Reach for the sky...

woody1

sat 28th sept
20k, 2 laps close to parents house, better half came with for first one, went grand..

woody1

5.6k run.. tired from the weekend, dark evenings closing in, more important to just get something done than worry about distance,. get a longer one done on wednesday

woody1

town / woods loop run.. thought it was 10k but going by time it was closer to 8 ish
map my run says 8.5 ish , must get a gps.. hopefully with the new garmins out therel be a load of secondhand ones available soon

woody1

35k lsr.. 3.56.15.. minus 20 mins for slobbering, called into the house to change tops and put bin out.. 27 to 30 was tough .. got going again round 34

woody1

3.6k tester for sore foot tendons / ligaments.. not great.. into physio asap to see if anything can be done..bugger

woody1

12k ish run.. tester after physio and rest to see what foot would react like, was bearable but nigly. had to mess around with laces a good bit and as the shoe isnt tied right its doesnt feel comfortable and is probably going to give me other niggles but i think its grand to run with.. it may be a pain in the arse for the 4+ hours but it wont stop me running

woody1

15th oct had a small window so got out for 4k just to see what foot was like and its marginally better

was meant to be doing 20k last weekend but im gonna leave it for this weekend and just do 2 1 hour runs today and tomorrow.. mainly down to lack of time

woody1

5.6k run 17th oct, short of time, tried using old runners and that sorted a lot of the foot discomfort ive been having lately, but do i want to run 44k in old runners that i had retired .

woody1

11k on saturday morning 20th oct, and now i have man flu !!

woody1

23rd oct 7k easy jog.. playing with new gps watch..lucky not to be run over a couple of times.. few niggles nothing major.. still deciding on old or new(er ) runners for monday

woody1

25th 5k easy, felt good, nice and free and easy..

woody1

A disaster. Trying not to be annoyed about it as it won't improve the time. Way underestimated the marathon. 4.42 . I would've taken 4.30 but that's just ridiculous. Anyway shouldn't be hard to knock a chunk off that.

Oryx

woody1 wrote: »

A disaster. Trying not to be annoyed about it as it won't improve the time. Way underestimated the marathon. 4.42 . I would've taken 4.30 but that's just ridiculous. Anyway shouldn't be hard to knock a chunk off that.

Not a disaster. A lesson in not quitting Well done on your first, hope its lit a fire in you to do more.

shotgunmcos

+1 I'd imagine almost everyone who has done marathons puts their first down to a learning experience. Head up. Build your base fitness (heart rate <70% mhr volume training) and you will reap the rewards . Well done finishing knowing your A goal was gone!

woody1

so DCM 2013 4.42
i had no target , none at all, i had hope to jog around at my leisure in 4.20 to 4.30 not experience too much pain, not meet with the wall and generally take it handy..
training went ok to a point, with some minor bother 3 weeks out with bridge of foot and bother with runners and then had a cold about 10 days before so last 3 weeks training wasnt ideal but i wasnt worried, the bulk of the mileage had been done.. ( so i thought )
realistically i followed the plan i had to the point of using it to put the long runs in the right place and as a rough guide to what length of runs to be doing midweek but id say i cut about 20% of it as i ran 3-4 days rather than 5,
so on the day.. i wore too much !! i always wear too much, in training, but i thought i had learned for races to wear the minimum, i guess the distance just messed with my head and i wasnt thinking right, i had an under armour base layer and tri shorts under running top and shorts, the base top went after 3k ( only took 2 minutes so im not bothered about time lost or anything ) and on i went, now ive had bother with tri shorts before , i dont know why but something about them gives me hip flexor trouble and sure enough at 10k my hip flexors were in bits, i was still clocking 9 min miles which is what i wanted to so i wasnt bothered, i was waiting for it to go away and be replaced by some other pain and that happened alright , but then they started to hurt again and hurt badly, slowing me to 10 +
min miles round miles 13/14 ! so i decided to take off the tri shorts, i figured whatever time it cost would be made back with freedom of movement, but i didnt figure on standing at a portaloo for 10 minutes ! so it took about 15 minutes total for me to change and that can be seen in the splits from13 to 20miles where it takes me 1.16 to cover the 7 miles ! but it did actualy make a huge difference, i had no more hip flexor bother and was running freely ( ish ) again. i had some bother with right foot and knee at times but most people had something hurting them, between 20 and 22 miles i encountered the wall.. not a hugely painful crash, more a lethargy and unwillingness of the legs to do any more, i walked the "wall" hill ( roebuck i think ) jogged to the base of the flyover hill,walked that hill and then walked / jogged a little more up to about 22 miles ( id say total i walked 10 mins ish ) at 22 i figured it was as painful / tiring to walk as to run and if i didnt get moving id be on the course forever and i was conscious of people waiting for me , so i got into a bit of a shuffle and kept it going from there to the end, around the block from 25 to 26 seemed to go on forever.. but i got there.. my right hip is still sore, tender to touch even, but otherwise im not awfully stiff,
conclusions.. 1. dont wear so much !! , 2. not enough miles and not enough effort ( i train on my own and fall into the do everything easy trap very often ) 3. be mentally stronger... 4. marathon is very tough, even when your actualy trying to take it easy.. 5. have a target . even a soft one, its too easy to wimp out when youve nothing to aim for

will i do another one..yeah sure but not for a while too much time required to train properly for it, but il still be tipping away at other stuff.. hopefully mondays experience will make them seem easier..

griffin100

woody1 wrote: »

A disaster. Trying not to be annoyed about it as it won't improve the time. Way underestimated the marathon. 4.42 . I would've taken 4.30 but that's just ridiculous. Anyway shouldn't be hard to knock a chunk off that.

You're not the first and won't be the last person to underestimate the marathon. I certainly have in the past. At least you kept going and have a soft PB to chase .

Oryx

Be proud of what you did, something most people never try. And everything that went wrong is a lesson learned. EVERYONE makes mistakes and has bad days but they are part of the toughening up process!

woody1

took the bike out for a short spin pre sea to summit, more to make sure there was nothing wrong with the bike than to see how i was.. bike is fine.. i am not.. cycle was ok-ish.. considering it was pan flat and there was feck all breeze.. cant ask for more since i havent been on it since swinford in july ..
run after was tough.. heavy legs, heavy everything..

woody1

coached swim with tri club, 100, 200 and 400 time trials to establish where we are.. time ran out and didnt get to do the 400, found it tough going and predictably was last in the group, doesnt bother me, the point of being there is to get better technique and get faster

woody1

sea to summit.. no training as such, havent been on the reek all year, on bike once since june, running a fair bit obviously.. 2 weeks since marathon
i enjoyed it.. same time as last year and if it hadnt been for knackering my hip on the way down the mountain id have been about 5-6 minutes faster easily.. but thats all part of the race i think.. enjoyed the 2 short cycles considering i hadnt been on the bike in 4 months, had nothing in the legs for the little hills though, marathon must have them shagged still.. good game of cat and mouse with a few of the cyclist where id blast by them on the tri bars and then theyd catch up on the hills.. and they all passed me as i shuffled up the last run ..
anyway maybe its because it was such a change from the marathon but i really knocked a lot of craic out if it..
hip is now ****ed..
144th in 2.18..

woody1

14th nov 13, coached swim, learning new drills , not the toughest session in the world, with the huge differences in abilities its difficult to look after everyone, but i think us slowcoaches are getting a raw deal, takes us longer to finish whatever were doing but before we finish the coach is talking to the others about whats next, leads to people not doing the full set, and finishing early so as to hear whats next, bit of a balls.. but only the second day yet so things will no doubt improve..

http://www.tri247.com/article_12185.htmlthought this was interesting, part re blood tests, iron etc, ive had a few blood tests this year trying to get to the bottom of something thats puzzling, rather than worrying,but definitely tied in with this years increased training , i know im nowhere near an elite athlete but youd wonder should your blood levels be higher if your doing more than the average person , all mine are dead on the normal range.. despite the fact that my doctor is quite sporty ( sub 3 marathon runner and triathlete ) he doesnt seem very filled in on this kind of thing..



also like the quote about grey training , not hard enough to change anything not easy enough for recovery... most of mine would fall into that description..

woody1

13 days since last update, 3 swims i think, 2 coached and 1 on my own, tried to get in a couple of times but pool either taken up with lessons and there was a gala on, as usual no prior notice of any of this stuff,
seriously considering private pool membership even though its only 20m long not doing any running or cycling, because i wanted to chill for a while before starting again and because im waiting for some medical info before i get into the more strenuous stuff again,
getting bored and grumpy though, mite chance a long easy cycle at the weekend

woody1

10th dec 13
4 more swims, 2 coached, 2 not,

woody1

swimming, 19th dec..first time in 2 weeks cos of death in
in laws family
triathlon club, drills etc.. have prob gone backwards a bit
but it was good all the same ..
also had a camera and did stroke analysis which should
be a good laugh, but will hopefully give me something
solid to work on..

woody1

26th dec,
new stephens day 5k in my parish..
23.30 something, died a death, first 2k fine, last 3 at jogging pace.. havent ran in 2 months and i felt it ..

santa claus has been good.. new turbo trainer and riser block, cycling / triathlon jersey , and a few books, the mind gym, ranulph fiennes book and run less run faster..

just waiting for echo and all clear to get back to it properly again

woody1

4k run on sat the 11th..
first day since the marathon that ive felt any pull to do anything at all..so i'l start back from here

got video analysis of my stroke in the email over the weekend and its pretty shocking, obviously i knew there were many things i was doing wrong or wasnt doing at all but i thought there were one or 2 things that i had right and didnt need to worry about.. anyway its good to know what to work on, which is basically everything !

there is another block of coached sessions with the tri club starting this week so il join in with that, debating getting one on one sessions as well, 2 reasons , 1 obviously i need them, 2 itl get me into the pool more often.. which i need too..

no great targets for this year yet, still a few health related things to be cleared up.. so im not making any big decisions on what i will or wont do until i get that sorted.. at the moment im just going to try to get back training at an easy level and then just keep things tipping over .. hopefully when i get going properly the plan is to try to do everything with a bit more of an eye on technique and effort rather than just junk, so im going to run to set times ie at a prescribed pace per km for x kms, swim doing technique drills rather than just bash up and down the pool and cycle using the heart rate monitor on the turbo and hopefully get in some long weekend spins which ive never really done.. ...
idealy id like to get 5k closer to 20.30 something ( currently 21.30 ish )
20k bike to low 39s or 38 something .
swim.. hard to put a time on.. il be happy if my technique improves and itd be nice to swim 1500 comfortably ..

woody1

14th jan
1 hour turbo.. on new tacx blumatic turbo.. getting a bit of wheel slippage.. otherwise all grand..hour passed quick enough

club swim coached session.. lots of kicking and backstroke got thru it.

got secondhand treadmill yesterday so hopefully that will get me running a bit more seeing as i have from 2 til 6 available every day..

woody1

16th jan .. club swimming session.. lots of kicking and going no-where , literally, and everyone else has fins ? and im getting in the way ( they are finishing the reps before im halfway started, will have to invest before the next session,
had to do 100m in 4 mins or less 3 times,just made it, cant believe im that slow..

woody1

jan 19th 5k race..local school charity thing.. semi jogged around in 24 mins.

jan 20th..turbo..we now have 2 set up beside each other so me and the better half did one of the sufferfest videos, was good craic and good to have someone else there to keep the rhythm going

jan 21st club swim 1 1/2 hours, tough going

jan 22nd 30 mins on treadmill, first go on new treadmill..

jan 23rd club swim, 1 1/4 hour ... not as bad as tuesday , helps that i have fins and pull bouy now

cant decide whether to go on treadmill today or not, tired today, it might be as good a day to chill out and do nothing as any

joey100

16th jan .. club swimming session.. lots of kicking and going no-where , literally, and everyone else has fins ? and im getting in the way ( they are finishing the reps before im halfway started, will have to invest before the next session,
had to do 100m in 4 mins or less 3 times,just made it, cant believe im that slow..

Keep with the kicking, I try to do a bit of kicking in every swim session, started off nearly going backwards but kept with it and am comfortable enough with it now. With a bit of luck it will help improve your position in the water too.