The Will To Win Means Nothing Without The Will To Prepare

Mon 26th Nov- 6m Easy w/5xstrides(8:19)

Seemed to have picked up some medial knee pain on my left leg and some anterior tibia pain in my shins, they don't hurt when running, just came across them when rolling so something to keep a eye on and maybe need to run on grass one or two days a week. Run today felt good, stride felt good. Easy as pie few miles, threw in a few strides because I've session tomorrow. Happy out.

Thu 29th Nov- 5m Easy(8:31)

Quads were a bit dead today and I struggled through this run, cut it a mile short as my hips and calves were tightening and my glutes were starting to twitch a lot.

Fri 30th Nov- 4m Easy(8:31)

Really dead today, calves burning again and feeling a bit uncoordinated so just done 4

Sat 1st Nov- 5m Easy(8:32)

The worst I felt all week, was supposed to do a long run but not happening with the way I felt.

A few observations.

1) I think I'm a bit depleted. I downloaded the myfitnesspal app that AMK has been talking about. For someone who is my height and weight along with lifestyle, I should be taking on around 3000kcal a day and for every 60 minute run would take that total to 3500kcal a day. I've been getting in about 2300 a day.

2)I'm going through a relearning process of judging my fatigue levels with the addition of workouts and a lot of hills. I may be overcooking the hills so early on and getting a bit self competitive with easy run progression.

3)If my quads are tired or tight, my calves suffer.hip flexors seem to be the worst offender so need to pay more attention to these.

4)Tiredness is normal especially after adding a new stimulus, HTFU to a certain extent.

5)I felt really good for the last few weeks up until Thursday, I'm not far off track, just need to be more careful with how I run day to day

6)After yesterday's botched long run, I took yesterday as a day to carbload and took on 450g of carbs. Legs feel a lot better today even though I haven't ran.

So a really good start to the week and not a great finish, need to lower the highs and raise the lows to get the right balance going forward.

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Interesting, I've felt the same this week a bit. Especially by Saturdays long run. About ten or eleven miles in the legs just felt a bit dead, could feel a bit of a tightness in the hips right in that hollow, fleshy area. Been doing some specific stretches this week. I never seem to get secondary pains in the calves though. Seems to be my lower back/glutes take the strain.

Sounds like your psoas muscle. It extends from the lower spine through that gap between your the hip sticking out bit and groin. I think my issue is weak glutes causing the hip flexors to overwork themselves and tighten so my claves are taking up the work when they are all tired.

Do you run like this?



The photo on the right is the one. She has it bad but it's the best shot I could find with the foot flare out to the side

Swashbuckler wrote: »

I would say I might have a hint of that form but definitely not that extreme. I've seen some videos of me finishing races and I'm prone to trunk rotation when I tire more than the pic above. At times in the long run on Saturday as i tired there was the odd occasion where the knees rubbed off each other which looks like it might be linked to that? I'm not sure.

I'm hijacking your log here man. Haha

You're grand, hijack away!:pac:

I'd definetely have a look at stretching the psoas muscle and massaging it with a tennis ball. If your psoas is tight, it can cause your thigh to rotate internally or you might compensate by rotating your body inwards as well as the muscle is shorter. From what I've read on it, weak glute medius and a tight psoas can cause it. The glute is responsible for externally rotating your hip so if it's not strong enough or your psoas is too tight, it has trouble doing it because it is constantly fighting between the two muscles.

If you stand up straight and look at your pelvis, it may be tilted forward with an exaggerated arch in your back as well. I'm not a physio so take my thoughts with a grain of salt though.

Oh yeah, to massage the psoas, get the tennis ball and lie down on it about two inches to the side of your belly button and down a bit. Play around that area to try and find any tight spots.

Swashbuckler wrote: »

I think you might be on to something! I've always had a bit of an arch in my back and pelvis forward a bit. I just presumed it was how I was built.

Had a look online there on how to test it and various stretches etc. I failed the test miserably. Haha. Might start taking a look at doing some of the stretches. Flexibility wouldn't be my strong point atall. Lots of dots connected when I googled it in terms of positions and stretches I struggled with from my days of circuit training. Before I got coaching and was overtraining I used to get shooting pains down my left calf which would ease after the physio dug deep into that soft area a small bit further out from the groin towards the hip.

Cheers man. Will have a go at some stretches.

There's a guy on youtube who is brilliant for this kind of stuff. Athleanx is his channel name, he's got a video up on this as well.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K-CrEi0ymMg&t=247s

Mon 3rd Nov- 6m Easy w/strides(8:32)

The legs were finally starting to come around again, bit of pop back in the stride yurt!:)

Tue 4th Nov- 6.3m inc. 6x3min w/2min recovery on grass

Even with feeling a bit better yesterday, I was a bit apprehensive heading into this with thoughts of it becoming a struggle if the legs weren't playing ball. I headed to the GAA pitch instead of heading out of town just in case it didn't go to plan and I would have to struggle back up the hill after. Thankfully, that wasn't the case and my legs choc full of energy.

Rep paces:

6:12
6:07
6:06
6:08
6:07
6:09

Same workout as I've done for the last 3 weeks and the last time I'll be doing it. Absolutely delighted with how it went and another sign of big progress, it was bucketing it down with rain and I had a big headwind hitting me everytime I came back down the side of the field. Average pace of the session was the same as last week but I ran those on the road and this in the mud. Legs felt really good, feel like I'm starting to stride out a lot better and can't argue with the progress I'm making on these sessions. Buzzing after it:)

Workout progression:

Week 1:6:20avg
Week 2:6:08avg
Week 3:6:08avg on grass

Happy days:)

Fri 7th Dec- 6m Easy(8:35)

Not too shabby even though the weather was cat. Half grass, half road. Hammy's were a little sore from the previous day but nothing significant.

Sat 8th Dec- 10m Hills(8:36)

Back on Kilmeedy hill for the long run with the lads again today. I felt so much stronger than I did 3 weeks ago on the same route. Coach cut me back to 10 this week as I'm racing next weekend and he was worried I might feel flat again during the week. Felt like I had gears today though, that's the first time I've felt like that in a very long time especially on a run over 6 miles and managed to fit this in perfectly between the bad weather, some views off out over the ballyhoura mountains.

Have a Christmas party tonight which is one of my cheat nights in the pioneer lifestyle for this block of training, will be my first pint in 12 weeks.

Tues 11th Dec- 5m Easy(8:32)

I got out really late for this so had to run along the only 800m long stretch of footpath with lighting and back 5 times. This week went a bit pear shaped with the Christmas party drinking and only getting to bed at 6 o'clock. let's just say I don't miss those weekly hangovers jesus! and I'm definitely getting older. Thank fook I'd nothing to do this week as I spent the last 4 days trying to get my sleeping pattern back in order. I managed to get this run done but could feel the booze in my legs.

I missed Wednesday because I fell asleep on the couch in the evening and woke up at half four this morning. Disaster!

Thu 13th Dec- 6m Easy(8:37)

Back on track today whoop! A little tired after sleeping on the couch but a gazillion times improved from the last few days. Legs felt good, weather was awful but somewhat refreshing so enjoyed this.

Got the Newmarket 5k on Sunday, first road race in 7 months and only my second in a year, that went way too quick. Coach is reining me in for this with the plan to run the first 3k no faster than 6:15 pace and then see what I can do for the last two. I don't know what I might be able to manage off that so I'll say 19:15 is the goal.

Sun 16th Nov- Newmarket 5k(19:56)

Well...you gotta start somewhere, I didn't think it was going to be scraping under sub-20 though:pac:. Legs weren't playing ball early and I kind of got through it until 500m to go before completely and I mean completely blowing on the only real hill not far from the finishline. Piss poor in fairness but I there's a 19 low in there right now, I can feel the fitness building week on week but wasn't in there today. I've another crack of the whip at 5k in 10 days so no point in dwelling on it, get back on the saddle and have another pop and make the most of it.

I haven't logged anything in here over Christmas as I picked up a proper bed ridden flu and just didn't bother posting since but I do want to clear up a lot of stuff as it's becoming too regular on this forum lately where stuff is taken from my log and used for ammo against me.

1)I'm off the smokes 12 days unintentionally(when the flu hit, I slept for 3 days and was choking for a week. By the time my chest had cleared out in anyway, the worst of the cravings were gone.

2)I done drugs. Yes I did in my teens, outside of one occasion mid-2014, I haven't touched any drugs since nearly the start of this decade

3)I haven't improved at all myth. My first marathon was a 4:07 and my first 10k was 51 minutes. I've improved a lot since I started. I definetely stagnated a bit in recent years where I could have improved more. 2 and half years of that, training had to take a back seat as the oppurtunity to work on the biggest and most prestigious project that will ever come up in my line of work happened. It involved 70-90 hours a week(I clocked 94 one week) of heavy manual labour where my job was in such high demand that any slacking at all and there was 50 people waiting outside the entrance to take my job. Last year, I was working 80 hours a week and running 50 miles on top of it and probably walking a half marathon a day at work and that's before you factor doing labour on top of it. I was physically and mentally fooked before I ever got out the door for a run. My day was pretty muc

5am: up
5:45: Leave
7am: Start
8pm: Finish
8:45: Home
9pm: Eat
9:30: Run
10:30: sleep

7 days a week

I dare anyone to try that schedule and see how they get on.

4)I'm a spoofer and copy paste artist about training. The reason I love the science aspect of training is simple, because science is in my blood. My job is Turf and plant grass sciences, I build and maintain golf courses and my education was in plant biology and chemistry. As for the copy paste claims, I find them personally hilarious. Only one coach or person every generation reinvents the wheel and even he still has to rely on borrowing, begging and stealing of information to get to that point. It's called research as 10000 heads with inf, knowledge and experience are far superior to one. Am I a spoofer in my job because everything I learned in College came from a textbook or other peoples knowledge formed my ideas?

I have never copy pasted anything and wrote it here, I've read 1000's of articles, talked and debated with people much more knowledgeable than me and then pieced together what I believe makes sense just like everyone else has but yet I get accused of being a spoofer.

I'm sick of it all at this stage as this sh*t is coming way too often now. I get hate PM's all the fooking time, I get abused personally on the forum because my ideas might not match up with the crowd. I can't even keep a log for myself because it's used to mine personal info about me that gets used against me.

Apoligies for the rant and drama but I've had enough at this stage and need to stand up for myself. I used to like this forum and would like to think I've positively impacted a lot more people than not. I'd just like to see it go back to a time where the information was more valuable than who is right or wrong and where it wasnt an imaginary case of you vs them.