If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.

Winter Training Week 1

Back on a plan. November was 79.7 miles, down from 189 miles in October. Was definitely time to do a bit more.

Monday: 45’ easy, 6x12s hill blasts; Upper Body Pull strength session

Ran with a friend who stuck with me for the hill blasts which was nice as the 2:30 off between them is a pain so nice to be chatting. 6.17 miles

Tuesday: 15’ easy, 3x15s strides, 30’ alternating 2’ LT / 2’ easy. 15’ v easy; Lower body strength

Was really looking forward to doing a session again. Strangely I found it harder than I expected to find it. The LT pace (7:50-8) just didn’t feel right. I kind of expected to be gliding along but my kegs were heavy or something. It was weird. I was also getting a strange pain up from the back of my ankle into my calf. My left side is a bit caught up I think. My hip isn’t right yet and even the left side of my neck so I’m getting headaches that I know I need the physio to sort. Have the physical therapist Thursday so hopefully he’ll help until my next physio appointment on the 22nd. Either way I was delighted to be back doing a session.

Wednesday: Upper Body Push Strength Session

Raining and I knew the next two days were nice so left my run and went to the gym anyway. Had a good session.

Thursday: 40-45’ v easy

3.97@9:29 … 38 mins. Not as easy as it should have been but with a friend so just went with it.

Friday: 50 mins easy; Full Body strength session

5.33 miles @ 9:26. With 2 friends and again a little too fast and not honestly easy.

Sunday: 8.23 miles @ 8:57

A very enjoyable morning doing my first run with my new club and a coffee with the crew afterwards in The Marina Market.

Total weekly mileage: 30.83 miles

End of the year training

The last few weeks went a bit belly up with my achilles hurting and my hip so kept trying to fix them or rest and see and no difference. the week of ice didn’t help so very little running really.

Dec 12th: 3.35 miles on treadmill before strength work

December 13th: Club session: 4x1200m@5Km pace; 8.15miles in total

Missed my run that morning as kids were home from school due to frozen pipes so decided to go to the track for the first time - which was cancelled due to the temperatures but unofficially went ahead. Met up with a group beforehand and 3.53 miles warmup and then into the 4x1200m track session. I had planned to do it at LT pace as my coach had prescribed an LT session but sure that went out the window and was just a bit slower than 5Km pace - could feel the Achilles alright but not too bad. Loved the session though. I was really buzzing after and couldn’t wait for more running during the week.

December 15th: 3.45 miles @ 9:07

45mins very easy was in the plan but was with a friend and too fast and the achilles was really hurting so I stopped once we finished the Greenway. We ran there as safest in the ice it was -3 but a stunning morning.

December 20th: 3.5 miles @ 10:01

Had a bad headcold all weekend as well as a busy few days at my son’s panto so only back running and took it very handy.

December 21st: 3.96miles @ 9:25

December 24th: 3.13 miles @ 9:34

Club coffee run. They were doing 10 miles but I couldn’t as hip or achilles didn’t want to. Physio warned me to behave and only run every 2nd day.

Togher 5Km race: 3.13 miles @ 8:14

I was warned by the physio that I was to do this at tempo pace max so I worked out that was approximately 26 mins so just ran with that pacer. Weather was manky and rain and wind bad so I was glad I wasn’t;t going for my PB which had been the original plan. Hip went again half way through.

I went to another physio last night. A guy I know through running. He is different to my regular physio in that he isn’t hands on really but I feel what ever is up with me needs particular strength work. He thinks both the hip and achilles could possibly hang around a bit as soft tissue injuries so I need to build up to running with them and not doing damage. I have daily exercises to do that will stabilise the muscles and can run every 2nd day. This week it’s just 5Km max broken up with walks until next Friday when I can do 5Km all in one go! Hopefully I’ll sort this out sooner rather than later. Not the worst time of the year to injure myself really and my ultimate goal for next year is to take my marathon time down further in Autumn so I’ll scrap the shorter distance PB aims for now.

New Years Eve run: 3.82 miles @ 10:19

Volunteered for Ballincollig Parkrun and planned to run after it got cancelled due to flooding though so went off running 2Km, 3 min walk, repeat and then 1km. Met a friend on the 2nd lap though so skipped my wind 3min walk! Achilles loosened out while running but hip got sore but then doesn’t get worse so that’s good!

Finished the year on 1561.7 miles which is my highest mileage ever I think. I must write a yearly review as it’s definitely been my best year yet. Thanks so much to everybody who nominated me in the AR Awards. That is such an honour. I can’t believe the progress I’ve made myself this year and I really appreciate the support here and that people took the time to nominate me.

Review of the year 2022

I started out 2022 by signing up with my coach again and my goals were simple … just get me running consistently and injury free and I had a few races in mind but no ambitious time goals. She asked me for some figures so I think I said a 1:56 half, 4:10 marathon, both slower than my PBs from 2019. I was planning on doing the Kerry Ultra Lite again and Cork Half and Dublin but all for pure enjoyment and no racing!

I loved being back on a plan and building up the running. I had various entries for races deferred from lockdowns but as I was just building again I didn’t bother going to them. I had an entry for Mallow 10 mile in March and decided it was time to go along and get a bit of the race buzz back again. I had no clue what I was capable of, having not run 10 miles since the previous October in the Amsterdam half and had Covid after that and injuries so I started at the very back and I remember thinking if I could do around 1:33 that would be grand and a good long run. From the very start, even though I started slowly, I was passing people and feeling unbelievably strong. At the 5 mile mark I realised I was on for a PB and couldn’t believe the strength in my legs. They were like jelly for the last 2 miles but I crossed the line in 1:24:19 and that was a PB of 1 min 6 seconds. The buzz was back and excitement and straight away I started to focus on actually getting faster and realised that there was life in me yet and not just a plodder! I’ve since taken that 10 mile PB down to 1:18:17 within other races but didn’t race the distance again.

The Cork Half was the next target in June. I trained well for this but again had no really idea what I could do. My PB going into it was 1:53:04 and all I wanted was to beat that. I’d take 1:52:59. I crossed the line in 1:45:27 in total shock having loved every minute of the race … I say that now but it might have been hard at the time 😂. So that PB really focussed me and I started thinking that I was finally in a place to go sub 4 in a marathon. I’d planned to do Kerry in September and then Dublin at the end of October but while I knew I could do well in both, if I just concentrated on Dublin then I’d hopefully do really well there and blow my sub 4 out of the water. I deferred Kerry at that point.

So all focus was now on Dublin and I decided to do the Waterford Greenway Half as a tune up race on September 3rd. I didn’t taper for it and ran with the 1:45 pacers hoping to take a few seconds off my time. I ended up taking 2 min 20 seconds off my PB with a result of 1:43:06. At this point I was thinking I could do 3:50 in Dublin and over the next couple of months my target time became 3:45. My training couldn’t have gone better really and I rarely, if ever, missed a session and for the most part did 4 strength sessions weekly too.

On the day of Dublin I secretly hoped I’d do closer to 3:43 but the humidity killed me and I finished in 3:45:58 … a PB by 17 mins and 6 seconds. A tough day out but a time I’m absolutely thrilled with now.

4 weeks later I tackled the BHAA Little Island 5Km and also PB’d there, finishing in 22:34 … a PB by 1 min 3 seconds.

My racing came to an end then as life got crazy, icy weather and my achilles and hip decided to cause some trouble and training has been a struggle for December as a result. However, hopefully I’ll get those sorted sooner rather than later. I think the speed possibly did the damage.

I am so so proud of my year’s running and while initially the focus for 2023 was to work on speed and shorter races, I’m just focussing on recovering now and then an autumn marathon with 10 mile - HM races along the way and will hopefully bring my time down a lot more. I’m going to be bold and aim for 3:35 for the marathon! There, I’ve said it.

Happy New Year and thanks for reading if you have read this far!

Thanks a mill Wottle. You’d some finish to the year yourself. I really enjoyed reading about your three marathons.

Thanks M. I don’t actually. I rotate a number of different pairs and my Gliderides have 449 miles on them but they feel very good still. I can’t quite pinpoint why the achilles and hip started hurting but I was doing my first speed session 3 or 4 weeks after Dublin when my Achilles started hurting and a 5Km race when my hip went …I’m different shoes each time too. Not sure if it was coincidence that it was at speed.

Thank you all for reading and the lovely comments. I thought I had replied already!!

Week starting 1st Jan

All rehab runs. The aim was to run 5Km every second day with walk breaks and by Friday I could try 5Km all in one go. All went well and definitely improved during the week. The side of my hip stopped flaring up by Friday’s run, though there is now a tightness behind that hip. Hoping the fact it has moved is a good sign. Achilles sore in the mornings but seems ok while running and loosens up throughout the run. I’ve done my exercises every day except once when I forgot. I’m back with the physio Tuesday.

Went back to the gym too and did 4 strength sessions, Upper Push, Lower Body, Upper Pull and Full Body. The Lower body on Tuesday gave me serious DOMs even though I dropped back the weights. Hopefully will be fine this week now again. I paid for my 2 week break!

Total mileage: 13 miles … hopefully my lowest mileage week this year, not counting the week after Autumn’s marathon, wherever that may be!

I find if I miss one week then I have DOMs the following week. I usually do leg day on my hard running day … within reason. If I was doing a very long run I wouldn’t do legs afterwards but if I was doing a session that was 1-1.5 hours then I would have some food of some sort and go to the gym after. Keep the easy days easy and the hard days hard.

Week starting 9th January

Still rehabbing the hip and achilles so nothing too exciting.

Monday: 3.18m @ 10:12; Strength: Upper Pull Day

No hip pain and achilles loosened up after 1-1.5 miles. Feeling quite positive.

Tuesday: 5Km on treadmill; Lower Body Strength

Torrential rain but had a physio appointment at lunch time and he wanted me to run beforehand to see how I was after runs. I hate treadmills and calibration was way off. Felt like I was running faster than easy but my watch said 5Km while the treadmill said 5.7Km. Physio went well. Given a few new plyometric exercises to add in twice a week. Also told I could add some strides into my next run and up the duration to 45 mins after that.

Wednesday: Upper Push Strength

There was a weather warning of high winds and rain so went to the gym and walked on the treadmill.

Thursday: 5Km + 5x20s

All good after this so was delighted with myself.

Friday: 40’ Easy, 5’ tempo

5.06 miles in total and all really good. Hip giving no problems and achilles just a slight niggle but doesn’t feel like a worry. Longest run in a while month!

Saturday: 5.71miles@9:26; Full Body strength session

Planned on doing 2 laps before Parkrun but was a bit late so got 2.7 miles done beforehand chatting with a friend and then ran with 2 other friends for Parkrun. Went off to the gym then and had a great session.

Hoping the hip is now more or less better and that I can manage the achilles. Planning on starting to build a little this week all going well … hopefully the ice won’t be an issue. I’ll be very cautious.