Starting at the Very Start

FIFA2004

Thanks everyone!!!

Haha I don't think my day was quite as dramatic as it sounded! The toe didn't bother me until I saw the blood, and at that point I wasn't stopping unless half my leg was hanging off. Still sore this morning but I think it's just a cut from a long nail so easier sorted than losing a nail. A caution to everyone.... Toe nail Tuesday is the most important day of the plan!
The chest played ball for most of it and isn't too bad today!

Singer - haha hopefully no war in south Dublin today... Although would ya be surprised

Ososlo - ah they were annoying and p'ed me off at the time but the proportion of fast people that do everything to help us slow coaches far out way them

Muppet - sorry to have missed you, sounds like a tough day for you but it will stand to you.

TFGR - I only just got you on time, and you won where it counts, so I'd say we are equal! I'm not sure where another 5km comes from on top of yesterday!

Guess who can't work multiquote!

Am a lot happier with how my day went, considering everyone (apart from Max who must be superhuman!) seemed to have tough days. My little woes are nothing compared to what some people struggled through yesterday

Plan today was for a 20min recovery run but might leave that given that the toe keeps bleeding and I'm still coughing! HM training comences tomorrow... Eek!

gypsylee

Just read your race report now. Well done on doing so well in such tough conditions. Hope you're feeling much better today.

Firedance

Ososlo wrote: »

Jaysus you really had it tough today! Hope you're feeling ok after it and don't end up sicker!
Well done on the run, you'll knock a chunk off that in the full of your health and on a more reasonable day weather-wise.
Sorry to hear of the ignorant people in your way on the course when trying to run your race. That's really not on and makes me a bit :mad:
Rest up now and take it very easy for a while.

Well done FIFA!! those were very tough conditions to be racing in, I was not one bit envious of you all.

+1 to the :mad: above though, its one of the reasons I don't do the race series runs but everyone else seems to love them . Hope you're recovering well now

The Muppet

Firedance wrote: »

Well done FIFA!! those were very tough conditions to be racing in, I was not one bit envious of you all.

+1 to the :mad: above though, its one of the reasons I don't do the race series runs but everyone else seems to love them . Hope you're recovering well now

Not everyone else .

FIFA2004

Not the best week for me overall, looking like i wont get a long run in which im not too happy about! But ive changed work around for the next few weekends which means i shouldnt miss anymore, originally i wouldnt have got one in next weekend, so evens out. Still coughing more than id like but im not anyway sick with it so probably will be a case of waiting for it to go

Monday 22nd August
6km
57mins

Horribly slow run, an attempt at recovery and just because i still wasnt feeling great! Was really hot for the first half so suffered, and then seemed freezing on the way back because I was going so slowly. Not an enjoyable experience overall, one i probably should have skipped all together or given up on after a while

Wednesday 24th August
6.8km
67mins

More of the same from Monday, just not feeling it and every step felt like effort. In hindsight I should have taken a few days off to get better fully

Thursday 25th August
7.37km
70mins

Finally an enjoyable run! Although still deathly slow i felt a bit more myself and just relaxed and enjoyed it.


Friday life got in the way of my planned run, on call at the moment (having a quiet one... touch wood) so no running although i got a few laps of walking around the building in earlier! Tomorrow with the having to watch Dublin beat Kerry and the inevitable need to sleep I cant imagine anything long getting done, ill try though

In the interest of full disclosure (and if i write it here i might follow it!) managed to get the diet back on track for the first time in months. Back to trusty operation transformation and myfitnesspal again. Surely less of me to pull around 13miles will make it easier :P

FIFA2004

29th August 2016
1hr22mins
8.5km

Can't remember anything much about this, apart from it being a bit of a slog and a bit boring. Slow pace dropping again

31st August 2016
1hr17mins
8km

Found a nice new route around the memorial gardens and enjoyed this one a lot. Didn't look at the watch at all really but thought I was tipping along at a decent pace. Was surprised to see how slow it was with 2km near the end at 10min/km pace, I looked at the watch at around 7km and tried to pick it but just couldn't


That's where my week took a bad turn! On Thursday pm got stung by a bee, which I'm allergic to so currently the finger he got is 3 times the size he usually is. Finally bit the bullet because the cough has got no better and still coughing up gunk, got someone to listen to my chest and didn't sound good. So currently on antihistamines by the bucket full, antibiotics and steroids. Annoyed with myself for being so stupid with the cough, should have started the antibiotic last week and it would be done now.
Plan for the weekend had been to get a decent run in today and a 3hr run tomorrow, but the steroid is making me feel terrible so unless that wears off soon it ll be more missed runs this week.
Feeling fairly sorry for myself at the moment, hopefully I'll get back on track soon or the half marathon won't be doable

chickey2

No wonder you were running slowly!
Hope you feel better soon. It's better to miss the long run and recover, than do it and make yourself worse. Take care.

Sunny Dayz

Aww no get well soon. Make sure to give yourself the time to recover properly.

Firedance

+1, hope you're feeling better soon, mind yourself.

The Muppet

+2 get well before you do any running. Running when unwell is no fun at all.

mel.b

Hope you're starting to feel better now Fifa

FIFA2004

Sunday 4th September
5km
47mins

Thanks everyone!!! Feeling a lot better now, almost got a normal sized finger, chest isn't great but not feeling sick with it anymore, just need to clear it.
Felt great when I woke up, after taking a million tablets still felt good, although the meds are messing with my stomach. Decided to head out for a run and see what happened. If I'm honest I thought I might get the planned 3 hrs done...
Headed to the war memorial gardens, felt crap as soon as I started, just caught for breath really, kinda realising I've been like that since the 10mile! Stopped for a few second walk at 15mins, haven't done that since c25k. Only kept going because the running was helping me cough which is good for the chest. Gave up at 5km because running for 3hrs at close to 10min/km pace wasn't gonna do me much good.

Gonna take it easy for the next few days, just run what and when I want. Hopefully be back to myself to do the planned long run next Sunday/Monday

The Muppet

FIFA2004 wrote: »

Sunday 4th September
5km
47mins

Thanks everyone!!! Feeling a lot better now, almost got a normal sized finger, chest isn't great but not feeling sick with it anymore, just need to clear it.
Felt great when I woke up, after taking a million tablets still felt good, although the meds are messing with my stomach. Decided to head out for a run and see what happened. If I'm honest I thought I might get the planned 3 hrs done...
Headed to the war memorial gardens, felt crap as soon as I started, just caught for breath really, kinda realising I've been like that since the 10mile! Stopped for a few second walk at 15mins, haven't done that since c25k. Only kept going because the running was helping me cough which is good for the chest. Gave up at 5km because running for 3hrs at close to 10min/km pace wasn't gonna do me much good.

Gonna take it easy for the next few days, just run what and when I want. Hopefully be back to myself to do the planned long run next Sunday/Monday

Sounds like your getting over a nasty illnesss fifa, you're not doing yourself any favours by running at all, it'll just take longer to fully recover and running much slower than you know your are capable of is head wrecking and just plants seeds of doubt, thats my recent experience of it anyway.

You know your own body best but I think If i were you i'd be considering taking a complete break at least until the chest was clear.

Hope you're better soon.

FIFA2004

The Muppet wrote: »

Sounds like your getting over a nasty illnesss fifa, you're not doing yourself any favours by running at all, it'll just take longer to fully recover and running much slower than you know your are capable of is head wrecking and just plants seeds of doubt, thats my recent experience of it anyway.

You know your own body best but I think If i were you i'd be considering taking a complete break at least until the chest was clear.

Hope you're better soon.

Hey the muppet! Yeah I think it was probably worse than I gave it credit for, I've gotten so used to my easy times slowing I didn't think much of it. In two minds as to what to do now. Realistically I should have taken the week after the 10miles off like a sensible person! I think now that I'm not sick with it that the exercise helps clear my chest because it forces me to use the bit where the infection is
I think I'll head out for something short and easy tonight and see how I am, but fully willing to pull the plug if it doesn't work!

The Muppet

FIFA2004 wrote: »

Hey the muppet! Yeah I think it was probably worse than I gave it credit for, I've gotten so used to my easy times slowing I didn't think much of it. In two minds as to what to do now. Realistically I should have taken the week after the 10miles off like a sensible person! I think now that I'm not sick with it that the exercise helps clear my chest because it forces me to use the bit where the infection is
I think I'll head out for something short and easy tonight and see how I am, but fully willing to pull the plug if it doesn't work!

Sure if we were sensible we wouldn't have ventured out in the wind and rain two weeks ago for the Frank Duffy. Good luck if you venture out this evening, nothing like a run to clear congestion for sure, Take it easy .

FIFA2004

Much better week for me! Finally feel like I'm getting back on top of the chest infection!

Monday 5th September
5.4km
49mins

Accepted that I needed to take it slow and short for a few days. Have a nice 5km route along canal in the memorial gardens so headed there. Felt decent enough, concentrating on my breathing trying to breath deeply as the infection had me breathing shallow, probably where most of the problems were coming from

Wednesday 7th September
5.5km
47mins

Best run I've had in ages! Great weather, everything felt good and the times weren't as embarrassingly slow as recently! I wish every run was like this!

Thursday 8th September
1hr18
8.85km

My first ever run commute! Didn't fancy sitting in the traffic caused by the bus strike and have been contemplating trying this for ages. From Tallaght back to kilmainham. Downhill for most of the start of it, and felt good despite the horrible rain and carrying a backpack. Started to struggle a bit around 6km at Walkinstown, had taken the downhill a bit too fast I think, and very stop start to cross roads. Every time I stopped starting again got a little bit tougher. Felt tougher than a usual run of this length but putting that down to the bag and the weather and having to be a bit more vigilant than usual cuz I didn't know the roads and the path is fairly small beside a busy road.
Thinking the run-mute might become a regular occurrence, because it felt great to be home by 6.30 with 9km already done!

On call Saturday. Think I'm well enough to get back to a long run so will try that on Sunday or Monday depending on how much sleep I get. Depending on how that goes I'll make a call on the half marathon, but with only 2 weeks to go if I can't get close to half marathon distance it might not be doable this time. Will be fairly crushed if that happens but fingers crossed a good long run this week will have me back on track somewhat

chickey2

Glad to hear you're feeling better. Well done on the runmute! If I didn't do them I'd hardly run at all. Did you run along green hills road? I always get barked at by a huge dog in a scrap yard along there, watch out for him!

Firedance

+1 to that! they're a fantastic way to get your run in

FIFA2004

chickey2 wrote: »

Glad to hear you're feeling better. Well done on the runmute! If I didn't do them I'd hardly run at all. Did you run along green hills road? I always get barked at by a huge dog in a scrap yard along there, watch out for him!

Yup was on the greenhills road! I didn't see the dog, saw a sign warning of a gaurd dog that freaked me out a bit, if anything can make me run quicker that will what's it like running down there when it gets dark? Didn't seem to be many lights but hoping some reflective clothing will be grand with the paths

chickey2

FIFA2004 wrote: »

Yup was on the greenhills road! I didn't see the dog, saw a sign warning of a gaurd dog that freaked me out a bit, if anything can make me run quicker that will what's it like running down there when it gets dark? Didn't seem to be many lights but hoping some reflective clothing will be grand with the paths

It's not too bad once you stick to the path. I wear LED arm bands when it's dark. Just watch out for stray brambles sticking out of the hedge!

FIFA2004

Monday 12th August
20km
3hrs11mins

So today was the LSR that's been meant to happen since the frank Duffy 10mile. Week off work so I decided that I was better being fresh today than post call tomorrow.
Up and had some museli and a slice of brown toast with coffee, and some water (not enough I soon found out!) and headed out at 10am
Headed to the pheonix park with the aim of taking in as much of the hm route as possible. Took a few wrong turns so ended up doing bits backwards but got a good loop of the outside of the park in. Struggled for the first hour, more than I usually would, mostly mental as I couldn't see how I was going to keep running! Got a bit better then, at 1hr30 when I knew I was counting down now I actually quite enjoyed myself until the last in or so. At 14km I was at the gate of the park so headed to the war memorial gardens to do a length up and down the canal to finish up. Got to the gate a km early so had to run around the grass for a while to make up the distance. Struggled again but I think it would have been fine if I wasn't doing laps of a pitch!
Took a bottle of water with me, let myself have some every 30mins, then every 20 for the last hour. Had to ration my 700ml and really could have done with more. Took a gel at 9km and 14km, think they helped!
All in all very happy with this, bit slower than I would like but at the same time I was struggling to do slower paces over much shorter distances last week

Finished just outside a shop, got 1l of water and drank half in one go some vanilla protein milk and a very slow 1km to get home. Bit of stretching and firedances leg drain exercise. Got the shopping ordered while on the floor... Not the worst use of time and felt much better after. Little bit stiff now, and thanking my lucky stars that we don't have stairs but not feeling too bad considering!

In terms of the hm... I'm fairly happy that the distance won't be an issue now. Had another km in me if I needed to keep going. The cut off is 3.20 mins so I should be a bit ahead of that, although right at the back of the field again. Had hoped to have 2 more long runs done so won't be as prepared as I would like, but think it's worth giving it a shot, all going well over the next 2 weeks!

mel.b

Well done Fifa it would kill me only to have a drink every 20 or 30min...rather than ticking off the kms i'd be checking my watch wondering when i could drink again! I go through a 750ml bottle on my 20k runs...my running buddy last weekend only had one of those small kiddies bottle of 250 or 300ml - i don't know how she did it.

FIFA2004

mel.b wrote: »

Well done Fifa it would kill me only to have a drink every 20 or 30min...rather than ticking off the kms i'd be checking my watch wondering when i could drink again! I go through a 750ml bottle on my 20k runs...my running buddy last weekend only had one of those small kiddies bottle of 250 or 300ml - i don't know how she did it.

That's funny, I time my water for exactly the opposite reason. I like to concentrate on the next drink/gel rather than how many km's are gone or left! I couldn't last with 300ml!!!

FIFA2004

Wednesday 14th September
5km
41.30mins

A relatively fast run for me! Started out p****ed off at the world, between that and the downhill and the wind the start was fast. First km was 7.30mins Slowed in the middle but picked up again for the last km at 7.50min/km.
Felt good to run fast (for me!) again while still feeling fine! Got me thinking about after the hm and an assault on a 30min 5km

FIFA2004

Friday 16th September
5.85km
46mins

Headed out for an easy 5km today, times a bit short cuz I'm meant to be studying. Somehow came in at the quickest in probably months while training... Average of 7.55min/km. A few weeks ago I was struggling to get close to 9.30min/km
Not sure why the sudden change... I'm feeling better, eating better, running to distance rather than time, been doing some strength exercises so definitely feel stronger too... Whatever it is, it's nice to see. Felt tough at times but still in the easy effort range; and wasn't pushing myself to get a time or anything!

Not sure what to do between now and the hm, as my plan ran out a few weeks ago so I've been winging it!
Was thinking 2hrs30min on Sunday (16km give or take) and then Tuesday and Thursday somewhere between 5 and 10km with strides.
Does that sound ok or is it over or under doing things?

Firedance

You've 2 weeks to your goal race is that right? (or one week now as today's Friday!) just repeat the last week of whatever plan you were doing previously, I'd imagine that included a taper. If you're one week from the race don't go out for too long for your long run, you should be tapering.

FIFA2004

Firedance wrote: »

You've 2 weeks to your goal race is that right? (or one week now as today's Friday!) just repeat the last week of whatever plan you were doing previously, I'd imagine that included a taper. If you're one week from the race don't go out for too long for your long run, you should be tapering.

It's the race series half, so only 8 days now!
I wasn't actually following a half marathon plan, just myles splitz base building plan, and kept making the runs longer by 15mins or so a week. It finished a good while ago now. Might leave it at 2hrs for the long run... 2.30 seems a bit much as I'm hoping for somewhere between 2.50 and 3 in the race itself (if the gods align right!)

Firedance

Yeah definitely don't go for 2hrs 30, 1:50 would probably be loads to be honest, keep the legs nice n fresh for next weekend, don't do to much during the week either & no speed unless you throw in a few strides on Wed or Thursday - best of luck in the race!

FIFA2004

Sunday 18th September
14.08km
2hr7min

Last long run before the hm. Went pretty well. Although the watch seems to be playing up at the minute so not sure if the distance is accurate. The map on garmin connect seems to go a few odd directions and I definitely wasn't running at 2min or 12min/km... I hope it evened out!

Usual breakfast and headed from malahide to the beach in portmarnock. Never felt fantastic but never felt bad either, just plodded along. Enjoyed the bit on the beach a lot though! Had two held with me but never felt like I needed them so didn't take them. Looking back huge difference to how I felt first time I ran 2 hours! Even with the watch glitches I think it was a bit faster than my other long runs, still felt fine though.
Home to a cooked breakfast my sister was just serving up... And now for a big afternoon for the boys in blue. Managed to get a ticket at the last minute but gave it to my dad... Killing me slightly but also making me the worlds best daughter

FIFA2004

Bit of a tough life week for me, call Monday, then stayed up all day Tuesday as I'd to finish work stuff for a conference on Friday... Making me knackered for the rest of the week. Spent the rest of the week worrying about that. If nothing else it took my mind of tomorrow

Wednesday 22nd Sept
6km
51mins

Almost didn't get out the door for this between the rain and tiredness. Felt much better after but I'm not a rain person which doesn't bode well for Saturday!

Thursday 23rd Sept
5.4km
48.48mins

Another run that I was almost too tired for, and a horrible work day. Without Saturday to focus the mind probably wouldn't have happened. As always was glad I'd gone after it was over and actually quite enjoyed it

So somehow after what seems like months of looking forward, half marathon is tomorrow. Fingers crossed for better weather than last time!
Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow!!