Once in a Lifetime....for now

So here I am. As the great David Byrne sang, "And you may ask yourself
Well...How did I get here?" Maybe DCM will not be a once in a lifetime experience, maybe it will. How did I get here starting a training log? Sure isn't it the done thing for newly graduated, former Novice, DCM runners to do. Far be it from me to buck the trend.


A little bit about me: Well I'm male and a well worn half century of years on this little planet. I blame my Dad for the genetic contribution to the accelerated aging (male pattern baldness and white hair) but I forgive him 'cos I love him. I'm totally responsible for the rest which is 30 years of 30 fags a day and 30 drinks a week!


So was there a Eureka moment? Did my life flash before me and show me the ills of my ways? Nope, I'm afraid not. I blame love, meeting a wonderful woman who just happened to run....a lot.


2014
August: It was on a trip to Galway Bay 10k (no, I wasn't running or walking it) that I decided I'd do C25K as a token gesture towards “getting into shape”. I was perfectly happy with my 15st 7lb shape thanks very much but I had to be seen to be doing something. It felt a bit weird having a smoke last thing before setting off and first thing after falling back into the hotel smoking area after my 8 x 60 seconds of running. So weird that it was my last cigarette. I will admit to having joined the vaping community since that day.


November: C25K completed, 3 weeks more of jogging and off I set into the big bad world, the Run in the Dark 5k. Absolutely thrilled with a 24:10 and it led to renewed and faster training and eh...an achilles injury. I had fallen victim to what I now know to be the too much, too fast, too soon form of training!


2015
The injury and associated deflation meant a 6 month hiatus from my new hobby until May. My OH had decided to do DCM 15 and I being the gentleman offered to join her on some of her runs. To my horror she accepted. In for a penny, in for a pound says I. New runners, a Garmin watch and an entry to the race series. No stopping me now! A bit of training, better eating, down to 13st and a bit... the series picked up speed. IR5 in 42.20, Fingal in 50:50, FD10 in 1:22:14, Streets of Galway 8k in 38:29 and the
Dublin Half in 1:48:03. That was that! A stress fracture in my foot brought on by all training sessions being flat out pace wise. Who said you learn from your mistakes? My shiny new Garmin shows my total miles for the year at 360.4


2016
Yes, another 6 month blank before trying again in February. Clocked up a massive 60 miles during February before something strange happened me one night....one side of me stopped to work. My hand, arm, leg just refused to follow orders. One quick 999 call later, 2 brilliant ambulance workers, me feeling fine again after a few minutes, a trip to the Mater with blue lights overhead and I was told I had a TIA. What's that I asked....a quick passing stroke says they in lay mans terms. I just lost interest in running and didn't recover it until October. I did a few 3 & 4k runs to ease back in and then did a bit of Parkrun tourism in Dublin for a few consecutive weeks...Porterstown, St Annes, Marlay, Castletown, Poppintree, Donabate and then Waterstown where that uphill finish played a part in my hamstring going pop! Tried Hartstown a couple of weeks later but hobbled over the line. End of year. My not so new Garmin laughed as it showed my years total at 165 miles. :-)


2017
I wasn't going to let this running lark beat me so come February I eased my way back into it. Some wise soul suggested I try Bikram Yoga to help my flexibility. Off I went to this little sweatbox, the smell of stale sweat everywhere. I got hot, I created a lake sized puddle of sweat around me, I stretched and touched places where I didn't even know I had places. I woke up the next day like a poker and moved around like an unoiled C3PO for the next week. Somewhere along the line though something had happened. I was really liking this running lark. The runs became regular, at last the paces became sensibly slow and the bug had bitten. I entered the Terenure 5 Mile and did 38.2x. Back to where I was in 2015. I loosely followed a HH plan for 5 miles over the next few weeks and ran the IR5 in 37:16. This strange concept of training to a plan seemed to work...amazing! I entered the race series including the DCM and swore I'd both follow a plan and train slowly to avoid the higher risk of injury. Google and a strange quirk of fate led me to the Boards Novices Plan. Why not thought I, lets give this thing a lash. Fingal 10k in 46:14, FD10 as a MP run in what felt like a silly easy 1:27 and then the half in 1:40:45. Nearly 5 months after my Boards adventure began and weighing in at a (for me) featherweight 11st 7lb I started and finished (along with a fantastic group of Novice boardsies) my first DCM in 3:47:20. The memories of the day will never leave me as most of you (still) reading this will understand. Miles so far this year 1028.2


So here I stand before you, still on a high, making plans for what comes next. I want to avoid injury so I'm kinda scared of speedwork. I'll have to ease my way into that. Join a club? Definitely...after my legs refind themselves, most probably early in the new year. I'm still awaiting contact from Raheny but if the offer is right I'll join them. Like most others I'm looking at PB's and looking at setting targets. I'm toying with the idea of using age grading to set these targets rather than picking some arbitrary round figures. My Pbs (basically this years race series) are all eerily close by age grading at about 65%. To my mind the target times needed to hit 70% are a bit too far away and all going well might be 2019 targets. I won't include the marathon as those targets seem way too optimistic....EVER! So getting my age gradings to a mid point between the two might be a plan. I'd really love an opinion from those who know a lot more than me about these things. Below is a table with PBs, age grading for them and times needed to hit higher age grading.


Distance| PB | Age Grading | Target 67.5% | Target 70%
5k| 22.52 | 64.5% | 21:58 | 21:04
5 Mile| 37:16 | 64.6% | 35:50 | 34:23
10k| 46:14 | 65% | 44:34 | 42:55
10 Mile| n/a | n/a | 1:13:31 | 1:10:21
Half| 1:40:45 | 64.7% | 1:36:52 | 1:33:00
Marathon| 3:47:20 | 60.4% | 3:31:40 | 3:16:00



Here endeth perhaps the longest intro to a training log since time began. Please accept my apologies for my meanderings.