The reboot!!!

A bit of good news, I finally got my scan and the results back. The MRI came back all clear so there is no damage according to that thankfully. While this is obviously good it is still a bit of a mystery to me exactly what the cause of all the hip problems are. Unfortunately due to the local lockdowns I am unable to get back to discuss further with my physio for the next 2 weeks at least.

I've been keeping things going for the past few weeks and thankfully the hip is behaving itself. I still feel a bit of tightness around that area and in my hamstrings so I'm being careful and managing myself as necessary. My training at the moment is probably not conventional but it is working for me and I actual think I'm stronger at the moment than I was before all this started.

Given this I think I might start the log back. At the moment I'm managing 3 to 4 runs a week and another 1 or 2 workouts depending on how the body feels. A lot of my runs are steady to hard but I feel the overall weekly load is small enough the day's off are giving me a good recovery.

I'll start back with my last two runs:

09/08/2020

13K - 57:11 (4:24/km)

I think this was a very good run, the strongest I've felt since being back. I tried to keep the pace as even as I could but Kyber hill caught me a bit. I was able to pick it back up though and finish strong over the last couple of km.

11/08/2020

11.45K - 55:38 (4:52/km)

This is about as easy a run as I'm doing at the moment. The target was to keep the pace about 5 min kms but was a bit faster than this. Overall I felt good, it wasn't very taxing and the pace was pretty even. Definitely feel like I could manage another 10K at this pace easy enough but I'm staying away from those sort of distances for the moment.

Next session will probably be a 5 x 1K session Thursday.

15/08/2020

1.9K Warm Up

6K Tempo - 24:11 (4:01/km)

1.8K Warm Down

This was a bit faster than the planned but I was feeling good and strong so pushed it a but, very happy though and kept the pace pretty consistent. This at least confirms for me that I am in sub 20 shape for the 5K and the race a few weeks ago wasn't just down to the generous course.

16/08/2020

13K - 1:05:08 (5:00/km)

Easy run exactly as planned. I did my best to keep the pace as even as I could throughout which meant pushing a bit harder in some places with hills than others but felt very comfortable. I was considering pushing out the distance a bit more but decided against it, probably a wise decision.

Overall after a few difficult weeks not too long ago I'm feeling a lot better about my running at the moment.

Thank you for the input. To be honest up until 2 or 3 weeks ago because of the relatively low weekly mileage I wasn't really taking any run as an easy run so to speak. But yeah as I've increased the weekly mileage a small bit more I should easy back on what I am considering my easy runs.

I'm currently doing around 25 - 30 miles a week and plan to stay on that for the next 2 to 3 months. If I can do this and stay injury free while maybe doing even more to work on strengthening the core and hips my hope is to be in a good position towards the end of this year to maybe get back into the longer stuff.

As for this week so far.

17/08/2020

2.77K Warm Up

Leg work out

Air Squat - 1 min
Walking Lunges - 1 min
Mountain Climbers - 1 min
Jumping Squat - 1 min
Side Lunges - 1 min
Mountain Climbers - 1 min
Jog - 2 mins

Repeat x 3

2.95K Warm Down

This is the workout I had been doing while I was restricting my running a few months back. I'm going to try to continue to get it in once per week but might look to change it up a small bit as it is getting a bit repetitive now.

18/08/2020

11.74K - 59:58 (5:07/km)

Certainly not the nicest weather this morning for an easy run but glad I got out and did it. Everything felt good and tried to slow the pace down a bit more compared to Sunday's run.

22/08/2020

1.9K Warm Up

6K - 23:57 (4:00/km)

1.7K Warm Down

Planned tempo run but in all honestly I know it was too quick and I didn't feel as strong as last week. Next run like this I will step the pace back a small bit.

23/08/2020

11.96K - 56:27 (4:43/km)

I was due an easy run but had the opportunity to get some decent hills in so went at more of a steady pace. It was two laps of a longer loop from where I normally get my hills in. I've only ever walked this loop but there are a few nice long hills that are added which make for good tough running. I kept the pace strong enough without pushing very hard.

Despite the hills I quite enjoy these runs. It is peaking my interest in maybe giving an IMRA event a go further down the line (although I know these are much tougher than the likes of this session) or even just doing a bit more trail running in general.


A couple of easy runs for the next few days before another interval session on Thursday, most likely 6 x 800m. I'm also thinking mid to late September for the 5K TT at the moment all going to plan.

29/08/2020

10.53K - 48:35 (4:37/km)

I've been wanting to get a bit more of a social element going with running if I can so I found the Dublin Runners group on meetup which seems to be fairly active. There is a regular run in Phoenix park and they had a number of different groups going out at different paces (all within guidelines). One was advertised as 5:00/km so figured that would be nice for a relatively easy run. For the first few km I was sitting back but the pacing of the group was quite a bit faster than advertised, I didn't mind and I felt quite relaxed. The group just kept the pace up the whole way which meant it turned into a steady run which was a bit of a shame as I was hoping for something easier. Still it was nice to be running with a handful of people and I think I'll do a few more of these over the next few months.

30/08/2020

8.05K - 33:54 (4:13/km)

Some unexpected travelling threw off my plan for the day so I ended up getting out later in the day than I would normally like and not the route I was planning. Starting out I wasn't quite sure if I wanted an easy or a hard run so the first km was in between. After that I was feeling good so increased the pace to something closer to tempo and pushed on. The legs felt good the whole way and I definitely had more in the tank.

I did this exact same route at a similar effort about 6 weeks ago, the same week I ran the 5K race and this felt an awful lot more comfortable which is giving me a bit more confidence.

In saying this I'm being encouraged to register for my old club back home and to take part in our country road race championships which are due to take place in 3 weeks time. It's a 6K race and based on times from the last couple of years and my current form I will probably be somewhere towards the back of the field so I am a bit hesitant. But maybe I will just do it and hope the race can push me on even further. I will reach out to the club anyway and see if it is even possible in the time frames involved.

05/09/2020

5K Time Trial - 19:12 (3:50/km)

Two days rest and the time trial this morning as planned. There ended up only being two others doing it, one a good bit in front of me and another behind so in true time trial fashion I was on my own for all it.

There was a nice bit of wind around which I had to run into 3 times including finishing but only had behind twice so it felt quite tough. The splits were 3:38, 3:43, 3:56, 4:00, 3:50, so as is obvious poorly paced. I felt quite good on the first two km but coming into the wind the second time just sapped the energy from my legs and I suffered after that. I managed to pick the pace back up a for the last km but I had lost too much to break the 19.

I think I gave it all I could on the day. Maybe better paced in race conditions I could have broken the 19 but it is still a decent time and I'm moving in the right direction. I'm just a tad disappointed with the execution more than anything else, still lessons learned.

I'll get out for some sort of run tomorrow and plan the next two weeks then before the county road race. Also while not official I have been reliable informed the cross country will be held the week after this so a few tough weeks ahead. Guess I need to go get a pair of spikes now and break them in.

10/09/2020

12K - 59:16 (4:56/km)

An easy run after a days break. I'll be honest I didn't feel great on this, the legs were a bit dead which probably makes sense given the heavy few days previous. There will always be days like this but good to get it in.

12/09/2020

3.86K - Warm Up

6 x 600m off 2 min recovery

#1 - 2:08 #4 - 2:00
#2 - 2:01 #5 - 2:06
#3 - 2:05 #6 - 1:57

4K - Warm Down

Some members of my family back home have been getting back into running themselves and have been doing interval sessions of a Saturday for the past few weeks and with my plan for the week it made sense to join them. They were only planning to do 6 with a longer recovery than I normally would but that was fine I just pushed a bit harder. They were running between two points which I've been assured was accurately measured using a trundle, the GPS doesn't quite agree but I'll go with what they say.

The session itself was pretty tough alternating between running directly into the wind and having it behind, this made the times a bit inconsistent. But it was a good work out and exactly what I wanted, hard enough to feel like I was getting a good VO2 max workout but reducing it to 6 should keep the legs a bit fresher for next weekend. It was also really nice doing this with my family again, it reminded me of the training we used to do when we were kids and there could up to 20 of us all out together running around fields or forests.


Over the past week or two I've been feeling tightness in both calves and the right hamstring increase so I will have another rest day tomorrow. I'm already up to my 50K for the week anyway and don't really want to go over it. I will only have one hard run between now and the race next weekend and hopefully a nice bit of stretching and massaging over the few days will help.

20/09/2020 - Laois Intermediate Road Race

6K - Official Time 23:17 (21st out of 40)

Race Report:

I travelled over with my cousin/old training partner who also just rejoined the club and is really flying at the moment, this would be the first club race back for both us. We arrived nice and early, got our numbers sorted and chatted to a few people that we would not have seen for quite a long time and of course to our new team mates. It was quite nice and the atmosphere there was fantastic, I think everyone was just so happy to be out racing.

The race itself was 4 laps of a triangular loop which is used quite regularly but most people certainly don't like it with 2/3 of it being a drag up hill and 1/3 down hill. I jogged a lap as part of my warm up and I could see the reason for the dislike, the drag wasn't nice and the downhill felt pretty short so there wouldn't be much recovery. The fact that there was no flat part at all certainly wasn't nice. The finishing couple of hundred meters was also all uphill.

As is usual there was quite a bit of waiting around between the ladies race taking place before and just getting everything in place from a Covid point of view I guess. A few team photos while we were waiting and then called to the starting line. Each club had their own lane to line up in so the faster guys obviously went to the front, I was somewhere around the middle.

It didn't take long for the whistle to be blown and we were off, the usual rush out the blocks and I just concentrated on not tripping anyone up or being tripped up. After the first few hundred meters the field had spread out and I was in a group of about 7/8 along with 2 of my club mates. The pace was pretty quick but I wanted to try stay with them as best I could. I managed this pretty well for the first two laps but gradually started to drop back on the third lap. The long drags of the hills were really starting to take their toll and the guys with that bit more strength were just able to keep going but I was slowing down.

The drag on the fourth lap was absolute torture and I knew I had really slowed down compared to the first two laps. I had a look behind and could see 4 or 5 runners lining up to pass me by. One of these caught me and pulled a few meters ahead. Around this stage the watch beeped 5K, time 19:20, it didn't matter just keep going for the last 1K. I managed to catch him on the down hill of the fourth lap but there was still the final couple of hundred meters up hill to go. I dug in as much as I could but he had managed to pull away a couple of meters again and I just couldn't close the gap. About 200 meters to go I got a couple of shouts from a few supporters who had travelled to watch me and I gave it one last burst but he noticed that too and gave his own little burst. Unfortunately catching him wasn't to be. I did manage to catch a junior who had over taken me earlier in the race and I held off any one else behind me. It would have been nice to catch the other guy but I gave it everything I had.

As I crossed the line I crumbled to my knees for a couple of seconds before regaining my composure. I saw the others from my club who finished ahead of me including my cousin and they all had great runs. I was a bit disappointed at this stage but it was a bloody tough race.

In hindsight I gave everything I had and I don't really think I could have done much better. The time was inline with what I should have expected based on the 5K time trial so I can at least say I ran to form. The official results only came out today and to my surprise we got second team by 3 points with me as the last scorer so holding off the few behind me at the end was somewhat useful I guess . A team medal from my first race back, I'll take it.


On my foot injury I had been treating it over the weekend before the race with some ice and it seemed to make a big difference. After the race I was able to see my coach who is also a sports therapist which is very handy I must. She said it was the plantar fascia and was able to point out a couple of spots on my sole which are particularly tight. So this week I will be working on them and continuing the icing.

27/09/2020 - Laois Novice Cross Country

4.92K - 19:04 (3:52/km - 17th/34)

Race Report:

Arrived nice and early again for this, a slightly chilly but beautiful morning. The race was advertised as 5K and was due to be 4 "long" laps of the course. Jogging around it the grass was a bit long especially if you weren't running on the inside trail being flattened by everyone. There were two uphill drags, one a third into the lap and another at the end but it wasn't particularly hilly by any means which I was quite thankful for.

On arrival we were only expecting 4 in total for our team but 2 more turned up including the third place finisher from the race last week who was about 20 secs ahead of me. Before the race I was planning to try use him as a target to work off so I was happy to see him.

Again there was a very long wait before our race was under way but it was nice to watch the juvenile races and cheer them on. I remember what is was like doing them myself and the support always helped me. As we were lining up I saw another familiar face or two who finished ahead of me last week that I thought I might have an outside chance of finishing ahead of.

As expected after the gun went off there was the usual burst of speed out of the gates. I tried to stay a bit calmer than last week but if I get out too slowly I feel like I would be left too far behind. After the initial burst I stuck to my plan and ran alongside my club mate. For the first lap I was running side by side but this meant being in the longer gross and we had went through 1K in 3:36, a lot faster than I thought and not sustainable so I needed to be a bit tactical and I opted to tuck in behind him on the second lap.

The second lap went by pretty smoothly, our pace had definitely dropped a bit but I expected this and I was just happy to be keeping up with him. Were a bit isolated though and a gap to a small group in front of us grew on this lap. As we started the third lap I could feel my club mates pace was dropping a bit too much so went in front of him told him to work off me and we would try work up to the group in front of us. Unfortunately after about half a lap he dropped back even further but someone had dropped off the group in front, one the people I noticed on the starting line. I had to push on to try and catch him.

The start of the fourth lap my club mate was now a good 20 meters behind and my target about 30 in front of me. I pushed a bit at the start of the lap to try and close the gap, it was slightly down hill which helped and I probably cut in it half before getting to the first uphill drag. I just wanted to maintain the gap here which I did. After this I just kept pushing and starting the final bit of a drag and around 400m left I got by and just tried to keep the pace going. Fortunately he couldn't respond because my legs were burning and this was all I had. There was another guy a further 20 meters in front and even though I was closing slightly coming down the home straight he was just too far in front.

I finished feeling much better than I did last week and was even happier finding out my cousin and club mate finished third overall, a fantastic result for him. Unfortunately there was no team medal today. Still it was nice getting the one or two scalps but I know there was one or two that I finished ahead of last week that were ahead of me today so it works both ways. But I thought this was a better race and after the first quick km I paced the rest of the race a lot better. The pace overall was a bit slower than my best but that was to be expected in cross country.


The next race is in 2 weeks time, the intermediate cross country which I will probably do. I took today off but I don't feel like I can take too much time off right now. I think I will get out tomorrow for an easy run and another day off after that. Then a session and a hard run at the end of the week/weekend followed by mainly easy running next week. My foot is feeling pretty ok since I have been treating it every night, I will just keep this up. In the past few weeks I have probably slackened a bit on my general strength and conditioning work so I want to rectify this. One area that has been identified to me as a weakness is my hamstrings, they are particularly tight and weak relative to my other muscle groups so I need to work on that. I won't go crazy on this stuff over the next two weeks but just gradually get back into it.

02/10/2020

11.6K - 57:08 (4:55/km)

A nice relaxed run, again I didn't look at the watch for most of this and just ran with how I felt. I went a bit quicker than I would have liked but the effort felt low enough. The calf muscles felt a bit tight later in the day so gave them a good rub that evening.

03/10/2020

7.8K - 33:19 (4:16)

I was very surprised with this outing. It had been just about a month since doing this route and this was over 1 minute faster than back then. It is usually the start of the second lap which is a 1.4km climb that kills me but the legs just felt much stronger and I didn't loose nearly as much time as I had been. This is actually only about 50 secs slower than my best time out here from when I was much younger and is the closest I've been to any of my old PB's so I'm really quite encouraged by this.

05/10/2020

11.6K - 59:43 (5:08/km)

An easy run this morning, again I just ignored the watch and with the windy conditions took it nice a relaxed. A few muscles feeling a bit tight afterwards so I just need to be strict on the stretching.


Unfortunately with the announcement of increased restrictions this weekend's race will be cancelled and working on the presumption that racing won't be back for another few weeks I guess it's time to come up with a plan. I will see out this week with what I had intended which was a tempo run tomorrow and then easy running until the weekend. Depending on weather I might do a cheeky 3K or 5K time trial at the weekend just to get confirmation of exactly where I am and go from there.

11/10/2020

10.52K - 57:18 (5:27/km)

A nice and relaxed recovery run with company again. I will say these are nice to do but I'm not sure they are providing a whole lot of benefit. For the moment though I will try incorporate one of these runs into my plans going forward.

13/10/2020 - 2 mile TT

2.57K Warm Up

3.28K - 12:00 (3:40/km)

4.02K - Warm Down

Shortly before starting this I found out that the 3K time trial turned in a 2 mile time trial so just a small bit longer but not a big deal. We started a bit further back from the finish line than we should have for 2 mile but the bends were not clearly marked so we were being cautious.

Time wise I guess this is about what I should have expected based on recent runs and it was nice to get two sub 6 min miles in but I'm still a bit disappointed with it. I just didn't feel great on it and I really don't like running on these gravel tracks. Afterwards my calfs were in absolute knots, I just don't think it's a surface that agrees with me. There were also two guys who finished a small bit ahead of me that I think I should have been closer to. I just feel like there is more in the tank. At least it's done and I can use it as a benchmark.


I'm not really feeling great energy wise the past few days so I'm definitely going to take until Friday off at least. It should helps the legs too. Depending how I'm feeling I may or not may not get out at the weekend.

Next week mentally I sort of want to reset everything. My overall diet and general conditioning hasn't been great the last while and I think this is a large part of not quite feeling as good in myself lately. Come Monday there will be a new plan for all parts that I'm going to do my absolute best to commit to.

18/10/2020

10.66K - 59:22 (5:34/km)

A very relaxed recovery run with a bit of company before the lockdown. The foot was pretty sore after the previous day but this was the first day wearing the new runners. I strike the ground a bit differently in them but they felt pretty comfortable.

19/10/2020

AM - n/a
PM - Yoga day 1

A planned rest day from running but my first day of yoga. I'm following the "30 days of yoga with Adriene" playlist to begin with as the feedback on it seems to be pretty positive. Nothing too complicated in it but just staying in some poses makes me realize how poor the flexibility is in some areas and where there are some obvious weaknesses too. I quite enjoyed it though.

20/10/2020

AM - 11.66K - 54:09 (4:39/km)
PM - Yoga day 2

Definitely more of a steady run than an easy one but it was very relaxed. The legs felt good and the foot was pretty good when walking up. The yoga was good too, a few new poses and finding lots of new ways to stretch different areas. If anything it's very educational.

21/10/2020

AM - 8.41K - 42:04 (5:00/km)
PM - Yoga day 3

Nothing much to report on this one, I just ran it by feel without looking at the watch.

22/10/2020

AM - 10.03K - 41:54 (4:11/km)
PM - Yoga day 4

My plan of an all easy week sort of went out the window with this one. I was feeling good and was just itching to do something a bit harder. The initial plan for this was an 8K but I pushed it out to 10K. It's my quickest 10K since being back by some margin but it felt good and plenty left in tank.

23/10/2020

PM - Yoga day 5
PM - 5.36K - 27:00 (5:02/km)

An short easy run with my lockdown running buddy.

24/10/2020

AM - 17.72K - 1:34:17 (5:19/km)

This was an interesting run to say the least. There is a wooded area within my 5km limit that I know has plenty of hills and I wanted to give it a try. I've never actually been there before but I had an idea of the general route from the map and from the strava of someone I follow. The first thing when I got out there was that some routes seemed to be closed for logging but these notices are often ignored.

I knew I should be keeping to the right going around and I followed this path which wasn't closed and all was going well. Nice long hills as expected until about 2.5K when I came to what was a stop in the path and basically a steep track up the side of the forest. I knew there was a steep part to this run but had no idea it was like this. It was just too slippery underfoot to get any traction to run so I had to hike most of this part. I had to take my time on the downhill too as it was quite treacherous. When I did finally make my way back to a normal path I wasn't quite sure what to do as there wasn't an obvious safe loop I could just run. I decided to just run up and back a few different paths as far as I could until I had the distance in.

Come the end of it I had over 500m of climbing done according to garmin/strava and it definitely felt like it. It was a bit messy but I was glad to do it. I think for the future it will be a better place for hill sprints rather than long hill runs.

25/10/2020

AM - 11.09K - 58:56 (5:19/km)

Another nice easy run. I thought I would be pretty sore after the previous day but everything felt good, even my foot which is great.

No specific yoga sessions at the weekend but still lots of stretching utilizing some of the new poses.


Thankfully I think the new runners are making a difference as the pain in my foot is definitely easing gradually. The yoga has been helping with a few other niggles and I'm feeling a lot freer in my hips especially. It is something definitely to keep up. Tomorrow my running buddy has asked me to pace him on a 10K TT effort, with a goal of sub 50 so I'll do my best on that to help him. For the rest of the week I will do one interval session, probably a 5x1K, and some sort of progression/fartlek run with the rest being easy running.