More miles mean more improvement?

week 7
mon =15mile(tight calf so went to get psysio)
tue=rest calf
wed=19milex7.37pace(hamstring problem)
thur=injured(rang to see psysio,booked out,ring me when a free slot comes in)
fri=injured
sat=injured
sun=injured(got hamstring looked at and sorted fingers crossed)
tota miles=34miles,what a week hope i dont have to repeat that again,it crazy how we get caught up with times and races,i would just love to be able to run around the block.:(

week 8
mon=injured
tues=14mile
wed=20milex7.57pace
thurs=21mile(13x7.14)(8x7.38)
fri=15milex7.12
sat=20milex8.03pace
sun=16milex7.43pace
total=106miles
found it realy hard this week getting back into it after missing most of last week over thight hamstring,to make it harder on myself i run all my miles wearing a ran jacket(even in the heat)and dont take fluids or gels etc during my runs,except for 30mile,my theory is on race day when i drink fluids and put my caffine gels down my neck i should go like a rocket:D

CONNEMARA ULTRA REPORT
saturday morning at 7,myself and ian headed of to galway,ian said it would take 5 hours to get there but only took us 3hours,so at 10 oclock in the morning we dropped our bags of at the pillo hotel,we coulnt check in until 3,so we had 5 hours to kill,seemed a long time,then it hit me thats how long i will be running for tomorrow,thats if i could make it to the start line,the reason why was my foot and ankle was swelled up like a balloon,and today was the worse it had ever been,walking around town was the worse thing i could be doing to it now,but we had 5 hours to kill,we went into every shop and had plenty to eat and shot some pool,we decided to go to the cinema to watch a movie,but it had already started,so 3oclock came around and we checked in,went up stairs and got our packs and headed to our room,straight away i went down stairs and filled the ice bucket with ice,i then filled the bin half way with water and empted the ice in,then i set the watch for 20mins,the most i ever had my foot in ice was 4mins so this was a task,but i was dedermined to do what ever i took to have a chance of running tomorrow,through the day i done 4x 20min sessions of this,it did feel better but the swelling never went down,i rang my physio and he advised me against it,ian had his doubhts aswell,i took a antinflamitry and went to bed and prayed to god that all the training i done would not go to waste,i had a realy bad sleep that night just thinking i wont be able to run,i was in the toilet at abour 4 oclock and i looked down and to my amazment the swelling had gone down 60 pecent,i almost cried,i was going to wake ian up to tell him but he was to buzy snoring,i jumped back in to bed and had the best 1 hr20mins sleep of my life,so up at 5.20 and i was pumping with adrelaline because i had a good chance,we packed our bags had our breckfest and got talking to a english guy who lived in waterford,as we are from there aswell,he kindly gave us a lift to the bus for connemara,on the bus i got so nervous and i could see ian was to,his best marathon pb was 3.56.and he was going for a sub 6hr in the ultra,but from training with him i knew what he was made off and he wasnt going to wilter in any way,he wasnt born with natural speed but has the heart of a lion,so we arived and got changed had a pain killer and talked to some people,listened to ray o conner,the legend,and headed to the bus to take us to the start,i was meant to meet to other boardies and we were going to run at 7.15 pace for as long as we could,but i panicked when i coulnt find them,on a day like this when my foot was fck i just wanted to try and switch off and tuck in with the lads,when we got of the bus i bumbed into thomas our pacer,and then met liam up at the front,now the 3 amegoes were together,so the gun went off and the journey started,mile 1 to 13,7.21,7.18,7.15,7,17,7.21,7.10,7.21,7.23,7,17,7.04,7.30,7.12,7.14,i had set my watch up different this time so it was harder to callculate my pace,but then i wasnt looking at it every 30seconds,thomas took care of the pacing,after 4 miles my foot started to get sore and by mile 10 i didnt think i could even make it to half way,this realy took the hole experiance and enjoyment of the race away from me,i wasnt going to start going on about my ankle to liam and thomas and ruin there experiance to,so i just sucked it up and carried on,i had 1 painkiller in my shorts and wanted to take it straight away,but i had to wait until the marathon point before i could take it,the only time the ankle felt ok to run on was up the hills and it almost made me quit going down them,mile 13 to 26,7.16,6.59,7.01,7.07,7.13,7.19,7.39,7.33,7.26,7.25,7.10,7.37,7.30,there was some very fast miles in there as our group of 3 was 8 at times and different people was pushing the pace,i found the insert of pace a bit to fast as in training i concentrated on injurance and left the speed for the 2 weeks before connemara but got injured with my ankle so i only done 2 session in them 2 weeks,so i decided to ease off as i new from experiance they where going to hard,i had asked everyone there marathon pbs,and we where all 2.57,2.58,i new if i keep it even i would catch up with them later,as soon as i eased of so did thomas and it felt very easy to run that few seconds slower,within minute liam had stopped for the toilet and we where all together again,now the pack ahead of us just vanished from the distance,so the marathon point came and i took my painkiller,it had no effect and i came close to quitting twice,this realy bothered me as this is something thats not in my armour but i came very close,the thought of running another 13 miles on my ankle almost broke me,i just had to use every mental trick i new to get me to the end,thomas and laim powered on at this point,i kept losing them and the catching up again when they were stopping at drop points or pee pee stops as the itailan bloke said to me,as we cxame to the hills near the end i started to catch most of the lads that went out to hard,we caught all but 1 of the group,i caught the 2nd last one of them at the bottom of the hell of the west,but i decided to help him get up it instead of trying to beat him,i always have a good finish so if he wanted a sprint finish i thought i could beat him,i think we both helped each other up that hill,when we got to the top my ankle went over and i thought it snaped,i let out a scream and the ultra guy with me called max just said suck it up we are almost there now,so i dint push the pace as i thought i was under 4.50 finish,we decided when we got to .2 of a mile to go we would sprint,max went and i coullnt go with him,he went 20 meters in front of me,put i gave it one last push and past him right on the line,mile 27 to 39.49,7.42,7.58,7.14,7.16,7.20,7.25,7.20,7.20,7.21,7.50,8.24,7.17,7.00,6.32,i let out a scream over the line got my well done from the legend ray o conner,hes a amazing runner and person,i just sat down after the race and was glad it was over,i get the same enjoyment from my own achievments as seing others fulfill there goals,liam thomas and another guy from waterford called anthony, i met on the day fullfilled theres,that was special,of i went to get changed and something to eat,and back to see how my friend ian was getting on,as i walked back to the finish ultra area,i started to cry,just pure emotion came floading out,only then i had realised what i had achieved,a 4hr 50 finish,i took 7 minutes off last years time and with conditions that never suited and injury,and most of all i never quit,i had joined up my local tramore ac club 2 days before connemara and got on the back of the vest NEVER GIVE UP,it was intended to help others that were struggeling but ended up helping me aswell,i then stopped my sobbing and sat down waiting for ian and a lady had just sat down next to me and see was crying because she just finished,and i felt every bit of that,i could relate 100 percent to her,and i started sobbing again,there something very special among ultra runneres i find that doesnt happen in shorter races,is the respect from each other,no matter if your last or first,every one goes through some dark places to get to the finishline,just then i heared ians name being called out,i ran over and we sobbed together,sad to growing men sob,he came in,5hr54 and had a 5 min poopoo stop in there aswell,amazing achievment ian,for anyone ready this im not grea with spelling or getting my words across so hopefully you enjoy it,and if you havnt ran connemara before you havnt been born yet,this is a special race that will take you on a special journey,c u next year to do it all over again.

week 15
mon=13miles
tues=21miles
wens=rest
thurs=23miles(struggeled realy bad,stopped 6 times for 30secs to walk)
fri=rest
sat=30miles x 7.26pace(done my first session on the track for my 6hr track race on the 28th,felt realy bouncy and zapped the energy out of my legs,but i was worried about the cornering,that didnt bother me,but it sure was boring,i managed 2 hrs until i got dizzy:)
sun=10miles x 7.03pace am + 7miles x 7.49pace pm
weeks total= 104miles(happy to hit the 100 this week,it might make the legs tired but it puts my head in a good place.

just back from the doctor,got blood tested,no results for a week,he said its not my hernia thats causing the problems,have to get a camara down me to see whats going on,he has to wait for the blood results to come back to see whats happening,said it could be some bug or something more serious with my bowels,he advised me to do no running and complete rest until results are back,i told him my plan for saturday and he nearly fell of the chair,if i feel better my saturday im going,if not im going anyway,fingers crossed

CRAWLEY 6HR TRACK RACE REPORT
got on the 9.15 bus from tramore to dublin airport with arrived in dublin at 1.30,my plane over to england wasnt leaving until 4.05,plenty of time to relax and get something to eat,of i went a checked my bag in and a foreign later mumbelled something to me,all i understood was look at the big screen,i ask what and got the same answer,ok,so off i went for something to eat,i eat a dinner and my stomach went into cramps again and had a few visits to the toilet,get my results on tuesday to see whats happening there,so a 2.30 i went down to the big screen and stood there looking up at it waiting for where to go,every few minutes on certin destenations it would say go to gate 2,except my flight and a few others,i presumed it was delayed.3.45 came and i rang my misses to check online to see if it was delayed,she said it wasnt,i panicked and found a rynair tesk and ask the lady she said your to late now the wont let you on,pure panic set in,in the end after argueing my bag was took of and had to pay another 110 euro and wait until 7.40 for the next plane,i didnt miss this one and arrived at my hotel at 10,ended up walking for 30 mins trying to find a shop and got back to my hotel at 11,had something to eat and straight to bed,i met my friend at the hotel at 7 in the morning for breakfest and race talk,i had a great breakfest but my stomach was in a bad way,a mix of nerves and a virus,of we headed to the crawley track,had a race briefing,the olympic torch was there from the 1965 olympics i think and everyone got to run a lap with it with it lighting,my tactics was to get the win and try and beat the course record of 46.7miles,so i was going to run the first 2 miles hard to not let anyone no my pace,i went out a 6.20pace and 2 guys flew past me,my friend said they where running 5.30 pace,that blew my goal out the window and didnt have a plan B,i just kept running hard for about 4 miles hoping they would slow down ,put no way were day,these were serious runners,then my stomach started playing up and had to make a detour to the toilet area,about 100 meters of the track,i lost 10 min in the first hour,then in the second hour my data base on my garmin went full,what a time for this to happen,threw my watch at my friend to sort it out,then more stomach troubles,another trip to the toilets and again in the 3rd hour,i think i lost almost 17min in this time,i realy didnt want to continue any more but if you give your best on the day you can walk away pround and still be a winner, so i just ran and ran,i hadnt a clue what sort of mileds i was covering only ever hour when day put up the leaders board,i was in 3rd,and then on the fifth hour day made a mistake and i was in 4th,this confussed me and had to stop to sort it out,but the new what happened and back into 3rd i went,with 14mins to go my friend shouted you have 44miles done,with my calculatins i had run nearly 47 with going arond on different lanes and running to the toilets and back,so i ran as hard as i could,i ran 2x 6.30miles,and ended up 46.odd,near the course record,well the old one,as the leader ran a new british record,i think 52miles,yes 2 marathons back to back in 6 hours and the guy that was second ran 50.odd mile,the guy in second ran a 2.33 in london last week as training,theywere both qualafiying for britain for the up and coming celtic plate,when the race was over i just collapst on the ground,but felt no tiredness,strange maybe adrenuline taking over,had a shower and went up to the prize givings,first prize to first place,the guy in fourth won the vets title,then the lady gave the second guy a prize,and then i got called up,i only thought there was a prize for first,just shows you if you NEVER GIVE UP,you get your rewards,i got the coolest prize ever 2 cast iron and bronze trainers with the crawley 6hr 2012 on the side,over the moon,i proudly looking at them now,so of i went back to the hotel had a dinner,and went to gatwick airport,yes went to wrong terminal but had plenty of time to find the right one,arrived back in dublin were a friend picked me up and back in tramore by 1.30 sunday morning,i cand wait to do this one again next year,think i could ru near 50miles if everything falls right on the day,bring on the rest of 2012.:)

week 17
mon=rest
tues=rest
wed=rest
thurs=6 miles x 7.22pace
fri=rest
sat=46 miles(crawley 6hr track)
sun=8 miles
weeks total=60miles

3rd place prize:):):)