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Pushing my boundaries and making my physio rich...
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No worries last night or this morning after the run yesterday, did my mandated stretches and have been crossing fingers..
Today in work at about 11 this morning was in a "lazy" pose, typing a document at computer and I started getting the worlds smallest pain in side of left knee - the kind you would ignore and get on with on any other day at any other time, now its just plain annoying me.
Seems fine now but...
I want it to be Sunday now, so I can get the race done, get the drinking started, and my Knee can do whatever the hell it wants for the rest of April
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tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »Jesus reading that last post I must seem like am a physopatchic axe weilding manic
Funny, just what I was thinking.
Yup, those surprise aches and twinges are just there to wreck your head. Going downstairs there's always something new in the knees or calves or ITB. Lying in bed and getting stiff toes. Pseudo-cramps whenever I'm even thinking about knotty calves... they're all in there.
But (hopefully) they'll just warm up and fade away with the first mile.
Bring it on:pac:0 -
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Thanks for all the good wishes!
@Meno - regardless of rain or shine, or how my own run goes, I will indeed be around for a pint afterwards :cool:
Woke up this morning, what is literally the first thought in my head? - "have I packed everything" - obsessed much
Double packed running stuff, enough stuff packed for a week long race camp - but every man needs options
I got sun tan lotion for "extra sweaty people" yesterday, just in case
Weather depending - I will be wearing the boards singlet [made popular again in recent days!] or a black herbalife teeshirt [which I have always run excellently in, and run several PB's in] 0 -
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Connemara Half Marathon report
[Note: I like writing these, so this has ended up a bit long!]
So about 10 or 11 months ago I got into running [like many people] as part of a weight loss process. So having started couch to 5k last May or so in the gym, I eventually started running outside. I realised I loved it and got proper addicted pretty quickly.
As soon as I did my first 5k in September [which was the start of this log, out of interest] I pin pointed this race [selected at random, cos I liked the tee shirts and the area] as the one I wanted to do. It was my main goal, as a point where I could draw a line under the old me and finally move on and start with the new me. As a result it was ridiculously important to me that it went well, in ways which are hard to explain to other people.
Training
Training went brilliantly to be honest. As soon as I got pacing sorted, and learned to play with my Garmin and keep an eye on how fast I was going it was all good. I learned valuable lessons from every single race I did. I had a pretty basic injury early, and got lucky, eventually finding an excellent physio who explained what I should be doing and why, which was priceless.
Alas a couple of weeks ago I got hit with an IT Band issue, as you all have heard me obsess about for a while. Again, being new at this whole business I have no idea what to do, or if things are on or off. So I basically put most of the rest of my life on hold for a couple of weeks, while I spend as a much time resting and stuff as possible. I guess being single I can do that, I would think living with someone or having kids its tough luck you have jobs to do
Night before:
I went down to Galway on train on Saturday. I’m not lying when I say I was more nervous than I have been for anything I have ever done in my life before. The “normal” nerves about the race were compounded with thoughts that I would have to stop after 4 or 5 miles due to the damn IT Band issue.
It turns out a couple of folks from boards were behind me on the train. I guess I realised this about ¾ of the way there. But I was in such a self-obsessed bubble I just kind of hid from them, until right at the end when I said hello and not much more. I later thought that saying hello and running away must have made me seem like a complete knob end, but alas this is the way of the self-obsessed nervous runner
Morning of Race:
I did not sleep too well, as hundreds of race scenarios playing out in my head. Hotel was ok, and no more. They had disabled BBC2 in all the rooms, so people could not watch the golf in their rooms, and had to watch it in the bar [*insert many swear words here*].
I had a pretty rubbish breakfast [toast, various cheese, coffee], as they had no porridge out. Of course a couple of folks came out just after me, and just asked for porridge and it was brought out to them. I guess it’s a classic case of “stupid Irish bloke afraid to ask for anything” syndrome. [Funny highlight was a young kid about 5 or 6 giving his Dad stick for only doing the half and persisting in asking the poor dad why he was not good enough to do the real marathon!!]
I asked at check in area how far the cathedral in Galway was from us and was told a half an hour walk at least. So I got my stuff together, and left, and 6 to 8 minutes later I was there
I queued for the busses, and occupied my mind with trying to figure out what the different coloured numbers meant. But I was pretty much still a nervous wreck. I got on a random bus, and took one of many free seats. After half an hour or so I just started chatting to the bloke beside me, and it quickly came apparent he was also a boards visitor, and low and behold it was Micilin Muc. In many ways that was a blessing, as I went from being a wreck to having someone to chat to about all manner of stuff and pass the time.
We got to the start in Leenaun a full 2 hours before the start. But we just grabbed a spot on the wall and just hung out. Eventually another bloke who was clearly on his own joined in [I never got his name]. But the 2 hours flew by.
The Race:
As I may have mentioned I was obsessing about my ITB and my Knees, so very much on purpose I was going to the back of the pack. My race strategy was to do 10 minute miles and just get around. I have gone much faster on long training runs, but I wanted to finish first and foremost.
So I lost the two lads [for the first time!] as we went to line up, but a couple of minutes before we were off, I saw them a bit ahead of me, so I joined them. We were about ¾ of the way down the field.
At the gun the two of them raced off ahead of me, but I was only worried about getting up the first hill in one piece. It took me about 2 ½ minutes to get over the line. My first couple of kilometres were my slowest by some way, maybe close to a minute slower than my average for the rest of the race. But in hindsight it was the best thing I could have done.
I was slower than I needed to be going up the first hill, so it was over before I knew it. I was passing people all the time and confidence was growing. Interesting that a brilliant distraction for me was a field of Sheep right beside the road, going mad at having their peace and quiet disturbed, but it sounded like they were cheering for us, which was very funny [at the time].
The folks in the marathon and ultra, had an utter nightmare when they caught us around here, as there were far more people on road than what should have been, and I’m sure there are a lot of angry blog reports about meeting the us at that point, but in many cases folks had nowhere else to go! Also about 30% of people had ear phones in regardless of any rules, and could not hear people asking them to move!!
At this stage concentrating about how I would pass the next group was a full time job so mile 2 and 3 just sort of flew buy, and thru accident [or good training!] they were both just under 9 minute miles.
As I was feeling great, I did mile 4 [after first water and gel] pretty quickly, and it was my quickest of the race [7.46]. As soon as it ticked off on the watch, I pulled off the gas a bit. I felt some pain for the first time here, but convinced myself it was a phantom and further convinced myself that if I went a bit faster I may get to the end before it gets worse, or at very least have less distance to walk :P . I’m also doing the maths at this stage and realising that if I can keep doing at or near this pace, which was no huge bother to me tbh, I could come in under 2 hours and I became pretty determined to do it. I felt good, and thought the only thing was stopping me was my knees!
Also around here the organizers arranged the best feature of the race, a very light mist to fall which fell for an hour or so - and was brilliant, and a runner could not order any better!
Somewhere around mile 5 I met Micilin Muc again. We were running for a while when he said that he was going for sub 2 hours, so I said perfect that’s just what I’m after. So we basically paced each other. We were together until the foot of the second big hill where we all got lost after a water station [between mile 9 and 10].
I was keeping an eye on our KM’s and KM after KM came and went, and we were always within a few seconds of where we wanted to be. [Everything is set for miles now, but I still have Garmin to pop up KM splits for some reason, I just like it]. The running was easy if anything, having company making a huge difference and was not feeling it at all.
After a mile or two the lad from Kerry who we were talking to in Leenaun caught us, he had been talking about running 2.20, and was way ahead of his pace and was clearly glad for the bit of company. Again, he was with us off and on from now until the end. Again, the company and distraction and banter was brilliant and made the distance fly by.
Micilin Muc knew the course, so we had plenty of warning of the second hill. It was all everyone on the course was clearly thinking about. There was a *very* attractive Scottish girl using me as pace for a while near the start, and we chatting briefly, [as she got impatient and she sailed passed me]. When I caught her a few miles later, around mile 5 I guess she said she was conserving energy for the big final hill. I went past her, and did not see her again. But everyone was holding back a bit for that “hell of the west” hill we have all read about.
So we had a group of 4 or 5 as we turned the corner and started the long slog up the hell of the west. It was around here, when things started rising I lost most of my party at a water station. Looking at my Garmin, I actually sped up and mile 9 to 10 was one of the fastest I did on the whole course [8.17]. So it’s clearly my fault as it would have been good to finish at or near the same time having done so much with each other. I must have basically powered away from them. But I just saw the 10 mile marker half way up hill and just put head and went for it as I would do on the Khyber in the park on a training run. When I got there and saw the time I had done it in, I pulled back and slowed down a bit. But I still felt like I had stuff in the tank.
So mile 10 to 11 was still quick I guess, and at that stage many many people were walking and I was throwing random words of encouragement [or positive humour] as I went by people [as the lad from Kerry had been doing it to folks all along, I don’t know if that would help or annoy people, but I liked it, so stole the idea].
The last couple of miles are mostly downhill, and I was pushing to get done as quickly as I could. The combination of pushing up hill, and pushing to the end annoyed my ITB, but at that stage it could have fallen off and I was getting over that line in less than 2 hours!
So I crossed the line, and looked at the watch and it said 1.57 [Chip time 1.56.39] – over the moon does not even come close! For my first half, if you had asked me to give you an “ultimate goal” to beat 2 hours would have been it, but I really did not think I could do it, and that I would end up coming in somewhere between 2.05 and 2.10. That’s the brilliant thing I love about running, the bloke who crossed the line just behind me looked really pissed off with his time, and I wanted to hug someone with mine – everyone is running his and her own personal race :cool:
I hung around the hotel after for about 90 minutes or so [walking around for a while, and then just sitting down outside on balcony for a while], but never saw anyone unfortunately. But it was a crazy scrum in and around there. After a while I saw the lad from Kerry in one of the busses pulling away. So I walked over that direction and just got on a bus and headed off to Galway and a well-earned bath in my hotel :cool:
Legs are in rag order, but I have no plans at all for a while, so I will take some time to get them right before embarking on the next journey :eek:
Avg HR: 153 bpm
Max HR: 169 bpm
Avg Pace: 08:50 min/mi
Elevation Gain: 714 ft
Elevation Loss: 593 ft0 -
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So moving on from wonderful connemara...
My goal race now is the Dublin Marathon - and everything I do between now and then is about that and nothing else. Im not one who has many goals all over the shop and can train for loads of things at once. I only want a few things to be aiming at, and thinking about
I should we well able to run the Dublin Marathon in 4 hours, but Im not going to obsess about it. Im not like that really. I want to get to the start line in one peice, and get around the course. I want to raise money for charity doing it. After all that, I think I should be able to do it in 9 minute miles [after having trained well etc].
As such I'm going to back off the miles for a month to six weeks. Im still going to run, but only 12 miles a week or something, to keep in the habbit and so I dont loose too much fitness. But my focus for next couple of months is to work on my core, glutes and other work like that, with the aim of strengthening them for the months of marathon training ahead. I have had a large amount of niggles over last 3 or 4 months, which a lot of people are saying were/are due to weakness/imbalance in these areas. So logic says I put some effort into sorting that out before I have to ramp up the miles into crazy marathon training land..
Next race Im entered into is the Clontarf half at the start of July. Im just using that as an excuse to run somewhere else in Dublin and to have something to aim for in the calendar to be totally honest. But I have no intention of going mad out there and trying to break 1.50 or something [we will leave doing that for the Dublin half in September].
I want to try and get under 50 minutes for 10k at some point, so will find a good 10k somewhere in greater Dublin to do in July or August. Im sure there will be plenty to aim for.
I'm in the race series all summer [but missing the first one due to a wedding in the uk]. Indeed I have a crazy summer between weddings, stags and vacations, Im going to be away 6 to 7 weekends of the first 12/13 weeks of marathon training - which could be messy. But I just have to plan around that when I settle on a training program Im going to follow.
I will keep a look out for different races over the summer, I guess I will see what folks here and there are doing. I have heard a huge amount of talk about the Athlone 3/4 Marathon [for a random example], that sounds like a good tune up run before the big dog [but their tee-shirts look crap, always a warning, like a rubbish movie poster, being a solid gold sign of a rubbish movie!!!] 0 -
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