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Bliain Faoi Thrí
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A pretty crap 2 week's training, kyboshed by a mixture of travel, laziness and snot-riddled children.
Wednesday 19 March
3 x 1600 @ 6:19. I can't even remember doing this workout, so no details
6.5 miles done
Sunday 23 March
Out and back up Doire Fhearta. Feeling a bit off but stuck with the 7:21 pace.
7 miles done
Wednesday 26 March
Both boys home from school/preschool due to infections/colds/very messy nostrils/sore ears/inflamed throats. This was taper week so an easier week than normal. 6 x 400 at 5:56 pace (I think I need to switch to kilometres soon:o) with 60 sec rest.
Felt cold sweat after the first interval which isn't always a great sign.
Didn't bother with Thursday's run as was feeling crap.0 -
I was really humming and hawing over doing this race. The original plan was a 10k in Ennis but when Corrib AC's debut 8k race popped up on the calender, it seemed like a much easier option logistically (and of course distance-wise!).
I hadn't been feeling too well during the week, and was strongly not considering running the race on Saturday morning as I had felt better on Friday, and wasn't feeling all that great again on race day. But nothing works better as an incentive to race than having pre-paid and wanting to get your money's worth!
The race was in Killanin and after a quick and efficient race number pickup, I did a brief warm up and felt a cold claminess with heavy legs. I usually like to think out beforehand how the race will go but for this race, for a variety of reasons (doubtful about lack of training, not feeling great, long time since last race), I just headed up to the start line and left it to figure itself out.
It wasn't the most natural of courses, with the distance made up of turnarounds, and the start up a narrow lane off the main road. It wasn't a flat course either as advertised. Undulating would be a nice description, and a nasty incline just before the 7k mark.
As always seems to be the case, I ran the first mile way too fast, thinking that something had to be wrong with my watch because it didn't feel too uncomfortable! There was nothing wrong with the watch. Mile One: 6:14
Usually when I race, I find myself in no-man's land, behind and in front of a group but on my own. This race was different in that there were four of us together early on, which was useful as despite it being a lovely day, there was a headwind for those first two miles. Mile Two: 6:32
Into mile three, one of the four broke off and the remaining three of us didn't have it in us to follow him. Every now and again, I'd pull up level to the lead guy in the group, sometimes daring to go ahead but I didn't have the confidence in my training or in my body to pull away. It would turn out later that my self-doubt was justified
. Mile Three: 6:32
The group splintered on mile four, with one guy pulling ahead and two of us running beside each other for the remaining mile. At 3.5 miles, it felt like my legs were about to buckle and that I was about to be found out for trying to race on very little training but at that stage it was a case of keeping on keeping on. Mile Four: 6:29
After a nice flat mile four, mile five broke the elastic between myself and remaining guy in the group and I managed to pull ahead. A steep, steep hill at about 4.5 miles sucked the energy and the possibility of a strong finish away but at this stage, I was just happy to be able to consolidate my position. Mile Five: 6:46.
I finished in 32:32, seventh overall, a bit shattered but over the moon to be back racing. I don't know what my next target will be, but with baby number three on the way in July, it needs to be an early summer target!
A nicely organised race, with food, tea and chat afterwards. Thanks, Corrib AC!
Time: 32:32
Distance: 8k
Position: 7th out of 64 (10.9%)
Average Pace: 6:30
AHR/MHR: 177/1830 -
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Hmm, the plan was train for a race, slack off for a week and get back on the horse. I trained, raced, slacked off, but forgot to get back on the horse
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4 April
5 miles in St Ives, Cornwall, around a golf course so as to avoid brutal hills. Spotted a large bird of prey kill a rabbit and fly off with it!
15 April
In Sevenoaks in Kent for the week with my family. Six easy miles, running in a lovely park.0 -
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Alternative Title: The Race In Which I Was Beaten by a 12 Year Old
Feeling the need to do something about a total abandonment of training (and realising that I definitely needed to do something after consuming a monster portion of McDonalds), I decided on Friday night that I would do the Orpington Parkrun, 15 minutes up the road from where we were staying in Kent. My theory was that, if nothing else, it would jar me out of complacency and into training.
The course was a mixture of grass, tarmac and dirt trails on a three-time loop, and as I usually do, I started out way too quickly. I didn't mind, however, as I knew regardless of what pace I'd start out at that I'd be shagged soon enough so I might as well try and get some time off the clock early (this, by the way, is a bullsh*t theory and doesn't work
).
Things were going ok, I was in between two bunches early on, with a lead bunch of about eight fragmenting as we closed in on the first mile, some shooting off in front, a few falling back a bit. At about the mile mark, I passed one of those who fell back, a young boy, and as I chortled to myself at him setting off at way too fast a pace, I caringly and patronisingly gave him some verbal encouragment as I overtook him. "Fair play to you, you're goin' well, lad." If he wasn't confused by the accent, I'd imagine he was certainly puzzled by a stream of familiar words put together in a construction not commonly heard in the Garden of England.
Mile 1: 5:58 min/mile
Mile two was the realisation that starting out quickly to put some money in the bank was a stupid plan, especially going up one of the dirt track inclines, where I left the life being vaccumed out of my legs and that familiar feeling of going backwards. It didn't help that I was passed at this stage by a bloke who looked remarkably comfortable for a 5k race.
Mile 2: 6:23 min/mile
Mile three was a b*tch. It was just about hanging on, and having to react to footsteps that were getting closer wasn't helping. At some stage, I looked back, and lo and behold, it was the patronised boy closing in fast. The last section of the race was up the life-sucking dirt trail and try as I might, I just didn't have the fight or the energy to hold him off. As he passed, I knew I had two choices: encourage him with insincere words so as to not come across as unsporting, or wrestle him to the ground and try and make it to the finish first. It is to my eternal embarrasment that I chose the former. He beat me by four seconds.
Mile 3: 6:31 min/mile
All in all, apart from being outsprinted by someone in the 11-14 age category, it wasn't too bad of a day! Two very different courses, but my time of 19:52 was an improvement from the 20:28 in Westport at the start of the year.
I've also got some training focus back, and have pencilled in a half marathon for July, a week before the baby is to arrive.
Done:
Distance: 5km
Time: 19:52
Ave Pace: 6:19
Ave/Max HR: 177/187
Position: 10th of 155 (6.5%)0 -
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Thursday and Friday were unavoidable washouts for various reasons.
Saturday:
It was supposed to be an eight miler at 7:20 pace (4:33 km pace), but after staying reasonably close to pace for the first six miles, I fell off badly for the last three (I also misjudged the distance and made a nine miler out of it!).
With things going so poorly for the last three miles, I didn't bother try and force and just used it as a cool down to get home. Not pretty.
Distance: 9 miles
Time: 1:10:43
Ave pace: 7:52 (4:53 km)
Ave HR: No HR uploaded to Garmin Connect for some reason
Sunday:
A morning from heaven!
My first group cycle in a long, long time and while it was an inevitable eye-opener, it was just great to be out for the morning, on a beautiful day, ploughing through a beautiful landscape.
I struggled for a lot of the spin, getting dropped on the flat with alarming ease, especially on the way home. My only saving grace was that the other four were relatively early into their season and that my weight helped me out on the longer climbs! I was comprehensively dropped for the final journey home however, an incentive to get back in the saddle.
Distance: 66.79km
Time: 2:28:14
Ave Speed: 27km/h
Ave Cadence: 80
Ave HR: 1500 -
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That Galway full distance race next year has lit a fire under him
Definitely not. Given my stream of excuses in avoiding the pool, there is no way I would be ready for a June IM in the open water (plus, no more than yourself, if I ever go long, I'll do it in a gentle climate with nicely-surfaced roads and water that doesn't result in instant shrinkage...)
No, the fire was lit, partly by being beaten by a 12 year old in a race, but mostly by being dropped by every single member of a club spin two weeks ago :eek:0 -
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Thursday
Felt a bit off on Thursday, and after putting a sustained period of training, without getting ill, for the first time since the latter stage of 2011, I wasn't taking any chances :eek:. Unscheduled day off.
Friday
Bike spin back to Tír an Fhia. 6 x (4x 30/30). Stiff wind heading out. Not sure if I was putting the proper effort into the 30/30s as while I was tired at the end of them, I wasn't shagged.
Distance: 30.6km
Time: 01:06:04
Speed: 27.8 kmh
Ave/Max HR: 143/169
Ave RPM: 78
Saturday
My sister's daughter had her first communion, and all that goes with it, on Saturday so the run had to be put out of the way early. It was a miserable, miserable morning. I seem to be struggling a bit in my run training recently, either with distance or pace, so the object of this session was just to get ten miles under the belt, disregarding pace. It was a long five miles home into sh*te weather.
Distance: 16.1km
Time:01:17:55
Pace: 4:51
Ave/Max HR: 143/169
Sunday
Sunday morning was probably the worst morning I've been out in on the bike in a long, long time (as you can see, there's been a pattern recently in the weather!). Coming down the hill in Cladhnach, the crosswinds felt a bit dodgy. Coupled with a strong westerly wind, I decided to stay away from the climb in Maam and head back to Cill Chiaráin so I'd have the wind at my back for the journey home.
It was a slow, lonely journey back west (it took 56 minutes to cycle the 17km from Scríb to Cill Chiaráin, compared to the 33 minutes it took to do the same distance on the way home :eek:) but dreams of a cup of coffee from the shop at Cill Chiaráin kept me grinding away. When I got there, however, I realised I didn't bring any money with me
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The journey home was nicer though (and although I was soaked to the skin and b*tching about the gale, I have to admit that there was something exhilirating about being out in that kind of weather!).
Distance: 70.2km
Time: 02:42:50
Speed: 25.9 kmh
Ave/Max HR: 139/158
Ave RPM: 800 -
Monday
Massage. The groin perma-injury has definitely eased up, and the strain in my right arm has all disappeared. After loads of localised work on the groin, it seems that work on my back (my shoulders were like pieces of pine, hard and riddled with knots) has made a greater difference. Hurrah!
Tuesday
My wife and I had a scan (well, she did) early in the day and with all looking well on the baby front, I didn't have time for a lunchtime run when I got back to work. By the time I got home, I was definitely looking at excuses not to go out (I even considered mowing the lawn, goddamit!). In the end, I went down to the pitch but the intervals were cut short by the start of an underage local derby football match. It was supposed to be 12 x 400, it was 5 x 400 on the pitch and another 2 on the way home. Intervals on the pitch are much easier than on the road. Easier underfoot and easier to figure out when your interval is about to finish without looking breathlessly at the Garmin.
With the run cut short, I had run out of excuses regarding the lawn and it's finally received its first cut of the season
Distance: 5.6km
Time:28:56
Pace: Intervals (1:26) 1:24, 1:21, 1:25, 1:24, 1:27, 1:42, 1:51
Ave HR: 1600 -
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Last Wednesday, I did 4 x 1200m intervals. At the end of each interval, I found myself saying to myself that intervals make me feel my age. By the same time the following day, I felt considerably older!
On Thursday morning, I went out on the bike for 2 x 15min intervals with a cool down and warm that would have brought the session to little over an hour. At about 7:15am, shortly before I was to start the second interval, a car came through a junction without seeing me and caught me smack on the side.
I recall nothing of the accident, other than some vague recollection of a voice in my head saying “he’s not stopping, is he?”. The next thing I remember is the ambulance crew scooping me up from the road onto a trolley. Apparently, the car hit me, with me breaking its windscreen and rolling up over the roof and onto the road. The bike stayed stuck to the front of the car.
Going into hospital in the ambulance, I was sure that both my collar bone and rib(s) were broken as the pain was excrutiating. Remarkably, despite the impact on the left hand side of my body, it turns out that no bones were broken. I’ve some fluid in my chest, a shoulder that has very little movement in it and a neck that doesn’t seem to rotate all that much anymore, but no broken bones. I had to go back into hospital on Saturday for a catscan due to headaches and dizziness but it showed up clear, thankfully.
I haven’t been able to inspect the bike yet but photos show the fork and front wheel to be mangled. I’m not sure what damage has been done to the frame. My cycling clothes had to be cut off in the ambulance, and nobody seems to know where my helmet or my (superfantastic prescription Transition lens Oakley) sunglasses are.
Speaking of helmets, I shudder to think of the damage if I wasn’t wearing one. The left side of my face was swollen, with some small cuts, but I think I’d have more than headaches to worry about if my head wasn’t encased in polystyrene.
The accident puts this comeback on hold, and only paves the way for an even more glorious comeback, although it’s not entirely clear at the moment when that will happen.
What I do know is, all things considered, I'm a lucky man!
PS Typing with one hand is a pain!0 -
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