Confessions of a never has been.....

Duanington

SamforMayo wrote: »

You are depressing me with all the hard work!!!! Achill is hilly I believe but worth it for the stunning setting!

You put in a few hefty shifts yourself before your recent PB SfM!

Yeah, I believe its rough enough but like you say, its supposed to be a great setting so I'm looking forward to it - even if it is going to hurt !

ThebitterLemon

Duanington wrote: »

You put in a few hefty shifts yourself before your recent PB SfM!

Yeah, I believe its rough enough but like you say, its supposed to be a great setting so I'm looking forward to it - even if it is going to hurt !

DD, I promise to be gentle

TbL

outforarun

Stuck in marathon recovery limbo I'm finding it hard to read all the fast stuff on here over the last while. Legs are itching. Some great sessions there, 7 x 1K @ 10K comes fairly close to replicating a 10K race day.

Duanington

outforarun wrote: »

Stuck in marathon recovery limbo I'm finding it hard to read all the fast stuff on here over the last while. Legs are itching. Some great sessions there, 7 x 1K @ 10K comes fairly close to replicating a 10K race day.

Cheers Outforarun - yeah I suppose its a fine line between too much of it and not enough easy stuff but I'm trying to get a fair bit of that in too...we'll see how it goes

You're right to stay in limbo for a little while though, you had a great training block\race last time around

Duanington

14.06.2014

Friday - 5 miles at recovery pace before work. Legs felt better than expected on this one, perhaps the longer cool down on the previous night's session? I won't complain anyway!
Took Friday PM off to go for a few scoops in town

Saturday - 5 miles easy

Very fragile run on the coast road - I felt every last bit of the humidity out there today, the over-indulgence from the night before coming back to haunt me.

Duanington

15.06.2014

Finding it very hard to get out running with all of this football on - its relentless ! I did however get myself organised and bite the bullet this evening, heading out for some easy miles.
I normally run a tempo session of some sort on Sundays but I decided to just enjoy the evening instead , run easy\steady and throw in some strides. I've had a good run of completed sessions over the past few weeks and plan on a few more tough ones over the next 10 days so I could probably do with the easier run tonight.

Threw in 8x100 metre strides, splits ranging between 20-22 seconds so not record breaking stuff but enough to have me panting a bit by the end of the last one.

Finished off with some chin ups and stretching at home then got back to the football.

Total miles: [EMAIL="8@7:55"]8@7:55[/EMAIL]

Duanington

17.06.2014



Monday

Stopped off again on the way home from work to run - to save precious time and took in 7 very easy miles around St Anne's, the heat in the park made these miles anything but easy....I was sweating by the bucket load after a few minutes - the trees offered a little shelter from the sun so I stuck to the shade where possible. Headed home for some core\pressup work to finish off.

Total miles: 7@ 8:15 min\miles


Tuesday

Kilbride GAA 5k road race

Signed up for this last night and decided to run it as one of my sessions for the week, I had planned to run a 5k over the next few weeks anyway and wasn't sure when I'd have the chance to do so.
What a beautiful day today was, skipped this morning's planned run to leave something in the legs for tonight, knowing that the heat in the office would be a drain on energy levels.
I ate well today, keeping the water levels up etc - had a splendid Ice berger too to get in the summer mood.

I had planned to go to Kilbride straight after work but realised at around 4 pm that I'd left my gear at home - 5:30 came and I dashed off across the M50 in the glorious sunshine to get my gear on....got home, got changed turned around and went straight back out the door.

My non-existant sat nav skills meant that I was a little later than planned getting to Kilbride so I ran a few laps of the GAA pitch to warm up, I had wanted to do a lap of the 5k route to warm up but time was against me. The heat had eased a little from earlier in the day but it was still exceptionally warm, a nice crowd had gathered at the clubhouse and most people were sitting around, letting the sun do the warming up.


The race organisers talked us through the 5k and 10k routes, lined us up at the start line ( on a hill!) and off we went. I had told myself that I was going to aim to keep each km split in and around the 3:45 mark and that I'd check the watch every km and no more frequent than that. If I did that , I'd comfortably PB and go into 18:xx territory for the first time.

As always I huffed and puffed over the first km, starting out nice and fast ( as opposed to my usual reluctant, conservative start) and moving up the field to find my level. The hill at the start was quite small and I found myself about 20 or so runners from the front of the pack, noticing the leader had already developed a huge lead. The setting was very picturesque, real country roads , mid summer sun and a field of runners stretched out in front ....1k down and feeling ok

Sharp turn left took us into the 2nd kilometre and the road narrowed a bit, I was holding my pace well and noticing that more and more people were drifting back towards me, some blowing very hard in the heat. The road surface turned a bit uneven at this stage and I did have to concentrate a bit to avoid some potholes and lose patches of gravel.

I think the first set of little rolling hills came towards the end of the 2nd k, I was moving well here...injecting a little more effort to keep the pace going up and then capitalising on the way back down ( which seemed waaaaay shorter than going up!). I declined water at the water station and focused on the group of runners ahead of me, one or two of which looked like decent club runners , they had 10 metres or so on me so I worked on maintaining the pace on bends and little hills and gradually they got closer and closer.

The 3km marker came and went and I found myself side by side with a guy who was moving very well, we were basically on our own at this stage, he had come with me as I moved past the group of club runners and seemed to be breathing\moving quite comfortably - I on the other hand was starting to hurt. I was on course to PB, I knew that now, I was also on course to go under 19 minutes for the first time but the heat was beginning to get to me , even though we had a little shade from the trees on the side of the roads. I decided to hold onto the pace that I was running at until we left the current set of little hills, they were small but felt like mountains at this stage in the game.
"hold on until the last k D, you know you'll finish strong" - f*ck this was starting to really hurt, I was starting to lose my breathing a little and caught a glimpse of my shadow, which looked like I was breakdancing...not running!

My running buddy was starting to breath heavily too now and as we came out of the 4k mark, turning down a little hill onto the last (looong) straight for home, I used the momentum of the hill to put the pace back into things, moving back up to what I knew was at least 3:45. I knew immediately he wasn't going with me - which surprised me because he really did seem capable. I pushed on regardless onto that unforgiving last km

The sun was beating down on the side of my face now and I was well aware that I was on course for a good PB and probably a sub 19 minute time, 800 metres to....f*ck 800 metres of this ?!?!
I spotted the small crowd ahead on the road and focused on kicking a little harder again, funny how we always think we're done until we try a little harder - 500 metres to go. I started to relax just a little, keeping the pace up but enjoying the adrenaline rush that comes with nearing the end...300 metres to go and I kicked on for home...pumping my arms, sweat pouring down my forehead and my thighs screaming at me to ease up. No chance, turning into the GAA club, a quick glance up at the clock tells me that its job well done.

My Garman had it as 18:46 but official chip time was 18:47

A 30 second PB and sub 19 for the first time....a good day's work


Splits worked out as

3:43
3:44
3:44
3:50
3:39

But my Garmin beeped for the last k about 50 metres shy of the finish line ( which explains the difference when adding up the split times)

Ran a couple of miles easy to warm down and had a nice chat with the winner - Raheny lad, I run past him all the time on the coast - he ran a super time in that heat and gave a few nice words of advice\encouragement

RedRunner

Well done D. Brilliant time

martyboy48

That's some going D, well done. A nice chunk taken off your old PB

yaboya1

Duanington wrote: »

"hold on until the last k D, you know you'll finish strong"

You stole my tactics

Well done. Nice PB.

Duanington

yaboya1 wrote: »

You stole my tactics

Well done. Nice PB.

isn't that what these logs are for? :D

tang1

Great running and a nice PB, your thoughts towards the end of the race echo mine. Heat was a killer on the run in for the finish.

Ososlo

Well done D! All those rose garden track sessions paying off !

career_move

Super stuff. That's a savage time

SamforMayo

Fantastic run and an even better result, well earned.:D

Stazza

Congrats on the pb and going sub 19. Great to see the work paying off. More pb's to come...

ThebitterLemon

DD the chin up man,

you're flying, great run and congrats on the PB.

I'd want to say hello to you at the Achil Half start coz I dont think I'll be seeing much of you after that!!

TbL

cianc

Nice report, great result. You've a summer of PBs ahead of you by the sound of things!

W.B. Yeats

Well done- you came home 2 places ahead of me. Were you in the green singlet?
I was trying to break 19 but just missed out- while suffering in the last mile I went asleep and didn't pay enough attention to my time so ended up slightly over.
I clocked it at 3.12 so a tad long- based on the sparse field it wasn't for weaving in and out of people.
A good result by you for the night that was in it.

Duanington

W.B. Yeats wrote: »

Well done- you came home 2 places ahead of me. Were you in the green singlet?
I was trying to break 19 but just missed out- while suffering in the last mile I went asleep and didn't pay enough attention to my time so ended up slightly over.
I clocked it at 3.12 so a tad long- based on the sparse field it wasn't for weaving in and out of people.
A good result by you for the night that was in it.

Thanks W.B. - I was wearing a green top alright , I was in the club colours ( Club Aldi ) . Just checking the times there, you were so close to getting in under the 19 minute mark, a few degrees cooler and you'd have surely got in under. Am I right in thinking you PB'd ? No mean achievement with the warm weather, well done !

Cleanman

Just catching up with your log now D. Brilliant running on Tuesday. All those morning miles are paying off now. Good to see team Aldi are going well:D

W.B. Yeats

Duanington wrote: »

Thanks W.B. - I was wearing a green top alright , I was in the club colours ( Club Aldi ) . Just checking the times there, you were so close to getting in under the 19 minute mark, a few degrees cooler and you'd have surely got in under. Am I right in thinking you PB'd ? No mean achievement with the warm weather, well done !

Yep, you were moving well- I thought you were from MSB until we crossed the finish line. I can't remember if we spoke? Yep I pb'ed but should have done enough to get under 19, but there's always another day.

What's up next for you?

Duanington

W.B. Yeats wrote: »

Yep, you were moving well- I thought you were from MSB until we crossed the finish line. I can't remember if we spoke? Yep I pb'ed but should have done enough to get under 19, but there's always another day.

What's up next for you?

There'll be other days for sure. I spoke to a few people after the race so I may well have been chatting to you ( I always find the few minutes after finishing a bit of a blur though!).
I'm running the Achill half at the start of July and was hoping to get a 10k in between now and then but time is against me so I'll see how that pans out. What about you? When are you getting under the 19 minute mark?:)

outforarun

hiya, lovely sub 19 PB there, good report as well. What's next?

(I hear you on the relentless football, I feel duty-bound to try watch every game, but I rarely get to see them live. Sky box is working overtime and I'm fairly shattered in the mornings (and evenings). World Cup is hard work.)

Duanington

outforarun wrote: »

hiya, lovely sub 19 PB there, good report as well. What's next?

(I hear you on the relentless football, I feel duty-bound to try watch every game, but I rarely get to see them live. Sky box is working overtime and I'm fairly shattered in the mornings (and evenings). World Cup is hard work.)

Thanks Outforarun - fairly happy with it alright and a nice place to do it too, I'll be back next year hopefully. Achill half is next up on July 5th a certain Lemon has promised to pace me around to another PB - I'm still clinging to the hope of getting a 10k in the weekend before too so we'll see.

How is the recovery coming along?

( timed the recovery season smack bang in the middle of the wc - nice!)

Duanington

20.06.2014

Wednesday - 4 recovery paced miles before work , nice and early - another beautiful morning for it, I even had a few bunnies for company

Thursday - Work and life got in the way so I had to scrap my planned session and take a day off, might actually be a blessing in disguise, 40 minutes core\pressup work was about it for the day.

Friday

AM - out very early this morning for 6 easy miles before work, another cracking morning and there was even a light breeze to keep things cool. I added on 2 miles to my usual pre-work loop which took me into Corkagh Park, plenty of people out running at 7 am, very surprised!

PM - a few light weights then out for 6 more miles , all along the coast - my legs are feeling great after the rest day yesterday so I threw in 10x100m strides towards the end - running them hard through the middle section.
Splits were all in and around the 19\20 second mark

Back to the world cup :cool:

ThebitterLemon

Duanington wrote: »

20.06.2014

Wednesday - 4 recovery paced miles before work , nice and early - another beautiful morning for it, I even had a few bunnies for company

Thursday - Work and life got in the way so I had to scrap my planned session and take a day off, might actually be a blessing in disguise, 40 minutes core\pressup work was about it for the day.

Friday

AM - out very early this morning for 6 easy miles before work, another cracking morning and there was even a light breeze to keep things cool. I added on 2 miles to my usual pre-work loop which took me into Corkagh Park, plenty of people out running at 7 am, very surprised!

PM - a few light weights then out for 6 more miles , all along the coast - my legs are feeling great after the rest day yesterday so I threw in 10x100m strides towards the end - running them hard through the middle section.
Splits were all in and around the 19\20 second mark

Back to the world cup :cool:

Did you return them back to the Playboy mansion when you were finished

TbL

Duanington

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Did you return them back to the Playboy mansion when you were finished

TbL

ha ha - they got bored of me very quickly and hopped off to have the craic somewhere else

Duanington

21.06.2014

AM - 5 miles easy before breakfast, legs felt a little tight over the first mile or so but mellowed out shortly after. The grass verge at Clontarf was a busy place this morning - lots of people out running early doors. Lovely morning for it too , warm but with a nice breeze to keep it comfortable.

PM - A bout of kite flying in the phoenix park, 20 minutes chasing an escaped Jack Russell in St Anne's Park ( which left me gasping for breath and with burn marks on one arm by the time I caught the little Ba%&*$d - long story) - home for some core work then out for 5 more easy miles on the coast.

Total for the day an exhausting 10 miles

ZZzzzzzzzz

SamforMayo

Duanington wrote: »

21.06.2014

AM - 5 miles easy before breakfast, legs felt a little tight over the first mile or so but mellowed out shortly after. The grass verge at Clontarf was a busy place this morning - lots of people out running early doors. Lovely morning for it too , warm but with a nice breeze to keep it comfortable.

PM - A bout of kite flying in the phoenix park, 20 minutes chasing an escaped Jack Russell in St Anne's Park ( which left me gasping for breath and with burn marks on one arm by the time I caught the little Ba%&*$d - long story) - home for some core work then out for 5 more easy miles on the coast.

Total for the day an exhausting 10 miles

ZZzzzzzzzz

Well it is the longest day of the year:D I had a job to catch the 3 boys at 10.15 and put them to bed!

Duanington

SamforMayo wrote: »

Well it is the longest day of the year:D I had a job to catch the 3 boys at 10.15 and put them to bed!

They got off their leads as well? Nightmare!

SamforMayo

Duanington wrote: »

They got off their leads as well? Nightmare!

When my eldest fella was a toddler I decided it was a good idea to get those toddlers reins for him. The 1 st time and only time he had them on he lay on the floor of Dunnes Stores and roared Mammy let go of the rope!! Never again. Lets just say they are on a long leash these days.

martyboy48

SamforMayo wrote: »

When my eldest fella was a toddler I decided it was a good idea to get those toddlers reins for him. The 1 st time and only time he had them on he lay on the floor of Dunnes Stores and roared Mammy let go of the rope!! Never again. Lets just say they are on a long leash these days.

LOL, sorry, but the vision I have is priceless, I nearly spat out my wine.... Nearly

Duanington

22.06.2014

What another cracking day, I spent the afternoon hanging out with the kids and eating ice cream. Good Times

Had a little more time than I expected to myself this evening so did a bit of work on the chin up bar before heading out for my tempo run.

The plan was for 9 miles with [EMAIL="2x2@10k"]2x2 miles @10k[/EMAIL] pace ( 5 minute easy in between sets). The heat had died down a far bit by the time I headed out thankfully, A nice sea breeze had also picked up a little on the coast making it a really enjoyable evening for running, did my 2 mile warm up on the (packed) grass verge in Clontarf then turned around and headed off towards Sutton to start the tempo stuff.

The aim tonight was to run each tempo mile in and around the 6:20 mark ( I actually feel a little odd even writing that, I'm fairly sure the very thoughts of this type of session 7\8 months ago would have made me feel ill) and work on staying focused throughout ( I tend to drift during shorter\faster temp runs).
Splits went as follows:

6.22
6.21
5 minutes easy then
6.14
6.17

I messed up the first mile on the 2nd set by going out too quick - sounds stupid but I wanted to replicate the feel\effort from the first set so ignored the watch until I was a fair bit into the last mile. At this stage I began to suspect I had gone out too fast because the effort was tough, I was having to work hard to stop myself from easing up.

Still a good session though, slightly less miles than planned this week because I couldn't get out on Thursday but its still 50+ and some very good runs in there too.

Ran the few easy miles home to bring the total to 9 for the day

W.B. Yeats

Jaysus- what's your tempo pace? I must be slacking off big time.....

Duanington

W.B. Yeats wrote: »

Jaysus- what's your tempo pace? I must be slacking off big time.....

Don't let the timings fool you W.B. - I run most of my 1 mile ( or 2 mile) repeats at either 5 or 10k race pace. 10k pace in this instance. My "normal" tempo pace is more in and around 6:40 and for any continuous tempo work over 3 miles, I tend to stick to that pace. ( sometimes a little slower if the effort feels too much)

outforarun

Duanington wrote: »

How is the recovery coming along? ( timed the recovery season smack bang in the middle of the wc - nice!)

Recovery coming along fine so far. I followed P&D's recovery for 2 and a half weeks and now I'm trusting my own judgement. Officially this is my 4th and final week of recovery, ends with a bang at the weekend when I have a sub 32:00 shot in the Irish Runner. Then I aim to follow McMillan's 10K plan with the Blessington Lakes 10K as goal race. I'm thinking targeting sub 38:30, sure we'll see how it goes. Fingal 10K is all about logging an official sub 40, and come 8K, if I feel it's on, a sub 39 might just be on the cards.

Every second year CCM is followed, usually on the following Friday, by a WC or an EC. I take a long long weekend for the marathon and usual another day or two off around the start of the tournament. Great way to start June.

Duanington

outforarun wrote: »

Recovery coming along fine so far. I followed P&D's recovery for 2 and a half weeks and now I'm trusting my own judgement. Officially this is my 4th and final week of recovery, ends with a bang at the weekend when I have a sub 32:00 shot in the Irish Runner. Then I aim to follow McMillan's 10K plan with the Blessington Lakes 10K as goal race. I'm thinking targeting sub 38:30, sure we'll see how it goes. Fingal 10K is all about logging an official sub 40, and come 8K, if I feel it's on, a sub 39 might just be on the cards.

Every second year CCM is followed, usually on the following Friday, by a WC or an EC. I take a long long weekend for the marathon and usual another day or two off around the start of the tournament. Great way to start June.

Nice one - if you hit that same consistent stretch during the next training block, I've no doubt you'll hit those targets

Duanington

24.06.2014

LSR night tonight and I had lined up a real tester for myself tonight.
The plan was to run 15 miles with [EMAIL="5@hmp"]5@hmp[/EMAIL] ( around 7 min\miles) and take in the hills in Howth.

I was late getting home from work so didn't hang around when I did get home, got the gear on and headed straight out the door.

Took it nice and easy up the coast road heading for Howth, keeping things in and around the 8:15 mark. The route up to Howth was busy with walkers, cyclists and fellow runners - lots of people taking advantage of the fine weather. Although it was warm, I think the system has gotten somewhat used to the heat, the run up to Howth was quite pleasant.

Once I got to the start of the hills, I upped the effort levels a bit, keeping the pace just about the same ( with considerably more effort), although I did start sweating quite a bit and had to pump the arms\lungs a fair bit harder - the 3 miles to the top moved by quite quickly, before I knew it I was hurtling down the far side towards Howth village and decided to open things up a bit on the way down and move into HMP mode.


The first 2 miles at HMP flew by, no real problems, I wasn't keeping an eye on the watch so I just ran at what felt like a pace just shy of tempo pace.
I heard the watch beep for the start of mile 3 and shortl afterwards things began to get sore - beep for mile four and the pain level increased again...it took a good mini lecture to keep myself going ( " do you actually want to improve?" , "would you pack it in during a race?" that kind of thing!) and eventually the watch beeped for the end of mile 5 of the HMP section.......fooked, truly fooked.

I checked the watch to see what the splits were and was surprised to see they were a little quicker than I had planned:

7:00
6:54
6:49
6:50
6:49

Got myself together after a minute or so and ran the 2.5 miles home nice and easy.


A very tough session which left me shattered at the end, have to say I'm happy in one sense and intimidated in another sense - maintaining that kind of pace for 13 odd miles is where I want to get to eventually but I feel I've a way to go to get there

Total miles : 15.5 @7:48 min\miles

FBOT01

Duanington wrote: »

24.06.2014

LSR night tonight and I had lined up a real tester for myself tonight.
The plan was to run 15 miles with [EMAIL="5@hmp"]5@hmp[/EMAIL] ( around 7 min\miles) and take in the hills in Howth....................

Nice run D particularly taking Howth Head in along the way. Haven't been up there since Connemara. I think it may be time for a return. One small point though you might want to drop the "S" from LSR for these ones as I think I read somewhere that LSR stands for Long Slow Run

ThebitterLemon

FBOT01 wrote: »

Nice run D particularly taking Howth Head in along the way. Haven't been up there since Connemara. I think it may be time for a return. One small point though you might want to drop the "S" from LSR for these ones as I think I read somewhere that LSR stands for Long Slow Run

With the crappy music Double D listens to it's more likely to be a LSD run

TbL

Duanington

FBOT01 wrote: »

Nice run D particularly taking Howth Head in along the way. Haven't been up there since Connemara. I think it may be time for a return. One small point though you might want to drop the "S" from LSR for these ones as I think I read somewhere that LSR stands for Long Slow Run

ha - thanks FBOT01, its a cracking place to run alright. Trust me, I was moving verrrry slow by the end of this one but I take the point ha ha!

Duanington

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

With the crappy music Double D listens to it's more likely to be a LSD run

TbL

Now THERE'S an idea !

Duanington

26.06.2014


Wednesday

Very tired waking up after the HMP session on Tuesday night, dragged myself out of the bed early doors and headed over to work to get 4 recovery miles in before 8 am...kept the pace down and felt much better afterwards. No run Wednesday night, went to Mammy D's for a good feed :-)


Thursday

AM

4 miles easy before work, sluggish enough to start with but I could feel myself getting into it after a mile or so. Very enjoyable run , pace was around 8.15

PM

a small bit of core work while I charged the Garmin then headed out for tonight's session;

9 miles with 14x20 second hill sprints ( walk back recovery)


I made sure that I warmed up well before starting this one so I took in 5 easy miles along the coast before making my way to the hill of death.

The plan was to run the 20 seconds at a sprint then walk the recovery back down, turn around and go again...14 times.

I've done this one before a few times now and although its tough and it hurts, I don't find it intimidating because the reps are so short.

This time however, I knew I would still have Tuesday night's session in my legs, while they weren't sore, my thighs definitely felt stiffer than usual yesterday\today.
The rain started to come down heavy enough just as I started and after 4 or 5 reps it was providing welcome relief on the walk back down the hill...I did start to slightly doubt that I would complete the 14 reps at this stage because although I was able to keep running flat out right up the hill for the full 20 seconds...it was hurting.

Anyway, I got on with it - the rest of the reps did hurt and I was blowing very hard by the end of the 14th but doing so with the satisfaction that I had genuinely put in a good shift tonight that will hopefully add something to the system over the coming months.

The paces for each rep were all in and around the 4:40 mark which is pleasing because the pace stayed pretty consistent all the way through.

Ran some easy miles home to bring the total to 9

Total for the day: 13

Duanington

01.07.2014

Friday

AM
5 recovery miles before work, around Citywest and into Corkaigh Park again, lovely morning for it but my legs were feeling the efforts from two tough sessions on Tuesday and Thursday.

PM
5 easy miles on the coast, legs were still feeling a little stiff so kept the pace right down again and scrapped the notions of running some strides. Fijnished off the evening with some core work

Saturday
AM
3 miles before breakfast - I didn't actually have this in the plan but I was awake early and the morning looked nice so I took off before anyone else woke up.

PM
6 miles with [EMAIL="4@HMP"]4@HMP[/EMAIL] - Really enjoyed this one - I had actually intended to just run strides during the 6 miles but my legs felt good for the first time since Thuirsday so I ploughed on into some hmp miles. The pace stayed in and around the 7 min\mile mark quite steadily throughout which was pleasing because the effort felt quite manageable



Sunday

8 miles easy , lovely day for it again and I've noticed that my easy pace is starting to dip a little closer to 8 min\miles these days ( from 8:25 or so).

The end of a high mileage week with some good workouts, Achill Half this Saturday and then I'm taking a week off running altogether so I'll be going easy this week to make sure I'm running on fresh legs on Saturday

Duanington

03.07.2014

This is a very strange week...bundles of energy and not much running happening. I feel a bit like a coiled spring at the moment.

Monday - off

Tuesday - 4 miles easy, cracking day for it. Got out at lunch time up and down the coast and sweated bucketloads...kept everything nice and easy

Wednesday - rest

Thursday - 6 miles easy with 8x100 metre strides. Again up and down the coast and again sweated bucketloads. I kept having that sensation that there was a pebble in my shoe so stopped a few times to empty out the shoe, dust down the sock etc...still had the sensation over the last mile and I can only assume that I'm getting a verruca or something ( I know, I know gross) which is perfect timing for Achil on Saturday.

Going to freeze the jaysis out of my foot tonight with some stuff I found in the back of the press and see how that works out ...

It won't stop me running but I found it very distracting over 6 miles, 13.1 miles will be a nightmare!

FBOT01

Good luck at the weekend. Enjoy!

SamforMayo

Good luck, hope Mayo treats you well!

ecoli

Best of luck with it this weekend.

Could be one of the rare people who actually see's Achill in nice weather, make it count

Tom Joad

Best of luck in Achill - hope it all goes to plan.