Pushing my boundaries and making my physio rich...

tHE vAGGABOND

Im in London for a few days with the new job [and will be midweek for several weeks] - did 5 and a half odd miles from hotel [near Archway tube] to Hamstead Heath. 
Legs totally dead, like I did my long run & race only a few days ago. I had kinda assumed that a few days rest would have shaken that out. The heath is great, lots of running routes and plenty of soft surfaces. But with dead legs it was not all that much fun [apart from a couple of stops to take in a great view!]
Will venture out again tomorrow morning and see how the legs feel - the plan in my head said a hard session - but might do a mid-week long run instead.

tHE vAGGABOND

Life is busy with new job & with travelling during the week last week & this week upcoming. Crazy busy weekend and at the same time the desire to do long runs at 9pm is totally absent [weird!]

Friday night did 8 or 9 miles [and was planning to do longer - but cut short as later in the night there we more and more folks drinking & having in groups and was worried about some of the junkies you see somewhat near my gaff].

So did a park run Saturday, and a 9 mile run last night [in a pitch black Phoenix park - with those faint lights every 100m or so & deer wandering onto dark roads and paths.

Life is too short to try and do medium or long runs in the pitch black!! Can't wait to have marathon done and resume doing 30-40-50 min runs for fun & getting my head together and no other reason

tHE vAGGABOND

London again with work, did 7 miles around Hamstead heath - went exploring, but pace and continuity affected by having to stop every so often to check on the phone where the hell I was :)

The plan is to do the 3/4 Marathon as a final hurrah before Amsterdam this weekend. Don't have a route down & back to the race yet. But I will sort [or end up running myself up Clontarf & around howth, but a fair bit slower than if pacers were dragging me along!!]

Life so busy there is a serious fall off in mojo. Just running at night and early morning when I should be working / sleeping / doing "family stuff" is hard. But will be happy&proud&glad when its done!!  

Looking forward to easy & pressure free runs under an hour a few times a week. Maybe target a 5k PB, as my 5k time is pretty soft at 21 mins and change. Looking back now, my 10 mile & half PB are only just outside that - should have gone sub-20 a few years and a few stones ago

pansophelia

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

London again with work, did 7 miles around Hamstead heath - went exploring, but pace and continuity affected by having to stop every so often to check on the phone where the hell I was :)

I lived in Tufnell Park for a year and ran in Hampstead Heath regularly - fabulous place to run! I got lost there all the time but treated it as part of the adventure - it's strangely disorienting for some reason. Enjoy!

tHE vAGGABOND

5 miles Friday night, testing my new runners, adidias boost Parley [the ones made with a load of sea plastic]. Brilliant ride, very comfy..

In the end, I did not do the Athlone 3/4 marathon, just could not spare the time - all the more so since I'm in London 3 days a week these days. So did 19 1/2 miles around the canals and Phoenix park instead. Grand run, legs tired, but if I had time I could easily have gone on.

The shame was that with no pacer there to drag me on/along - my pace did go thru spikes and dips - and average was just over 10.30 min/miles in the end, which is fine, but would have been better to be closer to 9.45-10 min miles - maybe it would mean little, but would have made me feel warm and fuzzy

2 weeks to Amsterdam now..

rainbow kirby

pansophelia wrote: »

I lived in Tufnell Park for a year and ran in Hampstead Heath regularly - fabulous place to run! I got lost there all the time but treated it as part of the adventure - it's strangely disorienting for some reason. Enjoy!

Lived in Archway for nearly 5 years, used to run there a lot too. The Kenwood side was great for the leg strength!

tHE vAGGABOND

Yea, I lived off the Holloway road for 3 or 4 years

- alas that was back in my 21 stone days, long before I started running - so ran in no parks or anything. So love getting in and around those parks & routes these days


Side note heaven knows how many London Marathons I could have done back then, as I know one of the lads I did rugby with did it one year for a laugh, as his girlfriend worked for a charity and they were stuck with places late!! Now I only get yearly rejection emails

tHE vAGGABOND

Was in London for a few days again. Did 5-mile 'easy' progression run, starting slow and each mile getting a touch faster & last mile at 8.30 or so? Felt really great afterwards, first time with that "runners high" in a very long time...

Should have run Thursday in London too - but made the choice to stay in bed in total peace and quiet for the first time in 2 or 3 years

Just done afternoon run around Dublin time, 4 miles and fairly strong pace

tHE vAGGABOND

Background:

So I was to be doing Dublin. I had the plan of running sub-4 in Dublin. I have not done Sub-4 in Ireland, but done it three times abroad [with PB of 3.38 from Berlin]. But wife is going to Italy with work this week, and we have to look after Child #1 during mid-term anyway. So we all go to Italy, with her work paying chunks of flights, hotels and car hire.

So in a quick check I booked Amsterdam. Nice city & flat race. Went on my own, in and out of city in 30 odd hours. I always knew, with the experience of having done a few marathons, that I did not have enough miles in the legs. On tempo sessions and the few races, my lungs were not burning too had, but my legs were screaming. This happened over and over. On looking at my log, I did key sessions, but still only went over 40 miles in a week a mere 4 times in a 20 odd week long plan - but over 30 miles 9 or 10 times]. That just does not cut it, and I know that. That is hardly a hal higdon "just get around" miles!!

Complicated - aka - excuses:
Things got complicated further. I got a new job, so in last 6 weeks I spent a number of days every week in London. That meant eating out and drinking many nights........ "networking". I have gained weight in that time. Over first couple of months of training the plan my weight was great. I was in shirts that did not fit right since around wedding in 2012 [..same time when I was running properly]. But now a good chunk loss is back. The old adage, you cant out run a ****ty diet! Wife is also pregnant and suffering 1st-trimester blues. So after being in London for 3 nights, saying I was fecking off for a 3 hour run [or any run while she or toddler is awake..] is a touch unfair

Flew to Amsterdam, all good. Hotel nice, halfway between Expo & race start and the airport. Expo was ok, never spent huge time at any expo tbh. Got a jacket at this one, as its always been something I did not have - a light windbreaker type thing. I always regretted not getting the one at Pairs Marathon, which was embroidered [like the Boston ones are].

So going to the race I knew I was fecked. I fully knew the last few miles would be very painful. I did think could maybe do 4.10. My head said to go with 4.30 pacers and try and do a *TINY* negative split.

Race itself the start it nuts, going from the olympic stadium. Too many people squeezed into a small area. I am glad I was not nervous and going for a time, as it took maybe 10-15 mins to get to the start line as there was a big choke getting to stadium.

Lined up just ahead of 4.10 pacers, and they were about 5 to 10 meters only behind 4 hour group. First few miles are a bit slow, due to congestion at start. But as soon as mile 2 I knew I was working too hard.

So slowed down a fraction, and Garmin shows me as being somewhat steady. At the time I was running with or behind people. Just picking a person running a good pace and going with them. That was the story until not long before halfway. Hit halfway at 2.05 or not far after it [on memory, did not check back].

At that point I really thought my legs were starting to tire. So again, a conscious slowdown. There was a bloke with a "Where's Wally" costume doing around 10 min miles, and I ran with him for a bit. He was French and was chatting away, we hardly understood each other, but each welcomed the distraction.

Around 16 miles I was wrecked. The course was "out and back" a number of times. If we had been switching over with the faster folks around then, I think I would have ducked under the wire and cut a chunk of the course out tbh - but it did not. I would have regretted said action later. But was telling myself I now run for fun and mental health so the death march of last 10 miles was not needed!!

From there TBH I "adopted a run walk strategy" - initially running most of a mile and walking a hundred meters or so. But the longer we went on, I walked more [and the more my legs were totally ****ed]. I was still smiling, but at very few parts of the race did my heart rate get above 140-150. My legs were just undertrained and I had far too few miles in them...

Finished at 4.38 odd, with some really crappy miles in last batch [and a 10 minute mile pulled out of the bag for the last one!!]. I really enjoyed it and would do Amsterdam again. But I really liked the quiet waterside out and back, where I have read others saying they really hated that bit.

Finished race, went right to hotel for shower, uber to airport. Was home in my house in time to read child #1 the bedtime story

average_runner

Jaysus your a blast from the past. Married and kids now, how time goes.

Well done on Amsterdam.

Its hard to get the time for it all.