This is my Redemption Arc

E.coli

In a previous life I was a runner, a coach, a boardsie , a physical therapist now I am a walking cliché

32, unfit dad of 2, need to lose a few lbs so I am starting from scratch. Between my own decline in fitness and a bad patch over the last few months it saw me completely remove myself from the sport and detach myself from a lot of what made me, me. Let a lot of people down as I dropped the ball and am only starting to fully turn that around.

With that in mind decided to revive my original profile here with the view of kick starting my own journey back into the sport. Unlike many previous comebacks I am coming back a blank slate with no running fitness to speak of (I don't think I have managed more than 2-3 runs at a time this year) or indeed very little coaching obligations post sabbatical. This is not a how to guide nor indeed anything which will be too inspirational it is simply me doing a hard reboot to the original days on boards in the hope to grow back into it in the new year.

Tomorrow will be the weighing scales and a 5k TT to set a baseline on where to start......

healy1835

Good to see you back at it mate. Best of luck with it 👍

Murph_D

Welcome back! Any predictions for that TT, just based on your instincts and your own history?

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118297327#Comment_118297327

Realistically I think 20 min is best case scenario. Just wanna have something to use to gauge efforts and paces early doors. Will use it just to ball park efforts for a few weeks and then come back and revisit in a few weeks

Murph_D

Good target to have - and I think, given that a 20 min 5k is something that many of us aspire to for a long time before achieving it, that the target illustrates your own undoubted natural talent, if it's something that can be realistically aspired to while 'starting from scratch', as you put it. Good luck!

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118297680#Comment_118297680

You could argue the semantics of natural talent vs 20+ years running experience.

Despite the lack of fitness there is muscle memory there and no real abuse of smoking or alcohol to have taken it's toll on the body.

I could fall flat on my face with it however and am being overly ambitious main thing is that I set a benchmark as a jumping off point to improve on no matter what that point is

Murph_D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118297727#Comment_118297727

Of course, yes, the experience and muscle memory is vastly important too. You can see that at every level actually, where runners of varying experience/ability/talent seem to come back to form after injury for example at varying levels of easy/difficulty. I've no doubt you'll be 'up and running' to a decent level (by your own standards) in no time, so to speak.

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118297786#Comment_118297786

You have more faith in me that I do myself given the number of false dawns for a long while haha. Not too worried about competing to be honest just wanna get back enjoying it and making it a part of my life again.

Lambay island

Good luck and nice to see you back at it 👍

AuldManKing

Ecoli is dead. Long live E.coli. 32............I'm STILL old enough to be your father...............Luke..........I am your.....(no, forget that)

Great to have you back.

Please drop in everywhere, inspire, leave comments, start threads, re-energise older threads, give wisdom.

No pressure.

MY BAD

All the best. Good to see you logging again.

Cleanman

Great to see you back! Best of luck with it and i'll be following with interest.

As a naturally competitive and talented athlete, one of the hardest things you'll do over the next months is to remember to go easy on yourself. You'll f*ck up sessions and feel like **** over the coming weeks but don't worry, it's all for the enjoyment😂

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118298502#Comment_118298502

The Greatest movie quote that was never said 😂

Cheers for the well wishes was sorry to see that even the most enthusiastic posters seem to be struggling with interest to an extent these days, its a real pity. I think part of the reason why I went back to my original username is to garner the same enthusiasm I had when I was first posting as I got a lot out of the boards over the years so hopefully there can be a renaissance for my own selfish reasons as much as the board itself as the grá has certainly been lacking. This was the first Olympics where I actually had to research results and form for work as I was so out of the loop

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118299453#Comment_118299453

100%

As mentioned above there have been a number of false dawns in recent years and I think part of it was the view that I was always putting a long term plan in place at the cost of the short term. As a coach I think I had focused too much on doing it right rather than actually doing it. Alot of soul searchin the past 12 months in alot of ways so I am hoping I can approach it with a fresh mindset (both running and life in general)

An awful lot of mistakes have been made as of late.

E.coli

Friday 10/12

Day 1

5k TT: 20.02 (4.04, 4.00, 4.02, 4.10, 3.46)

Surprisingly not too far off best case scenario. Not a great one for solo TT this was one of the first times I managed to truly replicate a race, went off a little too hard in the first 1k with over exuberance into the wind settled in, stitch rolled around about 3.5k in and struggle but managed to up the pace a little in the last k (wind aided) but was on my hands and knees by the end

So that is where I am. Realistically I have about 100 miles in the legs in total this year so aerobic capacity is absolutely not there to be ramping up big miles to build back in so runs will be shorter and will try to supplement them with drills, strides, rowing and weights to work on mechanics while amiing build back up fitness with the runs focus on being consistent.

Looking at the calendar I think pending restrictions I will come back and revisit this in a few weeks to see how i am progressing on Jan 1st with a local Parkrun. Today was a completely flat 2 lap course so I figure with local PR being a bit hillier even sustaining 19.30-20.00 would be solid work.

Looking at a couple of the more reliable calendars that I have used in the past the race time here would put the following guidelines in place approximately

Recovery Pace: + 9.30 per mile

Easy Pace: 9.10 - 9.20 per mile pace

Steady Pace: 8.10 - 8.20 per mile pace

Tempo: 7.50 per mile

Outside of strides I can't see myself venturing beyond that until 2022

Wottle

Just fcek off with your 20 mins!

Only joking of course, delighted to see you back and love the ethos above, concentrating on consistency rather than perfection.

Over the holidays and if you're up for it, a good cath up run up to Bohernabreena reservoir and back, let me know.

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300464#Comment_118300464

Thanks man, hope your running going well. still playing catch up on the logs (the one area where still seems to be going strong)

Definitely be up for a run in a week or two when can hopefully manage something more than 30-40 min haha

Wottle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300733#Comment_118300733

Week or two is perfect, from the Old mill, it's 8 miles, looking forward to it.

Swashbuckler

Woooohoooo... Great to see you back..

Testosterscone was always my favorite incarnation but that's mainly for sentimental reasons.

Good to see you back at it. The forum seems to be gathering a little momentum lately.

OOnegative

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118302144#Comment_118302144

It’s amazing what happens when I start posting again. I won’t gloat like AMK would though……….

Singer

Good to see another boomeranger logging! It's a long slog coming back from nothing. For me it has been as slow and sore as starting to run first time 'round, with none of the naive excitement. Body shape and being older age make a difference too, so take them into account - starting again won't be a replay of the first time 'round.

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118302144#Comment_118302144

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118303098#Comment_118303098

Haha can't comment on here over the last few months but I reckon OO started chasing people back on just so he had content to like. Man must have scripted auto likes and whatapp texts connected to race results websites based on past experiences

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118311906#Comment_118311906

I feel in a weird situation. I definitely am in the same boat regarding slow come back and soreness that has been apparent the last while some down to sleep being halved with the second kid who doesn't sleep through the night however the one thing is that the separation of the sport (as said outside of work for the Olympics I haven't really followed too closely) coupled with it and people completely passing me by I feel almost liberated to start afresh.

I think Beepbeep67 used to have a great mantra around here regarding going to masters in that he drew a line under his previous career in the sport and acted like a completely new runner. I think the only way I am gonna succeed this time is to take a similar approach. Right now I am not considering myself the runner I was previously. My bench mark is 20.02 nothing before that matters. I still have the same knowledge as previous so hopefully make a few less mistakes but I am not letting previous baggage weigh me down and simply wanna enjoy bettering myself from that point

E.coli

Saturday 11/12 3.3 miles easy (9.07 pace)

Sunday 12/12 OFF

Saturday just a handy one to flush out the legs and then Sunday between full day with the kids and Santa etc took it off and start the first week fresh. Definitely a bit of DOMs from the TT

Week 1

Plan

The aim for this week

As mentioned before I am not in great aerobic shape so I am gonna try and build that capacity with supplementing the running. The missus got a rower during lockdown which is starting to gather dust so gonna hi jack that in the evenings just for the early stages of training

As for weights will be a simple circuit workout with an empty barbell again just working on general conditioning for now.

Strides and drills will be a good way to work on biomechanics while the running load is still low

E.coli

Mon 4 miles @ 8.57 min/mile

Tuesday

AM 5.1 miles (4.1 miles @8.48 + 6x15 sec strides off 1 min)

PM 20 min rowing (4428m @ 30 SPM/143 Ave HR)

Wed

AM 1 mile easy, 3 steady (7.38, 7.36, 7.35), 1 mile easy

Good start to the week overall. paces a little hotter than was prescribed as per the run calculator I plugged my time into but I effort is definitely right so I think it is more down to lack of cumulative fatigue in the legs and the fact that mileage per run is not that high as I am not exceeding 45 min. I reckon as volume creeps up this will adjust for the same effort somewhat

The Rowing is not something I am too familiar with it's simply a bit of early fitness cross training to boost CV fitness a bit while the body becomes more accustomed to handling the pounding so shotgunmcos might be able to interpret the data a bit more than me

Steady run was a little less steady and closer to true Threshold to be honest based off HR though overall the pace was not too taxing I think it is probably a bit of power and fitness not syncing up here and given where I am it will probably take a bit of time for everything to settle into the way it should but for now its work being done so progress.

Back in Black

Great to see you back logging and will be following the comeback with interest. Also brilliant to have someone with your knowledge and experience posting again. Very best of luck it!

Very interested in the rowing - there's a rowing machine gathering dust in my house too and I was going to start doing a bit of rowing to compliment the running 3 days a week. Apart from the CV benefit, is there much benefit from a core training/ strength point of view?

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118324815#Comment_118324815

Cheers man,

That's a fair question to be honest. I can see there are differing view points on this one if you have a look some rant and rave about benefits of rowing given the total body effort and the number of muscles being used.

Personally wouldn't be a huge fan of it as a cross training mechanism simply because you are going from a seated position which can ultimately lead to shortened hamstrings if good form is not applied and inhibit influential group muscles that are primarily used in the running action. Having said that given where I am any bit of CV and resistance work is going to compliment my running as well as the fact I can do this in the evening when kids are in bed without leaving the house. I was actually thinking about this on my run this morning and I think as my training progresses I might move these to Mon/Fri which will be used for now anyway as more recovery/step back days of 30-35 min running and opt for something a bit more specific (doubles, core, plyometrics etc)

As with everything though it's better than doing nothing even if it isn't optimal it can still be beneficial

Annie get your Run

Welcome back!!!!!!! So great to have another 'start from scratch' runner to model from - oh, wait 🤣 not quite at the same starting point ha ha.

Totally agree about not focusing on your former running self right now. I struggled with that a lot but then realised it was holding me back from doing anything at all because 'I'll never get back there'. You will of course get back there but still it's good to focus from the perspective of where you are now. Definitely a new you seeing as you're including parkrun in your future 😊

Great to see life coming back to the forum with so many returning.

Laineyfrecks

Only seeing your log now! Welcome back good to have some new logs to read. I still make the peanut butter cookies you posted ages ago😉

E.coli

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118328692#Comment_118328692

They are a life saver. Kids love them but with my ridiculous sweet tooth they delay cravings due to lack of convenience and give me time to truly question do I want them or to make something proper rather than just habitually eating (even if the sweet tooth usually wins out)

E.coli

Weds PM 20 min circuit

4 sets with 3 min recovery

Unweighted Barbell for this one. In this early stage everything is still based around conditioning so circuit work nearly at failure at the end but good to get routine going again

Thurs AM 5 miles (4@ 8.43 min mile + 6x15 sec strides w/1 min rec)

PM 20 min rowing (4892m @ 34 SPM/146 Ave HR)

Legs feeling the circuit work the night before but but loosened out somewhat with the rowing in the evening

Fri - 2.2 miles @ 9.11 pace

Legs thankful of this one. but overall happy with the week to date a good bit of work one throughout while remaining optimistic and enjoying it. I am hoping this format will just keep me going till I get to a fitness level I can get stuck into things again in the new year