Frank Duffy 10 miler & a tough LSR

Monday, 11th August 2014 – 16.6km MSR (5:46/km)

Met up with Roisin for an easy 8km before she departed and I continued on my way. The next couple of kms were about 20 secs quicker (5:3x) but then I started to get an ache in the hip flexor region leading down to my inside left groin. This started to adversely affect my stride and I started to slow down again to the earlier pace. I had been planning to complete 24km this evening but after giving the ache ten minutes leeway to see if it got better, and failing, I decided the clever thing to do was return home. Which I did for a total of 16.6km. This now means there is no chance of hitting my long run for the week. L

Tuesday, 12th August 2014 – Football match – 45 mins at Right Back

I played pretty poorly in this game as I was left exposed to the speedy left winger who caused lots of problems with his direct running. Felt like packing in the football again after this match but I’ll let it linger another game or two. From now on I will most likely just turn up to make up the numbers, if required.

Wednesday, 13th August 2014 – 5.8km Tempo Run (4:42/km)

Flew to Glasgow for a wedding today so with doing odd jobs in the morning, flights in the afternoon and dinner and drinks in the evening I never managed to make it out for a run.

Thursday, 14th August 2014 – 45 Minutes Football Match

I dallied for far too long before getting out for a short run before the wedding ceremony. Within the first few steps I could feel the hip flexor at me again, the same as Monday evening. Managed to get 4.5km completed in a slightly painful manner. Will give it a rest now til I return from Glasgow to see if it clears up.

Friday, 15th August 2014 – Rest Day

Saturday, 16th August 2014 – Rest Day

Sunday, 17th August 2014 – Rest Day

Week 31 Summary:

RTW: 2 from 7 days

DTW: 22.4km

DTY: 1,794.4km

Monday, 18th August 2014 – 26.6km LSR (6:00/km)

Back into the swing of things again this evening. Took the watch 2km to register satellites and when it did I decided to change my route to take in Clontarf seafront. The first 4km I was trying to ease back to 5:40/km as things were feeling good and I was benefiting from so many days off! However, kms 4-7 showed the 5:40/km pace to be about right for how I was feeling before kms 7-12 started slowing down to 6:00/km!

This was bad enough but I was now feeling all sorts of aches and niggles with a sore psoas beginning to take effect. I briefly thought about taking some short cuts and going directly home but soon changed my mind to grit the teeth, shorten the stride and plough onwards! I even managed to take in the extra 1.5km out and back to the Sutton end of the seafront walk. The final 9km from the Coast to home was a real shuffle and I had to stretch out the limbs in Coolock Village (briefly) and at the M1 flyover.

Got home and was in bits. Not surprising really given it’s far and away my longest run for a very long time! Anyways, onwards and upwards…surely there couldn’t be any further to sink!!

Tuesday, 19th August 2014 – Rest Day

Took this evening off as a result of the big effort last night. Pretty sure it would be a painful experience if I hadn't!

Wednesday, 20th August 2014 – 3.0km Recovery (5:45/km)

Short, easy run just to get the legs moving again. Only did 3km as I was due in town later. Even though the run was at an easy pace the HR was quite high and I did feel tired. I even contemplated the possibility of deferring Berlin til next year!

Hoping this short run will at least allow for a decent effort tomorrow evening.

Thursday, 21st August 2014 – 7.4km Distance (5:35/km)

Managed a reasonable run this evening. Still feel sooo unfit. HR averaged around 130bpm for a 5:35 pace which is getting better after Monday, but still a way off the efficiency I would hope for. Learned this evening that my Brother is running the 10 miler on Saturday also and he is not much more advanced than me as he has achilles troubles. We will run the race together and use it as a long run (I will do about 5 miles beforehand).

Friday, 22nd August 2014 – 7.1km Distance (5:52/km)

Went out for an easy 7km run with Roisin this evening but my legs are still incredibly dead. I had expected that they would be back to condition by now but no such luck and as a result will have to alter my plans for tomorrow…

Saturday, 23rd August 2014 – 19.8km Frank Duffy 10 miler (5:00/km)

I parked outside the Ashtown Gate and ran almost 2km before meeting my Brother. We took off together in lots of space at the back of wave 1, where we kept on 5:00/km pace and were consistently passing people. I was finding the pace a bit tough and was sweating lots due to the sunny day.

By halfway I told Damien to kick-on as he seemed full of running. After initially declining my offer, it took him less than 20 seconds to start drifting ahead! I continued on at my pace until we got out onto Conyngham Road where I maintained effort (152bpm) instead. This turned out to be a 5:20 km which surprised me but the breeze seemed to slow a few people down here. Once again inside the Park I just concentrated on short strides and getting up the hill as easily as possible. This resulted in a 5:33 km but I now had just over 1km remaining. I picked up the effort here so that I finished the last 350m+ at 4:00/km pace and crossed the line in 1:21:38. Probably a fair result based on how I was feeling. I covered almost 2 more km on my return to the car bringing total mileage to approximately 20km.

I lay on the couch all evening as a result before heading away for the evening. The rest seemed to work as I was feeling significantly better than expected that night.

Sunday, 24th August 2014 – Rest Day.

I was in Croke Park today for the very exciting Mayo v Kerry Semi Final. I felt like I was doing a cardio workout in the second half and it was 20 minutes after the game before my HR returned to normal!! No running today. Legs feel OK after yesterday thankfully!

Week 32 Summary:

RTW: 5 from 7 days

DTW: 64.1km

DTY: 1,858.5km

Streets of Galway 8k - VDot = 45 (+3)

Monday, 28th July 2014 – 7.4km Distance (5:29/km)

This was just an easy run to loosen the legs out after yesterday’s 10km race effort.

Tuesday, 29th July 2014 – Football Training (90mins)

Another 90 minute training session for football. Didn’t particularly enjoy this session as amongst other things my feet were cut up again.

Wednesday, 30th July 2014 – 5.0km Fartlek (5:02/km)

Went out with nothing particular in mind but began speeding up so turned this into a fartlek session. A couple of decent-paced kms turned this into a reasonable session.

Thursday, 31st July 2014 – 8.5km Recovery Run (5:41/km)

Handy run where I slowed things right down.

Friday, 1st August 2014 – 6.0km Distance (5:31/km)

Took this easy. Just logging in another short run to add to the weekly mileage. Slowly, slowly…

Saturday, 2nd August 2014 – Rest Day

I was down home in Mayo this afternoon so no time to do anything.

Sunday, 3rd August 2014 – Rest Day (Croke Park)

Back up again this morning but a day split between Croker to watch May beat Cork and then in the boozer to regale well into the night meant no running again.

Week 29 Summary:

RTW: 5 from 7 days

DTW: 26.9km

DTY: 1,748.3km

Monday, 4th August 2014 – Rest Day

I had intended to pace the 2hr group in the RnR HM today but due to the organiser’s complete incompetence this fell through. Left a really bitter taste with me but I still went in to watch Roisin and others take part. Roisin was very unlucky to see a toilet break at half way deprive her of her sub 2hr goal but nevertheless it was a 19 minute PB, so well done her!

I did a bit of cycling around after her in the race but no running today.

Tuesday, 5th August 2014 – Rest Day

Yet another Rest Day! That’s 4 in a row!! Need to get back into some sort of structured plan soon to keep me focused! Can’t blame a dodgy hamstring any more seeing as it seems fully recovered at this stage.

Wednesday, 6th August 2014 – 5.8km Tempo Run (4:42/km)

This run just appeared out of nowhere as I just started off swiftly but just kept upping the pace. A nice session.

Thursday, 7th August 2014 – 45 Minutes Football Match

I started tonight’s game in Defensive Midfield. It was only a friendly but I gave it full effort. Mainly consisted of me moving more laterally across the park rather than up and down the pitch. I feel I played well but with 10 mins to go before HT I started developing blisters on my soles again. The hard ground combined with so much twisting and turning really cuts up my feet. I decided to come off at HT and even though there were options of going back on later in the game I simply couldn’t as I was in too much distress. It was 1-1 at HT but we ended up losing 5-1 (Al has it down as 4-1 in the report but I think it was 5). This was mainly due to us making changes which disrupted our play and the opposition introducing 4 of their best players at HT.

Friday, 8th August 2014 – Rest Day

I could barely walk this morning due to my soles so I was never going out running. If this doesn’t improve soon I will have to knock the footie on the head once more!

Saturday, 9th August 2014 – 11.0km Streets of Galway 8k Race (4:24/km)

The annual pilgrimage for the SoG and I wasn’t exactly sure of what should be my target today. Going by VDot of 42 from a couple of weeks ago I should have been looking at sub 38 but knew that was quite soft. Instead, after a few seconds thought I went with a nice round pace of 4:30/km and see how I’d fare. This would leave me with a sub 36 target which I’d be ok with.

I left Stephen and Philip at the start to go back the crowd and slot in where I thought I should be. The race started in a different position this year to what I’m used to but it was an improvement as it took out the hard right angled turn 400m into the race. Mind you, there was still a few cars on the bridge which could have been handled better.

First Half:

Km1: 4:19, Km2: 4:20, Km3: 4:22, Km4: 4:24.

I ran what I felt was a suitable speed from pretty early, once I managed to get a bit of space. I was conscious not to go out too fast in the first couple of kms but still ended up around 4:20 for the first 2km. The route got a little more up and down after that and this resulted in me dropping closer to goal pace. By halfway I wasn’t feeling too bad and the race was moving along nicely.

Second Half:

Km5: 4:30, Km6: 4:33, Km7: 4:25, Km8: 4:23, (Final 110m: 3:30 pace).

The 4k marker came right at the corner to the main hill on the course – lengthened this year as a further course change. This saw my pace slow a little which was expected. The following km past Pearse Stadium and containing the most downhill was actually my slowest! Think I must have tuned out here but I was definitely recovering from the tougher previous km. With 2.5km to go we were back out on Salthill promenade and downwind. This helped bring me home with my pace returning to the mid 4:20’s. I had not been keeping a very close watch on my overall time and had kinda been expecting to have missed sub 36, but when I spotted the finishing line clock with 200m to go I was in with a shout of 35:xx on the clock, let along my chip time. I summoned all that was left in me (which wasn’t very much by now!) and bolted for the line. I ended up with a chip time of 35:37 which made for a very happy surprise.

My time actually gives a VDot of 45 – a jump of 3 points since the Mullingar 10 miler, so even happier with that improvement over a couple of weeks!

2014 Streets of Galway: Pos: 342/2,324 (14.7%), Gun time: 36:02, Chip Time: 35:37, VDot = 45.

Sunday, 10th August 2014 – 6.9km Recovery Run (5:28/km)

I went out with Philip and Stephen for a run this morning – Philip had an LSR planned. I was just going to go for 10 – 15kms but after about 4km the heavens opened and an almighty rain fell. I decided to bail after sheltering for 5 mins but the lads continued onwards. To be honest, the eventual 6.9km was enough for me today. I was pretty tired and the body was still feeling the effects of last night’s race.

Week 30 Summary:

RTW: 4 from 7 days

DTW: 23.7km

DTY: 1,772.0km

VDot: 45 (+3)