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, December 6, 2015

Let the training begin!!!!

In just 15 weeks I will be running the Anthem 1/2 Marathon in Virginia Beach. This race will be the first of 3 half marathons in a 3 month span. This previous week was supposed to be my first full week of training, but due to a nasty Gout flare up I had to push the first week of training to this upcoming week. The only reason I did any running this week was because I am doing Stephanie's December run challenge and I wanted to at least get in a few miles to report.
So there is a few factors that I believe is going to make this my best training cycle to date. First, recently I have been very unhappy with my job. My manager got fired for something that had nothing to do with her. I was very unhappy because the person who causes all the trouble at work was next in line to be in charge, and sure enough they made him the fill in manager. Only problem is he didn't have a clue on how to do the paperwork so my workload was tripled. Now before all of this shit went down I was already in talks with one of my previous jobs about coming back. I use to do installations for an office furniture company and really liked it.(building cubicles) The only reason I left was because the company split and I didn't want to be in the middle of the drama. My brother in-law works there and told me they needed an installer who knew what he was doing, so I talked to them and decided to go back. Tomorrow is my official first day. The best part of this though is they are located right next to my gym. I can now get up at my normal time, go run on the treadmill and take a shower at the gym. No more missing runs due to late nights. I have absolutely no excuse for not getting my runs in.
Secondly, they always say you learn from a previous race or training cycle. I believe this so much. I now know what my weakest parts of running are and I intend to work on them a lot this cycle.
and finally I want to represent  Pittsburgh and the companies that I endorse during these races, and I want to have a good showing in all of the races. I have taken baby steps at each  race and now I am ready to take a giant leap and really put in the work for these races. These races will be the set up to my summer and fall. I am debating on doing a Tri in the fall but If I do really well in all 3 of these races that I do in the spring then I think I will throw in a full marathon instead and see If I can make it to Boston.

So you had a few months with me not posting about my training on Sundays, and I hope you enjoyed the other things I posted. For now though we will be getting back to the training updates.
What is your first Spring race?

2 comments:

  1. YAY!! So excited to follow your training! I'm going to be training for a full in the spring (the week before Pittsburgh) and also doing the NorthPark races in the winter. I'm excited but also pretty scared.

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  2. I will be doing most of the North Park races as well. Good luck with your training and I will be following along. What full is it that you are doing?

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