Back to the Future

Dubgal72

Great to see you today! How did you get on with your post race jog and stretching....?

RedRunner

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Great to see you today! How did you get on with your post race jog and stretching....?

Ditto.
I did some stretching in the changing rooms and then I jogged to the bar ;-) ( a few times)

RedRunner

24/12 - Easy run - 4.27miles @8:57. Pleasant few miles up and down the coast.

25/12 - Ate,drank,cooked,ate,drank,ate some more,drank some more, slept.

26/12 - St Annes Park Run- Nice steady run to burn off some of the excess of previous day week. 3.04 miles @8:08 in 24:46 and a short warmup and coold down. Good to see so many out including lots of boardsies running and marshalling.

27/12 - Exercises and core work. No running

28/12 - - Fat Turkey 10km

Just glad to be able to run this and not be injured like last year. Plan was to take it handy up the hill (all 137m elevation) and try let the hills do the work on way back down. Went pretty much to plan and although the conditions were testing, very windy, I'm quite pleased with the result given where I'm at.

Didn't do a proper warm up , just walked up to start line and waited for the off. I can almost hear Dubgal tut tutting across the interweb at that !:o
Sure I used the first 5k as my warmup .
Didn't have my watch on km setting but the first three miles were 9:11,8:58,9:17 which reflects the effort. I was just trying to get up there without inflicting too much pain on myself. The next three down the hill were 8:06,7:49,7:11 and 6:20 for the last bit. I had plenty left in the tank at the end for a good 100m burst to the finish to finish in 52:26.

Good to see so many boardsies today and nice to chat to BungyGirl and Dubgal, Kennyg71 and there were others there that I didn't get to chat to incl Firedance,Aquinn, annapr, and maybe more.

The calf gave me no trouble during or after. I think the compression sleeves helped. I was a bit worried considering the calves are usually first to complain on hills but I thinkit will be my quads that will be complaining tomorrow after the downhill section.

A few nice pints of creamy goodness afterwards topped off a good day.

annapr

Well done today, R. We were behind you crossing the road on the way back to the club (with BG) but didn't get a chance to say a proper hello. Hope the quads don't complain too much tomorrow!

Firedance

Great that the calves gave no trouble, well done today, you're all crazy

RedRunner

29/12 - No running. 30 mins on static bike followed by stretching and core work and calf raises

30/12 - 4.16miles @ 9:07 avg. Easy pace on a howth road/Coast road loop. Calf holding up well

31/12 - No running. 30 mins on static bike, calf raises 3 sets of 25 on each leg. Some core work too.

1/1/2016 - Easy run pace-wise but the gale blew me a round quite a bit making it a bit tougher than normal. 4.54 miles @ 8:50 avg

2015 Review:

Nobody could be happier than me to say goodbye to 2015 from a running standpoint. Having started the year after a 5 month layoff because of back problems, I could just never get a consistent block of training and apart from a decent few weeks training in March it really was a disastrous year running-wise.

The stats don't read pretty either:

Only 144 runs in total and some 588 miles.

No PBs.

Only decent runs to speak of was the MSB 5km on ST Patrick's weekend of 21:20 and a 45:xx 10k in K club in April

Biggest mileage week was 34 miles in March.

Injuries: Back, Achilles, Calf

2016 Targets:

I'm still a bit nervous about setting any targets until I get back running regularly but having missed the last three DCMs due to injury that has to be a goal for this year. Otherwise the main goal at the moment is to train a bit smarter, lose a stone in weight, and build up the mileage gradually.

I'll post more specific running targets in a few weeks but I think it will take me the full year to get back to where I was in 2014 realistically.

Happy New Year to all on here and hope you all have a successful year of running.

tang1

Best of luck in 2016 R, you deserve a break bigtime.

Bungy Girl

tang1 wrote: »

Best of luck in 2016 R, you deserve a break bigtime.

+1 to this, you really do, so don't skip on the S&C! Wishing you the best of luck for a super running year.

annapr

Bungy Girl wrote: »

+1 to this, you really do, so don't skip on the S&C! Wishing you the best of luck for a super running year.

Another +1... Patience and perseverance and you will get there. Best of luck!

Ososlo

annapr wrote: »

Another +1... Patience and perseverance and you will get there. Best of luck!

Me three!!!!

Wishing you EVERY bit of luck possible for an injury free year R. Want to see you back at your best very very soon

RedRunner

2/1 - St Annes Park Run

Wanted to break 24 mins for this one. Did a short warm up and after exchanging new years wishes with clubmates and friends alike , lined up at the start. Conditions were good, no wind to speak of and the rain was on a temporary break. There were some pools of casual water around the course and the first one forced people to try and avoid it and one guy came a cropper and ended up on his ar5e. A few people stopped to help him out,hope he wasn't hurt too bad.

The first mile went by in 7:30 which I thought was a little too hot for me at the moment so I pulled it back slightly to give me some chance of a strong finish. Was feeling reasonably comfortably after first lap but knew It wouldn't last long.Once I rounded the corner for the long straight down the avenue it was a case of maintaining pace for as long as I could. I usually pick out landmarks and run this in my head in sections because it is so bloody long.Had enough in the tank for a bit of a burst for last 80m or so and got official time of 23:14.
A big improvement on the previous weeks 24:44 so was happy with that.

Today was a rest day after a boozy night last night in Vicar St at the Aslan gig. Back to business tomorrow and aiming to bring the mileage next week into the twenties. 19 miles for the week done over four run incl Fat Turkey 10k and Park Run so 2 easy runs and 2 speed workouts.

Murph_D

Nice. Good luck for 2016, R.

Younganne

great start for 2016, hope it all goes to plan for you.

AuldManKing

Good to see you back. Hopefully you'll stay injury free in 2016.

My only tuppence worth (and feel free to ignore) is to give the Marathon a miss this year and enjoy running and racing 5k's/10ks etc - and do lots of them! Maybe a spring marathon in '17 when you've established a good solid base.

Like others have said, you deserve some good luck this year, so hope it goes well for you..

RedRunner

Murph_D wrote: »

Nice. Good luck for 2016, R.

Thanks D.

Younganne wrote: »

great start for 2016, hope it all goes to plan for you.

Thanks so much. Good luck with the Rotterdam training!

AuldManKing wrote: »

Good to see you back. Hopefully you'll stay injury free in 2016.

My only tuppence worth (and feel free to ignore) is to give the Marathon a miss this year and enjoy running and racing 5k's/10ks etc - and do lots of them! Maybe a spring marathon in '17 when you've established a good solid base.

Like others have said, you deserve some good luck this year, so hope it goes well for you..

Thanks A. I do appreciate any advice I get and will give it due consideration. Nothing written in stone yet. All plans will be based on progress I'm making and how the body is holding up but in meantime the plan is exactly as you put it ..." enjoy running"

I've entered Raheny 5 at end of the month but not setting the bar too high. I think a sub40 even would be acceptable to me right now.(current pb is 35:18 I think)

RedRunner

3/1 - Rest

4/1 - Easy Run 5.35 miles @ 8:48. Nothing major to report, felt good and effort was easy.

5/1 - Rest. Exercises and stretching

6/1 - Club Winter League 3 Mile Race

Wasn't feeling great on lead up to this on the day. Coupled with that the weather was awful and I considered many times not to bother, even when I got to the venue and was sitting in the car. Decided to go for it in the end and did a 1mile warmup before the race. I took the decision to just try get through this as best I could and not blow a gasket completely. I wasn't feeling totally up to it and the conditions were not good. Tried to keep a relatively consistent pace throughout but slowed it up purposely on the second lap to ensure I didn't die completely on the last. Came in eventually in 22:48 placed 25/39
Splits:7:20,7:44,7:39... 37seconds slower than the last 3miler I did on this coure but conditions and general well being played their part in this.

Am wearing the calf guards for races and park runs these days and find that they really help. In conjunction with the exercises I feel there is significant improvement in the injury but will keep with running just every other day for the next week or two (or three).

RedRunner

Next to no running done in last 4 weeks but due to illness rather than injury. Got a bad dose of something, not sure what. Started in head and sinuses, went into chest, sore throat the whole range of flu like symptoms. Avoided the doctors as wanted to avoid anti biotics so only really feeling human again now. Slow build up will start again. Will run regular and short to start off with. On the bike now commuting so that will help with fitness. Seriously need to lose a few pounds so will use lent as a motivator for giving up sweet things.

RedRunner

Please forgive lack of updates but laptop on the blink. This is posted by phone so the brevity will be obvious too!

Hope everyone is doing well. Must catch up on all your logs but for now here is a summary of what I've done since last running update.

8/1- 3.93 miles in 36:44

13/1- 6.42 miles in 1:07:57

6/2 - 3.5 miles in 31:40

7/2- 2.79 miles in 26:36

8/2- 4.24 miles in 41:17

10/2- 6.49 miles in 1:03:09

13/2- 5.16 miles in 45:52

On Wednesday I weighed in at a shocking 16 stones even so I will post a weekly update here to keep me honest. The next 6 weeks will be my own personal operation transformation. I'm crashing at the moment from lack of sugar(chocolate)!

I'm hoping the new found diet discipline, increase in mileage and cycle commutes to work will get me back down to a more reasonable weight for my frame. I'll take 14.5 for now as my summer target.

Bungy Girl

Welcome back!

I find the My Fitness Pal app brilliant for tracking food and exercise. You can produce all sorts of interesting graphs and reports. Also surprisingly accurate if you're disciplined about recording everything.

RedRunner

This week has been going well and getting a good mixture of running and cycling done.

Running wise;

15/2 - 6.43miles in 1:04:49
16/2 - 6.52miles in 1:02:39
17/2 - 1.57 miles warmup in 15:51
- Club Race: 2.02 miles in 14:28
- 1.18 miles warm down in 11:11

Operation RedRunner Transformation :

Wednesday Weigh-in

Starting Weight : 16 St 0lbs

Week 1 Weight : 15st 10lbs

Weight Loss this week : 4lbs

Total weight Loss : 4lbs


Rest day today and will take it handy tomorrow too as I'm going to attempt the BHAA 5 mile cross country race on Saturday morning. It's more of a strengthening workout for me so may as well do it in company!

Steroo

Keep up the good work

RedRunner

Since last update.,..

18/2- rested
19/2 - rested and ended up on the razz
20/2- despite previous night....5.31 miles cross country in 47.xx.....less said about it the better!
21/2- recovery
22/2- recovery
23/2 - 6.62 miles in 1:01:04
24/2 - rested

Operation Redrunner Transformation

Start weight - 16st 0 lbs

Todays weight- 15st 5lbs

Weight loss this week - 5lbs

Weight loss after 2 weeks - 9lbs

Happy out...the combination of reduced sugar, running and cycling are paying dividends.

Bungy Girl

RedRunner wrote: »

19/2 - rested and ended up on the razz
20/2- despite previous night....5.31 miles cross country in 47.xx.....less said about it the better!

:eek: Did no one ever tell ya, going on the razz and XC don't mix. Ever. :eek:

Great work on the weight loss!

tang1

Keep it going R, nice weight loss is right.

Wubble Wubble

Well done on the weight loss. That XC was fierce enough with no drinking the night before! No doubt you'll be in better shape next time I catch up with you.

RedRunner

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Well done on the weight loss. That XC was fierce enough with no drinking the night before! No doubt you'll be in better shape next time I catch up with you.

Cheers J. I see you guys picked up a team prize. Well done.

RedRunner

25/2 - Lunchtime run from work taking in the Grand Canal. 5.49miles in 52:24

26/2 - Rested

27/2 - St Annes Park Run, this was refreshingly different to the previous Saturday. I was on time, I got a little warm up done, I was not hung over !:o

Said hello to Yaboya1 before the start. He was fresh off a plane from somewhere exotic. FBOT01 was pacing 22 mins...Hmmmm the temptation but knew I wasn't up to that at this stage so resolved to just keeping that balloon in sight in the distance if I could and try and get under 23 mins which would be my fastest time this year so far.
First lap went ok and was just trying to settle into a rhythm that I felt I could maintain. On the second lap going past the dog park I was beginning to tire. Clearly I need more miles in the legs to get that stamina and endurance back. So just kept hanging in until the end, targeting landmarks all the way to break up the remaining distance. Came in on my watch at 22:54 but official time is 22:57 so delighted to dip in under 23 minutes for a 2016 best time. Hopefully this trend will continue.

28/2 - 7.16 miles "longer" run in 1:04:11.


23 miles for the week

RedRunner

29/2 - Easy run home from work. 6.53 miles in 1:01:31

1/3 - Cycled to work and Club 2 mile race in the evening

Winter league race is my mid week speed sessions these days when they are on so I look forward to these with trepidation and a sense of wondering if I'm making any progress. The last one of these I did was a couple of weeks back and ran 14:28 which was disappointing since I had previously run 14:04 (PB is 13:12)

I was hoping to at least better the 14:28 this time round. It was a bit blustery on one or two f the stretches on the 1 mile loop but you could recover in other areas so I suppose it evened itself out. I thought I paced the first lap quite well and still left something in the tank to try push it near the end of second lap. For most of the second lap I was neck a neck with this girl from the club an this helped me keep pushing. Otherwise I reckon I would have eased off a bit as there was a bit of a gap then back to next runner. We had a good old tussle all the way to the finish but in the end I had that little bit more and the longer stride probably helped me. Gave all I could in the last 150m or so and was well pleased to finish in 14:04 just two second ahead of my aforementioned challenger.

Splits; 7:02, 7:02....what about that eh !:D


1 mile race next time should be interesting. Haven't raced a mile on road ever and only did it once on grass before at BHAA Trinity races a couple of years ago.

Operation RedRunner Transformation :

Wednesday Weigh-in

Starting Weight : 16 St 0lbs

Week 3 Weight : 15st 5lbs:eek:

Weight Loss this week : 0lbs

Total weight Loss : 9lbs

Not sure what happened here this week. Was well disciplined on the choco and sweet things front. Maybe I need to look at my portions again and what food I ate. Need to get more lbs off to get more seconds off those times.

RedRunner

3/3- rest

4/3- run to work in the snow. Was a bit sloshy underfoot but not too bad otherwise. Multi layers hay and gloves took care of the cold. Cycled home as the bike was still parked up at work. 6.42 miles easy.

5/3 - BHAA 4 mile xc race Maynooth

Wasn't expecting much from this . Reckoned if I was anywhere near 30 mins that would be OK. The course was on small lap followed by 4 bigger laps of a flat course with some softer parts but was a nice morning for it in the end if a bit cool. After the 2nd big lap I was tiring and it was just about hanging in after that. Tried to put the hurt out of my mind and focus on the rhythm and keeping those legs moving underneath me using every opportunity when it arose to save energy and just let momentum take me forward. It was tough going I must admit but I hope to feel the benefit of the workout over the next few weeks.

Finished in 30:51 in end so I'll take that for now. No more xc now so will be back to road races from here on. Next challenge is winter league mile on 16th.

6/3- Easy 4.39 miles to shake out the legs.

26 miles for the week....were getting there,slowly but surely.

Bungy Girl

Well done on the XC, didn't see you there. I did the 2 mile and it was tough enough all right despite being flat. Wouldn't have fancied the 4 laps now .

The mile on the 16th is part of my plan too, so hopefully catch up with you then.