The Boggers Log

Not much happening this week and I’m taking that as a positive. Body was no worse after the 5k TT than it was the week before and was probably in a bit better nick.

Lots of sea swimming, foam rolling, stretching and easy miles was the theme for the week

Mon: very easy 5k

Tue: 10k with work running buddy, enjoy these runs as I can have normal conversations rather than having to entertain the madness that runs through my brain when I’m out solo. 6.4 miles @ 7.53

Wed: easy 5k around the pitch

Thur: had an early morning start as I was driving to Dublin to get a Functional Movement assessment. Was very happy with this as he identified a number of areas that need serious correction and a few things where we can get quick wins. Have a few basic exercises to start and an appointment every month for the foreseeable. Had some serious car battery range anxiety on the way back and the monitor was telling me I’d only 12k left in the battery before I got to Athlone to charge! Got home a bit frayed but got another easy 5k done.

Fri: I don’t usually run early in the morning but I’d the physioterrorist at 10 am and she told me she’d be zulu needling me so there’d be no running for 24 hours! Same easy 5k loop as Thurs

Sat: didn’t get up till after 1pm after going back to bed after walking the dog just after
7am!! Watched Stoke lose abysmally to QPR, and wasn’t in the best of humour heading out. Had planned on doing 4 miles @ HM pace. Easy two mile warm up followed by 4 miles 6.54; 6.52; 6.48, & 6.46. Effort level felt very high for 4 poxy miles Easy mile to cool down, 7 miles in total

Sun: 8 miles nice and easy on Seanadhpheistin.

Feel a bit better this week now that I’ve a bit of structure, focus and a plan. I’ve decide to do the Hanson Advanced HM plan for Antrim half at the end of August. (Thanks to Phisto for the plan and documents and Ferris for the pointers). I might have to trim off some of the miles but I’ll see how it goes. I’m going to try and be aggressive and try for 6.40 average for the half.

I’ll spend the next 3 weeks working on strengthening the body and maybe see if I can land a 5 or 10k race.

I’ve also run now everyday for the last 6 months

TbL

Murph_D wrote: »

Excellent. I had very good results from that HM plan a few years ago and found it transitioned excellently into some marathon work too. Read the book though - don't just rely on the schedules. Ferris probably told you that too. Best of luck with it.

Thanks D.

There’s a book...???

TbL

Nothing exciting this week, I made a conscious decision to drop any session and concentrate on trying to slowly build up the mileage, in advance of starting the HM plan in a few weeks. This weeks target was 40 miles.

After my recent functional movement assessment I got the video clips of me “running” on one of those self propelled treadmill yokes. It was like an X rated horror movie, I’d expected I’d be closer to PG after all the work I’ve put in, but I’ve a long way to go

Mon: 5k very easy

Tue: didn’t want to go out today, really not in the humour. Headed up to the pitch and listening to the Doors helped me get 4 miles easy done

Wed: work buddy 10k @ 7.47 pace. Was surprisingly tired and lethargic after this.

Thur: just over 5 miles easy, the young lad provided a bike escort to keep me company

Fri: 6 miles easy with my daughter.

Sat: 7 miles round and around the pitch

Sun: didn’t feel great with an upset stomach when I got up, but got 8 miles easy done @ 8.30.

45 miles target for next week

TbL

AuldManKing wrote: »

So, if I have this right, B is asking to see xrated videos of TBL?

Don’t know what you’re on about, you starred in the movie

TbL

Mental few weeks, the company I work for was going through the end phases of a buyout and I was incredibly busy. Running has seen zero quality in fact I haven’t run fast since the 5k TT

The only upside is the body feels the best it has in ages and my easy pace is coming down. I’m hoping to get a session done on Wednesday (negative PCR test permitting) and use it as the first session for my 12 week HM plan.



Mon 17th: post physioterrorist bashing 4m recovery was very tender

Tue: pre jab jog 5 m @ 8.24

Wed: post jab 6.5m @ 8.05

Thur: was up and down to Dublin (another functional movement session) was very tired and stiff so only managed a 5k recovery

Fri: enjoyable 5 m plod.

Sat: 6m easy jog @ 8.33

Sun: had to drive into Galway to get a PCR test. My god the woman doing it must have been having a bad day, she swabbed my throat sticking the swab into my tonsils and then stuck it so far up my nose I’d swear my eyeballs bulged!!! I looked like Marty Feldman and it was seriously unpleasant.

Drove to Dangan and got 5.45 easy miles @8.33 done, nice day for it.

Loads of boy racers converged in Salthill and as I was driving home someone must have taken a picture because my car appeared on their Facebook page “Salthill Sunday’s.” I was getting the absolute piss pulled outta me and one of my friends dropped a furry dice up to the house for me

Mon: up at 4am to drive to Belfast for work, was staying overnight in the Merchant hotel. Was great to be able to have a relatively normal meal indoors in a restaurant rather than sitting in my car with a styrofoam box of takeaway!! Managed to get just over 4 miles done along the river.

Tue: had to be up early as I was flying to Italy for work, got another 3 miles easy done around 5.30 am. I’d parked in a public car park across from the hotel and when I went over to get the car the place was locked up, 30 minutes later I got the car but the stress levels were high and I almost missed my flight as I had to also stop to charge the car. Was surprised how busy the flight was. Had thought I might try another run but by the time I got to the hotel I was zonked and just hit the scratcher.

Wed: lovely and warm and sunny in Milan. In between meetings I got a small jogging map from the hotel concierge and headed to Giardini Indro Montanelli, a small park about 1.5k away from the hotel. You’ve to wear masks outside in Italy but can take them off while running! I got to the park with only a couple of hitches and there was a fair few runners out and about. There were numerous entrances/exits to the park and I obviously took the wrong one out coz I got completely lost and as a result the run was very stop/start. 10k easy.

Had another PCR test and while not pleasant at least she didn’t loosen my eyeballs!!

I also changed hotels for the night moving to what was supposedly one of the best hotels in Milan, The Bvlgari. I had a decent lunch al fresco there and we had a 17 course tasting menu for the evening meal. The hotel was ridiculously expensive and completely underwhelming

Thur: back to the Hyatt hotel and another easy 4 miles around the park. Put the phone in one of the hotels sanitary bags and used Google maps to get back!

Had a really really good meal out in a restaurant recommended by the hotel, the food was fantastic although not eating carbs and having to forego some of the pasta dishes my colleagues were gorging on was tough!

Fri: woke up and my neck and right shoulder was rigid. On the way to a meeting on Thursday the taxi driver slapped on the brakes and swerved to avoid another car, I could feel a little jarring in my neck but thought no more about it, but I knew all bout it on Friday!

I decided that after a nice breakfast on the hotels rooftop that I’d try a run in Parc Sempione that was established in 1888. It was further away that the other park but looked much bigger. Took me a half an hour to walk there and while it was a beautiful setting for a run and the place was full of runners I absolutely despised every second of this run and it took ever ounce of willpower to even get to 5k (very easy). Slow 30 mins walk back to the hotel.

The Milanese are such a stylish people and the food is superb but the city is a **** hole, it’s filthy dirty, the roads and paths are like a 3rd world country’s and the drivers are obnoxious dangerous dicks! There’s also very limited running options although I don’t remember things were as bad the last time I was there but I wouldn’t be rushing back!

Sat: home isolation (and another antigen test) meant over 30 laps of the tarred path around the back garden to get 5k done

Sun: same as above just ran the other direction

Mon: same as above just changed direction half way

TbL

Week 1/12 of Hanson’s HM plan.

Already I know, I won’t be able for the plans mileage, I’ll need to trim back some easy run mileage. I’m cutting it fine, I’d hope to give myself 13-14 weeks for this if I needed a step back week. I’m not as fit as I thought I was and I’ve no stamina. Apart from that all good

Mon: quarantine 5k around the garden

Tue: quarantine 5k the other way around the garden.

Wed: plan was 3 mile wu/cd with 3 x 1 miles at 5-10k pace off 800m jog. There was no way on gods earth I would be able for this at 5k pace so I settled on around 6.30. Did this on the trails in Dangan to lessen the impact on the back and I’ll probably try and do all the faster sessions in there.

Did a 1.5 mile warm up and hit the mile around the double pitch. Was fairly happy with this as it’s been weeks and weeks since I’ve done any faster stuff.

Splits 6.26, 6.28 & 6.23

Total 7.3m

Thur: was up in Dublin for another functional movement session. Morto, got ditched by the running cat walk model for two wrinkley OAP’s so didn’t get to run till I got back home and I was tired.

5k easy.

These sessions seem to be helping and a simple readjustment to my pelvic position has reduced my pain by about 20%

Fri: 10k with a work buddy @ 7.56, felt surprisingly good.

Sat: back to earth with a bag. Plan was for 3 wu/cd with 4 miles at HM pace. I’m aiming high for Antrim and hoping to average 6.40 pace, but if this was anything to go by I’m way off! Never comfortable and completely caved towards the end. After the 4 miles I actually walked in shock for a bit.

Splits: 6.51; 6.46; 7.00 & 7.03

Slow miserable plod home thinking I’m doomed! 7 miles in total

Sun: plan was for 12 mile LR. Would have been happy anything above 10 but I managed the 12 ok. Lovely day for it.

12 miles @ 8.26

42 miles for the week.

TbL

Completed week 2/12 Hanson’s HM plan.

Still a shock to the system but I’m just going to suck it up and do my best to get through it.

Plan weekly miles: 56
Actual miles: almost 49

Thur: body was very tired and stiff after Wednesdays session, only managed 4 miles very gentle recovery with my daughter.

Fri: young lad had a GA match in Westside, so I parked up and just plodded along local roads. Hamstring was very tight so took it handy. Got 5 miles easy done.

Sat: plan session wu/cd with 5 miles @ HMP. Was very wary of this after last Saturdays 4 mile equivalent where I completely died. Spent a lot more time stretching and trying to convince myself I could do the session. Got 1.5 miles warm up done and started into the faster stuff. The first mile came in slower than last weeks first mile but I wasn’t overly concerned as I was hoping for a better overall average pace.

Mile 2 & 3 were the best of the lot, mile 4 wasn’t comfortable but not dying however I did start to fade on mile 5 and was a bit disappointed with the split. Walked for a couple of mins before jogging home for just over 8.6 miles.

Splits: 6.47; 6.41; 6.41; 6.47 & 6.54

Still a good chunk off the planned HMP (6.40) but I’m going to continue with that goal and see where it takes me.

Sun: plan was for 14 mile LR. My daughter was doing 12k and asked me to do the first bit with her, didn’t really suit me as I didn’t want to be out on my feet for over 2 hours but I’ve spent ages encouraging her to get into the running (and she’s doing her own HM plan) so I didn’t want to let her down.

Plodded around the first 10k with her around 10.30 pace before finishing up the 14 miles in almost 2.20. Longer on my hoofs than I wanted but hopefully it’ll help with the stamina.

3 x 1 hour functional strength routines this week

Heading to Waterford on Wednesday for 10 days so hoping to find some decent running routes!

TbL