From 20 a day to 3:30...

Wubble Wubble

Best of luck! Hope the tapering has gone well this week.

JohnDozer

hot buttered scones wrote: »

Best of luck on Sunday - I hope it all goes well for you.

diego_b wrote: »

Hope you have recovered well and best of luck with DCM.

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Best of luck! Hope the tapering has gone well this week.

Cheers all. I'm just at the tail end of a 5 week taper, 2 of which involved little or no running. Got the car back on the road somewhat, just picked up some dirty diesel in the tank so couldn't go flat out. I might still pull off a decent sized PB if it all stays together. Getting excited and nervous now!

JohnDozer

Friday 20th October

Did an easy 4 miles from home once the school run was done. Took in a lap of the park as I was down for Run Director duties tomorrow so a decision would need to be made. A good few branches had come down last weekend but all had been cleared away. So it would be down to how bad Storm Brian got now. Some park runs had made the decision to cancel early on the Friday. We went with an early Saturday morning weather assessment and announcement. Anyway, the run was grand, tipped long and threw in a few strides in the last mile to try and throw off some of this general sluggishness I've been feeling. I'm conscious of the effort put in last Sunday too, so nothing major can or should be undertaken now. Que sera sera and all that. 4 miles on the button. 8:46 pace, 152 avg HR

Saturday 21st

No running. Had parkrun RD duties so between course inspection, course setup and all the other Saturday morning bits I did a nice bit of walking. Developed a bit of tightness in low calf/ Achilles as a result.

Sunday 22nd

Planned the last long run with the lad I've done most of my long runs with. We settled on 12 miles out and back along the Great Southern Trail. Lots and lots of debris down from the previous weeks weather activity so we were both quite conscious of going over on ankles and the like, but we were just being dramatic. By the end of the run we had agreed that we were now buddying up for the big day, as the individual goals had now grown closer together. Pace ended up a little quicker than planned but 'twas grand. Little bit of tenderness but nothing to put me off the road. Had a nice cup of coffee and some biscuits from the car boot afterwards and mulled over some race day possibilities and pace strategies. Basically just setting up the pre-nup in case it all goes belly up!! 12 miles, 8:50 pace, 151 avg HR

Monday 23rd

I wanted to run three times this week, one of which needed to be the club pre-marathon meet up run on Wednesday, so Mon - Wed - Fri became the plan. Dropped the youngest at soccer training in the PM and took off on a lap of the town. due to yesterdays long run kept the effort nice and low. Nice cool evening and the breath was showing in the air. It had been a while since that happened. Also the first run in a while where I haven't felt fat, sluggish and unfit. 5.7 miles, 8:50 pace, 143 avg HR

Tuesday 24th

Rest

Wednesday 25th

Last club run before the big day so pretty much everyone turned up. Think 13/14 DCM entrants from a small club was the the count. Nice run at a sedate pace in a large group. Im pretty sure there was no non-marathon talk amongst the group, everyone swapping war stories and sharing advice. Some of the lads were going for shorter than the usual 10k so there only two of us left after the 4 mile mark. Upped the pace a bit to include 2 MPish miles with a final flourish of a bit quicker than MP . Felt good to do. 6.1 miles, 8:37 pace, 149 avg HR

Thursday 26th

Rest.Woke up this morning with a nasty sensation in the lower calf. Hopefully just a bit of aggravation from the run last night! I fecking hate this injury related sh!t...

Friday 27th

Met my DCM buddy for the last few miles together before the day. Hit the usual shorter run route out along the canal and the river. All in order. Body feels ok. I still feel fat and sluggish. We kept the pace easy peasy. We have a good plan for Sunday. Not much more we can do now. 4 miles, 9:24 pace, 136 bpm

Headed for the expo in the middle of the day. I plan to sleep in my own bed the night before as I've done for other marathon. I think I'd prefer to suffer the drive and have my home comforts the day and night before. The extra hour helps out as I'm normally awake early anyway so instead of staring at the walls in a hotel room somewhere I'm driving along the motorway daydreaming about the finish line... Not much difference maybe but works for me!

JohnDozer

Well that's it. I'll leave the analysis till the end. It's fair hard to judge what kind of shape you're in. It's been a topsy turvy training cycle. I got some good work done, but I also did some fairly silly things. I definitely went for a training load that was beyond me right now. But I've managed to get through it in one reasonably prepared piece. I'm fairly confident I can knock off a chunk off that 3:59:xx PB. I really should find out exactly what the xx part is. I just recall looking with anguish up O'Connell Street as the clock moved towards 4:00:00...

I'm happy with the strategy for the day now. Easy easy easy until Castleknock. Make up a few seconds when the gradient changes. Easy easy easy under the bypass and up the long drag that is Crumlin. Turn after Crumlin on about 3:41 pace (well, a little behind 3:40 pace to be less exact!) and see how things are from there. We've discussed the route a few times and we've a few spots where we will back off and a few where we will claw it back. I think we both know the first half is not for making time.

The expo is done. Picked up a few nice bits of gear. Have the list made for the packing of the bag today. The pints are planned. The doubts are playing on repeat! Looking forward to the victory lap now. See some of you along the road. Fat lad in a Country Club AC (red and navy) singlet with a slimmer lad in the same singlet alongside him (all going well!)

annapr

I like your 'easy, easy, easy' strategy

Best wishes for a good day tomorrow!

chickey2

Best of luck! Stick to the plan and you should get that pb.

Murph_D

Good luck, JD.

jake1970

Best of luck tomorrow.

El Caballo

Best of luck tomorrow JD! Have a good one, well on for a big PB!

Unthought Known

Have a great one tomorrow!

adrian522

All the best for tomorrow!

Kennyg71

Best of luck tomorrow, have a good one.

JohnDozer

Sunday 29th October 2017

DCM 2017

So I don't really know where to start with this, with DCM being the overall goal race since the day I packed up the smokes last January. Even at that point the time goal was 3:30. Events didn't transpire to allow an attempt at that on the day, but I was still able to set a decent target and had a go at a PB.

The first half of 2017 was pretty much spent trying to race myself into decent shape, having done the bare minimum in 2016, temporarily dabbling in a bit of Gaelic Football for the year. Limerick Half provided the focus for that, and came away from that with a little bit taken of that particular PB. I did struggle with a bit of an ongoing quad issue throughout those months and didn't really get it looked at properly. Dipped into a couple of local races with minimal prep during the summer and snagged another small PB in a local 5 miler at the end of June. That led pretty much into starting marathon training at the start of July.

Choosing a plan proved more difficult, and in hindsight could have been done with a bit more caution. Basically, I felt in decent shape and had the mileage up fairly high, so somehow decided the P&D plan 55-70 was doable. It became clear within a few weeks that this was placing way too much of a training load on me and the body was starting to complain, so I had to back off. This would become a familiar theme throughout the training, with various ailments appearing, from quad issues to Achilles problems. Between finding an excellent physio, reverting to grass running when possible and doing a fair amount of adjusting the plan (I didn't actually end up doing any of the tune-up races as they were on the plan, doing some as MP runs and missing others) I managed to avoid a DNS. I did lose the last two weeks of training pre-taper, which to my mind are the two most important weeks.


The day itself....

Woke early after a fitful sleep. The plumber left a tap on upstairs in an en-suite that I didn't cop until after I woke fully, which left the tank in the attic filling noisily all night. I probably wouldn't have slept great anyway so no matter! Hit the road for Dublin at 5 bells once I checked it was actually 5 bells. Picked up my partner in crime for the day in Artane and headed in and parked up near Samuel Beckett Bridge for 7:45am or so. Bit more pasta for breakfast and got lubed up and all the other bits of preparation. Double checked we had everything and headed for the bag drop. Met another club mate and hung around at the start of the baggage area but didn't meet too many more. Dropped the bag at 8:30 and headed for the start. Joined the queue for the toilets. The only negative I have for the whole day is the absence of the urinals that they had in Limerick and in Amsterdam this year. I'd imagine they are pretty common in big races now, so that the ladies can use the porta potty and most men can use the urinals. Next year maybe.

Lined up at the back of Wave One and moved to the left of the guy with two bits of a hurley sticking out of his head. Took the first corner extremely wide, even though I had planned not to. A bit soon to have added 20 extra meters on the Garmin. The first couple of miles passed by quickly. I rarely remember much before the river, although I did notice 99.9 cent diesel for sale on the quays at a garage you couldn't drive into. Clever. Or maybe not! The pace was pretty much right on the money straight from the off. Made sure to ease off a bit on mile 3, Stoneybatter I think. It was already noticeable that the temperature was higher than normal for that hour of the day and the beads of sweat were very evident already. The first waterstop was obviously going to be carnage so I took the middle of the road and the buddy grabbed two bottles. Dropped in a High5 tab and sipped away. Passed the 5k mark and checked the pace band. It was my first time using one, I had 3:40 done in 5k splits on an even split strategy, even though we planned to lose a little time in the first half. Happy enough with what I saw, about 25 seconds down or thereabouts. I did notice the band was already wet and wouldn't see the end of the race. I'll put more time and effort into its construction next time. Cling film and paper just won't cut it!!!

Entered the Phoenix Park for the first time and the men started dropping like flies for their pee breaks. We were tipping along on pace, but I'm pretty sure that we were both feeling that it was marginally more effort than we had expected it to be, at an early stage. I spotted the nip station and it certainly made me smile! I don't recall too much else of note in the park. Came to the 10k mat and were now about 40 seconds behind pace. Perfect! Somehow I had in my head that you went out the back gate of the park and straight into a long downhill. So it was a little surprise when it turned out a little different. I think that corner in Castleknock is when you really feel the first proper wave of the excellent support you get in Dublin. We finally got to the downhill and let the reins off a bit, but not too much! Enjoyed this section, as always, despite starting to feel something was not quite right with my little toe on my left foot.

Mentioned it to the other half for the day and we agreed we would take a pee stop and a quick inspection (of the toe!) around the end of the second Phoenix Park section. Got the shoe off and didn't really find anything. I just readjusted the sock and got the shoe back on and off we took. Better stop now than have it annoying me for the whole day I guess. Exited the park and heading towards Chapelizod. For me the next 5km was the section that had to be managed most carefully. I don't think I managed it well in 2014 and it cost me a lot. Eased up going under the bypass. It was around here I spotted El Caballo walking against the crowd. never nice to see someone bow out so early, but looks like he is back on the horse soon. Was glad to see the top of that particular climb, I just don't like it, but I think I did a good job on it this year. Our next task then was keeping an eye out for the buddy's other half and kids in Dolphins Barn. Not the easiest job when the crowds are three deep in places. We were just about to give up when he spotted them. Nice that they were interested. My crowd were more than happy to be back home and heading off shopping for the day. :-D

Was looking forward to getting through that long straight Crumlin stretch. I have bad memories of it as it was around here in 2014 that I rally started to feel like I was dying. Not so today, and crossed the half way mat a little over a minute behind 3:40 pace. Exactly as planned.

The only thing I hadn't planned on was another club mate who had started in the wave behind us pulling up alongside looking fine and fresh. He entered in wave 2 but results since then put him in shape for being well under 3:30. He was having a good cut off it anyway and even enquired how far ahead the 3:30 pacers he had given a 10 minute head start to were.

We turned left off Crumlin and I don't recall too much of the physical environment over the next few miles. Then came the first suggestion from the other half that we split. While I knew he had been feeling the pinch with a while, I felt it was way too early to cast him adrift, plus I hadn't planned on striking off on my own so soon. We negotiated and agreed on mile 16 to reassess. I think it was around here I took my first of two gels and also noticed the HR had drifted well north of where it had been for the first half. All in all, I felt the pace was manageable and as the countdown clock went to single figures we started to talk about splitting and the logistics of meeting up after. It was close to the 18 mile mark before this actually happened. I got a fairly enthusiastic shout from my boss at work around here and it gave me a bit of a giddy up effect alright. My buddy even mentioned it after, he had heard her as he wasn't too far behind and commented on the quite vocal support :-) Tipped along and the first solo mile came in around the 8:00 mark. I was starting to realise that the combination of how decent I was feeling and the miles remaining meant that barring something significant, today was going to go well. Bearing in mind, I hadn't even passed mile 20 yet. I have some recollection of the 19 mile marker appearing out of nowhere. From being about 0.2 miles off on my Garmin at the markers, this one suddenly appeared at 18.8 miles, I think! Or else I was hallucinating. The next two miles also came in at a similar pace but I remember thinking that I might be drawing trouble on myself if I tried to sustain it, so I backed off.

I knew Roebuck was up ahead so I concentrated on getting my gel into me. I had been saving a gel since I took the same one (Clif Shot with 100mg caffeine) on a training run and was wired for a few hours afterward, so I figured this was the best one to take with 10k to go. Before I knew it I was up and over Heartbreak Hill and on the home stretch. I had read somewhere earlier in the week, think it may have been the Mentored Novices thread, about visualing your favourite loop of a similar distance and pick out sections of it and use this to get you home. So I picked my favourite 10k loop and was just having a dialogue like 'just from the bridge to the rugby pitch left now'. We then turned and faced into a bit of a breeze, it was in no way strong but like everything else, at the tail end of a marathon it's not what you want or need.

I was still moving well and feeling decent, but it was approaching the point where I was feeling I was running out of gas. I really had to up the mental game to make sure the body didn't submit to those nice thoughts of 'just having a little break for a minute'. I tried to keep fresh in my mind the conversation I had earlier with my buddy where I informed him that no matter what else happened today, I really really wanted to run a marathon start to finish without any walking break in the later stages. I think this is the only think that kept me from walking during mile 24 where I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. I then passed the mile 25 marker and it was like a switch went off and I realised I was just over a mile from home, and I knew then that I had the job done. Someone shouted 'only a mile left, enjoy this bit' and I made sure I did. It was my first experience of finishing a marathon well, and it's a different experience. I was even able to lift the pace a little bit. I don't think I realised how close I was to 3:40. The pace band was long gone and I knew that 8:22 was the target pace of running 26.2, but I figured I'd be running 26.5 so more like 8:18/8:19 would be needed. So when the watch was showing 8:22 I figured I was nearly a minute off. I'm not sure would I have been able to find the 15 seconds anyway. I think that was the absolute limit for the day. Crossed the line with 3:40:14 on the watch, got my tshirt and medal, and plonked myself down in a corner to gather myself. Was up and moving and stretching 10 minutes later and bumped into a couple more. My buddy arrived shortly after having slipped back to around 3:50.

Slowly made our way back to the car after a while soaking in the good buzz. Dropped him back to Artane and hit the motorway before everything seized up. Was in Limerick by early evening and had my super sized Mickey D's three course meal polished off and enjoying some refreshments. That continued into the early hours and fell into bed a contented soul.

Summary

In terms of the race itself, I don't think I could have executed it any better. It looks like I was fairly spot on with the time goal. There wasn't anything extra in me, although the three miles after I split from the comrade might have made the closing miles tougher than they should have been, but they also got me back a minute. I think I used my previous Dublin runs well to judge the course. I got the hydration and nutrition fairly right I'd say. I wouldn't change anything. Not even those pesky 15 seconds...

The numbers:-

26.3 miles, 8:22 pace, 163 avg HR

Miles

(0-6) 8:35, 8:17, 8:41, 8:22, 8:28, 8:25

(7-12) 8:27, 7:54, 8:11, 8:58, 8:22, 8:11

(13-18) 8:20, 8:36, 8:35, 8:21, 8:25, 8:28

(19-24) 8:05, 8:02, 8:01, 8:23, 8:17, 8:08

(25-26.2) 8:31, 8:25 and the bit at 8:06

HR @ 5k. 154
HR @ 10k. 155
HR @ halfway. 160
HR @ 30k. 171
HR & finish. 181

I don't know enough about HR to know exactly what that means, but I'm guessing something like 'poorly aerobically trained' might be close.

So what now?

Recover well
Improve the diet
Improve the hydration
Reduce the caffeine
Reduce the miles/ days per week
Replace the days with serious strength & conditioning/ core work
Do some work on my wonky gait/ imbalance related injury issues
Donadea 50k

El Caballo

Fair play man. Some chunk to knock of your PB, well deserved!

Murph_D

Is your finish time in there somewhere? Can't see it. ;p

Well done, it all came right in the end. See you in Donadea, maybe!

JohnDozer

Murph_D wrote: »

Is your finish time in there somewhere? Can't see it. ;p

Well done, it all came right in the end. See you in Donadea, maybe!

Dammit, caught so soon. Nearly the perfect crime! Sure what's a few seconds.

It did. I did my best to derail it though... do say hello when you're lapping me in Donadea

hot buttered scones

Great running and congrats on the PB. You did well to pull it back with all the injury woes during training,

JohnDozer

Jaysus, where to start...

Another prolonged lapse from the log. Still running, albeit a little bit heavier than before. Was tipping away after DCM for a week or so and somehow decided a sorely missed little game of football wouldn't do any harm. It didn't... until the very last run down the little field and bang, a sniper shot in the right calf took me down. Could barely walk at all for a week and embraced full on the post marathon sugar loading. Two more weeks followed before I could even consider attempting a running type movement. Headed out on the last Sunday of November for a 1 mile loop near the house. Things went surprisingly better than expected so the obvious thing to do was run farther the next day and see what happened. The same thing happened again so the obvious thing to do was keep running every day. So I did.

Every December with he last few years, I've tried to complete the SanityClause (30 mins exercise a day every day for December). I've a 50:50 strike rate with completion but any year I did it I've kicked on nicely to a solid year. Simple logic maybe but works for me. I think because I've no day off on the horizon with it I'm more inclined to mind myself with paces and distances and not do anything silly.

The only problem this year is that myself and a few other geniuses (if that is the plural) decided to enter Donadea 50k back before we had even finished Dublin. That meant the mileage had to be upped a bit towards Christmas to start getting the body and mind ready. So... still tipping away. Following a loose structure of 50mpw maximum (not there yet though!) with one increasingly long long run at the weekend and recently I've started to introduce either a tempo or an interval session each week. Trying to keep it relatively simple.

As well as that, I realised about a week into December that if I could sustain the 5k a day, along with the long run, I might just break the 2000 mile goal for the year. This was one of the original goals at the outset of the year. Along with stopping smoking, it's the only other one I completed. The rest were PB based goals that didn't happen and the other was diet based, which will happen this year ;-). Felt good to break 2000, a good 400+ clear of any other year since I started running. This was despite only running 20 miles in January 2017, losing 2 weeks pre DCM to injury, and losing 3 weeks post DCM to a football injury.

So here we are. 2017 is gone. 2000 miles ran, a good chunk gone off the marathon PB but still no 3:30, so no long awaited log title change :-( Managed to take bite size chunks off my 5 mile and half marathon PB's. The not so successful parts were jumping into mileage too big for me and picking up injuries and aggravating old ones, so a fairly nigglesome year. The fact the prehabilitation work is nowhere near optimal for the mileage I do is the main reason for the issues and forms one of the goals for 2018.

I haven't finalised the goals yet but in my head the focus this year will be on longer, slower miles. After Donadea I'm going to try and do both Limerick and Dublin. I'll still jump into a plan, but one with less weekly mileage and I'm thinking a 12 week version might suit better. I thinking I peaked at about week 6 of the 18 week plan!!! I'm going to spend time and money with the physio rooting out the original issues and resolve them and then supplement that work with some good quality strength work.

So pretty much the same as 2017 then. Keep on running, try not to get injured. Don't be stupid!

Weekly mileage post DCM

5th November 22
12th November 5
19th November 0
26th November 0

3rd December 26
10th December 34
17th December 40
24th December 38
31st December. 41 (Annual total = 2013)

JohnDozer

January 1st to 7th

Monday - 4 miles, avg pace 8:30, avg HR 152

Tuesday - 9.7 miles total. 2 X 15 minute tempo sections. A list of excuses for why this did not go well. The main reason is the tempo pace I'm trying to run is too hot for where I'm at right now. Paces for tempo sections were 7:37 and 7:32 average. I had a small pause midway through each section to help get back on track. Blowing hard!

Wednesday - 6.1 miles, avg pace 8:53, avg HR 150. Felt tougher than the numbers look. Had an oul moan at one of the lads for an hour

Thursday - 10 miles, avg pace 8:04, avg HR 160. Tried to keep up with one of the younger lads. Not pretty.

Friday - 6.6 miles, avg pace 9:10, avg HR 145. Chillaxed post work runchat with another one of the lads.

Saturday - 3.1 miles. parkrun #49. avg pace 9:30, avg HR 145. Went around with the youngest, who sneakily tried to take me in a surprise sprint finish. Wasn't having any of it, on my guard since another lad caught me napping over the Christmas....

Sunday - 20 miles along the Great Southern Trail. Managed to get a good few together for this. Mostly the gang doing Donadea plus a few more. A truly enjoyable run. One of the ones that make it all worthwhile. Avg pace 9:12, avg HR 150

Weekly miles - 59.8 - a little more than planned due to spontaneous Thursday run

JohnDozer

January 8th to 14th

Monday - 4.3 miles, avg pace 10:25, avg HR 143. Done on grass, all ok.

Tuesday - 4.1 miles, avg pace 9:10, avg HR 143

Wednesday - 7 miles, interval session, 12 X 90 seconds off 60 second recovery. Plan was just to keep the pace 6:59 or under. Just about managed it but it did require some extra recovery between 6 and 7, an extra minute or so. Getting there but my old quad injury is getting annoyed again with the faster stuff.

Thursday - 4.1 miles, avg pace 9:26, avg HR 146. Enjoying the local routes this week as I change jobs Monday and may not see my usual routes very often. I just have to find some nice new ones!

Friday - 4.1 miles, avg pace 8:56, avg HR 148

Saturday - 12 miles. avg pace 8:44, avg HR 153. Had planned with a while to try and get a double of a medium and a long run in this weekend if the body permitted. Up early and hit the trail for a very enjoyable run. 6 downhill homeward miles will do that.

Sunday - 18 miles. avg pace 8:48, avg HR 150. Travelled to Limerick early and met a couple of the lads (and a lassie) for a long one. Took about 5 miles to get into the run but once I got over that period of feeling heavy and sluggish it went fine for the most part. A slightly climbing mile around mile 16 knocked the stuffing out of me but gathered myself and finished strong.

Weekly miles - 53.8

JohnDozer

January 15th to 21st

Monday - started new job today and Dublin based for the week, so a simple out and back from where I'm staying. Keeping it simple on the navigation as my nose for direction isn't the greatest. Legs are heavy. 4.1 miles, 9:35 pace, avg HR 144

Tuesday - asleep early so awake early. Decided to follow the canal from Croke Park outwards. Just me and a few cycle commuters. Enjoying the exploring! 5 miles, 9:10 pace, avg HR 146

Wednesday - wanted to go a bit longer today so left the run till the evening time. Hadn't eaten much during the day, weather was bad and motivation was low by the time evening came around. I had ran out by Clontarf once before so decided to head for relatively familiar territory. The route was busy with runners despite the dirty evening. Turned at 5 miles and faced into a stiffening breeze. Took a wrong turn closer to home and ended up doing an extra mile as a result. 11 miles, 8:35 pace, avg HR 156

Thursday - heading home today so wanted to get home with the run already done. Out of bed early and headed down O'Connell St and along the quays, turned at 2 mile mark and back the other side. 4 miles, 9:23 pace, avg HR 150

Friday - mid morning easy 30 minutes. 3.2 miles, 9:16 pace, avg HR 144

Saturday - the lads were doing 20 on the trail today but I was a little tidy on time at the far side, so ran the 9 miles to the meeting point solo and ran back with them. The plan was 22 so got as far as 21 with the lads and tailed off for home. A few really tough miles between 18 and 20 but other that that it did what it was supposed to do. The pace was a little quicker than it should have been, but what's new. 22 miles, 9:03 pace, avg HR 162 (waaaay too high!)

Sunday - hadn't planned to go out so early in the day but the Munster game being delayed affected my plans. Tried to do a few grass loops but was sinking so back on the road. All in ok shape despite yesterday's hammering. 3.1 miles, 10:04 pace, 144 avg HR

Total weekly miles = 52.9

JohnDozer

January 22nd to 28th

Monday - early morning 4 miler to the park and back. Conscious of easing off a bit this week. 4.1 miles, 10:25 pace, avg HR 135

Tuesday - early morning 4 miler to the park and back. 4 miles, 10:21 pace, avg HR 134

Wednesday - evening 4 miler to the park and back after a couple of long days on the road. 4 miles, 8:49 pace, avg HR 151

Thursday - met up with a couple of the lads for an evening spin around some hilly trails by headlamp. Very enjoyable but a sharp reminder that I don't venture far above sea level very often. 10.2 miles, 8:59 pace, avg HR 158

Friday - easy winding weaving spin home after dropping the car at the garage. Net downhill, slightly. Happy daze. 3.5 miles, 9:56 pace, avg HR 136

Saturday - last long run before Donadea as next weeks run will be comparatively short. Met a couple of the lads for a planned hilly enough 16 miler. Went from feeling stiff, sore and sorry to loose and fresh about 3 miles in so started putting a bit of power into the climbs and recovering well on the other side. Was starting to feel the impact of this towards the end but it'll stand to me/ us in two weeks time methinks. 16 miles, 9:05 pace, avg HR 155

Sunday - woke too early and the legs felt grand so took the new shoes out for a spin along the trail to get them used of what lies ahead. Kept a close eye on HR and tipped along by headlamp, just myself and a few badgers out. 8.1 miles, 9:17 pace, avg HR 146

Total miles for the week - 50.1

JohnDozer

January 29th to February 4th

Monday - long day on the road from Limerick to Letterkenny and down to Longford in the evening. A tired 4 miler around some industrial estate. The streak is still alive though. 4.1 miles, 9:17 pace, avg HR 142

Tuesday - well rested and out the door early for a wander around Longford, taking in some of the Royal Canal. Got a bit lost but found a bit to explore more the next time I'm around. 6.5 miles, 8:57 pace, avg HR 151

Wednesday - ended up staying in Wexford this evening so after a little bit of detective work on Strava found a very straightforward out and back that wouldn't require much in the way of navigation. 6.1 miles, 8:49 pace, avg HR 146

Thursday - early doors again for a 4 miler along the banks of the Slaney before heading for Dublin. Looking forward to getting home later. Thankfully not all weeks will be like this. 4.1 miles, 9:26 pace, avg HR 142

Friday - so nice to wake up at home and trundle off mid morning for a run. Felt like a bit of quicker stuff today so decided on a progression run around the 6 mile loop near the house. Splits were 8:42, 8:24, 7:56, 7:48, 7:20, 6:44. A nice surprise here as there is a two mile segment in the last section of the run that I ran faster today than I've ran at any point in the last 2.5 years living here in various combinations of runs. Maybe I should run faster more often! 6 miles, 7:48 pace, 156 avg HR

Saturday - parkrun RD duties today so ran in the afternoon for some more easy miles and click off Day 69 of the streak. 4 miles, 8:47 pace, avg HR 146

Sunday - awake early as usual so headed off out the door before the brain tried to put the brakes on. A ten mile run was in the head since last week but felt like going a little further for some reason. Doing an out and back up and down so knowing the return journey was nice led to me doing 7 outward miles and the same home (obviously!). All is set for the long one next Saturday now. 14 miles, 8:46 pace, avg HR 152

Total weekly miles - 45.1

OOnegative

All the best in Donadea tomorrow.