Don't stop moving...
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Cheers MJ. Totally agree progress is progress, still doing "new" things every day (e.g. today was taking E swimming for the 1st time since it happened).
So running just falls into that. I'm just delighted to be out of hospital and on a decent path to normality.
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Week of 20th December:
2 runs again this week.
Monday; 5km at 7.00/km
I joked on Strava this was an LSR, which it kind of was. Had been planning this for a while, my best friend is a sort of runner and trying to get into it so had a Christmas week run and chat with him, at his easy pace which is a good bit slower than mine. So a great way to compromise and stretch the distance. Running with company is so easy, love it.
Friday; 2.8km at 5:00/km
Got this in on Christmas eve before the weather was to turn on Christmas day. Actually threw in a few fartleks toward end which were something like 100m at 3:30/km pace, nice to increase heart rate for 1st time and didn't feel any ill effects.
Now off to vote in all the awards threads, great effort by @OOnegative and @Murph_D putting it together.
Ps; is there a way to view who has thanked a post on mobile?? Totally lost in this new forum.
Post edited by crisco10 on9 -
If you find out the answer to your P.S. question, let me know too 😀..
Impressive that u have worked your way back to 5k and back logging too. I know you already know this, but remember there is no rush.
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Totally. Being honest, I feel a plateau coming at 2 x 4 or 5km runs a week.
Partially cos going back to work but partially listening to my body
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Don’t think it’s possible to view thanks on mobile - this was flagged months ago to the powers that be but so far has not been fixed. Very annoying.
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Week of 27th December:
2 runs again this week, dropped the mileage a smidge cos Christmas week is always a busy time, and being honest at times a bit much for me. I had one or two ‘bad’ pain days which hasn’t happened in a few weeks.
tuesday ; 4km at 4.52km
In October, a Week before my stroke, I had ordered Vaporflys on sale from Nike. The intention always being that Santa was going to bring them. It became a little goal when I was in hospital that I would go for a Christmas run in them (even a km). So was delighted to do 4km in them, and the pace felt springy to match my mood and the shoes. Don’t think I can give the shoes a full review just yet, but they are super light and feel springy enough alright.
Sunday; 3.4km at 5:10/km
an easy one around the block, albeit a hillier route.
The 2022 target thread got me thinking about when I might run at high effort again and I feel miles away from that. Some of that physical and some of that psychological. as i get physically stronger and more recovered I have a nagging doubt that I will be scared of pushing my HR up too much, given I was running at moderate intensity when it all happened.
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Week of 3rd January:
Started back to work, part-time, this week so carefully trying to manage that workload. Good week to come back, between our public holiday on Monday, and all sorts of Public Holiday's around Europe later in the week. Meant I was able to feel my way back into a bit (reset all my passwords etc!).
Second half of week came down with a head cold so that was that. Just the one run.
Wednesday; 4km at 4:55/km:
Cold lunch run, but nice (ish) to be out. Felt it in my lungs at end, which was a blow to the ego. But happy to be out on a sunny day I remind myself.
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Week of 10th.
Getting log in early, know I wont be doing anything over the weekend:
Tuesday: 4.2km @ 5:30/km
Squeezed this one while E was in ballet class, so had to have it done within 30 mins, which given my current training "plan" was easy enough done. Heart rate ended up climbing here and there as I pottered around the nice hill at the top of Kill Lane. Must admit, I felt genuinely unfit on this one.
Friday: 5km @6:30/ km or so.
Back with my buddy for an "LSR" early doors. Really enjoyed the chats, and for sure could have kept going a bit longer at end.
General Health log:
I'm going to use here to track this, because I suppose where else! lol. At the moment, I'm still feeling fairly low level pain 24/7 and taking 5 or 6 paracetamol just to get through the day. But that's a huge reduction on pain meds compared to before Christmas and apparently normal. Going back to work has been fun, but the few days where I needed to be closer to full intensity left me a bit wiped the following day. (e.g. Thursday this week, I was wrecked from a "busy" half day on Weds).
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Week of 17th:
Well well well, a ground breaking week of running. Oh so tempted to throw my name in the DCM lottery as a target to have almost exactly a year on from the stroke, but think that would be one thing too many to load on myself. (he says now!! lol)
Was a good weeks running, back out with the buggy (and a small run with the double!), and did 3 "runs" in the week for the first time since my comeback.
Tuesday; 4.55km with buggy at 5:07/km
Putting this one in while E was at ballet. But more importantly, I took C out in the buggy. My 1st buggy Run back since the stroke so delighted to have another "1st". Oh, and pushing a 9 month old is so much easier than pushing a toddler!
General feeling was that last km or two was a bit harder given it was uphill and buggy.
Thursday; 1.3km with double buggy at 5:29/km
Totally not planned, as I said on Strava, it was a run because E was horribly late for preschool! But nice to be pushing the Double Buggy, even if I did have a slight bit of PTSD running with it.
Friday; 5km at 4:46/km (Comeback PB for 5km of 23:51)
I think I'm going to follow the concept of "Comeback PB's", it will stop me focussing on how slow I am compared to before and rather keep me positive about my (patient and slow) improvement back again. With that in mind I'm declaring this one as my new Comeback PB for 5km!
It wasn't an all out effort either, I planned to potter for 5km but felt light on my feet so threw in a few fartleks around a few pitches locally then finished with a steady effort to the 5km marker. So sort of an accidental time trial, with fuel in the bank too.
General health.
Much the same as last week, still on daily painkillers. But I also did a bit of a body check on my Tuesday run and I certainly didn't feel ready to put the foot down and accelerate (I did feel better on Friday though). The constant low lying headache is really a drag on my flow, and the thought of doing runs on back to back days is not one that fills me with too much comfort. Thus I certainly feel a natural limitation at the moment of max 3 runs a week.
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Fair play. Really good progress but very good to see that you are listening to the body, taking stock as you go and re-framing so that you don't push your too hard or compare yourself to previous time. I'd say your a model patient with the attitude you have taken!
I'm sure that those current PB's will come down to where they used to be, just taking the time is the best approach like coming back from any injury. P>S Your still running your easy runs about 30's faster than my easy pace and with a buggy so it's all there for you in due time.
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Week of 24th:
Keeping it ticking over, I sometimes feel like an idiot logging ~10km per week. But such is life! lol. The weather has been unreal these days though, certainly makes it easier to get out, even got to double figure mileage this week…
Monday: 4km with buggy @ 4:54/km
A point to point run here, net downhill. Struggled to control the pace, the buggy was running away from me a bit the whole time. lol. It was E's first buggy run back and she was chuffed to be back out. Gave me plenty of smiles seeing how much she still enjoys a buggy run.
Wednesday: 5.3km with buggy @5:34/km
Another gorgeous day, another lovely run in company. ReeReeG and E joined me for some relaxed km's around Marlay. V did give out to me for dragging the pace down a bit though. Suspect she has a point. lol
Saturday: 4.8km with buggy @ 5:30/km
C was awake early so took him around the blustery block. Felt a little more sore on this one. Maybe cos it was before breakfast!
General Health:
Still taking painkillers, still hurting consistently. But running seems to be a neutral influence on that. I felt bad over last weekend, but not sure if that was the 5km Comeback PB on the Friday, work ramping up, or a bad nights sleep on Friday. It could easily be any, but most probably a little of all of the above.
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Cheers MJ, I suspect I have been lucky to this point in that progress has been consistent if slow. I think I will get to be a worse patient if that stops being true!
lol
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Wouldn't be like me to give out 🤣
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Double update for me because not much happening!
Week of 31st:
Mayhem busy week with things other than running. Work was busy, and we also had the pleasure of collecting a new car! It's a full EV, and I'm a full EV convert now. It's like I just got my drivers licence again, I'm looking for any excuse to go for a spin.
On the running front, squeezed in one 5km at easy pace during E's ballet. Felt ok.
Week of 7th:
Tuesday: 5km at 5:08/km. An easy one before work, nice that a 5km run is back to within "easy" range...
Saturday: 5km with buggy @ 5:50/km.
Big big day; 1st time back to parkrun. Brought with E with me because she has been DYING to get back to parkrun. She loves all the clapping, pre race briefing, token scanning etc. I was back to the scene of the event 18 weeks ago so was strangely apprehensive. Luckily, I had recruited a good friend to run with me (and keep me running reallllllly slow). He paced me expertly and the three of us had a great time running around Tymon again.
I was touched that a few people came straight up to me to welcome me back and wish me well etc etc. Like how would they even remember what I looked like?? Like total randomers. Just goes to show the community spirit at Parkrun.
General Health:
Still improving slowly. Average dose of painkillers is down to about 4 or 5 paracetamol a day. But I do feel fierce tired/sore most Saturday evenings, after a weeks work and busy Saturday's doing family stuff (swimming etc).
Regards upping running, still don't feel there yet. I could, but I think it would require a heck of a nap after it. So not really worth it.
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Fair Play! Big step returning to that particular parkrun. I hope you got a good sense of achievement from that.
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The double update is becoming a thing I think! Such is the paucity of interesting updates.
Week of 14th:
just the one run again during E's Ballet, 5km @4:53/km
Felt ok, but then the rest of the week was totally lost to children and wife's (non-serious) illnesses!
Week of 21st:
Thursday: 5.2km with buggy (E) at 5:10/km. Lovely sunny day, and wanted to get out for some time doing something I wanted to do. Managed to bend E's rubber elbow into coming with me. Had a nice run around the area shooting the breeze with E.
Saturday: 5km with buggy (c) @ 4:55/km.
Boys on tour this morning, took Conor for his first solo parkrun. Having ragged on Marlay's stance on buggy's over on the parkrun Thread, it actually put it in my head that maybe it would be a good destination for me. My issue at the moment is that my legs want to go fast(er), but everything else wants me to go slowly! So starting from the back(ish) and taking it a bit handy sounded like a great way of controlling my pace.
Splits were: 5:40, 4:45, 4:52, 4:55 and 4:20. So was pretty ideal really, my HR never got too high until the last couple of 100m (and that was just because of natural acceleration with the line in sight) and crossed the line relatively fresh and able to chat. My expectation had been ~25 mins, instead it was 24mins. Which is officially C's 5k PB. lol
General Health:
Tough couple of weeks tbh, I was feeling ok. But with the added pressure of kids sickness my pain and tiredness escalated a fair bit. Still pretty wrecked today, but hopefully a couple of nights and days of normality will help settle that again. Worryingly, the pharmacist assistant in the local knows me now and is reaching for the shelf for painkillers on sight. lol
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A generally good 2 weeks actually, things are still moving in the right direction! Overall, I think I'm going to start putting a little more structure on things from now (health permitting of course). 3 runs a week, Tuesday/Thurs/Saturday;
Tuesday easy 5km
Thursday being a slightly longer one each week
Saturday, Parkrun 5km of whatever pace I'm feeling
So total will be 15km and growing slowly slowly.
Week of 28th
Wednesday: 5.1km with double buggy @5:10/km.
Wet and windy and fun this one, everyone was sick of being inside on a miserable day so off we went with wet wear on.
Saturday: 5km with buggy @ 4:52/km
It was E's turn to do Parkun at Marlay this morning, didnt get a free EV charging spot. grrrr.
Similar buzz to last week, just take the pace offered by the crowd in 1st km etc then enjoy the rest of the race at the pace that comes. It was a gorgeous crisp morning, splits were 5:34, 4:35, 4:54, 4:54, 3:55. Only just noticed that last split now, nice to do a sub 4 min km again. Didn't feel too bad either, But I definitely wanted to go sub 24 minutes when I realised I was at halfway in a little over 12 mins.
Week of 7th
Tuesday: 5km with buggy @ 5:02/km.
Pretty miserable school collection of E was this. Windy, Rainy, Hilly and E felt really Heavy! Glad to have it in the bag.
Thursday: 6.3km @ 4:55/km.
In total contrast to Tuesday, weather was scorching (relatively) so got out around the block on my own at lunch. In the 1st 3km of this run, I came up with the training "plan" above. So decided to make this the first longer run in said plan. Longest run since I had the stroke, and felt great tbh.
Saturday: 5km with double buggy @5:29/km
Marlay Parkrun with a buddy. So ran at his pace for 1st 3 or 4km, then was struggling in 4th km to push double buggy uphill and match my pace to his so let my legs go at the pace they wanted and accelerated a bit from there on. Splits were still gentle though! (6:18, 5:16, 5:36, 5:32, 4:43).
Must be said another glorious morning in Marlay, coffee and pottering in the playground after was very pleasant!
General Health
A good couple of weeks on that front, have made a concerted effort to bring painkillers down another step (still taking them daily, but just reducing quantity/frequency) and that's not been horrendous. Back to work somewhere between part and full time too.
Post edited by crisco10 on6 -
Jaysus, a months since my last entry. That's not good lol.
A quick look, only done 4 runs, with total distance of 22km in that time. Oh well.
Other factors just seem to be getting in the way lots, and I've not got the habit/energy to be squeezing in runs like I would before the stroke. Not entirely sure what to do if anything. Maybe just cross my fingers that the kids/wife/me stop getting sick, and then take it from there!!
General Health
Still improving, I had my 1st painkiller free day a few weeks ago. But haven't had any since, but less napping which is great. Probably down to on average 3 or 4 painkillers a day. Double that on a bad day, half that on a good day.
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Things have been improving steadily the past 3 weeks.
Week of 11th. 2 runs, total 14.1km @5/km.
I was still struggling to get out the door a bit but managed to get going in 2nd half of the week as the general health of everyone in the house improved.
Week of 18th. 4 runs, total 30.1km @ 4:50/km
Latched on to a novel "training" goal for me this week. Just run every 2nd day, try and make the weekend one a little longer. Really simple, really achievable, and plenty of time for my head to give me feedback.
Great weeks running I think, highest mileage week since October not surprisingly. And for 1st time went as far as 10km - I even did that one with E in the buggy.
Week of 25th. 3 runs (inc 5k TT), total 21.5km
The softer of the weeks in a 2 week cycle of running every 2nd day, meant only 3 runs this week! Nice runs midweek to keep the legs spinning, and then did a 5k TT on Saturday. This is a relic of COVID lockdowns amongst my college buddy group, but it's now in its 3rd year. 5k TT on the May Bank Holiday weekend, it's interesting to see how peoples times have changed over the 3 years too.
Gonna do a Time Trial report now!
Anyway, I thought I would take this as my opportunity to test the waters and run with high intensity for 1st time since the run that brought on the stroke. Felt good all week etc, and up and out early on Saturday morning to do 3 x 1 mile-ish laps in Sandyford industrial estate. It's always nice and deserted so knew I'd be able to run on the cycle lane and not worry about avoiding pedestrians or yielding to cars etc.
My goal was to simply run comfortably hard, set a 5k workout on the watch and put the display to "Strava Relative Suffering Score" (or something like that) i.e. a nonsense screen that I couldn't interpret or worry about. Then the time would be what the time was. That being said, I did get my 1k splits beeping at me, so I wasn't completely ignorant of my pace.
Splits were 3:46, 3:56, 3:50, 3:55, 3:53.
A relatively tasty 1st km to be sure, but the loop is a slightly on a hill, so 1st km had lots of gentle down, cancelled out by the bit of a drag in 2nd km. And you can see a similar pattern in the 3rd km which was mostly down with limited uphills and the 4th km which had the uphill drag. Either way, when I saw 3:46 for 1st km flash up, I was like "yay - it doesn't kill me to run fast-ish again", but I was also fairly confident of not holding that pace all the way through. Focused on keeping the effort steady and even with a blowup sub-20 was very achievable.
Basically did that for KM 2, 3 and 4. All be it getting a little more excited as sub 20 became surer and surer, when my 4th km started with a 3 I did the sums and reckoned even a 4:3x 5th km would get sub 20. Kept the effort up, and was obviously feeling it at this point in my lungs and legs. Ran through the beep, and 19:20 was on the watch. Boom. A good minute quicker than I really was expecting.
Small walking break then plodded through a warm up delighted with the effort. Only a TT, measured by Garmin, but even allowing for inaccuracy it was at worst a 19:30ish.
For context in 2020, on the same loop I did ~18:30. and in 2021, with E in the buggy I did 19:00 in Marlay.
General Health
7 months on, still taking pain killers every day. Still only the 1 painkiller free day too. I was wrecked on Saturday night after the TT, but we'd also had a family day in Powerscourt straight after. And I felt really hungover (headaches, tired etc) on Sunday, had to go back to bed, and then drag myself through the day somewhat..
So delighted I did TT, but was definitely an effort. As an indicator of my ability to do sessions regularly etc, I think it probably shows I may not be healthy enough yet, maybe just some lighter ones. But nothing brutal.
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Fair play, considering everything you've been through to be able to knock out a TT and only be 1 min off last years pace is incredible 👏
Seems it took a bit out of you but that's hardly surprising. Given time and patience you'll be back to full steam ahead
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I've been slow logging, but not because I haven't been running. The Run-every-second-day plan is still going well actually, all be it I generally miss a day for pain/life/work reasons most weeks, so it really just becomes a run 3 times a week really.
Since 5th May, it's been a steady mid 20's km per week. Generally made up of 2 x 6 to 8km runs, with a long run of slightly increasing distance at the weekend. Some buggy running, some without as needs must. My long run is up to 13.5km.
I have thrown in a few fartleks here and there which generally felt nice, and I enjoyed a gorgeous run around Marseille before the disappointment of a Leinster loss. C also did his longest buggy run of 13km so it's all go. :-)
I generally feel ready to push on a little and start running consecutive days, but actually my biggest blocker at the moment is routine/family life etc. I've sort of lost the practice of squeezing them in. When I do, my plan was to do roughly 3 x 5 to 7 km runs during week, then long run at weekend...and see how it goes.
General Health.
Still taking painkillers daily. Still get "hangovers" when things get too much. Have an MRI next week, and appointment with neuro guy the week after which all going well will just give me the all clear.
I did add up how many pills I've taken since October, it's well in excess of 1500. With about 900 of that Paracetamol.
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Taking inspiration from ReeRee's wrap up post given it's 6 months since I last posted.
August
A really really solid month of running, 1st one since the brain hemorrhage. We were in France for the month, so I just got into a really good rhythm of every second day getting out early doors before the family woke up. Got a few long runs in, and lots of easy running. No real sessions, but lots of the areas I went exploring were fairly hilly so got some natural strength training in. 150km for the month.
September
All got a little more disjointed with return to routine in Dublin; plenty of sick children etc that got in the way. I accidentally tapered into my only race of 2022 which was the Sandyford 5k. The start line is literally within 10 minutes of my house, so couldn't say no. My plan for the race was just to go comfortably hard and see where it took me, I felt in control for most of it (even managed to chat some of the marshalls I knew on my way past) and enjoyed the race. Finished just outside Top 10 in 18:58. Nice to have sub 19 on the board, almost a year to the week from the "incident".
October
A poor month overall, lots of excuses and lots of outside influence but maintained fitness for the month (at best). My favourite day for running was supporting the DCM along Fosters Ave. Almost signed up for the lottery for 2023. Almost, haha.
November/Early December
Up and down nature of recent months continued with a good month in November, managed to establish a rhythm with the kids drop so 2 or 3 times a week I drop them to creche in the Double Buggy, so that's 6km run done on those days without thinking which is a great help. Although, the combined weight of kids is 30Kg which is not an easy push. lol. Also on other days, I collect them in bike trailer, which is cross training of a sort.
The weather being incredibly mild has helped. But ultimately it's still lots of easy running. Oh, and I also played 5-a-side football for 1st time since about 2017, lots of DOMS, but ultimately enjoyed and might continue that on weekly basis.
Goals/Idea for 2023
Consistency. consistency. consistency. Need to up my miles if I want to do more sessions and races. But overarching questions is how to balance with 2 kids who have spent most of this winter sick, as well as both parents working, and I still do get headaches etc from the stroke. Really challenging tbh to know if I'm being soft on myself, or realistic.
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Dealing with all that is no joke. I know all about the work and kids element of it for sure. Our house has been an absolute germfest all of October and December and really since September. Adding work into the mix makes it only harder. Best you can do is try and be consistent as possible, find a way that works for you and the family and take the opportunities when they come. In some ways being "off plan" takes a lot of pressure off as you're not trying to squeeze in sessions all the time.
Just keep in mind you don't necessarily need to be in a specific block to race. Take a look at Murphs log for inspiration. Technically he was in a block but for several months it was almost all Lydiard based easy and steady runs. You can race off a solid aerobic block.
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By the way, sub 19! Jesus thats a fair achievement co sidering what you've been through.
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Thanks for this, been dwelling on it for the past week or so. And on reflection it's sorta what I did in 2022 (the 2nd half), and obviously worked for me to this point. So you make a good point.
I suppose what i was really looking to avoid are those periods where weeks go by with little or no running, or very few long runs for example. So maybe I just need to reframe my thought process, pick a distance (probably 5 or 10k) I'd like to race this year, find a few races then take em as they come.
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Exactly. And maybe try set yourself a minimum target per week of hours on feet so that way you don't get lazy but don't n3cessarily Tey and tie down specific runs for specific days.
Mini goals along the way might help. People always think about the goal race but with our kind of lifestyle there needs to be more than that. So a mini goal of maybe 3hrs running a week which can increment over time.
At the moment I'm off plan so I'll still get my six runs in a week. If I'm tired I'll go easy. If I feel OK I might run steady for a chunk of the run. Or if I'm feeling pretty good I might up that to marathon pace. Maybe a few strides here and there and you have the building blocks for being in decent shape.
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First update of 2023, and I'll cover off January.
Was very surprised to pick up an award for Comeback of the year, given my mileage and training routine, I find it hard to consider myself as "back" but I suppose everything is relative!
As discussed with @Swashbuckler before, I had a thought of reframing the process and I liked the target of hours training (as opposed to distance). A few reasons for this, I've started playing football again (only 5-aside, once a week) and also 3 days a week I'm on the bike collecting kids from creche in a trailer. So a pure running goal doesn't account for these other activities. That said, if I skip football, or kids end up being collected by their mum, I should be able to upwardly adjust my running with the spare energy.
Also, E has started dance classes on Saturday morning, and is old enough now that it's a "drop and go". Conveniently, it's about 2.5km away, so we've been running there with her in the buggy, then I continue running for the hour she is in, and then buggy run home again. Long story short - I can't Parkrun, but I'm getting long runs in again.
So goal is, 3 hours of running/football/cycling in per week. With gradually increasing distance on Saturday long run. Once that is comfortable, and spring springs, I'll look to up the time running too (but hopefully that might happen organically).
So January Summary:
W/C 2nd: 2.25hours total, no long run.
W/C 9th: 3hrs 20, no long run.
Football was very intense. Embarrassingly, I've only been play every 2nd week up to now, as the twisty muscles like my groans are taking that long to recover. I do find that my stamina is probably the best on the pitch though. The odd header I make does fill me with dread but.
W/C 16th: 3hr, no long run
W/C 23rd: 4hr 25, 11km long run.
Big increase here. I ended up running 4 days, football on one and then cycles on 3 other days. Felt good for it though
W/C 30th: 3hrs, 14km long run.
A big increase in another way this week, all running because I was away with work, got out 5 days.
Also need to find some 5 or 10km races in Spring time to peak my interest, would need to be close to Dublin as I have limited capacity to spend time travelling to and from it.
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