[nerraw1111]

Friday 13km aerobic

Did this first thing this morning. Didn't wake up till about 4km in. Straight out the door, no breakfast. Oddly, started to get stomach cramps half way through. That aside, lovely morning on the Great South Wall, had it to myself.

Still in two minds about the DLR 10km. BBQ day before so will see how that goes. There's supposed to be entry on the morning of the race.

[nerraw1111]

Sunday 6km recovery run.

Monday 19km avg pace 4.30 km

So first time hitting all scheduled runs in a week. Today's run was very enjoyable. Felt good throughout. Jenny Greene on 2FM were playing dance classics so great listening. I also made a change to my training which has given me great speed...a running singlet! Forget intervals, a singlet will have you zipping along.

[nerraw1111]

Tuesday bike 30km

First time on bike in ages. Nice spin around the Phoenix park. Took it handy. Legs felt good, no noticeable drop in bike fitness. Hills felt good. Probs an avg speed of 28km.

[nerraw1111]

Wednesday 16km, 8km at half mara pace

Good session but horrible at the same time. Plan was to do 8km at easy pace and then 8km at around 4min/km pace. Lovely evening for it but just 5km in I was feeling wrecked. Thought strongly about binning the session. Had no energy. Struggled on to the first 1km at hm pace and slowly ticked off the kms. Mentally it was great to finish session while feeling crap. All kms came in at 4mins to just under. Kmackered now

[nerraw1111]

30km LSR 150 minutes.

Up and atom bright and early. Beautiful morning, woofed down some porridge and out the door before 7.30am. Ran through town on way to Phoenix Park. Hit the trails and I was just buzzing, hazy blue skies and an almost deserted park. Stashed a bottle in a tree near the cross and the kms were clicking by nicely. One big loop of the park brought me back to my water bottle and before I knew it, I was over half way. Hit a bit of a rough patch around 22kms, legs were a bit tired and stiff, and I was getting hungry. Left calf was getting a bit tight but got over the slump to hit 29km, with an avg pace of 5.04min per km. Luas home and another km jog home. Delighted with that.

Phoenix Park workers do a great job too. On the way in, you could tell it was a nice evening in Dublin judging by the rubbish all over the place by the monument and other parts of the park. By time I left, it was completely cleared.

[nerraw1111]

11km recovery run 55mins

Weekend of beer and music festival as well. Catching the last 5 lads in the Olympic marathon was as close to marathon training as I got.

This evening's run was tough. My left calf was sore all weekend and shed loads of walking and standing around didn't help. Rejigging schedule as Gaelforce this weekend. Treating race as a half marathon tempo run. Medium long run tomorrow of 19km, also breaking in new trail shoes. Then rest up and push out long 20 mile run till Tuesday.

[nerraw1111]

11km

Short enough run. Breaking in new trail shoes. No problems. Originally planned 19 but didn't have time. With GF on Saturday, probably a good thing. Not sure how they'll pan out. I'm certainly faster so will go out quicker on the run. Cycle is unknown. Trained harder at start if year than 2011. But less so in last 2 months. I'd like to think ill be slightly quicker on the bike. As for Croagh Patrick, suffer!

[nerraw1111]

Gaelforce West

Back for the fourth time. I had a target of breaking four hours having previously posted a time of 4.12 in 2011. I’m running a lot faster than last year, had a really good IMRA Leinster league with improved times and positions across the board. So 12 minutes wasn’t a huge ask. Big unknown was the bike. Did a bit of bike work early in the year but nothing since June.

So off we start at 6.30am. Manic scramble from the beach. I got into a nice pace from the start and was motoring along. Got to the rocky trail and my HR starting to rise. Very muddy underfoot, a lot of energy was expended trying to maintain the pace. Was up to my arse at one stage in bog. Breathing hard about 7km and I was trying to get it under control. Pretty much stayed in the same position that I had from the start and was making ground on the climbs.
Got to the kayaks at 1.01.29, about 1.40 ahead of last year. Probably in the top 15/20 at this point.

Into a single kayak for the short paddle. Amazingly, no-one passed me here. Gave me a bit of a boost. The bog section was very difficult but got to the bikes at 1.27.34, compared to 1.30.27. A three min improvement so game on for sub 4.

Got on the bike and my race, unlike the course, went downhill. Not sure what happened, lack of training, going out too fast, but I just felt like crap on the bike. Legs were gone. It turned into a real sufferfest. I tried to grab wheels as they went past, would hang on for about 5 mins before getting dropped. This went on for most of the bike section. Got passed by one VET about 25 mins into the bike, who went on to a top 10 finish, a lesson in good pacing perhaps.

Got to the bog road and really felt like crap. Last year, I flew up this section, feeling fantastic. This year, I was barely turning the pedals. Was contemplating pulling out at this stage. Just as we got to the transition, leading woman called me, so perhaps all was not lost. 1.26.19 for the bike compared to 1.22.46 in 2011. However, it felt like I was ten minutes down.

Onto Croagh Patrick and the question of route choice. I saw the leading woman go to the left and thought about following her. Alas, I followed someone else on the most convoluted route up the side of reek. I was fecked at this stage but was pissed to see we completely missed the ridge and emerged further up the mountain. Felt a bit light headed at this stage and had to stop a few times. Again in 2011, I felt great going up. Reached the summit in a time of 41.12 compared to 32.57 last year. Turned down and headed a cautious descent. My left foot was sore at this point. Decent descent, about 2 mins slower than last year.

Back on to the bike for the last 12km to Westport. Felt ok here and held a decent pace to the finish. Foot was fcvked at this point and limped over the line in a time of 4.23, 11 minutes slower than last year.

At first, I was pleasantly surprised with the time as I felt so bad on the bike that I thought I’d be heading for over 5 hours. Now, I’m not so sure. I’m fitter than last year and more experienced. A bit pissed to go over 10 minutes slower up CP than 2011 despite being a stronger climber. That’s a huge amount of time to lose.

Still not sure what went wrong, or indeed if anything went wrong. I didn’t think the lack of biking would have such an effect but perhaps the absence of long bike rides, which I did last year, meant I wasn’t able to push on tired legs. Maybe the marathon training left my legs fairly tired going into the race. Lots of maybes.

Physio appointment later as my left foot is fairly sore and limping ever since. Hopefully it’s just a bruised heel but feels a lot more serious than that.

[nerraw1111]

Goodish news from physio. Foot isn’t too bad. The problem stems from a tight hip which is then pulling all sorts of things awry, with the foot being ‘the victim.’

A week to recover but assured I can start back pretty much as normal and to treat this week as a rest week in the marathon schedule. That makes sense right?

A load off my mind. Previously, I’d let an injury drag on but now would recommend going to a physio sooner rather than later. Will cycle for the rest of the week.

[nerraw1111]

Been a while. Foot injury took ages to clear up. Over 2 weeks. Very slow process.

Luckily, my first run back was in the alps and around bits of the UTMB course. Epic running. Best of all, you can avoid all the hard work slogging uphill by hopping on a cable car and then just running along the ridges and balconies of the alps. Amazing. Hiking and running all day long under beautiful clear skies. Great place. Cheap too. Running Mecca in the summer it appears.

Great buzz till I sprained my ankle (opposite foot) on last day. I was twisting it
all day until it finally gave out. That has since healed. A bit tender but fine to run on flat surfaces.

13k today at around 4.20 pace. Still on for marathon but missed over 3 weeks so will see how I go as to what time to target.

[nerraw1111]

16km around 4.40 pace.

Completely forgot to eat today. Seriously. So after 6km, I was weak at the knees. One mars bar and a bottle of the spar isotonic drink later I was feeling much better.

Felt pretty good after that and was hitting a few 4.20 km splits. The spar drink wasn't that bad either. A bit sweet however similar enough to lucozade.

Got home only to realise the plan called for 19km rather than 16. Balls.

A wedding coming up which will involve more rejigging of schedule. Planning to move LSR to Friday. Supposed to be 27km but I've missed a 20 miler so fingers crossed, I'll aim for that.

Also missed a few vo2 max sessions. Very haphazard approach.

[nerraw1111]

20 miles 4.55km pace.

Absolute misery. Every single km. Trying hard to think of at least one part of the run I enjoyed but nope, not a single step.

Up at 6am, out the door at 6.30am with a camelbak. It was a nice morning initially with a bit of wind. By 8km, I was feeling a bit tried which lasted until kilometre 32. The route I chose was in retrospect awful. A figure of 8 along the northside and southside sea fronts. The bit of wind was now enough to slow me down.

I was wrecked by the half marathon distance. Broke down the remaining 12km, into 6km beyond my house and another 6km back. That worked mentally for a while until I realised that still meant another 50 odd minutes of running.

I was even hoping for red lights all the way home, just to stop for a bit. It’s been a month since my 18 mile run. That felt easy in comparison to today. The chances of running 26 miles, at 40 seconds quicker per km, seems fairly remote!

A very rough morning. Positives are that I got it done, didn’t take any gels, drank only water, feet, ankles feel ok and did it at 6.30am on a windy Clontarf sea front.

[nerraw1111]

A great week's running. Mainly because most of the runs were in Spain under the sun.

Monday 13km, Tueday 15km.

Felt great on these runs. On holidays so also got to see some cool sites. One of the great things about running is doing so while away. Usually discover nice parks or cafes etc.

Wednesday 15km with 5 * 1km at 5km pace.

This was a bit of an effort. Haven't done any fast work since injury so held a bit back. The laps came in at 3.44, 3.38, 3.42, 3.40 and 3.39.

Saturday 19km

This was fairly rough. 30 odd degrees heat left me fairly battered, zig zagging from
shade to shade. 5 min/km pace. I was in a heap at the end of it. First 9km felt fantastic, went from thinking "that marathon des sables doesn't seem that hard" to "oh
****, I'm going to collapse." 95 mins in total.

Monday 9km recovery run. A very wet and slightly cold run.

Slightly behind on P&D schedule. Tomorrow is 29km with 23km at pmp. Should be a tester. Hopefully weather improves!

[nerraw1111]

29km, 23 at pmp.

Looked at the window and thought feck that, I'll do it tomorrow. Thought about it over a cup of tea and well, the day of DCM could be like this so zipped up the man suit.

Headed to the park where there were a surprising number of runners. Rain jacket, wooly hat and off I went for a handy 6km before starting pmps.

Basically did two laps consisting of a loop around the pitches at acres, then up Chesterfield road, down north road, out by the zoo and back up chesterfield for lap two. Previous pmps were for a 2.55 time but with three weeks missed, new pmp is for 2.59.

Felt good for first 13km of pmps. Bit of a head wind along Chesterfield that required a bit of effort. Struggled to run at pmp (4.15), constantly speeding up/slowing down.

Second lap, discarded the rain coat. Started to feel the effort and the last 7km were a struggle. Wind felt stronger, a hill suddenly appeared on chesterfield road! Took a gel and the last 3km felt never ending. Runners were squelching with every step. Got it done with avg pace of 4.13.

Four kms were over 4.15: 4.16 twice, 4.22 and a 4.18.

Thoughts of doing another 13km? Jaysus.

I'm crap at running at a constant pace, I was going from 3.58 pace to 4.25. Think I might waste a lot of energy speeding up/slowing down. Perhaps following pacers will leave me less tired.

[nerraw1111]

13km with 5 * 600m at 5km pace.

A bout of man flu made this a bit rough. Legs felt tired. Intervals were pretty even, 3.29s, 3.30s. So 6 months of running in the dark beckons then.