Confessions of a never has been.....

annapr

Duanington wrote: »

Mad is the word alright, hoping to get back there for a bit longer later in the year.

I spotted you, looking all official n all

You coulda said hello then!!!

Duanington

annapr wrote: »

You coulda said hello then!!!

You were scanning like a pro, didn't want to interrupt the flow.......y'know....yo

Duanington

03.04.2017

Out again at lunchtime today ( working from home) for some easy miles around St Anne's park...another noticeable improvement in the calf...easy does it now

7.6 easy miles

Core\general s+c work early this morning too, I've gotten back into this over the past few weeks, I always feel better for it too. I've started using some of the drills the physio gave to me while I was rehabbing the glute too.

PM - again, st anne's, again easy street.

5.1 miles, nice and easy, enjoyed this one.

Have also gotten back on top of having food ready around the place, homemade soups, porridge based flapjacks etc....made in batch on Saturday and the kids even like them !

12.7 for the day

Duanington

10.04.2017

Tuesday

Long run night and after last week's struggles I was hoping to get back a bit fluidity into my run tonight. Didn't hang around after work, got the backpack on and legged it.
Dropped the backpack off in the porch after 4ish miles, into St Anne's, a few loops, out onto the coast, 180 degree turn and home....no moping, no "I'm so tired"...just a 15.5 miles of running...which is tiring....of course.

15.5 miles @ 7.34 min\miles


Wednesday

Lunchtime: 5 easy miles around Ringsend, can't remember much about this

PM - Run home from work, into St Anne's for a bit then home.

12.5 for the day

Thursday

Session day today, plan was for an 8 mile progression run...ending up at around half marathon effort. On account "feeling a lot stronger" this week, I checked in with the coach on extending this out by a few miles....negative. I was however, given the go ahead to increase the intensity if I felt good.

Ran most of this in St Anne's and worked my way down from easy to steady, bumped into Ferris B who was off nailing another MP session on his way to London and then increased the effort another notch or two...taking in some of the Battle of CLontarf route. Went up another notch for the last 1.5 mile or so, finishing up with a 5.51 mile...blowing hard though !

An easy mile or so to finish the day off

9.2 for the lot

Friday

Lunchtime: another trot around Ringsend but this time I headed out to the nature reserve and back to work. Nice route , I'll use that again.

6 miles easy

PM: 5.2 easy miles after work

11.2 for the day

Saturday

Session day today but I was groggy and tired when I woke so said I'd run a few easy miles to see how I felt. Felt rubbish after 2 miles so decided to push the session back by a day. Ran another few miles and felt great by the end

8.1 for the lot


Sunday

No escaping the session today, plan was for 8x2 minutes off 80 second recovery ( running the 2 minute sections at 10k effort).

Felt a couple of niggles during the warmup so I ran a few strides to try to loosen things up. Got going eventually and ran this one a lot more controlled than last week. 80 seconds recovery felt very short to be honest but I was always up for the next rep ( ok, I had to do a bit of self convincing once or twice) which was a good sign.

Average pace was around 5.40 for each rep so maybe a tad quick overall.

9.5 for the lot

Just shy of 80 miles for the week, some good core work and some good sessions too.


Monday

AM - easy miles around St Anne's. Legs a little tight from the session last night but they felt a good bit better after the run

5.9 miles @ 7.55

PM - met one of the lads from the club for a few easy miles, coast - beach - ST Anne's...miles flew by and legs felt good

8.1 miles @ 7.52 min\miles


Core work and lots of stretching after

Duanington

16.04.2017

Another good week down, some good mileage, some good runs, some tired runs, plenty of core\strength work and I'm maintaining consistency again which is always what I feel I need to kick on.

Tuesday

Long run night again - I was hoping for a slightly more comfortable run than last week, while the numbers looked good, they masked a deep lying discomfort that never really shifted throughout the run.
Of course the wind made a guest appearance for this evening's run, making things a little trickier at times, I changed the route up a little as a result, heading out onto Bull Island for a stretch before heading back up into St Anne's.
I tend to find long runs mentally tough, given that I run them after a day's work so breaking them up into sections is now the norm. 5 miles to the beach, 5 miles back to the park then 5 miles in the park...lovely

Settled into a good rhythm for most of this but felt tired towards the last mile....finishing at the end of the avenue in St Anne's for a little bit of stretching before running the half mile or so home.

15.6 miles @ 7.35 or so

Wednesday

Lunchtime - 4 easy miles around ringsend park. Easy does it

PM - 5.8 easy miles around St Anne's...feeling a little creaky to start with but freshened up a bit towards the end

9.8 for the day


Thursday

Hill session day today ; ( 10x60 seconds - 2-3 minutes recovery)

I looked forward to this in the lead up to the day but then had a sense of dread about the session as it got closer. Ran a couple of easy miles around St Anne's before heading to the hill at the back of the park ( Watermill road) - its not the steepest but I was a little tight for time and with the usual headwind in place at the hill, the resistance was probably just right.

Nearly blew a gasket on the first, came close again on the 2nd...got a bit more control over the 3rd and 4th and then worked well through the rest. Blowing hard at the end but recovering well in time for the next...good session

reps were in and around 5.40 pace

9.8 miles for the lot ( inc cool down)

Friday

AM - Easy miles around St Anne's with DNS crew...good chat as always and the miles flew by. Looking forward to seeing how Yaboya and Ferris go in London next week, both seem in tip top shape and there was a fair bit of sandbagging going on over the post run coffees.
8.3 for the lot

PM - 4.1 easy miles around St Anne's, nothing to report

12.4 for the day

Saturday

No session this morning on account of racing Raheny's 10 miler Monday so just the 8 easy miles were on the menu.

Bumped into Ferris and FBOT on their way to ST Anne's parkrun so did a couple of miles with them before heading on my way.

8 miles easy

Sunday


Back to St Anne's for some easy miles with a few strides thrown in. Legs have felt heavy the past few days with one or two niggles persisting, nothing major but enough to make me aware that I need to get some TLC on the calf muscles in particular soon enough ( and the hamstrings and the hips and the glutes!)
Felt sluggish to start with but livened up after the strides and felt good at the end of this one.

4.5 for the day, just over 74 for the week and another good week in the bag. Plenty of stretching, core work, weights and general strength work too. 7\8 weeks training under the belt since returning from injury and I've steadily felt better with each passing week. While the legs are feeling the effects of training, that probably shows that a) I'm not quite as strong as I was pre-injury ( yet) and b) I'm doing a fair bit of training !

Anyway, tomorrow will tell a tale, looking forward to it now and to kicking on in the coming weeks

Annie get your Run

Duanington wrote: »

Saturday

No session this morning on account of racing Raheny's 10 miler Monday so just the 8 easy miles were on the menu.

Bumped into Ferris and FBOT on their way to ST Anne's parkrun so did a couple of miles with them before heading on my way.

8 miles easy

Damn it, just missed you on Saturday by the sounds of it!! Best of luck tomorrow, is there a goal? (sorry if I missed it).

Duanington

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Damn it, just missed you on Saturday by the sounds of it!! Best of luck tomorrow, is there a goal? (sorry if I missed it).

I actually did the first loop AM, couldn't hang around unfortunately, next time.

Thanks a mill - no real goal time to be quite honest, to run strong and push things on another bit will do nicely

Duanington

18.04.2017

Battle of Clontarf 10 mile ( Leinster 10 mile championship)

I bitched and moaned after this race last year about how the course was too twisty, too turny, too tight and too...something else....and yet I felt drawn to it again this year at the turn of the year when looking at races to go after with Luke.
The idea back then was to transition from half marathon focused training back to shorter stuff around now and use the 10 miler as a race to help us along the way on that road. Stuff happened obviously and rather than heading into this with a chest swollen with confidence, gunning for a PB, I arrived into the lead up to this race on the comeback trail having spent a frustrating 4 weeks out injured during January\February.

Training has gone well lately, and while a long haul trip to Asia and back did leave me feeling heavy legged for a lot longer that I had hoped ( to be honest, its only the last week that the tightness has started to lift from that one), I've gradually felt the strength returning. My last outing in Mullingar was a near disaster but I knew that I'd come on a level or 2 in the 4 weeks since then, a 10 mile race could well expose the lack of longer tempos in recent weeks but it could and should serve up some hurt and a meaty strength based run for good measure.

Legs felt good this morning when I got out of the bed, that has not been the case much lately and I was a little surprised given I had 75ish mile week up to yesterday. I made my way down to St Anne's nice and early bumping into TRR and Luke, after a quick chat I headed off with L for a couple of easy miles and a warmup. Nice atmosphere as always in St Anne's on raceday, a few more hellos and "good to see you back racing" from clubmates which added to the feelgood factor around the place. Bumped into a whole host of present and former boardsies before the start which was nice too, some were racing, some were supporting, some were marshalling....a real sense of community about the whole thing.

I made my way to the starting area, taking my place 2\3 rows from the front which "felt" about right. Before too long , we were off - streaming on up the avenue in St Anne's....I found myself a little bunched in so skipped out onto the grass for a few metres to make up a few places before settling into a group that contained a few heads that I know I would be in and around. Pace felt good and I while I hate running up that avenue ( its a very slight but very long drag), I was feeling good to start with. I had no real plan for this race, except to make sure I didn't go out too quick - if I could keep things quick but steady over the first 3\4 miles then maybe I could put a bit of a squeeze on myself later on the race and get a performance that could kick me in the arse a little bit.

First 180 degree turn at the top of the avenue and we were heading back down the nicer way along the avenue :-) . I was struck by how little discomfort there was in the usual niggles as I took that turn too, the first positive of the day!

Mile 1 6.10

I found myself moving up along the field on the avenue and was mindful of not burning myself out so settled into the group containing the leading lady. Lots of good support along this stretch too and before long, we were passing by the start area, darting left off the avenue and then right down to the little valley that I never, ever, ever run in for some reason – I resisted the urge to head to the front of the group on the climb back out of the valley, deciding to keep things steady before we moved down towards the coast road. To be honest, I was feeling the effort a bit and starting to worry about whether or not I had bitten off more than I could chew here. I knew the pace wasn't super fast but I was also being reminded ( by the first few slight pinchings of hurt) that I hadn't got a whole lot of longer tempo stuff done in the last few weeks

Mile 2 - 6.10

The hill down to the coast road side of the park didn't provide me with a whole lot of relief for some reason, I instinctively backed off flying down the hill and as a result lost touch with the main group, working on settling down the breathing instead. Running alongside the coast road, I kept the effort steady and a second group started to form around here, myself, the 2nd lady and a couple of other lads ( maybe the 3rd lady too, can't be sure).
FBOT was out marshalling here and gave us a good shoutout, as too did MrsMac a couple of hundred yards later, while encouraged and grateful, it didn't make me feel a whole lot better! Up the long drag at the corner of the park, I moved by a couple of runners - Jesus I hate that drag! I knew I was in for a tough aul run by the time I got to the top...not that I expected an easy run, this was a race after all but there was a lack of ...something, maybe just confidence but I did start to doubt whether or not I could do this for another 7 miles.

The numbers on the watch didn't help to lighten up the mood

Mile 3 - 6.27

While the route in this race is not great with all of its twists and turns, the surface is pretty good all the way around and while the head dropped a little after coming out of the drag, I did find myself recovering nicely and opening the stride up again before long. Heading towards the pitch and putt course, there were a few more welcome shout outs from supporters, I was leading the group into the breeze ( which wasn't really strong enough to be an issue to be fair) and was willing myself to dig in and find a good tempo.
I was struggling to do it though and had genuine thoughts of running as far as halfway before pulling the plug - of course this was countered by very recent conversations about DNFing being a bad habit to fall into and words from an elite at our club who lives by "always finish the race...always". F*ck it, I'll get to mile 5 and have a chat with myself.

Mile 4 - 6.19

Back out onto the avenue and I was moving well again, I'd found a bit of a rhythm and was taking the little group with me. I found myself opening the stride up again, possibly finding a nice groove at the faster pace. Turned at the top of the avenue and got straight back into the rhythm, although the wind was taken out of my sails a little on the turn.
A quick check of the pace on the watch told me that I was back going well despite my procrastinating. We turned off the avenue to the right, heading alongside the GAA pitches - I was working hard but still moving well and could hear the 2nd placed lady just on my shoulder. Up ahead, a lad who had gone by me a mile or so ago was stretching out his lead to maybe 50 metres. Left turn to the edge of the park and onto one of the newer paths that runs alongside the GAA pitches, the surface is great here and I could feel myself naturally upping the pace a little along this stretch.

Mile 5 - 6.11

Across the grass and into the Rose Gardens....oh the irony! Having spent the last couple of years doing reps around this place, I had a duty to run fast here...a sharp turn into the gardens and away we went, not surprisingly, I found this section pretty quick but knew that it would be tougher 2nd time around ( I guessed that we'd have to run it twice).
Around the gardens and back out onto the avenue again, FerrisB and KennyG were both along this stretch..down towards the start\finish area and then we were heading left again towards the valley of the damned...alright, not quite the damned but the valley of the hurting runner then. The hurt was well and truly there now but I was working through it, thoughts of DNF were gone to be fair, it was a case of getting the head down, working hard and making sure I came out of this without blowing a good chance to set things up well for the next few weeks, to that I'd need to put the hard graft in.

Mile 6 - 6.16

Back down towards the coast once more, I really eased off going down the hill this time and 2nd lady steamed by me...tagging onto a runner who had steamed by us both before the hill.
That felt like a bit of a blow, I didn't quite have the guts to go with them both ( I now suspect the legs would have responded if the guts were there ) and coasted ( along the coast) a bit over the next .5 mile before copping on a little and having a go at reeling them in. 2nd Lady had dropped off Newbridge by the time we passed FBOT again and I was struggling to stay with catch her really. Another shout out from Mrs Mac just before the sharp hill at the corner of the park and I had a chance to get some ground back on 2nd lady...passing her on the hill but dying a death at the top, it took a good 100m before I started to speed up again and looking at the splits, I can see I lost a lot of time here - again.

Mile 7 - 6.26

2nd lady drew level with me again and shortly after the 7 mile marker, Newbridge came into view, he had gained 100m or so but I figured with over 15 minutes of running left there was plenty of time catch him if I worked hard enough.
Everyone ahead seemed to be slowing, I knew this part of the course would be draining and it was proving just that, there isn't a lot you can do in those situations except dig in and get the basics right. Moving towards the pitch and putt course, the pace had dropped quite a bit and I could hear a couple of other runners join our mini group behind me, not great but I was backing myself to finish strong.

Mile 8 - 6.30

Almost literally at the 8 mile marker, I made the decision to leave the group and up the effort levels again - there was no dramatic kick, no falling arms, just a controlled opening up of my stride and a gradual increase in pace...it felt very fluid and immediately I knew that I had bottled sections of this race.
This should have hurt a lot more than it was - in fact there should not have been another gear really, onto the avenue and it actually felt good to be moving away from the group and towards the last of the 180 degree turns. Turning at the top and heading back down, I was surprised to see how much ground I was making on Newbridge AC - he was well within my sights now. 2nd lady had also come with me but wasn't quite as close as she had been up until this point. Right again off the avenue and I was in that blowing hard, hurting, moving fast but moving well zone, not long to go now, the 9 mile marker should only be a couple of minutes away. I forced myself to stop thinking of markers and to just focus on the ground ahead, left onto the new surface alongside the GAA pitches and I knew I was going to catch Newbridge.

Mile 9 - 6.19

I moved alongside Newbridge just before heading alongside the rose gardens again, we were both blowing hard and my momentum took me by him. He gave a few words of encouragement which was obviously nice but it also meant that there was no going back now, I'd have to keep the effort levels up to keep face! Left into the rose gardens, around my home track then back out onto the avenue, another shoutout from Ferris here.
I was moving very well now, I knew the time wasn't going to be great, I had nobody behind me and nobody ahead within chasing distance but it felt good to be finish a race strong again. Lots of good support as I closed in on the finishing area, I squeezed the effort a bit more, opening the stride up again and kicking on for the line - no frantic dash, no deep dive into the hut locker, just sustained, controlled high effort stuff.

Mile 10 - 5.48

Over the line for an official time of 62.38

Gathered my thoughts for a minute or two before catching up with Luke and a few others from these parts. There seemed to be a general sense of "meh" from everyone about their respective performances and while I wasn't happy with my own time, I am pretty happy with how the bigger picture is shaping up now. Finishing a solid 10 mile in the manner I did on the back of a 75 mile week is a good sign, the race itself should be bring on another step or two. There are of course negatives to the performance though, I definitely backed off the pace at times when I should have been braver but I think there was a lack of confidence at play there to be fair.
Either way, its a much better performance than Mullingar and sets things up well for the next few months

Ran a couple of easy miles with Gosh123 (who had a pretty solid run himself), bringing the day's total to 15 miles.

A word for Raheny on another top event - its not easy to put a 10 mile race on in a park the size of St Anne's and yet they did so, the course this year felt a little more straightforward than last year's too. No bitching or moaning from me this year!

Annie get your Run

Good honest report D, look forward to seeing your progress in the coming months. That second female on your shoulder was my (amazing) clubmate

Duanington

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Good honest report D, look forward to seeing your progress in the coming months. That second female on your shoulder was my (amazing) clubmate

Thanks AM - Yes, Dunboyne, that makes sense. She's a tough cookie alright, put in some really strong running. I had a quick chat with her afterwards and she was very modest too

Duanington

19.04.2017

Tuesday

Easy miles for a couple of days to let the body recover from Monday. Although I bumped into one of the faster lads from the club as soon as I stepped out the door and ran a couple of miles with him at a pace that was probably too quick before heading into ST Anne's to catch a few more easy miles with FerrisB.
Legs were cranky enough to be fair but the chat was good, with C primed and ready for London, I have to admit to being a tad jealous too.

9 miles @7.50

Wednesday

Lunchtime - out into St Anne's for 4.6 miles, all nice and easy. Heavy legs again, feeling the effects of a couple of good week's training and obviously Monday's race but I do need to get a massage soon to work out some of the kinks and knots that are starting to linger

PM - Back to the coast road\St Anne's for easy stuff, tired getting going but livened up by about halfway and ended up enjoying this, resisted the urge to head on out the coast for a bit longer

8 miles @ 7.58

12.6 for the day

I tend to ease off on the Core\weight stuff in the couple of days after a hard race so I'll get back into that tomorrow

AuldManKing

just catching up - thats a great performance on the back of a 75 mile week - I dont think you could hope for too much better.

Whats the thought process heading into May/June timeframe regarding mileage - I guess there'll be a lot of races and you'll want to target some races with lower mileage weeks??

Duanington

AuldManKing wrote: »

just catching up - thats a great performance on the back of a 75 mile week - I dont think you could hope for too much better.

Whats the thought process heading into May/June timeframe regarding mileage - I guess there'll be a lot of races and you'll want to target some races with lower mileage weeks??

Thanks A - I think you're right actually and its taken the few days for me to accept that.
At the moment ( and for the last 6 weeks) the plan has really just been to build the strength back up again - the injury came at a pretty bad time as I honestly feel I was ready to let rip at 5 mile\10k coming out of a really strong training block. So I've races 3 times since then to bring back some of that hurt that you can't really get from sessions.

We haven't been stupid about it either though, while there was no drop in mileage going into the 10 miler, there were no sessions in the 3 days previous - striking the right balance I think.

Anyway, yes - the plan is to go after a couple of races between now and the end of June with fresh legs. I still feel I've a bit of work to do to regain that strength\confidence but I also feel I'm getting closer every day. Work might throw a spanner in the Dunshaughlin 10k idea so I'll look for something else the previous week maybe. I'll definitely race in May, maybe twice, possibly one with reduced mileage and one without ( will chat with Luke on that one)

And all the while, there is one eye on Berlin in the Autumn too

AuldManKing

Duanington wrote: »

Work might throw a spanner in the Dunshaughlin 10k idea so I'll look for something else the previous week maybe.

Theres a real good & flat 10k in Clonee on Thursday 29th - the week after Dunshaughlin if its any use - I'll be doing it myself as I've a wedding the night of Dunshaughlin.

Duanington

AuldManKing wrote: »

Theres a real good & flat 10k in Clonee on Thursday 29th - the week after Dunshaughlin if its any use - I'll be doing it myself as I've a wedding the night of Dunshaughlin.

Had a look at that one A - think I'll be flying back from the US on the 29th unfortunately :-(

Annie get your Run

Duanington wrote: »

Had a look at that one A - think I'll be flying back from the US on the 29th unfortunately :-(

That's a pity, that's another of our club races and there's post race pizza I was keeping an eye out for you yesterday at the road relays but with 50 million Raheny singlets wandering around I didn't spot you (although Strava tells me you didn't take part!). Another great club event by the looks of it.

Duanington

Annie get your Run wrote: »

That's a pity, that's another of our club races and there's post race pizza I was keeping an eye out for you yesterday at the road relays but with 50 million Raheny singlets wandering around I didn't spot you (although Strava tells me you didn't take part!). Another great club event by the looks of it.

A shame indeed - I've never made it down for the 10k AM, some day !


I didn't race nope, offered my services if the club were stuck but I knew they'd get by without me

Duanington

29.04.2017

Thursday (20.04)

8 steady miles on the plan today, after an easy mile or so to get started, I upped the effort towards the steady zone. Ran most of this in St Anne's ( belatedly spotted Ososlo there too) but I possibly overcooked the effort at times.
Met FerrisB looking nothing like how I normally feel during taper - ran some easy stuff with C to finish up the day

Average pace for steady run was in and around 6.48

10.9 for the day


Friday

Lunchtime run - 5.1 miles all easy

Stuck for time in the PM so swapped things around for the weekend.


Saturday

AM - 8.1 easy miles around St Anne's

PM - Found myself with a few hours to kill out Westsiiiide...4 miles easy in the Phoenix park around the trails. Lovely run

12.1 for the day

Sunday

Session time again, plan was for 10 x 2 minutes @ 10k effort

Got out on Sunday evening for this and decided to run it primarily on the tarmac for a change ( as opposed to 50\50 grass\tarmac).

After a good warmup with a few strides, I got going.

Ran the first couple on the grass then moved out onto the tarmac for the rest.

Really tried to stay in control for each of these, focusing on the mechanics of running rather than how tough each rep is !

Bumped into an old friend halfway through the session which messed up one of the recoveries so I ran an extra rep at the end to make up for it.

Paces ranged from 5.25 - 5.45 so some were overcooked but I've come to accept that I'll always do that on a few !

A few easy miles to finish off the day on 10.9, just shy of 76 for the week.

Good week down, plenty of S+C stuff in there too

Monday 24th

4.1 lunchtime miles around St Anne's...enjoyed this, legs felt ok after last night's session

PM - Run home from the office in the evening, didn't particularly like this one - I have such a love\hate thing with my backpack at the moment !

7.5 easy

11.6 for the day

Duanington

02.05.2017


I'll catch this thing up if its the last thing I do...

Tuesday 25th

Long run night again, forgot to bring the watch to work but I know how far it is to the house anyway from the office so just home, grabbed the watch and headed back out into St Anne's

Finding Tuesday evening long runs mentally tough at the moment, possibly down to how busy work is - getting the head right for 15 plus miles after a hectic day can be a challenge in itself.
Told myself I'd run home and get teh watch anyway, then head back out. Once I was out again, I told myself I'd run to 8 miles and see how I felt...
Thankfully I bumped into FBOT in the park who kept me company for a few miles and sure then I was only a few miles away from being finished so I ploughed on - feeling pretty good by the end

15.4 for the lot

Wednesday

AM - first run into work in a while ( I think). 4.2 , all easy

PM - Run home then into ST Anne's for a bit. 6.7 miles for the lot

10.9 for the day

Thursday

Session time again and the plan for today was 3 miles@6.15, 3 minutes recovery then 5x60 second hills

Got a warmup done and got started on the faster stuff, blowing hard over the first couple of miles. I don't know if it was the wind or just a bit of fatigue but the 6.15 stuff felt a bit tougher to be honest.

Was glad of the 3 minutes recovery ...and of the 5 hill reps instead of the usual 10.
Really felt it in the legs after a couple reps though, had to work to keep form and control......relax :-)

Good session

3 miles worked out at :
6.14
6.15
6.16

Hill reps were all in around the 5.40 region

10.7 for the lot (inc warmup\cooldown)

Friday

6.1 +6.6 - can't remember these but Strava tells me I did them

12.7 for the day

Saturday

Easy miles around St Anne's - met FBOT and Ferris for a few miles and left them to it at the Parkrun, enjoyed this - felt a little tired towards the end


Sunday

Session time again:

8x800m with alternating 12\60 sec recoveies

Got a little warmup in ( stuck for time) before this and got started out on the coast. A little bit of a breeze to deal with but nothing major.

Ran the first 4\5 very controlled then had to dig in, the 60 second recoveries really test you on this one but I don't think it was ever in doubt.

Paces for each rep were in and around the 5.40 range

8.5 for the lot, bringing the weekly total to just over 78 miles

Some good weight\core sessions too so starting to feel strong again

Duanington

08.05.2017

I swear, I'll catch up...

Monday, May 1st

Lunchtime - 3.1 easy miles

PM - 8.1 miles out looking for seals on the coast, didn't find any :-(

11.2 for the day

Tuesday

Long run, plan was for 16 miles with last 3 @ steady pace

This was a real plod, dragging myself around St Anne's after dropping the backpack home. When it was time to up the pace to steady, something switched though and it was party time ! - weird, I enjoyed the challenge of the faster stuff than the slog of the easy stuff.

16.7 for the lot ( last 3 were around 6.50 pace)

Wednesday

AM - Morning run into work, 4.2 miles all easy

PM - 8.2 miles after work, all easy again

12.4 for the lot

Thursday

Fartlek - one of those "great craic" sessions, right? Wrong !
Plan was for :
2-3-4-5-4-3-2 minutes with half recovery ( so 60 seconds after the 2 minutes for example)

It still looks like great craic typing it up now but f*ck it was tough, I was hanging on during the 4-5-4 section but actually came around again to finish strong.

Paces varied between 5.30-6.00 ish....a real leg burner, one of those sessions where you mouth "f*cking hell" with relief when you finish !

10.2 for the lot

Friday


Had a wedding to head to down the bog and a communion the next couple of days so knew I'd have to swap things around a bit. Got a few easy miles in and around St Anne's before hitting the road for the wedding

7.8 easy miles

Saturday

Got a window around lunch time to get a few miles in so nipped out and got 7.2 done.

PM - out again during another window for a full bellied 4.2 miles

11.4 for the lot

Sunday

Great day out with the clan today and I was tired enough hitting the roads for my session. Plan was for a speedy enough blowout:

3x ( 1200@5.40, 90 seconds easy, 400@5.30) - 3 minutes between sets

St anne's was packed so went out onto the coast for this, the evening was perfect with the sun just about gone and a cool breeze for company.

Got stuck in from the off and knew I was going a little quick, worked hard but felt strong for the first set.
Worked a little harder over the second and then that little bit harder again over the third.

Actual paces for each section were:

1200 - 5.40
400 - 5.19

1200 - 5.40
400 - 5.13

1200 - 5.37
400 - 5.13

A little quicker than planned overall but it was just one of those evenings and the surface felt great too.

8.9 miles for the lot, bringing the week's total to just shy of 79.

Another bit of core\strength work there too

AuldManKing

Super work going on here - that 2-3-4-5-4-3-2 is similar to something I done today - I agree - its a real leg burner alright.

Duanington

AuldManKing wrote: »

Super work going on here - that 2-3-4-5-4-3-2 is similar to something I done today - I agree - its a real leg burner alright.

Thanks A - I just saw your one alright, can't figure out which is the nastier session really!

Duanington

14.05.2017

Wow - that week belted by, busy at work, busy at home and thankfully busy training too.

Monday

AM - met up with one of the lads from the club for some easy miles, good chats around St Anne's
7.5 miles

PM - Same park, same lad, same levels of chats, shorter run

5.3 miles easy

Tuesday

A busy day at the office had me half dreading this one - I say half because I always know that I'll get the run done but still, when 6 PM rolls around it can be hard to get your head right to take off for 16 odd miles.

The plan for tonight was for 16 with the last 3 @ steady pace.

Thankfully FBOT had been in touch earlier to meet up for a few so I would have company for the middle part of this run.
Met FBOT as planned and we made our way around the usual route through St Anne's, the miles ticking away nicely with the chatter...couldn't tempt him to stick around for the tricky part of the run though !

I say tricky but in truth, again, I found the slower stuff more challenging mentally than the sharper stuff at the end. Maybe the increased level of effort sends a bit of adrenaline through the body but I found myself enjoying the physical challenge of bounding through 3 steady paced miles after the mental challenge of plodding around for 13 before hand

16.7 for the lot ( small shuffle to cool down)

Wednesday

AM - 4.1 lunchtime miles around Ringsend, nice day for it

PM - Run home then a little extra in St Anne's, 7.1 for the lot

11.2 for the day

Thursday

Lunchtime session on the cards today - 8x2 minutes off 50 seconds recovery

Got a nice warmup done around St Anne's and got myself ready to go around a loop that I use for this type of session. The sun was noticeably hot during the warmup and while it felt nice at that stage, I knew it would make things that bit more difficult during the session, especially with short recoveries.

Got through the first 3\4 fine then each rep felt progressively tougher, by the end of the last one, I was a gasping mess. Stretched myself out on the cool grass for a few minutes before starting the cool down

All rep paces were in and around the 5.45-6 mark, all good.

8.9 for the lot

Friday

Another lunchtime run over to the nature reserve, nice day for it again. Lots of people out and about

6 miles easy

PM - run home and a little extra in ST Anne's - 6.2 miles

12.2 for the day


Saturday

A pretty sluggish run around St Anne's park. A busy week in work and at home had definitely caught up with me, throw in the training on top and the result was a tired run. Had the option of cutting miles back before Sunday's session to make sure I was fresh for it but I decided to back myself to be strong enough and to recover well enough before the session.

7.5 miles easy


Sunday

Session time :

2 x (1k, 90 sec recovery, 800, 75 sec recovery, 1k) - 5 minutes easy between sets

Targets were

1k = 3.30
800 = 2.45

Got a good warmup around St Anne's for this, throwing in some strides along the way. The wind was gusting strong at times so I knew there was no real way to completely avoid it - although it seemed to be blowing across the avenue rather than up or down.
Picked a loop that would give a little shelter at times and got going.

Instructions were to focus on staying relaxed for this, particularly during the 800s....I failed completely on that front for the first set, overshooting the mark on the 1k, 800 and the other 1k.

Took the 5 minutes recovery then got going on the second set, I was feeling the burn in my legs soon enough after getting going though and I had to fight the urge to slow up.
Got to the 800 and started to focus properly, relaxing and "owning" the pace...the wind was bad at times but really it wasn't an issue for most of the reps.

Last K came and I felt much more relaxed towards the end.

Tough, tough session, the last k on each set in particular is a real test.

1k:3.22
800: 2.37
1k:3.24

1k:3.26
800: 2.43
1k: 3.30


Finished off with some easy miles to bring the total just shy of 10.5 for the day and 80 for the week.

Lots of core and strength stuff again this week, another good one down

Duanington

12.10.2017



Where to start with this update…..

The past few months have been very stop, start, stop in terms of training and racing without any progression at all – if anything, I’ll have forced myself backwards in terms of fitness, strength and endurance….

While the focus had very much been on PBing in Berlin this September, by late July, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. As the summer wore on, every session had become a struggle, paces that seemed almost pedestrian at the turn of the year now felt like the last stretch of a 1 mile race ( not that I’ve ever raced a mile but you get the picture). I found myself looking at sessions that I banged out last year and wondering how I could get anywhere near that in Berlin….even though I had trained consistently since then.

Work, travel, lack of sleep and real recovery all had a part to play I’m sure but on multiple occasions myself and coach were left scratching our respective heads wondering what was going wrong…I’d nail one session, bonk on the next, nail another, crash and burn in a race….
Easy pace was no longer easy….long runs were becoming increasingly daunting and in general I felt increasingly frustrated at how I was training and performing. Burnout? Overtraining? Nutrition? Dehydration? Stress? The weather? …..all of these were probably valid excuses at some point over the course of the last few months . AMK suggested blood tests to me back in May after I flapped my way around the Dunboyne 5 miler…..at that stage, the sense was that this was some sort of race anxiety as opposed to anything physiological. I was running most sessions well so it didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

After yet another bonked MP session 8 weeks or so out from Berlin, I decided to can the marathon, I knew something was wrong and coach did too. I’m pretty good at dragging myself around sessions but the gasping for air and constant muscle ache that I was feeling during bog standard runs just didn’t add up. L told me to take some time off, recoup and see how I feel – overtraining-under recovery was the obvious one here – while training load was very similar to 2016, which I handled very well, work\life balance was nuts for a few months over the summer and sleep was an issue….could it be that I just wasn’t recovering at all from runs\sessions?

Fast forward a couple of months and the feeling of fatigue, struggling during standard enough runs and anxiety during sessions still hadn’t completely disappeared - fine for a few days, then struggling for a week…..having finally listened to coach about going to get bloods done, it turns out that I’ve been running on fumes with regard to Iron levels for quite a while now, so much so that the doc was pretty shocked that I was able to run at all without falling asleep on the side of the road. Thankfully she is a runner herself so could connect the symptoms to the cause pretty quickly, the struggling for air during runs is caused by the fact my blood wasn’t carrying a whole lot of oxygen to the muscles….the fatigue setting in on those muscles much sooner than normal is because they simply weren’t getting the fuel they needed.
The cause? Most likely just a case of gradually wearing down the levels over the years, possibly caused by a slapping style of foot strike too ( breaking down red blood cells in the process) ….which in itself is catch 22 because as we fatigue we tend to “slap” our feet on the ground more.….compounding the issue. …run around in a fatigued state because of a lack of iron…slap strike, busting up blood cells ….iron levels deplete even more…the irony…….see what I did there?

Anyway, the fix? a prescribed course of iron supplements, a bit more red meat and common sense on the training front until levels come up to normal ( which should be 3-4 weeks)….

I had planned on racing the BHAA XC this weekend, that’s off the cards now….I’ll work with Luke on keeping things sensible until we’re good to go on ramping things up again at some stage. For now, I’m just delighted that this wasn’t something I imagined, I’m also kicking myself that I didn’t listen to AMK back in May …..I was 99.9% sure he was just gloating anyway :pac:

Onwards and upwards from here, fitness will have regressed of course but that can only be addressed properly when the iron levels are back to normal. It’ll be a case of easy miles and the odd light session between now and then. There's a lesson to be learned in this one, long distance training depletes the bodies reserves....sometimes we don't replenish the stocks very well, whether through diet, genetics or lifestyle . Iron is an obvious one to look at ( to everyone but me it seems!) but I got lucky in that regard because a) coach told me specifically to get tested for it and b) the doc I go to is a runner herself and knew the score almost straight away

OOnegative

Jaysis D, sorry to hear all that. They do say Auld ones are wise!!! Best of luck with building back up and getting back to where you were. We all can't take health for granted at times.

Duanington

OOnegative wrote: »

Jaysis D, sorry to hear all that. They do say Auld ones are wise!!! Best of luck with building back up and getting back to where you were. We all can't take health for granted at times.

Thanks B - we certainly do take it for granted, its something for people to be mindful of when going through periods of high training volume, the body talks to us but we're not always very good at listening !

Testosterscone

Annie get your Run

I knew something was wrong but assumed you were injured, I'm glad to hear you're not and thankfully you can fix this (hopefully fairly quickly). Have been missing your phenomenal training updates D so look forward to seeing those again soon . Mind yourself. You're spot on about not always listening - or, we do listen but we prefer to think it'll all be grand in a day or two... Poor AMK, seems he is neither seen nor heard

Duanington

Testosterscone wrote: »

:pac::D

Duanington

Annie get your Run wrote: »

I knew something was wrong but assumed you were injured, I'm glad to hear you're not and thankfully you can fix this (hopefully fairly quickly). Have been missing your phenomenal training updates D so look forward to seeing those again soon . Mind yourself. You're spot on about not always listening - or, we do listen but we prefer to think it'll all be grand in a day or two... Poor AMK, seems he is neither seen nor heard

Thanks AM - there'll be plenty of hefty training coming my way once I get the levels back up hopefully .

Yeah, it was actually one of the other lads that mentioned AMK had said that to me in Dunboyne......don't remember spotting him there myself :pac: