Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads

Nothing much to report, really. I’ve not kept notes. A few nippy evenings, iirc. Days will start getting longer, the whole year has flown by. Below the knees have felt a little ropey at times. Hope it's just the weather.

Base plan week 1
Dec 10th-16th: 31.16 miles.

Week 2

Dec 17th
Rest

Dec 18th
45 min very easy
Actual 46:37. 4.38 miles at 10:38.

Dec 19th
45 min moderate
Actual 45:04. 4.83 miles at 9:20.
0.12 miles back to base at 9:37.

Dec 20th
Rest

Dec 21st
45 min very easy
Actual 48:41. 4.69 miles at 10:24.

Dec 22nd
45 min easy (last 5 min @ Threshold)
Actual 40:04 easy, 3.97 miles at 10:05, 5:03 threshold, 0.68 miles at 7:24.

Dec 23rd
90 min easy
1:30:04. 8.98 miles at 10:02.

Total: 27.67 miles. Will pass 1,700 miles for the year anyway.

Going to head over to Malahide for the Christmas Day parkrun, just to plod it. The vibe from Sat was almost that you have to go, or else. :pac: We still get a few UK visitors there alright, including ‘thank you, marshal’ (I was timekeeper) a few weeks ago which is a first.

skyblue46 wrote: »

Ah no need for penance. Being an auld, bald, white haired bloke whupping the asses of you two is pleasure enough for me! ;-)

One of Santa's doppelgangers, are ye?

Baby75 wrote: »

Good luck with the Job hunting

Thanks.

Happy Christmas. :cool: Food has been prepared.

Base plan week 4 - welcome to 2019.

Again, not a lot to scribble. Sleep's been pretty poor. Back to additional volunteering duties, so emails are starting to get hectic again.

Dec 31st

Rest

Jan 1st

60 min very easy
61:55. 5.93 miles at 10:27.

I heard a buzz sound passing a house on the back roads. I thought someone was cleaning their car only to look up and see it was a drone, not vacuum. First I've seen around here, tbf. I'm fairly certain I saw a hawk in a field down the road too. Pretty impressive sight. Got 'Strong Start' badge from Garmin because of running on NYD. Seemingly there's one for NY Eve too, will try to remember that for 31/12/19. :pac:

Jan 2nd
55 min moderate
1 mile warm up at 10:49.
55:15 mins. 5.88 miles at 9:24.
0.79 mile c/d at 10:23.

Bit chilly.

Jan 3rd

60 min very easy
1:00:33. 5.78 miles at 10:29.

Jan 4th

Rest

Jan 5th

50 min easy (last 5 min @ Threshold)
Slight muck of this.
45 minutes easy. 4.51 miles at 10:00.
4.03 mins. 0.57 miles at 7:07 and seven seconds, 0.01 mi at 11:32.
To make up for the lost minute - 1:05. 0.15 mi at 7:10.
c/d 2:45. 0.27 mi at 10:18.

Surge in numbers at Malahide with January. Got talking to someone who had just moved over from the UK. It's gas how quiet it is when you arrive at 9:05, then after things shut down. Tried turkey burgers from the cooking book, pretty good. On a more blasphemous note, I went back to earphones and podcasts for the first time in years.

Jan 6th

1 hr 45 easy
1:45:13. 10.54 miles at 9:59.

Slight hip hangover from Saturday's toe dipping with threshold, perhaps. But, it didn't affect the run. Am not on the ball with S&C at all.

Total: 35.43 miles.

5-10k grads plan

Week 2: Jan 28th-Feb 3rd. AKA drop in temperature and another job application.
39.84 miles

Paces - The CV yolks on the Weds could have been a little tighter, last one was on target. Got a 'frosty' badge from Garmin due to the evening that was in it. The app keeps asking for permission stuff re temperatures/whatever. Anyway, car windscreen was iced up when I got back, but we were not in negative figures according to the vehicle. Reminder to sign up email from Inishbofin waiting for me at home too. :pac:

Did the parkrun on Sat, as planned. Phew, what a spectacular morning it was shortly after 9 – sun, frost, smell of the forest - what a time to be out and about. Warm up before hand…wonder if this helped to avoid feeling cold whilst waiting for the briefing?

After parkrun it was 5x5 min @ Threshold w/ 2 min rec stuff. Sorta felt like I was battling a bit to get to threshold at times…put a few doubts in my head. App says paces were fine: 7:31, 7:14, 7:24, 7:27, 7:28...even a little quick. Good chunk of the HR was in the red which is overdue, really. Anyway, on the forest I noticed someone’s barcode in a plastic cover on the ground, went around again it was still there. Picked it up, turned out it had €20 in it too. Headed to the coffee shop and through knowing a few RDs I was able to reunite it with its owner. Running highlight of the year so far was not training, on tarmac, or racing. Couple of Malahide RDs are due to hit the 250 mark this year, hope to be there for those. One is quite soon.

5-10k grads plan

Week 7: March 4th-10th
39.64 miles.

Mon - rest. The DCU RISC crew sent on an email with some of their preliminary findings, was interesting. Tues - very easy, usual. Weds was cold ish. 10x 90 seconds @ Vo2 w/2 min rec. 5:56 - oops, 6:25, 6:20, 6:37, 7:01, 6:44, 6:48, 6:31, 7:01, 6:28 i.e. 7.34 miles, incl w/u and c/d. Hitting ye old Vo2 was little tricky at times and a jot or two on fast side. I focused on moving my hips later on and that seemed to help with form. Falling back to easy for the rec is pretty straightforward, doesn't require much concentration as it tends to be near automatic. A toenail or two needed looking at later...along with many unread Greg McMillan emails, gah! Thurs, very easy. Fri – decision made, booked Wexford 10k for April 28th. Sat w/u, bumped into some parkrun regulars which meant the pace went up a bit. Did parkrun easy, followed by 30 mins tempo, 3.74 mi at 8:05. Weather was good, a little windy. Sun was grand, sunny with a decent chill in the air. 1hr 45 easy - 10.46 miles for that session.

Keep getting mixed up with the plan – thinking it’s 17 weeks long, it’s 14. Soon it’ll Wexford, then early Summer, then DCM starts again.

Week 8: Mar 11th-17th.
37.04 miles.

Mon, rest, didn’t sleep well on Sun night. Tues – wind machine was on patrol somewhat. Weds w/u and 5x3 min AP w/ 3 min 6:47, 6:50, 7:00, 6:58, 7:11, plus c/d 6.94 mi for the evening. Did part of my normal route in reverse here. There were a good few dog walkers out, including excitable huskies. Right hand side felt a bit funny again. Fri, rest. Sent a text to the physical therapist bloke I went to after the FD10 last year. No response. Sat woke up to rain. Drove over to Malahide. w/u, met the same people as last week which picked up the pace. parkrun...thought I had pressed the watch - noticed it had gone to sleep after the golf course (not a comment on golf :pac:), just rolled with things after and came in 31:54 as normal. Finish chute was in a fair state alright. Based on past weeks I'm going with 3.07 mi for the distance. Plan stuff afterwards 2x12 min @ Threshold w/ 4 min (7:42 and 7:37 here). Right hand side felt OK during the threshold stuff, less so earlier. Did some light foam rolling at home and shoe cleaning too. Sundays starting to wind down now, the 1hr 45s are gone. 70 mins (actual 73:22), 7.33 miles easy.

Week 9: Mar 18th-24th.
25.55 miles.

Bank hol – made some energy bars with dates, apricots, ground almonds, etc. Pretty good, and not too sweet. Got a text back from the PT, confirmed a time to meet. Tues very easy, you could say the evening was warm. Scarily close to having an accident on the drive home, someone almost drove into me on the M1. See here. Weds – weather decent again and a productive CV session. 8x2 min CV w/ 2 min rec. 6:56, 7:03, 6:42, 6:55, 7:05, 7:12, 7:18, 6:59 and with w/u and c/d it was 6.64 mi for the evening. Thurs easy, tried the energy bars which went well. Leg feeling hasn't gone away. A small part of the mesh has now worn on other other shoe. Fri – rest and ordered a parkrun barcode wristband. Physical therapist appt was productive and informative...discussed pros and cons of plans, questioned the merits of doing parkruns in advance of plan stuff and was wondering why I wasn't occasionally 'blowing out the cobwebs' with a parkrun. Sat – plan 30 mins tempo, actual Malahide parkrun with some oomph. Decided to give this a bit of a go based on i) the PT appt and ii) the see what the form was like and given that there were pacers. Position #53 and time 21:30, Garmin was the same, funnily enough. 3.03 mi at 7:05, HRM 151 avg, 167 max. Previous PB was 23:12 on 19/03/16, so just over three years, not that I’ve been doing parkrun much.

Congratulations on completing your 20th parkrun and your 18th at Malahide parkrun today. You finished in 53rd place and were the 49th male out of a field of 492 parkrunners and you came 9th in your age category VM35-39. Take a look at this week's full set of results on our website. Congratulations on setting a new Personal Best at this event! Congratulations on your fastest time this year.

I sat a bit behind the 22 pacer for most of it and again, it was nice to ignore the watch. No warm up at all, so took a little getting used to initially as my pulse was going! Happy and it was a lovely morning. Have to update the PT some time next week. I’ll give Malahide another go with the pacers again some time in May/June. Caught up with the crew...behind the scenes there were issues with the watch, tokens and one of scanner devices. Not fussed about comparing this with Jingle Bells from last Dec, 22:08. Sun plan 90 mins easy, actual 36:31, 3.49 miles at 10:28. Beautiful morning for it, decided to take it handy after yesterday. A whole stream of cyclists out the Skerries road, St John's ambulance as back up too.

Other stuff.

I've a rash allergy thing going on my legs that's quite itchy at times, have some cream for it.

Things I need to read/watch.

2014 video on injury prevention from Boston Children's Hospital. Not sure if this is technical or data heavy, or useful to the casual viewer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiafD3xg2yU

There's some sort of circuit training/strengthening thing here from Sport Ireland. Not sure I'll get the time.

Time to say goodbye to some worn runners.

Have dropped a few podcast subscriptions, mostly political stuff for a break. Found one called Strength and Conditioning Journal podcast (link) which seems to be mostly about studies published in said journal and geared to S&C professionals, I know we have science nerds here. Might learn something and the episodes are short enough.

5-10k grads plan

Week 12: Apr 8th-14th
31.01 miles.

Mon – rest, buses to work rather than car, for a break.
Tues - 60 mins very easy, actual 63:41. 6.23 mi at 10:14. Passed 400 miles on the plan with this one. Lovely evening out there.
Weds - 6x4 min CV w/ 2 min rec. 7:16, 7:26, 7:27, 7:14, 7:18, 7:13. 48:51 and 5:84 miles for the evening. Had an email from Connemarathon with race day info, even though it wasn't on the cards...and also one from FinisherPix that shower who are still pushing 2018 pics, or whatever. Little bit of mental doubt in there with some of the reps. My phone had been hopping earlier and also emails were flying too. Squeezed in some squats before hand, but admittedly was a little choppy on S&C this week. Was in a school before this and they had some artwork re 1916. One kid had done it as a comic and forget the politics, etc, it was quite impressive, must be said.
Thurs - GP visit in the morning. 60 mins very easy, actual 60:49, 5.96 mi at 10:13. Grand weather, few squats before hand.
Fri -
Sat - 5,4,3,2,1 min @ (Thres/CV/AP/Vo2/110%) paces w/ equal recovery. 7:27, 7:21, 7:05, 6:54, 6:19. Thres a touch fast and Vo2 should have been 6:49 or under. Anyway, 41:10, 4.75 miles. Slept very poorly here, so after the w/u it started to catch up with me fairly quickly. Body was just quite drained. After AP I thought about leaving the track on something that's a little more flat - the bypass. Decided to stick it out. Did a few squats on the grass after. I was listening to a non-running podcast at the time and there was an long intro blurb before some music so used that as backing for the squats. Later on Youtube was throwing me Boston videos, for some reason.
Sun - 80 mins easy…final one of those yolks. 82:51, 8.23 mi at 9:56. Slept better, thankfully. Went on a slight route reversal for the variety and down towards Blakes Cross. Passed about 4 houses all with dogs, yappy heads. Squashed a sachet of mayo/tartar sauce with my shoe, splat.

Week 13: Apr 15th-21st
21.97 miles.

Mon - 60 mins very easy, actual 62:20, 6.08 mi at 10:15 min/mi. Bad sleep again. Into work where some trees have probably gone to the wood chipper. Thought from the BBC weather for Dublin it would be a washout, was grand. Wexford 10k instructions came by email.
Tues - 5x5 min CV w/ 2.30 min rec. 7:23, 7:20, 7:11, 7:15, 7:20. After w/u and decided to use a touch of downhill for the first one. 60:48 mins and 7.02 mi for the whole thing. iirc, the watch said something about fastest 10k, heh.
Weds - rest, long meeting editing, writing, etc.
Thurs - rest. GP again, all fine.
Fri – 60 mins very easy, actual 63:11, 6.23 mi at 10:09. Two dead hedgehogs about 40 metres apart out the Skerries road which is unusual.
Sat - off, as per plan. Parkrun timekeeping…threw on some sun cream before leaving the house. Was thirsty ish then given all I was doing was standing around for an hour or so. Saw Singer was up there. Got talking to a guy who had done 3:10 at Boston (and 2:57 DCM). Heard on the grapevine that a woman who recently did des Sables was around too, didn't get speaking to her this time. She's also done Antartica...
Sun - 2k Time Trial. Heh, this thing. Couldn't remember what it entailed. Chat about it in the 2018 grads thread helped. Calculator said 8:19 at 6:41…actual 1.24 mi, 8:21 at 6:43. Pretty happy with that. 2.64 mi (22:15) for the morning. Watch mentioned fastest mile. Caught my reflection in some glass - sweat glistening. :pac: Not much traffic after 8am on a Sunday, except for stuff coming from Skerries. I felt a bit sick later in the morning. Was OK around lunch.

Sleep kinda crappy during week 13 too. Forgot to say with last few weeks I've noticed the HR on the watch a little more now, usually a heart symbol in orange, with 'threshold' on the screen. I rarely hit zone 5, tbh. Well, the 2k time trial helped on that as the heart was red and said max. No running/sports podcasts this week. Was thinking there’s bound be a niche for something as Gaeilge. If only we knew someone who could host a running episode or two…

Week 14: The final push

Easter Mon – 45 mins very easy, actual 47:08, 4.68 miles at 10:05. Another fine morning, sunny, but nice and cool. Good for face sweat too.

5-10k grads plan - conclusion and race

Week 14 continued: Apr 22nd-28th

23.7 miles.
470.51 miles for the plan, including the race.

Tues – 6x1 min @ Vo2 w/ 2 min recovery at 6:20, 6:55, 6:27, 6:33, 6:56, 6:46. 37:53 incl w/u, etc. 4.08 miles overall. An evening that required shades, back to a short sleeve shirt. A few of the Vo2s were a little quick. Happy overall. Nothing in the red on the HR end. There was an abandoned shopping trolley far from its home and a decaying fox around too.
Weds - rest, work conference thing. Went to the Dublin collection place the Wexford organisers had mentioned in their instructions.
Thurs - 45 mins very easy. 46:46. 4.57 miles at 10:09.
Fri - rest. I watched one of those fly on the wall paramedic shows in the evening, they got to a football pitch where a guy had turned badly or something. Er, they were unable find his kneecap and this can only be solved by an operation. They showed his leg - it just looked weird! :eek:
Sat - plan 20 mins recovery, actual Tramore parkrun - 30:51, 3.09 miles at 9:59. Lovely morning for this. My last visit here was June 2016. Got talking to some of the volunteers who mentioned the Waterford-Tramore race (7.5 miles) that was on that evening. The SAR chopper was hovering over one spot over the sea for a good 10-15 minutes or so. Moved on - it's an impressive piece of hardware.

Sun, April 28th - Wexford 10k

Woke up and heard talk about the London marathon on BBC 5 Live. Stirling was mentioned too. Breakfast was porridge, toast and peanut butter. Drove to Wexford and arrived around 9:10. Not much traffic on the way from Waterford. Note to self, if wearing a belt for keys, money, etc, don’t have the plastic buckle at your back, not comfortable for driving. First indication of being close a Wexford failte/welcome sign, followed by New Ross which had a bridge covered in yellow and purple flags. About 35km more after that.

Most of the decent rain had been on the spin over so Wexford itself was only damp under foot. Typical Irish Sunday morning, really. I found the Talbot hotel and start area without resorting to technology before heading back to my car. I went out shortly after 10am for a w/u (1.08 mi). Down at the seafront the water was relatively calm. The Half folks were off at 10:30 and the announcer said they represented two thirds of the event. Atmosphere seemed good, took a while for the numbers to get through after starting, some shuffling forward, etc. Spotted a regular parkrunner from Malahide in there. During the wait until the 10k, some of the traffic resumed and a tanker truck went through just where the Half people had been. 10k people started to line up. There was a guy next to me in a Wexford top, he looked quite athletic. 35-40 minute runners were asked to come to the front, I stayed put. I see from the official pictures he hit 38:XX alright.

And we're off, sharp turn left. There's a something in the car park here, I think a post (barrier?) or something, a bit like that first turn in DCM. I didn't see any point it trying to squeeze into the left hand side. Over the train tracks, through the traffic lights. Car traffic was coming against us. Tried to get on pace promptly and aware I was already tipping into 7:10-7:15 a little. Not worried. Through the streets and past the petrol station on the left...first climb. Mentally no bother - training has been done. Second thing to focus on - don't get stuck hanging on to people - run your own race. Passed the woman in the grey top/pink base layer. Out past the Glanbia plant and to the outskirts of the town. Passed some others and the woman in white with the earphones. I start to try and take mental notes to remember for the write up. As we got further out we crossed over the road, I don't remember seeing or hearing instructions for this, it was just the flow of the runners. Brow sweat started to kick in. We now hang a right, Garda/marshal are holding the traffic. Onto the back roads here we are, time to climb again and I was determined to try and keep a solid pace ish. There was a bit of effort needed here as I was seeing 7:40-7:50 sometimes. I was trying to find a balance between taking on the tarmac and not getting banjaxed. It was nice and quiet, though again the odd car from the other side. Did enjoy the patter of others' feet working away and that countryside feel, slightly damp climate. For these few km I very much was aware I had a tail, any move I made was copied by someone behind with his noticeable breathing. I decided to say hello. In hindsight, I wouldn't particularly do this again in a short event as I think it's more applicable to something where you've more time to feel like you're in it together. We passed a house with a mother and child outside. As we got through this stint, the lead bike (?) had turned back and gave some encouragement, not long now - sure enough we reached the signpost offering the choice of Half - straight on or 10k, left. We turn and I decide to let gravity do the talking, still being tailed. I was happy with progress on the back roads and I had overtaken without having been overtaken (stay tuned, that's about to change). If memory serves, shortly after here there was a sign for a humpback bridge, well, my apologies to said piece of infrastructure as I remember nothing humpy or bridgey about you. I think somewhere after was the first block of industrial park type stuff before hanging left and heading back to Wexford. With some soft rain from the back roads my glasses were drizzled as feck.

Undoubtedly, the stretch of 6-8km was the toughest (for me) even though they were not on the elevation front. I was overtaken by the chap from earlier, but more so, tiredness kicked in and it was like a wave of energy zapping sensation had washed over me. There was another spell in an industrial park, with an around a cone type affair. I thought I heard a marshal mention something about 1.5k, but I think it may have only been 0.5k as it wasn't 1.5. Certainly here I found quite frustrating and started to hate running. Not the race, just as an activity that exists. I'd have happily been scooped up and thrown into the backseat of my car if it contained a mattress or Star Trek transported out of there to lie on a hammock. Or option B, transport me to a marathon with a slower pace instead. To be clear, it's upper half of body where the tiredness starts to bite and I thought I was skirting into nausea territory in the industrial area. I'm wondering if sleep plays a role here. Last time I felt like this was during the Saturday stuff in week 12. I was awake fairly early before driving to Wexford on the Sun morning. Or maybe it’s something to do with aerobic capacity, I haven’t Googled. There was no HTFU/JFDI in the latter stages of the race, honestly hadn't thought about it all week, so didn't remember to do it. On a positive note, things improved and I felt in better shape in the final 2k (pace doesn't necessarily reflect this?) and the mental game had calmed a bit. The Glanbia plant popped up again. As I we got near home I was not really near anyone within arm's reach to target them. I had tried not to check the watch for time (auto lap did the 1 mile beeps throughout) - I was primarily interested in pace until close to the end. Became optimistic once I saw the gantry I did then take a gawk at the watch - ah, we'll make it home OK. Not too bad considering the earlier happenings. And the bloke who overtook me earlier seems to have finished about 17 seconds or so ahead which isn't too bad, really. The finish felt more busy with supporters than runners, thanks to the scouts for volunteering there. Dropped half the banana...

Garmin - stopped on 46:00:09 - on sync to the app it was 46:01. It recommended 72 hours of rest. 6.20 miles at 7:25. Splits 7:27, 7:26, 7:22, 7:22, 7:29, 7:33 (and 6:47 for the 0.20). HRM 177 avg and 197 max, training effect 5.0 and 72% red/zone 5.
Chip 46:01
WTAF - I came 31st (was 30/547 initially, now 31/548). This I did not expect and just can't believe it. 500 odd were behind me? Small field, I guess. OK, just reading again and it has two people listed as 32 and 33 and they finished 45:XX - must be something off with the system. One of the official photos of me...seems to have both feet in the air which is a first, I'll take that too. :pac:
Previous 10k – 53:30, Manchester 2018

Calculator. Based on Jingle Bells 5k (22:08) the prediction was 46:06 for 10k at 7:25, whilst taking all things calculator related with a grain of salt. Was hoping to hit or 44 or 45 ideally, but decided before even driving to Wexford that pace was the name of the game. Now with 46:01 completed it’s saying 3:32:40 for a marathon - lmao, as the kids say. On the learning front, I was trying to reflect on this because of the tiredness that came into play. On the other hand, I did try something and if you don't you'll never know. Wexford, thanks for the company.

Legs were OK on Sun evening. More noticeable on Mon morning - mostly in the middle back section. Sore would be an incorrect description, but let's just say they've done more than a dress rehearsal. Won't have much on the log front as I'll take some time off then get into the base plan, thanks for reading. All aboard the meno train part II come July 1st...