Every accomplishment starts with a decision to try

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Thanks G, I feel great tho despite what the results say :rolleyes: woody is on the mend too thankfully although still a few more days in the collar of shame

Good to hear on both fronts.

That's a nuisance about the results, AM (*stamps foot*).

But good that you will be following instructions . Charleville might even be more enjoyable on cheerleading duty!

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Ha ha erm yeah, did you both mean someone else? okay I sort of follow instructions but if I was being 'gold star' about it I would never let my HR go above 130 on any exercise I do, I'd take a few rest days in the week and I certainly wouldn't be signing up for duathalons and adventure races :pac:. I guess you could say I'm putting my own stamp on the actual instructions... I have a sneaky feeling when I talk to my specialist about the running & cycling I do she really has no idea of the mileage involved - maybe I should send her a link to my strava account!

Am really looking forward to the 5 miler in Dunboyne tomorrow evening though so no gold stars for me this week...:o

Well, none of us can talk really.....

Try to take it easy at the 5miler though .

Well, you have to balance the impact on your mental health if you're not doing anything with the risk to your physical health of overdoing it...

balance, AM, that's the key.

Good luck with Dunboyne. And +1 on the "please be sensible" posts.

BHAA Dunboyne 5 mile

I wasn't able to do this race last year but it's where my 5 mile PB lies (42:xx) and while DAC don't organise it, it's still sort of considered a club race so I signed up with the intention of running 10 min miles and enjoying it - yeah, okey dokey :rolleyes: Trying to start in front of Peter Somba was probably mistake number 1

Mile 1, I wasn't going to look a the watch, I stayed behind a group of people and was just going to monitor how I was feeling i.e. not pushing too hard. Felt okay but when the watch beeped for mile one it read 8:50, so not 10 min miles then.. Spotted a club mate ahead and decided to use her as a pacer, shed normally be a few mins behind me in races. Caught up to her and chatted for a while and discussed the possibility of a sub 45 finish, a quick glance at the watch told me I was way above what I should be HR wise. I told her to go on and it took every ounce of self control I had to slow up and watch the HR come back down again into the mid-high 150's.

Was ticking along feeling very sorry for myself, not many people around. At some point between mile 2 & 3 another club mate passed me, again she'd be about 5 mins slower and my head went completely - WTF am I doing? Why am I taking part in a race I can't race?!! Mile 3 beeped at 9:18 and I pass the start line of the club 2 miler. A girl who'd passed me about a mile back was slowing down and I eventually pass her, then another girl, I don't thing I"m speeding up but I don't check the watch either. Then I see the clubmate who'd passed me and she's coming back to me now, being honest I probably did up the effort here and pass her and two others on the road ahead. Mile 4 9:12.

Sure there's only 1 mile left, screw this, I up the effort considerably, I'm breathing hard now and it's very warm but am passing people and thoroughly enjoying it now. There's a great crowd at the entrance to the club and one of the lads shouts at me to run it so of course I up the pace again and sprint in the gates of the track, I keep the effort up and spot Mulberry along with some of the Crusaders girls I know from meet & train so up goes the pace again and now I"m sprinting. Watch says 45:24, I don't care what the results say, I wasn't racing, I didn't come anywhere near a PB or even a measly sub 45 (but I wasn't supposed to be trying....)

Strava says max HR was 180, so not only no gold star but onto the bold step for me. And to be honest while I love the race, the weather was beautiful and the company top notch all I've succeeded in doing is depressing myself with how far behind I've fallen and how far ahead everyone else is going.

Brilliant to catch up with AMK & Yaboya who had superb runs, Ecoli who had an even superber run and Duathington who's probably feeling as fed up as I am (but lovely to catch up DD!). Lots of PB's from club mates too.

aquinn wrote: »

Sigh, vented my frustration yesterday and I know you are ready for another ear bashing tomorrow. AM, again, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE RACING! MAX HR 180 is not good, damn right no feckin gold star.

It doesn't matter how others improve, they are training regularly and don't have a serious issue going on. Please. No more entering races, especially as you were talking about a PB and how depressed you are now as a result. You get out there and fair play to your competitive side but it is currently doing you any favours.

WOULD YOU JUST ****ING REST, the bike is enough of a commute as massive mileage. I can't believe the additional 4-5 miles of a dog walk which you'll get back to and still run.

This is your health which much more important than passing people on a road.

I hope you are ok this morning.

You're right, I know you are, I told the lads you were going to kill me - I'm not capable of jogging in a race environment so no more signing up for road races. Thanks for the kick in the backside.

Yeah, what aquinn said.

It makes no sense to be frustrated by people doing better than you when you've not been able to train. Train properly when the time comes that you can - and then be frustrated if you have a bad race. For now though best to ditch the races I suppose, doesn't seem to be any way around that. Or find opportunities to pace short races - slowly!

Keep relatively fit (and it's great that you can still do moderate exercise!) and bide your time.

Agree with all the others, and anyway, what's the point in signing up for races if you're not able to "race" them, that's what they are for. Better to stick to organisation with Dunboyne and maybe some parkrun pacing-gigs.

Not wise to be covering-up with the doctor either, what if all the training was the explanation for the lack-of-improvement (with the thyroid not the PBs :rolleyes:) this past year???? . Bears thinking about, it's not 100% impossible that is what has hampered your recovery. Maybe you should send the Strava account over to her ....

I know its a pain to have to be living life in the slow lane, you have my sympathy, and you've done very well accepting the diagnosis (but not necessarily following instructions!).

Annie get your Run wrote: »

I have asked her about this time and again and her answer remains the same *no* I did tell her in January that I'd done a few races in Oct/Nov and whether that impacted the results, she said not. That's not to say I'm not entirely convinced myself, she knows the length of my bike commute but still as you say it's not beyond the realms of possibility. I feel fine today, my RHR is normal, nothing out of the ordinary etc but yes I shouldn't have signed up for it thinking I could just take part, it was stupid and lesson learned.

Ah if she knows then, probably not the problem. I was reading too much into your banter with The Muppet .

Bummer not to be able to train properly but I think no point doing races, it's hard to just jog-around in that kind of environment, the "racing" (even if just against yourself ) is most of the fun!

Annie get your Run wrote: »

I have asked her about this time and again and her answer remains the same *no* I did tell her in January that I'd done a few races in Oct/Nov and whether that impacted the results, she said not. That's not to say I'm not entirely convinced myself, she knows the length of my bike commute but still as you say it's not beyond the realms of possibility. I feel fine today, my RHR is normal, nothing out of the ordinary etc but yes I shouldn't have signed up for it thinking I could just take part, it was stupid and lesson learned.

As for the pacing suggestions yes, good idea, I've done a few pacing gigs at parkrun.

In one way maybe it was good that I did the race, a reality check is never a bad thing.

Hi AM, have been away so I've only been popping my head in here an odd time. Never easy to say no to a race, especially when it's on your doorstep. Recover well (and best of luck for Woody's recovery too)

29th May - 4th June

Bike 109.6 miles - usual commutes.

Runs 12.2 miles including a 5.2 mile run on the trails in the PP, average HR 127. Was awake early Sunday morning so jumped in the car and headed up. Sunny but nice & cool from memory. Loved every single step of this and body played ball nicely by keeping a low HR, avg pace 11:33

Swimming: lesson 1: I'm actually a pretty decent swimmer but had grommets as a kid so learned to swim with my head out of the water. I did go for lessons early last year but it was a group thing and the pool pulled the lessons after a few weeks and I've been struggling along doing it half assed for the last year so did some research and found a coach in DCU. Facilities there are very nice indeed. We concentrated on breast stroke and the difference after one session was unreal. I love the water, am very excited to get the swimming right this time.

5th June - 11th June

Bike: 91.3 miles - a bit less due to bank holiday Monday - I actually took a full rest day....Plenty of soakings on the bike this week, still 1st choice over bus/train despite the weather.

Runs: Only 1. 3.1 miles in 28.15, avg HR 151. Shanganagh parkrun with Nop98 in between Wicklow Way supporting. Up early to meet Nop in a dodgy car park in South County Dublin Headed off to Glendalough with some flapjacks, chocolate & jelly babies for us and a bottle of water for Neady . Nop being Dutch and me being, well me, we were a small bit early! Got to see first and second female come through the checkpoint looking like they'd been out for a stroll in the park instead of having been running for 6 1/2 hours over the mountains in the pouring rain.... The race organisers had thought of everything, including having a fry up ready for anyone who fancied it as they came trough CP2. We didn't have very long to wait before we saw the amazing Neady coming down the road, a quick change of shoes and just enough time to tell us how bad conditions had been through the night, re pack her bag and refill water bottles etc and she was off again, up up (literally) and away. Nop and I headed back to Shankill to do the parkrun and then I jumped in the car and headed for CP3, Iron Bridge. My sat nav sent me through the wilds of Co. Wicklow up roads with grass up the middle and steep enough that the car struggled on and I thought how the heck are the runners doing this.... Nop was to send me updates on her progress as I had 'just' enough time to make it there but two things happened, one there's no F*ing signal in the Wicklow mountains and two, I took a wrong turn which lost me 3 mins. Eventually arrived in Iron Bridge, lept out of the car asking the volunteers if Neady had come through yet - No, phew, good! A really lovely bunch of lads there including the race director and the banter amongst them and the runners coming through was lovely (one of the lads even fixed my car, I'd obviously hit a lump of grass or something along the way and a piece of plastic was hanging underneath!!!). Had a good view of the decent so saw Neady coming down a nice steep hill. She's made of iron will that woman. The RD suggested she didn't hang around too long as the next section was one of the toughest and is where they loose the most people, I chuckled to myself thinking he's just given her fuel to carry on with talk like that! Anyway, this is turning into a bit of mistle but I was in absolute awe of every single runner out there on Saturday. They were amazing but the women were extra special amazing . Next year I'll make sure to be at every stop Neady, looking forward to it!!! Enjoyed Shangangah, it's a nice little park if a bit exposed but a lovely group of people there and I kept the pace and HR fairly steady and under control so no racing.

Swimming Lesson:
Did a bit of revision of last week and then quickly onto front crawl. I've been turning my head on the same arm because it was easier to remember but I knew this was wrong. He got me to try bi-lateral breathing. Turns out my problem all along has not been a swimming related one but a counting related one . Instructor, 'turn your head every 3 strokes' Me 'Okay' off I go and he stops me about half way. 'So, do you think that was 3 strokes'? Me 'Eh possibly not, maybe 4' Him 'no it was 5 actually' Tried a few more times and made a pigs ear of them too. Figured out what the problem was and I've to practice counting while sitting on the couch My dear ole dad would be laughing his ass off - the fun he had trying to do maths homework with me!
Anyway, there's a lot of work still to do but after two short lessons I'm already seeing a difference. They're a bit pricey but I think it will get me swimming really well quite quickly.

Yoga: at last! did 30 mins this morning, body feeling very stiff indeed, it's been a good few weeks since my last yoga session (forgive me Fr for I have sinned). Found this tough but want to incorporate into a regular Sunday yoga/swim routine. Mostly just sun salutations with some warrior poses today.

Great report and great support there AM. Progressing your swimming was a very neat idea, given your training regime at the moment. Fair play.

Sounds like Karl at DCU?

I'm sure you'll have more success than me. I had to give up after a few too many lessons - he's good at keeping you coming back! You're right about the facilities - it's a very well run facility up there, even if I'm a little biased.

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Yep Karl, I'd imagine most coaches would be good at that, that's how they earn their living to be honest I've a good idea how much I need to learn and then am planning to start Kurt Goebels plan over on the darkside forum. I've set a limit of 6 lessons either way. Had notions of joining there to till I saw the annual membership fees

I heard it's dark over there, but hardly that dark? :pac:

DCU rates - quite good if you're a student or alumnus. But a lot steeper for the general public alright. Think there's a waiting list all the same anyway.