Are those my feet?

Comic Book Guy wrote: »

Great stuff A, you've shown remarkable patience.


I had been meaning to ask you for a long time but kept forgetting, How did your swimming lessons go pre lockdowns.

Ah, swimming. I was really enjoying it actually - seemed like I'd found the perfect supplementary activity to do once a week. I'd completed an initial block of 8 lessons and had just started into another block of 8 weeks when lockdowns began. I had done some lessons when I was younger, so I wasn't a complete novice and progressed quickly with the bit of guidance this time around. Hopefully they will re-commence at some stage.

When I left things 5 months ago I felt like I was in a decent position to build on what had been a relatively solid few months. Unfortunately I was soon hit by a couple more injuries, each of which stopped me in my tracks for 3 or so weeks and necessitated a gradual return to running afterward. The first injury was an oblique/side strain on my right side in August - no idea where it came from but it was agony to run with and took months to fully subside. By the start of November I was back around the 30 miles per week mark and had started throwing in the odd mile at "tempo" and a few strides here and there. Then I managed to damage my left quad somehow, maybe one of my faster miles was on a downhill bit and that triggered it. I couldn't walk without a severe limp for 3 weeks. That seems to be ok now, and I've been gradually increasing things again over the past month or so.

The physio reckons my hip flexors have a lot to answer for - they don't like me sitting down all day. I would have circulated more when in the office but with WFH I could sit for hours on end without realising. So I'm trying to be more aware of the need to walk around more and get out for walks at lunch if I'm not running. She's given me a few stretches for it too.

Finished 2021 with 790 miles, which was actually a slight increase on 2020 (711 miles). I feel like I was responsible and built things very gradually on each of my comebacks and that I've just been unlucky. Does one injury lead to another? Maybe I'm just injury prone? I was inactive for 20 years before I started running so the body is bound to wonder WTF is going on I guess. Anyway, I'm taking this latest comeback very gradually again. 25 miles last week and I'll aim for the same again this week.

For 2022 I'd just like to run consistently - I've been whacked with injuries for two years now so feel like I'm due a break. I feel like I'm ok right now niggle-wise, so for the rest of January I'd like to work towards 30 miles per week and then just try and maintain that for a few months. All going well I'd love to target a Half Marathon later in the year, Clonmel or Charleville maybe, but I've made and then torn-up so many tentative plans over the past year that I won't get too set on anything just yet. I do have an entry for the Mallow 10 mile at the end of March, so hopefully I can string together a solid period before then. I just want to look at that 12 week progress graph on strava and not seen any huge prolonged dips.

Probably a bit of a moany post, so apologies. I'm actually feeling really positive about my running for 2022. Great to see lots of activity in the forum over the past month or two as well - I've a lot of catching up to do. I'll try and keep the log updates monthly for now - hopefully the next couple are short and boring.

Cheers folks. Had plenty of false dawns last year so I'll tread carefully.

A Race Report!!

Firstly a quick catch up on the few weeks at the start of March. I'd identified 80 minutes as a logical target for Mallow - the thing is it's hard to envisage running 10 x 8 minute miles when pretty much everything I'd managed to do in training for the past 2 years was at 9:30 pace and above. So, I said I'd try fit in a couple (literally) of 8 min miles into a long run in early March - failed to hit the pace with these. The following week I put an 8 min mile into a 7 mile midweek run, and this went fine, although the pace mile was wind-assisted tbf. Followed this up with an Endurance run that weeked and this really gave me a bit of confidence as I felt great and spent most of the time reigning in (and readjusting on the fly) the paces as I progressed from 10 min miles to 9 min miles. All-in-all a couple of good weeks to kick off March, followed by an easy week with reduced mileage in preparation for Mallow.

Still loads of unknowns heading into the race. How would I react when the going got tough in the later miles? 80 mins seemed like a reasonable target, but I'd no idea really with no recent parkrun even to give an indication. Running 10 x 8 min miles seemed daunting if I thought about it - so I just didn't think about it and accepted that was the goal. I'd taken a quick look at the course, and it seemed the worst of any climbing would be in the first 2 miles and it was reasonably flat after that. The plan was to take those handy, then settle into the 8 min pace and hopefully finish strong. On the Saturday night there was mention on Facebook that wind might be a factor, and it would be into our faces for the closing 4 miles. This didn't really change my strategy tbh - I'd either reach 6 miles in ok shape and deal with the wind when I got there, or else I'd have blown up by 6 miles and the wind would be another problem to deal with.

Got to Mallow in good time and did a gentle warmup before heading over to the start line. I'd travelled down with the OH who was also running, and a friend who has been dipping his toe in running over the past year or so. We made our way across to the start area in the grounds of Mallow castle. I'd never raced Mallow before, but this was a new start area and it was brilliant. A bank offered an ideal area for supporters to position themselves and the area was very family freindly compared to the roadside start that you would normally have. An occassional breeze suggested there might be trouble later, but really it was almost ideal running conditions. Nice and mild.

Anyway, I positioned myself between the 80 and 85 min pacers, and before long we were off. A small bit of congestion in the early stages as we exited the castle grounds but nothing major at all. Looked at my watch after we'd settled into position on the road - it said 8:45 or similar - I was a bit worried initially but then I realised I was feeling fine and easing myself into the race. It probably took me half a mile to wake up and realise I was in a race, and that meant racing, not just cruising along. But it just felt great to be out there again in the thick of it. There was a bit of an uphill in the early going, but it wasn't too bad - I just concentrated on not killing myself on the hill and settling into my running when it levelled out. Mile 1 clocked at 8:21. Felt pretty good.

Mile 2 followed a similar pattern - mainly uphill but nothing mad. Picked the pace up a little and Mile 2 was 8:08. One thing I love about the 10 mile distance is that the maths are so easy - especially when the target time is a nice round number too. Picked up the pace a bit as we hit the bypass and a nice downhill section. I was pleasantly surprised when mile 3 came in at 7:46. I was pushing on a bit now but didn't feel like I was putting myself into the red or in danger of a blow up. Hopefully anyway. We passed the first water stop around here and then I had a decsion to make - I'd passed a good few people and but now emerged into some clear road with a group maybe 100 yards ahead - I figured it made sense to expend the effort now to bridge across and I'd have that group as company and a windshield later if the wind was a factor. I took advantage of the nice bit of remaining downhill to eat into the gap, maybe halving it, and then settled into the task of catching the group over the next mile. Mile 4 was a 7:31.

As I neared the group ahead I realised it was the 80 min pace group - ideal. I caught up to them by the middle of the 5th mile and then settled into the 8 min pace for a while. I don't think I've looked at my watch less during a race - I'm normally one for constantly looking at the thing, but for some reason I was not as concerned with it here. Obviously this section with the pacers helped with the lack of watch-watching. Mile 5 was a 7:48.

A runner in the pace group wearing a black t-shirt seemed intent on staying ahead of me, and he had another runner in sunglasses seemingly shadowing his every move. Anytime someone moved up or back through the group positions would readjust but black t-shirt would always position himself ahead of me, with sunglasses on his shoulder. I was happy enough to sit in. Mile 6 and 7 ticked by in 8:03 and 7:59 respectively as the pacers did their job. I was working hard enough but feeling pretty strong at this stage. There was the odd hint of the forecasted breeze, but nothing major at all.

At the 7 mile water stop came the second key moment of my race - with all the commotion passing through the water stop I found myself ahead of the pacers and made the decision to stay ahead and drive on a bit. I'd have probably sat in with the pacers for another mile had I not found myself ahead of them. Upped the effort anyway and about halfway through this mile black t-shirt and his shadow pushed ahead of me. I left them off and just maintained my effort. They never really got more than 10 yards clear. Mile 8 came in at 7:42. Not much looking at the watch in this time either - just concentrating on maintaining a strong effort.

I kept the momentum going and kept the pair ahead in my sights throughout the 9th mile. Working very hard now but still picking up the pace and feeling strong as I passed plenty of runners throughout this mile. One of my favourite things in racing is feeling strong and passing people in the closing miles of a race. 9th mile was a 7.29. As we passed the 9 mile marker I moved onto the shoulders of sunglasses and black t-shirt and then just motored past them and never saw them again. I felt like I was running on empty but just kept digging in. Can't be long left now I thought - a sneaky look at the watch - 9.45 miles - ah FFS. Come on, drive on. I just kept going hoping the finishing line would reveal itself before too long. Eventually it did of course, and the final mile was a 7:08 for a chip time of 1:18:00.

Aside from the blow-by-blow of the race, it was just great to be at a race again. I enjoyed every second of the experience. Of course, a pleasing result always helps and I was very happy with my time. It is a full 5 mins outside my PB, but I'm nowhere near that right now. I'll get back there, and surpass it, but for now I'm so happy with this result. Glad also to know that the fight was still there in the closing stages of the race. The OH and my friend also exceeded expectations so it was a happy car on the way home. The body is a bit creaky today, but I'm still buzzing. Onwards.

Thanks a mill. I meant to put in a preamble about how I arrived at the 80 minute target, but figured the report was long enough so left it out. However, you are after opening the door now, so I may as well add a bit extra. For my own records if nothing else.

I'd ran Dungarvan 3 times:

2018 - 1:23:xx - off the back of sporadic, unstructured "training" when I didn't have much of a clue what I was doing.

2019 - 1:18:xx - following on from my first DCM under the guidance of ariana and co in the novices thread, and then OONegative in the grads thread.

2020 - 1:12:59 - was in the best shape of my running career at this time, following my second DCM and a strong P&L block after that.

So anyway I figured I lay somewhere between 2018 and 2019 shape and came up with 1:20 as the nice round target. Delighted then to push past the 2019 time in the end, and it gives me an indication that I might be in with a shout at cracking one or two of my softer PB's later on in the year.

Cheers J. It's most likely that the two lads were oblivious to my presence and any competition between us was imagined on my part, but that doesn't really matter - they distracted me for a few miles and offered me a target to work towards and eventually ease past. Hopefully the back of my head was a similar (if maybe less annoying) target for someone else.