Reach for the sky...

woody1

21st to 28th august
week 9 marathon plan - half done
6.6k twice, 11.6k once

and the warriors run to cover me for 18k lsr
warriors is just under 15k but i figured elevation and speed would make up for the 3k lost

its 4 years since i did it last and 5 since i raced it , the bit that had stuck in my head was the 7k thats left after the "mountain" , but actually it wasnt too bad, despite a start that saw the first 3k pass in under 20min 5k pace , got a rest hiking up, flew down, the few hills that are in the last few k didnt seem to bad at all and if anything im left with the feeling that i underpaced the second section a little , finished in 1.16 and something, 115 place , out of 850 something , which is 15 mins faster than 5 years ago , so its nice to see all this running around is actually improving me and not just making my legs sore

first time ive stuck to a plan over such a long period and it was great to feel the good of it and be able to run hard in the last few kms of a 15k race !!

off to physio later serious stiffness in legs.. have to loosen up to get back to grind tomorrow,

was hoping to enter the dublin half but it appears that ive left it too late so hopefully i can swing a babysiter to cover me for louisburgh instead

woody1

week 11
had to play around with this week because of the heavy legs i had from warriors
ran tuesday night , wednesday morning, did both the shorter runs and left the longer one, split the longer one into thursday evening friday morning, which at the time seemed logical but looking back it left me running twice in 12 hours , twice, ! switched the long run from sat to sun, and it went ok for the most part, the usual litany of niggles working their way around the legs but pace and effort was ok,
last 20 mins i had a calf niggle, dull pain and tightness, didnt go away, was easier to run at faster pace, finished up, it really tightened up last night, hobbling around feeling sorry for myself most of yesterday evening, still tight this morning but not as bad,
from internet diagnosis it seems to be a soleus injury / strain i have the feeling if i had taken last week off after warriors i would have avoided it
i think the plan is going to be to skip all the midweek runs this week and possibly shorten the long run at the weekend ,
will have to see what happens..

woody1

so first run after 4 days rest this morning
apart from it being surprisingly dark at 6 am but yet still surprisingly nice to run this wasnt a nice run got 2k in and the tightness was back in the bottom of the calf eases off if i go faster or stays manageable if i just shuffle along but its not a nice sensation.. at the end of 6k it wasnt particularly worse than at 2k but it was there and its certainly not something id envisage running any distance on... it has the feeling of something that needs to be rested for a while.. which probably puts an end to marathon plans

as a last ditch im gonna try get into my physio hopefully between now and monday and see what that does, if i can salvage some mileage over the next 7 days then it mightnt be too bad, going to run with compression socks and see if that makes a difference ...


blah

Neady83

Sorry to hear about the calf Woody. Try the physio and get some advice, there's still a nice run into the marathon so all is not last

woody1

thanks neady , physio is booked and we'll see what happens
if that doesnt work out then il forget about it for this year and
move on to the next thing be it cycling swimming or shorter
distance running
im more annoyed at the 80 euro wasted than
the marathon but ive no interest in butchering and slashing the
training plan in order to get to the marathon and just survive it
if im not running niggle free by next weekend itl get dropped

woody1

weekend update
was scheduled to run 28k at the weekend but that was far too big an ask
the running club marathon group were running a half marathon as part of their plan so i jumped in with them, there was an 8 mile and then a 5 mile loop, i was hoping to get through the 8 miles at least and would only keep going if i felt ok
wore compression socks and a bit of a tube bandage and it seemed to help, in fact for a long time the calf was reasonably ok just twinging a bit but from compensating i had niggles elsewhere from hips and lower back to knees but they were moving around and i wasnt bothered, got through the 8 mile just starting to get stiff but i stuck at it for the 5 mile, at 20k everything from the hips down on the right leg was seizing up so i just jogged out the last km, there was no way i wouldve got to 28 never mind further, so i can run, just not very far ..

so the conclusion is, theres no conclusion, i dont think its anything thats going to stop me running , i think its a series of knots and niggles and probably all linked to core or back issues and if i can get that worked out asap then it should be possible to keep working through the plan, physio tomorrow , easy enough week this week, 30k run to do in a fortnights time, if i cant get through that reasonably comfortably then il pull the plug..

i think though that a couple of trips to the physio in the next week or 2 will sort it out ..

woody1

ok got into the physio on tuesday , hips way out of line as usual, calf whilst tight not actually too bad, so got pushed and pulled for an hour, felt very tender most of wednesday but managed to get a run in
wed 6k ( shouldve been 8 )
thurs 8k ( shouldve been 14 )

friday i had to have a small surgery to get some sun damaged skin removed from my temple ( use sunscreen people ! ) so i had to leave saturdays long run til sunday to allow stitches to settle a bit had a wedding on saturday then so that made sundays run more interesting

sunday one of the slowest long runs yet but no major niggles couldnt really get a rhythm and felt like i was hitting the ground rather than running over it but other than that no major pain or tightness anywhere ran while all ireland was on lovely quiet roads !

3 x 8k this week and 30k at the weekend
starting yoga today to try and resolve hip/back issues

woody1

week 13
3 midweek runs all 8k this week, all at 6 am :eek: getting used to it though, and had the bonus on wednesday of seeing 3 deer 2 foxes and a rabbit

long run this week was 30k , which went grand, no major niggles, dull ache in foot by the end , but all things considered it was just a nice long run , feeling it now though,

started yoga on monday, im sure itl be a while before i see any great results from it but if it can make even a tiny difference for 5 weeks time itl do me

so one more long long run , 33k in 2 weeks time , getting the midweek 14k run done is actualy more of a pain now than the long runs , but anyway 5 weeks to go , things going the right direction

woody1

week14

another week all done to plan 8k 14k 8k and 20k
the 14 was a really nice run , possible because it wasnt at 6am
the 20 was a bit of a slog at times

more early morning starts. more wildlife seen,
yoga going ok
did a bit of a charity cycle yesterday

3/4 marathon on at the weekend and thatl be the last of the long long runs

woody1

week 15
3 8ks i think
and then 31.8 in longwood yesterday

no major drama with the shorter runs
tried to run the 3/4 with the 4 hour equivalent pacers so 6 min mile pace
after 30 mins of tripping over feet and running into the back of people i had to get in front of the group and i held about a 5.40 to 5-50 pace up to half marathon then i got bored of running at that pace and decided to stretch my legs a bit so i got moving down to 5 min kms and a bit below at times , stupid i know but i was enjoying it without killing myself, i only meant to do 2 or 3k and then slow back down but in the end i ran the last 1/4 at roughly 5 min pace

from the point of view of being in good shape for the marathon it was probably a bit stupid, but it was good to see that i had it in the tank to let rip after 21.2k, so physically stupid, but psychologically good..

really easy week this week, everything will be slow slow slow probably due another trip to the physio

woody1

week 16

obviously there was a bit of payback for the last 10k of the 3/4 marathon so i was a bit stiff last week
got 2 of the 3 shorter runs done and still felt a bit leggy and tight so skipped the third one
went into physio more for a last stretch out than anything and ran the 20km the day after tough enough run a lot of bits and pieces tender and sore niggles in places i dont normally have them but it got done

started week 17 this morning , 6 am 6k run felt light enough on feet bit looser in stride bit stiff in hips now which is a remnant of yoga last night

2 more short ones and 13k to do at the weekend

woody1

week 17

three short runs and 1 longish 13k all done
bit of a calf niggle at times during the week and
definitely on saturday during the longer run

dont really know what to make of it , at times its not there and at other times it feels very tight , wont stop me running but whats going to happen after 2.5 - 3 hours i dont know it might warm up fine or it might stiffen up or it might dissapear altogether this week

no other major niggles or hassles , 2 short runs to do , and then the big day

woody1

week 18 and dcm 16 report

as usual these posts are mostly for me, if im still doing a bit in years to come itl be nice to look back and see where i was and where my head was at as much as my body, so its long and unorganised and scattered a bit like me !

full scale taper madness !
niggles everywhere but mainly left achilles / lower calf
got the few little runs done but no matter what i did it wasnt going away low level dull ache and tightness driven demented all week thinking of how to address it , did also get a serious case of grumpiness , taking everything that was said to me out of context, looking for meanings that werent there, and just being a bit of a cranky boll*x , which is not normal for me, and christ it would wear you out,

left for meath on friday, youngest coughing and wheezing all the way up, not easy on him at all, and selfishly, not easy on me , worrying about getting sick , got there , parents house, little fella awake all night wheezing and coughing, and his brother then chimes in at 5 am with tummy trouble , the better half had been telling me that winter vomiting was rampant in the hospital she works in so immediately i was worried thats what he had, so friday night i got about 2 hours sleep,

got up to expo got signed in and got home to find the eldest hadnt eaten all day and was still sick , on the plus side the youngest was improving, i was eating fine, no signs of tummy trouble really, didnt feel great, but long drive, no sleep, taper madness , will do that to you, went out for 3k run to warm up legs and had a disaster of a run, sick stomach, cramps, cold sweats, finished 3k with heart rate thru the roof,

my feeling for the 10-15 mins afterwards was to forget about the marathon, its not a race for illness or injury .. an hour later i had come around to starting and seeing what happened, eldest boys tummy settled as the evening went on, youngest stopped coughing and wheezing and everyone got some sleep

up at 6 am , got decent brekkie, and my brother and his better half brought me up, walked up to start, got bag drop done reasonably easily, went to the toilet despite not really needing too, and was in place and ready to go by 8.30, i was 5 yards from the 4 hour pacers before the wave started moving up to the start, and about 50 yards away after we had moved.

so off we go, from the first step my left achilles was sore, dull sore and not getting worse , i had decided that id do an hour and see where i was and how i felt, congestion at the first few km, even up through the park was mental, had to keep a good eye on the watch cos i just kept falling into step with the crowd around me , be that too fast or a lot of the time too slow, got up into the park, and i was sweating buckets, at 5.45 ish pace ! was worried if i had caught one of the kids bugs, had a glance around and most people around me were sweating, maybe not as badly as me but it was clearly warm and humid, decided not to skip any water stations and to drink as much as possible, up the drag through the park out the top around a few more draggy bits and back through another part of the park and downhill, still feeling free enough, leg still sore but not getting worse, making an effort not to batter down the hills and kill the quads,

saw a few guys veering off course to take a wizz and figured that it made sense thered be nowhere after this other than portaloos, so veered off took a minute ( this is important ) and veered back

got from the park exit round to halfway without any great drama still big congestion where i was, just behind 4 hr wave , at dolphins barn my sister was waiting for me with a gel, ran past and had to veer back to get it, delighted i did , as i needed it later ,

up the crumlin road and the lack of wind was hugely noticeable, through halfway in 1.59 ish which to be honest was at least 2 minutes if not more than that slower than planned but i felt ok and figured i could get enough back to be safely sub 4,

between the halfway mark and mile 15 or 16 i started to feel a bit heavy legged, probably just a result of going up the crumlin road and the drag after it a few seconds too quick , was keeping an eye on pace , the average was at 5.35 now and i figured i could let it slip a bit and still be grand so i slowed back a tiny bit , 5.35 to 5.40 with the idea that i could pick it up again later ..
few kms later i got a second wind, felt fine, picked up again, nothing crazy just running freer , heavy legs gone,
i had written on my hand that roebuck was at mile 21, and as we were coming up to it, around mile 19 or so , i just let the pace back a few seconds, just to have a bit, to be honest when it came to it i went up it grand, i slowed , more to make sure i didnt burn the legs but i barely noticed it, got up the ucd flyover grand as well, again possibly a bit too slow or too carefully but i was aiming at 3.59.59 and i thought i had a minute or more to spare..

after ucd the legs were free the body was fine i was smiling to myself thinking this was in the bag, running 5.30s and thinking just hold this pace or even just sub 6 and youl get there itl be tight 3.59 something but youl get there ,
at around 40k, just coming up to rds both legs from the arse down locked and i went from running freely at 5.30 km pace to trying hard to run 6 min + pace , all i could do was try to keep going and pray, i knew there was no distance left and if i could get any bit of stride going that id be in under 4 but i couldnt stretch my stride out beyond a shuffle, i was also feeling pins and needles in my finger tips and up one arm so i didnt want to overdo it, but realisticaly i wasnt able,

as we got closer , miraculously the stride came back and with the healing power that a finish line has , once i saw it i was back running again, but it was too late the damage was done, i ran the last 300 yards looking at the garmin willing it not to turn over from 4.00 to 4.01 , but about 10 yards from the line it ticked over..

all done in 4.01

thoughts .. i can live with it, 4.01 or even 3.59 is not a realistic marker of where my running is, times for other distances, looking at people im normally well in front of at other distances being well well in front of me on sunday , and fair play to them, i do realise different people have different strenghts as well, i should be aiming at 3.50 and below, but i just wanted to run sub 4, i trained for that time and i got close enough that im not heartbroken about it, i know il get it again, somewhere else,

i was a bit cagey on the day, i made a point of getting water at every station, to the point of stopping a few times to make sure, i held back in places i couldve went a few seconds faster, that wee in the park definitely cost me a minute or more ! :-)

but the bigger mistakes i made were not allowing for running further than the official distance, just never occured to me ! duh !:o so i didnt factor in a bit of wiggle room when i was slowing back a bit earlier in the course, and i didnt allow for congestion, lost a minute easy in the first few kms .. but they are lessons learned

in 2013 i had a disastrous marathon, everything that could go wrong did go wrong, combined with poor enough training and bad decisions on the day, i blew up before halfway, walked a lot, and really struggled for an hour and a half or more, and to be honest that gave me a very skewed view on how hard a marathon is, i had no wish to go through it again, this year whilst it didnt go perfectly to plan was very close, i woke up monday morning thinking about where i could do another one to get my minute back .. and that says it all !

recovery / plans.. surprisingly i have no major muscular or joint pain or stifness with the exception of left leg lower calf / achilles which is ok to walk around on but is really sore on stairs, driving, anything that requires the ankle to flex.. there is a half marathon, marathon, ultra thing on locally in 2 weeks that would be tempting but realistically i dont think il be running for a while. will get back swimming soon, not with any great target , as much to see a few different faces twice a week and to get out of the house as anything else, probably back to volunteering at parkruns too, was hoping to do a bit of cyclocross, so will be scouring done deal for a bargain mountain bike ,
as soon as legs are good for running itl be back to the never ending quest to do more with less..

Neady83

Nice one Woody, tough day out there so so many runners. You hit your target and learned some lessons, not a bad day at the office

MojoMaker

Great report, good reading Woody.

woody1

nothing this week, nothing at all and i didnt miss it one bit

was doing a bit of gardening out the front of the house when one of my neighbours stops as hes driving up the road and rolls down the window

oldish man late 60s maybe older ,

asks have i been doing much cycling , he knows im involved with the little village cycling club, i tell him no, that its been all running , and he asks was i training for anything

told him i did the marathon on sunday

so how did you get on

4 hours i said with a big happy head on me

well you mustnt have done much training then !!! :eek:

that told me, turns out as the conversation went on that he used to do a bit and ran a 3.40 in it years back, after having a full irish for breakfast and needing to get sick during the race ! he has seen me running and cycling round the place and figured id be able for something better than 4 hours

anyway thats provided some motivation for a while !!!

my village / townland area 5k is on the 27th december so i better put on a good show for him there !

bought a mountain bike yesterday, hopefully will get out to do a bit on it ..

woody1

back at it a bit lately havent kept a great log of it
been swimming 4 times , 3 coached and once on my own
have done 2 30 min turbos this week, second one gear cable
snapped mid way thru and left me in hardest gear
did a little bit of cycling on the mountain bike
swam last night, coached, approx 1700m
will hopefully run later

woody1

not much to update
being swimming a few times
did a parkrun in oldbridge, 5k 25 mins
found it tough enough, very heavy legged

christmas vistors and school stuff and parties
are making it hard to get anything done or making
it easy to find excuses !

woody1

stephens day 5k 23 mins allow a bit for helping with a runner that had veered off the road into a ditch, they maintain they lost their balance , im not so sure, regardless, must get first aid training

28th dec .. village cycling club christmas spin.. so far off the pace ! but still was socially a good thing to do

1st jan to 8th jan .. 8 days of 31 day challenge 30 mins or 5k , all 8 done so far better half doing it as well ,

woody1

8th to 15th Jan
7 runs 7 x 5k couple on the dreaded treadmill one of which was almost an interval workout treadmill put on steepest setting and then doing a minute as hard as possible 5 or 6 times with a warm up and warm down

have both boys cycling now so one 5k was acconpanied by the boys on the bikes have to stay close to the smaller one and push him up some of the hills and not let him get away going down so its a decent workout and its good for them i wasnt doing 5k on a bike when i was 6 !

and yesterday was a 5k race, have done it last 3 years and have never really been thrilled with my time, first race back after xmas usually a bit heavy legged nice surprise yesterday to feel strong almost throughout got stuck behind runners in the first 500 yards and then blew up badly in the last but in at 20.30 in january think i was closer to 22 last year so il take that

this week back to swimming 7 runs and a cyclocross race :eek:

woody1

7 runs
4 x 5k 2 on the treadmill
1 around 6k
1 around 9k which was up and down the booster station in castlebar , its a stretch to call it a mountain, its a big hill which has a few masts on the top of it and so has a road up it although you wont see many cars on it. its very steep in spots and on a nice day is a lovely place to run..

there was a cyclocross race in ballina on sunday and there was a 2 lap have a go event , so i broke out the mountain bike and had a go , great craic, physically tough, in the red-zone almost all the time, but still definitely worth doing more of...

Neady83

woody1 wrote: »

7 runs
4 x 5k 2 on the treadmill
1 around 6k
1 around 9k which was up and down the booster station in castlebar , its a stretch to call it a mountain, its a big hill which has a few masts on the top of it and so has a road up it although you wont see many cars on it. its very steep in spots and on a nice day is a lovely place to run..

there was a cyclocross race in ballina on sunday and there was a 2 lap have a go event , so i broke out the mountain bike and had a go , great craic, physically tough, in the red-zone almost all the time, but still definitely worth doing more of...

Ticking over nicely Woody. I've been up booster hill a few times, it's a brutal enough climb.

I was up your way last weekend, saw a group out on Saturday training for the cyclocross, looks like great fun - but really tough.

woody1

yeah im suffering with seriously stiff legs today , but i think its more the downhill that did the damage than the uphill, gonna try to get up there a bit more often , as for the cyclocross, we did 2 laps, round a mile each ish. the proper race was 6 laps for the b's and 8 for the a's was really impressive stuff , it would be great winter training , hoping to do a bit with the mountain bike section of the club at the weekends for a while at least id need to improve on the technical side of it

woody1

22nd to 29th
7 runs again at least 3 treadmill saturday i did 30 mins with better half and one of the boys on his bike , then did 4 x 3mins at 3.40 /km ish the athletic club did this on the track as 6 x 3 mins but i was tight for time hopefully will build on it every week

2 swims cant remember the exact breakdown but i think both were about 1800m thursdays was easier than tuesdays

turbo on sunday morning first one in a while by the time i had it set up i had lost all want to do it , did an hour at about 60 percent

woody1

30th jan to 5th Feb

2 last runs of the 31 day run thing monday was treadmill i think tuesday was a headtorch run in the woods with roughly 70 of the 100 odd participants and it was quite cool to have 70 headtorches in the otherwise dark woods

i had an hour to kill between the run and swimming so i headed up to the pool early, got changed slowly but still had about 40 mins to kill so i did a few slow 100s just to pass some time ended up doing 800m before the start of proper swimming training

training itself was somewhere round 2000m lots of pull bouy and paddles stuff

wednesday and thursday i took completely off as a rest from the 31 day thing just not to have the stress of trying to crowbar a run into some hard won half hour of the day

friday i had missed thursdays swimming as better half was working and her mum, who normally would take the boys, was sick, friday lunchtime i left work half hour early and went to the pool and did somewhere round 1500m ,500 straight just to see could i , few 100s and a few 50s of 1 arm stuff ,mostly left arm

after that i headed to the track to do an interval session that the running club had been doing earlier in the week , warm up 8 x 3mins at 5k pace with a break after 4, warm down .. didnt have a garmin with me so was guesstimating the pace using the track and a stopwatch, good workout would be better to do it in the group

saturday we brought the boys and their bikes to the woods , older boy did 5k or thereabouts with better half as she ran, i ran/jogged/walked with the younger one did about 4k maybe , they went home and i took my mountain bike for a bit of a bash around the woods , tried out some of the off path stuff and tried to work the legs a bit ,hung up the bike and went for a quick run , about 2k on tired legs

sunday off

woody1

5th to 12th feb
monday o/h working off
tuesday 6.5k run struggling to remember where / or what , tuesday evening swimming, approx 2k
wednesday 6.5k run again
thursday swimming 2k ish paddles and pull bouy stuff which i love got thrown in with the sharks in the fast lane for this .. a serious workout would love to be able to translate my speed with the pull bouy to without it
friday 9k ish run interval session the running club are doing these on wednesdays but that doesnt suit so i just copy the session when i get a chance
10x2mins at 5k pace with approx 50 secs recovery warm up and warm down all worked out about 9k
saturday parkrun , then as it was a lovely day brought the boys to the Wild Nephin area if i can figure out how il put a few photos up one of my favourite places anywhere spent a few hours walking around picnic etc boys loved it which is great
sunday 16k run with some guys from the running club, hilly run il throw a profile up later

woody1

woody1

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/1446787288

glanduff hill run

woody1

monday 13th to sunday 19th

monday off

tuesday 5k run in town hour and a half break then coached swimming group prob around 1800 - 2k i know there was 20 x 25 hard after that i cant remember

wednesday needed a break so didnt run at all went for coffee whilst boys were in karate

thursday nothing family funeral drove over and back the country was too stiff to do anything by the time i got home

friday running club interval session 4 x 4mins flat out absolutely wrecked doing this one nearly got sick a few times dont think the previous days driving helped

saturday drove back out to letterkeen to do a bit of running on my own on the trails didnt get as much done as id like i was tight for time but it was really enjoyable mix of forest roads and mucky trails 10k took over an hour so it was a good hard 10k

sunday club duathlon,
havent been on the tt bike or indeed tried to make a bike go fast since last july ! so this was a bit of an unknown
first run went well into transition in 4th in under 8 mins for 2k
slow enough transition but got going went off with feet on top of shoes but so out of practice that when it came to getting them in i was nearly stopped altogether one or 2 passed me early on whilst i was messing around at this
got going didnt have a speedo on the bike but did the first lap around 8k in 14 mins 2nd lap things got a lot tougher and i think it took around 16 mins
and transition couldnt come fast enough , passed by 3 in the second lap and caught up to by a lot ..

terrible 2nd transition i didnt bother to go looking for the lock laces on saturday evening and i paid for it , couldnt get feet into runners, had to stop and open out the laces properly and tie them again .. at least 5 passed me in transition .. got running , legs felt surprisingly good, ran down 4 of the 5, and a couple that had passed on the bike .. i think the full second run is about 4.5k time for that + transition is 19 something
finished in 7th in 55 something

content with that .. running legs were good, bike legs werent but havent been on a bike so cant expect much but still had half decent speed allowing for that

a decent enough week in the end easy week this week 5k in my home village on sunday that i want to do well in

woody1

20th to 26th feb

sick mon tues wed.. actually took tuesday off work and that never happens just wiped out
thursday i swam coached session wasnt going to go but went in the end cant remember if i ran or not,
friday swam at lunchtime dunno about 1200m maybe and ran after work 7k was feeling loose enough by the end of it
saturday was in duleek did about 3k of sundays 5k course and left it at that legs heavy and a few twinges here and there

sunday duleek 5k, horrible windy morning lashing rain but thankfully it cleared just at the start, still very windy though, race went well enough, to make up distance they had a funny dogleg on the route in the first km turn right down to a cone turn around back up turn left to my mind itd be nicer to get the distance later in the race somewhere but im probably over simplifying anyway was on pace up to about 2.5k fell back a bit to 4k and whilst the last km was strong i shouldve trusted myself and really drove it home ( still not a fan of really hurting ) 20.10 in the end in crappy conditions winner was in in 15.40

crappy week but cant expect much more with 3 days off sick so that race is out of the way time to assess what the priorities are for rest of year