Race to be fit...ish!

Time to play a little catch-up on my running over the past couple of weeks. In summary it has not gone well. I have been struggling with injury the whole time and it has now developed into what I would categorise as a Grade 1 hamstring strain. I tried running through it over the past week but even though the runs were short and mostly easy I feel I need to give it the remainder of time til Sunday to give it any hope of being runnable. I can just about feel it when walking but any time I’ve to mount a curb or go upstairs I can feel it pulling. So, my plan is to do nothing between now and Saturday, before going for a short jog to test it out and see how it is feeling on Sat evening. If it’s anyways runnable I will aim for the 3:15 pace group and see how it behaves. I would be willing to take a 3:19:59 at this stage but am still going to try and give myself the best chance possible on the day. Frustrating to say the least that such an excellent phase of training has finished off like this!

Monday, 7th April 2014 – Rest Day

Tuesday, 8th April 2014 – Rest Day

Wednesday, 9th April 2014 – 7.4km Distance (5:46/km)

Thursday, 10th April 2014 – 9.0km 7km @ MP (4:29/km)

Friday, 11th April 2014 – 2.0km Aborted Run

Saturday, 12th April 2014 – 11.9km Distance (4:59/km)

Sunday, 13th April 2014 – Rest Day

Week 12 Summary:

RTW: 4 from 7 days

DTW: 30.3km

DTY: 1,367.5km

Monday, 14th April 2014 – 11.9km Distance (5:06/km)

Tuesday, 15th April 2014 – Rest Day

Wednesday, 16th April 2014 – 6.2km Distance (5:52/km)

Thursday, 17th April 2014 – 3.8km Distance (5:26/km)

Friday, 18th April 2014 – 10.4km Distance with 3 x 1km @ MP (5:02/km)

Saturday, 19th April 2014 – 5.7km Malahide Parkrun (5:16/km)

Sunday, 20th April 2014 – Rest Day

Week 13 Summary:

RTW: 5 from 7 days

DTW: 37.9km

DTY: 1,405.4km

Idiot alert...

Thursday, 3rd April 2014 – 6.0km Distance (5:31/km)

It was clear enough from the first few steps this evening that my knee was sore once again. I stuck with it in the hope that it might ease later but it never really did so I cut the run short at 6km.

Friday, 4th April 2014 – 8.8km Distance (5:05/km)

I had a physio session arranged for this afternoon and thankfully it was pretty straightforward. After a couple of diagnostic questions I was asked to do some leg raises deisgned to trigger the calves and the hamstrings. Apparently there’s plenty of strength in the calves but could be looser however the hammers are weak and tight. He have me a set of stretches for both muscle groups and reckons once they etretch out then the knee should see no more pulling from the fibres.

I popped out for a run afterwards and as it was a lovely evening I brought the total for the day up to about 10km.

Saturday, 5th April 2014 – 10.1km Castlebar parkrun (4:04/km)

I done a stoopid thing!!

Decided to run the Castlebar parkrun this morning but had planned on taking it easy. However, after 400m I was beginning to pass a few people who sprang off the start line a bit too energetically. Over the course of the following km I moved from 25th position to 10th. I maintained this til about halfway when a guy overtook me going up the big hill. I resisted the temptation to race him though and remained steady. I eased back a little on km 4 in respect to tomorrow’s race but the final km was a bit quicker again and I ended up in a time of 20:49 – A 40 second improvement on my last time around this course (although that day it was very windy and I’d done a long run the day before). I was happy with the time but was feeling a little nervous that I may have scuppered plans somewhat for tomorrows race!

Incidentally there was a kid in a Mayo jersey that beat me! I congratulated him afterwards and it turned out he is from Dublin and has just turned 10 years old but managed a 20:4x! He was meant to run in the National Championships on Sunday but was told he had to come West and attend his Uncle’s birthday celebrations instead!! Great running and one for the future.

When I returned home I did a few stretches as advised by the physio yesterday. No major issues with the knee. I then went out and did another short run to add almost 4km to my daily volume for a total of 10.1km.

Sunday, 6th April 2014 – 9.2km Belcarra 8k (4:13/km)

Thought I was ok at the start of this race but when I was going through km1 in 4:02 I knew it was tougher than expected. Obviously the 5km yesterday was having an effect but also the first half of the course was very windy. Never really got going after that as the legs were just too heavy and ended up 2 seconds slower than when I did this 2 years ago! Really regretted the 5k in the end but just gotta learn to be more disciplined and have more focus on proper races in future and not to ruin them with Parkruns!

Week 11 Summary:

RTW: 7 from 7 days

DTW: 101.5km

DTY: 1,337.2km

Training begins to peak

Monday, 31st March 2014 – 20.7km MLR (5:30/km)

Back out this evening with Anto again for the now customary Monday night run. Anto had ran a 10km race yesterday so was a little low on energy so we kept the pace pretty light. However, seeing as I was feeling fine (knee pain was gone) and energetic I invited him to join me in a fe kms further than usual. So it was that we went down towards the Clontarf seafront before realising just how many extra kms we were likely to do and taking a more direct route home. Ended up with almost 21km and could easily have continued on for many more. Anto though was feeling it in the last few kms and was beginning to curse me given that this is the week of Conn Ultra! Hoping that run won’t adversely affect his time on Sunday!

Tuesday, 1st April 2014 – 12.7km Tempo: 10k @ MTP (4:24/km)

Back down the local park for this. Now that it’s April the park is now open til 8pm rather than 6pm yesterday. I took advantage of this to get some faster stuff in this evening. Again the Garmin was struggling to locate my trail properly resulting in dodgy readings for the first mile before copping itself on! By that stage I was motoring nicely though so I decided to keep to MP pace and use this as my Tempo session for the week (of course this means I will now have to do my LSR tomorrow evening!).

During the first km the inside of my right knee was back to being sore again but the pain eased off soon after that. The MP pace was feeling alright and indeed many of the splits were coming in at 4:20/km. Looking at the data shows I was hitting a couple of beats below my Marathon HR of 150bpm for most of the faster stuff so that was highly promising. This makes me believe that sub 3:10 should be my goal in Dusseldorf now. I’d be very pleased to hit that goal but I think I’d not be giving myself a chance to run to my current potential if I only aimed for 3:15. Time will tell!

Wednesday, 2nd April 2014 – 34.0km LSR (4:59/km)

I approached this run as part two of my LSR. The legs weren’t quite as tired as last week but I wasn’t complaining. A quick nap after work meant I was out running by 6:30pm. I decided I’d head to the local park to do several 1 mile laps in the bank before going outside and doing one large loop for the remainder.

So it was while lapping around the park that I calculated 6 laps would equate to approx 13km by the time I left. In a big change from yesterday the thick drizzle meant there were very few others around to share the park with. For the first 10km or so I could feel the knee giving me jib again and I was becoming wary of doing extra damage to whatever the issue is. Thankfully though it subsided and I didn’t really feel it again after that.

Last night’s run certainly didn’t affect me nearly as much as last weeks which meant from the start I eased into 5:00/km as the average pace. I put all thoughts of struggling later in the run to the back of my mind and kicked on. Eventually I was done with the park and the boredom of laps. Now I was out on the big lap and had a destination to get to which made things somewhat easier from a mental aspect. The flipside meant I now had to contend with road traffic and junctions on a very miserable evening. My saving grace was that it wasn’t too cold or windy, but my clothes were saturated quite early on.

I kept the pace steady at just under 5:00/km all the way to the seafront and when I got on the coastal path it was time to kick into MP action. I’m never great at changing pace in a run (apart from involuntarily slowing down!) so was thankful that the 30secs/km step-up came without too much pain and before I knew it I was 3 down with 2 remaining. The latter sections found me giving an increased effort but still quite manageable. The 5k was done and dusted in 4:28/km pace so I was quite happy with that. The av HR was slightly higher than ideal but that could easily be down to running in the dark while wearing heavily saturated clothing – neither of which I hope to encounter in Düsseldorf!

The remaining 9km were just about getting home and once the big MP effort was completed my mentality changed to taking it easier with the pace drifting out a bit. However, a quick final km still got the full run in at sub 5min pace so I was very happy with that. Also, I never really got tired apart from the final 4km where I was mainly going uphill wih 30km already in the legs. This was much improved on last week.

So, a very productive training run (which is probably the toughest in the plan) successfully negotiated. Easy paced running for the remainder of the week and then Belcarra 8km race on Sunday.

Week 11 Summary (so far):

RTW: 3 from 3 days

DTW: 67.4km

DTY: 1,303.1km

Debut at Griffeen Parkrun & an LSR!

Friday, 28th March 2014 – 31.0km LSR (5:25/km)

After last nights MP tempo session I was suitably tired leading into this evening’s LSR. I was out the door by 4:30pm. I changed my route as I was starting off and detoured to the local park for a few laps. This went so well that I decided to remain in the park until it closed at 6pm at which point I was getting cold with a dropping temperature and not enough layers.

The last 11km were getting tough and the HR shows this clearly!

I passed by my apt after 18km so I popped in very briefly for a change of clothes and back out for the remainder of my run. By 20km I was really beginning to feel the effort on the body. Last night’s MP run was taking affect. I managed to plod around the remaining 11km in a similar mindset as the end of a marathon with the main idea to get to the end!

By the time I finished up I had ran 31km so about a mile short of my target 20 miles but not too bothered about that. Hopefully this will prove a valuable training run as I was pretty wrecked after it. Hopefully if there is to be pain there’ll be at least some gain!

Saturday, 29th March 2014 – 5.3km Griffeen Parkrun (5:24/km)

Towards the end of last nights LSR I was getting some niggles around my knees and when I turned up for the Parkrun this morning the inside of my right knee was still sore. This was enough to put me off racing so instead I paced Roisin to a very respectable 5k marker for the summer ahead. As it turns out this was a nice gentle pace for me to avoid doing any more hurt to the knee. I had intended on tacking on another 10-15km today but knocked that on the head due to the knee.

Sunday, 30th March 2014 – Rest Day

Even though the knee seemed to have improved with the easy day yesterday I was still a bit fatigued from running and a night out last night so all-in-all I decided it might be a good idea to take a rare Rest Day – the first in almost two weeks. Still felt guilty all day once I made the decision though!

Week 10 Summary:

RTW: 6 from 7 days

DTW: 85.8km

DTY: 1,235.7km

New Mile PB!

Monday, 24th March 2014 – 11.9km Distance (5:13/km)

Ran this with Anto. Appalling conditions. One of the worst days for running all Winter. Still though we managed to throw in a couple of faster miles in the middle. Glad to get home in the end and get indoors!

Tuesday, 25th March 2014 – 11.2km Aborted Interval session (3:56/km)

Early afternoon run. Intervals in the local park before weather took over. More horizontal hail led to me taking cover under a tree as there was no point in continuing with the intervals in that. When it calmed down a bit I continued on and did the last two reps in the middle set. I was still cold at the end of those though and figured my 5 min recovery would make me more so. After a quick think I decided to head home and abort the session. I knew there was a 1 mile race tomorrow night so that could serve to replace the third rep. Really nothing would have been gained by persisting with the intervals apart perhaps from a muscle injury or a cold.

Wednesday, 26th March 2014 – 9.7km Including Raheny 1 miler (3:36/km)

Managed the usual 1 mile warm up before toeing the line. First time racing a 1 mile race and the main goal was to break 6 minutes. I had clocked in at just over 6:02 or so during the fast downhill mile in the Stook 10 but the legs were so fecked from the previous 2 miles of uphill I simply couldn’t go any faster.

Smaller crowd than usual (~30) out tonight but conditions were perfect. A quick countdown from Pat and we were away. It was a strange sensation as everybody were considerably quicker than usual off the starting line. I got caught up in this a little but knowing there was no hiding place in a 1 mile race I continued with the effort. After about 300m I saw 5:15/mile pace register on the watch and knew this was very unsustainable! I decided to ease a little so that I would actually get to the finish line! At this point I was thinking “I am going to blow up soo spectacularly here!” that my other main thought was how many people were going to eventually pass me again. I’ve heard short distance specialists going on about the 'sea of lactic acid' sensation and this was really the first time I was beginning to feel that. Around halfway my average pace was closer to 5:45 which I was still very happy about. But this was beginning to feel more like holding on rather than pushing on! Looking back I was only passed by 2 guys in the race so much better than I feared. As I rounded the last corner I gave it my all  and 400m later I heard the race steward announce my time as 5:51. Delighted with being so comfortably inside 6 minutes! Of course, in the bigger picture not a great time by any means and almost immediately I was wishing I’d made a couple of seconds up somewhere and got into the 5:4x’s but all runners are like that! Hopefully with some faster stuff coming up again from May onwards I might push this PB down into the 5:3x’s by the end of the Summer before I get stuck into yet more marathon training.

Thursday, 27th March 2014 – 16.7km 1.3km W/U, 8km MPT + 7.4km with Roisin (4:25/km)

Plan called for 30-40 minutes at Marathon Pace and I was due to meet Roisin for 7-8km with her so I went with the faster stuff first and then a bit of recovery run with R afterwards. Several technology issues at the start meant I was close to giving up on this MP stuff as the watch was suggesting I was going at jogging pace even though I knew I was really at the right kind of pace. So, a couple of false starts later and eventually the watch started cooperating… well to a degree at least!

The first mile was incorrectly registering on the Garmin!

MP split data - once the GPS settled down somewhat!

The first four splits gave some yo-yo feedback with the pace oscillating between 4:3x and 4:1x. The effort was pretty consistent and I am pretty sure the breeze/incline didn’t have that much of a bearing on data so can only surmise it’s the watch at fault again. I changed across to HR reading for the remainder and kept the effort at 150bpm +/- 2bpm. Made it back just in time to meet Roisin with approximately 8km covered at MP or about 35 minutes. I was quite happy to then take the pace much easier around 6:00/km for the next 7.4km as the stress of the unreliable data, the evening traffic and the extra people on the footpaths all added to the effort earlier. It’ll be interesting to see the effects of this run on tomorrow’s 20 mile+ LSR. I guess I’ll be tired anyways but the effects will be compounded towards the end of it. Time will tell I guess!

Week 10 Summary (so far):

RTW: 4 from 4 days

DTW: 49.5km

DTY: 1,199.4km