2011: Father, husband, employee, runner; making it all work

W.B. Yeats

Club session this evening
warm up 1km or so
20 min fartlek. 200m fast, 100m slow
Then 1.5miles not slow but not fast
Overall 4.5miles or so.
Loosened the legs a good bit

W.B. Yeats

Club hills session tonight
about .75mile up to the loop
A double loop (1350m*2) at around 4.10/km pace
Break for about 3 or 4 min
Single loop (apparently quicker according to the coach (good man for leaving me positive for Sunday))
.75m warmdown back
Around 5 miles in total
Think I'll give the Rathfarnham 5km a go.... you never know I could find reserves of speed and endurance lurking somewhere

W.B. Yeats

Race report
A lovely day for it... day started at 6.45 in the dark with the little one murmuring, a combination of my deaf ear and tiredness meant we squeezed another hour of sleep out of it. 7.45 up and feeding/watering my 2 little ladies. A small bowl of porridge and I got the first half of the recorded rugby. At 9 I got myself ready and off out the door to the race.
Didn't get to the start line until 9.50 or so- had to queue to use Ireland's worst toilet.....:eek:- and by the time I got chipped, warmed up, stretched and to the start it was very tight. Met a few from the club- we were chatting and suddenly the gun went- Must have been right on the money, we couldn't hear the loudspeaker guy so had no idea the race was about to start.
First km went fine- was doing a bit of swerving to avoid people and passing people out. 4.09 or so. Second km down to the finish line and up the hill past the mile call out (7.06 says she- not for me it wasn't- about 6.44). Was feeling fine, maybe a little too relaxed. Up into the village and past 2 in 4.16 or so- a bit slow. Tried to push on up the long straight past Terenure college- I was passing people all around me- nobody passed me. Was passing one older guy in I think a Raheny vest who started to race me- had a little joke with him that it would do neither of us good to be racing from here and continued on my way. 3km in around 4.16 again- a little slow but at least consistent. Around the corner and I felt good actually, still passing people and thinking about making a push for home. Over the start line and could see first signs of specatators. This km was around 4.16 again. Still feeling ok and I tried to wind it up. Was picking people off ahead of me, reeling them in- getting tired admittedly, racing each of the 200m signs. At about 2 or 300 m I was going strong and looking at the watch knew I could PB so kept going, one of my clubmates came alongside me at this point- he passed me out and we both put the pedal down sprinting for the line- me to get the PB.
He crossed just ahead of me in classification but a second slower in time..... My Garmin said 21.06.99 the chip time says 21.08. I'll go with my Garmin......:D
A lot of the club folk did well-
Shout out to RayCun who PBed and beat the 20min barrier- fair play Ray, excellent running, delighted you broke the psychological barrier. Onward to better things in the marathon.
PVincent 19.3x- not bad for an auld fella
Emily around 25
New girl 24
Excellent stuff from the Knocklyon runners!

Happy to PB but could have gone better- for the first time in a long time despite being wrecked at the end I ran well, paced evenly and was able to finish strong- there could have been another 15/30 secs there if I had gone out a little faster but I wouldn't have been able to finish as strongly so who knows. I'm getting closer to the 19.59 barrier, will try to get the hamstrings sorted in the next few weeks- they were fine during the race but I can feel them now. I haven't been able to sprint at ease since last April.
Must sit down and chart out a few races, put a 5km programme in place and give this a good bash.

W.B. Yeats

Club session
25 min tempo- 3.4 miles or so- pretty decent clip
6*300m, very tough after the tempo. 65 sec each or so and was in trouble to hit that time.
Banjacked after it all
Probably should have taken it a bit easier after Sunday's exertions

W.B. Yeats

Lunchtime run 4.3miles or so. 7.58 pace
Was good to get out at lunchtime- on babysitting duty tonight
Got to run around the glorious castle grounds in KK, beautiful running.
Hamstring (R) still a bit tight.

Still deciding on my next race- thinking it will likely be the Racepix 5km in Maynooth, will try to do some more speedwork over the next few weeks .

W.B. Yeats

Long run: 10 miles in 80.42
Was easy enough going at around 8.15 a mile, increased pace for last 2 miles to try to bring it in under 80 but couldn't get the pace up enough.
It was good to get the legs going- actually when I think about it now, it was fairly easy going. Did something approaching 11.5 miles in total between warm-up and warm down.
Hamstrings now sore though,


A great day for rugby as we make the quarters, team shaping up nicely, bad news re Best though- may have a big impact on both scrum and lineout.

Aimman

W.B. Yeats wrote: »

Still deciding on my next race- thinking it will likely be the Racepix 5km in Maynooth, will try to do some more speedwork over the next few weeks .

Might be some of us heading to Tarmonbarry after all next week if you are interested.

W.B. Yeats

Aimman wrote: »

Might be some of us heading to Tarmonbarry after all next week if you are interested.

current plan is to get away for the weekend with the good lady, granny is on babysitting duty but is currently under the weather......

Aimman

W.B. Yeats wrote: »

current plan is to get away for the weekend with the good lady, granny is on babysitting duty but is currently under the weather......

If you get away for the weekend, I'd recommend Keenan's hotel in Tarmonbarry. Pop out for the paper about 10:50

W.B. Yeats

Aimman wrote: »

If you get away for the weekend, I'd recommend Keenan's hotel in Tarmonbarry. Pop out for the paper about 10:50

Not an impossibility yet......
Granny is not improving so the North without the kids may be out. The beautiful midlands may literally be a runner.....:D

W.B. Yeats

4 miles this evening.
Ran some frustration, apathy and bile out of my system
Just one of those days, didn't want to go running, forced myself out the door, now I'm glad I did.

W.B. Yeats

Haven't posted in over a week
Being away for the weekend, some laziness and general disinterest in running meant there was nothing to post. Then I stopped the rot
Ran 4 mile Thurs evening
Ran 8 mile or so Sat in Marlay- nice run
Ran 4 mile today

No Garmin with me as I wasn't interested in times or splits- just wanted to run.
Might sign up for the Racepix 5km this Sat to get back into the swing of things
Think the club are back out starting at 7 o'clock so that will make it easier for me to get out.

W.B. Yeats

4 miles this evening:
Not back in time for the club but got out around 8
Had a very decent canter to be fair.
Felt good after it
Must sign up for the Racepix gig.
Club Thursday night is the plan

W.B. Yeats

Signed up for Saturday- looking forward to having a really good gallop around Maynooth- take that retreating youth and approaching age!

Club this evening
1km or so warm up
6 * 400m intervals- 3 sort of uphill into the wind and 3 back- don't trust the coach who started our first interval 250m away from where we should have..... that's my excuse for my rapidly deteriorating performance- found them all tough after the first one.
3km or so back to the car after- actually had to stop and walk for a few seconds along the way to catch my breath as I was completely bollixed

Good to clear the lungs, probably won't help my efforts on Saturday but c'est la vie- you need to push yourself

W.B. Yeats

Racepix 5km in 21.10
Was quite relaxed about this. Got there around 10. Parked out the back, registered and got back in the car. It was very blustery and looked it was going to lash. The omens didn't look good. Did a lap of the pitches, stretched and then ran down to the start- about a km. Met the brother in law, meno and a few others before the start.
It was really windy waiting and they were late starting, subsequently discovered this was due to the chip timing company letting them down. It was quite chilled having said all of that, relaxed and not full of the usual posing that goes on at races.

Started way too quick- 3.53 for the first km. Thought I kept it together for the second but I think it was around 4.08, Began to feel it from here on as I knew I had gone out way too quick. There was some fellow tucked right in behind me for what seemed like 2 or 3 km and he was a real heavy breather- it really pissed me off and I felt like asking him to either pass me out or drop back.. The 2nd lap was hard but the third was a killer. My head kept saying stop for a second, have a little walk, nobody will see you. But I kept plodding along and picked it up on the long straight in. Passed 20min with around 350 to go so was thinking this is what a sub 20 would be like. Managed a bit of a sprint finish. Crossed in 21.10 a few seconds slower than Rathfarnham but not bad considering my training has been poor. I also ran a very different race- out hard and trying to hang on. In retrospect even paced seems to suit me better.

Went back to the hall after, there was a decent spread, tea, coffee, brack and biscuits. Met the Mooney family that run and take pics- had a great chat with them and their folks- truly lovely people. They took a photo of me, the brother in law, themselves and Dave Brady- Mr 200 marathons-.

Think I need to get a decent programme of interval and speed work done. The 3.53 says to me that I have the pace to go under 20 just not the endurance.
Planning a few sessions of 3* 1km intervals at 3.59 pace, building to 5*1km @ 3.59 over a few weeks and then quickening the pace.
I probably need to sort the right hamstring out though- it hasn't been right since last April and has prevented me going balls out in training- that's making it easy to cop out in speed work- being honest I don't take it easy but I could push it a little more however I'm always minding myself.

W.B. Yeats

Interesting reading my last post:

So I took the bull by the horns and have changed physio, first session last week, second this evening.
No running allowed at the moment
Dx: Lower back and right hip flexibility issues and weak core manifesting as sore glutes and hamstrings

Am on a regieme of stretching and strengthening during the week and then exercises in my session to loosen the whole area out and build some core strength,
Right hip is in a jock as I type this now after this evenings work out,
Have to change driving and working position.

Watched the marathon on Monday- had water and sachet for my neighbour who was looking to break 3.00 at Clonskeagh, he had a PB 3.06 but still unhappy with the performance.
Saw a few from the club go by in the crowds, great performances by them all- even some completing in great times despite running injured. I tried to keep the encouragment up for folks as I was just after the 20m banner and people seemed to hit a slump just here, ended up stretching and massaging a few cramp victims. I've a great respect for the marathon folk, it is hard hard work and a big slog. I;m still uncertain about whether or not I ever want to go that long- I reckon you need a few years of running in the legs to be really able for it, if I was going to run I'd be looking to break 1.30 for the half with a goal of going under 3.30 for the full. Its such hard work that I'm not sure that my body would be able to run for 4 hours at a time!

Anyway, here's hoping my problems get sorted and I can be back running and stronger in a few weeks.
Well done all you boardsies that ran the marathon!

menoscemo

Thanks for the shout out Ross, It was fierce quiet round there and the pacees were sufferring.

W.B. Yeats

menoscemo wrote: »

Thanks for the shout out Ross, It was fierce quiet round there and the pacees were sufferring.

No problem, I did what I'd like folks to do for me, makes a big difference when I'm struggling to have a bit of encouragement from the sidelines

W.B. Yeats

Frustrating few weeks, progress on some issues not on others.

Hip flexibility issues sorted- full rotation now in both
Lower back stiffness in driving- sorted- amazing what a rolled up towel does
Hammers and glutes still an issue- lots of stretching and some exercises hadn't massively improved things so physio focused work on hammers last session (4th)
Now have a 30 min circuit to do on hamstring curls, stretches and ball work to strengthen hamstrings.
The view at present is that very weak hamstrings causing pain have also caused glutes to try to help and caused them to get sore also. Makes sense.


So I've run 3 times in the past weeks- x2 last week on hols. 2 lovely short trail runs in the foot of Mt Blanc, amazing that running even gently at 1700m altitude made me really out of breath
x1 today on the outside loop of Marlay: very easy. Interesting that I had almost no soreness on the flat but could feel the glutes and hamstrings immediately on the few tiny little uphills.

I'm getting worried - not that I won't get "cured" although that does cross my mind but that I've completely broken my running habit the past few weeks. I will need to get back in to a routine again when things improve eventually

Shout out to the intrepid Bros Pearse runners that represented the club at the Dublin inters last week in Tymon. Well done.