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Eye of the Tiger Beer.
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Surely "the shift" was the root cause of this decision.
Good luck B you will be back in no time.Swashbuckler wrote: »Haha best of luck with the non surgical snip. In all honesty man, I think given the shift you've put in on the roads over the last year, a few days off would be of more benefit than harm.
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Good luck with the procedure. I have experience, although medical technology hadn't progressed to the 'no-scalpel' version back in the day.
The advice at the time was "No driving, no bearing down, no mowing the lawn (!)". Personally I'd take the few days off to be conservative. By the way, the procedure helps with family planning as long as you don't inherit any kids, as the missus pointed out when we read your news. ... 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
If he'd finished in 19:59 the union might have a (weak) case against you, but your job was to be sub-20 but only just, and no one can argue with 19:56. The lad was obviously hanging on for dear life. Did he thank you afterwards? Nice job.0 -
Something that will be entirely unsurprising for the longer term readers here, I completely ignored all medical advice and went for run every day since Thursday when I got the vasectomy
:cool:
The procedure itself wasn't much worse than getting some work done at the dentist (and it was actually carried out in a dentist's clinic). I had some extra tenderness on one side which required additional anaesthetic and it's a lot more achey and tender on that side since. I avoided doing anything very strenuous or long as I don't want to interfere with the healing process *too* much, but the runs don't feel like they're doing any damage. Wearing a jock strap is good for running but I found it pretty uncomfortable the rest of the time so haven't bothered wearing it. Overall I constantly feel like somebody gave me a good kick in the balls, which isn't too compatible with running but it's all very manageable. More than happy to answer any questions
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
6th January|9.1 miles|9:31|Met aquinn in Drumcondra on the way home and had a nice chat.
7th January|3.4 miles|9:35|A total disaster, my bag opened and my clothes spilled out but I didn't realise until a km later or so when a cyclist pointed out my open bag. I retraced my steps and eventually found a pair of trousers and underwear, but not my nice t-shirt
I then didn't have the time to run home as I was solo parenting for a few days and had to hop on a bus.
8th January|9.1 miles|8:56|A commute
9th January|9 miles|9:09|A pre-vasectomy commute
10th January|3.2 miles|9:18|Very, very easy partial commute
11th January|5.4 miles|7:48|Including Rivervalley parkrun in 21:33 where I nabbed a podium place. Eased my way into it and eventually ended up in second going up the hill the second time around. I considered going all out to chase down first but thought of my balls so just stayed put
12th January|4.8 miles|8:50|Really should have done something longer but I was hungover and feeling sorry for myself today.
Total: 44.4 miles
Next week: Hopefully a boring week of increasing volume and maybe even a parkrun and long run at the weekend. I think Tuesday is too soon to go back to the club. Raheny and Donadea are rapidly approaching :eek:0 -
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A good week. I got some good milage in and didn't feel tired, ran a sub-19 parkrun (though it wasn't as good as I was hoping) and most importantly my balls no longer hurt
So I skipped the club session this week as things were still a little tender at the start of the week, but by the end of it my jockstrap was cast aside and life pretty much returned to normal. On Friday I got a message from one of the faster Rivervalley parkrunners about doing Malahide parkrun, so we jogged over together, and ended up running close enough for a good bit of Malahide. The atmosphere was pretty good thanks to the beautiful morning and a good few folks over from Brexitland for a parkrun day-trip. The run itself was a little disappointing, I went out hard (opening 400m Strava segment was 74 seconds..) but then couldn't sustain the pace and ended up slowing down a good deal and losing plenty of places. Still a good morning.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
13th January|9.5 miles|9:02|Not too stormy by the time I was commuting, and the wind was behind me anyway.
14th January|9.5 miles|8:48|A commute
15th January|10 miles|8:50|Another one I guess
16th January|9.3 miles|9:21|Out for a meal after work, so I ran into work facing a brutal headwind pretty much all the way.
17th January|9 miles|8:48|Another commute
18th January|8.9 miles|?|Including Malahide parkrun in 18:56
19th January|13.9 miles|8:21|A lovely cold morning, jogged over to the new greenway between Baldoyle and Portmarnock and did about a mile on it. Listened to Scullion's pre-Houston chat (very relaxed, delighted he raced well and got a qualifier) and then Desi Linden interviewed by Letsrun which was very enjoyable too. Didn't feel tired at all, a really enjoyable run.
Total: 70.5 miles
Next week: Gonna pop back over to the Cru for the first time in yonks. Then Raheny on Sunday! A decent attack at my PB is the plan, I ran 31:30 last year and reckon there could be 20-30 seconds to take off it despite not being in super shape. Looking at my log from this time last year I was feeling fairly down about my running and barely breaking 20 minutes at Malahide so, so maybe a good day could have a few more off. 6:12 pace sounds good for now anyway. Hope to see a bunch of you there 0 -
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Nothing spectacular to report. I ran a decent 46 second PB at Raheny, but the week coming up to it was a total mess. On Tuesday I did a decent pilates class in work, followed by my first club session in two months. It was a mix of 600s, 400s and 200s so was an ideal re-introduction to club running, and I really enjoyed it. The day after felt pretty grim, and I waddled home in a commute. I decided to take Thursday off, which wasn't the worst thing to do ahead of a race. On Friday I did another pilates session in work, however this time it was the worst/best pilates session I've ever been part of. I was utterly destroyed afterwards. I had no idea that a pilates session could be so hard. On Saturday, I could only walk down the stairs in significant agony as if I'd run a mountain race the day before. Later on, I had dinner guests over who were my most favorite people in the world but were happy to stay up very late so I ended up anti-socially going to bed about 12.30AM, having woken up at 6.30 with the kids. On Sunday morning I was utterly knackered, and still barely able to walk down the stairs and had a bunch of stuff to do like bring the younger kid to a hurling tournament in Gormanstown and do a shop in the local supermarket. I'm pretty sure that my pal Eliud Kipchoge doesn't spend his 72 hours before a race like this.
Anyway, most of stress (though not my DOMs) went away by the time I got to Raheny, and met up with SR from Rivervalley parkrun and we warmed up together. I'm already understating the sheer volume of social interactions, as this race is full of people I know from parkrun, here, Crusaders, and random others, and I was constantly acknowledging other runners and supporters. We finished our warmup around 2.45, and then I plunged into the crowd with mister_paul before heading further into the forward area. For the first time in Raheny history, I wasn't too far back, and when the race started it wasn't a total shi!show... though it definitely had more ankle banging and shoulder surfing than most races. I was happy to get through the first couple of miles faster than target pace (6:12) and felt comfortable enough. It seemed like I found myself surrounded by a few others from the club, and around the next mile or so I tried to keep up with them, and we gave eachother some encouragement which was nice, though probably way too early. Things started to go downhill (not literally, unfortunately) as we went into the park, and as always the run up the avenue against the field was an existential crisis with no end in sight. Eventually there was there 180 tuen, and I got a bit of encouragement from runners behind me which helped a bit, before slogging up towards the finish line which was completely gross and awful, just like things should be at this stage in a race. I somehow got over the line in 30:44, a good 46 seconds faster than last year. Afterwards I chatted to a bunch of fast folks from Swords, then got changed in the hall and had some chats with Healy, AMK and random club mates, and ended up in a nearby bar with the fast local Swords runner, and ended up briefly chatting to a load of Raheny heads who frequent these parts
Overall, I'm happy to have beaten a soft PB with another soft PB. I've learned a lesson around pilates and racing and will avoid doing anything other than running before target races in the future. After DCM I reckoned a sub-30 was possible at Raheny, but niggles and life got in the way.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
20th January|10 miles|9:09|Some sort of commute
21st January|8.8 miles|?|Club session. 4 x (600, 75s, 400, 60s, 200, 90s) in (128, 80, 37, 126, 82, 38, 131, 83, 38, 128, 84, 40).
22nd January|9.1 miles|9:32|A slow commute
25th January|3.8 miles|9:07|A sore run around Swords
26th January|7.2 miles|?|Including Raheny 5 mile in 30:44
Total: 39 miles
Next week: I have no idea. Recover from the pilates and race. Also not tapering for Donadea.0 -
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Race report!!!
I didn't train for Donadea, and found it a little bit of a nuisance as I'd prefer to be getting in some consistent training for shorter stuff. That said I had unfinished business with the 50k, having run a poor run here a couple of years ago where I went out at 4 hour pace and then detonated in the last 3 laps or so, finishing in 4:09. For whatever reason, I don't feel the same pressure to perform well at a 50k compared to a marathon, partially because neither attempts were well trained for. All that said I was in not awful shape going into this having run a load of parkruns over Christmas and a PB at Raheny... classic 50k training Mostly I was hoping that some residual fitness from DCM would get me over the line. I decided earlier in the week to target sub-4, but going out a bit faster so that the inevitable slowdown wasn't disastrous. For a well-run marathon this would be a ridiculous strategy, but for a fun ultramarathon with technically a relatively soft target I reckoned I could get away with it
I ran a controlled track session on Tuesday with the Cru, then started to actually taper. I did spend an evening in the pub on Wednesday with some old work colleagues which wouldn't exactly be something I'd do before a target race, another classic taper tactic. I took Friday off entirely, making sure I was eating and drinking loads. I'd rented a car to get to/from Donadea as the kids had their activities all day on Saturday and we're a single car household, and picked up murph_d on the way down to Kildare. I followed my usual hydration routine, plenty of coffee, Lucozade Sport and two vials of disgusting concentrated beetroot juice. We got down to Donadea "pointlessly early" and killed time picking up gear, having chats and expending some nervous energy. Anto's race briefing was a good laugh as always (though no slagging off of triathletes this year), and shortly afterwards we lined up and things started in a low key manner.
The fast bit (22:00, 21:38, 21:50, 21:49, 21:38) 1:48:55
It was hard to judge pace due to the forest annoying GPS, and I only saw one km marker on the course (the 4th). I got into a comfortable steady pace and stuck with it. After things settled down I had a few chats with people around me to see what they were going for, generally the same as me. I wore a jacket for the first lap, flinging it beyond the tables going through the finish area for the first time. There weren't many rubbers generally around me though, and there were lonely stretches for the first 3 laps before we started running into the back of the slower pacing groups etc., and being lapped by Gary O'Hanlon for the first time was a good distraction too. Effort started to go up towards the 4th and 5th laps, so I resolved to get to half-way and then start taking things easier as I knew I was banking plenty of time. I went over half-way in 1:49, so stopped for a minute at the tables to get a Lucozade Sport properly drunk and another gel into my pocket.
The slow bit (23:13, 23:51, 24:36, 25:45, 26:18) 2:03:43
I ended up stopping for a minute on every loop, mostly just drinking some water and walking to the cup recycling bins. It's never fun getting back running after stopping, but the breaks were good mostly as a goal to get around the next lap. I was trying to slowly caress the wall rather than hitting it, and while I knew I was slowing down a good deal things weren't awful. Around the 8th lap was the worst time but I knew once I slogged it out I'd just under an hour for a couple of laps which could probably be done with a run/walk strategy. The next goal was getting over the marathon distance, which I did on my watch around 3:14, but it had lost a good bit of distance so was actually done closer to low 3:12, my third fastest Soon after I caught up with murph_d who I could tell was having a tough day, we ran and chatted for a bit before I pulled off. The last lap somehow felt pretty good even though it was my slowest, and finally finishing felt great. I
So an impressive 15 minute positive split, but I think the race tactics worked. It wasn't the best 50k I could have run and maybe could have paced differently for a sub-3:50 time, but I got the sub-4 box ticked so happy days. It was great meeting and chatting to so many folks from around here and beyond. It's such a fun and unique race with a great atmosphere, long may it last! I'm sure I'll be back... one of these years I'll train for it.
Finish: 3:52:42 - 24th out of 215 finishers, 16 minute PB.
After
I got my plant off Anto and a very needed can of Coke before stumbling over to the car to get changed before heading back to the finish area for some chats and supporting. I was pretty glad that the rental car was an automatic on the way home as things were fairly sore, as they should be. After getting home I dropped the car off, voted, creaked around the shops and finally got to sit down and eat a big curry and had a few beers before falling asleep in one of the kids' beds when I was putting them to sleep. My body isn't as destroyed as it should be, maybe the Vaporflys and soft ground helped there. I have some slightly unusual hip soreness and general DOMS, along with some tender places which evidently got rubbed despite applying some Bodyglide beforehand. I'll probably give running a miss today, but we'll see about tomorrow 0 -
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AuldManKing wrote: »I think thats a mad race.
I just love reading Anto's FB posts and seeing the signs on photos from the course. Does anyone train for it (bar GOH)??
Interested what was the reason for you doing it - and why wear the vapourflys??
Why did I do it (again)? Well, the reputation on boards was a big part. If you haven't run Donadea, you're not really a member of Boards Athletic Club
I signed up for it sometime last year in a pique of enthusiasm and FOMO, purchasing an additional hat and hoodie in the process. There's no particular training or progression related reason for doing it - it's kind of like Everest, because it's there. Why wear Vaporflys? Well, I can fooking walk today, that's why! There's a lot to be said for wearing a well cushioned shoe for nearly 4 hours on a soft forest path. I was far more destroyed after DCM and the last time I ran Donadea. Also I did run my 3rd best marathon out of 4 cheaterfly marathons... 0 -
Some other random thoughts from the race...
I finished to the last few bars of Orange Crush by R.E.M., a song which was on the first album I ever bought. As soon as I stopped, Smells Like Teen Spirit started, which was deadly. The start was also good, I think it was a Lisa Gerrard track from Gladiator (as a Dead Can Dance fan this was pretty cool!). I've never been much of a Pearl Jam fan, but I've fondly recalled the start of the 2018 race being "Alive" ever since.
Mrs Stew was unsurprisingly wonderfully positive on the course, but I also got to experience her finishing which was an amazingly joyous experience. Later on I ate some of her rocky road cake which she was giving out after she finished. What a runner and clubmate
We got pretty lucky with the wind and weather, the forest generally contained any serious wind, and as it was a loop even when it was windy it wasn't long before you were going in the other direction.
The support was great, though it was mostly around the finish area, and it helped break things up. One of my faster club mates was pacing Gary O'Hanlon up the hills, so he was around to give me a few shouts which was nice.
The plant we got at the end was a nice touch, a very unique and special thing to take from a race.0 -
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I like all this, except the injured bit, and especially the last bit. A “community of interest” to use the (relatively) old-fashioned term. Boards always managed to break out into the real world too, but of course that’s the bit that’s being most challenged now. It’s amazing how well this country is adapting to social distancing all the same - I’m in Donegal for a bit and reunited with freesat (storm Denis misaligned our Dublin satellite dish) and cant believe the pictures from UK where everyone is still on top of one another. So distancing is our thing now alright and how we manage it will be really interesting and important. (If we do it well we may even retain some of the better bits when this is all over).
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Since I last wrote here on Paddy's day, things haven't been great (uh, no sh!t)... I mean running-wise, not just the whole you-know-what :pac:
However there are signs of better things happening soon, maybe in the real world but also with the very important thing that is my running. Since my last report I had 2-3 weeks of not-exactly-pain-free running, with all sorts of advanced niggles popping up to annoy me in the world of lockdown. However I seem to have had some sort of recent break through and managed a 40+ mile week last week, with basically no problems. I have a little tenderness in my left foot for some unknown reason, but it's not a problem. My hip, back and related areas are all behaving.
I've also taken on an inexplicable project which has helped with motivation. A week ago I decided to run every road in Swords, and now I'm 7 days in. It's terribly tedious and nostalgic at the same time as I re-encounter various bits of Swords that I experienced at different parts of my life. Running every cul-de-sac in every estate is as exciting as it sounds, and I have a new found respect for orienteers as I have not done an efficient job of route finding, and have simply missed a bunch of roads that I have had to go back the next day and run.
This new adventure of mine is good in that it gets me back running regularly, all easy, which is what I need right now. I have put on a hilarious amount of weight in the last while, so any activity helps, but from an injury/niggle maintenance perspective it's probably the right thing to do too. Once I'm done with this I might even do a session or two, though I think I'm about another 3 weeks from finishing Swords
I've signed up for the boards 5k, though I've a lot more work to do to get under 20!0 -
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Yesterday's virtual race felt like a welcome taste of normality, so I may as well continue this with a Sunday update to my training log
My project of running every road in Swords is continuing, I'm over half way through by this point though plenty of work still to do. citystrides.com provides the best map interface for tracking runs and making sure I'm not missing any obvious roads. There are plenty of roads on the maps that aren't really runnable, as they're effectively driveways or otherwise private land. I'm ok with not running every carpark for example.
The last three weeks have been all 6 days of running and > 40 miles, certainly not huge milage by my own standards but any consistency is welcome at this point. My body is thankfully feeling fine, so I might be able to start running longer and faster. I weighed myself just before the 5k time trial, and weighed in at 87.9 kg, a full 10.2 kg heavier than the morning of DCM 6 months ago. The majority of that was put on during my downtime in Feb and March. Hopefully some consistent running will fix this.
Saturday's time trial was a great buzz and the highlight of the weekend. I jogged over to the Holywell Junior parkrun course (just inside 2km from my gaff) in my Next%s. The course was quite flat and about 0.75 km per loop, a few tight turns but I knew it inside out from using it for a load of sessions pre-DCM. The park was busy enough with a good few rollerbladers, families and a few other joggers knocking around. I put on Nemone's most recent show on BBC Radio 6, good dancey music to get some race vibes going. The first lap felt great, it was the fastest I'd run in two months and I was happy that I could do it at all. By 2km I was definitely already getting tired and settled into a sub-20 pace with a little bit of headroom. I had to do a bit of jumping onto the grass to socially distance myself, a couple of times my ankle plant was a bit dodgy on the grass and got sore but it didn't persist. I was bucketing sweat and pushing hard by the end and got well under my target by a gigantic 14 seconds Planting myself onto the grass to recover was magical. I was a little bit sore during the day with the odd throb and tingle, but it was good to experience them again and were nice reminders of a good effort. Splits were 3:50, 3:57, 3:57, 4:00 and 3:56.
Next week: more of the same, plodding around Swords and mix it up with something fast at the weekend.0 -
Not too much to report other than completing my ridiculous goal of running every road in Swords. I had a bit of a "Mission Accomplished" moment by declaring it to be done on social media on Saturday, and then spotting a couple of obvious missed roads near my gaff, so I got them sorted out earlier today.
This is quite a satisfying map:
Overall it was about 210 miles of easy, boring running. It was interesting seeing some changes occur over the course of the lockdown. Loads of Ireland flags are still around, and loads of windows have pictures and messages drawn by kids. The last couple of weekends had a lot more people socialising outside in gardens etc. Earlier on I felt a good bit more anxious when passing people, but it was easy to get into a habit of smiling and waving when jumping onto the grass or road. I did get a few odd looks going into the odd cul-de-sac or passing the same place a few times due to my ineptitude at figuring out routes, but nothing more than that.
I managed to get in 60 miles this week, the furthest in a long time. I did have some minor post-run niggley upper leg pain in the last couple of days, which are echoes of my injury woes from the last few months. Probably a bit too much for now, 50 a week and 6 days a week sounds pretty do-able and hopefully will keep the niggles away. Anyway, I'm looking forward to running to exotic places like Malahide and the airport over the next few days 0 -
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