Pushing my boundaries and making my physio rich...

tHE vAGGABOND

Thats my work / running / life balance :P

tHE vAGGABOND

7 miles, with first 10k at "pretty hard effort" ie : faster than marathon pace..

Went thru 10k at 48 mins on the nose basically, work to Sean O'Moore Park and around there for a while and back to work..

Felt really good and had a cancelled meeting so went out and did this over lunch instead of later on. Also still Garminless, so was running this on effort level, while I tracked on Strava on phone [have the audio alerts turned off]! So very happy to have hit my overall pace target without having to be monitoring a watch, and doing it on effort alone

tHE vAGGABOND

Plan was for 8-9 miles this morning, but I forgot I start a new non-running adventure later, so I had to bring a backpack into work, as I needed a change of clothes and a few other things, thus I basically had a full rucksack on my back, rather than my small running back with a couple of things in it.

So I cut distance the second I took a single step with backpack on back. I went the route I knew was 4.5 miles at a very easy pace indeed, and even at that it was hard work. I felt like some army recruit having to do a long run with a huge backpack.

My left hamstring a fraction tight, due to zero warm up [and I am partly blaming the bag!]. But thankfully I have a few of those single portion shots of Biofreeze you get in bags after races at work, so have that on offending area now.

Rest day tomorrow, may swim or may not, and another 30 mile weekend planned

tHE vAGGABOND

It was all going too well, going to visit my physio for the first time in 2014 at lunch [someone had cancelled lunch apointment just before I called].

I can still feel a bit of pain in hamstring from yesterdays run. While I have feel I could even run slowly with no issues, 5 weeks out from Chicago and with things going pretty well Im taking no chances. If I was to "MTFU" and just run tomorrow and proper mess up my hammy itw would mean no race at all, rather than a week on the sidelines or something.

average_runner

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

It was all going too well, going to visit my physio for the first time in 2014 at lunch [someone had cancelled lunch apointment just before I called].

I can still feel a bit of pain in hamstring from yesterdays run. While I have feel I could even run slowly with no issues, 5 weeks out from Chicago and with things going pretty well Im taking no chances. If I was to "MTFU" and just run tomorrow and proper mess up my hammy itw would mean no race at all, rather than a week on the sidelines or something.

Best of luck with it

tHE vAGGABOND

Slight strain, possibly caught it before it became a full grade 1 - so very glad I pulled trigger and went to him today...

[Last time I was in there was before my wedding last year, so about 14 months ago!]

A few days off running, but I have 6 or 7 runs over 18 miles in the bank. I will chillax this weekend, pick a tv show on netflix and watch a lot of it, and should be back on the road middle of next week

tHE vAGGABOND

All clear to start running again today - yay!

So on advice from my man [and being sensible] I will take it easy this week, with a short and easy run later and a run Thursday. I will do some kind of long run over the weekend. But with the long run I wont do any race pace miles nor the full planned run [22 miler]! Will see closer to weekend what I do, but I would think it will be 16-18 slow miles or something like that.

I started a part time masters in Smurfit this week, so Monday and Wednesdays are sorta out from running in the context of the marathon training anyway. Why make life easy for myself, mix it up with even more stuff to do in an already busy existence, that's what I say [On the running side, the circa 10k cycle there and the home wont be any harm in terms of cross training!]

tHE vAGGABOND

Last night I was robbed at gun point about to put bike in garage after college [seriously, they got wallet and nothing else, did not even look at bike. Im all good, shaken is all] - no fancy way to say it.

So went for a run this evening in the park for some "me" time, 9.5 miles odd. Stunning weather and feel great now for the first time in 24 hours!

Running is so amazing at times like this, when you need to get your head straight for one reason or another...

Ososlo

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

Last night I was robbed at gun point about to put bike in garage after college [seriously, they got wallet and nothing else, did not even look at bike. Im all good, shaken is all] - no fancy way to say it.

So went for a run this evening in the park for some "me" time, 9.5 miles odd. Stunning weather and feel great now for the first time in 24 hours!

Running is so amazing at times like this, when you need to get your head straight for one reason or another...

Jaysus! Gun point! That must have been an awful experience.
Thankfully you're ok!

tHE vAGGABOND

Good news, they think they have arrested yer man.

Good news, did 19.5 miles or so yesterday with no issues at all. Kept pace slow, and above 9 min miles [as physios had advised], and the good thing is that I had to work at times to keep the pace down. Really enjoyed it, and it a stunning morning to run.

Afterwards I was a bit tired and stuff, had a shower and had to go out right away, did not even get a chance to sit down. But overall it was a bloody good day.

tHE vAGGABOND

5 and a bit miles last night at a pretty easy pace. Only did it at the end of a pretty long and busy day, so was not able for much more than that tbh..

Plan for the week is a big run Tuesday, light run Wednesday morning, travelling to London for work Thurs and Fri, so really don't know if I will get to run or not, but will try and get one in over there Thurs night. With regards to the weekend, plan has always to do a 22 mile long run, with first 8/9 *really* slow and dead easy and the last 13.1 miles at something close to marathon pace [ie: the half itself].

Basically how that run on Saturday goes determines my plan for Chicago. I have 3 options now, and I know which one I want and feel I can do - but we will see based on that evidence from Saturday.

Note : Just got my Garmin back, and its basically a whole new one for 70 quid "fix or replace" fee due to it being our of warranty, and I broke my damn ant stick. So need to get one of them. They are €50 here, and £20 in a couple of places in London, so will just wait till I'm over there and get one in RunnersNeed in Camden.

tHE vAGGABOND

Im an idiot...

Running home, plan was for somewhere between 11-13 miles..a few marathon pace miles in the park..

On the NCR, just before the park I was just into the second of a planned 5 or 6 circa marathon paced miles. I swerved to avoid a child running out of a gate, tripped on the root of a tree and smashed to the ground and into a lamp post. Serious ouch. A sensible person would see the blood and feel the pain in ribs and head home or cut run short...

But Im an idiot, and I did 12 miles, with miles 8 and beyond getting slower and slower. No idea now why I made such a stupid decision, where I could have done 8 miles on a route I do a lot and gotten home with a decent session and before making things too much worse..

Bah - at least it resolves the issue with how I will get runs in from now for the rest of the week...I wont, I guess now I rest until Saturday

tHE vAGGABOND

So deffo have some form of bruised ribs..shazbot!

Nothing broken and its not terrible to be honest. I was able to cycle to work with very little pain [so there is pain, just not as bad as it could be]. Only hurts a small bit when I take a huge deep breath, grand for regular breathing. But they are tender and sharp turns of torso are sore. I only got 4 hours sleep, as turning in bed was sore. I had bruised ribs once before [from rugby] and it was complete agony to do anything, this is nothing like as bad as that.

From reading about bruising in this area, one of those things which can clear in days or take months, and not a wild amount you can do about it.

No idea what to do now, with regard to the weekend and what was planned to be the last key session before Chicago. I guess I will have to play by ear, bathe in Tiger Balm and have an ibuprofen drip permanently attached to me until then and see how I feel Saturday morning.

90% of the hard work is done for chicago, and even doing little but cycle and a few short runs to keep up fitness between now and then I think I could have a lash at my PB [3.38], even if 3.30 was gone from doing little in last 3 1/2 weeks...

Fingers and toes crossed..

seamus

From memory of this, sleeping on your back is an absolute no-no for bruised ribs. Sleep on the side that's bruised - it means that you will be able to breathe more deeply and your bruised muscles will be less stiff in the morning. You'll still be sore as hell in the morning, but not as bad as if you sleep on your back.

Cycling is OK, but keep your spins flat and relatively easy going. Really pushing it or climbing hills with bruised ribs is a pain in the tits.

tHE vAGGABOND

Sleeping thing a good tip, thank you sir (he says waiting for taxi at 5.40am!)

tHE vAGGABOND

Still sore today, but deffo a bit better and not worse. Which is bloody great.

Decided that Im not running on Saturday, going to help Marshal the Pulse Tri instead. If I'm magically perfect I will so a huge run on Sunday, but going to be careful, its too close to marathon to feck it up by trying to do a race or another 20+ mile run "for sake of it"

chinguetti

Hi Vagga, you've been in the wars the last couple of weeks. As someone who cracked a rib 2 days before running Dublin marathon in 2011, I would say to hold off on any long run for as long as you can as you won't feel the real effects until the day after the run and then its too late.

I managed to do it in sub 3.40 but was out of action for 2 months afterwards as my arm and chest were a mess. I'd put so much pressure on my legs that they were in ribbons afterwards for ages. I wasn't too bad during it until I hit 17 miles and was on pace at that stage but by the time I hit RTE, I couldn't move my arm to grasp a water bottle.

Mind how you go.

tHE vAGGABOND

Sounds like pretty damn good advice from the cat

Yea, chest is clearly a bit better, but was still a bit sore overnight and this morning. So Im going to do nothing this weekend. Will help at the Pulse Tri, eat lots of RQ's cake afterwards and then for a lot of the weekend I have work and college stuff to do, so I can get ahead of things before going to America.

So my plan is to take it easy until I feel "all but better". In my head I will do a short test run on Thursday of next week. If that is ok I will hopefully do a long run *next* Saturday [a 3 hour run to kick off my birthday! Fun!] and then a 2 week taper, not a 3 week taper. But that plan hinges on things being better, and Im not going to mess about with that.

tHE vAGGABOND

Technically Im in taper now, with 3 weeks to go as off yesterday..

But very real chance that Im basically inactive until Chicago, and thus Chicago plan would have to be radically changed as after 4 weeks I will have lost a rake of fitness.

Ribs feel basically the same as they did on Friday. If I sit down or lie on sofa they feel fine and I cant feel a thing, and they don't hurt with even the deepest breath. But they are sore to sleep on them and if I walk fast or do any serious exercise movements they are sore. Saturday morning I ran about 50 meters to get a lift and I had to stop as it was so sore. But after marshalling a tri club race saturday I helped take apart transition, and lots of bending over and heavy lifting and they were fine.

So I get 4 weeks of taper madness, and not 3 - yay

tHE vAGGABOND

I spent an hour after college last night looking at alternative marathons. There is a nice looking one in Californa Wine Country, the Napa Valley, the day before I fly home - but would need epic levels of brownie points to be allowed that! Drive me 2-3 hours up here, wait while I run marathon, and drive me back, fly home..

I even looked at cutting my holiday short, paying to change flight and coming home and showing up on DCM start line..

But today I do feel better today, long way from perfect, but it is healing. So I will do Chicago and will get around I think, just likely to be far slower than I had planned. So I will use that as an excuse to do some serious training for one next year

Doubt I will run this weekend, but might go for a long easy cycle, and just get some exercise and work into legs without killing my chest [so wont be going over the sallygap or anything].

tHE vAGGABOND

Issue now seems to be localised to a small area [maybe the gap between two ribs rather than that entire side of my body], which is definite progress.

Cycling home from college last night I really pushed hard for around 20 mins as a test and it was just fine, where I was breathing hard. It almost feels like a stitch now, rather than painful. The only time its anyway sore is when I go over a bump in the road and my chest jerks up and down. So while its well on way to getting better, not ready for any test runs yet.

Still a bit sore to sleep on, but from reading forums a lot of people report sleeping on bruised ribs being sore long after they are able to run again.

PaulieC

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

Issue now seems to be localised to a small area [maybe the gap between two ribs rather than that entire side of my body], which is definite progress.

Cycling home from college last night I really pushed hard for around 20 mins as a test and it was just fine, where I was breathing hard. It almost feels like a stitch now, rather than painful. The only time its anyway sore is when I go over a bump in the road and my chest jerks up and down. So while its well on way to getting better, not ready for any test runs yet.

Still a bit sore to sleep on, but from reading forums a lot of people report sleeping on bruised ribs being sore long after they are able to run again.

I got a kick in the ribs on holidays at the start of July and it was about 8 weeks before it was completely clear. Same as you, I couldn't push too hard as heavy breathing made it worse.

tHE vAGGABOND

Not quite ready to run yet, so went for a long easy spin on the bike with a few mates, 92k off done in something short of 4 hours.

Feeling grand, and good to get some decent exercise into the legs. Will it make any difference to marathon, no idea but in my head it does and that is most of the battle for now

tHE vAGGABOND

ALMOST ready for a run..Its a hard choice now..

I ran down 5 flights of stairs with no issues last night. That is the first time I have done anything running wise apart from a few steps since the injury. Also had basically no issues cycling at the weekend or after that/

I can put up with the pain, ffs I ran 8 miles or something after I fell and made ****e of them in the first place - so at what point I go out and see if I can do a gentle 3 or 4 miles and how I really am - I guess that will be a snap decision one morning [lunchtime] or evening soon

tHE vAGGABOND

35 mins really *really* slow - basically like running with an annoying stitch, but not sore per sae. Was doing 9.30-10 min miles.

Would not be able to do any fast miles yet, but great to have the option and know we are close to better!

Not going to do anything drastic. Im in taper, flying tomorrow week, so possibly rest and see what I want to do at weekend..

tHE vAGGABOND

We had a taper madness freakout this morning. Just in my own head, thankfully

Just the fact that my ribs are all but better for everything except a huge yawn or a sneeze [so things which cause a huge move in ribs]. The ribs still do not feel right to run. So I'm worried that I will have to do Chicago at 9.30 min miles and in agony after all the hard work [and first 16 weeks injury free great training].

Was looking at a few alternate races and what I could do. But I decided to relax. It then occurred to me that I had entered the last two Donade 50k's and had to drop out of both a few weeks out. So why change that plan - so I have the entry for that printed out beside me.

tHE vAGGABOND

I'm DESPERATE to get out and run before next week. But just did not feel right and after a few steps it was feeling crap. So I would be a fool to do a long run in pain for the sake of it.

So Im pissed off at home and resting. I think at this stage total rest is a better option than a cycle or trip to the gym or something. But that might change over the day.

Micilin Muc

Absolutely no harm in a short spin on the bike, keep the muscles fresh.

tHE vAGGABOND

Insomnia..

Seems like man flu coming on..

Ribs really sore out of the blue...

Yep, its race week

tHE vAGGABOND

Killing time in the airport, checked in etc - not a lot of sleep last night, excited. Will sleep on plane

Ribs feel ok, cycled to and from college pretty hard last night and only felt a very mild stitch when blowing very hard. clearly doing zero for last 10 days (and very little for last 3 weeks) was a good plan. It totally killed any chance of running hard, but a lsr around a world marathon major, having chats and giving high fives, followed by a feed of pints is not the world's worst fall back plan

Sub 3.30 can wait for 200 laps of ultraman's back garden in Feb