The second coming of a runner

witnessmenow

After several years of basically 0 exercise, I started a couch to 5k last summer (and I was a true "couch" in this title) and got myself back to 5k. Life kind of got in the way for the few months before Christmas, but I've been determined to get back into since Christmas. And I have been doing some running since.

Last Tuesday I weighed 103.4Kg, this is possibly the highest I've ever weighed myself (I'm 175cm, so I should be 75kg ish) and this has kind of kicked me into gear. When I started getting into running again last year I just wanted to get to 5k and then from there maybe go to a 10k, but to leave it at that. But a friend asked would I be interested in doing a half marathon during the summer, I decided maybe it would be good to have something to really work towards and focus on.

I know you can't run from a bad diet, so a lot of my challenge will be getting the diet right. 20s me lost 2 stone at one point from counting calories and being more active. But 20s me lived on his own mostly and had less external factors that add stresses and temptations, but now that I have kids, time is more constrained and also there will be more temptations with food available at home.

I used to run a bit when I was in my 20s, never too seriously but when I compare me then to me now (mid 30s) I think of 20s me as some athletic God! I was generally active from playing soccer and Tag rugby, and being 20Kg lighter than I am now obviously made the running easier!

Prior PBs

20s Me 5K PB was 25:13

20s Me longest run was the 8k Streets of Galway (don't remember the time)

30s me, who I nearly consider a different person in the context of PBs:

5K: 32:XX

longest distance: 6k (just training)

So the overall goal is to run this half Marathon in Kilkee at the start of July. I have good bit of work to get there, but I'm determined.

I hope to update this weekly to give myself some more public accountability of how I'm doing!

witnessmenow

Week 1: (Feb 6th)

Weight: 103.4Kg

Tuesday: 5k in 34:17 (6:50) - Goal was to push myself to do sub 7min km for this run, was absolutely wrecked after this

Thursday: 4k in 28:31 (7:07) - Legs were still tired after Tuesday so took it a bit easier

Saturday: 6k in 41:44 (6:57) - Longest I've run in 9 years or so! Was with the local run group

Sunday: Participated in my wife's couch to 5k and played tennis afterwards. Felt pretty good til my legs got extremely tired later on in the day!

Ate well this week too, so overall happy with it.

Saturdays are more than likely going to be longer runs so I need manage myself a bit better on midweek runs. Spoiler alert as I've two of them done this week, looking at these times I may have went too far the other direction!

Murph_D

Good luck with this quest, it's a long road but a satisfying one if you approach it in a sustainable way.

If you don't mind me asking, how are you planning your weekly schedule, if at all? No run at this very early stage of your comeback should leave you feeling 'absolutely wrecked', as you say above. If it's feeling difficult, slow down. It's more about building time on your feet than being concerned about pace. It's good that you're in a running group, but try to make sure to run with people who are running at a pace that's sustainable for YOU. In fact, I think you'd be much better off not thinking about pace at all, more just going out and running for a certain length of time - 30 mins for example (which removes the 'pressure' to hit a pace).

Nice work so far, shout if any questions, plenty of people around here who have done a similar journey.

witnessmenow

If I'm being honest, I kind of ran that Tuesday pissed off with myself for letting myself get up to that weight so I pushed myself harder than I should have. I've ran two 5ks so far this week with a ~7:30 pace and that is a much more comfortable, but maybe even too comfortable! I'm still kind of finding my current pace.

My current plan is to so two runs during the week that I don't push myself too much with and then a longer run at the weekend. I have a friend who is an experienced runner who is going to set out a schedule for me to work towards, but her general advice was the above.

Yeah the group have a good few different levels of people and you can always drop off if you have to. The section of the group I go with seem to run at a 7:00ish pace so a little faster that I did in my solo runs this week, but about the same as I did last week.

Thank you! Will do, much appreciated!

marathon2022

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120251471#Comment_120251471

Your main hurdle is the weight. The running bit is easy. If you focus on your diet the rest will be fine, nothing too drastic but try to stick to a set amount of calories and when you start dropping weight your overall wellbeing will improve. You do however need to have some accountability when your creating a healthy diet, simple methods include apps like Noom or free ones like myfitnesspal to make sure your not over eating. If your loaded you could go to a dietician. You'd be surprised how many calories is in a few biscuits(or a half a pack with a cup of tea).

Getting your diet right is one of the hardest things anyone can do so don't beat yourself up if you find it difficult. Try again, fail, try again but most of all eat healthy and proportional.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120251500#Comment_120251500

Yeah, my main battle with the fork, not the road!

Not loaded unfortunately , but my sister is a dietician so I do have access to one. I actually do have a fairly decent concept of calories of stuff from the time I lost weight before, but know and doing are two different things. I'm on a good path at the moment with the food, so just need to keep that up!

marathon2022

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120251628#Comment_120251628

Nice one, and good luck with the training

babacool

103kg…. That’s basically me 10 years ago (113kg I had on me). Back then I Made the decision to run a marathon in 12 months time setting out the goal of sub4. Just so I have something that does require some work and is not easily achieved.

did 10 weeks of that Insanity workout whilst following the calorie count that came with those dvds. Weight dropped to 95kg during that time and my fitness improved. Only then I started running but got that part all wrong (weight continued to come down). Thought I do well by going “hard” at most runs and long run - what’s that? 🤣 in the end, I managed to run the marathon but in a less enjoyable way. If only I had the people around back then to give advice that I have now.

what im trying to say is: like the others said, first focus on easy runs. Nothing hard. 3-4 runs per week. Keeping time on feet the focus and not distance or pace. Those will come as soon as yoh have your weight under control. Effort always go by: if you finish the run and need 2-3min to recover (or longer) it was too hard. If you finish and dont even need a shower, it was too easy. long runs - your legs should scream but your upper body should feel almost nothing.

Secondly, focus on weight first. Dont starve yourself to the point of loosing energy. You will need that for your training but do try to use healthy calories instead of unhealthy ones (trust me, im a cake person. I know how hard it is to pass on those devil food choices).

I would be careful with the “im that size so i should be that light” part. Im 184cm and in theory I should be around 68kg as the ideal race weight. I tried to get there but “only” managed to get to 70.3kg in 2019. That however had cost me roughly 2-3min in the marathon as I lacked a lot of energy (doesnt sound like much but the difference is a 2:36 or 2:39 marathon). Im now remaining at around 72-74kg when it comes to race day and 75-77kg during training as it gives me a lot more energy to cope with the training.

if you need input on training or get a second and third opinion, happy to be of assistance! I am one of those who will never say what you want to hear but what I think you need to hear if you get me 🤣. Made plenty of mistakes and learned from them and always glad if others dont repeat my mistakes

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120260558#Comment_120260558

Thanks for the encouragement and advice!

I really like how you put the too hard/too easy, very useful

Yeah I don't really have an ideal goal for weight in mind, I'm not the tallest but I'm quite broad and have big legs, so I'm probably on the higher end of the range for what is the right weight for my height. I just know for sure its significantly less than what I weigh now so that's the goal!

Yes on @marathon2022 's advice I have actually been plaguing my dietician sister on whats app. I'm generally quite happy with how the food is going. Yesterday, my "long" run day, I was doing some physical work later in the day and after that I was feeling the effects of it, so I don't think I got the food balance right yesterday, but I'll adjust for that next week. Other than that I feel good and I'm losing weight

witnessmenow

Week 2 - Feb 13th

Weight: On Tuesday I was 101.9kg, Saturday after my run I was 100.3 kg (It's tough to gauge this exactly as it fluctuates, but im not fixated about what it says on the scales, I know I had a good/health week with the food, the scales will say what it says after that!)

Tuesday: 5k @ 7.32. First time running in the dark actually, Went out at 7 and it was bright by the time I got back, it was actually nice! My wife got me a "Night Runner LED Belt" by Bodylite and its quite good. A much more leisurely pace than the runs last week, I think maybe a little bit slow but it felt good though.

Thursday: 5k @ 7.35. Almost identical to Tuesday. Felt good

Saturday: 7k @ 7.02. New longest distance ran by 30s me. Out with the local run group again. When we reached 6k I was happy to keep going. The last 1k contained a bit of a hill that It was bit of struggle, but once we got to the top of that I was fine again. Felt good after it.

Sunday: Played tennis for a couple of hours. Also went to my wife's Cto5K, but unfortantely she has been having some issues with her knees so after attempting it and not feeling it, she decided to give it a rest. That will be the end of her Cto5k for this time around. Hopefully she can get the knee issues resolved and she can give it a go again. The group cto5k is great because there is set times you need to be there, and there is a group of you doing it together etc, but if you get any sickness or niggle it does really kind of rule you out of the rest of it. When I did mine via an app, I got Covid during it, so I obviously missed a couple of weeks but I was able to repeat the previous week and just pick it back up

Another good week. Really enjoyed the running. I'm really determined at the moment and I wish I could bottle this feeling for when it drops off. I do have two weekends away in a row in March that, while im looking forward to them, I am conscious about their impact on my progress. I'll see if I can bring my gear with me and sneak a run in.

witnessmenow

Quick question for folks, at this stage I'm slowly increasing the KMs I'm doing on the days I run, but am I better off to start increasing the number of days I run instead (or as well)?

I ran 6k Tuesday and Thursday. Today is an off day, but I feel like I could run. But I know its a marathon (well a half marathon) and not a sprint so I don't want to over do anything either!

Murph_D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120283536#Comment_120283536

If you feel you can run a bit more, you probably can. A rule of thumb you sometimes see is to increase mileage no more than 10 percent per week, and it's not a bad one to think about especially as you are getting into the running and your body is still getting used to this new activity. Bearing that in mind, it doesn't really matter how many days per week you spread that out over, as long as you are taking a rest day after any strenuous activity.

It's wise to be conservative as you build up the mileage, especially with the bit of extra weight on, which increases the forces on your muscles and joints and puts you a little more at risk of injury than otherwise.

witnessmenow

Week 3 - Feb 20th

Weight: Saturday after my run I was 99.7 kg (and that was after having food). Pretty decent food wise again this week. Maybe a small bit too big of portions of some things (My wife's brown bread!). On my Sister's advice I've also started eating yogurt in the morning, with a protein enriched one after runs. Didn't have any issues this week with feeling like I didn't eat enough like I did last Saturday.

Tuesday: 6k @ 7.30. A very inconsistent run, typically I keep a pretty steady pace, but my 1st split was 7:56 (I think I was struggling to get my phone into the bodylite pocket! While the last split was 7:06. Even with the increased distance I felt good after, could maybe have done more.

Thursday: 6k @ 7.28. Much more consistent. It was a cold one, but was pretty pleasant once I warmed up. Same feeling as Tuesday, could probably do more. I run from my house to a point and turn back. There is a pretty big hill just past 3km, so lets see how I feel after that next week :D

Saturday: 9k @ 7.11. New longest distance ran by any age me (take that 20s me). Out with the local run group again. Goal was 8k but when we reached it, we were down to a group of just me and one other and both of us were happy to keep going. We pushed a small bit for the last few hundred meters (very small bit, but it was our fastest split). Was tired after it, but not completely gassed or anything. Felt good. I felt better after this 9k than I did with 6k only two weeks ago.

Sunday: Will play tennis later this morning (I'm just updating now as I have some time!)

Another good week. I'm really happy with being able to increase the distance without any major issues. I'm proud of it to be honest!

I'm in a dangerous place with my determination at the moment cause I'll probably say "yes" to anything someone puts in front of me once I have the realistic time to build up to it!

• Half Marathon in July? Sure
• (new this week) To Hell and Back (8km) in June? My initial reaction is that looks absolutely awful and I would not be comfortable at all doing it, so that seems like a good reason to do it! I'm bit of a overthinker so If I don't push myself to do things I wouldn't do anything!

I'm just worried someone will ask me to run through a wall in August, cause I'll probably say yes!

ariana`

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120283536#Comment_120283536

I'm not an expert but I think if you can get to 4 days that would be brilliant, or even alternate 4 days & 3 days for a few weeks as a stepping stone to doing 4 days every week, you could just say 20-25mins as your 4th run to start with. Once you are doing 4 regularly for a while then you can look at increasing the distance/time (i think running by time is great at your stage).

babacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120283536#Comment_120283536

To add to murphs comment, I would suggest to reduce those two days to 4.5k each and add another 4k day. Slowly build those back up to 6-7k each (2-3 weeks build up should do) and then repeat. Drop each to 5 (or 6 if you brought them to 7) and add another day with low mileage and then build up again. I know some like those rest days, I personally would advice towards “run every day but keep most runs easy”.

at some point you will notice that a slow 20min run will help you a lot more to recover than a full rest day as it keeps the blood flowing and supports the body in healing! but all nice and easy and give it time! Keep some rest days for now but look ahead, somewhat plan ahead and you may be able to run 2-4 weeks in a row soon without a single rest day (do rest after a race though 🤣).

witnessmenow

Week 4 - Feb 27th

Weight: Saturday morning I was 98.4 kg. Pretty decent food wise again this week. Only issue I potentially had was as i start increasing distance I may need to eat something before runs. I normally get a stitch if I do, but maybe not even a proper meal, just a bit of fuel!

Tuesday: 7k @ 7.15. between 3KM and 4KM there is a quite a large hill so good to incorporate that into it. Felt pretty good after.

Wednesday: 6K walk, not even sure if its worth mentioning :)

Thursday: 7k @ 7.24. Same as Tuesday but a little slower. I ran exactly what I planned to do at the pace I planned, but for the first morning since this journey started I wasn't fully feeling it, Literally the first day where staying in bed seemed appealing. Wasn't particularly cold or wet, so not sure what it was. felt ok after.

Saturday: 9.99k @ 7.11. New longest distance ran. Out with the local run group again. Strava did me dirty with this, I definitely ran til it said 10k!

Goal was 10k and it was a struggle. This is the hardest run I've had for sure. Was feeling it right from the start. Looking back at the stats now. We did the first couple of KM a bit faster than we normally would (6:45 and 6:55 when usually we would be doing 7). We settled into a more typical pace after that but by 7K I was really feeling it. The last 3K was a slog. No joint pain, muscles felt ok, not particularly out of breath, just a slog. Walked maybe 50m around the 8.5KM mark, first time walking since the logs started.

This was the first run since the first logged 5k where I felt I probably over did it. A little frustrating as it wasn't even like the issue was 10K, I felt better after 9k last week than I did after the 7k point of this run! But I'm sure there will be days like this.

I'll be honest, was very tired after it. Like even 2 hours later I was still feeling the effects of it. Not out of breath, but I could just feel like I had been through something. As I'm writting this on Sunday, my shoulders are sore (I have **** shoulders!) but my legs feel fine.

Sunday: Will maybe play tennis later, not sure yet!

A good week KM wise, but I don't want to be doing runs like Saturday too often! So I think I'll stop the KM increase during the week next week as I guess I've reached my current limit. I am happy to be still losing weight too. My current diet seems pretty sustainable which I'm happy with.

witnessmenow

Week 5 - Mar 6th

Weight: Today after breakfast I was same as last week 98.4KG. Didn't stray too much from the diet exactly, but I ate too much at times. Something I need to get back on top of

Tuesday: 7k @ 7:20. A bit of a regression from the same route as previous week. Despite it being cold I was sweating more than usual, at least I know I was trying.

Thursday: 7k @ 7:29. First time running in the snow, was relatively miserable morning for a run, but I got up and did it, so that's good! Maybe too much info but first time suffering from nipple chafing, will not be without vaseline the next time!

Saturday: 5k @ 6:37. Out with the local run group, but it was miserable wet morning so numbers were down, and the closest group to me ability wise were doing 5K so I did that. Faster than I usually do, and I felt I had more in the tank. Improvement on how I felt after the run the week before!

Sunday: 7k @ 6:38 Knew I wouldn't be playing tennis, and after feeling like I had more to give, I decided to go for an extra run. Felt good, first run in a while where I felt like I could see my improvements. Splits were:

1. 6:58

2. 6:50

3. 6:57

4. 6:45

5. 6:38

6. 6:20

7. 6:00

I was pushing a little, especially for the last couple of KM. Very happy to finish with a 6:00KM, If I can do one of them for my 7th KM, surely I can do 5 of them from the start!

I felt good after the run, even with the increased pace. Ended up being a really nice morning for a run too.

Summary: Really happy I went out Sunday, I kind of felt like I was regressing a small bit earlier in the week, but I was really happy with how the sunday run went. Food wise I need to do a bit better. I did attend a kids party today and avoided the cake and sweets, so that was good!

babacool

Only catching up on this now. Re last week I wouldn’t worry too much about the “slog”. Sometimes fatigue kicks in and it just isn’t there. That’s a normal progress and as long as you don’t force it, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

also re fueling before a run, think there is a massive debate on this 😁. I’m pro “not fueling” for a (long)run, workout and sometimes (if i don’t care about times or results) before a race. As long as you know how to read your body it doesn’t really make a difference if you fuel or not. The benefit from fueling is (at least that’s my understanding and I might be wrong here) that you can go faster and longer and need a bit less recovery afterwards. Same time, and that’s my believe and so far works for me, you won’t feel a massive benefit or positive performance surprise when it comes to race day and your body is properly fueled. I usually go by “if I can hit that pace and do that session on empty, I won’t have any issue going longer at that pace in a race". and if i struggle it is "no worries. to be expected and on race day i will be fueled!".

but what happens if you have an off day? as in you fuel for a run and still suffer? that will knock down your (or at least mine) confidence!!

so in short, my advice is run on empty as often as you can. it will be a struggle at first but after a few runs it will feel normal. the body will get used to it!

witnessmenow

Week 6 - Mar 13th

Weight: Haven't actually weighed myself since earlier in the week when I was 97.1KG, but I know I had a good week with the food. Also avoided lots of "temptations" like cake and apple tart this week, but to be honest It really didn't bother me.

Tuesday: 7k @ 6:25. Pushed a little harder at the start. Trying to increase what is my comfortable pace. Felt pretty good after it.

Wednesday: 4k @ 6:42. Felt pretty decent so I said I'd take the opportunity to just increase the amount of days I was running. Didn't want to over do it and I left it pretty late, so I decided to only do the 4 even before I went out.

Thursday: 10.14k @ 7:15. Not letting Strava take my double digit KM away from me this time! New route, kind of. There is a 4.5K loop about 2K from my house, so when I did that and back, I was at 8.5K so I decided to keep going to make up 9, but I was feeling ok so I just kept going til 10. Was tired at the end of it, but nothing like the previous 10k

Saturday: 10.74k @ 6:58. Out with the local run group, went out to do 10K, but one of the people I was finishing with just had another small bit to make a round number so that explains the extra bit. Felt great after this run, could definitely went on further. Ate a spoonful of peanut butter about an hour before the run, superstitious me will probably do that for any longer run now :D

I do think increasing the pace of my solo runs is helping with the run group, where around 7 is the typical pace, so If I can make that a more relaxed pace for me, it should make those sessions easier

Summary: 32K for the week. Felt good this week, nice to see progress again! Also had a decent food week, so happy with the progress. I'm doing a bit of traveling next week, so it will be a disrupted one, but I'll do what I can, don't want to lose progress!

witnessmenow

Week 7 - Mar 19th

Weight: 96.3KG this mornings, so going well

Monday: 7k @ 7:16. First what I would describe as a failed run. I very stupidly was too lazy to cook dinner on Sunday and didnt really eat anything, and I forgot about that fact til I went out! Ran for 3K, was not feeling great (kind of dizzy), walked the next K and then did a slow enough 3k to get myself home! Lesson learnt

Tuesday: 5.5k @ 6:49. Couldn't do my morning run for family responsibility reasons! So I when I was running in the evening anyways, I decided to meet up with the run groups session, Went fine

Thursday: 12k @ 7:20. (nearly an hour and half!) This was my last change to get out for a run this week so I decided I'd try go for 12K. New loop for me, it was a really nice day for a run. Felt pretty good after doing it, although my legs were pretty tired!

Summary: ~24K for the week. Early update but I'm travelling over the weekend so kind of a reduced week to try fit everything in! I also have a fairly hectic week next week, so it will be a bit of a challenge, but I'm determined to get out at least 3 times a week unless I'm injured!

witnessmenow

Week 8 - Mar 27th

Weight: 96.1KG during the week, post all my travels so I'm happy with that. Obviously didn't eat great, but doing the dog on it while traveling for me is probably now like eating normally for people :)

Tuesday: 5k @ 7:00 Ran in Dublin city, down by the North Wall Quay, down to ringsend (I think) and then back down Pearces street. Much busier both with people and traffic lights than I am used to out the sticks! Was fine though, got up a bit late to do anymore.

Thursday: 5k @ 6:23. Back at home for this one, again was pretty short for time so only did 5K. Was a lovely morning for a run, sun was shining, was maybe even a little too warm!

Saturday: 6k @ 6:52. Back with the run group, but the group were only doing 6k so that's all I ended up doing. I definitely could have done more, but thought I might make it up on Sunday.

Sunday: Thought I might get out for a run, but I was absolutely stuck to the bed in the morning! Played tennis for a couple of hours, but although I enjoyed the tennis, i really didn't get the post exercise buzz from it. Was considering going out for a run after, but decided to give it a rest in favour of spending time with the family

Summary: 16K for the week. Was a crazy busy week! Was in Germany til Sunday night, stayed in Dublin for work on Sunday and Monday, was home late Tuesday. Wife was away Wednesday and Thursday, so I was chief child minder. I also don't feel 100% with a cold or something, but it doesn't seem to be impacting my running. I haven't got my sleep rhythm back yet either, but since the kids aren't going to school, I don't need to run as early as before. Need to crank up the KM again this week!

witnessmenow

Week 9 - April 3rd

Weight: 94.5 KG after my run on Saturday. A little bit cheating to weigh my self after a long run :) I had had breakfast and more than a litre of liquid at that stage so it wasn't completely cheating!

Monday: 5k @ 6:04 After a relatively easy weekend I decided I'd try a race pace 5k. Felt it a little bit at the end of uphill first half but was able to pick it up for the finish again. Nice to be somewhat close to the a sub 30 5k

Tuesday: Garmin Coach - run hard for 5mins (5 mins at @ 5:19 pace) Realised that I'm really not that far away from the half marathon in July, so I should probably start a training plan rather than just vibing like I have currently been doing. First thing it wanted me to do was a benchmarking session which was Run "Hard" for 5 mins. I don't normally only run for 5 mins, so its kind of hard to judge how hard is "hard"! I'm sure I can run faster than that, but can I do 5 minutes of it, I don't know!

Tuesday part 2: 5k @ 6:43. I mean i'm up early, I'm warmed up, I'm sweaty, it feels like a serious waste to go back home after exercising for 5 mins! So I went for an easy 5k after the benchmark.

Wednesday: 2 x 10 minute skipping sessions. I thought it might be a good idea to vary up what I'm doing a bit so I decided skipping might be a good way to work out my calves. Skipping is hard! I did 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening.

Thursday: Garmin Coach - Stride intervals .  The local run group does track sessions on a Thursday so decided it would be a good idea to do the stride intervals at the same time as them.

• 15 min easy run,
• 8no 20 second hard, 45s easy
• 15 min easy run.

Was good, quite tough but it was nice to change it up.

I also went for a 3k walk with my daughter in the morning which was another nice benefit of moving to the evening session. I do prefer to run in the morning though as I find it a bit easier managing food etc.

Friday: 2.5 hours of tennis (doubles). Was a lovely evening for tennis so I played with the local tennis group for longer than I expected! Doubles isn't too taxing but I guess 2.5 hours of anything is a bit. I also ate dinner before tennis which might have been a bit of a mistake cause I didn't eat much after it.

Saturday: Garmin Coach - Run easy for 40 mins (40mins @ 6:36 pace) Extended to a 10k run. Oh boy did I manage this one badly! The 2.5 hours of tennis in between the last time I had a significant amount of food in hindsight was not a good idea! Mr Garmin was a suggesting a 40 minutes run, with an optional extra 10 minutes, add the 5 min warm up and warm downs, I reckoned that would be just shy of a 10K run, so thats what I set out to do with the group.

After the first couple of KM I ended up kind of in between groups, my usual group were probably going a little slow for what the watch wanted me to do, so I decided to keep up with the next group up. I kept up with them for about 6-7k but my legs were really feeling it, not sore or anything, just void of energy and I had to slow down significantly. I then had to even go down walk for a bit. A different group caught up with me and tried to get me going again, but after 100m I knew I just wasn't going to be to, so I let them off. I got jogging again but now at a much slower pace and ran the last 2.5k at that.

Overall pace for the 10K was 6:59, which isn't terrible for me, but this certainly wasn't the "easy" run I set out to do! I really must have looked shook going in for coffee with the group afterwards as they were offering to get my tea for me etc! Hopefully I've learnt some lessons from this!

Sunday: Rest day, other the business of it being an Easter Sunday and entertaining visitors!

Summary: 27.5K for the week. Other than the poor management of Saturday, I felt good to get back into it. I'm still determined. Being down 9KG is a nice boost too.

After a bit of a miscommunication with Mr Garmin, where I originally told it I don't have a finishing time for the half in mind and the training plan it was giving me was a big step down to what I was currently doing.

Setting a finishing time of 2:00:00 has brought it back in line where I feel like I currently am. Since I haven't even ran 5k at a pace that would lead me to do 21K at 2:00:00 I'm not so sure that is what I'm going to do, but maybe with the increased training load and hopefully another good few KG shifted, who knows! I don't care about a time, I just want to have tried hard.

witnessmenow

Week 10 - April 10th

Weight: 94.7 KG later in the evening on Saturday. Not worried about it, had a decent enough week food wise and did plenty of exercise, so I probably just weighed myself at a bad time. Loads of people are telling me I've lost weight (not that you can always trust them!) and my wife thinks im shrinking so I im heading in the right direction still.

Monday: Garmin Coach (G.C.) Easy 30min @ 6:38 Went running with the friend who convinced me to do the half, so this is all her fault! Was good though

Tuesday: G.C - Easy 20 mins, (30 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:40 Was good

Wednesday: G.C - Easy 30 mins, extended to 10k @ 6:38 It rained fairly heavy the night before so I decided last second to no run my usual route and go the opposite way from my house because the normally way sometimes floods a bit. Was running it and feeling good so I kept going. I was happy to do the run I should have done Saturday too.

Thursday: G.C. - Easy 20mins, extended to 7k @ 6:30 .  Again, felt good so I extended on this run.

Friday: 1.5 hours of tennis (doubles). Was more tactical with the tennis this time, didnt play as long, ate afterwards. My legs were definitely feeling the last 4 days of running so was happy enough to have the rest day.

Saturday: G.C. - Run easy for 70 mins, 12K in total with warmup and cool down @ 6:50 . Better managed than last week in some ways at least! My usual run group crew were either not there or nor up for the 12k, which I kind of predicted so I assumed I'd be on my own. There was a group running a longer loop that had the same start so I decided to tag along with them.

This was a bit of a mistake as I did kind of miss judge how long I'd be with them. I ended up running the first 4K at a sub 6 pace, which is definitely too fast for me when there is 8k left after it! The next 4k were also the hilliest, so a bad combination. I walked a couple of times during that section, but I wasn't anywhere near as bad as the week before, a much hillier route too. There is one hill in particularly which is the worst I've ran on it!

After the worst of the hills I got back into swing of it and ran the last 4k or so at a fairly steady 6:45 kind of pace.

I felt tired after it but ok. Some chaffing in new places for me. I may need to re-evaluate my shorts strategy going forward. I need under shorts for my inner thighs, but all my shorts have lining, hasn't been an issue so far, but was on Saturday! Might have to perform surgery or pick up some new pairs.

Sunday: Tennis again today, maybe played 2 hours ish, was a tournament thing so hard to tell exactly. Got burnt stupidly! Was a little bit sore before the tennis after a hard week (I was also very busy in work), but loosened up ok.

Summary: 39K for the week. A good week stats wise, and I enjoyed the running, but this was the first week in a while where I felt a bit achey, so I'm going to dial it back a little for next week and just listen to Garmin and not extend at least the midweek runs to give my legs a bit of a break.

witnessmenow

Week 11 - April 17th

Weight: 94.4 KG after the run on Saturday. Wasn't the best week for me food wise, I'm a bit under the weather and thats when I struggle the most with food. Also had a few family activities and parties, it wasn't awful but I need to get back to it.

Monday: Garmin Coach (G.C.) - Easy 20 mins, (30 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:38 Was still a bit tired and achey from a tough week the week before. This was fine, but I was happy to have an easy easy run.

Tuesday: G.C - Easy 20 mins, (30 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:30 Was feeling better than Monday, not quite 100% but good.

Wednesday: G.C - Easy 20 mins, (30 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:21 Was feeling back to normal again now. All good.

Thursday: G.C. - Easy 20 mins, (30 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:22 .  Similar to Wednesday, all good. Had a family trip today, so did lots of walking later in the evening aswell

Friday:  Rest Day

Saturday: G.C. - Run easy for 40 mins, 8K in total with warmup and cool down @ 6:17 . Out with the run group again, sort of! It was the groups weekend away so a lot of people were away, and a miserable morning which would have reduced numbers even further.

I knew I had to do about 8Km for G.C. so I tagged along with 2 people doing 10K for 2KM at their sub 6 pace and then let them off and ran the last 6Km on my own.

Despite the weather, it was a nice run. Felt good after it.

Sunday: Did 45mins walk on the treadmill at a pretty slow pace (3KM I think). I was just messing around on my phone and thought it would be a better use of my time then just sitting there!

Summary: ~26K for the week. A step down in KM this week but I just did exactly what Garmin Coach said to do. I was happy to kind of run myself right at the start of the week, obviously they weren't exactly hard runs, but the fact I was recovering while still getting out was good.

Decent step up from G.C for this week, 30 easy, 40 easy, 45 easy, stride repeats and then finishing with a 90 easy on Saturday.

This also marks about the half way point in my journey to the half marathon , 11 weeks done, 11 weeks to go

witnessmenow

Week 12 - April 24th

Weight: 92.9Kg after the run on Saturday. Decent food week this week.

Monday: Garmin Coach (G.C.) - Easy 20 mins, (30 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:23 Do not remember a single thing from this run, so it must have been fine!

Tuesday: G.C - Easy 30 mins, (40 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:25 I had to get up earlier to do it because I was back to the office this week. I did find myself having to pull myself back a bit when I got into the rhythm of things, which I guess isnt a bad complaint (my watch lets me know when I'm going too fast)

Wednesday: G.C - Easy 35 mins, (45 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:25  Included a pretty decent hill in this run and was happy enough to be able to keep the pace fairly consistent

Thursday: G.C. - Stride Intervals (15 min warm up, 8no. 20 second fast followed by 45 second easy, 15 min cool down) was pretty good. My legs were a little tired before hand and were certainly tired after it!

Friday: Doubles tennis for a little bit.

Saturday: G.C. - Run easy for 80 mins, (90 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:37 . Even more out on my own with the run group this time! No one was doing over 10K and I knew a 90 min run would bring me between 13-14k so I just did my own thing.

My legs were a little tired and sore, and this didn't fill me with confidence for doing my longest run yet!

Once I got started though, the run went pretty well. It was a pretty hilly route and after about 12K my calves were really tired and were starting to tighten up a bit.

Once I ran the required 80 mins, I mostly walked the 5 min cool down as my calves were pretty tight and my car was up hill. Didn't think there would be much point risking an injury. Might need to incorporate some lower body workouts into my schedule to work on this!

I ran 13.3K including the cool down (just under 13K without) so it was my longest run yet, I also apparently PB my 10K with a 1:05:58

I felt pretty ok energy wise afterwards, but my legs and feet were pretty sore, probably the worst they've been after running. I took an ice bath to try aid them in recovery. I felt find for the rest of the day, but I didn't do a whole lot.

Sunday: Nothing today so far, maybe I might go for a walk later to stretch the legs

Summary: 38K for the week. A step back up again, pretty much all just want GC said to do.

A more challenging week this week as I was back in the office. I also have had a blocked ear for the last week, which isn't overly pleasant, I'll have to go doctor for this at this stage. Hopefully its nothing more than just waxy ears!

Some new training on the cards this week with speed repeats and a progression run. Also 100 Mins easy on Saturday, so hopefully another longest distance

12 weeks done, 10 weeks to go

witnessmenow

Week 13 - May 1st

Feeling unwell this week so I think this week has come to an end already. Wasn't feeling great last weekend, but other than my ear being blocked and a runny nose, and being really tired, I couldn't really put my finger on it. Didn't seem to have a temperature and nothing particularly bad. But i've gotten worse as the week went on so I'm going to give it a break til I feel better.

Weight: Haven't weighed myself this week

Monday: Garmin Coach (G.C.) - Easy 35mins, (45 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:38 Feeling very tired, normally I'm up at about 6:30 to get my run in, but took advantage of the bank holiday and slept in. Went out around mid day and it was quite warm. Took it a little easier cause i wasn't feeling great. Was much tougher than the same run last week. Even though I ran at a 15 second slower pace, my average heart rate was 10bpm higher

Tuesday: G.C - Speed repeats Still not feeling great, but mainly just tired. Measured my temp and I was normal so I said I'd give it a go. It was ok, was able to do the speed parts but I did take some walking breaks during the cool down portions towards the end. First time doing these so I don't have anything to compare to. My wife was gone early in the morning so I had to stay with the kids in the morning, so did this in the evening (which I wasn't complaining about the extra time in bed!)

Wednesday: G.C - Easy 35 mins, (45 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:34 Checked my temp again in the morning, still ok Evening run again cause mornings are hard! Went out and did this and it was even harder than Monday. After my shower I checked my temperature with a different thermometer and there was a 1c difference between them, with the second one showing I had a 38.2, so a bit high.

Thursday: Meant to have a progression run, but I'm leaving it off. Still have the temp (with the second thermometer, the other one needs to go in the bin!) and I actually have a bit of a chesty cough now. Definitely time to give it a rest for a few days. I am frustrated to miss out on the training, first one to miss, but what can I do!

Meant to do an Easy 90 min on Saturday, but unless I feel much better than Wednesday, thats not happening, so we'll see how long im out for.

witnessmenow

Week 14 - May 8th

Weight: 93Kg after the run on Saturday. Decent food week this week, not the best last week (when I was sick)

Monday: Garmin Coach (G.C.) - Easy 35 mins, ( 45 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:29 I had lost the lethargy from the previous week, got up early in the morning and went for a walk with my daughter so I said I would give the run a go in the evening. Went fine. Walked some of the cool-down, probably didn't need to but I was being cautious

Tuesday: G.C - Goal pace run 20 mins, (+ 15 mins warm up & 15 cool down) @ 5:36 Still feeling ok, I said I'd give this a go too. Did it in the evening to allow extra recovery time. Went pretty well. Was able to stick to the required pace for the 20 mins so was happy with that. Again I did walk some of the cool down, again if I really pushed myself I probably could have avoided it, but I decided to be cautious again. Hard to imagine I need to run 6 of these in a row to meet my goal....

Wednesday: G.C - Easy 35 mins, (45 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:24  First day I'm feeling fully back to myself. Legs are kind of tired from yesterday, but im ok. Even time run again for the additional recovery. Pissed rain at the end of the run so no walking this time!

Thursday: G.C. - Stride Intervals (10 min warm up, 10no. 20 second fast followed by 45 second easy, 10 min cool down) was pretty good. My legs were a little tired before hand and were certainly tired after it!

Garmin coach lost this activity somehow though. my phones bluetooth was off and I noticed in the morning, synced it up then. Garmin connect has it, but Garmin coach doesn't recognize it.

Friday: Despite being a glorious evening for tennis, I avoided it to rest up for my long run.

Saturday: G.C. - Run easy for 95 mins, (105 mins inc warm up & down) - I ran 95 mins total @ 6:47 . Clerical reasons meant I only ran 95 mins, wasnt a physical reason! Several mistakes were made!

I tried a different approach to be more social with running with the run group. I went to the meeting point early and do a run before everyone else shows up, so that would leave me with a more appropriate amount of distance for the people I usually run with. (There is probably people who were running enough distance for me, but they run too fast)

Mistake 1: I was a little late in how early I arrived, I had planned to do 30 mins and I only managed to do 23 mins

So I set out with someone I usually run with to do a 10K with them, which at this slow pace would be just over an hour. I said I'd add on whatever the watch told me I needed to at the end of it.

Mistake 2: I pushed the lap button on my watch at one point to wake it up, this is something that is fine to do when not in an activity, but it basically ended the long portion of my run. You can continue on an activity when its finished manually so this is what I was going to do

Mistake 3: I expertly deduced while running that 105 mins is 1:35, (spoiler, its 1:45), so 1:35 was now my target.

My run buddy got their 10km done and I still had a few minutes to reach my now incorrect target time of 1:35 so I ran on a head. Feeling very proud of myself when I finished. Mainly happy that I was definitely over whatever stopped the running the week before.

I ran 14K, which is the longest I've ever ran, but it did sow some doubts in my mind, because two weeks ago I ran 90 mins and I ran 13K, I just assumed I ran at a slower pace (which I did intentionally try to do)

About 2 hours after the run I was at home sitting down and it just dawned on me, 105mins = 1:45! I actually felt pretty good after the run, could have easily done the additional 10 minutes. My feeling of pride legit turned a bit sour despite being my longest run for making such a simple mistake. GARRRGGHH!

Next Saturday is a shorter progression run so I can't even make amends for it!

Sunday: Nothing today so far, might play tennis later

Summary: 41.3K for the week. Happy to be back at it again, new longest run and the most distance I've ever ran in a week. That 14K is 2/3 of my half marathon, so slowly getting up there.

Moved to new runners, Asics Novablast 2 and I am noticing a difference in them. They are way more cushioned to what I was used to. They came at an awkward time to really tell the difference as I got them when I was feeling sick so I didn't have a great day to day comparison with them. I feel way better today than I did after my 13k run two weeks ago, my legs and feet were pretty sore after that, im not sure if thats all the shoes or the fact it was a hillier route, or maybe that I was already starting to feel sick.

14 weeks done, 8 weeks to go, getting real now...

witnessmenow

Week 15 - May 15th

Weight: 92.5Kg after the run on Saturday. Decent food week this week, since I started running 5 times a week I'm finding it a little harder to get the balance of how much to eat!

Monday: Garmin Coach (G.C.) - Easy 35 mins, ( 45 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:24 Don't really remember this run, seems fast though!

Tuesday: G.C - Speed Repeats -  Went ok, find the faster tempo fairly hard but was able to do them, but I took a couple of walk breaks at the slower parts. First 3 were 5 minutes long, then the last 5 or 6 were at a faster pace , but only were 30 seconds or something, found these kind of hard to judge what speed I should be going.

Played tennis in the evening, was good for the first hour but I really hit the wall after that.

Wednesday: G.C - Easy 35 mins, (45 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:32  Don't really remember this run either

Thursday: G.C. - Progression Run - This was scheduled for Saturday, but it doesn't really gel well with going out with the run group on Saturday so I just swapped them around. Again, faster pace a little bit of a struggle was meant to run 10mins @ 5:00/km ish, I could only do 9 mins though.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: G.C. - Run easy for 35 mins, (45 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:18 . Was meant to do 45 mins but there was a person doing 5 miles so I decided to join in with them which ended up being a 50 min run. We did the first 4k at easier pace but picked it up a bit on the way back. I felt good doing it though.

Sunday: Jobs around the house, so kind of rest.

Summary: 37.6K for the week. Decent week. Am a little bit curious/wondering if my 2:00 goal is achievable. I dont think I'll have any issues with the distance, but i do find the faster pace stuff hard, and its hard to image running the distance at a decent bit faster than my easy pace. Still a bit of time left so I won't throw in the towel on the goal yet, but im not sure if its realistic

witnessmenow

Week 15 - May 15th

Weight: 92.7Kg earlier in the week, didn't weigh myself yesterday. Food was pretty average this week. Was back in the office this week so it makes things more challenging

Monday: Garmin Coach (G.C.) - Easy 40 mins, ( 50 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:34 All good

Tuesday: G.C - Progression Run - Easy 30 with 10 mins fast-  A repeat of Thursday's run from last week that, got it done this time though. 10 mins of 5:06 pace

Wednesday: G.C - Easy 40 mins, (50 mins inc warm up & down) @ 6:29  - 50 minute runs are the new 45 I guess! I really don't remember these "short" runs anymore (wouldn't have said they were short before I started this log!)

Also walked at lunch time (not sure the distance, but a decent enough walk) and played tennis in the evening.

Thursday: G.C. - Speed Repeats - 6 x 1min @ 4:50 pace, 6x 30 sec @ 4:10 - Quickly becoming my least favorite type of run! I find it difficult to find the correct pace and by the time I do, the repeat is over (especially the very fast 30 second ones). I'm sure I'll get more used to, but it I'm relying on the watch and it just feels like its a constant bounce between "too fast", "too slow". The run went ok, needed to walk some of the in between intervals.

Friday: Rest, except I'm helping my wife build a hen house so it wasn't very restful!

Saturday: G.C. - Run easy for 95 mins, (105 mins inc warm up & down) - 16Km @ 6:39 . Was happy to have chance to make up for my mistake a couple of weeks ago!

Ran 6k before the run group showed up. Did about 4K with some people and then did the last 6K on my own again. It was fairly warm, but a lovely day for a run.

16K is a new record distance for me but still felt like I could have done another 5K if I had to, which gives me confidence for the half. Although when I did stop my legs felt a little bit like jelly, but they felt fine when I was running.

My reward for all this effort, more hen house :D

Sunday: Plan is more hen house, followed by a bit of tennis (its an open day, so I can't imagine I'll be actually playing much)

Summary: 47.2K for the week. New record for distance in a week. I definitely prefer the longer slow runs over the speed sessions, but I did enjoy the progression run on Tuesday. Next saturday is a progression run after 1 hour of running so we'll see what thats like. Still very unsure about the pace. I feel like I can do the 21K at the easy pace ok, but the thought of doing that for 1 minute faster per km just seems too far

One thing I don't like about the Garmin plans is I can't see more than a week out. Like in two weeks I have hell and back on the Saturday, but I won't know what I'm missing til next week.

It's only 6 weeks til the race now, so 5 Saturdays left between now and then, two of which I'm at races, when I lay it out like this, it seems very close!

• 3rd of June - 85 min progression run
• 10th of June - Hell and back
• 17th of June - Athlone 10 mile race
• 24th of June
• 1st July
• 8th July - Kilkee

witnessmenow

Week 17 - May 28th (looks like I forgot to update these last week!)

Unfortunately nothing for running as I am/was injured, kind of.

I actually forgot about it when I was writing the log for last week, but when I was running on the Saturday, I could feel a bit of a dull pain at the bottom of my left calf, didn't really feel like a muscle strain, but more like something digging into me. I was only doing a 6k loop to start with so I said I'd see how it felt, and after 3k or so, the issue was completely gone

After my log, I went to that tennis open day and even just walking around I could feel it a bit again.

Monday: I was feeling ok, got up, did my stretches, went out and as soon as I started running I could feel it again, so I just went back home without doing anything. Not a strong pain at all, but I just didn't want to make anything worse.

Tuesday: did a few KM of walking, could feel it a little still

Wednesday: Feeling fine in the morning, went to go out again and similar to monday, could feel it almost immediately so I gave up on the run and just walked 4k instead.

Rang the Physio and got an appointment for Saturday.

At this point I've self diagnosed myself as having an achillies tendon issue. The risk factors of it read like a biography of my life and the symptoms match up

Thursday: I'm not even going to chance running til I see the physio. 4k walk, don't remember how I felt

Friday: Feeling fine again. Walk for 4k, but the feeling comes back about 2k in. It's not sore to walk through or anything

Saturday: Go to the physio and after some checking he confirms my Dr google diagnosis that it achillies tendonitis, but it seems to be pretty mild. He got me to do some activities and motions to strain it, like jumping and heel raises, but I didn't feel any issues with it. He then did some stretches on my ankle and I couldn't feel anything either, but when he did a pinch type thing on my heel I could feel it was a lot worse on my left than my right.

I actually forgot to ask am I ok to go running again now (Such an obvious question to ask, but I just didn't think of it!) , but I mentioned that I had a few races coming up, including hell and back next weekend and he said he didn't think there would be any issue doing it. I was kind of feering the worst of being out for weeks, so it caught me by surprise.

I even mentioned that I wouldn't be super disappointed if I had to miss the next two weekends, that my main goal was the half marathon and he still said I should be fine. He said it's a chronic thing that probably building up for a while so I just need to do some specific excercises to build up the tendon.

So my homework is:

• 4 sets of 12 eccentric heel drops per day
• As many calf stretches as I can fit into a day (I think was his basic gist of that quantity!)

Weight: 92Kg earlier in the week. Since I wasn't fueling for anything or eating for recovery, I decided I could be a bit more aggressive with my food intake. I also felt like if I was going to be injured for a while (which thankfully it doesn't seem to be the case), the best way I can help myself with the half is loose more weight

Summary: 0K for the week. My first week since the start of February where I didn't run at least 3 times, kind of sad to lose this streak, but I wanted to err on the side of caution.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do with my Garmin training plan. I'm after missing a full week of training and I'm not sure speed sessions are a good idea at the moment. I also really don't care about my time in the half marathon. Would sub 2 be nice?, sure, but it's just an arbitrary number, I have no PBs to beat. Just doing it is my main goal

My plan for next week is to start small and slow and build back into it. Hell and back is pretty stop and starty waiting for obstacles so I don't think it will be too much issue from a run point of view so we'll see how it goes. I can see how I'm feeling after that

• 10th of June - Hell and back
• 17th of June - Athlone 10 mile race
• 24th of June
• 1st July
• 8th July - Kilkee

Kellygirl

Hopefully nothing will come of the achilles pain. Have you a foam roller? Foam rolling my calf helps my achilles. I’d say do a couple of easy runs and see how you are after them for a start anyway.

witnessmenow

Thanks @Kellygirl , I've ran 5k easy the last 3 mornings and have had no issues so at the very least it's definitely improving as I couldn't walk without feeling it last week.

I do, I need to use it more though! Thanks for the suggestion

Kellygirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120689365#Comment_120689365

It really helps. My achilles were really tight last week from living in flip flops and it helped no end. Good news on the running.

witnessmenow

Week 18 - June 5th

Monday: Full time hen house builder these days

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday: Easy 5k - Decided to ease myself back into it, ran Tuesday with no issues (couldn't feel my achilles being an issue at all), decided to repeat the same on Wednesday and Thursday. Came through with no issues. Played some doubles tennis on Tuesday too.

Friday: Rest

Saturday - Hell and Back (8k): This really has nothing to do with running, but I guess there is no way I would have done this without the running!

I'm based in Ballinasloe so its about a two hour drive to hell and back. Left the house at 11, got there at 13:00, got changed and was out for the start time of 13:50.

I didn't have my watch on so I'm not sure of times exactly, but I think we were about 3 hours doing the course. I was definitely one of the slower ones in the group, but I'm not sure they were itching to go any faster either to be honest.

I didn't do a huge amount of prep for this specifically other than my running. I also did some rows (a step below a pullup) fairly regularly in between meetings and stuff at home to do some upper body work. I remember reading on boards that someone with an average level of fitness would be well able for it, my body obviously didn't get that memo! I'm not the fittest person in the world, but I would have though being able to run 10 miles would qualify me for having "average" fitness. But I am not that tall and I'm still quite heavy so the obstacles were hard work for me! I also think running fitness, while obviously better than no fitness, isn't that beneficial for it. You would be much better off training for this by finding a high wall and climbing it as many times as you can!

The last 30 minutes or so I was absolutely gassed, there is a straight with a load of wall obstacles in a row and towards the end of that I just wasn't able for it anymore! One lad had to give me a boost over the last lower one and then for the final tall one, despite getting a boost I wasn't able to get over it, just didn't have the power in my arms to pull myself up.

I also skipped the second last obstacle where you need to go up a pipe. I could just see everyone struggling with it and needing to get a lot of help, and to be honest I just felt conscious about the amount of help I was going to need to get up this thing, especially due my weight, and I was so wrecked! I'm also not super fond of tight spaces so I just decided to give it a skip.

Worst obstacles for me in terms of what I found hard, the rope ones where you were crawling over the the rope, they were ok at the time but my shins are bruised to bits! I'm also not great with heights so I was probably extra cautious with rope ones.

Worst obstacles in terms of just not really being a challenge but still sore was "Sniper alley" (where you get shot in the arse with a pellet gun) and the electric fence crawl thing, it was more of a shock than I was expecting!

I kind of have mixed feelings about my "achievement" of doing it. I didn't do all the obstacles, so definitely an asterisk around it, but I am happy that I was able for most of them. There is not a hope I would have been able to do it last year.

One mistake I made for sure was not eating enough. I had breakfast at about 10am and didn't finish til nearly 17:00. Like if I was running for nearly 3 hours I certainly would have had a gel or two! I'm not sure gels would be too practical for it as your submerged a couple of times, I'm not sure about eating a gel after it had been in that water! I had planned to bring a protein bar to eat before the start, but I forgot it. They were giving out ones there that I should have had but I didn't think of it.

Major positive for me is I came through it without injury, it was one of my biggest worries about doing it, even prior to the achilles issue.

Overall I enjoyed it, but I would be a lot more positive about it if it finished 30 minutes earlier! I could see myself doing it again if the group were doing it. I definitely would be better prepared for it if I did it again.

Sunday: Be sore all day. I guess the things that are the sorest are a good indicator of what I need to work on for next year!

Weight: 92Kg, wasn't the best with food this week. Busy with life and work. I also fairly did the dog on a dinner and desert after hell and back on Saturday.

Summary: 15K for the week. Good to be back doing some running and to get through Hell and Back. 10 miler at the end of the week so I need to get myself back into the swing of things!

• 10th of June - Hell and back
• 17th of June - Athlone 10 mile race
• 24th of June
• 1st July
• 8th July - Kilkee

witnessmenow

Week 19 - June 11h

Monday: Still very sore from Hell and back, planned to walk but decided when I got out to do an easy 6k, went ok

Tuesday: Was meant to do a speed session according to the watch, but I was still way too sore. I just decided to give it a rest.

Wednesday: Easy 7.5K, starting to get back to normal muscle soreness wise

Had physio later in the morning, although I haven't felt any issue with my achillies since the last physio session, the problem is still there. When the physio pinches my heel there is a huge difference to how it feels on my left heel (the bad one) and the right. Ultrasonic therapy on my achilles and sports massage on calf, tough!

Thursday: Meant to have stride repeats, but my calf is quite sore after the physio so i just rest.

Friday: Rest

Saturday - Athlone 10 Miler:

Pre Race:

First race to do in a year. My training/prep has not been good for a few weeks now, I haven't ran over 8k in 3 weeks and I just wasn't as confident as I could have been! Even thought this was really un-important in the grand scheme of things, I was genuinely stressed about it! Even down to when to eat for a 11 race start. There was also a lot going on at home with the rest of the family getting ready for the day that in future I probably need to separate myself from if I felt the same as I did yesterday. Good to get some practice/experience for future races though.

The race is only about 15/20 mins from where I live so I was a bit lax about leaving the house and arrived not late, but not as early as I should have.

It was pissing rain where I lived so I was expecting similar at the race, but it was actually very sunny. Thankfully had some suncream in the car so threw some on after parking the car.

Went and got my number and basically had to go straight to the start line. A buddy of mine decides she'll at least start the race running with me so we'll see how it goes.

Race :

It's absolutely roasting, I was hoping we might get rain, but it never came! This was by far the hottest weather I've run in. I normally run at 7am, so even during the nice weather it not this hot.

My strategy is to try do a ~6min pace as a practice for Kilkee. It's a much flatter course than kilkee so not great practise, but it will at least give me an indication if it's realistic

The race for me can kind of be split into 3 sections

First 5K: This goes ok, its very warm but i'm still chatting with my buddy so feeling fine. New 30s me PB for a 5k at 29:46

5K - 10K: Still going generally ok for most of it, but I decide I need to reduce the pace as I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up the pace. Still chatting, but I know I'm running out of gas! New 10K PB for me at 1:02:30

Last 6k: Struggle, At this point my legs are talking to me. I walked a for a few hundred meters to try give them a rest with the plan of running the rest of it. I ran for another 20 mins before I needed a break again. Nearly all the muscles in my leg are tired at this point, even my oblique (I think, between abs and pelvis) is sore at this stage! I walk a few more times before running the last ~1.5Km.

Finishing Time: 1:48:28 (ish, Based on my watch, but I didnt stop my watch on the line so I'm basing this on when my pace dropped). Edit: 1:48:22 is the chip time, a solid 169th out of 186 :D

Splits:

1 5:53.6

2 5:51.2

3 5:52.6

4 5:59.8

5 6:08.4

6 6:29.4

7 6:31.0

8 6:31.9

9 6:37.5

10 6:34.4

11 7:42.8

12 7:02.7

13 6:54.1

14 7:52.5

15 9:05.2

16 6:56.9

17 (0.11km) 1:42.0 (I didn't stop my watch right at the line so I'm not sure how much extra is added on here)

Post Race:

My legs are the most tired they have ever been after a run. The cup of tea and getting out of the sun was much appreciated! Stomach was feeling a bit weird, so get a luccuzade sport and a bag of crisps on the way home and feel a good bit better.

Go for lunch with my buddy and get a 99 (my first of the year!). Spend most of the rest of the day resting

Post Race Thoughts:

I'm a bit a disappointed to have to walk some of it, I know I didn't have anything left in the tank so I don't really think I could have done anything more on the day (other than start slower).

3 weeks ago I also ran 16K as an easy run and I actually ran this slower than that. But what I feel worse about is the fact after the run 3 weeks ago, I feel like I could have tired for another 5k, while yesterday I'm not sure I could have done another 1k! I think that really illuminates where I'm at for Kilkee, that I need to adjust my goal to be focused on finishing it more than any thoughts of 2:00, it's not happening.

Sunday: Going to go for a short walk withe kids and probably go visiting the grandads. I did a bit of stretching/massaging with the gun and foam rolling yesterday and my legs are tired, but they don't feel awful.

Weight: 91.8Kg yesterday evening. still struggling with this a little, at least its not going up!

Summary: 30K for the week. I'm traveling for work this week so not exactly ideal for training, but sure we'll see how it goes. Just 3 Saturdays left...

• 10th of June - Hell and back
• 17th of June - Athlone 10 mile race
• 24th of June
• 1st July
• 8th July - Kilkee

Lumen

Obvs physio advice rules, but I found this video invaluable for sorting my Achilles issues recently.

A few weeks of this (plus avoiding hills and speed, and keeping cadence high) totally sorted me out.

https://youtu.be/PSefuPB6zkU

Kellygirl

Well done in the 10 miler. Did you take a gel or any fuel on board? With the heat and the faster pace you would have burnt a lot more energy than your long run a few weeks ago. Taking a gel at maybe 60 mins in maybe have helped?

Glad the injuries are on the mend.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120731242#Comment_120731242

Cheers for the video, the Pyhsio exercise are somewhat similar other than the ministry of silly walks :D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120734804#Comment_120734804

Oh yeah, I took a gel around the 7.5k to 8k mark. I did plan to take a protein bar before the race, but I forgot. I had a fairly decent breakfast of porridge though so I wasn't exactly running on empty.

I have only tried two types of Gel, Powerbar Hydro and High5 gel, it was the high5 gel I used on Saturday. Although it wasn't my first time using the high5, I definitely prefer the more liquid nature of the Powerbar Hydro, it's closer to a drink than a gel. Especially in the heat I found the high5 un-pleasant to consume! I also apparently didn't quite finish it it because my phone was fairly covered in gel at the end of the race!

High5 sell a "aqua" one that I'm after getting to try out, hopefully it will be more like the powerbar Hydro one. The powerbar ones are very expensive so just testing the high5 ones.

I also bought a belt that I can take water with me as Saturday was actually my first time consuming water while running. I didn't take on too much liquid at the two water stops, but definitely some at the first . The second stop I took on very little as, maybe TMI, but I was starting to get the feeling like I needed to pee (I wasn't bursting or anything, but I definitely didn't want to take more water!). So definitely for my last two longer runs before Kilkee I'll take this with me to get the feel of it.

Kellygirl

The High 5 aqua are more liquidy so you might prefer them. The stickiness of them puts me off though. I prefer Maurten gels now or Tailwind but that needs to be mixed with water. You’ll need to practice a lot more with hydration prior to Dublin!

Murph_D

Sorry the 10 mile race was a struggle. I have not been following this closely, but probably not a great idea to do a 3 hour Hell and Back event the week before a race - that alone would explain any race difficulties, not to mention the Achilles issue. Also, if f you are chatting to other runners during a race (unless just the odd grunt), you are not racing! Chatting requires considerable extra effort and it’s best to save the energy for the second half of the race (unless you are just out to enjoy the day, in which case chat away as much as you like). 😉

If Kilkee is the goal race that you are building this log around, you really need to focus on that and training specifically for that. You’ve built up more resilience than you are probably feeling at the moment but you have to get those last few weeks right, including getting it right in the day. I don’t know the Garmin plan but hopefully it includes a good taper over the final stages. In the meantime, hydrate, eat and sleep as well as you can. And continue to practice your in-race nutrition, which needs to be nailed down really soon.

Good luck!

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120743156#Comment_120743156

I definitely didn't expect hell and back to be as long/hard as it was, so something to note for the future! I think that along with being not able to train as much in the previous few weeks definitely played its part.

The "chatting" thing I said might be over stating it a bit, We weren't talking too much other than me complaining about the heat, but just that I was not going at a pace where I was struggling for breath or anything.

It's probably a terrible thing to do as I'm breaking the golden rule of "stick to the plan", but I've fired Garmin as my coach. I haven't followed the plan in 3 weeks up this point anyways, so I'm readjusting with what time I have left. To be honest I'm a bit worried to do any speed stuff at moment due to my achilles and I don't care about time, so I'm just trying to get myself in decent shape to do the distance. I'm just focusing on doing easy runs and getting my recovery right with stretches, exercises from the physio and foam rolling.

witnessmenow

Week 20 - June 19th

Pre-Week Plan: As I mentioned in the other post, I made some change to my plans given that I've missed 3 weeks of the Garmin plan, my worry/fear of speed working aggravating my Achilles and the fact I really need to get some mileage into my legs. So I decided to drop the garmin plan last weeked and spend the week focusing on easy runs and recovery.

Monday: Easy 7K. Legs still pretty tired from the 10 mile race, but take it pretty easy (avg: 6:55/km). Felt ok after it.

Tuesday: Easy 7K. Almost identical to Monday, same avg and everything. These runs feel like so long ago, I barely remember them! I did need to get up early for this (started the run at 6am) as I was going to Dublin for work

Wednesday: Easy 6K (6:40/km). Was staying in Dublin (temple bar) for work, so I headed out to the north side of the quays, down to ringsend and then back up Pearces street. Another early start (started at 6:20)

Thursday: Easy 11K (7:00/km). Still up in Dublin. I have a buddy who runs who lives near Harolds cross, so I ran out to meet him on his loop, so 3.5K out, 4K loop with him and then I had planned to just walk back, but I felt fine so I continued the run back. Another early start (6:20)

Friday: Back at home now. Rest from a run point of view, but I had a family wedding in Clare. I had to do the school run solo (which is unusual for me) so another early start! We drove down the wedding and left shortly after midnight to go home. I don't drink anyways so no issues with that, but I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the night. Got home just after 2am.

Saturday: Easy 6K (6:45/km). I haven't ran with the run group in a good few weeks at this stage between injury and the events so decided I'd go down and show my face. My original original plan was to do my long run this morning, but when I actually thought about the logistics of running a long run on 4 or 5 hours sleep, it didn't really make sense, so I decided to push my LSR to Sunday.

Sunday: Easy 18.5K (7:06/km). This is my longest run before Kilkee in two weeks as I'll be tapering next week.

My goal at the start of the week was to run between 18 and 20K, but with doing the extra 6K yesterday I said the lower end of that scale would be better. I was targeting to do 7:00/km, but it wasn't set in stone on that so not at all bothered by being a bit slower. I was happy that I felt like I could have done more.

I also picked a relatively hilly route to do the run to try match what Kilkee will be like.

Overall it was a very enjoyable run. My longest run to date.

It was a nice morning for a run this morning, not as hot as it has been other days. I felt really good after the run, my hamstrings and calves were really tired, but I felt good. My wife said I've often come in from shorter runs in much worse shape than I did today, and she's right.

I also took the opportunity to try out the new run belt with two water bottles and to also try out the high5 Aqua gels, as I didn't really enjoy the regular ones. I would say both worked well. I put high5 zero tabs mixture in the water bottles and it felt good, took a small bit every couple of KM and it seemed to work well. The packaging of the Powerbar gels I've used before are probably a bit better than the high5 ones, but the powerbar ones are basically double the price so I'll get over it :) I also ate a protein bar (nuts basically) shortly before the run. Not sure which helped the most, but overall I felt good so will stick with this.

I'm also pretty sure I've locked in what gear I'll wear in Kilkee. I was finally brave enough to wear these as my outer shorts, having only previously used them as under shorts. Under shorts are basically a non negotiable for me, but it can be a bit much to have multiple layers in this weather, so these work well. But I always just felt like they looked like I forgot to put on my actual shorts :D

Weight: Depends on when you weigh me! Somewhere between 90.1 and 91.7kg. It wasn't a great week food wise with work dinners and the wedding, but other than that I was pretty decent.

Summary: 56K for the week. A decent step up in KM from my previous max 4 weeks ago (47KM), but that included two speed sessions while this was all easy. It was a tough week to fit everything in with the traveling for work and then the wedding, but I'm really happy to get back into it. First time running 6 times in a week.

Just two weeks to go now, I feel much better about it today than I did this day last week. I am happy with my decision to drop Garmin for now at least. Running at a pace based on how I'm feeling on the day is just so much more enjoyable that having to be between x and y pace.

Strava has popped up a run from this week last year, I was 4 weeks into couch to 5K. I ran/walked a total of 3.9k. I added this to the description: "... really had to push myself at times and the final 5 minutes run finished with me jogging as slow as I could", I struggled to run a 5 minute segment (16 minutes of running in total, with walks in-between), today I ran for 131 mins. If that's not progress, I don't know what is!

I also signed up for DCM23 this week, so my running adventure is not stopping in two weeks anyways!

• 10th of June - Hell and back
• 17th of June - Athlone 10 mile race
• 24th of June
• 1st July
• 8th July - Kilkee

T-Bird

Great reading your training log and very relatable to mine. I'm actually traveling to do the Kilkee HM next weekend as well and have also signed up for Dublin.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120791247#Comment_120791247

Cheers @T-Bird! Oh cool! How's your training been going? Have you ran many half's before?

I must say in kind of a strange way, signing up for Dublin has taking a little bit away from the half next week for me. Kilkee was the goal since February, but now I kind of feel like Dublin is the new goal and kilkee is nearly a milestone along the way rather than a big achievement. I'm still looking forward to it, but I'd be lieing if I said Dublin wasn't on my mind a lot!

T-Bird

This is only my second full year running after completing c25k August 2020 after losing a bit of weight. I started halfs last year and can't remember how many I have done of the top of my head without consulting with Strava lol. But I guess you could say that I'm hooked on them lol. I finished off last year with a knee injury, probably by over doing it in my first year running, which took around 3 months or so to fully recover from. Kilkee would be my 6th HM event of the year including a virtual one. I've also ran 2 10 milers, 2 10ks and the Belfast marathon for my 55th birthday lol. I do them mainly for enjoyment and I normally finish in the second half of the finishers list.

I fully understand what you are saying re Kilkee and Dublin taking over, as Kilkee is now seen as a stepping stone. The experience itself will be valuable and you will probably feel like you have made a huge mistake signing up for Dublin 😄. But that is where your training plan will pay it's part.

Annie get your Run

Switching plans is a weakness of mine (and indeed others here!) and it's never really a great idea. Consistency is key to this running lark so pick one thing and stick to that - now, if I can take my own advice I'll be a very happy camper 😉.

Will you join the novices thread and follow one of the plans there for Dublin?

witnessmenow

Week 21 - June 26th

Pre-Week Plan: Focus on the easier runs and see how it goes!

Monday: 3k walk, legs are tired from long run the day before so I decide to take it easy and just stretch my legs

Tuesday: HM Pace 7K (avg 6:18/km). My new HM target is the 2:15 pacer , which is about a ~ 6:30/km pace, so I said I'd give that a go. Picked up the pace a bit towards the end which explains the lower average (I was kind of day dreaming to be honest)

Wednesday: Easy 9K (6:33/km). I hadn't intended to run this one at this pace, but I just went out and did what felt good and this is where I ended up. It was kind of a stressful week with work and life so probably impacts a bit too, not really sure. I guess now that I am running distances and not for time, running a bit faster gets me out of the rain quicker! I think this was my first time running in proper rain in about 2 months, I was absolutely drowned out of it!

Thursday: Easy 7K (6:31/km). Similar story to Wednesday, still a bit stressed and went out and did what felt good for me at the time.

Friday: Easy 5K (6:41/km). I don't normally run on a Friday, but I didn't run on Monday so I decide to get a short run in. I'm waking up at 5:30 with out an alarm at the moment anyways, so I got up did a couple of personal projects and still had time for a short run. Rein myself in a little with the speed.

My early mornings catch up with me today as I ended up going to bed before my kids!

Saturday: Easy 10M ( Ended up being 16.63K @ 6:50/km). I had planned to do ~14K but there was people in the run group looking to run a slow 10 mile so I decided to tag along with them as it's only a couple of K more. The 10 mile loop is a little longer than 10 miles, but I was feeling good so I just finished it out.

Felt pretty good after it, legs were a bit tired, but a decent amount better than the 18.5K run the week before.

Similar hydration, food and gel strategy as last week and again it worked well for me so I'm happy with that.

Did have a slight issue with not putting enough Vaseline on, not too bad, but not a mistake I want to be making often!

Sunday: Rest. Still waking up early but didn't do a whole lot. Spent the morning making jigsaws with the kids when they got up before heading to a friends house to watch the F1.

Weight: Haven't weighed myself. Not doing great with food at the moment but not really trying to loose weight this week or next. I can start being a bit more aggressive with the diet after next week

Summary: ~45K for the week. I stepped it down a little this week in terms of distance, although kind of accidentally stepped up the pace. I feel good though, do not regret my decision to drop Garmin, I think I would have been ok with Garmin if I didn't get injured, but once I did, still even attempting to follow the plan in some shape was stressing me out and I'm definitely enjoying the running more since.

Last update before Kilkee. As I mentioned in the other post, signing up from Dublin has taking a bit of the "end goal" feeling of Kilkee away. Prior to signing up for Dublin, everything I did was in service for next Saturday, but now with Dublin around the corner it feels more like everything is leading up to that!

I've ran 93 times this year so far, nearly 74 hours for a total distance of nearly 650Km, I'm not sure I have put as much effort into something before in my life! Thanks for the support people have given along the way, much appreciated!

I'm happy with the new goal of 2:15. I never cared about speed I did it, just wanted to do it. Kilkee is going to be hilly so not a run that well be well suited for doing great times anyways. I'd rather go for 2:15 and if it's going well increase the pace towards the end than try for 2:00 and have to struggle to the finish like I did with the 10 mile run.

• 10th of June - Hell and back
• 17th of June - Athlone 10 mile race
• 24th of June
• 1st July
• 8th July - Kilkee , lets get it done

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120794695#Comment_120794695

Fair play to you, that's really impressive!

I think I'll be ok for Kilkee, I was worried about everything after the 10 mile run, but I feel back to full fitness now and I know I've put the work in, so we'll just have to see how it goes! So hopefully I won't be regretting my decision to do Dublin after (but I would be lieing if I said that wasn't a consideration before signing up!)

It's great that you were able to kick on so much after getting started. I'm really not sure what the future of my running career is. I'm enjoying the running, and I'm enjoying how much healthier I feel, I'm not randomly tired all the time, I don't suffer from random sore backs any more, im still heavy but I look much better than I did 6 months ago. But there are aspects of my life like hobbies or playing games with buddies I have just basically put on hold to focus on the running and it even sometimes eats into doing things with my kids. It's quite hard to juggle everything! Maybe there is something inbetween doing nothing and doing 5 days a week :)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120794808#Comment_120794808

It's probably the golden rule for a reason, and maybe I'll find out why soon enough! But for now I don't regret it at all. I'm feeling really good about my running at the moment. The nice thing about doing all these distances for the first time is no matter how I finish, it will be a PB :) Future me can do plans that focus on faster times!

Yup I joined the thread and am in the Strava group! I haven't started as I'm focused on the half marathon first but I'm going to go for the HH plan, I think it best suits what I enjoy doing at the moment.

witnessmenow

Race Information

• Name: Kilkee Half Marathon
• Date: 8th of July 2023
• Time: 2:12:32

Goals

• A Sub 2:15 Yes
• B Do Not Walk Yes
• C Give it everything Yes

Splits

1. 6:20
2. 6:29
3. 6:14
4. 6:30
5. 6:26
6. 6:13
7. 6:17
8. 6:01
9. 6:00
10. 6:22
11. 6:10
12. 6:03
13. 6:09
14. 6:38
15. 6:17
16. 6:31
17. 6:30
18. 6:29
19. 6:30
20. 6:07
21. 6:03

• Avg: 6:17 /km

Week Of Training

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 4K Easy

Wednesday: 5k Easy

Thursday: 4K Easy

Friday: 20Mins Easy (2.92K)

My first time doing a proper taper, not going to lie, it felt weird! It also felt so wasterful to be spending the same amount of time before and after getting ready and only doing small runs! The lack of running was also impacting my sleeping, I was finding it harder to sleep! I also had a fairly stressful week at work so the extra Km probably would have helped, but I stick to the plan, whatever the plan is! I was very stressed on the Friday night, I really just wanted it to be Saturday so I could get this thing going!

Pre-race

Up at ~5am, get breakfast (Eggs and toast) and then get ready. Drive to a friends house and she drives us down to Kilkee. We are there around 8:20, we grab a toilet break before the queues get too long and then do are bits to get ready. I've drank about half a zero tablet on the way down and put the other half into my bottles I'll carry. I also eat a protein nut bar thing. We went down the start line and I did my stretches down there.

Weather was bad 10 mins before the start of the race, but it cleared up just before the start.

My aim is to follow the 2:15 pacer, shes maybe 50 m ahead of me at the start line

Race

Fairly crowded at the start as to be expected. I know the first couple of KM are quite uphill so although I want to catch up with the pacer, I'm very conscious about no overdoing it on these first hills. So I decide to just survive the first few KM, stick in the pace window of ~6:30 conserve some energy and I'd catch her later.

I have to say, during the 2nd KM, I was questioning my approach to the race, cause I didn't feel like it was going great. My legs felt heavy already. I have something I say to myself, "don't listen to yourself on a up-hill, make decisions at the top". So after the pack thins out a bit, I stick on my headphones to distract up-hill me.

Each KM of the first 5 is a net-uphill so I employ a similar tactic of just conserving energy while sticking roughly in the pace window I need to. There was a pretty cool moment around the top the 2KM where you could just see all the runners winding up along the cliff roads, cool until I realized I needed to run up that too!

After 6K we have some net downhill portions and I start to relax a little more and get into the swing of things. I think its around here I start tagging along with two people, one who I was actually talking to at the Athlone 10 miler, but I didn't realize it was her til later, but I wasn't doing any talking today!

Around the 7K mark I was running along the coast, it was absolutely beautiful and for the first time I could appreciate the surroundings a bit. I've put a lot of effort to get here, lets catch this 2:15 pacer and get it done!

8 is a big downhill and 9 is also downhill, so I increase the pace for these. I know people say you should bank energy, not time, but I had kind of already used that strategy on the first 5km, I need to do a few quicker KMs to make up for it. The wind is quite strong at this point too. Pacer is a lot ahead of me still

10 is another uphill but its going pretty well at this point I feel good. I do get flashbacks of the 10miler that it was around this point that it went a bit south for me but I try remind myself that I have put in some good weeks of training since then and I'm much better rested.

I looked at my time shortly after I turned back, 1:06 and I get pretty confused, If I'm more than half way, and the time to hit for halfway would have been 1:07:30 to be on pace, how have I still not caught the pacer!? I do get worried at this point that I'm making a mistake with how I'm pacing myself. I see her in the distance and while its down hill I decide to stick the plan of slightly faster pace on the downhills to allow me to take it easier on the uphills.

Around the 13KM mark I know I have even made up more time on my pace but I still haven't caught the pacer! She's closer for sure, but still further ahead then when I started. I decide to just trust that I have been pacing myself ok and I'll try figure out whats going on later.

Was still feeling ok up to this point, but the big hills started coming back into play. 14th K was the biggest hill of the bunch and it was a struggle, really knocked the stuffing out of me. I got back on pace for 15, but another decent one at 16 took its toll on me.

I have been gelling at the ~5K marks up this point, but around this point I didn't actually feel that great in the stomach. I debated not taking my last gel but decide to stick the plan.

I'm fighting with myself at this point, I want to walk some of it, I see loads of people around me doing it, but I just keep thinking of the "Do not walk goal", I want to check that off.

I do feel a bit of a twinge in the right calf around the 17km mark, a "hey, just a warning, I'm going to cramp", so my thoughts of a super fast finish are not happening! At this point I just to finish in my goal, any thoughts of beating it significantly go out the window!

This part might sound weird, but for me to dig deep down I need to get emotional, so I keep going back to the thought that has got me through some tougher times when out training, the thoughts of seeing my kids at the finishing line cheering me on. This is what I have spent the last 5 months training for. Every early start, early going to bed, it was for this. So I go to that well a couple of times to motivate me to keep going.

I just keep thinking to myself if I can reach the top of the hill at 19KM, I'll have made it. I play whatever mind games I can to try keep myself going. My one last trick is to put on free bird, i do that around 18KM and I couldn't have timed it better, the outro solo thing happened basically just as I got to the top of the hill at 19KM.

I reached the top of the hill, see on my watch that even if I dropped to my easy pace of 7km I should still be able to beat the target. But I just go with my body at this point. I felt the twinge of the calf once or twice more (not fully sure when) but I felt comfortable enough going down the hill.

Back down at the beach, which I think is about 400m to the finish line, I still haven't caught the pacer! I've seen her turn around beckoning people a couple of times in the last KM or so. I'm still a bit worried that I haven't paced myself right so I try my best to keep up the pace to catch her and I eventually do with about 200M to go. I know I have done it at this stage, I just need to struggle back. My Wife and kids, my Mam and my run buddy are cheering my on about 100M out. I kind of wanted to stop to hug my kids like I imagined, but I said there would be time for hugs in a few minutes! I was also worried if I stopped I wouldn't be able to get going again.

I stopped my watch at 2:12:32, so I knew even if I started/stopped it at the wrong time, I had a bit of time to spare (but it was actually my chip time too). I thought the race clock said 2:18:XX when I crossed, which didn't make sense to me, but I must have read it wrong cause according to the results it was 2:13:XX

Post-race

I'm absolutely shattered! I get my medal and few snacks and make my way back to my family.

My calves and hamstrings start to remind me of how far I've ran at this point and I just spend the next few minutes trying to stretch them out! This is me cursing how sore they are! (thanks to my wife for taking my moment of pain to take such a flattering photo!)

Me and my run buddy walked out into the sea afterwards and it was actually really nice. Actually met the person from the Athlone 10 miler there too and was nice to go through the post race analysis!

We went and got food in Kilkee and then made our way home.

I had a shower and then a bath and watched some TV in bed.

I'm not sure if it hasn't sunk in yet, but I don't feel as good/proud as I feel like I should. This time last year I literally couldn't run for 10 minutes, At the start of February when I started this log, I ran 5K as fast I could with a 6:50 pace, my average yesterday over 21K was 6:17.

I don't think the race could have went better for me on the day. It was the toughest route I've ever ran, the longest distance I ever ran, at the fastest pace I've ever ran 10K or above (PB for 10k 1:02:00 and 10 mile 1:40:51). I'm definitely happy to have gone through the taper process, cause at least now I know it works!

I put in a lot of effort to get to this point, probably couldn't have done a whole lot more training wise but I guess I feel like I probably left some time on the table in terms of I really haven't lost anything significant weight wise in a few months.

Strava is doing me out of my half as well! My watch distance was 21.05KM, and thats what it sent to strava, so Strava doesnt think I have done a half! Not sure I can extend it on Strava either. Garmin allows you to ok.

I don't feel too bad today, if the weather clears up I'll probably get out for a walk to try loosen my legs up. I'll see home I'm feeling for the rest of the week to see when I start getting back into doing some short easy runs to get myself back on the horse. I've got some DCM training to get to!

Made with a new race report generator created by /u/herumph. Not sure if there is really much point using this for boards, but credit where credit is due

Annie get your Run

Congratulations! You achieved all your goals, that's a win, win win. I can totally understand you not feeling the joy though, I had a similar experience for my first half marathon (a similar finish time to yours too) but I look back now and see how far I had come at the time and it was huge achievement. Don't worry about Strava, you ran a half marathon race, you have a chip time. Definitely try to get out for a few short walks over the next few days so your legs don't cease up.

T-Bird

Great report! It kind of brings back memories to my first races last year. In fact I think most of my runs are like that, the mind is always playing tricks with your emotions. I stopped and walked about 5 times yesterday and I just watched the pacer go off into the distance at the first water station and virtually waved goodbye because I was a goner. But I managed to catchup again. You had the determination and grit to keep at it, so well done for that. There was a man probably a good 10 years on me, id say in his mid 60s wearing a Dublin Marathon top and he virtually jeffed the whole run and finished well ahead of me in the end.

Garmin / Strava are quite infuriating when it comes to distance. You will often find that they cut your runs short, Garmin has my run distance at 20.98. It also said accept new record but I don't remember what it was... I think I was close to my HMPB yesterday even with the walking, but I will never know. My current PB for HM was when I did a 3/4 last year as I had to go past hm distance to get there..

Anyway, your on the right path and I wouldn't concentrate too much on the weight, your body will adapt to it the longer you run. I'm stuck at around the high 90s since I started and am working with it now. I was passed a good few times by lads powering through and were a fair bit bigger than me.