Your ears are your eyes

I was deciding on a run today, and as I looked out the window I saw the Sugarloaf mountain in the distance - and thought I'd explore the roads around the base rather than run the 2.2 miler locally again. Oh, I never did get to go to the boxing club with my younger brother - dodged a bullet there I think! It sounds like they really work you out. Anyway, I drove up to Kilternan (by the base of the mountain.) The sun was still out though the temperature was quite cool. The wind was light too. 

I started out fine, and decided against going up the mountain right away - rather I headed down a road that was about 4km in distance. It was a narrow road but had spectacular views.

At about minute 22 or so I momentarily got a sharp pain in my achilles tendon but after slowing down some and focusing on relaxing everything seemed okay so I carried on. I soon found out I was running by an area that had warnings about it being a firing range - I didn't notice any red flags! Going down a road like this I was a little concerned of possible territorial dogs.

However, it wasn't until I was at the end that I heard dogs barking so I was ready to turn around at that point anyway.

As I got to minute 35 or so, I picked up the pace - having being running against the clock for quite a bit I developed a certain rythm that your body wants to fall into. If you go a little below pace you feel it and want to push the pace some.

Once I got to the base of the mountain I decided to give it a shot. The achilles seemed fine at this time, but after 5 minutes of going steady up hill the pain got very sharp and defined.
I decided to stop - right at about 45 mins total. I walked down the mountain - that wasn't so easy since the foot was quite sore. Once I got on the road it started to feel okay and then I started to jog lightly, and then faster - and with some pent up energy I ran the last kilometer or so pretty fast - probably far too fast, because once I got back the tendon has been hurting a lot since!

Here are some photos of the views along the way that give a sense of the Irish country side.
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The roads around here were very narrow. It would be hard for two vehicles to pass each other - somebody would have to go up on the embankment. Though I only came across 2 or 3 vehicles - I had to be contantly listening and also judging where I was at as far as corners, blind spots and everything.

This is no sport or place for wearing headphones - you absolutely must be ready to move - as you'll see in the video below.

This was a fun video - as well as showing how you had to use your ears to watch for traffic!