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Man! I feel like a runner
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shotgunmcos wrote: »How are you finding the Challenge? I'm on Day 9 and the S&C this week is really hitting the glutes. Apparently its recommended to do the exercises after a run. The split squats especially really load the glute max and quads but the stabilisers are equally loaded (glute mead and hamstring) which I find brings a heaviness to running afterwards or next day.
I only just finished Stage 2 (Day 12) last night and was happy to get through this stage, although I did enjoy a couple of the exercises (split squat despite the burn, and straight leg deadlift). I could feel the improvements each day. Hated the hip thrust.
I'd agree with extra heaviness for running but feel like that's less already now? Mind you, I had 3 days in a row with no running last week..
I've rarely done them right after a run, cos I usually have dinner as soon as I can and then do them before my shower. I admit to not looking forward to stage 3 as it seems hip focused
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I am still in a bout of despair about Sunday, but less than I was. I went for a walk last night to think it all over, but in the end didn’t want to be in my head either so I stuck on one of Stephen Scullions latest episodes (haven’t listened to him much since he ran Houston) and the episode finished with him advising any runners who are struggling at the moment; if you give up now, you’re not going to get any better. If you keep at it, there’s a bigger chance of things improving and becoming a better runner. I find it hard to listen to him mostly, but this actually resounded with me. I honestly finished that race on Sunday never wanting to run again, which is a feeling I haven’t had since starting out running and at the end of a hard 10k or something. But really, do I want to stop running? No. It was a bad day for whatever reason, and a reason I’ve been trying to figure out since…
-Finished course of antobiotics on Tuesday. I believe, or have been told, they can stay in your system for quite a while afterwards so it seems this is the most likely reason.
-My sleep was poor enough the couple of nights beforehand. Friday night I was just watching rubbish, but Saturday my parent’s neighbours had a loud house party with dreadful dance music.
-I’m not sure my diet has been amazing this last couple of months really. I feel like I’ve been eating less greens and red meats than usual.
-My B12 was low before and I haven’t been very good at taking my supplements for a good while now.
In conclusion, I am going to try eat and sleep better, and take my supplements! I’ll eventually recover from the little issues I had and will feel good again running
Another thing I’ve been looking at is the plan I’m following and wondering whether to ditch it and switch to the last 6 weeks of the Grads HM plan. Even though I’ve changed up the plan a good bit already, so its not really giving it the proper attempt, I do think I’ll try see it out. Maybe it wasn’t the plan for me, but I’d rather try it all and form an opinion based on the whole experience.
I did skip yesterday however, as I thought I would get given out to for running tonight is supposed to be 10 miles endurance but I’ll attempt 8 and take it from there. 0 -
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I think you've a lot of reasons figured out for yourself and suggested there by others so i won't rewrite what's already written. We've all had bad races though honestly, i've had some stinkers including a 10m last year and of course DCM last year which rocked my confidence to the core so i know where you're at mentally. With respect to the plan, as you may or may not have seen, i've gone back to the grads plan after a few weeks of FRR, i don't think there's any shame in trying a plan and realising that maybe it's not for you or maybe it's just not for you right now. But whatever you decide there is no doubt you have better running days ahead of you, and the tough days will only serve to make you stronger in the long run. Mind yourself 0
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Ah but I didn't even make it half a mile in before feeling like utter sh*te so I don't think I can say anything about the course being the issue (plus I know the roads very well and don't consider them tougher than other routes really ).
Humidity yeah, possibly another factor especially if I didn't hydrate enough the days before.
I think the fact that you felt off from the start shows there was something "up", rather than it being down to a lack of fitness or anything.I think you've a lot of reasons figured out for yourself and suggested there by others so i won't rewrite what's already written. We've all had bad races though honestly, i've had some stinkers including a 10m last year and of course DCM last year which rocked my confidence to the core so i know where you're at mentally. With respect to the plan, as you may or may not have seen, i've gone back to the grads plan after a few weeks of FRR, i don't think there's any shame in trying a plan and realising that maybe it's not for you or maybe it's just not for you right now. But whatever you decide there is no doubt you have better running days ahead of you, and the tough days will only serve to make you stronger in the long run. Mind yourself
Yeah, FRR seems to be a plan that people don't always click with. I'm not sure in hindsight that I really clicked with it myself, but it proved a useful bridge from the basic novice plans to something more meaty at the time.0 -
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Huzzah! wrote:Yeah, FRR seems to be a plan that people don't always click with. I'm not sure in hindsight that I really clicked with it myself, but it proved a useful bridge from the basic novice plans to something more meaty at the time.
If I was to start again, I'd stick to the racing schedule as per the plan...and avoid a social life 0 -
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I stuck on one of Stephen Scullions latest episodes (haven’t listened to him much since he ran Houston) and the episode finished with him advising any runners who are struggling at the moment; if you give up now, you’re not going to get any better.
Hey V, I listened to that episode too. Like yourself, I don't find his podcasts easy listening but what he talked about in this episode definitely made a lot of sense.
It wasn't that long ago that I was in that horrible place of being on the verge of wanting to pack it all in. Now though, I can't bear the thought of missing a single day of running. It affects us all in different ways I guess and it's easy to associate a bad race experience with thoughts of wanting to quit but at least you're able to identify possible causes for your current mindset, which is a good start! 0 -
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Mon 22nd July
Plan: LT 9 miles with 38 mins tempo
Actual: Just a walk around Marlay stewing over the day before. It helped.
Tues 23rd
Plan: 10 miles endurance
Actual: 9 miles endurance. Ran home via the Dodder, but ditched the backpack at home about 4 miles in, and carried on lighter for the last 5 miles. Was tired by the end but the heat does that anyway. Was delighted to get this done and feel good about running
Weds 24th
Plan: Rest or xt
Actual: Tag rugby. Cycle commute.
Thurs 25th
Plan: GA + speed, 10 x 100m strides.
Actual: Decided to do something like Monday's missed run instead. We'd work drinks that evening so got up before work and ran 7 miles total, with 20 mins tempo (7.50-8.00/m) in the middle. Hard to get the legs awake at first but got the pace eventually. Didn't feel too great but still got it done I suppose. Cycle commute also.
Fri 26th
Plan: 5 miles recovery
Actual: 5 easy as opposed to recovery... 9.45/m average. Also some interesting strength training involving pulling an A300 tug of war style at Dublin airport
Sat 27th
Plan: Progression long run, 13 miles with last 3 at LT
Actual: My dad was running his 100th parkrun, and one of my brothers his 50th parkrun down home in Offaly so I ran out from my parents house with my eldest bro first. Just over 9 miles @ 9.32/m, felt really good, especially compared to the week before! Then averaged the parkrun at LT pace (7.54/m), although the pacing was a bit up and down due to the wind! It was a really fun morning at parkrun, with the 1st and 2nd men and women all being the fam Also 5 of us in the top 10 (small parkrun in fairness!). Was hoping to get a mile cooldown in but got distracted chatting to friends and eating cake
Sun 28th
Plan: Rest
Actual: Thought I might get out for a recovery run, but we had our club bbq last night and I had too much rosé
Total miles: 33.4. Bit low cos of the missed run on Monday but it was needed.
I skipped doing any of the challenge this week, but will try get back into it this week.0 -
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...but really followed week 8 of the plan with the 10k tune-up race
Sun 4th
Plan: Rest or xt
Actual: Tried my first ever reformer pilates class. I'd seen a deal on the Mindbody app for 4 classes ( each class individually is verrry expensive) in a studio near my house so thought I'd give it a go. I could really feel my hip flexors and calves, so I figure it was much needed. Interesting type of pilates, enjoyed it even though I found it fairly tough. My sides were aching for about 3 days afterwards!
Mon 5th
Plan: GA 8 miles + strides
Actual:8 easy, ditched the strides out of bank holiday laziness. Legs were heavy enough after the pilates though. Average pace 10.14/m.
Tues 6th
Plan: GA 7 miles
Actual: 7 easy, average pace 10.05/m. Last mile verged into "too fast" but I had been left by my clubmate at this stage and met up with some of the faster ones and ended up chatting and running faster with them. Also cycle commute.
Weds 7th
Plan: Rest or XT
Actual: Cycle commute to work only. Tag rugby game, didn't feel as "sprinty".
Thurs 8th
Plan: Recovery 3 miles
Actual: So, the plan assumed the race the day after these miles so I decided to do 7 easy instead. Average pace 9.58/m. Also cycled home from work.
Fri 9th
Plan: 8-10k tune-up race
Actual: Obviously not race day, wanted to take a rest day but ended up cycling to and from work as Dublin bus failed me in the morning time!
Sat 10th
Plan: 10m Endurance
Actual: Wasn't going to do this the day before a race anyway 5 easy miles instead including parkrun. (9.59/m before, 8.57/m average for parkrun. yes a little fast, oops). Was great to meet one of the 2019 novices, Bananaleaf there, looking pretty comfortable on her 14 miles! Hadn't been aware Fraggle07 was a timekeeper, but next time
Sun 11th
Plan: Rest or xt
Actual: the 10k tune-up race. The plan advises total mileage of 10 miles.
Rock'n'Roll 10k
For whatever reason, I wasn't feeling majorly confident about this, even though the Vo2 session last week had gone much better than expected. Still, I'd give it a good lash and see what happened.
I decided to get more miles in beforehand for the sake of the total mileage as I am awfully bad at doing cooldowns when there are clubmates to be chatting to I got the Luas to O'Connell St and jogged down (or up?) the quays to the Phoenix Park. I quite enjoyed this as I was able to catch glimpses of the HM people on the other side of the Liffey. On up Chesterfield Avenue then for a warm-up of 3.5 miles. Quick visit to the facilities and then dropped my backpack to the slowest bag drop of all races.. few drills then over to the starting pen.
Mile 1
I lined up close enough to the front, near the 45 minute pacers, but almost immediately got blocked in by people either starting way too far up for their intended pace, or eejits with their gopros and phones taking selfies. It was about half a kilometre before I had the space to run my intended pace (7.20/m). Settled into that pace then and honestly ceased to notice much around me for a couple miles.. (7.31 for 1st mile).
Mile 2
Yeah, don't remember much. Was feeling it a bit towards the end of it but had the usual "get yourself to halfway anyway" thoughts. (7.20).
Mile 3
This is where it got interesting, and by interesting I mean chaotic. We joined up with the HMers, and for me this was people running about 2.05 HM pace. I had to start a lot of weaving about people from here to the end, and knew this was going to 1. make it longer than a 10k and 2. take it out of me a bit. The climbing started towards the end of this mile but I was happy to hit 5k in under 23 mins - still PB land. (7.21).
Mile 4
Lots of ups and lots of downs on this mile, still trying to cut through the HM people. I was sweating buckets although it didn't feel overly warm. Happy to see 7.19 on the watch for this mile.
Mile 5
By far, the hilliest and most hateful mile. I just lost it in my legs frustratingly. I dunno though, if this had been a main goal I might have sucked it up a bit more and dug harder but the grá wasn't there for that. I was praying for the finish line now. (8.32... woeful)
Mile 6
There was a slight downhill to the start of this mile so I tried to use to kickstart some pace again. Of course, there was still another bit of a hill to come but I tried a little harder on this one I think. Coming down that road before the last right turn, I kept trying to push a little more. (8.03)
Last little bit.. which was 0.3 not 0.2
Spotted Wubble Wubble just before the turn, and then bizarrely decided to kick from the turn even though I knew I'd a bit to go... felt like sh*te halfway through the sprint, told myself to relax the shoulders and lengthen the strides better. Seemed to help. (6.56/m pace for this bit)
Watch stopped 48.15. Haven't seen chip times but can't imagine its much different!
A good bit away from my PB in the same park in April, which is annoying, but I can't see how I could have gotten close today. The hills got me! I thought I have enough hills in my regular runs, but maybe not. Maybe I set out too ambitiously? I wouldn't have thought so though. Anyway, happy with the effort overall. 9.8 miles for the morning. 3 weeks to Tullamore :eek:
Total miles for the week: 37.30 -
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