Rotterdam 2017- Back On The Horse

El Caballo

A new log which will hopefully be a new beginning in more ways than one. Last one had fallen into disrepair just like my running and I'd like something fresh to track my progress to Rotterdam in April.

A little bit of background. I'm 27 years old with almost 4 years of mercurial training in the legs so still have huge room for improvement as long as the head plays ball and I can get a good stretch of running behind me. Most of my PB's are from my early days of running in 2013 including my marathon PB of 3:15:29 which is the only important number for the next few months as that's what I'm chasing after, if I happen to race well in between now and then, that will be a bonus but making to the startline fresh and ready to go in April is the main thing as that's my stumbling block with the marathon.


Had my first race in 6 months at the weekend in the shape of Munster Intermediate XC (great race to dip my toes back into racing again:pac:). Only ran to make up a club team but it was a bit of an eye opener to say the least, ran better than I expected but it was a wake up call to how far behind I've fallen in the running world so need to get my a$$ in gear with less than 18 weeks to Rotterdam.

Have a few races entered already in the buildup to help me keep focused along the way which looking back over the last few years is something I haven't really done, just being hopping from one race to the next without ever really targeting anything. Anyway, So far, I have:

Adare 10k
Ballycotton 10
Rotterdam

Might sneak out for one or two more which are in my head as well but those are the ones I will definitely be having a hop off.

Thursday 8th Dec- 45 Minutes Easy @ 9:33 min/mile (144bpm avg)

Haha, long way to go:pac: To be fair, The start of this one was tough enough as my calves were stiff and the pace was lagging, gradually felt looser as the time passed by and picked it up. Can tell straight away that the body was shocked, small niggles appearing everywhere from my VMO, outside of my left arch (new shoes with a medial post) to a nerve running down my back for the last 10 minutes, nothing major in any of them but just my body telling me to give it a shake before I try anything like that again.

Murph_D

Best of luck, Horse. Good to see you back. What's the plan for the Rotterdam training?

Ososlo

Great to see you back logging and will be following your journey to Rotterdam closely! Best of luck!

snailsong

Good luck, Caballo. I'll be joining you in Rotterdam. Do you have a plan or just play by ear?

Kennyg71

Best luck with new log and Rotterdam.

tang1

Best of luck with the log E, looking forward to seeing how you go. Murphy's is the spot in Rotterdam!!!

Working class heroes

Head down and give her socks dude. No bother to ya!

El Caballo

Cheers folks!:)

Murph_D wrote: »

Best of luck, Horse. Good to see you back. What's the plan for the Rotterdam training?

snailsong wrote: »

Good luck, Caballo. I'll be joining you in Rotterdam. Do you have a plan or just play by ear?

Yep, have a plan alright. Keeping it simple and going to go with the tried and tested approach of running a lot at a good effort. Kind of plagiarizing Lydiard really with the emphasis being on running long and easier with the shorter runs being at a higher effort, run short and hard one day, longer and easier the next and repeat. Basically something like this which probably goes a bit farther than plagiarism:)

Mon: Short/Steady
Tue: MLR
Wed: Short/Steady
Thu: MLR
Fri: Short/Aerobic Tempo
Sat: long Run
Sun: Short easy or off

That would be the gist of it. Going to be running by time instead of miles and using HR as a guide just to keep tabs on myself. It's a tough enough schedule to be fair so I might make a few changes along the way if I'm finding the going on the tough side, using it as a guide more than anything else for the next few weeks.

jake1970

Best of luck with the new log.

El Caballo

Friday 9th December- 40 Minutes Steady Untimed

Couldn't get the FR235 to give me a proper HR reading, said I had a resting HR of 43 (I wish) so I had to keep this one measured on my own devices, done a quick warmup and cracked on with the prescribed run. Felt terrible again for the first half of it it, breathing was fine so it wasn't anything near overdoing the pace, just tight, weak and rusty muscles taking up the slack. Again, got better as I progressed but it was tough work to get to that point.

Saturday 10th December- 70 Minutes

Same issue again today with the garmin, just going to pick up a cheap watch with a strap this weekend, need something semi reliable going forward. Seeing a trend here with my runs, much like all my runs this week, the first 20-30 minutes was a plodding grind before I started to loosen out. Not a tiredness issue (can't possibly be that) but more a problem with flexibility, felt really good as I went on until my arch came at me again, much more painful than Thursday so I pulled the plug on this originally planned run of 90 minutes to be on the safe side. Feels fine now, being working on it with a tennis ball all morning but my build up is probably going to have to be more cautious than planned. All part of where I'm at now so not a real shock.

hot buttered scones

El Caballo wrote: »

Friday 9th December- 40 Minutes Steady Untimed

Couldn't get the FR235 to give me a proper HR reading, said I had a resting HR of 43 (I wish) so I had to keep this one measured on my own devices, done a quick warmup and cracked on with the prescribed run. Felt terrible again for the first half of it it, breathing was fine so it wasn't anything near overdoing the pace, just tight, weak and rusty muscles taking up the slack. Again, got better as I progressed but it was tough work to get to that point.

Saturday 10th December- 70 Minutes

Same issue again today with the garmin, just going to pick up a cheap watch with a strap this weekend, need something semi reliable going forward. Seeing a trend here with my runs, much like all my runs this week, the first 20-30 minutes was a plodding grind before I started to loosen out. Not a tiredness issue (can't possibly be that) but more a problem with flexibility, felt really good as I went on until my arch came at me again, much more painful than Thursday so I pulled the plug on this originally planned run of 90 minutes to be on the safe side. Feels fine now, being working on it with a tennis ball all morning but my build up is probably going to have to be more cautious than planned. All part of where I'm at now so not a real shock.

You can pair a strap to the FR235 - it works quite well.

El Caballo

hot buttered scones wrote: »

You can pair a strap to the FR235 - it works quite well.

Thanks HBS, OHR worked today but I can't seem to get it to pair, went through the garmin forums and tried everything to connect it to my old 210 strap but no luck, I'll buy a new strap first and see if that works before I splash out on another one I think just to see.

Monday 12th December- 60 Minutes Steady (8:10 @ 163bpm)

A lot more comfortable from the get go today, steady pace is and always felt like home in that regard, not too hot and not cold and this felt much, much better than my runs last week. Nice drop of rain as well to keep it cool. No arch problems either so that's a big W for today. Small issue alright as my blood sugar felt on the low side post run so felt a bit of tunnel vision when I got home, was in a rush this morning so headed out without anything to eat since yesterday evening so my liver glycogen was on the low side I'd say. Had a bit of a laugh on the way home as my I heard "well, jesus christ" and looked around to spot my old coach with his jaw hitting the floor as I passed by, he got some hop to be fair:pac:

Total: 7.35 Miles

hot buttered scones

El Caballo wrote: »

Thanks HBS, OHR worked today but I can't seem to get it to pair, went through the garmin forums and tried everything to connect it to my old 210 strap but no luck, I'll buy a new strap first and see if that works before I splash out on another one I think just to see.

I've been having problems with mine lately too tbh. Wore the strap tonight and got way better readings. Readings have been way too high lately - the OHRM just does not work properly for me in the winter.
This is what I had to do to pair the strap initally:
You have to be wearing the strap for it to pair. Press the run button. Press the down arrow to get to settings and press the run button. Press the down arrow to sensors and accessories. Press the run button and select add new.
If you get it to pair then it will pick it up automatically from then on. Make sure your running the latest software version (7.20). If it still won't pair maybe the battery is gone?

Annie get your Run

Great to see you back at it again E and the best of luck with Rotterdam, not so great to see the OHR issues above, will have to re write my Santa letter

El Caballo

Wasn't going to bother posting this as it's a bit of a downer but probably for the best for a bit of closure. Out injured at the moment, my feet were going numb when I was running so set up an appointment with my ST to see what the issue is, asked me a few questions about my calves and so on and how they felt when I was running etc only for him to tell me what I feel was not normal(they always felt like that) and he thinks I might have compartment syndrome. Says he can't be certain without a pressure test so he wants me to book in with a physio in the new year to get it checked so I'll have to wait and see on that front and what will need to be done afterwards.

Any training or a shot at a marathon is looking extremely unlikely:(

tang1

Sorry to hear that E, right kick in the rocks.

snailsong

Bad news, sorry to hear. You have no luck with marathon training.
Hope the investigation goes well for you,.

El Caballo

Sunday 29th January- Milford Hospice 10k

I don't get many results that suprise me so this one is probably worth sharing. Training hadn't been great in the lead up to this race because of work commitments last year and missing 5-6 weeks with injury, only got about 20 days running done in the last 7 months. Just started back last week and wanted to race just to see where I was fitness wise plus one of my big goals is to race more often this year. Haven't done any speedwork so I was a bit lost as to choosing a target time but all things considered, I was thinking anything below 44 would be a good starting point and something I'd be happy with.

Felt awful on the warm-up so that didn't inspire much confidence in me pulling off any suprise performance.

Race:

Off we go...

Quickly settled into a group of people of people I'd be fairly familar with but haven't raced in a long time. Had no watch so I didn't really know how fast we were going only that it was a lot faster than 44 minute pace so that that plan went out the window went out the window and I just said screw it! I'll have a hop off this and if I blow a fuse, a bit of pain wouldn't go astray anyway.

Got my first idea of just how quick we were going at the turnaround point at 2k when I seen the leaders coming back towards us, way too close for comfort and the group I was in had slightly pulled away. Still felt ok at the pace but knew I wasn't going to maintain it to the finish so just slightly eased off going up the hill past 3k as I realised that as long as the race didn't turn into a complete deathmarch, I had a decent time and a lot more in my legs than I thought.

My first real rough patch was around 5k when a few people passed me and the hills had wore me down a little but that feeling passed fairly quickly as I had them to target now as we turned down a narrow pathway with a gentle downhill where I could open up again. Reeled in the guy in front who was more than a bit stubborn about letting me get past. He'd pull on the hills and I'd reel him back on the otherside until I finally opened a gap at 7.5k going over the flyover by the pitches. The hurt was on and while I was catching up to the runners ahead, the guy behind had upped the effort and was constantly tailing me about 5m behind. I was definitely slowing but just not as much as everyone ahead of me. Passed two more guys who had bolted past me earlier as we bounced across the living bridge with the marshalls shouting 1.5k to go and with no else within catching distance up ahead, I turned my attention to holding off the guy who was tailing me for the last k. That gap remained the same all the way to the finish on the track where I spotted the clock just tick over 41:20 as I rounded the bend to cross the line in

41:24ish

Thoughts:

I'll take that:pac:. It makes no sense but I'm not going to complain. I was honestly contemplating whether Rotterdam was worth a shot after all after the race as I think I would scare my PB based on today's run, the speed is already there but sense prevailed after a post race nap, it's not worth the risk and I want to a have another hop off track this year as really, that's where my potential is at if every coach I've ever had is right. Work has got mental again but I'm not going to let that get in the way of training this time around, my baseline fitness is so much better than I could have imagined right now that it puts my PB's tantalising close to finally be taken down, I haven't run a PB in 2 and a half years so it would be really nice to get a taste of what that feeling is like again.

Going to run a few more races over the next few months leading up to Ballycotton and then try get into good 5k nick before cracking on with track training for the summer. Hopefully be able to keep the log updated.

Annie get your Run

Nice result good to see you back at it.

El Caballo

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Nice result good to see you back at it.

Thanks, maybe my thoughts on running v cycling were wrong:D

Annie get your Run

El Caballo wrote: »

Thanks, maybe my thoughts on running v cycling were wrong:D

I can only hope so

snailsong

Good one. Nice to see you get the enthusiasm back, there's nothing like racing. Where are you injury wise?

El Caballo

snailsong wrote: »

Good one. Nice to see you get the enthusiasm back, there's nothing like racing. Where are you injury wise?

Thanks man, I'm alright now. I've a bit of hypochondriac streak in me so when I hear compartment syndrome, I fear the worst. The physio said I've got gammy hips which is what is causing the calf problems. Basically my calves are doing the hips work of pushing off which is why they are under so much pressure. He wants me to strengthen and stretch and work on hip extension. They feel a lot better when I use my hips but it's weird, some days I feel like I can run that way but other days I can't quite get it so it's still a work in progress I guess and probably will be a long term thing. Happy to able to get back out there anyway.

El Caballo

Monday 30th January- 45 Minutes Easy

Felt decent enough for this even though the weather was nothing short of a hurricane at times. Ran from Lahinch to Ennistimon and back, hell of a setup as I had perfect tarmac foothpaths the whole way, luxury compared to what I'm used to. No real hangover from yesterday either which was suprising.

Tuesday 31st January- Off

Wednesday 1st February- 40 Minutes Easy

Alright, nothing too hectic

Thursday 2nd February- 40 Minutes Easy

Back home for the forseeable future which is a welcome return to some extra free-time for the next while. Got 40 minutes in around the Manor woth some of it on grass, calves burning a little but ok to run through.

Friday 3rd February- Off

Injured. Slept awkwardly last night and got a really painful crick in my neck and shoulders, couldn't really move my arms or lift my head so took today and tomorrow off.

Sunday 4th February- 60 Minutes w/40 steady inc. Short pickups

Headed out this morning, neck felt better but my shoulder was still grinding a lot. Binned the run after a mile and a half as I felt crap in general, not just in my shoulder. Headed off again this evening, humongous difference, still had shoulder pain but my legs felt so much better, I'd nearly go as far as to say it's the lightest my calves have ever felt that I can I remember. Holding myself back for most of the run so I just threw in a few short little sprints to let loose without going mad.

Not a great week for volume or consistency some might say but I'm happy with it considering how little I've done in months. This was definitely a step in the right direction, I'd take it with both hands now if I could run 4 days every week.

tang1

Belated well done on the 10k E, can't believe I didn't say it till now. Were you working Ennistymon/Lahinch way for a while or just surfing for few days?

El Caballo

tang1 wrote: »

Belated well done on the 10k E, can't believe I didn't say it till now. Were you working Ennistymon/Lahinch way for a while or just surfing for few days?

Cheers B!

Was working on the golf courses in Lahinch for a few weeks. Back in Adare Manor now for a while to try and finish that course off before it opens.