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Eye of the Tiger Beer.
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Pomplamousse wrote: »So glad that your all your hard work paid off. Such a super race, I'm in awe of your time. Congratulations sub-3 marathon runner:D
After last year's DCM in the pub you were the first person to suggest that I should probably have a go at sub-3 this year! Thanks
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Unreal running B and so happy to see you achieve this amazing milestone. Huge congrats!
And a nice nod to GYBE, I remember seeing them play here about 20 years ago!!
Thanks! Were you at that Sigur Ros gig? I missed it for some reason, one of my only life regrets Though I caught them both a good few times since. In retrospect "Storm" might have been a little too intense for listening to an hour before the race! 0 -
Thanks! Were you at that Sigur Ros gig? I missed it for some reason, one of my only life regrets Though I caught them both a good few times since. In retrospect "Storm" might have been a little too intense for listening to an hour before the race!
The very same! Temple Bar Music Centre was the venue. Fly Pan Am were on the bill too but I was there mainly for Sigur Ros. 0 -
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Disastrous week, lowest milage since July or so...
At the start of the week I had significant soreness in my right quad which had exploded on the marathon course. It felt like I'd run a damn mountain race hopping on one leg, but it didn't feel injured-sore, just annoying sore when starting to walk, going down stairs, etc. I did some pilates during Tuesday lunchtime and felt ok to jog home after work. Things were stiff and all but once a few miles everything felt normal enough. The only other thing vaguely exciting this week was pacing 22 minutes at Rivervalley parkrun. We were all encouraged to wear our marathon gear and got a picture taken, it was loads of fun chatting to everybody about their exploits etc. I had no problems at all running the pace and got in 6 seconds under. I was at 36.9 miles for the week so inevitably run 13.1 miles on Sunday to break the critically important 50 mile barrier for the week. Still a little more creaky and tired than usual but definitely on the mend. I might head back to the club on Tuesday for some track fun.
What's next? I'm signed up for an 8k (?!) race in Las Vegas as part of Amazon Web Services' Re:Invent conference. I ran a miserable 5k there three years as part of the same conference. The combination of long travel, jet lag, being super busy and walking around a lot at an impossibly large conference aren't exactly great race prep, and the course is just a bunch of cold backroads behind the casinos. Still though, gotta do it
I expect I'll do a hard parkrun or two between now and Christmas, and maybe do a race over the holidays too. I'll do a few long runs before Donadea but not gonna particularly do much training for it.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
29th October|9.1 miles|9:40|Very slow commute! Got a bit of a backlash on Strava for this
30th October|3.4 miles|8:40|30 mins of less slow running
31st October|9.1 miles|9:00|A more normal commute
1st November|9.0 miles|9:06|Another commute
2nd November|6.1 miles|?|Pacing 22 at Rivervalley parkrun
3rd November|13.1 miles|8:48|A standard run around Malahide and Portmarnock
Total: 50 miles
October total: 289 miles. I'm well on track for 3000 miles this year.
Next week: Maybe a session! Or maybe a parkrun. We'll see.0 -
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Not sure I approve of all that mileage so soon, but you’re the boss of you. That Vegas race sounds like a must-do alright.
Is it too soon to ask about the shoes? How much difference do they make, do you reckon? Any downsides?0 -
Is it too soon to ask about the shoes? How much difference do they make, do you reckon? Any downsides?
Ever since you gave me the hand-me-down Crusaders vest and I bought a pair my first pair of 4%s I've PBed in every race I've ran. I hope it's the vest and not the shoes
The Vaporflys are obviously great. I reckoned after Dublin last year they were worth 2-3 minutes. They're light and bouncy for the fast miles, but the main thing is that they seem to prevent the body breaking down towards the end of a marathon. I think I might prefer the feel of the 4% compared to the Nexts ("I preferred their earlier stuff") though I was always gonna wear whatever had the fewer miles run on them at DCM.0 -
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Not much going on this week other than stuff on boards I did pilates on Tuesday, was just about running every day but took it easy a couple of days. Somehow becoming the graduates mentor this year was definitely a running career highlight though Lots of work to turn them into mini-singers yet though
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
4th November|10.2 miles|9:20|Slow commute. Fairly slow!
5th November|?|?|Over to the Cru for a track session. I had incredible watch fail, for some reason I kept my watch in my pocket all day. It was at zero battery by the end of the day. No worries, I had my old watch in my bag... despite being fully charged it died after the first rep on the track. The session was 3 x (4 x 400 off 45, 30, 15) off 2 minutes active recovery. The first few were in 1:26-1:24 range, though I definitely slowed down after the watch died. Content with the session anyway.
6th November|3.5 miles|9:10|Feeling tired so just did a short jog to the quays. The bus is unreliable compared to running though, I ended up being pretty late home. I would have been better off running home.
7th November|9 miles|8:39|Jog home
8th November|10 miles|9:04|Jog home
9th November|5.2 miles|8:43|No parkrun this week, dropped the younger kid off at GAA training and jogged around the Fingal 10k course.
10th November|13.8 miles|8:11|Up early and out before 7AM. I was expecting it to be freezing, but wasn't that bad at all. Very enjoyable run for the first few miles, and then at Portmarnock I bumped into Paulieyifter and had all the great chats with him all the way back to the M1 where after he peeled off back to Malahide.
Total: 60.2 miles
Next week: Cru session anyway, I'd like to give a parkrun a hard go soon and see what happens.0 -
What goes up must come down...
I had a pretty good session at the club on Tuesday, felt great doing 4x800s and 4x400s pretty much as fast as I've ever done these in, so I felt like I'd shook off the post-marathon malaise. I think I started feeling something niggly at the top of my right leg after commuting home on Thursday. On Friday it was throbbing a bit during the day, was present but not painful commuting home again but was throbbing when going to sleep. I'd planned a light session on Saturday morning of some hill sprints. No niggle around at all when I woke up, but I aggravated the bloody on like the 4th sprint or something, so I stopped hill sprinting and just jogged home. Again, it was sore all day Saturday but then went away in the evening. On Sunday morning I went cautiously out, and just jogging up a hill aggrevated it again, and it was too sore to run on as it had occasional sharp pains, so I walked home. Dr. Google reckons it's something groin/abductory? It's occasionally sore when walking or doing motions that put pressure on it, and running on it definitely makes it worse, especially on hills. I'll probably just rest it for a few days and then do some light jogging to see how it is.
If this had happened a month ago my life would have been ruined I'm not that depressed about it (yet) but just need to make sure it gets fixed so normal service can resume. This isn't the worst week in the world to take it easy as my better half is out of the country at the end of the week for a few days and I'll be lone parenting anyway. It's interesting that it happened pretty soon after my first properly fast bit of running after the marathon, maybe one day off wasn't enough recovery
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
11th November|10 miles|9:18|Slow, cold commute
12th November|7.4 miles|?|Cru session - 4 x 800 off 90, 4 x 400 off 60: 2:52, 2:51, 2:50, 2:48, 1:23, 1:21, 1:22, 1:21
13th November|9 miles|9:22|A slow rainy commute
14th November|10 miles|9:20|Another slow commute. Jeez.
15th November|10 miles|8:56|A super fast commute :pac:
16th November|7 miles|9:06|A few hill sprints, but stopped doing more 'cos of soreness
17th November|1.8 miles|9:10|An injured jog :mad:
Total: 55.4 miles
Next week: Possibly nothing at all.0 -
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Please do this! I think I'm not the only one who's been a little worried by the mileage you've put in since DCM...You've serious gains to be made over the shorter stuff in the next few months, just give your body the chance to recover and get you there.
Yeh, I thought I could get away with it. I recovered quickly after the last couple of years, but they weren't quite as intense. Lesson learned, hopefully 0 -
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Is seeing a physio part of the plan? Not sure Dr. Google has all the required certifications.
Good luck with the rehab. Suspect rest will do most of what you need.
The physio will tell me to rest and probably to do some stretches, which I will then not actually do. It's cheaper to just rest 0 -
Forgive me father, for I have sinned. it's been a month since my last confession... well, just under.
Since my last post, I've mostly been battling with the ordeal of being injured, which doesn't exactly inspire posts to a training log. The good news is that my highly trained physician (me) reckons I'm mostly on the mend! Did I go to a physio? Obviously not. But I did rest, and eventually my right leg has sorted itself out. My left leg is still kind of occasionally sore, which certainly suggests a common cause to my upper leg woes. I am still very sure that a physio will tell me to do a load of stretches and maybe even some core work, which I will still likely ignore.
Anyway! Running and stuff. From the 18th - 24th of November, I didn't run at all. It was utterly depressing. I probably should have gone to the gym and done some other cardio stuff, but all I really care about is running and I was kind of annoyed so I didn't bother. I then made an epic two day comeback, but got sore again and got pi$$ed off again and took a few more days off. Bafflingly I then decided on 10 minutes notice to do Malahide parkrun, so jogged over and ran a progression run finishing just under 20 minutes which felt pretty good as nothing felt bad. After then I flew to Las Vegas for Amazon Web Services' conference. I was fortunate to be over there with a work colleague who's really getting into his running, and so I ran with him for a few days and really enjoyed it. It was a great distraction from the woeful ordeal of being in Las Vegas.
One of the activities at the conference was a 4k/8k race, so obviously I had signed up to this and went for the 8k. I had low expectations for a good performance as it was early in the morning (6:30AM) and after a couple of long days walking around the conference (30k+ steps) and dealing with jetlag. mister paul was also at the conference, so it was great to meet up at the race! I positioned myself fairly towards the front of the race which was starting both the 4k and 8k at the same time. The route was familiar enough as I'd run a 5k 3 years ago on the course, which was basically a brutal course on the back roads of the casinos on the strip. I took off a little hard for the first mile (6:05) before settling into a more appropriate pace. It was far from comfortable but around what I could push myself on the day. The rest of the miles were more like 6:30ish pace, thanks to the out and back course I sped up a little, though I never really had the heart to destroy myself as if it was a real race. I ended up finishing the 8k in 31:33, which is only a few seconds off my Raheny 5 mile PB, though a good bit off what I covered 8k in my 10k PB I was pretty happy to finish under 32 minutes off woeful recent running, and finished 14th out of over 400 runners which wasn't a total disgrace.
After that I did another couple of runs, though one adventurous run into the interesting part of Las Vegas with mister paul was ultimately quite uncomfortable and resulted in some walking due to leg woes. I was in San Francisco by Saturday so did the Crissy Fields parkrun with a former work colleague which was done at steady pace, but still resulted in a sore right leg and we ended up walking back to his apartment
After that I didn't bother with any running until I was back home and in work. I think it's telling that every run I did in the USA was with somebody else, I didn't do any solo runs. After I got back from the USA on Wednesday, I did a commute on Thursday, then couldn't run on Friday due to solo parenting, but got out over the weekend for some not sore miles. Since then I've been able to do a couple of commutes without any issue.
What's next? If I can continue to run 8 miles a day between now and the end of the year I'll hit 3,000 miles for the year, so that's a thing. I won't be silly and run anything if my legs are still sore, but it's a reasonable goal. If things work out well then I might even give one of the Goal Miles a go, and/or a parkrun or the Clonliffe Christmas Cracker. I have low expectations due to my lack of running and sharpness, but I'm also optimistic about getting back into running every day without pain.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
25th November|6.7 miles|8:21|A pain free run around Malahide
26th November|8.4 miles|9:14|An abandoned commute home
30th November|9 miles|?|Including a 19:57 Malahide parkrun
1st December|6.2 miles|10:17|Jog around the Vegas strip
2nd December|6.5 miles|9:58|Jog to Whole Foods near the airport
3rd December|4.7 miles|9:53|Jog around the LV University
4th December|7 miles|?|Jog to/from and the 8k race @ 31:33
5th December|6.4 miles|10:21|More jogging around Vegas
6th December|8.2 miles|10:26|Even more jogging around interesting parts of Vegas with Paul
7th December|7.5 miles|?|Including a 22:15 Crissy Fields parkrun
12th December|9.2 miles|10:00|Commute home, Strava app messed up so a bit pessimistic.
14th December|8.8 miles|8:04|Running around Swords
15th December|10.6 miles|8:39|Early miles around Swords
16th December|10 miles|8:55|A really great commute!
17th December|10.1 miles|8:58|A morning commute into town
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Two week catchup. A decent amount of running and a lot of fun over Christmas week. I am still nursing my weird injury which has now inexplicably shifted to the left leg, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was. I *think* that swinging my legs and generally occasionally moving them around seems to keep the woes at bay.
The first week of recovery was just getting back into things...
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
16th December|10 miles|8:55|Joyous pain free commute
17th December|10.1 miles|8:58|A morning commute in due to seasonal post-work beers
18th December|9.5 miles|8:54|More commuting
19th December|9.5 miles|9:11|Final commute of the year. 102 for the year according to commutemarker.com
20th December|7.2 miles|8:54|Malahide and back
22nd December|15.2 miles|7:44|No running the day before due to an impressive hangover after being in Jam Park. Got out early enough and felt great, so decided to do a steady paced run around Malahide, Coolock, Collins Avenue and the Swords Road. Felt great!
Total: 61.8 miles
Christmas week was lots of fun, all sorts of stuff going on. On Christmas Eve I jogged over to the Goal Mile in Morton Stadium. As it was the first speedy thing I was doing in a good while I didn't have particularly high expectations but was gonna give it a good go. I arrived a little after 10 and the first run was just setting up. There were about 20 or 30 runners, mostly kids. I recognised one of the pacers from Malahide parkrun and said hi. From looking around there was just one other fastish looking runner, though they looked more like a GAA player or something, fit looking but way too muscley and not wearing runner-y running gear. Disappointingly despite being in the national athletics stadium the run started on the start line, so it was more like a 1600 meter thing, in keeping with the Goal miles being woefully measured I guess. I started a bit back so that I didn't take off too fast and to maybe try to actually run the additional 7 metres. By 250 metres or so it was just me and the GAA player a bit ahead of me. I was feeling good and moving reasonably fast, and by the middle of the second lap I easily moved past the GAA player and took off. The last 600m or so involved a bit of weaving past other runners, and I finished reasonably strongly. I ran well through the line so that I'd have a Strava mile at least, stopping my watch at 5:48. I think 5:42 was called out when I went through the line, and Strava gave me a 5:32 best estimated mile ever (it was definitely not that). My PB is 5:42, I think I definitely didn't break it but I was happy enough with the effort. Running a mile outside on a track is definitely easier than running inside on a 200m track.
Next up was Malahide parkrun on Christmas morning. It was a beautiful morning, and there was a great buzz around and a pretty big crowd too. I did a minimal visit, driving over and warming up by jogging to the start line from the carpark. It took what seemed like an age to get started. When it did I wasn't running particularly comfortably, maybe it was the lack of warm-up or residual tiredness from the mile the day before. The icy path in places didn't help and I was losing grip a lot which slowed me down. I made my way up through the crowd a bit, and once we got into the forest I was able to run a good bit easier due to lack of ice. Finished strong enough (Strava PB for the final segment) and happy to duck just under 19:00 by the least amount possible
The following day was a very enjoyable jog around Swords, boring poor TBO to death with various trivia and the sights of Swords. It was soon parkrun day again, this time I decided to give Rivervalley a good go. It wasn't very busy and no sign of some of the usual faster runners. There was a lad who looked like he had the body composition of a club runner who I hadn't seen before, we gave each other a respectful "how are ya" at the start line. I started aggressively enough, though immediately your man was on top of me, and then easily passed me out not long after the downhill. He started pulling away rapidly, though I was running hard enough. I was on my own for the rest of the course and struggled on the hill the second time around, motivation and fitness was rapidly draining. I reckoned I'd be close enough to 19, finishing in 19:08, just 12 seconds off my course PB. Two minutes behind the first finisher (a decent Raheny runner I found out afterwards) and nearly two minutes ahead of third! I got in another volunteer session by scanning barcodes afterwards though unfortunately that meant I had to decline a cooldown with the Raheny dude.
On Sunday I did an enjoyable though slightly hungover jog around Holywell Junior parkrun with the older kid, meeting Dealerz who I found out has the unfortunate job of coaching my kid at the local athletics club I then did a couple of easy hours over to Portmarnock, and entirely coincidentally went over the 3,000 mile mark for the year just before the end.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
23rd December|6.8 miles|8:48|Out to Malahide Castle and back
24th December|10.2 miles|?|To/from Santry Stadium and the Goal Mile
25th December|3.9 miles|?|Christmas day Malahide parkrun in 18:59
26th December|6.2 miles|10:24|Sightseeing around Swords with TBO
27th December|7.3 miles|8:47|Was in Father Collins Park with the wife and kids, and jogged home.
28th December|10.4 miles|?|To/from Rivervalley parkrun and the parkrun itself in 19:08
29th December|1.2 miles|10:16|Holywell Junior parkrun
29th December|13.9 miles|8:41|Easy two hours on my feet, the classic Malahide and Portmarnock coastal route. Got to see a lifeboat rescuing a kitesurfer in trouble off Portmarnock beach.
Total: 60.2 miles
Next week: More parkrunning - gonna give the Father Collins / St. Anne's double a good go, planning to actually show up sober this year. Then I guess another parkrun on Saturday? Beats doing a session anyway.0 -
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Another really enjoyable week with plenty of parkruns! My injury days seem to be behind me, some discomfort from time to time but not while running and stretching and moving the old legs around seems to help.
The new year kicked off in style by showing up for the Father Collins/St Annes double for the third time. For the first time I wasn't hungover as we had a very quiet New Year's Eve, and was asleep well before midnight! I intended to take advantage of my new found parkrun double sobriety by giving them a good go, a pair of sub-20 parkruns would be a good start to the year. I parked in my usual spot on the Tonlegee Road, jogged over to Father Collins and met some folks for chats. It was another beautiful winter morning, and there was a lovely tribute for the Raheny runner who recently passed away. Once the run started and things opened up I got into a good enough pace and kept at it, finishing well enough and dipping just under 19 minutes. I ended up meeting mister_paul and we jogged over to St. Anne's together. There was another tribute there and an even bigger crowd. I got myself into a decent position for the start and went at it again. I was definitely feeling fatigued and the effort was a lot harder than at the previous parkrun. For the last 2k or so I sped up and felt like I was going at pretty much race level effort, though I ended up coming in at 19:14 which sounds disappointing for the effort put in but I'm happy enough with.
The final parkrun of the Christmas series was a pacing gig at Rivervalley, where I finally signed up to pacing 20 minutes. I think I ended up pacing it pretty well, slow on the uphill parts, fast on the downhill parts and pretty close to 4:00/km pace the rest of the time. It felt really good running along at a slightly slower pace than all the recent parkruns. I finished first in 19:56, but there was a guy behind me who came in at 20:02 who I think I helped out a bit so it felt worthwhile, though maybe I should have let him get ahead of me and pushed him along or something. Must consult the pacers union on this, though I might be kicked out for my second time finishing first while pacing
I ended up running 5 sub-20 parkruns in 10 days over Christmas, the biggest effort was definitely the 19:08 at Rivervalley which was probably worth 30 seconds or so on a flatter course.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
30th December|0 miles|0:00|Nothing! I decided to celebrate going over 3000 miles for 2019 by not running.
31st December|6.7 miles|8:31|A jog around Malahide Castle
1st December|12.7 miles|?|Tom, from and in between Father Collins and St. Annes parkruns
2nd December|10.3 miles|8:46|A late evening jog out to Portmarnock along the coast
3rd December|9 miles|8:55|First commute of 2020!
4th December|6.4 miles|?|To/from Rivervalley parkrun
5th December|14.8 miles|8:34|A jog around the old Feltrim/Coolock/Collins Ave/Swords Road loop. Was a bit hungover from a great dinner the night before. It was a nice run until the last 2 miles or so when I got a fairly bad stitch, which isn't common for me. I realised afterwards that I hadn't eaten breakfast, so that coupled with the hangover and stomach full of rich food was probably the cause.
Total: 60 miles
December total: 204 miles. Low because of a few days off due to the injury.
Next week: On Thursday I am scheduled to get a "no scalpel vasectomy" for family planning reasons. Despite the optimistic description, the procedure is somewhat incompatible with running. I've done loads of medical research (i.e. read a few threads on Letsrun) for how impactful this is to running. The answer is "it depends!". There is swelling and general discomfort in the area but the extent and duration really seems to vary from person to person. Some folks reported being out running the day after, others for a lot longer. Most of the official medical advice is the usual conservative stuff that was not written by a runner I obviously don't want to mess around with that part of the world, and will listen to the [strike]butcher[/strike] doctor but it sounds like a small bit of rest and then using discomfort as a guide is the way to go. I'll document how it goes here anyway, just in case anybody else is ever considering doing the same. I guess the plan between now and then is to run as much as possible, though my other half is in London for a couple of days so I'm parenting solo which may interfere. I should be able to do both pilates and yoga this week too (unless a boll0x is made of... my boll0x 
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