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2013; Eat my dust Meno!
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tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »What did some of you do for a living before becoming professional CL watchers
We're watching you too Mister.0 -
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Yoo hoo.....boys....I think there's a special unedited showing of the film "Starlet Fever" over on Tunney's log that you CL-pestering lads may want to check out.
CL, you'll do grand this weekend. You're tough as nails and you've got the sassy spirit and talent to go with it. Smash it!!! 0 -
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Well I had a busy weekend running- and other-wise. I guess you don’t give a hoot about the ‘otherwise’ but I’ll give a brief run down of the running bit for those interested and or with nothing better to do…
Saturday 23rd June
The Dunshaughlin 10k was on Saturday evening at 7:30pm. I had set this as a goal race a while back, but hadn’t set a goal time. Last week, the race plan was settled at aiming for 41:30. There was a bit of chopping and changing in terms of pace plan – whether to run a steady pace / aim for a negative split / go out and bank some time for a tough second half? I knew I’d have to run 4:09/km (I’m splitting just this once!) average to hit the goal, so ultimately the decision was made to try go out steady (if a little faster due to course/crowds etc) and hold on.
I had a good warm up and started well up at the front but caught behind a couple of lumbering oafs for a few hundred metres. This was alright though as I knew the pace would come down pretty quickly at the start. I went through the first 3km hitting 4:00/km give or take, and was happy out. I was really enjoying myself, the route was great, I was aiming for people and picking them off and I felt like I was really racing strong. Then things started to go downhill. That old familiar sucker punch of the pain I’ve been getting in my abdominal muscles. I had been disciplined with my nutrition throughout the day and drank plenty of fluids as I have thought it could be dehydration in the muscle. I don’t know if it’s a lack of oxygen to the muscle or if my core muscles need some strengthening up to take the harder stuff but I need to figure it out. Whatever it is though, it is severely debilitating and quite frankly, a pain in my a*s!
Anyway, I had to take the foot off the gas a bit to breathe and shake it out. At this point I was running a bearable (used loosely) pace of about 4:08. I think the clock said 20:45 as I went through 5k and I reckon that I would have broken 20 had it only been a 5k race – I wouldn’t have been afraid of being in pain for a longer period of time nor would I have been worried that if I pushed too much the pain would just blow up and cause me to stop. No matter what – I am a stubborn git and a DNF does not appeal in the slightest.
Knowing how I felt, I knew the goal time was out the window but I managed to keep trucking. Despite everything that was telling me to stop, there were stronger forces urging me on and those thoughts kept me honest. From what I remembered of the previous year, there was hill at about 6k. When I came around the corner to face it, I didn’t know what I had been so anxious about. I manage to barrel on with the head down and reckon that but for the pain, I was otherwise strong enough to have made a break for it at this point. Unfortunately, the pain was consuming everything and my average pace was just slipping one desperate second at a time. I think I was down to about 4:12 at this stage. My stomach turned a bit and I thought I was going to be sick but thinking about that now, I actually think that was pure upset and disappointment as opposed to actually having a stomach issue
I was in step with a guy listening to headphones and I just didn’t want to lose him. I put the foot down going by the 7k marker as I had this idea that if I could just get to that before him that it would be good for my soul. The back end of the race plan was to leave everything in the last 3k. I was afraid to go too early – again, for fear of the pain becoming too much and grinding me to a stabbing halt. A quick pace check and I had slipped right down to a disappointing and distressing 4:16. At 8k, my legs and my lungs and my head wanted to just go for it – I felt so strong – but it didn’t happen.
For the last km I just had to try to give it one last shot – I decided that if the pain got too much, I could crawl over the finish line. So in an effort to get something out of my race I went for it as much as my body would allow. I gave it a good push as I saw the 800m marker. Knowing that it was over, I just wanted to squeeze the last bit out of it without giving up. I knew Mr Slow and Brianderunner would be in the finishing straight and a shout out from them distracted me for a couple of seconds. I really booted down the last 100m with a quick look over my shoulder to make sure the guy I’d been in step with for the last few kms wasn’t going to pip me.
I crossed the line and waited for somebody to take my chip. Then I realised I wasn’t wearing a chip that needed removal, so I took a bottle of water, a banana and the puss on my face back to the lads to cheer on the rest the boards crew that had yet to finish. I by-passed the strawberries and cream for a number of self-loathing reasons, which I of course regretted! It was great to see everyone coming across the line with fantastic PBs all round and I must take this opportunity to apologise for my mood. Despite running a great time and a PB, I had been looking forward to this race so much and I was simply I was bitterly disappointed with the result, and I found that difficult to disguise. I was genuinely delighted for all the guys and gals and pacers who had a brilliant race and again, well done to y’all! Anyway I’ve managed to get over myself and will just chalk it down as an experience.
One thing I suppose I have to take away is the comparison of how far I’ve come in a year. When I ran this race last year, I really wanted to break 50 minutes. I had a mare and crossed the line in 54:xx – the guys who had come out to watch weren’t far off sending out a search party for me – in fact, I love this - . So a good 12 minutes off the same course over 10k in one year is still some accomplishment and one which I’m very proud of. (I still want to run faster though!!!) (And actually, given how wonderfully I recovered, and how not fooked the legs were, and the absence of max HR action, I do think I can!)
10k 42:30
Sunday 24th June
Strawberry Half Marathon Pacing – 13.1 miles 1:59.29
Bright and early Sunday morning, with all thoughts of Saturday race firmly relocated to the back of my mind, I headed off to the sunny southeast with Digs, Meno and Woddle for my cherry-popping pacing gig. I was pacing the 2 hour group with Digdig in the Enniscorthy Strawberry Half Marathon and I was really looking forward to it. We got ballooned up and headed out to the start line. The weather was fantastic and the spirits were high. We had a great crowd with us on the way around and I didn’t even notice the miles ticking by, bar a quick check at each marker to make sure we were all on track. Digger is a seasoned pacer at this stage so having him was great peace of mind. I picked up a few spare bottles of water at the aid stations as well as handfuls of jellies with which I ran in and out and around the group making sure everyone was keeping well hydrated and suitably glucose fuelled. It was a warm day so I was conscious that people were taking on enough. Woddle who had hopped on our wagon for the extra support dropped off at about 9 miles and made it his personal mission to pick up a few who had dropped off the pace home in 2:15 – I have no doubt that that support was great for those who were suffering both mentally and physically and who would otherwise have thrown the towel in completely so fair play for that Wods. With a couple of miles to go, we sent on the stronger of the group, refused to let the strugglers give up, and picked up a few runners who hadn’t run with us but were well able to break the 2 hours with a bit of coaxing. We were more than happy to hold onto water belts, phones, ipods etc for those who were concentrating on the last mile - we’ve all been that soldier and I know how grateful I would be for any and every little bit of help. We were bang on time coming up the finishing straight and finished with what Digs has described as a Kodak moment - where I was running sideways roaring at/strongly encouraging our last girl to get over the line within her goal time. She did
Right in between myself and Digs with a chip time of 1:59.33. Myself and Digs have a second between us on gun time but a perfectly matching chip time of 1:59.29 – a job well done I’d say
The tea and sandwiches and catch up with the lads afterwards was great too. Thanks, as always, to Marthastew who came up trumps with a delivery of baked goods – I’m getting to used to this treatment… I don’t think we’d like to see what might happen if I wasn’t handed a delicious home made treat after a race from now on… :-/
I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this race. It was a fantastic opportunity and I don’t underestimate for the second how lucky I am to be in a position to help some people reach their goals. It wasn’t so long ago that I was falling over a HM finish line in tears of joy and pain, having broken that 2 hour barrier; and it will be a long time before I forget how awesome it felt! It’s also a great way to get some good training miles covered with a change of scenery. I am really looking forward to pacing Clontarf in a couple of weeks now. 0 -
Well done you, you were a natural. You're also being a bit too kind to me. I think if any of the pacees had of looked at me at 9 miles they would not have been instilled with a lot of confidence but you're right running/walking with those who had earlier dropped of the bus was very enjoyable. 0
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Well done over the weekend CL. Do you think the abdominal pain might be just down to being a little stressed/tense? You were getting pains last year as well, now you're running 1 minute + per mile faster. I was getting horrible pains in the pool on fast sets, now I'm more relaxed in the water it doesn't happen anymore or on long runs (DCM/Donadea) from 23 miles onwards when fatigue sets in and I was digging in to try and hold the pace I was in agony because I was tensing up. I would suspect it's more of a case of just needing to relax into it and feel more confident in your ability to hold the pace (I sound like tunguska now ) 0
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Saturday 23rd June
8.2 miles in total incl w/u, strides & race (no w/d...bold!)
Sunday 24th June
13.1 @ 9:05
This was a really comfortable (essentially long recovery) run and it was only over the last mile or so that I got a bit tired from all the excitement and the hills. The legs were all tuckered out for the evening but nothing a good load of Ben and Jerry’s new Core Dough-ble Whammy couldn’t sort out.
Monday 25th June
Cycle 8.36 miles (Home – Work)
4.14 @ 8:55
This was a lovely recovery run. I decided to do an out-and-back loop from the office via the picturesque backdrop of Ringsend and along the coast. I chose to do this so that I could run a nice flat route. The legs weren’t up to much and the roads around home are nicely undulating to fresh legs but like mini-Everests to knackered legs. Once the knees and ankle warmed up, this was an enjoyable doddle to my heavy body. The breeze was nicely at my back on the way home, and all was well in the world.
Cycle 6.36 miles (Work – Home)
A handy cycle - took the most direct route home and took it so easy that I wouldn’t be surprised if I was actually rolling backwards in parts… (It wouldn’t be the first time…)
Tuesday 26th June
Cycle 7.11 miles (Home – Work)
Cycle 4.17 miles (Work – Bushy Park)
6 @ 8:58
After a stonking busy day in work, I headed to Bushy with the intention of doing 6 easy miles and giving the club session a miss. In a dramatic twist that must go down in history, Digger listened to sense and his body, silencing his stupid competitive streak, and also opted out of the speed session to join me. I was pretty pooped from the get-go and couldn’t get the legs moving comfortably at all. It a lot tougher than it should have been. After one loop, and taking on a hill, I said I would be stopping at 5 miles. After 3.5 miles, and hitting the hill for the second time, I felt a lot better and said I’d do one more loop, see where it left me and leave it at that. 2 shorter loops brought us to 5.25 miles where we both hit the deck and did spent a few minutes doing some good stretching. Of course, after that, it would have been rude not to complete the last three quarters of a mile as a post-stretch warm down loosener… Garmin whores!!
I then cycled up to a mate’s house where I ate my weight in microwave popcorn and fun-size chocolate bars…. So much fun! A short cycle home after that finally got my two wheels and I home for the day. Gosh it was a busy one! Think all in it was just over another 3.5 miles on me rothar.
Wednesday 27th June
7.6 @ 8:19
Had a lovely/bearable humid run into work this morning. I completely underestimated the temperature when I was putting on capris, a vest and a long-sleeved top, and had to stop in Rathgar to remove the sleeves as I was melting. The pace was grand and I was happy and able to wind it down – however, I suspect the few nice downhills helped and I honestly wonder whether I could have wound it down so much on a different route. I could have kept going to bring it up to 8 but I train sensibly (!) and my legs need some R&R. I finished off with a couple of strides and felt strong with those. My legs are a wee bit heavier than I care for at the minute so I think some compression, elevation and rolling TLC this evening shan’t go astray! 0 -
RacoonQueen wrote: »Well done over the weekend CL. Do you think the abdominal pain might be just down to being a little stressed/tense? You were getting pains last year as well, now you're running 1 minute + per mile faster. I was getting horrible pains in the pool on fast sets, now I'm more relaxed in the water it doesn't happen anymore or on long runs (DCM/Donadea) from 23 miles onwards when fatigue sets in and I was digging in to try and hold the pace I was in agony because I was tensing up. I would suspect it's more of a case of just needing to relax into it and feel more confident in your ability to hold the pace (I sound like tunguska now )
Very good point RQ. And I’d imagine stress/tension is definitely a factor, if not entirely the cause, of the pain. Like I’ve said before, it’s not like a food stitch or anything; it’s a pressure knot-like feeling in the muscle (similar to how I’d get a sore knot in my shoulder from e.g. sitting at the computer in work for hours on end) that just turns into an unbearable stabbing pain. When it got really bad the last time around and Ciaran Fitz worked on it, he said the muscles under my ribs were really tight and strained; and he put me through an awfully uncomfortable couple of sessions poking between my ribs to ease it out. That time, I ended up suffering complementary pains in the back of my ribs where I was tensing up those muscles to compensate. Fun and games!
I think I could do with working on the core strength and finding a way of stretching / massaging my abdominal muscles. I just need to get my a*s in gear and sort it out. Even just thinking about it now, I can feel myself tensing up. Maybe I’m not as cool and laidback and uncompetitive as I thought… :rolleyes::o
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Thursday 28th June
6.4 @ 9:00
I don’t remember this run at all… Garmin Connect tells me I ran home from work at 17:44. It must have been an exiting one!
Friday 29th June – St. Cocas/Kilcock 5k Race
Entered this race on the QT after Dunshaughlin in an attempt to get some confidence back. Long story short – I didn’t! I was absolutely shattered leaving work on Friday evening and had a lot of unusual things on my mind. Typical that the universe would wait until a race day to give my emotional state a battering. Anyhoo, arrived out to find a raft of people who also had their eye on a sneaky race. That unnerved me – I just wasn’t in the zone. Warm up was shocking – felt yuck, tummy was upset and kept needing the loo even though I had stopped drinking hours earlier. Hoored off like a bat out of hell at the start – Meno tells me now that I was ahead of him for a fair bit at the start and that he was running 18:30 pace – not good. The goal was just a PB so anything under 19:57 would have been more than welcome. Then came my KABOOM!! 2.5k in – halfway up a drag – mind just went and I stopped. My body felt ok but I just did not have the mental fight in me at all. A good few people passed me as I whimpered on the side of the road sooo annoyed with myself for giving up. A girl who I had crossed the line with in the leixlip 5k ran by and shouted at me to keep going. As I stood there for about 45 seconds with a stonking ‘Fail’ over my head, I realised that I had to get home somehow. And the quickest and most direct way there was to run the rest of the race. I took a few deep breaths, tried to pull myself together and got back on the road. I passed a good few people who had passed me during my melt down and just focused on finishing so I could get home asap. Last 500m I went for it and emptied the tank as punishment to myself! Crossed the line in 21.11 by the Garmin (think it was officially 21.13 but no mat at the start). I was mighty disappointed after this race. I didn’t do myself justice at all and I was infuriated at my mental weakness. After about 30 minutes, a drink of water and a couple of chats with other people who didn’t need to listen to my sorrows we hit the road home and I got over myself. It was a bad race but I had had a bad day and a tiring week. It was a great training session towards the ultimate goal. Have chalked it down and walked away with some good lessons, without being too hard or too easy on myself.
Saturday 30th June
12 @ 8:50
Headed out on a nice loop with Digs for this – eased in with the first half mostly downhill and managed to maintain the pace for the return uphill leg. It probably should have been slower and more difficult but my legs felt wonderful…I wonder why?! A great LSR for Digs after running a 19:10 PB in Kilcock the evening before - I won’t say I’m not jealous that he ran a great race while I had a total mare, but I certainly don’t begrudge it. Getting this out of the way meant that the durty burgers and chips and pints were well deserved!!
Sunday 1st July
6 @ 8:50
I was on car-collection duty after a great night out with the ladies and Digs the ladies so just a handy one into town. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little crusty around the edges but I suppose it was penance for my foghorn invasion of a calm night out…sorry about that gals:o!
Monday 2nd July
6.45 @ 9:35/40
I ran this strictly by HR as the legs were pooped. Because it was an uphill into-the-wind route the pace was sloooow in order to keep the HR down. I took the opportunity at every red light to get a bit of a stretch in – the calves need some TLC – and I eventually made it home. I think I was less tired when I got home than I was before I started running – just what the doctor ordered. And I managed to keep average HR below 140 which was the goal (though that seems a little low…hmmmm).
Tuesday 3rd July
Taking a rest day today because, quite simply, I am tired. It’s been 10 days since I had a rest day and since then, I’ve run a 10k race, paced a 2hour HM, run a 5k race and a decent 12 mile LSR with whatever other bits and pieces trun in between. Hello sense – nice to meet you, if only even for a fleeting moment! 0 -
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Log has been abandoned over the last week or so – mostly because work has been insanely busy and a little because I’ve have been insanely trying to sort my wrecked body out.
After the disastrous St Coca’s 5k, I signed up to run the South O’Hanlon 5k in Meath (Wednesday week ago). I needed to prove that I had at the very least, a sub-20 in me and then a bloody decent PB on top of that. Thinking about the race the previous week, I knew I had lost that before I even started running. I was not in a good place. Yes the race itself was tough and my body was working hard, but stopping halfway through was purely a mental reaction. Anyway I spent all day ‘Compartmentalising’ and despite a pretty horrendous day in work I managed to get myself into good form with a positive attitude towards the race. This actually did work out well and I felt good arriving at the race. I was a little concerned that I had fallen asleep in the car on the way over as I was worried that I might be too tired and the nap would knock me back. But the main focus was to be positive so I pushed that thought out of my mind. I had a great warm up – a good jog, some static stretches, plenty of strides – and I felt good mentally, and alright physically, lining up at the start. Digger had agreed to pace me after a discussion about my having stopped the previous week and whether the pressure of racing and time/pace watching might be getting to me. It was an attempt to let me run what I know I can run, without the extra worry. We were a couple of seconds up on the first kilometre but this was ok as we knew it was a hilly route and a couple of banked seconds would serve us well for the hill at 2-3k. The second kilometre was ok though I was starting to find it a struggle. Cue the hill and pretty much a mirror image of an epic blow up from the previous week. The wheels came right of again. Digger pressed on at planned pace but I just couldn’t hold on. My body was screaming at me to stop – my breathing was way too laboured and my legs were in agony. My mind was frustrated as I had the mental fight in me this week but not the physical one. Digger came back to me and tried to get the pace back on a bit of downhill. At this stage my breathing was getting a bit out of control so knowing the race was gone, we eased back and focused on getting a decent session of some sort in. The last 2 kilometres were straight-up hell. There is no other way to describe it. Digs has been comparing my breathing (and whatever other laboured noises I was making) to the noises that a donkey in distress would be making…not a pretty sight. I collapsed over the finish line in 21 minutes. And I was absolutely fooked. Here was another load of material to dissect and examine and see if there were lessons to be learned / changes to be made etc. There was a difference in my mental reaction to this race. I wasn’t bitterly disappointed as I had been the week before. I didn’t give up. I gave it everything my body would allow and I had to figure out what the hell else was going on.
After a discussion to the death with Digs, he was of the opinion that my state was akin to that I was in last August/September when those fateful blood tests revealed that I was in fact, pole-axed! My breathing/groaning was the same, the fire in my calves was the same, and my general wellbeing outside of training was slipping into the state it had been too. When I was knackered then, it had gotten to the stage where I’d take the lift up one flight of stairs because I was so shattered but I’d still drag my sorry a*s out for every training run whilst dropping the planned pace to a plod. This time around, when I actually sat back and thought about it, I have been knackered - falling asleep on the bus on a Monday morning, feeling heavy legged walking up stairs, feeling wrecked before a run but putting that down to maybe not having eaten enough and thinking that horsing extra food into me would help. (By-the-by not eating enough will never be my problem so that was just a foolish excuse to eat/ignore my body!)
Anyway short-story-long, I needed this race to put me in my place and realise that I needed to figure out what was going on with me. I knew I could hit the distances that the training plan was prescribing for the immediate future, but was advised to forget about pace if insisting on the distance. I made an appointment with the doc for a full set of bloods and just plodded away in the meantime. Doc put me on a 3 month dose of multivitamins as soon as he me and in advance of any results. He tested for everything and thankfully everything came back clear except the one thing I was kind of hoping to see wrong…drum roll… my iron and it’s individual components all shot again. When I say I was hoping to see the problem being with the iron, I say that because of past experience and knowing that I can fix it. It also explains recent race times with which I’ve been unhappy, and my general fatigue which I was putting down to other stresses. So a double dose of iron for 4/6 weeks and then a regular dose with intermittent tests to check in. Not fun as it can be tough on the tum but functional! Hopefully I’ll have a good speedy return to decent training! The only other thing that was slightly low was my calcium – not surprising. Dairy…ugh. I would only have a few yogurts a week as well as a drop of milk with tea. What type of doctor sends someone away with the instructions to eat cheese anyway?!
Now, moving on…training update! Not going to bore anyone with the ins and outs of each run – some have been tough, some have been easy. Definitely noticing the lack of oxygen to the lungs and muscles as a result of the low iron but things looking up since last week.
Wednesday 4th July
5.05 miles total incl race and w/u
Thursday 5th July
6 @ 8:13
~14.5 miles cycling (in total commuting)
Friday 6th July
7 @ 8:46
Saturday 7th July
2 @ 9:30 w/u
13.2 @ 9:04 – paced the Clontarf Half – prob deserves a report of some sort but I ain’t got the time :-/
Sunday 8th July
6 @ 9:26 – very easy recovery
Monday 9th July
8 @ c.8:30 (a guess as had no Garmin) I so very nearly stopped on Newtownpark Avenue – that is an absolute killer when one had no blood in their calves
Tuesday 10th July
10 – 8.5 @ 8:16 and 1.5 @ 9:10 – eased off for the last mile and a half as it was the sensible thing to do. That, plus I was flocked!!
Wednesday 11th July
5.1 @ 9:04
Thursday 12th July
6.5 – 5.3 @ 8:10 and 1.2 @ 9:00 (similar to Wednesday)
Friday 13th July
Rest
Saturday 14th July
16 @ 8:36 – LSR – needed a long one badly as starting to get nervous about Berlin.
Sunday 15th July
6 @ 9:10 – easy recovery
Thank god for a decent (ish) week’s marathon training. As I said, staring to get nervous. Need to up the mileage. 51.6 miles for the week – delighted to have gone over 50. Feeling better already!
Phew!! That took input and effort over a number of days to put together so god help anyone who’s sat down to read it in one go! 0 -
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