Pushing my boundaries and making my physio rich...

tHE vAGGABOND

Monday : Day Off..

Tuesday : Morning, swim and core/stability work - I think I over did it [...as an experiment I did it all in steam room, to sweat off bit of sunday booze!!!!] but I was utterly wrecked afterwards.

Ran home from work, but after a busy day at work and the morning exertions I was really tired, so just did a slow and shorter run than planned, so just over 4 miles in 40 mins or something.

This morning - another set of stretching/core work; but normal set this time

tHE vAGGABOND

Ran home from work last night, via the Phoenix Park, just over 10k done in over 55 mins..

Made it a bit of a fartlek, with higher effort on hills and on random straight bits, mixed with slow "active" recovery in between. Took no notice of what pace I was going on these hard efforts, only that I pushed the effort I was making and made an effort to go harder, rather than just run 9 min miles all the way home.

A good enjoyable [if a bit random] session.

tHE vAGGABOND

13.5 miles in just over 2 hours, out clontarf way.

Windy but very enjoyable. Longest I have run since dcm, so legs a bit sore. But that's why you train, right

Chicago plan starts Monday. Doing a 20 week version of what I did for Berlin in 2012. Only with more marathon pace miles on long runs. Starting early to have wiggle room for holidays and work trips.

tHE vAGGABOND

Took a couple of days off, for no reason other than Im going to be marathon training for 4 1/2 months and there is little use doing "for the sake of it" runs, when focus is consistency of high quality training and not getting injured rather than 900 nine min 'junk' miles

Did 10.5k into work today, amazing morning for it. Did another "sorta" fartlek, with bursts of speed at [or slightly beyond] marathon pace, mixed with slower bits, so maybe half a k on, and half a k off, but totally unscientific as I was doing it on my own and on my normal running route to work, by the canal.

Method to my madness is to get speed work into my legs slowly over a few weeks, doing a bit more twice a week, and not just going down the club and doing 20 by 400 at 5k pace right from the off [and getting injured soon after, on past experience]

Overall 10.5k in 57 mins

tHE vAGGABOND

Went drinking Tuesday night, and thus took a day off Wednesday :P

Today I only had a small window to run, so over lunch did 8 by 200 [with 200 active recovery] at the club. A good quality session given I only had 40 mins to run, and legs were pretty tired afterwards, which is a good sign. Did not take any notice of pace, only went near full out on the hard 200's and dead slow on the recovery.

Overall just under 5.5 miles in 43 mins or something...

tHE vAGGABOND

Busy day, so jobs this morning, 80 min run in great sunshine, quick shower and right back to the park to visit bloom now. I'm addicted to the place

Plan is to on a longer run tomorrow, but can see myself in a beer garden later, so we wl see:)

tHE vAGGABOND

Nigh on disastrous first weeks marathon training if honest, 3 runs and less than marathon distance in total, and no exercises or stretches.

This week is no better, with a trip away at weekend and a work trip to London also happening. But alas, onwards and upwards, beating myself up about it wont do anything.

5.5 odd miles done this morning in 50 mins odd. Woke early and went out to get run done.

I need to try and make 35 miles this week at very least. Wont be easy with the travel I have on, but needs must.

tHE vAGGABOND

Not a lot of time to run today, and really should have gotten out of bed early and did it this morning..

So squeezed in a session over lunch, again trying to do a quality session in little time, 45 mins running, with 2 miles at faster than marathon pace and other mile at a little bit slower - overall around 5.5 miles..

tHE vAGGABOND

Down in west cork for the weekend, did a run over the hills behind sister in laws place..

Just under 100 mins running, legs utterly battered as I have not even ran up the kyber in the park, so zero hill work done. (

Interested to see average pace compared to last 3 or 4 times I have done this route

tHE vAGGABOND

10k over many of the same hills as Saturday, early morning before I came home...

Between the two runs, I have 2 hours and 40 mins of running, and 1600 meters of climb [and far too many pints in between!]; not a terrible weekends training at all

Micilin Muc

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

10k over many of the same hills as Saturday, early morning before I came home...

Between the two runs, I have 2 hours and 40 mins of running, and 1600 meters of climb [and far too many pints in between!]; not a terrible weekends training at all

And you think I'm the mountain goat?!

tHE vAGGABOND

Races Entered en-route to Chicago..

• 5 Miler
• Clontarf Half
• 18 Mile West Cork "half ultra" - as a [slightly] fast long run or something
• 10 miler - Looking like last "race" before Chicago, 7 weeks out from race; but cant find anything Im free for and decent in early/mid Sept
• Dublin Half - thinking of doing it as fast finish long run, with 6 or 7 miles done before start, and race done with 8 min mile group

chinguetti

Clonmel Half is usually on in mid August and that might be the same weekend as the 10 miler?

tHE vAGGABOND

Tuesday : Ran home from work, pretty easy, but overall around 4.5 miles odd

Wed Morning : 20 mins in pool and 20 minutes leg and core work

Wed Lunch : 42 mins run. Work item ate into run time, so just short of 5 miles done, instead of planned 6+

I thought I was a genius and found a perfect route, down south quays and back on north quays, but it was a nightmare with tourists and all manner of ****ers having the bare faced cheek to walk on MY pavement

Back to Sean O'Moore Park for me next time so..

Off to London for work for a couple of days now, so that may be me until weekend..

average_runner

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

Tuesday : Ran home from work, pretty easy, but overall around 4.5 miles odd

Wed Morning : 20 mins in pool and 20 minutes leg and core work

Wed Lunch : 42 mins run. Work item ate into run time, so just short of 5 miles done, instead of planned 6+

I thought I was a genius and found a perfect route, down south quays and back on north quays, but it was a nightmare with tourists and all manner of ****ers having the bare faced cheek to walk on MY pavement

Back to Sean O'Moore Park for me next time so..

Off to London for work for a couple of days now, so that may be me until weekend..

Instead of Turning into O,moore's park why not run straight on, brings you right around the council disposal centre and back into ringsend?

tHE vAGGABOND

Yea, your right, only done that route once - could be a good one...

Going to be doing a lot of sessions over lunch over the summer, so variety is the spice of life

tHE vAGGABOND

Saturday woke up feeling really lazy but got out and did a run, so delayed starting and tried to find any number of reasons not to go. But needs must, so I went out with the intention of doing around 10 miles, but was feeling pretty good as soon as I got going and it was really stunning out, so I did 12.5 miles in just over 1 hour 50 mins..

Went out for a beer last night and fell in the door far later than planned, so that sorta wrote off todays plan, which was to join in the Crusaders long run. Eventually at around 4pm, I was less of a hungover mess, and went out and did 5.5 miles around town, legs still a bit tired from yesterday and indeed from last nights fun and games. One of those runs which was good to get done, and no harm sweating out booze

tHE vAGGABOND

Monday - off

Tuesday - medium[ish] run home, 12.5k in just under 70 mins, ran around north circular and into the park, up to the roundabout at papal cross, and then around and home. Seriously hot out [even at 5.30 onwards], and was wrecked at end, as had drank little water all day at work.

Today : Wrecked, swim at lunch..

tHE vAGGABOND

Last night : ran home from work, just over 5 miles with a couple of fast miles in there. Had just upgraded to fancy new Garmin Express the night before, and it ate my run, god their software is so ****

This morning : easy run into work, 5.5 miles - did not look at pace and just took it easy, interesting to see my pace went from a couple of 9.30 min/miles to a couple of 8.30 min/miles and one 9 min/mile

Legs tired now, looking forward ot the rest day tomorrow

tHE vAGGABOND

Had a bad turn Thurs nite / Fri morn - so Friday was a planned rest day anyway..

Saturday, took it easy in the morning, and in the afternoon I went out to a slow and easy 5 miles - and was not too bad. Back and legs a bit sore but thats all..

Today, driving lesson in the morning, and then 14 mile run in peak midday sun. Hot hot hot out there, and legs a bit sore. So threw planned progression run out the window and just did an easy run based on feel, so pace went from 9.30min/miles to 8.30min/miles - and many paces in-between

Good to get it done, 38 miles done for the week which is not bad given the circumstances.

tHE vAGGABOND

Monday was a planned rest day.

Tuesday one of my hips and legs were quite sore, unsure where it came from so took an unplanned rest day. No point in being a hero, doing a short run and getting injured. One of my goals this training cycle is NOT to spend a kings ransom on physio

Tonight was tired after a big day at work, but got out and did 5 easy miles in 45 mins odd. Glad I got out now, of course, but I knew that [zero issues with hips/legs]

tHE vAGGABOND

Short run last night - no garmin or anything fancy.

Im mentally and physically shattered for a few reasons most of this week, but today more than any day this week. I dont think I will bother doing the 5 mile in the morning.

tHE vAGGABOND

Yup, just stayed in bed this morning until nigh on 11.30, sod the 5 miler - sleep and relaxing far more important. To be honest I want to do a good Chicago marathon, feck all interest in pb's at shorter distances (but clearly won't say no if my hard effort gives me them!) - where in past years I would be trying to peak for several races.

Eventually got up and did 15 slow miles. Exausted starting and last few miles were dead slow, but glad to get it done

tHE vAGGABOND

Sunday : 7.5 mile run, nice and easy around the park a bit

Monday : Day off running, so did a 23 hour day in work instead! Thats a day off, right

Tuesday : Was KNACKERED from insane day in work, but it was really REALLY nice out, so turned my planned 4 or 5 mile run into a 10 mile run home

Wed : Woke up in bits, even after a 8.5 hour sleep [which is LOADS for me, normally 6/7 hours max], so went for swim and stuff before work..

tHE vAGGABOND

Wed Night : Tired at end of long day, but ran home nice and easy, 40 mins odd, was taking it easy so no idea of distance.

Thurs : Plan was for a tempo run, but crap nights sleep meant I was too tired in morning and I was utterly ruined at end of day, so just took the day off. Dont want to get injured and Im doing this for fun, not qualify for Tier 1 Olympic funding or anything

Fri : Was going to run home later, but lunchtime meeting cancelled, so did the run then instead. 45 mins with healthy mixture of hard and easy bits, just over 5 miles overall. [Took about 10 mins to find a satellite, garmin not been that slow in ages].

Supposed to be doing Clontarf half tomorrow, which I was always doing as a "pretty hard" long run, rather than flat out race. But *might* have to help out on important family thing instead, wont know until first thing in morning.

tHE vAGGABOND

Missed clontarf for reasons which turned out to be rubbish and I was annoyed to be honest as I like it as a run.

Did 90 min run later in the day and garmin **** itself after around 10 mins and did not bother to fight with it. So I did run on feel. Not in great form, and thus did not really enjoy it.

Today I was to do 140 min run, but was dead slow to wake up, so took ages to get out the door. The end result was that I did 130 mins odd. Not tthe end of the world at all. But not ideal.

tHE vAGGABOND

First club session in about a hundred years, was hard and painful, but that's what training should be [its also what you get when you don't attend club sessions fo 8 or 9 months or so!]

Did not complete the session as I just did not have the pace in my legs, but did 5 out of 6 reps of what we were doing; pace a bit all over the place, but every rep was faster than marathon pace, and first 3 were at correct pace

Piss poor in grand scheme of things, but still very good to get back into it and get some speedy work started again..

Will do session much better in a few weeks when we do it again

tHE vAGGABOND

Wed : 4.5 easy miles home, legs tired from the club session...

Thrus : 7.5 miles odd, easy run home in the rain

tHE vAGGABOND

Went out to Morton games last night, good to see some top class ackshun and also a few familiar faces among the crowd. Afterwards I went home and was a good boy, no Friday pints for me

This morning I was really looking forward to an LSR, on one of two new routes and doing 15-16 miles at an average of better than 9 min/miles. Pushing out distance a bit, so no messing with speed.

But was utterly flat and out of energy from the first moments out there, so just went to park. I needed to stop and take a short rest at 30 and 45 mins, cant explain it. I have no idea what happened, energy just got up and left me..

So I slowed right down and just took it very easy from then on. By the time I was at 7 miles odd, I was not feeling so bad, so I kept going, but changed route to one where I was always a mile or so away from home.

Last few miles slow, slow, slow, but good to get it done. 15 miserable miles done at an aveage of 9.20 min/miles, but its in the bank now and thank god for that...

Time for a couple of days off, to recover from whatever sapped my mojo this morning

tHE vAGGABOND

Just under 9 miles done this morning in 1.20 odd...

Nice morning for it, feeling great and a really nice morning...

Heading away for a week around the weekend, so going to be a couple of funny weeks running, with a lot of disruption and thus will be squeezing runs in here and there when I can