Steady as she goes...

Monday, 2nd Spetember, 2013 – Rest Day

Really bad night's sleep last night so I was tired all day. Then settled down to watch Mesut Ozil's transfer to Arsenal break through so decided to allow myself a rest day all things considered as it was only gonna be a short recovery run anyways!

Tuesday, 3rd Spetember, 2013 – 17.2km Easy with 2 x 5km @ LT (4:23/km)

2 x 5km @ LT

Felt fresh for this run which was important as it was a very warm evening and I had "2 x 20 mins @ LT" on the menu. After a first warm-up km I started into the real stuff and thankfully it went quite well. Once more armed with my HRM I maintained consistent effort all the way but in sections the pace seemed to fall off according to the Garmin. I felt it was kept steady though so was writing it off as the tree cover affecting the readings. The first LT segment was completed in 21:45 as I decided to round it up to 5km instead.

An easy 1km recovery and I was away again for the second segment which had similar, yet more pronounced issues with the pace. Once more I stretched it out to 5km which came in at 22:05 this time, 20secs slower than first segment. Regardless, happy overall with the perceived effort and it was definitely an important run. 

Only downside was that my left hamstring which had appeared to have resolved itself, again reared it's head towards the end of the faster stuff (I stopped at Military Hill about 800m after the end of the second LT segment to stretch the leg and that seemed to help for a short while) so will need to keep an eye on this again. :-( 

LT Pace

Wednesday, 4th Spetember, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:18/km)
One of those evenings where it was pretty late before I had a chance to go out and was beginning to feel very lazy. Somehow managed to show a bit of resolve in the end though and get 7.4km in at an easy pace that got slightly faster as the run progressed, finishing in sub 5min/km pace. Hamstring was fairly dormant tonight but I'm sure it'll announce itself again during tomorrow evening's MP session.

Week 36 Summary (So far):

RTW: 2 from 3 days

DTW: 24.6 km

DTY: 2,837.7 km
Chicago - 38 days (5 weeks, 4 days)

August Summary

Thursday, 29th August, 2013 – 16.1km MLR with 11.4km @ MP (4:36/km)

MP kms

I called to the Phoenix Park for this run on the way home from work. Plan was 20km MLR with 15km @ MP. My first few steps were a repeat of last night's limp-run so I stopped and did a few gentle stretches. Once I got going again the pain eased off pretty quickly and I ran the first 1.5km at recovery pace. I had reached the canal at Ashtown by this time so I started in to my MP kms.

Immediately I was kicking myself for having chosen an East-West route as the breeze was in my face as I headed towards Blanchardstown. I kept the head down until I got to the 12th Lock gate and found it a bit easier on the return to Ashtown. However, after about 5km I started to feel the effort. I think I might have ran this a bit too close to the LT session on Tuesday. 

My form was getting progressively worse as I got closer to Phibsboro and by the time I got there my hamstrings were getting a bit tighter. So, I decided to pause and do a few stretches before turning around into the breeze again. When I got going I tried another km at MP but the pace was 4:44 - about 10 seconds down on target - so I eased back to recovery pace and decided to jog the canal back to Ashtown. 

As I returned to the car in the Park I unintentionally upped the pace to close to MP again as I must have found the lack of a headwind allowed me to go faster. Ended up with a bonus 1.4km at MP before I reached the car after 16.1km. I debated tacking on another 4km but with my new mindset I figured these would just be junk miles as they would be no quicker than recovery pace, so instead I went home.

Even though I failed to hit target distances for the session I'm still happy enough with what I did. I'll aim to throw in a few more MP kms towards the end of my LSR on Sat morning. I'm still progressing anyways and feel myself getting stronger week by week, so staying positive in that respect!

Friday, 30th August, 2013 –  11.9km Easy Run (4:56/km)

I managed to dodge a real downpour just as I was about to go out for this evening's run and luckily I managed to dodge it for the next hour. Easy run today and I was prepared for a bit of a struggle but as things turned out I felt good the whole way and was running at that enjoyably hard but not tough pace so was very happy with it by the time I returned home. Hamstring still niggling me but not enough to affect me too much. I'd rate it at 4/10 at the moment. If it gets to 6/10 I'll visit a physio.

Saturday, 31st August, 2013 –  31.8km LSR (5:27/km)
Big step up in distance required for today's LSR. Nothing really suitable in the organised runs in the park so I decided to run a route from home to the Coast Road and then run the seafront before returning via Raheny. It's one of those routes that doesn't seem like 32km but by the end of it today it certainly felt it!

Nice gentle breeze on my back as far as the Coast but then I was facing into it as I ran towards Clontarf with a bit of respite until I got to St. Anne's Park on the way home. Most of the final 11km back was into a wind that was getting stronger by the kilometre. Luckily I was on the last 300m when it really kicked up and started raining to boot. Even happier to be home at that stage! Tough run for the last bit but glad I got it done.

Sunday, 1st Spetember, 2013 –  10.1km Recovery Run (5:31/km)
Met up with Anto for a short run this evening. Kept it short and easy paced. 

August Summary
So, August is over and the last 3 weeks saw me return to normal mileage. In total 305km and 25 runs for the month (after a slow start!). Happy to have a 20 miler under my belt by this stage and a few LT & MP runs also. I still appear to be on track for the Athlone HM on the 14th Sept. but need to keep it consistent between now and then.

August summary

Week 35 Summary:

RTW: 6 from 7 days

DTW: 91.1 km

DTY: 2,813.1 km
Chicago - 42 days (6 weeks)

Better than expected LT session

Monday, 25th August, 2013 – Rest Day
I got home from work this evening but felt really tired after spending too long in the pub yesterday celebrating the win! Somehow managed to get through work but I was good for nothing by evening time. I'll try and regain an extra easy run later in the week.

Tuesday, 26th August, 2013 – 13.2km LT Run (8km @ 4:20/km)

I still felt tired after work but knew that I had to get a session done this evening regardless. The plan called for 2 x 15min LT segments in a 13km run. I used the first km to loosen out and didn't actually feel too bad once I got going. Started into the first LT segment and decided to do 3km rather than 15 mins. This went pretty well. I used the recovery period to cross a couple of junctions and after 0.86km I started the next LT segment. However, due to crappy footpaths, busy roads and undulating terrain I was too easily distracted and ended up doing a 4:08 km which was 12 secs too fast. I felt like I was putting too much effort into it also so decided to ease back at the end of that km, let the lactic acid wash away and restart on a quieter, more suitable road. Thankfully this worked and I threw another 3kms around Artane and Kilmore but parts of these were into a Northerly breeze and this slowed the av pace. Still though, I was happy that the effort was at the required level. Then, halfway home I decided to throw in one final km to round it off at 8km in total for a good end to a session I nearly backed out of. Definitely a positive run, although I did feel a tweak in my left glute which needs watching.

LT summary for the year.

Wednesday, 27th August, 2013 – 8.0km Recovery Run (5:19/km)

Another slow recovery run in store this evening but even as I took my first steps the tweaked glute was causing me to limp-run for the first 500m. Slowly it began too loosen out and by halfway things appeared much better. I ended up adding on a little extra towards the end as I finished feeling looser and the evening was perfect for a run. Hope the tweak doesn't return to affect tomorrows MLR with MP session...

In other news, I recently bought a new HRM from Garmin. It failed to pair with my 310xt though so when I emailed Garmin.com for advice they ended up sending me out another new HRM and said I could keep the first one. After some more issues with the new HRM I eventually managed to get it paired and it worked fine for this evening's run. Afterwards I checked out the original HRM and hey presto - it too works! Happy days!

Week 35 Summary (so far):

RTW: 2 from 3 days

DTW: 21.2km

DTY: 2,743.2km
New, functioning HRM monitors: 2
Chicago - 46 days (6wks, 4days)

The calm before the...long & slow running!

Monday, 8th July, 2013 – 41km Cycle to Ratoath (27kph) + (1.5km Recovery Run)
My small toes on both feet were quite bruised after all the long distances so I decided to go for a cycle instead. Very enjoyable 41km followed and when I got home I threw the runners on thinking I’d get a few running kms added. However, after 500m of running it was obvious the toes were too sore and were causing over compensating tightness on the outside of my right leg so I looped around for a truncated 1.5km.

Tuesday, 9th July, 2013 –7.2km Recovery Run (5:15/km)
Thankfully the toes were much better today so I pushed myself out the door for an easy run but the first few kms were tough so it resulted in recovery pace instead. By 3km the legs were coming round and the final few kms were ran a bit faster. Overall though feeling a bit jaded for a few days now. Not sure if it’s the heat or the accumulated mileage or simply them both.

Wednesday, 10th July, 2013 –11.2km IMRA Race #8 – Ballinastoe
I’d already ran my 7th League race so I was guaranteed a LL prize regardless but the lovely weather this week was drawing me back to the hills. I gave Felim a lift from Loughlinstown and we were parked well in advance of the start. The course was a 2.5km outward section followed by a large 6km loop and then a run back along the initial 2.5km section again.

Just after cresting the first 2.5km hill

Right from the off we were climbing - up fireroads first, then followed by a rocky path through the woods. As has happened most of the time this year I started too far back in the field which meant I was well over 100th position by the first 200m. I wasn’t too bothered though as I didn’t fancy racing this one flat out due to a general apathy which included a total lack of a warm-up (I figured I was already warm and the first 2km were uphill so I’d be much warmer & without stressing the muscles too much so that should work perfectly). I passed lots of people on this long climb with most taking walking breaks waaay too early! Of course this led to me falling into step with some of their rhythms and therefore me walking when most of the time I didn’t really need to! Eventually we were cresting the hill and soon afterwards turning left and away from the glare of a low-setting sun. Much of the next 5km was downhill through pine trees, flat through pine trees and uphill through pi… you get the drift! The branches were very low lying so it felt like I was constantly bent over trying to avoid them. At one stage I had just passed a Junior runner and no more than 60secs later I heard him go flying to the ground behind me. I slowed and turned and asked him if he was ok but there was already 4 or 5 following runners asking the same so I continued on. There would be no pressure on me for a while now I thought as everyone would have slowed down due to the incident but lo and behold within 30 seconds the kid was trying to pass me again! Fair play to him. A minute later I was catching another junior runner in front of me so I rewarded the kid behind me by stepping aside and letting him past to chase his challenger. Unfortunately though, it seemed they were mates and once he caught up to the other lad they slowed to have a chat! Luckily for me the Junior course veered off from our course about 200m later and they were no longer holding me back.

More uphill!

A couple of more uphill kms followed before we looped back around to the outward trail and turned for home along the opening 2.5km. At this point I passed 2 or 3 guys on the top of the hill, so once we were descending the rocky path there were two ladies about 100m and 200m ahead of me. I made it my goal to overtake the two of them by the finish. The first girl held out for about 3-4 mins before I passed her and shortly afterwards we arrived out onto the fireroad for home and there I passed the other girl. Next up was a guy a further 100m ahead who was just passing an early starter. We were now only about 600m from the finish so I was quite literally running out of road! I had caught the early starter pretty quickly and with about 300m to go I was reeling in the guy. 100m later and I was on his shoulder but I was reckoning he’d find a boost of energy once he knew I was about to pass him. Seizing the inititative I upped my speed to maximum effort for the run in to the finish and to my surprise there was no fightback whatsoever from the other guy leaving me to beat him by 20-30m. The last 130m was clocked at 3:09/km pace which shows I wouldn’t have lasted much longer or I’d have blown up!

A quick headcount at the finish and I reckoned I might have sneaked into the top 60 as I waited to see how Felim and Jeff had done. They came home shortly after me and with the arrival of the flies we dalled no more and departed. As it turned out I was credited with 72nd position which was a little disappointing. There were several people who went the wrong way on the course and had been marked down as DNF but I was left wondering was there not a lot more who may have ran a short course also because there was one or two people who finished ahead of me whom I was sure I had passed early in the race.

Anyways, not to worry too much considering my attitude at the start. Another enjoyable Wednesday evening league race but that’s my lot for this Summer as the last race is next week and I won’t be able to make it. Hopefully I’ll be back out for a few casual runs after work over the next few weeks.

Thursday, 11th July, 2013 – Rest Day
Felt a bit tired from last nights mountain run and had a couple of things lined up in the evening so logged this one as a rest day.

Friday, 12th July, 2013 – 11.9km Recovery Run (5:35/km)

Just another slow recovery paced run to keep ticking over in advance of the HM pacing job tomorrow.

Saturday, 13th July, 2013 – 21.3km Clontarf Half Marathon (5:36/km)
Already a scorching day in Clontarf when i got there i was happy that I was pacing this and not racing! Met up with my 2hr pacing buddy Conor a while before the start as well as the others including Michael, Dominic and Matt who had to run solo with the 1:45 gang.

Everything went pretty well with a nice gang with us as far as the turnaround point near Kilbarrack. As we ran back however people started to drop off mostly due to the fact the cooling breeze was now on our back and thereby not functioning so well. When we were back on the beach the group was whittling away further and the soft sand exiting onto the wooden bridge decimated the group altogether. A few people remained and we picked up a few stragglers on the run-in to help get them in under 2hrs. It was Conor's first time pacing and he should be happy with a job well done as we finished in 1:59:37.

Sunday, 14th July, 2013 – Rest Day
Even though it was only a pacing job yesterday was still in the legs. Wasn't helped by going out for a few too many drinks in the evening time either!! Rest and recovery today!

So, not a huge amount of kms this week but with it being yet another taper(!) I am reasonably happy. Main thing now is to avoid injury before Friday!

Week 28 Summary: 

RTW: 5 from 7 days

DTW: 53.1km

DTY: 2277.8km

Rotten Rotterdam

Saturday, 13th April – 4.8km Easy Fartlek Run Arrived into Schiphol airport and got the train to Rotterdam which took only  25mins - great service. Dropped off our bags in the hotel and then called into the expo to collect our numbers. There wasn’t a whole lot else to see there so headed back to the hotel again for a lie-down before myself, Philip and a few Celbridge AC lads (who were travelling with Philip) all went for a run in the park beside the hotel. Nothing too strenuous, just shy of 5km with a few faster segments thrown in. A good leg loosener.