Just Do It

Cheers and I'm not too bothered missing out on it this time. Happy with how it went in general.

Thanks. Good to see you back on the roads. You will be flying again in no time no doubt!

Monday 28th Feb - 7 miles@7.53

Lunchtime run around Marlay Park - Nothing exciting here

Tuesday 1st March - 9 miles @6.53

Early start to Spring for me. I was out the door by 6am for a session before work. Despite, noticing frost on the car as I left the house, I wasnt going back upstairs and risking the wrath of waking little ones to get into any extra layers. So, out I went in the shorts and T shirt minus gloves and hat. I reduced a 2 mile warmup to 1 so I could try and warm up quicker. I then completed 1 mile at 5.55 mins pace followed by 2 off minutes. The session then was 20 x 1 minutes off 1 minute at approx 5k pace. I tired a little in the middle where one rep slipped to just shy of 6 min pace on an uphill drag but on average they were about 5.35 pace with the last one at 5.13. I was happy with the mornings work. Towards the end of the 17th or 18th rep , my hands were beginning to feel the bite from the cold. Again, I cut the cool down to 1 mile to get home to warm up the hands. It must have taken a good 20 minutes to get the circulation back in the hands after this one - horrible feeling that last I experienced when I was caught in a snow storm on the bike.

Wednesday approx 9.3 miles @ 8.15

I got out early again for an easy 10k in the morn. Lesson learned from yesterday. I had the underarmer gloves and hat back on here but sure I realised after 10 minutes it probably wasn't needed as was a far milder morning. I haven't played the weekly football on the Astro since starting marathon training and even a bit before that I reckon. I have left myself in the whats app group though and realised they were short a body so stood in late to save the day 🙄. I ended up doing a 1.5 mile warmup and cooldown with the football sandwiched in between. I was a bit rusty on the football front. My first touch was so bad, my 2nd touch was often a tackle. I scored a spectacular OG at one stage. The ball was rifled off the cross bar and rebounded off my ear from close range and into the goal.. The whistling in the ear lasted a further 5 minutes. We lost by one - They might be removing me from that whatsapp group now😀

Thursday 6.67 Miles @8.38

An evening group run with the club which finished up with 8 x 80 metres hard strides. The legs and whole body were still feeling a little heavy/stiff from the previous day so held back a little on the strides until the last 2 where I let loose.

Friday 19 Miles @7.14

I'm not working Fridays at present and I am most Saturdays so for the last few weeks have been doing the long runs after the kids drop off. The muscles in the legs were all tired before I set off for this and wasn't really looking forward to my longest run in nearly 6 months. Even after 10 minutes I was feeling laboured. It was a 4,3,2,1 mile job off 1 mile sandwiched in between 3 easier miles on each end. I have been conscious off late to just run a route and do the hard miles even by effort if they turn out to be uphill etc. Due to how the body felt, I didn't fancy doing 4 harder uphill miles to start with though. My 3 initial miles brought me up to Fernhill track when I did the first 4 MP miles there. I think it was a good call on the day as the legs started to get a bit of life in them on the 2nd MP mile there. I then had the confidence to continue with my original undulating route for the remainder for the run where I just ran the required MP miles on whatever terrain I was on. All in all, I was happy to have completed this one especially when I was feeling weak initially. Later on in that day, we brought the kids to the circus which was good craic actually until the youngest got sick in the car on the way back. What resulted for the next 24 hours wasn't pretty with 3 out of the four of us having a ghastly stomach bug that stopped us in our tracks. Saturday was a write off. My wife got off scot free.. Its usually me that gets away not getting these bugs but the immune system may have been weaker this week due to tiredness.

Sunday 9 miles@9.00

I had got my appetite back on Saturday night and ate all around me. I woke up on Sunday and felt 100 times better so got myself up to the causal paced Sunday Club run. I had planned to run for 45 minutes but ended up doing a fair bit longer as was enjoying the social run in the sunny morning.

4/12 weeks done - 60 mile week.

It will be a bit of less volume week as had planned to race Bohermeen the coming weekend. I'm currently undecided on that and might yet swap it out for a vanilla longer run.

Quick Update :

Limerick Marathon is still on the cards this week for me.

I have had a couple of hiccups in the last 5 weeks, One been the stubbed toe which cost me running Bohermeen half and also losing a long run that week. The second was a bout of covid about a month ago. Compared to some others, I got off very lightly on that front. The whole family got it at the time but we all only seemed to have cold like symptoms that lasted a couple of days, if even. It only slightly affected my running at the time - eased myself back at first to test the waters. The week did have an effect though with kids out of school and all on top of and annoying the hell out of each other. My work took the hit..Ha. It was nice when everyone returned to work ,school the following week... In fact, my best run of the block was a 20 miler (at 5.30am to avoid people) at 15-20 seconds slower that MP at the end of that week. Thats was a make or break run for me. If I wasn't up for that, I would have called time on GLR, I was ready to either to pull plug or revert to easy at any time during it.. I had no ill effects which was a big relief.

I had always planned to race the Great Ireland run but with what happened above, i debated pulling out a few times. I really wanted to see where the fitness was at however. It worked out well and ran a disciplined 36.16. I was able to empty out in the last mile and didn't leave anything out there. It was a nice confidence booster.

I'm in a better place fitness wise than when I DNF'd back in Galway in October, but not quite where I was when I did my virtual sub 3 back in 2020. I'm not a million miles away but defo a couple of KG's heavier. The diet took a hit around the covid week and then there were far too many easter eggs floating about the place recently 😏

I have completed four 20+ miles runs, six 30k plus runs all with a decent chunk of MP miles incorporated. I'm approaching 900 miles for the year, so I think that will give me a chance. The target is simply anything with a 2 at the start. The Trim 10 mile race and the latest 10k point towards something quicker but there are still some mental scars there from Galway and I simply wont be aggresive here. I plan to go out at 6.50 mile pace and see where that takes me. Looking at a certain someone else plan from these parts, I will probably cross paths at some stages with himself, if all things going well. I would love to tick the sub 3 box in an official race and give me the platform to maybe be more aggresive at DCM. To be clear , I'm not thinking beyond Sunday though.

Very much appreciated 👍️

Limerick Report

"You can't turn back the clock, but you can wind it up again"

I arrived down to Limerick on Saturday evening and basically lounged around the hotel room watching the snooker and keeping off the feet as best as I could. The previous night - I hadn't slept at all really and when I finally did nod off, I woke with the sniffles and potentially the start of a cold. Due to that poor nights sleep, I slept quite well then on the sat night before the race- woke up a little snuffly but in general felt good and ready.

Swashbuckler kindly swung by the hotel and picked me up and off we headed into town. It struck me as we walked towards the start/bag drop there were more hills and tiers to the streets than I previously remembered. It had been a fair while since I was in Limerick though and I wasn't previously re-conning where I'd be running on them.

Dropped off the bag, then to swashbucklers amusement as I joined the queue for the portaloos , I realised I had left the running belt with gels back in the bag - back I trud.

Mile 1 - 23

I don't remember much at all. Maybe, I should have listened to the prayer by the Bishop at the start..

One particular thing sticks with me though. I started to sweat an awful lot early on. I was sniffling quite a lot that sometimes it was affecting my breathing. The singlet felt very heavy by approx mile 3. It may not be the reason for what happened but it may have contriubuted to it. I felt comfortable running 6.40-6.50 pace throughout all this stage. There were no demons.

Mile 23 Onwards -

As I alluded to already, I felt I was going well and was looking forwarding to finishing in front of the crowd. There was a bit of a steady drag towards end of mile 22 and I was just placed on the inside line at the rear end of the sub 3 pacing group. I got a minor forewarning pinch in the left hamstring about a minute previoulsy so I decided to ease up the hill and not try to be near the front of group. Let the others do the work here and ease off on the downhill that will have to come soon. I wasn't worried at that stage as that pinch had gone as soon as it came.

It was so sudden then - Boom - the hamstring just locked up immediately. I tried to run a bit further and hang off the back of the group a bit longer but it was quickly evident, that was not possible.

I had gone from running very comfortably and possibly within myself to this all of a sudden. I tried stretching but initially that made it worse as I watched the group sail off into the horizon. I took a few deep breaths and slowly stretched again. This time, I was able to start to walk and ever so slightly broke into a run that allowed me to within about 400 metres, get back to 07.35 min mile pace. A few folk were now starting to catch me and alos go pass me. I tried not to let it break my spirit, but yeh - hard to control the mental side now. I came to a bit of a downhill ,so tested the water a bit and went down to 07.20 pace but I was at that for about 10 seconds before my hamstring told my brain what he thought in an aggressive manner. I couldn't move for longer this time after stopping. I'm not sure what was left in race, maybe 2 miles or something. I felt really dizzy as soon as I stopped this time. A few folk saw me and I got urged on by these locals.

I eventually broke into a run/walk 20 seconds on /off type of thing. the 20 seconds jogging felt like 5 mins though. Every time I stopped i was getting dizzy again so the walks starting lasting longer. The whole thing was becoming surreal and felt like an outer body experience. Could or should I have stopped now ? It crossed my mind, in fact every thing was crossing my mind. I suddenly didn't care about anyone or anything around me. I grabbed a lot of jellies from a kid on the street and chugged them down like I was necking a shot of Tequila. I asked for a drink as it suddenly dawned on me that I was dehyrdrated but no one had water right there. I saw a water station in the distance or was it a mirage- f**k knows - I'm going that way anyway. I will call into a house if I have to"

It was a water station to my relief- I drank 3 bottles back to back and brought a 4th for the rest of the hike to the end. I felt better and I started to run again - Now , when I say run , it felt more like the pace you would do walking the wrong way up an escalator but I was moving anyway. The mind started to clear again and the thought process went something like this " I wonder how swashbuckler is getting on, has he finished? Jaysus I'm starving, i'd murder a pint now"

I saw the 1000 metres to go sign then the one for 800 metres to go. I had to stop again, cant remember why I stopped but someone very supportive came up to me and said "break into a jog there and you will still get under 3.10". Ive no idea where he came from but he was in the middle of the road facing me - maybe he didnt actually exist. The crowd were brilliant from here on in. I had long stopped caring about time but it was enough to get me running again. In fact, my watch was only at 3.03 which shocked me as it felt like I was in this state forever.

I had about 5 mins to get the 600 metres home- seems very manageable - Think again. Crowd were getting bigger now as I went past the 400 sign. I'm going to make it running home or so I thought - Boom - hammer locked again along now with calf on same leg. I was in bits and let a roar as it locked. The crowds were big now on both sides of the road and I was only 200 or so metres short of the finishing line, 100 metres short of the last bend but I couldn't move. A man scaled the railing and linked my arm to get me moving, I tried but I couldn't. He stayed with me until i was able to walk again - I gave him a smile and a nod- about all I could muster. I went from walk, slowly back into a run to a huge cheer from the crowd. I thougt I was smiling but the finishing photos say otherwise.. I ran the last 100 metres and gallery there were none the wiser what happened me on the previous corner. What an ordeal that last 5k was but I was done in 3.09.25.

I caught up with swashbuckler again and was chuffed to hear he got the sub 3. I went into the massage tent then and as soon as i lay down on the table, various different muscles starting locking into a cramp. At one stage, my neck , jaw, right hand, and left calf were all locked in tandem. There were up to three masseuses at one stage helping me. It was a horrid 20-30 mins until eventually I was able to get my body back to myself- with deep breaths and some brilliant treatment.

I never want to experience that again. I need to reflect more on this one. Any advice is welcome. I still plan to run DCM.

Cheers

Cheers folks, appreciate the input. Electrolyte tablets seem like a no brainer to bed in for DCM so.

Haha to be fair, I do remember parts of of the first 87%(did you manually count the words?) . I started to draft a bit more about it, but I didn't know any road names and was giddy to get to the drama 😀

I think the more I was concentrating on breathing and trying to loosen out the leg cramps, my upper body was tightening up simultaneously. Simply a weird experience. In terms of cramping, it has happened me in the past but not compared to Sunday when i felt fully in control. Yeh what singer posted adds some food for thought.