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, October 25, 2015

Beaches, Beer, and Unicorns

After my goal race last weekend I decided to take a break from running. I toyed with the idea of not running for 2 weeks but have decided to just keep it to a one week vacation. So instead of my normal weekly recap of training I am going to tell you some of the stuff I decided while on this little mental vacation.  Before I do though I would like take this quick minute and try to pursued you to take a mental break after a goal race. I know it sounds crazy that you wont be running for a week or 2, but it will give your body time to recover and it will also give your mind time to recover.  What do we all say?  the hardest part of training is the mental part, am I right? I think we all deserve a little time to just sit back and relax. I will be honest when I say not running for the week felt great and it is just what my mind needed. It was like my body was still here but my mind was on a tropical beach sipping beers and catching some rays.
So like I said earlier, while on this little mental vacation I came up with a few things.  First, I toyed with the idea of giving up the blog. Don't get me wrong I love doing this and it has actually led me to many great products and races. I felt like it was getting to repetitious. Then I looked back and remembered why I started this blog, the idea was to show people who felt they were not good enough to run that anyone can be a runner. I decided that during the off months of training( I am obviously always training, but if my goal race isn't until spring then I don't need to give weekly training recaps until I am in full training mode) I would try to do some new things, whether it be high light a runner or just talk about training methods and tips that may be able to help a new runner out. 
Secondly I decided that after my race last week, I am content with just running. By this I mean I am content in not always going into a race and looking for a PR. Last week at the race I made the decision to not look at my clock, and it made the race so much easier for me. If I PR a race great and if I don't, oh well. I know what I need to do to train for a good time and I still plan on training that way, but I am not going to let me watch dictate my actions in a race.
My last decision I have made is it is time to go chase a unicorn.  I have put full marathons on hold for over a year now. The reason I did this was I wanted to work on halfs and build some speed and I think I have accomplished that goal. Now it is time to find a full and go see if I have what it takes to get to Boston.  I don't have a particular race in mind or anything like that but I have never been confident with my training and what I have been doing to better myself. I am thinking a mid-summer race. I am more of a hot weather runner rather than a cold weather runner.
So expect to see some changes on the blog in weeks to come. In the meantime I am going to enjoy this last day of my runcation and try to put a dent in my beer fridge.

Cheers Mate!!!!

8 comments:

  1. Nice beer fridge! What are you favorite kinds? And I'm glad you're not giving up blogging..kind of scared me when you said that! Especially before our big blogger meet up :) Enjoy your run-cation!!

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    1. My favorite beers would be... New Castle, Brooklyn brown ale, leffe, and pumking. Yes we need to do the blogger meet up( at a bar ). And no need to worry I am not going anywhere

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  2. I agree with not doing a PR all the time. It happened to me yesterday - I wanted to run the race in 8 hours. But after being injured, I just had a ton of fun and discussed with other people here and there. And I loved it!
    By the time, I realize that PR does not matter. What matters is the benefit of running on my whole life - the meditation, the ability to explore the nature, connect with other people. My time? It does not really matter.

    If you want to chase this unicorn so badly, I would recommend steamtown. One of the biggest Boston Qualifier in this country! Plus, the next one is in one year which means you would need to train ... right ... now ....

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    1. Thanks for that heads up on that race. Like you I realized there is more than the times of a race, it's the atmosphere, the people, and everything around it that makes me enjoy doing races.

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  3. I have no doubt that you will get your BQ. I look forward to seeing which race you pick.

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  4. Check out the Lehigh Valley Marathon. It's in early September and a very high BQ rate. Good luck!

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  5. Thanks for the heads up on that one :)

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