The Boggers Log

Yesterday: plan called for recovery miles. Got 6 miles very easy @ 8.53 done around the pitches in Dangan. Was gonna do another evening recovery run but the body was tired, stiff and the knee was grumbling so I did 30 mins stretching and foam rolling instead.

Today: plan called for easy miles. What a day, in Costa del Connemara, we could have done with another 10 or twenty days like this during our "summer"! Headed over to Seanadh Pheistin early this morning and topped up the Bogger tan over 10 easy miles @ 8.18.

Someone recommended cryo therapy, no, it doesn't involve freezing my vital body parts to save humanity at some point in the future but rather it's supposed to help with all the niggles and aid recovery. As its only a short session I was able to squeeze this in during lunch. It simply involves standing in a plunge pool with jets in 3.5 degree water for 10 minutes! Mother of sweet Jesus it was cold, was getting a tingling sensation all along my legs and my, em, ball bag went in cardio arrest! Lasted the 10 mins and when I got out the legs looked like they'd been badly sunburned. Legs feel much better after it though and I think I'll try it more frequently.

Had to drop the young lads to GA training and decided to do another few easy miles while I was waiting for them to finish. Did laps of the pitch they were training on and after about 8 laps the young lad ran over to me and asked me to stop coz I was embarrassing him!! Told him I was cool, did a dab and kept going

5 miles @ 8.05

15 miles for the day.

TbL

Plan today called for an easy miles double.

Mental morning meant I didn't get out so I decided to do 10 miles easy over hills after work.

Ended up with 13 hilly miles @ 7.55.

Step by step, day by day, and week by week I finally seem to be going in the right direction. I'm still not in great shape but at least I'm starting to see consistent improvement. Just need to keep it going and stay on top of the niggles and I'll have a reasonable chance of hitting my target.

TbL

Yesterday: plan called for 20 mins easy. Kept putting this off and eventually got nothing done!

Today: plan called for the Charleville HM. Was up very early to drive down for this, wet and windy when leaving the West. Got there good and early collected my number and was heading back to the car park when I banged into AULDBOT. We compared niggles and did a bit of general moaning & groaning before heading off on a short warm up jog. Started to drizzle and the Dublin softie covered his head with a bin liner, bring out the Gymp, all he needed was a ball gag and I was gettin seriously concerned, was he trying to snuggle up to me under a tree before the start!!

Said hello to Hot Buttered Scones (well done, great time) and AULDBOT and I lined up at the start. Was leading AULDBOT for the first 0.28 miles before I decided to let him go . I'd planned on staying with the sub 90 pacers for the first 3 miles until I worked my way into it. That plan went up in flames as the 90 min pacers seemed to be on crystal meth, they did the first mile around 6.22 pace. Gotta say it was appalling pacing and I let them go and pulled the second mile right back. I eventually passed the first sub 90 pacer around the 6 mile mark, (told him I thought he was way off pace) and many runners seemed to have been burned off, he'd only one or two still with him. The second sub 90 pacer was still way ahead and out of sight!

Think I hit half way around 44.02 and was happy with that, as I was feeling ok. No one had passed me since about mile 3 and I just concentrated on catching runners up ahead. It wasn't that I was picking up the pace, more so that they were coming back to me. Was happy to bash out 6.4x miles to the finish and I felt fairly ok till about mile 11 when I felt the strength start to drain a bit. The last mile had a bit of a drag and was into a slight headwind and I struggled a bit here, 3 or 4 runners passed me and I didn't really have the motivation to respond. Stopped the watch at 1.27:59.

I'll take that happily today (I would have taken a sub 90) and was happy enough that I wasn't in a heap at the finish, and hopefully no new niggles to contend with. With 10 weeks to SS and some strength returning I've given myself a platform to build on.

Met AULDBOT at the finish for a ham sambo and cuppa, he'd a great run finishing comfortably with a PB. We headed to the Charleville Park Hotel for a swim and a shower. Just as well AULDBOT's a half decent runner, he'd never make a triathlete if his "drowning dog" swimming technique is anything to go by

Headed off to the airport as I'm in London tonight and tomorrow.

69.2 miles for the week.

Splits:

6.23
6.48
6.44
6.44
6.38
6.42
6.39
6.42
6.35
6.45
6.48
6.41
6.44
5.57 (for the bit)

TbL

Yesterday: Head was a bit all over the place after Sunday's half, didn't want to run at all. No interest in doing a cool down run with AULDBOT, I'll do a recovery run when I get to the hotel later. At the hotel I told myself I deserved the night off and I'd run early in the morning, in the morning I rolled over convincing myself that I'd benefit more from the rest. Was pissed off most of yesterday coz this has happened to me before and a bit of complacency turned into a full scale rut. Decided that no matter what I needed to get a few miles in. Drove from the airport and got into Galway around 11.00pm, parked up at the Salthill hotel and got a 5 miles nursing home special done @ 9.58. Was surprised by the state of the legs, not too bad!

Today: plan called for easy miles, got 8 miles done around Barna in the morning @ 8.43 and another 5 @ 8.24 around the grass pitches while the young lads were training.

McMillan predicts a 3.05 marathon off a 1.27.57 half and that would give me around a 40 second PB.

Still feel if I can keep it all together that I can do better than that. I'm not very fast but when I'm strong I can bash out the PMP miles fairly consistently.

13 miles for the day.

TbL

Today: plan called for easy miles.

Out in a Connemara monsoon this morning, rain was bouncing of the ground, pity I wasn't, bit of a plod, 10 miles @ 8.04

Stopped off at Seanadh Pheistin after work and got a very easy run over the hills, 6 @ 8.33.

16 miles for the day

TbL