Friday, February 25, 2005

Wonderful

eircom net Ireland-International / Irish news headlines from leading Irish newspapers:

A large section of Dublin's north side will be without water for the next 24 hours due to a broken water main, Dublin City Council has said. A large section of Dublin's north side will be without water for the next 24 hours due to a broken water main, Dublin City Council has said.

[...]

The following areas will be without water until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning: Clare Hall; Clonshaugh; Ferrycarrig Estate; Glin Road, Darndale; Macroom Road, Donaghmede; Greencastle Estate; Artane; Bunratty Road; Coolock; Kilmore Road; Kilmore; Kilbarrack; Stockhole Lane; Baldoyle; Sutton; Riverside Estate; Barrycourt Road; Adare Estate; Millbrook; IDA Clonshaugh and all surrounding areas.
.


I guess I'll be showering in UCD tonight then.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Schedule

Right, here's my fencing schedule for the coming months.

This weekend is the Intervarsities. I'm not fencing obviously, but I will be coaching and presiding. While I was in Trinity I did 5 intervarsities, come the 5th I told myself "Never again".

Next weekend, the 5th & 6th of March, I'll be going to the Nottingham Open with Marcos.

Then we have a couple of weekends break before the Birmingham Open on the 26-27 March. I haven't booked accomodation or flight for that yet but I'm nearly definitly going.

The weekend after that is the 5-Nations in Durham. I'm captain of the Sabre team BTW.

Finally we have the Nationals. It's on the 9th and 10th of April according to the Irish Fencing website. That'll be the season effectivly over, thank god.

Quick post

Just a quick post to include this url (for a laugh):

http://www.bibikov.com/

and to say, NO I haven't gone for a run since the last post, and NO I won't be running tonight.

Grrrr....

Thursday, February 17, 2005

When I said "break a leg," I didn't mean,,,,

I know I haven't been posting, but I have been training; which one is more important? Right?

On Monday I did 3 circuits of the estate. I'm not sure I like running in circles: it's pretty dull.

On Tuesday, I was fencing in Pembroke. Other then myself, Tilman, and Evegeniy, it was all girls! The mind boggles! I was fencing terrible. It's typical really, you fence well in competition, and then try to carry that into training the next week, but instead you just do terrible.

I took a rest yesterday, if you include the competition at the weekend, I'd been on the go for 4 days with only a 1 day break on Friday. I'll take a nice long run when I get to UCD this evening.

...

The Easts were really enjoyable. Loads of people entered for all the weapons including contingents from Holland, and Britain. I fencing in the sabre on the Saturday and the Foil on the Sunday. I did poorly in the poole and ended up meeting Dr. Jack in the last 16, However I fenced really well and got through that fight to meet Jeremy Fullford-Copeland in the last 8. I lost to him 15-14, silly really. I'll fence better next time I meet him.

I would also have fenced in the epee on Saturday morning, except the entry form said I could only enter one weapon on the one day. It's strange only fencing sabre on 1 day. The fights are so short, that you end the day feeling you haven't done any work at all.

On Sunday, in the foil, I fenced really well. I won all the fights in my poole (including a 5-4 over the Naglemeister). I got a buy into round 2, the last 32, where I met a guy from Britain, who wasn't bad per-say, but just didn't have the timing to really compete with me.

In the last 16 I met, Hakkan from Turkey. He's a left hander, and he kicked my butt in the Duffy Epee, so I wasn't taking any chances. I won the fight 15-5, but the score definitely doesn't reflect how hard the match was, I fought for every point.

In the last 8 I met Colm Doyle, another left hander, and member of the Irish foil squad. Colm has knocked me out of competitions in the past, so again I was taking nothing for granted. I fenced well and got a through 15-9.

In the semis it was David Alexander, another left-hander (just a sec, I'm starting to see a pattern). David's blade work was just too good for me, and this I where I bowed out of the competition. David went on to win; the final was against Conor, and the score was 15-7.
Grrrr: That's 1 more point then I got.

...

I'd just like to point out that I placed higher in the foil then any of the Irish foil team members (any they were all there, trust me!). Of course, after saying that, Darius (a member of the foil team), in the sabre, placed higher then the whole sabre team.

Perhaps we should swap places...

...

The weekend didn't get by however without injuries, and the UCD intervarsity team was hit hard. CaptainOwen lost much of a finger-nail, and bent back his thumb badly, in a clash of guards with team-mate Julian; Darius limped off at the end of his last-16 match against Evegeniy, with a possibly torn quadricep; and Hanna, our new rising epee star, managed to get through the competition unscathed, but succeeded in breaking her leg in a petrol station, afterwards!

Friday, February 11, 2005

Steps, Aerobic...Aerobic Steps?

Went for another short 16 minute run around UCD, before bringing the guys around on a similar 8 minutes run as a warm up. My legs are already starting to get used to the idea, so that's good news. Marcos of course, had to moan about the fact there were steps involved. I'll see if I can find a route which minimises steps for next week. It is a bit dark after all.

The class was good also. Lots of people there in preparation for the EOI at the weekend. I'm going to skip the aerobic work this evening. No point in tiring muyself out before a competition.

Metrosexual?

Hmmm, my runs are getting shorted. Last night I just ran twice around the estate for a total of about 16 minutes. My excuses are a) that my legs were sore from training hte last two days and b) I was rushing home for dinner.

...

Just took a "metrosexuality" test.

I am 9% Metrosexual.
Metro-What? Git Off My Lawn!
I need some advice. I need to STOP BUYING MY CLOTHS AT WAL-MART!!!! I will never land a decent woman unless I shave this nasty facial hair, and spend more then $5 on a haircut.


No surprises there then....

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Ash Wednesday & Solomon's Choice

Most days, while walking into work from the Dart, I see an old man sitting in the middle of Blackrock Village. You know the type: scruffy, bearded, always wearing the same cloths. He sits there, on a bench, feeding the birds, and once in a while, should someone blow their car's horn, he'll stand up and scream blue, bloody murder at the traffic.

Today, while I was in the Spar, paying for my lunch, (a tuna-fish roll, it is Ash Wednesday after all,) this old man arrives in. To my surprise says, in well spoken English, with a touch of an East European accent:

"I have made it my task in life to subdue the traffic. I stand in the middle of the road and I say, 'me first, then you.' Two legs is better then 4 wheels."

Serves me right for judging a book.

...

Good training last night in Pembroke. It was just Owen and myself with the sharps, but we did two big 15 hit fights. 1-1 was the final result. I was fencing well, but Owen just gets better and better. Also did some foil with Evegeniy and with J.

...

I learned an important life lesson last night. When two women are having an argument , and then both turn to me looking for a resolution, my response will henceforth be the same as that of King Solomon: "Just cut the baby in half!"

I don't care what they were arguing about, in the first place.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

And so it begins...

Started my real training for the 5-Nations this evening. I went for a 20 minute run after coming home from work, and took it nice and easy. After all, I have a competition at the weekend (East of Ireland) and tomorrow is the final training session I'll get before it. The last thing I need is to be going in with sore calves.

I want to do something every weekday from now till the 5-Nations. What I'm thinking is running on Monday, and Wednesday evenings. Also I'll do a run on Thursday evening before training in UCD. Friday? Well I'll have to see if I can get in some anaerobic or strength training at some stage.

The real problem with my training regime is only 1 fencing session a week. I'm going to see if I can supplement this with competitions, and training in UCD and DCU.

Finally I'm going to use this Blog to keep me honest. Expect an update everyday on exactly what training has been done.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Ahhhh, how cute

From Neil Gaiman's Journal:
Sometimes you only realise you were exhausted in retrospect. Yesterday evening, around 9 o'clock, I lay down on the bed beside a young daughter who had decided she needed a goodnight cuddle from a dad who hadn't been home for two weeks. She was obviously really tired. 'I'll hug her for a moment,' I thought, 'and then she'll be asleep, and I'll get back to work.' That's the last thing I remember thinking. I woke up 14 hours later....

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Irish Fencing :: Index

Boy, I'm knackered after training last night. Pembroke was chaos there were so many people there. We're going to have to start laying the pistes along the width of the hall, rather then length-ways. This is the knock-on effect of the Salle closing down. There are too many people looking to fence, and only one club to go to. Also they ran out of jackets for the beginners.

If it continues like this they'll have to be more sensible about running the club. Perhaps designating different nights for different weapons, or separate beginners and experienced times.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Duffy & 5 Nations

I did the unthinkable on Saturday. I entered the Duffy as a member of the UCD A team. The team was myself, Conor, and Big Eoin. Originally I was on the B team with Niall and Shane. I was fine with that; 3 ex-Salle guys getting together under the UCD banner. Unfortunatly Chris Hegarty pulled out, and I received a call from Captain Owen on friday night to say I was up on the A-Team. I think everyone in the room must have got a dig in.

Still we did quite well. We were beaten, in the final, by a far-superior team from Leipzig, Germany. On the way there, we got past Cavaliers (not too much trouble), Pembroke (a close match), and the Salle (a really close match). Let me tell you, it's a good thing we had Conor on the team. Eoin and I were really were just to trying to loose as few points as possible.

I really enjoyed myself. I reckon that after the 5 nations is over and done with, I'll put down the sabre for a while and get back into epée training.

...

On the subject of 5 nations, I got my official notice that I'd be on team. So that means lots of sabre for the next few months. I think I'll make this 5-Nations my last one: You know? One more, for the road. Then, as I mentioned above, I can put down the sabre for a while and start just fencing for fun.

...

One more thing. I was coaching the UCD girls team on Sunday for the ladies compmetition. Like their male counterparts, they came 2nd. However they fenced a much better final, loosing only 45-40. They were beaten by a much more experienced Phoenix club, but technically they all fenced really well. If they keep up the work, that same team will be back to winning next year.

U2 Court case

J. just forwarded me this link to an this Irish Time article. The soliciters involved are, of course, run by the Irish Fencing team captain Philip Lee.

U2 guitarist The Edge has begun a court battle to prevent a newspaper from reporting about the alleged illness of a family member, it emerged today.

He has obtained a temporary injunction against the Sunday Worldtabloid, which published details on January 8th about the alleged illness.

At the High Court in Dublin today lawyers for The Edge applied for a two-week adjournment of the case.

Mrs Justice Macken granted the adjournment and agreed to delete the Sunday World'smain shareholder, Independent Newspapers, as a named party in the action.

Philip Lee Solicitors, the Dublin firm representing the star, will be seeking a permanent injunction against the newspaper to prevent it publishing any further information about the alleged illness.

The Sunday Worldarticle on January 8th included a pixellated photo of the family member.

The case will be one of the first of its kind in the State to test the right to privacy of a celebrity under the Constitution and European Convention of Human Rights.

The Sunday Worldis claiming that the story was first disclosed in Rolling Stonemagazine and was of huge public interest because it could have led to the cancellation of U2's world tour.

The band's Vertigo 2005 tour is due to start in San Diego on March 28th and will take in more than 100 shows.