Meditation for restless people.

belcarra

Today was meant to be a 9 mile run but was feeling knackered this evening so decided to give it a miss.
Will do the session later in the week in place of a Rest Day.

belcarra

Did a 7.5miler today. Pace was 8:24.
Did the session on the treadmill seeing as the weather outside was so wild!
Meant to do a 9-miler but the new pair of 2150s were giving me more blisters so I decided rather than running through the pain and putting tomorrows run in jeopardy I'd call it quits a little earlier than planned.

Session Details:
Distance: 7.5 miles
Time: 63 mins.
Pace: 8:23 min/mile.
TM incline: 1%

belcarra

Did a 10.5miler today. Big loop around the Northside taking in Coolock Griffith Avenue and Ballymun.

Only meant to do another 9-miler but was feeling remarkably fresh so decided to push on and complete the 10.5 mile overall lap which allows me to top up last night's run.

After showering I noticed a pain in my right knee which wasn't there when running. I'll need to keep an eye on that!

Session Details:
Distance: 7.5 miles
Time: 1hr 28 mins.
Pace: 8:27 min/mile.

belcarra

This was supposed to be a rest day but instead I decided to fit in the 5 miler from last Monday that I missed.

Went to the gym to do this session on the TM as it was only 5 miles. Tried out the 2150s again and there wasn't any blisters of note so I guess they're slowly coming around to the shape of my feet!

Run was as boring as ever but the knee issue from last night was still present. I could run through it without much hassle but I'd prefer if it simply wasn't there!
So, back on track for the week's target.

Session Details:
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 43 mins.
Pace: 8:35 min/mile.
Incline: 1%

belcarra

I was down South this weekend for Mountain Biking in Ballhoura so arrived to the accommodation at 2:30pm and was out running the local roads by 3!
I started with a severe uphill section that lasted for almost 3 miles and approx 250m altitude gain. Most of the remainder was downhill with a couple of less severe uphills. However, this was supposed to be LSR#1 but alas the knee injury of the past few days soon put paid to that!
After approx 4 miles my knee was beginning to get very sore. It had been present from the beginning of the run but I had hoped I could run through it and indeed for the uphill section it seemed to stay at bay. The downhill sections though led to the injury being aggravated and so miles 4-10 were quite painful indeed! I'd hoped to finish the loop I was on and that would leave me with 12.5 miles completed but I ended up having to walk most of the last 2.5 miles as it was too sore to run. It was almost too sore to walk on but I eventually got back to the accommodation...

Session Details:
Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1Hr 32mins 55sec.
Pace: 9:18 min/mile.

belcarra

Meant to do LSR#2 today but seeing as I'm mountain biking instead I knew I'd be postponing this run. As it turned out we were biking for 5.5hrs and were well knackered afterwards. We did the Green, Brown and White trails but failed to complete the red and blue. All the uphill climbing will hopefully have strengthened my knee although afterwards both my knees were aching. A different ailment from the past few days and I'm confident this will be gone within 48hrs at most.

belcarra

Today was a Rest Day but I never really had much choice about this!
Body still aching from the marathon session of biking yesterday and knees still sore so I was happy to take it easy today.

belcarra

Should have done a 5 miler today but am just about coming round after the biking! Will be sure not to try that again before the 11th April!!

Also, my knee injury seems much better today so hoping to go for a LSR tomorrow evening seeing as I had such a poor weekend mileage wise.
Hoping for possibly even a 5 miler in the morning and maybe an 18 miler in the evening. Breaking it up a bit like this might put less stress on the knee.
We'll see...

belcarra

Didn't manage to get up in time for a run this morning (No surprise there then!:rolleyes:)
However, my knee was feeling much better so I went for a long run in the evening. After about 2 miles the knee was back annoying me again but it stayed bearable for the next 5 or 6 miles so I decided I'd push onto 10 miles and then retrace my route back home. At the turnaround point (At the end of the seafront in Clontarf/Fairview) it was still sore but hadn't progressed too much worse as I had been taking it extremely handy.
I continued along the seafront as far as the Kilbarrack road before turning left and back towards Santry. At this point my other knee was beginning to scream pain! It was the same type of issue which led me to believe the injury is down to the runners getting on a bit. I continued through it but at this stage I'm sure my gritted teeth were beginning to grind a little!
When I passed through coolock I felt the need to pour some water on the two knees to cool them down! It worked for about half a mile until they were sore again:eek:.
Eventually I arrived home. The last 2 miles were extremely unpleasant but I promised myself I wouldn't stop. When I removed the Kayanos I noticed the black outsole in the rear-right of the right shoe (Where my heel strikes the ground initially) and the equivalent area on the left shoe were worn to the white mid-sole. This suggested to me that indeed they are worn-out and when I think about it they have probably served me for about 500 miles so I suppose it's time for a change alright...!

Session Details:
Distance: 20 miles
Time: 3Hr 11mins
Pace: 9:33 min/mile.

belcarra

Rest Day
Given the torture I suffered last night I thought it best to give the knees an opportunity to recover.
So, with my run-free evening, i decided to go shop for a new pair of Kayanos. Ended up in Elvery's buying a pair of Kayano 16's. I didn't really expect them to be any different from the 15's but from first impressions and a brief 10min walk in them they appear much more comfortable than the 15's. I must check later but I may have bought a pair a half size bigger this time round. Either way, looking forward to going out in them tomorrow evening as the knees should be fine by then.
I just hope this solves the problem or otherwise I'll need to book an appointment with a Witch Doctor/Physio!!

TheLargerBowl

belcarra wrote: »

So, with my run-free evening, i decided to go shop for a new pair of Kayanos. Ended up in Elvery's buying a pair of Kayano 16's. I didn't really expect them to be any different from the 15's but from first impressions and a brief 10min walk in them they appear much more comfortable than the 15's.

Really? I wasn't a huge fan of the 16s when I tried them in the shop, and ended up buying a third pair of 15s...

belcarra

TheLargerBowl wrote: »

Really? I wasn't a huge fan of the 16s when I tried them in the shop, and ended up buying a third pair of 15s...

I'll give you an update tomorrow!:)

belcarra

Went for a run to try out the new Kayanos 16’s today…and I was pretty pleased with them. They feel more spacious than the old 15’s but maybe I just bought a half size bigger? The heels are much softer also which is a good thing because the 15’s used to annoy me sometimes. One thing however is that they seem less cushioned than the 15’s.
Anyways, I went for another LSR as per my route on Tuesday. Tonight was less pleasant weather-wise and as I was running the seafront towards Clontarf it was getting worse. I decided to turn around about a mile earlier than Tuesday night in recognition of this fact. My knee held up perfectly all the way until approx 11/12 miles when it began to get a little sore. It wasn’t really until the last 3 miles that it was at its worst and the left knee never got sore at all so hopefully it’s on the mend now and it was indeed down to the footwear. I finished in less than 3hours but with a quicker pace than Tuesday night even though I was still taking it handy.
In two minds about going again today for another run. I know I should let the knee recover by giving it a couple of days off but I’m just wary of falling behind the plan…I might just go for a short 5 miler and see how it reacts…

Session Details:
Distance: 18.8 miles
Time: 2Hr 52mins 39secs
Pace: 9:11 min/mile.

belcarra

My bloody knee was still a little sore today so decided to stay off it again and give myself another rest day:rolleyes:.
It appears to remedy itself to about 80% within 48hrs so I should be right to go back out tomorrow hopefully.

belcarra

Met up with my brother in the Park today at 11am. We ran 11 miles together before he had to leave so I continued on for another Southern loop which brought me up to exactly 16 miles. This was a good run in really nice weather if a little cold at times.
I think I'm coping with these long runs pretty well over the past few weeks (If you ignore the knee that is!) and I finished feeling pretty fresh. I didn't wanna push it any further today as I intend another run tomorrow of 10+ miles so I should have a fully functioning knee at least!
All these LSRs got me to wondering: Is there a good alternative to the back2back LSRs for Ultra training?? If one was to complete 3-4 LSRs of 15+ miles each week would I be better off for endurance or worse in the long term? Seeing as this is my first Ultra it's all about completing the course and my time is almost irrelevant so I feel the tempo/fartlek/short runs aren't likely to be very applicable to what I'm aiming for. Sure the odd shortish run for time pressure purposes but intervals?? It'd be interesting to hear some feedback...

Session Details:
Distance: 16 miles
Time: 2Hr 23mins 19secs
Pace: 8:57 min/mile.

belcarra

Damn that 1000 mile league table!
Today should probably have been a rest day and I could have done with giving my knee an extra little time to recuperate fully but it being the last day of January I was determined to kick on and break the 200 mile barrier for the month! Perched on 192 miles it meant I only needed an 8.xx mile run to see me through. Started off a little easily for the first 300m but then began to up the pace over the course of the next 500m and before I knew it I was in the 6:3x's. This was repeated a couple more times during the run so what had been meant as an easy run to simply get over the line of 200miles now became a fairly tough fartlek run! And my knees were both fine today so hopefully that's all sorted now.

All good though but I've promised myself just an easy 5mile run tomorrow...let's see how that turns out!

Session Details:
Distance: 8.9 miles.
Time: 1hr 11mins 47secs
Pace: 8:03 min/mile

Killerz

Good running belcarra, i am jealous of the mileage that you are clocking up. It may be worth getting the physio to check your knee - it could be all linked with your core fitness and pronation.

You'll be well positioned for the Connemara Ultra. I really wish I didn't have to defer my entry (due to moving to Canada), but I'm working towards a 50 miler trail race at the end of May - every cloud has a silver lining!

Good luck with the training.

belcarra

Killerz wrote: »

Good running belcarra, i am jealous of the mileage that you are clocking up. It may be worth getting the physio to check your knee - it could be all linked with your core fitness and pronation.

You'll be well positioned for the Connemara Ultra. I really wish I didn't have to defer my entry (due to moving to Canada), but I'm working towards a 50 miler trail race at the end of May - every cloud has a silver lining!

Good luck with the training.

Thanks for that Killerz!
pretty happy with the mileage alright considering the weather at the start of the month and the knee towards the end of the month. Hopefully Feb should result in more miles in 3 days less:D

Sounds like you're not taking it easy on yourself anyways if the 50miler is anything to go by! I'm pretty sure that once Connemara is out of the way I'm unlikely to go past Marathon distance again...but then again that's what i said when I was training for my first Marathon! (Even thinking of roping an extra 0.7mile into my warmup so I can tell people it was a 40 mile distance rather than this 39.3 mile business!!)

Best of luck with the 50 miler anyways!

belcarra

I use way too many exclamation marks!!

belcarra

This is a log of my mileage for January...excluding the first three days when I was a lazy f'er!
04/01/2010 05/01/2010 06/01/2010 07/01/2010 08/01/2010 09/01/2010 10/01/2010
8.1 miles, middle 3 at MP (5:14) 9.3 miles, including 3x1.2 miles at HMP (4:58) 1hr 20mins. Rest AM: Easy 5-mile jog (8km @ 10.3kph) 47:00. 16 Miles / 25.75km / 2:30:00 12.5 Miles / 20.1km / 1:57:26 Rest
11/01/2010 12/01/2010 13/01/2010 14/01/2010 15/01/2010 16/01/2010 17/01/2010
10 miles, (5:54) 4.3 miles / 7km on Treadmill in 38:00, (5:30) 9.3 miles / 15km (5:42) Rest 20.5 Miles / 33km / 3:08:21 14.5 Miles / 23.5km / 2:14:20 Rest
18/01/2010 19/01/2010 20/01/2010 21/01/2010 22/01/2010 23/01/2010 24/01/2010
7.5 miles / 12.1km (8:23) 10.5 miles / 16.9km (8:27) 5 miles / 8.05km (8:35) 10 miles / 16.1km (9:18)
25/01/2010 26/01/2010 27/01/2010 28/01/2010 29/01/2010 30/01/2010 31/01/2010
20 miles / 32.2 km (9:35) 18.8 miles / 30.3 km (9:11) 16 miles / 25.8 km (8:57) 8.9 miles / 14.3 km (8:03)

belcarra

I'd intended to go out for a 5 miler today but as the evening progressed I got lazier and lazier. So, as it turned out I decided to give it a miss this evening and brought forward my Rest Day from Thursday.
There was another reason however for not goin out today. I have a slightly sore lower left leg. Just on the inside of the leg between the calf and the achilles there's a slight inflamation and it's a little tender when weight is put on it. Hopefully it'll be improved by tomorrow...

belcarra

Well the slight injury from yesterday has neither got better nor worse. I decided to push on with my run anyways and after 200m I thought I might have to call it quits already! It was pretty sore for the first half mile but it seemed to loosen up after sufficiently for me to put in three fast sections at approx 6:30m/m for about .3miles each. I've never tried timing myself over a mile but I'd be surprised if I ever broke 6:30 in the first few instances (Yes, I am really slow!). Anyways, I continued on for the remainder of my run finishing eventually 11 miles later. This was the first run where I didn't bother stopping the watch when waiting to cross roads/junctions. I reckon I probably wasted about 90 secs due to this.

Session Details:
Distance: 11 miles
Time: 1Hr 33mins 51secs
Pace: 8:32 min/mile.

belcarra

This was a similar run to last night's but in reverse direction. I finished-up by coming through Coolock and the couple of miles uphill incline which makes this run tougher mentally than the regular direction. (Can't think why really as the last 2 miles are also uphill on that route!)
Nothing much to note on this run apart from these 9 milers seem to becoming the de facto short runs in my training. It's weird seeing other people's training logs and the 9 miler is the LSR for them...doesn't seem so long ago that I'd have been in the same boat!

Session Details:
Distance: 9 miles
Time: 1Hr 18mins 19secs
Pace: 8:42 min/mile.

belcarra

I had intended to go for a run this evening but was a little tired and decided to cancel it in anticipation of LSR tomorrow.

belcarra

This was a landmark run for me as it's the longest run I've ever done in training. I started-off with the intention to do approx 21 miles or so but at the 16 mile point I decided I'd try and push on and do a few extra. At one stage I was contemplating the full marathon distance but as I got into the last couple of miles I decided that might be a bit too far at this stage so ended up with 24.6 miles instead. Even better than the distance is the fact that I stayed out for 4 hours. With over 2 months left til Connemara I feel I'm in a good position at this stage. I could probably have tacked on a few extra miles today as well so that gave me extra confidence.

Session Details:
Distance: 24.6 miles
Time: 3Hr 57mins 16secs
Pace: 9:38 min/mile.

belcarra

I woke up this morning still pretty tired from last night's run. Normally I'd probably be 50:50 about going out and getting another run in but I knew to build up the endurance required it was these types of runs that mattered even more than yesterday's! After going through all the usual motions of getting my gear and accessories (Headphones, phone, drink) I eventually managed to roll out the door at about 9:30. Due to time constarints I knew I could only be out for a max of 1hr 45 mins so I intended to keep it at a pace that would allow me to keep going for that whole time. 11.5 miles later and 3mins over my allotted time I was done. Felt really good as after the first half mile I loosened up and the run was grand. Would have like to have the time to go further but this was still quite a satisfying distance as the total for the last 18 hrs was 36 miles. Went off to watch the rugger afterwards and then a few drinks in the evening. Ended up going home at 10pm as I was sooo knackered by then!

Session Details:
Distance: 11.5 miles
Time: 1Hr 48mins 10secs
Pace: 9:24 min/mile.

belcarra

Slept for 11hrs last night! I was obviously feeling the effects of the mileage of the past couple of days and the few beers would have compounded that last night. Regardless though, I awoke at 11:30 with a clear head and was halfway out the door before I realised it! I'd left the car in Drumcondra after the match yesterday so my plan was to run in and pick it up. However, that was too close so I took a detour over towards Coolock again and down the Malahide Road. Staright along Griffith Avenue then before I arrived at the car after a few short turns later. Bit of a slog today to be honest and it was meant to be a rest day in the schedule but I'm taking them according to how I feel these days so decided to ignore it today. Plus, this run managed to help duplicate last weeks mileage (64 miles this week) and rise a few places in the 1,000 mile challenge:p.
I worked out this evening that so far this year I've ran at an average of 7 miles per day!

Session Details:
Distance: 7.7 miles
Time: 1Hr 07mins 57secs
Pace: 8:49 min/mile.

belcarra

Another Monday, another rest day!

belcarra

Decided on having another rest day this evening as was still pretty knackered. Really must start going to bed earlier!

belcarra

Eventually I managed to get my ass out the door of the apartment and go for a run. I did the usual 9 mile loop with an eye on the time as I wanted to be back for the Arsenal v Liverpool match. This run though was in keeping with my week…very lethargic and I rarely felt like I was enjoying the run. Indeed the first couple of miles I felt as if shin splints were about to appear but this alleviated itself shortly afterwards. The middle section was as good as it got with the last few miles completed through 20 mins of slight ache in my lower back.
Altogether, a run to forget!

Session Details:
Distance: 8.9 miles
Time: 1Hr 33mins 51secs
Pace: 8:32 min/mile.