Elvis goes Up & Over

elvis jones

mrbungle wrote: »

Are you running 5 marathons or doing splits ?

Last 5 days sounds like the hard part.

The running works out like this

day 1 - Marathon
day 2- Marathon
day 3 - 38k
day 4 - Marathon
day 5 - 50k

Day 3 is 38k to allow for the public day to start in the right place and day 5 is 50k to avoid the N7 and Red Cow.

I agree the running is going to be the hardest but all i have to do is stay upright and get to the end of each day !

Once the head stays going longer than the body i'll be fine..........i just to finish and when i think of what cancer suffers go through for months and sometimes years 5 days of pain is nothing and worth it to raise much needed funds for the Cancer Society and Autism Action !

elvis jones

Another day and another run ! The plan was for 16k BUT my right calf caused me some trouble along the way. I got to 9k and had a decision to make, a short 3.5k loop or a long 7k loop.

I went for the 3.5k loop as its better to be able to run the rest of the week rather than risk injury.

The body was fine, the head was fine but the right calf said no and 12.5k was all i got done tonight:(

I'll access how it is tomorrow morning and i'll judge if i'll have a rest day or 10k. I have to do two 20k plus runs sat and sun so fingers crossed !

elvis jones

I wore compression socks to bed and i now have the socks on with my recovery sleeves on as well:o

Legs feel a little better now and its only my right calf thats anywhy slow. Only for the calf i could run today with ease but i'll get in this evening, do some rolling and see how it feels.

If its ok then its 10k this evening.

VO2 and body fat etc in the morning before yet another LSR.

tunney

elvis jones wrote: »

I wore compression socks to bed and i now have the socks on with my recovery sleeves on as well:o

Legs feel a little better now and its only my right calf thats anywhy slow. Only for the calf i could run today with ease but i'll get in this evening, do some rolling and see how it feels.

If its ok then its 10k this evening.

VO2 and body fat etc in the morning before yet another LSR.

In my experience alot of calves issues cannot be addressed with normal rolling. Alot of the hard to shift issues are with the tibialis posterior and soleus which you won't hit with rolling normally.

Oryx

tunney wrote: »

In my experience alot of calves issues cannot be addressed with normal rolling. Alot of the hard to shift issues are with the tibialis posterior and soleus which you won't hit with rolling normally.

Because I didnt know where they were I google imaged them.

All I can say is don't.

tunney

Oryx wrote: »

Because I didnt know where they were I google imaged them.

All I can say is don't.

Why? They are buggers to get released

Oryx

tunney wrote: »

Why? They are buggers to get released

Lots of surgery pictures.

elvis jones

Lucky for me my physio is the wife of the guy doing my Vo2 so fingers crossed she'll pop in and have a look at my calf tomorrow.

I do think its the tibialis posterior from looking at the pics on google and where the discomfort is. Crazy that the faster i went last night the less i felt it, when i slowed down it got uncomfortable.

Its a little too high to be the soleus but all wil be told tomorrow morning ! I'll still have a nice epsom salt bath this evening and put back on the recovery tights as well just to keep up any sort of recovery that might be occuring.

If i can't run this weekend so be it, rather push out long runs for a few days or a week rather than risk injury this close to the event !

tunney

elvis jones wrote: »

Lucky for me my physio is the wife of the guy doing my Vo2 so fingers crossed she'll pop in and have a look at my calf tomorrow.

I do think its the tibialis posterior from looking at the pics on google and where the discomfort is. Crazy that the faster i went last night the less i felt it, when i slowed down it got uncomfortable.

Its a little too high to be the soleus but all wil be told tomorrow morning ! I'll still have a nice epsom salt bath this evening and put back on the recovery tights as well just to keep up any sort of recovery that might be occuring.

If i can't run this weekend so be it, rather push out long runs for a few days or a week rather than risk injury this close to the event !

What shoes do you run in?

elvis jones

tunney wrote: »

What shoes do you run in?

Brooks Ghost 6 with orthotics. Runners are new with only 90k on them and orthotics have about 600k on them ! I've had 5 pairs of brooks from 4 to 5 to 6 and they work well for me ( so fat anyway )

j0hn1

elvis jones wrote: »

( so fat anyway )

who are you calling fat??

red face dave

Oryx wrote: »

Lots of surgery pictures.

Damn you Oryx, my curiosity got the better of me. I wont sleep tonight

elvis jones

At the physio this morning and i have a very slight calf tear. Lucky for me i laid off the running before i did some real damage. No more running until the run part of the event but she thinks i'll be fine once i do the work needed.

On a positive body fat down and aerobic threshold has increased !

c07

Yay to the lower body far and higher aerobic threshold.
Bit, jesus, slight calf tear. Sounds nasty. Just as well you stopped when you did. Hope it's tippety top on race day

elvis jones

c07 wrote: »

Yay to the lower body far and higher aerobic threshold.
Bit, jesus, slight calf tear. Sounds nasty. Just as well you stopped when you did. Hope it's tippety top on race day

Cheers !

Back at the physio this morning and she worked on my other calf which was very tight and she found previous damage that could have caused me problems on the runs so she worked on it and i lay there almost in tears:o

Anyway i have two very sore calves but its worth it if they'll be right for Aug 28th. I have some work to do myself and i'll prob get back for one more session before we start.

Off now for a short, slow swim to relax the body.

Almost at taper time but lets face it without the long running my legs i'm in inforced taper anyway !

mloc123

So, the run week ended in injury meaning no more running before the event? Would you consider it a mistake or do you take anything from it?

tunney

Out of curiosity was was your:
(a) longest run
(b) most km ran in a day (split runs)
(c) biggest run volume week

elvis jones

mloc123 wrote: »

So, the run week ended in injury meaning no more running before the event? Would you consider it a mistake or do you take anything from it?

Wasn't a mistake at all, you can get injured at any time and its not a major injury. Better to get injuried on July 31st that Aug 31st !

elvis jones

tunney wrote: »

Out of curiosity was was your:
(a) longest run
(b) most km ran in a day (split runs)
(c) biggest run volume week

Longest was 32k
Most in a day was 32k but i did do 44k in 20hr with a nice sleep in the middle.
Biggest run volume was 90k

Last week would have been 130k and i had that in the legs, other than the injury my legs felt freah, my body felt fresh and most importantly my head felt fresh.

I'm not looking to run record times, just finish each day and with doing back to back half marathons two weeks in a row and three in four days i feel i can recover and be at the start line every morning.

mloc123

elvis jones wrote: »

Wasn't a mistake at all, you can get injured at any time and its not a major injury. Better to get injuried on July 31st that Aug 31st !

I would disagree. Running when tired and fatigued will exponentially increase the risk of injury.

Form gets sloppy and changes leading to injury. I would consider 4 weeks off running to be more than minor, again IMO

elvis jones

mloc123 wrote: »

I would disagree. Running when tired and fatigued will exponentially increase the risk of injury.

Form gets sloppy and changes leading to injury. I would consider 4 weeks off running to be more than minor, again IMO

I would also argee but i wasn't tired, as i said above the body and mind felt fine and the legs were also other than the calf problem.

If it wasn't for the event i could be back in 10 days i've been told.

Perhaps i sound niave but trying to stay positive, i'm just happy/glad this happened in July and not in Aug.

elvis jones

1,300m swim at lunch. Nothing special just up and down at a nice pace. Calves felt fine and it stretched out the legs and they were lighter when i got out.

Cycle at lunch tomorrow, 30k odd i have about an hr.

elvis jones

31k in 61min at lunch yesterday so a nice steady pace without pushing too hard. A fairly flat course as i was advised to keep the cycling mainly flat while my calf heals.

A long ass meeting yesterday evening to put more details in place, we're down to 2 weeks before we start:eek:

Swim today, i'm aiming for 6k but i'll have to see how he calf holds up !

elvis jones

Long swim, well if you consider 3.6k long. Body felt good but from 3k onwards my calves were starting to cramp slightly and when the problems i've had in the last week i decided not to push it.

The taper is on so rest day tomorrow and Sat we're out marking the roads for the public marathon so it will be roughly 70k on the bike with a lot of stopping and starting !

elvis jones

Cycle on Saturday, 95k in total. A lot of stop start stop start as we were making the road for the marathon and half marathon. I spent all day clipping in and out of the pedals and holding my mates bike while he took the paint from my bag and painted the road.

95k on the bike is norally a nice cycle but i was in bits after this. I don't know if it was all the stop/start or the clip in/clip out but i was wrecked after it.

It didn't help that Mrs Jones 30th birthday party was on that night and i had a lot to do when i got back from the cycle but i didn't stop until i got to bed a 3am and yep kids had me back up at 6:30 yesterday.

A lot weekend with little sleep and i'm still very tired today, ugh.

The plan for this week is some short light sessions, early nights leading to good sleep and a good diet.

I'm working next Fri & Sat night but i'll stay in bed the next day until i get my 8 hrs.

elvis jones

Swim this morning before work, a nice slow 1600m. During the swim i thought about how i'd get through 7.6k in the pool. When doing 1500m i tend to split it into 750m, 750m and a 100m warm down.

So with that in mind i'm going to do 750m splits with a stop for a drink at 16 lengths. Then i'll do another 14 and that will be 30 lengths. I'll count 30 lengths at a time and they'll be 10 sets of 30 lengths with 4 lengths at the end to warm down:D

I also tried out new goggles ( lovely lime green & purple ones ) and they seemed to work well.

Only a week left and i seem to be getting nervous, its more nervous about the size of the event and the organisation involved than actually doing it.

Anyway 1 day at a time and that 1st day is Aug 22nd !

griffin100

elvis jones wrote: »

Swim this morning before work, a nice slow 1600m. During the swim i thought about how i'd get through 7.6k in the pool. When doing 1500m i tend to split it into 750m, 750m and a 100m warm down.

So with that in mind i'm going to do 750m splits with a stop for a drink at 16 lengths. Then i'll do another 14 and that will be 30 lengths. I'll count 30 lengths at a time and they'll be 10 sets of 30 lengths with 4 lengths at the end to warm down:D

I also tried out new goggles ( lovely lime green & purple ones ) and they seemed to work well.

Only a week left and i seem to be getting nervous, its more nervous about the size of the event and the organisation involved than actually doing it.

Anyway 1 day at a time and that 1st day is Aug 22nd !

Remember, JKS!!!!!!!!

elvis jones

griffin100 wrote: »

Remember, JKS!!!!!!!!

griffin100

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsemWIZUk4k

JKS - JUST KEEP SWIMMING:D

elvis jones

T Minus 6.5 Sleeps

As I sit here writing this I’m thinking to myself, wow this time next week we’ll be on route to Cork having just swam 7.6k ( I hope ). That 7.6k will be day one of 11 epic days that I’ve gone over in my head hundred’s of times and over the months I’ve grown in confidence about them. But as the time approaches when I actually have to swim, cycle and run for eleven days I’m beginning to get the gitters. Nerves are normal and a very rational but they keep changing from aaaaahhhhh the swim, aaaaaahhhh the cycle, aaaaahhhhh the run. I know if I can stay injury free I’ll crawl to Camden St if I have to as what’s eleven days of tough exercise compared to months of chemotherapy or a lifetime of caring for a sibling with Autism with little or no help from the state.


Its over a year since I thought up this event one evening and since then its morphed and grown into something bigger than I’ve ever thought it could have been. Each day is a logistical nightmare in itself with transport, food, hotel, recovery etc all to be arranged before we swim, cycle or run. There have been hours of meetings, e mails and phone calls over the last few months to get us to a point where hotels are booked, kit lists are produced and we’re down to discussing will we have chicken or ham sambos for lunch on the bike.


But all that organizing is dwarfed by our public day. The public day involves online entry, insurance, health and safety statements, water, t shirt design, marshals, media, numbers, end line, timing clocks, marking roads, medal design and transport are only a few of the questions that had to be answered over the last twelve months. We’ll still be working on the public day each evening when we finish and even with another crew getting involved with organization we’ll still be working on the event up until the day before. But its all going to be worth it to have people running with us ( or well ahead of us by that stage ) along that 4th marathon in 4th day.


The public day is going to be something special. On the morning of Aug 31st in Geashill Co Offaly 30+ runners will start with us for the full marathon that will finish on the Curragh Racecourse. Along the route in Cloneygowan we’ll meet up with our 7k runners who’ll join us and run to Portarlington which will be a homecoming of sorts as this is where myself and Wes live. Here our 7k event will finish and we’ll start with a group of 10k runners who’ll stay with us as far as Monasterevin at which point we’ll meet up with 50+ runners doing our half marathon. They’ll continue with us to the Curragh Racecourse and the end of our 4th day of running.

It will be so nice to have a race for all types of runners and to think that a semi drunkin idea will end up with over 200 runners coming from Cork, Belfast, Limerick, Dublin etc to run with myself, Wes and Richie and at the same time raise funds for two amazing charities.

The public day will also have a few very personal highs as living in Portarlington I’ll be running past the end of my road and my kids will be to cheers me on. Add to that my wife Aine will be running her 1st half marathon as well so it will be an emotional day and I’ll definitely have my sunglasses on no matter what the weather is like as I feel there might be a few tears.


So with only six days left until we get into the pool and get Up & Over started physically there’s not much more we can do but just stay injury free and enjoy the taper after months of tough training. What’s more important over the next week is that we prepare ourselves mentally. There are going to be highs along the way but there are also going to be lows and we have to be able to see beyond those lows each day to get to the end line.


Perhaps the hardest thing for myself is leaving my kids Ethan & Emily ( and I suppose Aine as well ) for eleven days. But as I’ve said above what’s eleven days away from them compared to what a family living with Cancer or Autism goes through. One little positive is that Sept 1st the day we finish is also Ethan’s 4th birthday and its also the 4th anniversary of me deciding to try to get fit, its been some journey.


It’s almost time……………..It’s almost time to F*uk S*it Up & Over !!!!