one big reason for that.....
SHINKINS!!!!
Those of you who don't know who Karen Shinkins is shame on you (former 400m runner 51.07) and for those of you who do know her you can understand how exciting it is that she is here. Shinks is one of my best mates but alas lives in America so we don't get enough time to bond. She is here to pace make the women's 800m. I arrived last night and we have been catching up on all the news. She talks as much as I do so as you can imagine that is a whole lot of talking.
My race is 9.20 tonight. After Zurich I started feeling a bit worried about this but then I gave myself a bit of a kick in the arse. I need to enjoy it. It's diamond league final!!! Hurdles were better in training this week. I started to feel like I was finding my rhythm again so fingers crossed I can show that tonight and do myself some justice. Good thoughts to be sent this way please!
I handed in my thesis yesterday, I'm so relieved. It feels great to have it done. No more study for me. Hooray.
That brings me on to a new topic though. My masters is over I'll need to find something else to do. I always like to have two things going on running plus something else. Any ideas feel free to post them in the comments section!!! Random thoughts gladly accepted.
I'm posting this whilst in the hotel lobby on my laptop. Lots of athletes are wandering around. Lolo Jones just walked past I wonder is she nervous? It is between her and Priscilla Lopes Schliep for the overall diamond league hurdles winner. As always I'm sure the hurdles will be a dog fight.
Gotta go have some lunch and get ready to race,
Bye for now,
Derval xoxo
PS Ray I hope you like the new background. No more pink for the moment!!!!!!!

Mood for Pink

2010-08-23T22:34:00.003+01:00

Just changed the blog to pink. I know not everyone loves pink but it's the blog of Derval so I get to decide!
I went to the cork v dublin match yesterday. i'm loving that Cork won and are now in the final. Up the rebels!!! I was asked to walk on the pitch at half time with Grainne Murphy (Swimmer who won silver at europeans) so that was fun. It was great because there were so many Cork fans there.
I had a hurdles session yesterday. I'm having some technical problems at the moment but I'm getting there. I was kinda like this before Europeans and then when things clicked it felt great. Alas thats the way things are in the world of hurdles. Sometimes things are a little off and it makes you slow, slow, slow. I need to have a bit of patience and make the most of my next two races.
In other news my Mum was up in Dublin with me for the weekend. We had a lovely time and it was great to spend time with her. Then my Dad came up for the day on Sunday so it was lovely to see him too.
Peter is finally back from his racing. It's great because we are starting to plan our holidays in September. I can't get excited yet though. There is still some business to take care of this season.
The thesis is almost done. Thank goodness. I submit it on wednesday and it will not be a moment too soon!
bye for now,
D xox

Best meet in the world but ran like a fat cow!!

2010-08-19T22:55:00.002+01:00

Before I discuss the utter slowness of my run tonight I need to give you a little background to the title of my blog. There is a lady that I have known since I was 17 and first starting running in serious races. She is Latvian and her name is Ludmila. I have always thought she was a cool lady. In the 80's she ran 100mh. She is brutally honest which I have always found refreshing (even if she was telling me that I ran crap) Yesterday I arrived in Zurich which is the best meet in the world outside of championship running. I had lunch with Ludmila and I was asking her if there was any news or gossip going on. She went on to tell me a story about an athlete that isn't doing very well. At the end of the story I asked "so why is she doing so bad?" to which I was told "Because now she is a fat cow!!!" I laughed so hard. Only Ludmila could say this and get away with it. I bumped into her at dinner after my race and told her that I raced like a fat cow.

Ok enough blabbing on. So the race. It was shite I was shite. I felt really flat. I hurdled 3 pretty bad and then couldn't get myself back into it. I think it's a combination of loads of things. Euro's, college etc. I've planned for racing well in the next two weeks so I need to keep focused on that.

I fly back tomorrow morning and then go straight into the gym with Mark for a session and physio.

Night night,

(temporarily) The fat cow xox

Packing the bags

2010-08-17T23:35:00.003+01:00

I'm off to zurich I kept that rather quiet eh. Well not really it was a last minute decision. Doyler got me a lane and rang me with the option of it. The irish track season is pretty much shut down now so the track is a lonely place. Ailis is done for the season so no one to run with. I train all year for races so why not get my bum on a plane and go jump some sticks??? Rather than stay home and do a session on my own. Plus Zurich is a fantastic meet and there will be many years in the future that I won't have these opportunities. Sometimes you gotta just take the good opportunities and appreciate them.
This brings me on to packing:
The essentials:
Racing kit
Spikes
Runners
Tracksuit
extras:
cumfy pajamas
some casual clothes
Laptop
snacks
Vitamins
Make up bag.
measuring tape
i think I have it fairly sorted but I will get up an hour early to do a quick panicked run around to make sure I have what I need.

My race plan is to concentrate on a couple of things that I've been working on and run like hell! Surely this plan will bring me only good things.

Ah yes this seems familiar..

2010-08-15T22:59:00.002+01:00

ok so as of late I have become way more familiar with business journals than hurdles. My thesis is my main focus at the moment but today I got some joy back by going to the track and doing hurdles. For all the hurdlers if you ever get bored of hurdling just try to do a thesis and all of a sudden the hurdles seem very very exciting!!!
I met Sean today for my little session. It was runs over hurdle 1 and building up to hurdle 5. I was fairly ropey at the start and then I got a bit more into it. It was really lovely to be back doing some hurdles. I was feeling a bit out of the running thing with all the boring boring college work but today it was all nice and familiar back with the hurdles.
Thats all for now.
D.................

Great Day

2010-08-14T22:16:00.003+01:00

today was a great day. My boyfriend sails the star and he had a really big event this week (I was over for the first day of it). It was called sail for gold and was in the Olympic venue for 2012. All the guys who will be in the hunt for medals in 2012 were there for the event. He was sailing from Monday to Saturday. He has been winning all week but today was a huge day because it was the medal race which meant double points. End result was he won, Yay. I'm so delighted for him. We are currently a very happy pair.
In other awesome news the Irish swimmer Grainne Murphy won a silver medal at the European championships today. She is only 17! What an incredible achievement. Plus you know what they say silver is the new gold (ahem ahem!!!!!) I've been reading about her all week in the papers so I was delighted to hear about her doing so well. I think she is going to have a fantastic future and I hope she enjoys every bit of her silver medal.
I went to the track today and had a little session. It was some sprints without any hurdles. I was there on my own so I had the Iphone for company. I'm loving the new Rihanna song hard so I just threw that on repeat and sang away happily to myself. This time of year is so relaxed at training because the work is done and its just about maintaining some form and enjoying it. If you can't enjoy this part of the year then there is something wrong.
In non sports news the thesis is not so awesome. I swear 100 words takes about an hour. It's like my brain is on strike. It has picked the worst possible time to strike and I'm gonna have to have a serious talk with it to kick start it.
Ok gonna go have a talk with the brain.
Later
D
P.S. yes that is berlino wearing my medal from euro's. Please note I am stuck in the house because of the thesis and its the little things that keep me entertained!