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Well it's been a while
I last logged on just before DCM, so what's happened since - almost 4 weeks ago :eek:
DCM didn't go well. I didn't really want to write a report because I thought it would just read like a big moany rant, but what the hell
. I started with A, B & C goals. A goal was 3:59, B goal was a pb (anything under 4:07:23), C goal was just finish. Goal A was gone before halfway (2 toilet stops didn't help). I took my time and tried to keep energy in reserve for the second half but it's never a good plan if you feel like crap at 6 miles. I had decided not to bring gels with me - I had a few glucose tablets and they would have to do. It didn't seem to work anyway as tummy in shreds from early on.
Reassessed at halfway (2:04 I think) and thought maybe B goal was attainable, if I htfu'd. It wasn't. Every step hurt. I was bargaining with myself - run a bit, walk a bit, try and run a bit more. I knew my amazing cheerleaders would be around the course and I didn't want them to see me walking so I kept trying to keep running. (As it turned out, they never saw me walk. They saw me cry but not walk :roll eyes:) So B goal gone thanks to another toilet stop and a few stops for lots of almost-throwing up.
C goal was starting to drift away - got very very close to just walking off the course and using my emergency tenner to get a taxi back into town. I did a lot of talking to myself, keep going keep going, just bloody finish. Anyway, long story short and too much information later, I finished. 4:32. Not my slowest marathon but one of the worst. My garmin tells me my moving time was 4:26, so I was stopped for a full 6 minutes out on the course.
I've done a lot of thinking and obsessing over the last few weeks about DCM. Obviously Berlin was still in my legs (and my head) and that probably means it wasn't the right time to give it a go. However, I know that if I hadn't signed up for it, I would've spent the best part of Bank Holiday Monday performing an extended remix of "shoulda, woulda, coulda". So I'm glad I signed up (not happy, glad). Not bringing gels made a small difference because I didn't have anything in my system to throw up, so that's a (very very small) silver lining. So again, I come back to the same question - is my body/tummy/head ever able to handle a full marathon. And again, I don't know the answer.
So since DCM, I have run a total of 3 times. I was fairly DOMS-y Tuesday and Wednesday after the marathon. I jogged around the block very very slowly on the Thursday and Friday. On the Saturday I headed to Glasgow with Middle Child to watch World Gymnastic Championships, great fun. Another slow jog on the Monday (2nd November) and that's it. Felt crap on the Monday, woke up on Tuesday with cold. By Friday cold had landed on my chest. Brought daughter to DDoc on Saturday to get her checked and Doc told me to go out and register because she needed to see me as well. She told me, your asthma is playing up. I told her, I don't have asthma, I've never had chest problems. She looked at me with a very disbelieving face. Well you have it now, she said. So 8 days of steroids. She also told me, no running, you'll damage your heart :eek:
On day 3 of the steroids, oldest boy had to go to doc - he had a viral infection, I had a chest infection which meant antibiotics. On day 3 of the antibiotics & day 6 of the steroids, hubby made me go back to Doc because I wasn't getting better. She said it was a particularly virulent chest infection which was causing lung inflammation. So ventolin and becotide inhalers for the next 6-8 weeks.
So that's where I am now. Cough is still here and I feel crap - I'm better than I was so that's something I suppose
I reckon I'm another week away from an easy jog around the block. November will be a very very low mileage month :rolleyes: 0 -
That's quite the time you've had since DCM
Really sorry to hear you had a tough day and that you've been unwell too. I hope the enforced time off has a silver lining in that it allows you to completely recover from the recent marathons.
Have you ever trained specifically for the shorter distances (5K/10K) ? Just curious if your focus is always on the marathon distance ?
Feel better soon!0 -
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Bungy Girl wrote: »
Have you ever trained specifically for the shorter distances (5K/10K) ? Just curious if your focus is always on the marathon distance ?
Feel better soon!
Thanks very much. Tend not to train for 5/10k / 5 miles, normally run them as part of a longer program. That said, before I got sick, I was planning on an assault on the Raheny 5 next January I also have an eye on the MSB 5k around St. Patrick's day so maybe next year will be about the small stuff - assuming I can run to the end of the road without coughing up a lung 0 -
So since the last post, what has happened? Two more antibiotic courses, two more doses of steroids, a chest X-ray (which was thankfully clear) and a super strong steroid inhaler. Cough is still causing some problems but breath starting to return to normal. Needless to say very little running - November had the grand total of 9 miles :eek: December was slightly better - 36 miles. Had a good chat with my doc on the last visit in mid December - she runs herself and understands the frustration of not being able to run. She told me not to run for two weeks and when I started back, take it very very very easy and stop immediately if I have to. As she said, I'm operating on half my normal lung capacity so any attempt to run and maintain a decent pace will only set me back further and possibly do more damage.
So what's next? I signed up for the Lord Mayor's 5 Alive challenge at the end of November when I thought I'd be better soon :roll eyes: The first race is Friday - Tom Brennan 5k. I'm going to do it, but veerrrry slooooowly. My aim will be to finish in around 30 minutes - which is 7 minutes slower than my pb, so that'll be pretty slow The next race is the Raheny 5 at the end of January - I'll probably still be in recovery so it'll most likely be an easy toddle around the course. The MSB 5k in March is also part of the series so I'll hopefully give that a go.
And that's been 2015. A pretty decent year until the last two months. 1460 miles, which is more than last year. Two marathons done and a 5k pb. A fall that required my chin to be put back together and my shoulder relocated :roll eyes: Lots of decent runs and a few crap ones that are best forgotten. Here's to 2016, hopefully a year with lots of miles, pbs and the ability to take a deep breath
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Rachel, so sorry to hear about the bad end to what was a good year for you. Don't overdo it on Friday, hope you get rid of the cough soon.
I wouldn't underestimate the stress to your system of doing 2 marathons in such a short time, especially with how you seem to react to them.
Here's to a great 2016 for you!
+ 1 to this Rachel, take it very easy on Friday and mind yourself wishing you a speedy & full recovery! 0 -
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Time for another update
Well I did the Tom Brennan 5k on New Year's day. It was an awful day - cold and rainy - but I actually enjoyed the run. I finished in 28:56, a long long way off my pb but I was doing my best to take it easy. I felt great afterwards and was looking forward to a bit more running. However the chest protested again and I ended up back at the doc for another dose of steroids and a letter for a respiratory consultant in Beaumont.
I saw him on Tuesday and he has diagnosed me with adult onset asthma - he reckons the virus that hit my system in November was a particularly virulent one and it has caused the asthma. He has me on a super duper inhaler with an additional tablet, and he wants to see me in 6 weeks to make sure I'm improving. If I'm not, we head down the route of cat scans and further investigation. However he was quite confident that the inhaler should do the trick. I asked him about getting back to running and he said I should be able to restart once the asthma is under control. Nothing this week, a bit of walking next week after a quick blast of ventolin and increase from there.
The Raheny 5 is next Sunday and I've signed up for it, so I may walk it, jog it slowly or skip it altogether - I'll decide on the morning. I'm strangely upbeat about the whole asthma thing - I'm just glad the specialist gave me something to work with. My worst case scenario was him saying, I don't know what's wrong with you. A diagnosis is a good thing
So long story short, any updates for the next while will be mainly medical - although I still have hopes of giving the MSB 5k in March a bit of a lash 0 -
Did the Raheny 5 last week. Went out with the intention of taking it easy and walking if breathing wasn't good. (It has improved, the new inhaler seems to be helping.) Ran the first mile comfortably so just kept going. Didn't push myself too hard - once I came in under 50 minutes I would have been reasonably happy. As it turned out, I finished in 45:40 so quite happy with that - almost 6 minutes slower than my pb and 5 minutes slower than last year's time, but last year I wasn't recovering from a bad chest infection and attempting to get newly developed asthma under control
The latest race in Lord Mayor 5 Alive challenge was this morning's BHAA 2 mile race in the Phoenix Park. It's cross country, something I never tried, so it was going to be an interesting morning. As it happened, I really enjoyed it. I don't have spikes so it was always going to be slippy and a bit slow. For the first lap I took it very handy and didn't peg it on the downhill as I normally would - knowing my luck, I would've ended up on my a$$ or redislocated the shoulder :rolleyes: For the second lap, I felt more confident so took it a little bit quicker. Finished in 19:20, 9th female in my age group. The last race in the challenge is another cross country in St. Anne's Park so I'm already looking forward to that.
So, in summary, sorta getting back to normal, breathing getting better, inhaler use improving, reasonably happy Rachel 0 -
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Another XC convert, excellent. I was cheering at the BHAA race today, amazing numbers in the women's race thanks to the 5 Alive challenge. Just so you know the last race in St.Anne's isn't XC, it's 2 miles on the tarmac within the park.
Glad to hear things are going in the right direction for you. You deserve a break!0 -
Bungy Girl wrote: »Another XC convert, excellent. I was cheering at the BHAA race today, amazing numbers in the women's race thanks to the 5 Alive challenge. Just so you know the last race in St.Anne's isn't XC, it's 2 miles on the tarmac within the park.
Aw, I'm almost disappointed it's not XC, that was fun All the people cheering yesterday really helped on the last little sneaky hill that was like running up the stairs, so thank you!
The next 5 Alive race is the MSB 5k on St. Patrick's weekend so it's something for me to aim for. I'm not going to jump straight into a program - I simply wouldn't be able for it. So the plan for the next few weeks is to try and increase the mileage/speed without aggravating the breathing - slowly slowly catchy monkey And in that spirit, easy 3 miles just done. Into the wind on the way out meant wind at my back on the way home, lovely. 0 -
Almost six months since I posted here :eek: What happened? A few races, a bit of running, a chest infection or two, some more inhalers and steroids. So why am I back here? Well, I just signed up for DCM And for the Frank Duffy 10 mile and the half marathon as well. I've been mulling it over for the last little while, and I decided today to bite the bullet and just blinking' do it! It's 12 weeks from this Sunday, so that's enough time to get in a few miles and make sure I get around the course.
I've enjoyed getting back out on the road over the last few months and I know that if I didn't sign up, it would get to just before DCM and I'd be like a demon, wishing I was running it. (Of course, when taper madness starts in mid October, I will have forgotten all of this!) I certainly don't have any expectations of a sub4 or even a pb - my last two sub4 attempts (Berlin and Dublin) nearly finished me off and left me with adult onset asthma. So this one is about trying to reclaim myself, if that makes any sense at all. This cycle is about proving to myself that I can still complete a training program and finish a marathon.
Anyway, enough of the naval gazing. We're just back from holiday so I'm feeling (relatively) rested and ready. I ran every day on holidays, which I was very happy about. We were in Austria, staying in a place about 900m above sea level. Every run had a bit of hill so that was fun as well The one difference I noticed from previous holiday runs is that this time I needed the inhaler before heading out the door and sometimes when I came back - but that's not a problem, honestly
I've cobbled together a program which starts on Monday. I've included the 10 mile and half marathon races. There won't be enough time for more than two 20 mile runs but I'll handle that. I plan to go out this Saturday for a while, to see how long I can stay out on the road - that'll give me an idea of where I am, stamina wise, before the program starts.
So, onwards and upwards. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks, hopefully that continues once the hard work starts 0 -
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Ran 12 miles last Saturday, just to see if I could and it was grand. So program started on Monday. Week 1 nearly over
Monday:
Plan: Rest or easy
Actual: 2.4 miles, easy pace
Tuesday:
Plan: 6 miles aerobic
Actual: 6.8 aerobic miles with 7x30sec strides.
Still getting my head around aerobic pace. Program notes say it's 20% slower than MP but I think that would be crazy slow so I'm working at 45-60 secs slower than MP. This was fine - misjudged turnaround point for home so ran slightly more than intended. Finished off with a few 30 sec strides, with 30 sec recovery - not in the plan, just wanted to turn over the legs for a few minutes.
Wednesday:
Plan: Easy
Actual: 3.7 miles, easy
Thursday:
Plan: 6 miles aerobic
Actual: 6.4 miles
Quite a windy day and first half of run was into wind, so much easier to keep pace down On the way back, wind behind me, not so easy to keep pace down.
Friday:
Plan: Rest or easy
Actual: 2.6 miles, easy
Saturday:
Plan: Long run, 10 miles
Actual: Long run, 11.1 miles
Got a teeny bit lost on this one - headed up towards Poppintree park run, with the intention of doing it if I got there on time. Was about 5 mins late (because I got lost)so went around the outside of the park to try and find the main road. And I got a bit lost again. Asked someone how to get to the main road and he told me to head back into the park so I did. Probably frightened the bejeezus out of some of the park runners by landing in on top of them halfway through their run. Found my way out and ended up in an apartment complex - not a fricking clue where I was. Knew the main road was nearby so sort of followed the noise of the cars and eventually got there. Kept going for another while before I headed for home. Again, misjudged distance (this is going to be a theme, isn't it?) so wasn't near home when watch beeped for 10 miles. Kept going and hit the bottom of my road at 11.1 in 1:48. Happy out
Plan for tomorrow is 5 miles at recovery pace. Week 1 has gone well so far, no injuries or falls thankfully Next saturday is the Frank Duffy 10 mile but it's not a goal race at all (in fact I only just signed up for it!) so I won't be necessarily taking it easier this week in preparation. I'll treat it as a long run, will maybe aim to run it at MP. I've only run a few 10 mile races and my PB wouldn't be particularly good (think it's around 86-87 mins from 2012). If I come in under 90 minutes, that'll be grand. 11 weeks and 1 day to go 0 -
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Finished off week 2 with 5 recovery miles, lovely
Week 3:
Monday
Plan: Easy miles
Actual: 3.5 easy miles
Tuesday
Plan: 6 miles, aerobic.
Actual: 6.1 miles in 57 mins
Lashing rain, lots of stupid people doing stupid things in stupid cars. As I said on Facebook on Tuesday, there must have been a d**khead convention in Dublin 9. Anyway, at least I got my run done.
Wednesday
Plan: Easy miles
Actual: 3.4 easy miles
Thursday:
Plan: 8 miles, aerobic.
Actual: 7.5 miles
Combined this run with getting school book for Boy Teenager. Ran a roundabout way to Hodges Figgis to discover that they don't sell school books and haven't done so for ages. Felt like a bit of an eejit as I negotiated the tourists from Dawson Street to Easons in O'Connell Street. Got the book and ran home. Not the best idea as book quite heavy and awkward, bad shoulder in a bit of a jocker by the time I got home. A bit too grumpy and sore to leave the book in and run another half mile so left it at 7.5.
Friday
Plan: Easy miles
Actual: 3.1 easy miles
Saturday
Plan: 14 miles, 8 @ MP
Actual: 14.5 miles, 8 @ 8:45 avg pace
I felt like this was a big session to get done. Plan was to run 3 miles as a warmup, then do the 8 at as close to MP as I could get, then 3 miles cool down. Decided to run over the south side so warmup miles got me to Ringsend Bus Garage. MP miles started from there, with the aim of getting to maybe Blackrock and then turning around. MP for a 4:10-4:15 marathon is around 9:30 but when I started, I felt fairly comfortable at just under 9 min/mile pace so I decided to keep it going as long as possible. At just before mile 4, my phone beeped with a message so I ignored it. Then it rang. Boy Teenager wanted to tell me he was playing football with the lads (bear in mind this was just after 10 a.m. and he hasn't surfaced all summer till 12ish). I said away you go, I have a key. No, says he, Smallest Girl is still here, Dad and Girl Teenager have gone out without her. I said I'll be an hour or so, I'll be back before 11:30, tell the lads to come up and kick ball in the back garden till I get back. NO! says he, and hangs up on me. Temper got me through mile 4 in 8:25 :mad: Said to myself, fiddle him and the horse he rode in on, I'm finishing the run. But I did speed up, with the aim of getting home quicker. Five mins later, phone beeps again, Girl Teenager telling me not to worry, they'd come home to collect Smallest Girl so Grumpy Ar$e was happy. (I love my kids; they're my sun, moon and stars, etc etc; but sometimes I look at the oldest one in particular and think, how did I get such a plonker? :rolleyes:) Continued on and turned around in Blackrock for rest of MP miles. Hit 8 miles at Ringsend Garage - 8 miles in 1:10:08 - so stopped and stretched and then took it nice and easy home. Total miles for day, 14.5 in 2:14:30.
Very happy with how MP miles went. Strictly speaking they were probably closer to HMP miles, and they certainly don't make me think I'd be capable of a sub4 marathon. But they make the prospect of a 4:10 marathon slightly more appealing
So not a bad week. 38.5 miles so far, with another 5 in the plan for tomorrow's recovery. 9 weeks tomorrow....0 -
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Hi Rach.
It's been a while since I checked in here too, but nice to hear you are back to the running after all your mishaps. As for marathoning, well it's hard to keep a good (wo)man down
I'm planning on doing Dublin myself this year. No time pressure, no goal, just running it for 'fun' - if such a concept exists
Maybe I'll see you on the run someday... :cool:0 -
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Then I'd just spend the next few miles wondering if I'd arrive home to the fire brigade/ambulance/gardai at the front door :rolleyes:annapr wrote:Your teenage woes gave me a good chuckle, next time don't answer the phone!Nice going Rachel. Sounds like you're undecided about MP though - haven't checked in in a while, do you have a good indicator of likely pace? If you're that comfortable at 9 min pace perhaps MP is a good bit faster than you think?
Nice week too.
I'm a bit up in the air about MP at the minute. I'm not in shape, physically or mentally, for a sub4 attempt - the last one nearly finished me off. So I'm looking at 4:10 - 4:15, which would be MP of around 9:30. Saturday was grand because it was only 8 miles on flat surface with no pressure. An extra 18 miles at that pace with race stress and my usual dodgy tum? Probably not. There's another long run with MP miles in the schedule in a couple of weeks, I'll have another go at it and see where I stand. Any input/ideas are very much appreciatedEmer911 wrote:It's been a while since I checked in here too, but nice to hear you are back to the running after all your mishaps. As for marathoning, well it's hard to keep a good (wo)man down
I'm planning on doing Dublin myself this year. No time pressure, no goal, just running it for 'fun' - if such a concept exists
Sounds like a plan: a fun marathon, who knew there was such a thing Of course you could always join me and we could see which one of us would get injured or sick first 0 -
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Monday
Plan: easy
Actual: 3.4 miles in 34 mins.
No muss, no fuss.
Tuesday
Plan: 7 miles aerobic
Actual: 4.4 miles, progression
Up and out early for this and didn't have enough time for full 7 miles, so ran 4.4 as progression run instead.
Wednesday
Plan: easy
Actual: 5.1 miles in 51 mins.
Added a couple of miles to make up for missing miles the day before.
Thursday
Plan: 7 miles aerobic
Actual: 7.2 miles in 71 mins (split over 2 runs)
Boy teenager announced he needed new french book, Girl teen needed display folders and Smallest girl needed hardback notebook. So decided to run in and out of town to get the stuff required. Was very organised, left backpack out so I could carry purchases without too much stress. And of course I left the backpack at home and didn't realise until I'd already bought the stuff. Cue 3 and a half miles of juggling a very heavy bag with books, copies and folders all the way home.
Friday
Plan: Easy
Actual: 3.2 miles in 32 mins.
Saturday
Plan: 12 mile long run
Actual: 15.25 miles in 2:32:34
Got a teeny weeny bit lost - mainly because I couldn't see where I was going with all the shagging rain lashing me in the face. Begod it was some morning out there. Headed out on my usual Saturday tour of the Northside - Santry, Whitehall, Coolock and then onto Baldoyle. And this is where I got a bit lost. I really have the worst sense of direction ever (I really really do, I got lost in Stephen's Green one day, honestly). I thought I was heading the right way because I could see the coast but it wasn't the right bit of coast if that makes sense. I ended up in Sutton so ran the rest of the coast home. Only good thing was the wind had changed so instead of the coast being it's usual wind tunnel, the wind was behind me the whole way home. Unfortunately my headphones paid the price of all the rain and gave up the ghost around this time so no podcasts for the last few miles. Anyway, my total lack of direction sense meant I ran an extra few miles. Ah well, could've been worse
Sunday
Plan: 5 miles @ recovery pace
Actual: 6 miles in 1:02:40
Grr, this was an annoying run. Normally I come home, quite chilled and relaxed after a recovery run. This morning, i made the crucial mistake of ending up in the Croke Park vicinity at around the same time as the populations of Kilkenny and Tipperary. I was shouldered quite badly by a very large Kilkenny man outside a cafe (I was trying to run around him, he was trying to persuade his friend to go to the pub across the road, I ended up getting a shoulder that landed me out on the road and that would've earned a black card in last Sunday's semi final). I was almost run over by a Tipperary man who obviously didn't understand the concept of a filter light with a green man signal. Sure he just kept going, and then he decided to blow the car horn, roll down the window and abuse me. (To be fair, the lads behind me gave him a fair going over for breaking the light so I wasn't on my own). So by the time I got home, I wasn't a very happy camper. Some stretching and a jug of coffee made me feel better.
So a decent enough week, 44.6 miles. Happy with how it went, 8 weeks to go....0
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