You only get what you give

Basebuilding (DM Training W-4)

Monday 30/05/2022

Up in Dublin for work, I do wonder when it will no longer feel strange being back in the office. Still very quiet there with the majority of people working from home. Nice to catchup with the few people who were in the office. Was originally planning on a longer run in the evening (fancied running out to Poolbeg lighthose as I've never been) but between losing 45mins making a small balls of finding the hotel I was staying (never trust Apple Maps) and then having bought a ticket for Bryan Adams (show was excellent) in the 3Arena I only had time for an 8K out/back...ran down along the quays and over the east link and out towards Poolbeg area. 8K easy in 44:18 @ 5:32min/km.

Tuesday 31/05/2022

Rest day

Wednesday 01/06/2022

Late getting this run in, wasn't until after juvenile training and some planning for my club's Open Sports coming up at the weekend. Didn't get on the road until around 8:50. Used the Tom Kelly 8K route around Ardfert with a bit extra at the start and finish to make 9K easy in 51:05 @ 5:40min/km.

Thursday 02/06/2022

10.2K easy in 57:44 @ 5:39min/km, Community Games coaching this evening so got my run in after work and before that. Just ran to my local village of Causeway...used the 4 and a bit K loop there and back home. Lovely evening starting off the run but the rain came in mid run so got a small soaking. After that over to Ballyduff for some coaching, ball throw and relays were the order of the day.

Ah very good, it was great seeing them live again and was a nice venue for it too. Not sure what the capacity for that venue is but excellent crowd for sure!

Basebuilding (DM Training W-3)

Monday 06/06/2022

Munster Master's Track and Field Championships, MTU Cork

Two events for me on the day, Shot Putt and Weight For Distance. Shot Putt was a bit of a disaster for me...just felt tired and flat for each of my throws so whilst part of my technique (the actual final putting motion was good) my footwork for the glide was awful...probably would have done better overall just putting from a standing position. Worst throws of the year for me, best throw on the day was on my last throw 5.59m. I managed 5.92m (my pb) at the county T&F champs back in early May. Only two in my age category so I go away with a silver medal, masters events are funny like that...can feel like medals for showing up really...my target is just to try improve on previous performance but not today.

On the Weight For Distance, that went much better and I got a pb in the event. Bit of a mistake by the official recording the measurement of my final throw. He wrote it down as 3.05 when the measurer had called it as 3.12, another competitor confirmed that to me. I didn't query it and no matter and will give me a target to hopefully reach again at the nationals. My pb from the recent county track and field championships was 3.04 so only a 1cm pb on the day but will take it. Felt much happier with these throws and managed to build a small bit of momentum with 56lbs ball before releasing it. Silver medal again in my o40 age category, only two in the age category again. Event finished at 5:30pm so it was 8pm before I got home and was too tired for running. A lot to do that evening then getting the entries for the Munster Juvenile T&F champs sorted out for the weekend to come (it never ends!).

Tuesday 07/06/2022

One of the days when you just can't wait for work to be over, exhausted tired and went for a nap after work. Took a covid test just in case after a good lot of interacting with people over the weekend but all clear. No running.

Wednesday 08/06/2022

First run since Sunday, 6.5K easy in 36:38 @ 5:38min/km. Slotted this run in at lunchtime as was driving over to Castleisland the second work was finished to assist at the county track and field primary schools championships. Stressful journey after work with heavy traffic, one of the joys of country living is you don't deal with traffic jams very often if ever really for the most part. Anyways I made it on time thankfully, my duties on the day was on the finish line (to call the often controversial 3rd place) for the boys sprints and the distance races. Then only managed the final relay changeover zone for the relays. This is always a great event and it was last held in 2019. A good lot of my club's athletes were competed for their schools and some medalled too which was great.

Thursday 08/06/2022

Community Games training this evening so got my run in after work instead of at lunchtime, 8K run in 41mins @ 5:06min/km. Given the lack of mileage this week I just felt like making a tempo run out of this instead of another easy run plus the time constraints to fit it in. Event planning this evening for my club's upcoming race on the August Bank Holiday (this carried over into the next day also but getting there).

Friday 09/06/2022

5K easy at lunchtime, 5K in 27:38 @ 5:30min/km. Traveling up the country this evening so slotted in a short run at lunchtime.

Saturday 10/06/2022

Over to Templemore to the first of two days of the Munster Juvenile T&F Championships. Got over there early with my father to do a 1K warmup before the parkrun. Templemore parkrun is my home parkrun when I'm up at my parents. It's a small event with 40/50 participants usually, a nice course, 2 and a bit laps around the circumference of the town park. Despite no hills and just one drag you run twice I have never found it to be particularly quick course for me. 24:28 was my time for the day and happy with that was figuring around 24/25 starting off and ran to that pace.

Long day then at the T&F champs with my club's athletes having a good day and a few medals won by them, My daughter picked up a silver medal in the turbo jav in the pairs event and has qualified for nationals for a second year in a row which was great. We didn't get this news confirmed until last night (Mon) as there was some issues with the pairs entries it seems.

Back to my parents place then and an early night ahead of the second day of events to come on Sunday.

Sunday 11/06/2022

I had an idea of getting up early and getting a 10K run in before heading back to Templemore....whilst I woke up early enough to do that I fell back asleep so too late then after that. Back over to the competition to support/coach our athletes in their events. Again another busy day with ups and downs (such is the nature of the sport) but the athletes did well and proud of their efforts over the weekends.

Didn't get back home to Kerry until after 8pm, shattered...again no running. Not a good week on the running front but just too much going on, things should settle soon over the coming weeks. Looking forward to end of the competition season in a few weeks as it's been very tiring of late with weekends taken over almost completely.

Weekly total: 26K

Year to date: 956.5K

For the week ahead I have the local half marathon, Half on the Head on Saturday...I will be running that but on the pacing front I am likely going to approach it like I did Limerick recently...1:53/1:55....at best a marathon paced run, with a conservative first 9/10 miles (also ties in with the nature of the hills on the course) and then a strong finish embracing the downhill for mile 10/11 and the flat finish to home. We'll see what the week brings.

Haha will do, usually go to Flahive's for the prize giving afterwards so might catch you there.

Surely you could negotiate for the first "local" man home in the 10K!!

Basebuilding (DM Training W-2) continued

Saturday 18/06/2022

Half on the Head Half marathon

My local half marathon and a must do race, missed it in 2017 due to a mate's stag party up the country but it's a race I plan to do every year where possible. For a variety of reasons, the route of race takes place on routes that I regularly in training or at least significant parts of it so it's as much a home race as can be really, it gets good support from my AC and it's a fundraiser for community organisations. It's also a reference point for me in generally well organized road races, no race is perfect but this is one of the better ones in the county.

Plan for the day was a similar approach to Limerick with 5:30min/km pace approx up till 10miles approx and then pick up the pace for a fast finish. Figuring around 1:53/1:55 finish time and a nice day out sure. Number collection got out of the way the evening before so parked up around 10:15, my wife was doing the 10K race (her first in a long time and got on grand which was nice, luckily she met a neighbour to run&walk it with). I did a brief 1K warm up about 15/20mins before the race was due to start, given my planned run ahead I wasn't even going to bother do a warm up but just said I would to do a quick systems check...laces and so. On the day I worn my now favoured Saucony Triumph's that I've been using on long runs of late, not a fast shoe (I was tempted to try my Next% Tempo for the craic) but the Triumph worked out well in Limerick so figured they'd do fine today.

Just before the start of the race I heard word of route changes which was a surprise, as it turned out it was 10K route which was changing and not the half. I passed on the info to my wife...not sure whether she could work out the route as I told her but trusted it would be marshaled. Just in the few mins before the start I spotted @Swashbuckler from this parts so wished him luck and advised him on the route change for his 10K...it was then covered in the race briefing but I don't think this change was an ideal situation and had hoped I hadn't confused P as well as my wife with my info. With that off we went, and another change this year was the 10K and HM went off together...in previous editions we normally gets what's like a guard of honour as we run past the 10Ks at their former start line on the main street.

I'm going to break this race down into a four sections, the first 8 miles...a 1.5 mile section, 2+ miles down hill and then the finish. I'm also not going to give mile splits because as I ran down the main street of Ballyheigue I glanced at the watch and then dawned...you're still in metric...maybe I should transition back to mile for the marathon training, been a few years since I used them for training.

Mile 1-8

Took it nice and handy starting off, let them all go and just bed into the easy pace. Nice support from a few locals at the start of the race which is always good. The first mile here is where the race really can be messed up for many here, you've ran about 600m on the flat but then you've another 1K+ of a lot of steady climbing that can take a lot of you if you get it wrong. In the middle of the second mile a club mate went past me, had spoken with him before hand and he was going for 1:50 so left him go. Another club mate came beside me then and bedded in, told him what I was planning and he said grand and he'd stick with me. Interesting development as usually during races I don't talk at all, on the flip side I am renowned talker in running/training groups...not sure why I do that but guess I feel more comfortable talking in training. For the race today I took a different approach...the next 7 miles or so we chatting away and it was great to be honest...and together we zipped away over a good few of the hills. I did some marathon training with this guy back in 2019 when my wife was training for her first marathon and he ran with us a few times. Just a nice fella and easy to pass the time with.

Mile 8-9.5

Talking eased off here and my club mate told me to push on as he wanted to ease back due to some knee issues he had recently. I was in two minds but he said go for it. This section is an absolute dog as you have a pretty significant climb and a bit of a switchback in it. It's not a bad as the Gap of Dunloe which I did back in Nov but still really testing. Passing by one guy who was struggling I told him 5 mins running and the hills are done (I always revert to time instead of distance for these thoughts mentally), passed a few people on this section but was yearning for the last final cresting over the hill and then down you go.

Mile 9.5-12

Lovely, the hills (barring a few very minor kicks) are done now, now is the time to kick on. My pacing this point had me averaging around 5:18/5:19min/km and I knew now due to the nature of the route I was only likely to get faster so was thinking was sub 1:50 on the cards. My concentration was a bit off on the downhill as my club mate caught up with at least twice and he said I was leaning back so I just forgot the time and just focused on form and pushed on. Just to confuse things I'll give some splits in KMs (cos that's all I have), 4:46, 4:46, 4:45, 4:35. Passed by the final water station at this stage and delighted to see it manned by some of the juveniles from my club. Some great support there which gave me a boost for finish.I could see a club mate ahead who was going for 1:50 so I kept my eyes to the gap with him in the distance and just focused on shortening it as best I could over the last section of the race.

To the finish

Now primarily on the flat and running back to the village now, my legs were screaming a little bit but every step is a step closer to being done...few runners ahead so just eyes on them to see who could I catch. Sometimes passing at this stage of races can feel like two lorries overtaking on a motorway...both on the limit...takes a long time to get done! The KM splits were 4:59, 4:59....coming into the last 400/500m to go I was giving it my best as I knew the time was gonna be close. Into the last 200 me and I glance at my watch...push push push. My legs are not going to take a sprint so just has to be a hard drive all the way to finish. Round the final bend, I see the clock roll over the 1:50 (feck)...through the finish line and hit stop. Took a few mins to stand beside the the gazebo for support...that was a tough effort for the last few miles. 4:32min/km was my pace over last bit of the race, really had no more to give. Gun time 1:50:03 (Chip time 1:49:58, nice one and my second fastest time on the course, 1:48:38 back in 2018 is my best effort).

Caught up with some clubmates then for a few mins before heading home for a shower and then back to watch the prize givings in Flahives. Caught up with a few people there including the aformentioned @Swashbuckler of these parts who ran a great 10K to place third. All in all a great day and excellent to have the event back on the cards for the first time since 2019. Will be signing up for next year's event as soon as the entry opens.

Sunday 19/06/2022

Early on the road over to Cork this morning for the last of the juvenile Munster Championships so left any planned run until evening time. Long day but nice to be able to be there to support my club's athlete's competing. Finished up around 4:30pm and hit the road for home, got pretty tired about an hour into the journey so pulled over for a 20min doze in Ballyvourney. Much better after that. Once I got home I watched the F1 and then just did a 5K easy out/back run from home. 5K easy in 29:06 @ 5:48min/km.

Weekly total: 54K

Year to date: 1010.5K

Nothing specific planned for the week ahead, easy mileage for the most part. The fun begins proper next week.

Basebuilding (DM Training W-1) continued

Friday 24/06/2022

Ended up taking this as a rest day, the weather was disastrous so I easily persuaded to take the evening off.

Saturday 25/06/2022

Long day over at the county finals for the community games athletics programme. Think it's only my second time at the event and the last time I was there I was officiating in the javelin competition. This time I was there as one of the coaches for the area I live so it was different experience, bit strange when some of the athletics I coach in my club are competing for different areas than where I live.

When I got home I managed to a 10.5K easy run (@5:52min/km in 1:01:44) in between the showers.

Sunday 26/06/2022

Community Games finished up a bit earlier today so home in the mid afternoon, smaller crowd today but horrendous weather conditions again...your heart would go out to athletes waiting for their events on track and then when they are competing...the distance races a real slog....like running uphill I commented to someone with the headwind they had on the back straight. My daughter picked up a bronze medal for herself on a mixed relay team so that was a nice bonus. When I got home I went for a nap so it was around 4:30 by the time I was going out for my run. Pretty lazy going out the door and timed my run to be back in time to watch the National Senior Track & Field Championships on RTE at 6pm....bit annoyed to find out when I got home the coverage was delayed due to the quarter finals coverage of some other competition in a different code....an almost parochial affair of the same 3/4 teams who play each other year in year out...no interest at all! Flicked on the youtube stream to watch the men's 5000m race and a cracker of race that one. Brilliant seeing what our home based athletes can do. When eventually the main event got going on RTE it was great to see some fine racing, the women's sprints and the men's middle distance races really caught the eye. The women's sprinters are just all driving each other now to higher levels, hopefully the standards continue to rise and the country sees some reward from it in the international competitions to come in the remainder of the year.

For my own case my run was 13K easy, I added in 6x strides at the end of this...legs felt the better for having done so also.

Weekly total: 50K

Year to date: 1060.5K

Next week, begins week 1 of Dublin Marathon Training.....looks like this will be a winter training block with the weather we're having. Least the temperatures are decent...now about the driving wind and rain.

DM Training Week 2 (Hanson Beginner)

Monday 4th July

Rest

Tuesday 5th July

8K easy in 48mins @ 6min/km. We were over in Trabolgan for a few days staying with my sister's family. Just did an out and back run to Whitegate. Not my most favourite road I've ever run on with a lot of high speed traffic and no road markings but due to a lack of phone coverage I couldn't plan a better route. Headed over to the Cork City Sports that evening, fantastic event and glad to have attended, real buzz to it all and some top class performances on show. Lots to highlight but two to mention were Sarah Healy in the women's 3K, literally diving/falling to the line as her legs gave way over the last few strides and Darragh McElhinney lighting up the place in the men's 3K. Thought it was a real nice touch of the guy that paced him for the first 4 laps stayed on track to cheer him on after finishing pacing. My second time seeing McElhinney live (was at the Eurocross last year) and he really is superb. Two great young hope for now and the future.

Wednesday 6th July

Rest, back home to Kerry this evening. Felt pretty bad on the drive home to Kerry, just a bit of headache but got very shivery once I landed at home and just went to bed. Couldn't sleep them with a high temperature, for some reason my arms felt like they were on fire and lower back quite sore. Negative covid test but had my suspicions.

Thursday 7th July

After a crap night, took another test and confirmed a postive result, have been waiting for this to come as couldn't figure how I had managed to avoid it so far as some people I know have had it multiple times. That will no doubt wipe out probably much of the next week of training. Opinions from those who've had it would be welcome here. Probably a good time to get it as even if I get back running end of next week I've a few weeks to get my mileage back up before any form of SOS sessions in my plan.

DM Training Week 2 (Hanson Beginner) continued

Rest of the week written off due to covid, felt awful....no chance of running even if I wanted too.

Weekly total: 8K

Year to date: 1114.7K

DM Training Week 4 (Hanson Beginner)

Monday 18th July

OFF

Tuesday 19th July

8K in 46:43 @ 5:50min/km, just an out and back run from home. Running past a house that has quite a large/fast dog in resident, who has a least once before came out to follow me on the road. This time he appeared to have no way out of his yard....it's part of a loop I'd like to run on more often so might try running past it a little bit more often so the dog gets bored of seeing me.

Wednesday 20th July

OFF

Thursday 21st July

5K in 30:44 @ 6:09min/km, ran with my daughter on her bike. Felt this run a bit tougher than Tuesday's for some reason. Having to concentrate a lot on with my 10 year old was doing with her bike as she doesn't have much road sense yet.

Friday 22nd July

Trip up to Dublin for work, staying in what will very soon be our former apartment in Sallins. Had plans for an evening out with some work colleagues as one is retiring so took the opportunity to do a run in Sallins before work on the canal tow path where I learned to run back in 2013. It was the place I did most of my couch to 5K. The place has changed a bit since we moved away in 2015 and a new significant flyover the has been added as a part of the Sallins bypass. The bypass of the village is a great addition in fairness and as I run around now I can spot loads of new routes for potential runs. One of my favourite things for running in the area in general was that it was a very safe place to run. Due to the Millenium park beside Naas I could run from my house and do a 10K-16K loop running for nearly the entire part on footpath/cycle lane type surface and not have to worry about being on the road itself. Now probably 95% of the running I do in a given year is on open roads that are not marked/no hard shoulder and will never have a footpath. Anyways I reminised a small bit as I ran on the route the various challenges of the couch to 5K back in the day...first running injuries from sports...shin splits/calf injuries and the rest but they all passed and I'm still running. 5K in 30:44 @ 6:09min/km.

Saturday 23rd July

In Sallins and finally to get bac

Sunday 17th July

Said I'd try get my run done before the heat picked up too much, didn't start it till around 9:45 and it was horrible slog from start to finish with a bit of stopping and starting. I stopped 3 times in the last 5K for a minute or two. Got a bit of a giving out to when I got home as maybe I was trying too much too soon.

10.3K in 1:01:07 @ 5:59min/km (elapsed time was 1:05:47).

Weekly total: 22.5K

Year to date: 1137.2K

Glad to be back running but recovery is going to take a bit longer than I would like. Will try follow the training plan proper this week and see how things go. Would hope that as it's all easy running and two rest days that I can manage it.

DM Training Week 4 (Hanson Beginner)

Monday 18th July

OFF

Tuesday 19th July

8K in 46:43 @ 5:50min/km, just an out and back run from home. Running past a house that has quite a large/fast dog in resident, who has a least once before came out to follow me on the road. This time he appeared to have no way out of his yard....it's part of a loop I'd like to run on more often so might try running past it a little bit more often so the dog gets bored of seeing me.

Wednesday 20th July

OFF

Thursday 21st July

5K in 30:44 @ 6:09min/km, ran with my daughter on her bike. Felt this run a bit tougher than Tuesday's for some reason. Having to concentrate a lot on with my 10 year old was doing with her bike as she doesn't have much road sense yet.

Friday 22nd July

Trip up to Dublin for work, staying in what will very soon be our former apartment in Sallins. Had plans for an evening out with some work colleagues as one is retiring so took the opportunity to do a run in Sallins before work on the canal tow path where I learned to run back in 2013. It was the place I did most of my couch to 5K. The place has changed a bit since we moved away in 2015 and a new significant flyover the has been added as a part of the Sallins bypass. The bypass of the village is a great addition in fairness and as I run around now I can spot loads of new routes for potential runs. One of my favourite things for running in the area in general was that it was a very safe place to run. Due to the Millenium park beside Naas I could run from my house and do a 10K-16K loop running for nearly the entire part on footpath/cycle lane type surface and not have to worry about being on the road itself. Now probably 95% of the running I do in a given year is on open roads that are not marked/no hard shoulder and will never have a footpath. Anyways I reminised a small bit as I ran on the route the various challenges of the couch to 5K back in the day...first running injuries from sports...shin splits/calf injuries and the rest but they all passed and I'm still running. 5K in 30:44 @ 6:09min/km.

Saturday 23rd July

In Sallins and finally to get back to parkrun after a 6 week break for a variety of reasons. I had met my old work boss the night before and he was due to volunteer at Castletown parkrun (one I've never done) so I was debating between that one, Kilcock and Naas (my old home parkrun). In the end I went with Castletown. Nice two lapper of a route with a fair bit of a pull from 2K to 3K and then you get to finish the last half a K on a good pull as well. I enjoyed the route and managed my effort/pace throughout for a 10K effort. Even if the time doesn't align for what would be a normal 10K for me it's where I am at the moment based on effort...maybe in a few weeks it will gradually get back to what I would like to see for such an effort. I got passed by an older guy around 3K into the route and kept tabs with him for the rest of the run, in the last half a K I made a move to pull up close to behind him, I made one kick in the last 50m to go past but he responded and I had no chance. Got chatting with him afterwards and he told me he's an IMRA runner now (previously an ultra runner)..I joked with him saying I was at nothing trying to race him!

24:31 was my time for the morning.

1.5K warm up before and the same after meant 8K for the morning.

Nice to catch my old boss again who was marshalling on the route so had a chat with him at the end of the event.

Afterwards heading back into the city centre to meet a friend of mine and his family home from Canada for a few weeks so great to catch up for a few hours before hitting the road for home.

Sunday 24th July

Back home in Kerry and took a lie in after a few busy days so no run until around lunchtime, used a former lockdown route from back in the day to fit an 8K route into what is normally a 5.2K loop with some outs/backs on random lanes. 8K in 46:55 @ 5:51min/km.

Weekly total: 34.5K

Year to date: 1179.7K

Much better week this week than last week thankfully, with the scheduled 5 runs in across the 7 days. The parkrun was tough but nice to do to see where I am at. For the week ahead it's also 5 days running which should see me hit 40K so getting back to where I'd like to be.