Better late than never

Kennyg71 · 08-10-2016 1:43pm

How's every thing Denis all quiet on running front.

aquinn · 10-10-2016 12:53pm

Kennyg71 wrote: »

How's every thing Denis all quiet on running front.

I thought the same last week so stalked checked on Strava and he is running.

denis b · 10-10-2016 9:48pm

Kennyg71 wrote: »

How's every thing Denis all quiet on running front.

Cheers G. Will update as soon as. Was back running for another cycle of 3 weeks (Late Aug to mid Sept) and got hit by something viral AGAIN. No DCM HM. Had a week off and have got back into action again trying to think through what is going wrong. Got some medical advice and putting the pieces together before I decide on what to do next. Going to take my time as the last 12 months have been poor - with several short breaks through not feeling 100%

Nearly there and enjoying the running as much as ever. I think an easier running cycle was needed for 2-3 months to allow for some deeper recovery. Will report.

aquinn wrote: »

I thought the same last week so stalked checked on Strava and he is running.

Strava has its uses

and have been following everybody's progress both here and on strava. Looking forward to a DCM support role. Hope you are progressing yourself A.

Take care folks.

denis b · 12-11-2016 6:18pm

Well now that things have quietened back down on boards its time to sneak back in quietly. Have considered my position, with some advice, and decided to spend 2 months (Oct and Nov) with reduced mileage which would gradually increase as other demands fell away. For my sins I have climbed and walked the hills for years and had decided to finish a mountaineering qualification this autumn which has necessitated quite a bit of time in the mountains. I qualified - its a personal achievement, but it was great to do. At times it did probably put me a little close to the edge in terms of what I could manage but its done and dusted now.

After several cycles this year of training well for 3-5 weeks and then getting very tired/ unwell, I pulled back from running several weeks before my mountaineering assessment to concentrate on that first and foremost. I figure that I am probably over training at times and am not getting proper recovery with too many hard sessions (its all relative) for me. Therefore 2 months with easy running was suggested until everything calmed down a little. I have decided to post now that I have built up some momentum.

I have worked back up to about 40km a week and have entered the Jingle Bells 5km to have something to aim for. Last Saturday a family member decided out of the blue to do a parkrun so I went along and aimed for around 22mins. Surprised myself with 21.23 just 23 seconds off the pb. Now that I know where I am at, for training pace, I will start a P&D 5km programme for 12 weeks starting next Monday. Covers three races so it will be a good start for next year.

Will run more races to get over the nervousness involved as that may also be adding to the pressure at times. Only time will tell.

Bungy Girl · 12-11-2016 6:22pm

Welcome back! And congrats on the mountaineering qualification. And the speedy parkrun! See you at Jingle Bells

Kennyg71 · 12-11-2016 6:49pm

Well done Denis on qualification, looks like brake did you no harm either, nice
5k time.

annapr · 12-11-2016 6:52pm

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Welcome back! And congrats on the mountaineering qualification. And the speedy parkrun! See you at Jingle Bells

+1 good for you on the mountains ... maybe IMRA in your future?

and in the meantime, sensible to take it easy.

Neady83 · 12-11-2016 7:49pm

Congratulations on your mountain skills Denis. I've heard that it takes great commitment

so when are you taking us boardsies out on the hills for a day?

p.s. glad to have you back and in good shape

Neady83 · 12-11-2016 7:50pm

Congratulations on your mountain skills Denis. I've heard that it takes great commitment

so when are you taking us boardsies out on the hills for a day?

p.s. glad to have you back and in good shape

The Muppet · 12-11-2016 8:57pm

Great to see you back on your log Denis and congratulations on the mountaineering qualification.

Murph_D · 13-11-2016 11:17am

Good man, D. Mountaineering isn't exactly sitting on your arse so not surprised you ran that decent parkrun.

See you at the JB if not before.

Mrs Mc · 13-11-2016 5:40pm

Congrats on the mountaineering qualification Denis good to see you back.

denis b · 20-11-2016 8:24pm

Pfitzinger "Faster Road Racing" Plan for 5Km - Schedule 1 48-63 Km per week.

Monday - Rest Day/Cross Training - Got out on the hills (Purple Mt. and The Tomies in Killarney) for 16km excursion across the hills and back. Touched 16C around early afternoon with very light winds and some sun for company. Brought the walking poles for a particularly speedy return racing the sunset.

Tuesday - Rest Day. Calves and quads knew that they had some work done yesterday. Brutal wet morning so early alarm was wasted so was plenty early for work and return to Dublin.

Wednesday- 10 Km Aerobic Run with 6x12 secs hill sprints and 6x100m strides. Noticed that my HR has lowered for same effort. Good workout and felt strong on the hills but the 10km was enough.

Thursday - Rest. Swimming for an hour. Reasonably relaxed.

Friday - LT with 4x 6 mins with 2 mins recovery. Ran 13 km in total. 11 was scheduled but mixed things up as I had not set up watch properly.

Pace for LT runs were 4:34, 4:33, 4:35 and 4:30. Two and Four were slightly uphill and into gentle wind. Managed them fine with a decent effort. Always nervous about these sessions but once I get into them I feel more confident and then enjoy them. HR was 151, 161, 154 and 163.

Saturday: Rest day and I made it just that.

Sunday: 14 km Endurance run sliding from 6:00 to 5:20 progressively over the course of the run. Worked out really well and headed out the Swords Road to Santry Woods and back through Ballymun, Whitehall and Donnycarney before heading back home. -2C.... note to self "Get Gloves". Beautiful still morning with plenty of runners out and about. Found the slower kms tougher.

HR for run 142 with average of 5:40/km pace.

A good week. Very busy at work so will need to slide a session or two around. Being careful. Main aim is to stay running rather than punishing myself.

denis b · 28-11-2016 10:01am

Touch wood.....that is about 5 weeks on the trot with no relapse health wise. Its week 2 of the programme and everything still holding together which inspires some confidence with the approach adopted.

Monday: Cross training and managed to up by hourly total to 1700m. Its a 50m pool which means that there is no escaping any loss of form when swimming. Feeling stronger and more able and actually looked forward to this. Drank a lot less pool water this session.

Tuesday: 8km Aerobic Run with 6x12 sec hill sprints and 6x100m strides. Did a recce of the Jingle Bells Course and I like it. A calm day will help. Interesting how interaction with people and deer in the Phoenix Park has changed over the years. I don't seem to remember so many people practically needing "to pet" the deer in the Phoenix Park. Memory seems to recall people just standing off and watching them.

Wednesday: 13 km Progressive Endurance Run from 5.50's to 5:20's per/km. Went very well with 5:39 average and 142 hr. Last year this would have been a much tougher session so something has been saved from the early year work.

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: In Belfast for the night and headed out from the hotel on the waterfront and out over the Lagan River to use the drag on the Ravenshill Road. Was already sub zero and the Ulster Pro 12 game had been called off. The Vo2 Max went ahead!!!! It was pitch dark and the street lighting was poor with overhead trees and freezing fog but I settled into the warm up and had a look at the drag I was going to use. Lots of loose leaves and frosty sheltered corners. Identified the best and safest line and went at it.

Session was 11km with 5x3mins at 3-5km pace with recovery jog back down the drag. The drag appeared to be more of a series of upwardly rolling undulations but would have to do. Could not see watch with the visibility and tried to find the pace by feel. Average moving pace: 4:28, 4:16, 4:12, 4:16 and 4:23 to finish. Only realised the splits were good when I got back to the light of the hotel. Absolutely delighted with this run. Maybe the cold suits me.

Had a bath for the legs after this and emptied the freeby smelly stuff into the running hot water. Legs were great afterwards and left achilles felt less stressed. Skipped out to dinner shortly afterwards.

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday: 14km Progressive Endurance Run. Same setup as Wednesday with average pace of 5:38/km and HR 142 once again. Trying to change the course I run for some variety but maybe the grass in the PP would be a good idea.

Wubble Wubble · 28-11-2016 10:21am

denis b wrote: »

Tuesday: 8km Aerobic Run with 6x12 sec hill sprints and 6x100m strides. Did a recce of the Jingle Bells Course and I like it. A calm day will help. Interesting how interaction with people and deer in the Phoenix Park has changed over the years. I don't seem to remember so many people practically needing "to pet" the deer in the Phoenix Park. Memory seems to recall people just standing off and watching them.

Good to hear you're feeling strong for Jingle Bells. There seems to be a huge contingent of Boardsies set to line up!

I don't understand why people insist on approaching deer. Especially as they can pick up a fair bit of momentum if they're annoyed or threatened. And in fact, feeding them (which I hear is more and more commonplace!) is a major no-no.

denis b · 30-11-2016 12:08pm

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Good to hear you're feeling strong for Jingle Bells. There seems to be a huge contingent of Boardsies set to line up!

I don't understand why people insist on approaching deer. Especially as they can pick up a fair bit of momentum if they're annoyed or threatened. And in fact, feeding them (which I hear is more and more commonplace!) is a major no-no.

While cooling down, the Park Ranger came along and asked 2 groups of people not to feed the deer. Would agree that people appear to have become detached from the reality of wildlife. I can see the headlines when nature no longer behaves "evil deer prey on samaritan". It's some consolation that people are out and about and interested so perhaps they will adapt.

Weather looks good for the JB. Looking forward to the last 2km and the catch up. See ya there.

Wubble Wubble · 30-11-2016 1:11pm

Nice one. I've seen plenty of favourable forecasts regarding Saturday. I'd say we'll be running fairly near each other; can't make the pub this time however.

denis b · 04-12-2016 5:12pm

Monday: Cross training day and target was 1800m in the pool over the session. Finished with 2050m frontcrawl and had started to cramp in the feet and calves at about 1700m. More stretcing required but can feel the benefit of these sessions already. Had targetted 2000m for christmas. Never feel like taking on some water after the late evening swim so usually end up dehyrated on the Tuesday.

Tuesday: Speed session 8.5km with 2 sets of 3X300m off jog recovery at 67-72 sec pace.
Splits were 70secs, 70, 66, 68, 66 and 63.
Very pleased with this session although there wont be any benefit for Jingle Bells. The few months climbing in the hills have left a mark with a feelimg that the legs are much stronger.

Wednesday: Aerobic run of 11.6kms run at 5:43/km and hr avg of 142. Very comfortable run and used the hr to keep it sensible for JB race this saturday. Drank about 3 pints of extra water over the day.

Thursday: Rest day.

Friday: Recovery run to keep the legs ticking over. 5km at 5:50/km and hr at 136. Graduation Day for the eldest at home so a day and early evening on the town. Kept it to a few glasses of red wine and a port to finish dinner. I still see the excited 4 year old starting school!!!!

Saturday: Jingle Bells Day. Slept well but have to admit that come race day I wonder why I do this. The training is fine but I loose confidence on race days. At this stage I know that it will ease and once the race starts I improve. By the last third of a race, once I havent fallen apart, I positively love getting the bit berween my teeth and push on aggressively.

Pb of 21mins even was set in Dec 2014 after 4 monthe of dedicated 5km training. This time I am just 3 weeks into a 12 week 5km programme but had put some good, but broken work, into 10 km training for the first 6 months of the year. Its a very fast course and weather was absolutely in our favour with the only wind assisting us up Chesterfield Ave.

Met The Muppet (Tom) on the way to the start with his supporters. Enjoyed the quick chat. 3km warm up with 6x strides and some stretching before lining up in the pen
with about 4 minutes to go. Plan was to dip under 21mins but run around 4:20 pace for the first 2 km and keep the concentration during the third and fourth where I tend ro loose time on 5kms and then push hard for the last km.

First 2 km felt fine after the initial rush with a small bit of weaving as far as the Papal Cross. Splits were 4:17 and 4:16. Had settled in with 2 particular runners and we were moving up nice and even through the field.

3rd km back across The Ordnance Survey felt so flat after the gentle rise on the first 2 km. Upped speed here as realised I was coasting a little and hit 4:08. Moved to the extreme left hand side of the road before the turns ahead to take the tightest line possible and picked up the pace again. Legs felt very strong but it was an effort. Hit the 4km marker and the watch beeped 4mins even for the km. Knew I was on target to pb with the descent ahead and had passed a number of small groups before desending as fast as I could. Looked at thr watch twice on the last km to check distance as I was pretty well running flat out. Caught a UCD runner who kicked on with me and we ran side by side for about 600m before she pulled away with 50m to go....Oh youth.

Last km covered in 3:42 flat acccording to watch to give a watch time of 20.32. However the only time that counts is the Chip time and that was considerably slower at 20:40. Hard to figure why there was such a difference as I am conservative with the start and finish.

Highlight was catching up with a lot of very happy boardsies, new and old, at the race end. It was a PB tsunami of sorts. Many thanks to a very spirited and well organised DONORE HARRIERS for what will be an annual event for me in the future. We were very fortunate with the weather which made for great racing.

Sunday: 13 km Endurance Run. Was disappointed with how clueless I had been to my own form and tactics for yesterdays race. Felt much better after a hard run with my new pacing times. Ran 5:19/km and sorted out what to do in future with these races. Have to push harder earlier in 5kms and cant expect to run as fast over the last km in future. Last 5 km today was run comfortably in 25:23. Time to push on.

Bungy Girl · 04-12-2016 5:27pm

Congratulations Denis, super result ! I got lucky with the chip time when it gave me a second quicker than my watch time, but it has often gone the other way for me too :rolleyes:. Sub 20:30 next ? Or will you just skip straight to the sub 20 ?:D

Murph_D · 04-12-2016 6:51pm

Very well raced, Denis, congrats on the big PB - wouldn't be surprised at all if some of the chip times are off, might be worth an email to championship. Great result either way!

Kennyg71 · 04-12-2016 6:56pm

Well done on Pb Denis, really good progress, great marker for new year.

Wubble Wubble · 04-12-2016 8:05pm

Great stuff Denis, I didn't realise you'd run it that fast, as I didn't meet you for several minutes afterwards, at least as I recall proceedings.

tang1 · 04-12-2016 8:48pm

Great stuff Denis, another Boadsie I missed yesterday.

Annie get your Run · 04-12-2016 10:02pm

Brilliant result Denis!, congrats on the PB and great to catch up again yesterday

denis b · 04-12-2016 10:17pm

Many thanks folks.

BG: I Think the respectful answer has to be to go for the sub 20.30 first

. That probably also coincides with the most realistic answer unless the JB 2017 is run in early Feb 2017 as my focus race. Unlikely.

Murph

Good idea but have resolved to just work harder next time. Plenty of room for improvement but cannot expect such favourable course and weather too often.