Who Am I?

I am an avid runner and have been running since I was 15 years old. I began running low to medium distances while on my high school track team, running the 800 meter and 1600 meter races (I was a sub 5 miler and a 2 minute 800 runner). In addition to the track team, I also joined the cross country team. After high school I still wanted to run and decided to start doing road races. I have probably ran a couple hundred 5k races (16.29 PR)along with many 10k's as well. In 2009 I decided to step up my game and try to tackle my first marathon. I will be honest; the only reason I did this was because my father ran a few and I wanted to show him that I could do what he did. I trained poorly for my first one and regret it. If you are going to run a race, train like you want to win. I still continue to run marathons and other distances as well, and every race is a chance for me to better myself.
I started this blog to hopefully communicate with other runners and to shed any knowledge I may have about the sport that can help other runners. I believe running is the best sport and can be a great stress reliever. I encourage all runners to spread the word of our sport and show people why running is so good and why the community of runners has such great people. You can follow me on twitter @byrne1324 or find me on facebook- Shaun Byrne

Sunday, August 24, 2014

8 WEEKS Till Columbus

    8 weeks left. Every time I say it I can't believe how fast time is going.  It seemed like yesterday I just started training for this race.  As of right now I believe I am going into this race in the best shape of my training and mentally more prepared than I have ever been.    This week had some high points and some very low points.

MONDAY:  As I was leaving work I noticed that my neck was bothering me.  Normally I would of used this day to just rest, but since I missed my long run from the week before I was in make up mode.  I headed out on my long run when I returned home from work and noticed my back and neck were going to hurt most of the run.  I pulled back and ran a very slow 15 miles.  The upside is I still got in the miles. The downside is my neck and back were in excruciating pain. Before bed I took a muscle relaxer and a pain pill to see if that would help.  It did help me sleep through the night but the pain was worse when I woke up on Tuesday morning.

TUESDAY:  After dealing with the pain all day at work I decided to go straight to the chiropractor and have him look at my back and neck.  When I arrived they took me in a room for a massage. This is the standard procedure here.  Now somewhere in the room there must of been some miss-communication, because what I said to the lady was:  "It hurts very bad and when I move my neck side to side the pain shoots down my back"   What she must of heard was "treat me like a rag doll and act like we are wrestling, the more pain you put me through the better I will feel."  This lady was dropping elbows on me like she was Hulk Hogan.  At one point I thought to myself do I tell her to stop or is this normal and I am just being a wimp. I still don't know the answer, but I can assure you this, next time it happens I am just saying pass on the massage.  The rest of the visit felt a lot better but when I left I didn't feel to much better.

WEDNESDAY:  As much pain as I was in I still decided to take a 6 mile run.  I actually loosened up on the run and was in very little pain.  My time was 51 minutes.  Unfortunately after the run when I was home the pain quickly came back and I was having trouble moving my neck at all.

THURSDAY:  Since the pain seemed to subside when I ran Wednesday I decided to run a 4 mile tempo run.  Once again the pain wasn't bad when I ran, but when I finished the pain was back and in full force.  I tried using a heating pad at night, but it didn't do much.

FRIDAY:  I decided to not run at all this day since Saturday I was running the Run Around The Square 5K.  I did do some light stretches that I thought would help my neck.  The pain wasn't to bad, but it was still there.

SATURDAY:  RUN AROUND THE SQUARE:  I will have a full recap of my race on Thursday for you.  When I woke up I felt pretty good and the pain wasn't to bad.  After I warmed up for a bit I felt really loose and was excited to see what I could do on the hard course.  It was humid that morning and I was sweating just from warm up and stretching.  I ended up running a time of 23:27. my pace was 7:23 per mile.  This is the pace I will need to be around for the Columbus Marathon if I want to get to Boston.  Here is the weird thing about this race.  I felt awesome the whole race. I held back a bit because I was afraid the trail would be slippery and I didn't want to risk falling and getting hurt.  I expected my time to be better, but with the humidity and hills I can understand why it was what it was.

SUNDAY:  Today is my wife's and I first anniversary. I was planning on not running anyway today since I have decided to go and get X-rays tomorrow after work about my neck and back.  I pray it is just a pinched nerve.  I will say this, It will take a lot more than this shit to hold me down.  So this week is going to have a long run to make up for this weekend, but I will stay on track.  Here are a few pictures of my wedding last year.

*Before I get to the pictures, please take the time to look at my 24 hour fund raiser page on my blog.  It is for a great cause and any donations help.

























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4 comments:

  1. Wonder why your neck started hurting all of a sudden? Some times I sleep funny and my neck hurts in the morning, but it usually goes away in a day or two. Hope you can get some relief from it soon. Sounds like a great week of training despite the pain. Congrats on the awesome time at the RATS race (can't wait to read the recap) & your anniversary!

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    1. I wish I knew why it started hurting as well. Today I am feeling a lot better and it seems like it is loosening up. Hopefully the pain stays away for good.

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  2. I got a "sports" massage once & vowed that I would never do that again! The gal (I'll call her Helga) was all over my skinny ass with her elbows. When I left I felt completely violated, lol! The next day I felt as if I had been beat up. Eight weeks-how exciting! You still have plenty of time to get that training in. Good that you felt comfortable at your marathon pace during the 5k, and at least you know the weather will be much cooler. Keep your eye on the prize-I know you can do it!
    PS Happy anniversary. Your wife is gorgeous!

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    1. Thank you!!! Believe me I have my eye on that prize!! With 8 weeks left I am going to really amp up the training. My shoulder and neck are starting to feel better and I am ready to push myself

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