It's all about racing

Oregano_State

I feel your pain man, and I'm only out of action since Monday! I hope to be able to do some light jogging next week depending on how it feels. Keep up the exercises, it will take as long as it takes.

Tom Joad

Good to hear you are well on the road back..

Cleanman

Oregano_State wrote: »

I feel your pain man, and I'm only out of action since Monday! I hope to be able to do some light jogging next week depending on how it feels. Keep up the exercises, it will take as long as it takes.

Cheers OS, I'm trying to keep that exact attitute but like most guys, patience isn't always my strongest point! Sounds like your tear is small thankfully. There's nothing worse for an athlete than a bad hamstring tear, so it's good to hear it's responding well this week.

Tom Joad wrote: »

Good to hear you are well on the road back..

I might not be on the road quite yet Tom....but I'm hoping to be on the grass soon (tis easier on the lower limbs!);)

Cleanman

I finally lost patience over the weekend and got out for two 30 min runs. Both were done at slower then 10m/m pace though so they hardly count! It was tough to keep the pace that slow but I didn't want to risk undoing any of the hard work I've put in over the last month. It felt great though, getting out and just putting one foot in front of the other.

I was back to the physio this morning and he told me to try and wait another couple weeks before running again but from a purely psychological point of view, I think it's well worth doing another couple of these "runs". They're more like a very fast walk than a run so I think I'll throw a couple of them in there when I'm bored with the gym. At least it seems like I'm making progress that way!

Cleanman

The ankle has been pretty tender after my "running" at the weekend which is very concerning. It's the same tenderness that was there while I was properly training - I can't understand how running at 10 m/m and running at 5 m/m can cause the same reaction.

Anyway, I've stuck to the Physio's advice and haven't gone out for a run since the weekend. Given the tenderness, it's been a hard week to keep motivated but I'm continuing to be disciplined with the gym work.

I'm away to Spain in the morning for a week's family break - so hopefully that will increase the spirits. I've progressed really well with the gym work so I'm clinging to the fact that once I get back to running, and get my fitness up again, all this general strength and core work will pay dividends. :rolleyes: There's a gym in the apartment block we are staying in so I'll make use of that and might even see if I can remember how to use a treadmill at some point - I know I'll be tempted if it's just sitting there lying idle!

On a negaitive side, I've at least 1/2 stone put on since I stopped running...and that's before I go on holidays:eek:

pconn062

Stay positive man, I know it's hard but some rehab just takes longer than others. Enjoy the holiday and forget about running for a week!

RunningKing

pconn062 wrote: »

Stay positive man, I know it's hard but some rehab just takes longer than others. Enjoy the holiday and forget about running for a week!

+1 to this.

Cleanman

I haven't posted up here for almost 3 weeks now. I was trying to keep a weekly report of my progress but 1) I didn't expect it to take this long and 2) it was getting damn depressing!

I've been out for a few light runs over the last few weeks. All at a very light pace and no longer than 30 mins long. My ankle is holding up ok and the physio is happy with the general strength that I've built up. The plan for the next couple of weeks is to run every second day and see if I can build it up to 45 mins. I'll reasses in two weeks if that goes well.

The one thing the physio has said is that he doesn't think I'll ever be able to compete over the shorter distances (800 and 1500) again. That seems like a bit of a drastic and terminal statement to me. When I get back into proper training again though, the plan will be to stick with 5ks and maybe even 10ks for the while. My aerobic fitness has always been my weakness so it's not like I haven't got lots to work on.

Finally, all this time out has made me realise what's important. Missing out on races isn't nice but missing out on putting on my gear and getting into the sunshine (and wind and rain!) for a run is far far worse. Getting back on my feet on a regular basis and enjoying running for the sake of running is the new goal. Racing and competing and setting pbs will just have to wait. (Although I've never run a 10k race so a pb is pretty certain:D:D:D)

dna_leri

tough going.

If its any good to you, I made my biggest jump in times after a period of injury and then coming back to work on my aerobic fitness.

You may have to change the log title though, at least for a while.

Cleanman

A bit of positive news for my log at last! I'm starting to get out for some decent easy runs and I've had no reaction to my injury. The key for now is patience and consistency.

I first went to the physio on 29 April - looking back, I was really feeling great about training and my fitness. I didn't run in May at all and only really started running every second day half way through June. Everything has been done slowly. I probably covered about 50k in all of June. The last week or two have been positive though. I've been doing three runs and three prescribed gym workouts per week. So I think it's time to start logging again!

This week has looked like the following:
Monday: 44mins easy run
Tuesday: Gym
Wednesday: 43 mins easy
Thursday: Physio - all good, not going back again for a month
Friday: 48 mins easy

Today was my longest run to date. I've lost a bucket load of fitness though. I wore the garmin for the first time to see what kind of pace I'm running at. Today was exactly 8 min miles - and I was struggling the last mile or so!

The plan for July is just to keep doing easy runs and keep building up time on my feet. I should cover up to 150k for the month, all (or nearly all) easy running. I'll see about stepping it up then in August and introduce some faster running.

Gym tomorrow and a 50 min plus run on Sunday hopefully. Starting to feel the love again....at last!!

I've been keeping up to date logs here and it's great to see pbs all over the place. Although I'm not a marathoner, I get really excited reading up on everyone doing DCM, so keep up the good work;)

Cleanman

Finished the week off well. Got the GYM session done yesterday morning and despite and very different session in the sunshine outside Kehoe's yesterday, I managed 59mins this morning, done at about 8:20 pace. Nice and slow and delighted to get a good decent run in. The plan is to start extending those Sunday morning runs again. I covered about 40k this week. By far the most I've done since last April so I need to watch it and not do too much too soon!

RunningKing

great to see you getting back to it.

I was doing up my Marathon plan last week and I included a session of 4x The Khyber which I've called "The Cleanman"

Cleanman

Haha, I'm honoured that you called it that but I definitely wasn't the first to do that session!! It's a b*tch of a session though. Let me know when you're doing it and I'll try and get a couple of reps done with you for support - it's not a session I could imagine doing on my own!

Cleanman

40 mins at 8:04 pace today after work. Boy was it warm! Even after a long cold shower, I'm still overheating! I'm heading to Croatia on Thursday week for 8 days so I'm hoping I'll be able to adjust to the warm weather before then.

Feel like I'm finally getting into a bit of proper running though. Even if I don't do any speed or tempo work for a few weeks, I'm loving being back out on the roads!

Cleanman

Tuesday was another GYM day after I ran on both Sunday and Monday. It's tough going inside to exercise in this weather. It goes against every fibre of insticnt I have. Worse still, the GYM is surrounded by windows which make the GYM feel like an oven in the evening sunshine:eek:.

Wednesday was a planned 45-60 minute run, depending on the heat and how I was feeling generally - I was leaning more to a 45 min run than a 60 min run. In an effort to avoid all the concert enthusiasts, I ended up down the end of the P Park after 40 minutes without realising it. By the time I got back home, I had 64 minutes of running done at 8:20 pace average. I found the last few mins tough in that heat and was seeking every bit of shade I could find. Makes a change from looking for every bit of sunshine that can be found to run in so that I can warm my Sun starved skin!

Cleanman

Wow - I knew that it had been a while since my last log, but not this long!

The reason for the long delay is that I've been having more problems with this damn ankle. I'm going to get an MRI and seeing a surgeon for his opinion in October. By all accounts, surgery on the ankle is not a good path to go down but I've put everything I had into the strength and conditioning work over the summer and it just hasn't worked. I don't know if I could be bothered with surgery though - this is supposed to be a hobby so I'll see what the surgeon suggests first.

I'm back to easy running, 3 days a week, and I'll keep it at that with one visit to the GYM each week until October. I can handle that no problem, it's increasing the mileage or intensity that's the problem.

So...117km's covered in July and 108km's in August and I don't plan on doing much more in September.

There have been some really impressive improvements in here in the last couple of months, so keep up the good work:cool::cool::cool:

pconn062

That really sucks man, sorry to hear about that. I know it's hard to keep the spirits up, hopefully the surgeon will be able to give you good news.

RunningKing

+1

A couple of days off and I'm tearing my hair out. But at least your back easy running.
Hopefully there's another answer rather than surgery, but if you have to do it then maybe it'll be worth it in the long run.
The best running years are ahead of you!!

Keep it positive.

Cleanman

I'll try and keep up a weekly update since I'm back running semi regularly. There's nothing too exciting about the running I'm doing at the moment but it's good for the log to look back and see what I'm doing.

This week included 8.4k (Monday), 11.2k (Thursday) and 9.5k (Saturday) all done at 7:50/55 pace and a GYM session (Tuesday).

The pace has been a bit quicker this week than the last few weeks and I feel like by even doing this small amount, my fitness levels are coming back a bit

Ankle has been a bit tender after the runs but nothing concerning. The days rest in between each run is doing it wonders.

On a more negative note, I got lashed on during this afternoon's run. I think the winter is starting to show it's ugly face:(

RunningKing

Are you doing anything specific to manage the ankle?

Cleanman

RunningKing wrote: »

Are you doing anything specific to manage the ankle?

The physio had me doing a lot of ankle rehab work during the summer which included lots of general leg strength work as my right side is a lot weaker than my left. I was doing that 3/4 a week during the summer but have grown to really hate it. In an effort to maintain the gains I got during the summer, I'm continuing with just one good session a week and then might do a few of the exercises at home if I've time/energy/motivation. According to my physio, the most important exercise for my ankle (along with all the general balance work) are one legged squats. They're a real bitch but I'll keep at them.

RunningKing

They ( one legged squats) seem to be flavour of the month for everything these days. I was told to do them for my calf and know others doing them for other leg issues.
Great to see you making progress.

Cleanman

RunningKing wrote: »

They ( one legged squats) seem to be flavour of the month for everything these days. I was told to do them for my calf and know others doing them for other leg issues.
Great to see you making progress.

Well if the level of difficultly is proportional to the benefits gained, then they are GREAT! I look forward to the day that I can do a set of them without feeling like I've been dragged through the mill.

You ran a 20+ miler today - you should be in bed!

Cleanman

This week saw me doing 8.3k (8 pace), 8.5k (7:40 pace) and 13k (8:05 pace). Had a metal week at work so it was kind of nice not having to worry about getting out for a run every day. I upped the pace a bit for my second run of the week. Felt good, if a little sore. Yesterdays "long run" is the longest run since April 28th:eek::eek:

Cleanman

Another very uneventful week but got through 9.6k, 9.6k and 11.5k at 7:50, 8:00 and 7:55 mm paces respectively.

I'm still not doing much but can definitely feel myself getting a little stronger each week. There's a lot to be said for these easy runs - I just need to do more of them! I'm going to stick to the plan for September and just run three days again next week but I think I'm going up it slightly in October and plan to get out every second day. The ankle feels good at what I'm doing so I don't think I'll have any issues. Now off to Croker to see us win two All-Ireland's:eek:

Cleanman

I've become very lazy updating this thread. So what have I been up to for the last month? Apologies for the long post - I feel like Marthstew (a very very low milage comparison:o)

September
I finished off September well - a monthly total of 128kms. Everything was done at a slow and comfortable pace with no reaction to my injury. So September went to plan overall, although the target was a very modest 3 runs a week.

October
The plan for October was to marginally step it up by running every second day, instead of just 3 runs a week and by increasing my long runs up to somewhere close to 90 mins. Well the first week in October went well but since then, I seem to have been struck down with some kind of virus. It's nothing debilitating and I didn't have to take any time off work (although I probably should have taken a couple of days). I took a few days off running and then went back to do a short slow run. I felt awful during the run and was shattered afterwards. I've repeated that cycle a couple of times but have managed to get out Monday and Wednesday this week and I'm going to go for another light run later today (Friday) as I think I'm starting to feel a bit stronger. So far, I've only covered 55k this month. I hope to get back to running every second day for the rest of the month.

Orthopaedic advice
I'm just back from a visit to an Orthopaedic surgeon. Armed with an old MRI scan, he explained that I have no serious ligament problems - a welcome relief. He said I had something called an Osteochondral lesion. In lay man's terms, it's damage to the cartilage around the bone in my ankle. Cartilage, he explained, has no blood supply and cannot heal itself. As the cartilage is damaged, the bone is getting damaged. If (and it's a big if) he can repair the damaged cartilage, the bone will heal itself as it does have blood supply. In some cases, a cyst can form under the cartilage which presents other problems. My next step is to get an up to date MRI and then consider surgery and type of surgery. He said there are various ways to tackle the problem, but the results are variable. The good news is that I can keep running. As I've had this problem for 8 years, I'm not going to rush into any decision. In fact, I need to arrange proper health cover first in case I need expensive operation(s).

Next Steps
Well....as I said, I've got the go ahead to keep running for now. So back to running every second day for the rest of October. In November, the plan is to try and up it to 4 days a week and I might try to get a couple of "speed sessions" done - I'm thinking km or mile repeats at a conservative pace. I'll play that bit by ear. I'd love to target a race before Christmas to keep me motivated as there's not a lot of that around these parts lately. Jingle bells race jumps to my mind and/or a couple of park runs to add a bit of fun as I'm still a parkrun virgin:D

RunningKing

Targeting a Jingle Bells recovery myself, but my 3-4 weeks layoff pales in comparison to your injury woes.
Hope this week and Nov go well for you.

Cleanman

RunningKing wrote: »

Targeting a Jingle Bells recovery myself, but my 3-4 weeks layoff pales in comparison to your injury woes.

Brilliant - hope to see you there so. You'll have built up great strength from all the marathon miles. So even with your layoff, I'd be expecting a pb from ya...no pressure:cool:

Cleanman

It being the 1st December, I decided today to try and start updating my log again. Apart from the dose of manful over the last week, November was reasonably good. I managed 150k in total with 3 16k runs and two very very modest speed sessions. The sessions highlighted my lack of fitness at the minute but I'm back running semi regularly and I'm delighted with that.

More of the same for December is the plan. I was going to do the Jingle Bells next week but I've signed up to steward instead. I won't race until January. Right now, I just want to keep enjoying being back and slowly built up an aerobic base.

So, today I got out for a long run. It's my first run since Monday as I've been struggling with the flu all week. I've been doing these runs really slow over November with the pace in or around 8:40 to 8:50 p/m. This morning, we ticked around at just under 8:40 pace with 16.6k complete in just under 90 minutes. Delighted with that and I'll hopefully increase the distance/time over the next few weeks.

Cleanman

Tuesday 3 Dec:
8.4k @ 8:10 pace. Nice easy run.

Wednesday 4 Dec:
9.4k @ 8:00 pace. Felt a lot harder than Tuesdays run for some reason. My chest felt really tight a full 8 days after first getting sick:(

Friday 6 Dec:
8.4K @ 7:45 pace. Started off nice and easy but picked up the pace after 2 miles and covered the last 3 miles or so at 7:30, 7:22 and 7:40 pace. Felt really comfortable. A completely different experience to Wednesday!

Kind of glad now that I'm not running the JB in the morning. I'm nowhere near racing shape. Looking forward to having some banter in the morning down at the club and then after in the Palace. Going out on the beer with a group of people I've never met seems a bit daunting (and maybe a bit weird!) but it's all good fun and looking forward to it.

Plan is to get 16k-17k done on Sunday morning but a lot of that could depend on tomorrow night:rolleyes:

AuldManKing

Cleanman wrote: »

Going out on the beer with a group of people I've never met seems a bit daunting (and maybe a bit weird!)

I remember a few years ago going for a run with Miclin Muc and I hadn't met him previously, before I went out of the house, I told my kids and wife that I was going to the Phoenix Park meet a guy who I'd been chatting to on the internet.

Good to see you back btw

ThebitterLemon

You went to the Park to meet a guy, who you'd never met and whose online name was Miclin Muc, sweet Jesus man, have you not seen the movie Deliverance

pconn062

Us internet people are alright! Hopefully meet you tomorrow, number 673, Dunleer AC singlet, I'll probably be vomiting if you're standing at the finish line!

Cleanman

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

You went to the Park to meet a guy, who you'd never met and whose online name was Miclin Muc, sweet Jesus man, have you not seen the movie Deliverance

Ah he wasn't Auld and wise back then.....

Cleanman

pconn062 wrote: »

Us internet people are alright! Hopefully meet you tomorrow, number 673, Dunleer AC singlet, I'll probably be vomiting if you're standing at the finish line!

If you're vomiting, I know you'll have broken 17:30! Just don't get any vomit on my expensive Santa suit:cool:

Cleanman

First off, it was great to meet so many boardies after the Jingle Bells on Saturday. It was really nice to put faces to names and I had a right ball on Saturday night chatting away to both boardies and honorary members!

Unfortunately, I awoke Sunday morning in another world. I didn't think I was too drunk Saturday night but I must have been because I had a hangover from hell:(. I decided to take a rest day and then spent the whole day eating and feeling guilty!

Anyway, today I threw on the gear straight after work and straight up to the park. Started off nice and slow and ended up doing 13k in exactly 68mins. So an average of 8:30 pace. Looking back on the splits, the first half was run at 8:40 pace and the second half at 8:20 pace. It felt super easy so happy to be back on the road!

I've been doing a lot of thinking too since Saturday and decided that I need a definite short term goal to get me motivated and out the door on mornings like yesterday (because you can be sure there'll be a lot more of them over the next 3 weeks!).

Raheny 5 is what I've come up with. Gonna continue to just work on my aerobic base and see what kind of time I can produce by just focusing on that. I'm not going to bother too much with sessions - maybe the odd fartlek. I'll see if I can knock out a sub 32 mins there. I ran it last year in 31:15 so I'll be happy if I'm not too far behind that. That's an average pace of sub 6:24 which I think should be achievable but getting out for my long runs is essential!:eek:

Cleanman

8.3k tonight at an easy 8:20 pace. Disgarded the leggings that I've been wearing for the last few weeks as I was a little warm on last nights run. There was no fear of being cold tonight though. Just a lovely relaxed run.

Just read over the above - for the record, I did wear shorts:D

Cleanman

Long run this morning but I suffered a bit on it after a few late nights of excess! The pace was also a lot faster than I've been used to. I managed to get 16k done (all on the pp trails) @ an average of 7:54 pace but I'm a bit stiff and sore now. There was a couple of sub 7:20 miles near the start of the run and they really took it out of me and gave me another insight into just how unfit I am right now! Still, it was a good blow out given that I haven't run since Tuesday.

Cleanman

Tuesday 17th
31 mins @ 8:40 pace. Nice easy recovery run with the OH

Wednesday 18th
5.6 miles including a session. Yes, you read it right the first time. I did a session!!:D:D:D:D

Now before we all get excited, this wasn't anything ground breaking. But it was a start. Plan was 3 miles @ 7:00 pace. Actual splits turned out as follows:

8:21, 8:20, 6:48, 6:47, 0.5 @ 6:40 pace, 1.1 cd at 8:20 pace.

So I bailed before I made 3 miles.

But in my defence, the weather was shocking, most of the tempo run was on the (wet) grass and I overcooked the pace a bit. I really struggled for the last few mins but I recovered very quickly on the warm down. So given that I'm in shocking bad shape, I'm really happy with it - especially how even the pace was given the brutal conditions. I won't do too many of these type runs before the end of January but it gives me a marker to work from at least. Easy running for the rest of the week (If I get out with all this xmas drinking and shopping I've planned :pac:).

Cleanman

Just realised the ecoli did 17 miles at my tempo pace at the weekend.:eek: Now that's impressive. 2.5 miles is a start - I'll catch you soon at some point ecoli!

AuldManKing

You need to join a club.........oh hang on....:P

Seriously, good start, given the evening it was.

ecoli

Cleanman wrote: »

Just realised the ecoli did 17 miles at my tempo pace at the weekend.:eek: Now that's impressive. 2.5 miles is a start - I'll catch you soon at some point ecoli!

All about consistency. Remember back in August and that was roughly my half marathon race pace. Plenty of time you just gotta keep at it week in and week out and you will be hitting that pace in no time.

Cleanman

Sunday 22nd: 12 miles @ 8:24 pace

Longest run ever! Really enjoyed this morning. Met up with a club mate. Did 9 miles with him at just over 8:30 pace and then I upped the pace to finish the run off with 3 sub 8 min miles. Felt strong on this. Apart from the morning after the boards xmas drinks, I've got a long run done every Sunday morning since the start November and it's starting to pay off....I think! My only negative is that my ankle has been playing up a bit this week so I'll have to watch that.

Cleanman

Tuesday 24th
3.5 miles easy @ 8:10 pace. I had to go into the office for just 10 minutes and was stuck for time before hitting the road for the west so I ran in, got everything sorted and jogged home.

Wednesday 25th
I had planned a session for xmas morning so ran the 2.5 miles down to the local track to find it was closed! The unmanned turnstile was programmed to close for the 25th. Why Anyway, I only had a stopwatch with me so I just ran home again. I had a good rant to myself on the way home but quickly got over it. It's Christmas day after all. Ate and drank all around me for the rest of the day!:D

So 5 miles overall at about 8:10 pace

Thursday 26th
Woke up feeling surprisingly fresh so I decided to give the track another try. It was open. Yay. ( I was half hoping it was going to be closed again!) Anyway, I had decided to try mile repeats. I've never done them before but it's exactly the type of session I'm weakest on. I got 3 done. The splits were surprisingly consistent (6:18, 6:19, 6:18). I wasn't sure what pace to target but went with my planned 5 mile pace for next month (6:24). I was a tad quicker but don't think it really matters as long as I was consistent. I took 3 minute recoveries. The session overall was a bit harder than it should have been (I had to dig very hard on the last one) but I'm happy to get it done. 8 miles in total for the day.

I met the chairman of the track committee last night after a few pints and asked him about the track. Turns out he didn't even know it was closed. The track is new and the turnstile was only installed in January and he didn't realise it was pre programmed to close. He promised to get it sorted for next year so I can plan my session in confidence!!

That's the first time I've run 3 days in a row since I've come back. The ankle is feeling tender today so I'll rest up for a day or two and see how it is. Managing it is more important than pushing myself and I have to keep reminding myself of that!

I hope everyone had a great (or super doper as Marthastew would say) Christmas and enjoyed all the festivities.

AuldManKing

Nice one.
Was that the donore track, did they lay a new track recently?

Cleanman

AuldManKing wrote: »

Nice one.
Was that the donore track, did they lay a new track recently?

Nah, it's a track down in Mayo. They laid down a new mondo track last year. It's a brilliant facility with an indoor strip as well - a bit like in Santry.

You're flying at the minute - that tempo session you did this week was savage.

AuldManKing

Gimme a shout if you're running in or around the pp in the next few weeks.

Cleanman

Only if you promise to slow down to my pace :pac:

AuldManKing

Cleanman wrote: »

Only if you promise to slow down to my pace :pac:

Next time You're doing a Tempo run, let me know and I'll plan a recovery run :P

Cleanman

AuldManKing wrote: »

Next time You're doing a Tempo run, let me know and I'll plan a recovery run :P

No-one likes a smart arse...not even around here:P

Saturday 28th. 10.25 miles @ 8:10 pace

Plan was to do 10 @ 8:20 pace so I was a little quicker than intended but felt good for most of the run. I did two very hilly loops around my folks house. Stopped briefly after the first loop to change my top as I was soaked to the bone. The quick change did me the world of good but I still suffered a little on the last 2 miles or so - Thursday's session was still a bit in the legs. Good to get another long run ticked off. The most satisfying part of the run is that every mile, apart from one 7:54 mile, was +/- 10 secs of 8:10 pace. My pacing has been a little all over the place for the last few weeks. Considering the amount and severity of the hills, I'll take that!