I didn't get this far to get this far.

Bluesquare · 14-03-2023 10:32am

Thanks @ariana` . I have been doing bits of strength but all evidence is leading me to the gym and some heavier weights . I have a terrible track record with gyms ( not going ) so thought a PT was the way to go for a month or two . Glad to hear you’re liking it - you have done some smashing races in that time as well so here’s hoping !!

ariana` · 14-03-2023 10:52am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356516#Comment_120356516

I had a shocking track record with gyms and classes too. I've joined a fair few over the years as a younger person trying to get in shape and again in more recent years as a runner trying to injury proof but I've never stuck it as long or gone as consistently each week. I love the one I am in currently and have no issue motivating myself to go. It's funny but I don't even think of it in relation to running, though if it helps that it's a bonus, I'm more concerned about aging. I'm going for a Dexa scan next week to get a baseline for the future (my Mum has osteoporosis to the point where her hip crumbled with the simplest fall at the age of 54) but I feel I am already making a difference in preventing bone/muscle loss.

Bluesquare · 14-03-2023 11:06am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356609#Comment_120356609

Thanks - same here with the ageing - I just want to make sure if I live long and prosper I can do so in the best of health. You’re dead right going for a scan - your poor Mum . Every single article i pick up - whether it’s on running or general health it’s there so i bit the bullet . The best thing though was the look on the trainers face when I said I had no interest in weight loss or measurements I just wanted to be strong ! Then I felt a bit sorry for her and said maybe a few pounds then for holidays , she seemed to relax then ! This is a first for me as normally it’s all about weight . I shocked myself don’t mind her !

Wubble Wubble · 14-03-2023 2:41pm

Great run there R, well deserved after the recent training - enjoyable read too!

Kellygirl · 14-03-2023 2:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356658#Comment_120356658

I love this. Exactly where I am too - after spending since the age of 12/13 worrying about my weight until a couple of years ago.

Mr. Guappa · 14-03-2023 6:12pm

Soft race my eye - well done on a great performance. Seems like the pacer helped take some of the mental burden out of things, but you and your legs ran the race. Well done - great to see.

Bluesquare · 14-03-2023 11:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120358513#Comment_120358513

Cheers - I think I just hadn’t really raced in a while so I expected more blood and tears . My legs are in a right mess now lol so I’m officially retracting my soft comment .

Bluesquare · 27-03-2023 10:07am

I haven’t been up to much since the half apart from living it up like a king . I’m quite convinced I have gout….

Week Beginning 13/03

26k easy ( 4 runs ) .

1 strength session with PT

Week Beginning 20/03

Monday : rest

Tuesday: planned session: 6*1k 10k pace with 2 min Rec

This did not go as planned . The wind was mighty. First repeat was into the wind , I really struggled to get the pace and my breathing was strained . Second km was out of the wind - hit the pace but heart rate was through the roof . Third km I got half way through and just decided I had had enough - the effort was too much for the pace . Instead of slowing slightly I just slowed completely . To be fair my heart rate never went back down and running slow was a mighty effort .

Wrote off as a bad day but the stupid man in the head not entirely happy with that. Logically it makes sense it was crap you know because of the gout and probably not fully recovered from the half. It is worth noting at this point though that allergy season is upon us and traditionally not a great time of year for the old allergy driven asthma . So we will see.

Wednesday : strength session

Thursday : 8 mile moderate with strides ( 5:55 mink)

Friday: Strength session with PT

Saturday : 10 mile easy (6:08mink)

Sunday : 5 mile easy (6:20 min Km). A bit of running advice : Don’t have a giant carvery lunch and run even 2/3 hours later . 🤢

30 miles all in .

Bluesquare · 02-04-2023 10:01pm

A really bad week of zero running. Well one 13k on Tuesday which was awful .

Asthma and allergies doing their annual parade for attention “hey you have forgotten about us “ ,“ so we are going to stomp all over your lovely pb plans “ . So I was very short of breath all week , so went to doc and have as suspected a chest infection . Did nothing as decided rest was best like well apart from stuff my face . Dunno if I was looking for excuse to be lazy - I’m sure I could have run ( I have ran feeling worse). Those who can’t run buy runners - and holidays 🤪 . Not running is more expensive than running .

ariana` · 03-04-2023 10:12am

Oh i hope you feel better soon, can you take anything for the allergies? How did the PT/gym go?

Bluesquare · 04-04-2023 10:59pm

Thanks Think I’m through it now thankfully . Can’t really do much on allergies ( apart from antihistamine) but wait until the season ends - not sure what it is exactly that gets me but fortunately generally only lasts April/May . I would guess tree pollen . Rapeseed does get me as well but I try to steer clear of the bright yellowness . Im lucky it’s not a whole summer thing .

i literally did nothing last week - so back with the PT on Friday . Enjoying it so far .

Bluesquare · 10-04-2023 12:03pm

I find myself plan less at the moment and a bit all over the place .

Week Beginning April 3rd

Monday : I wasn’t really sure whether my breathing was fully recovered ( hard to explain but an over obsession thing) . I stuck on the speed 2s and left the house with no real idea what I was going to do - but with an option to throw in some speed .

Anyways first km felt good (5:55) so I thought I’ll throw in alleged 10k pace (4:47) for a km. once the heart rate dropped below 140 again( after 4 mins) I picked it up again for a few km , (4:40), 3 mins rest , 4:38, 2 min rest , 4:37, a quick 1km cool down and home. I ran a random 7.4 km all in . Needless to say I was happy that I was back to normal , for the record 4:40 is like 5k pace I think .

Tuesday : My mate had a 5k LT tempo on her plan so I decided to join her as needed the company . A bit cruel on my legs though . 12k all in with 5k at 5:05

Wed: rest

Thursday : 8 mile mod ( 5:54) with strides

Friday : PT session . I hate that b**

Sat: Long sore run. ( 6:10) .My whole body was one big DOM

Sun: Ate and drank like a king

A bit all over the place at the moment . I have two 10ks coming up , one on the 19th and one on the 30th of April . The second one is my hometown run - and I really love it . The first one is apparently a pb course but I loathe it.

Anyways I would like to pb and theoretically it shouldn’t be a problem . My current 10k pb is 49:35. Mac Millan puts me at 48:58 after the half - so I’m going to target that .

I need to figure out after these two races whether to do some some specific 10k for Dunshaughlin or perhaps focus on 5k . The big question still looms though . Do I do Dublin?

Murph_D · 11-04-2023 2:13am

Gout?

Bluesquare · 11-04-2023 8:46am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120463619#Comment_120463619

This made be laugh out loud as that word has crossed my mind over the last few weekends!

Bluesquare · 21-04-2023 3:29pm

I haven't posted in a while as I was moping .

Last Week was a fairly standard week - a slight taper for the Dundalk 10k .

Tues: Leg day plus 7m with 5*1km at 10k pace with 2 min jog Rec ( couldn’t quite get the 4:50 here but in my defensive it was just after a very heavy leg day so I wasn’t particularly concerned .

Thurs: 10k easy . ( massive doms)

Friday: upper body strength

Sat: 8 mile easy

Sunday : Stepped out front door to take take for a walk and bam - started to feel breathless again and raspy . Honestly I felt like a was starting to make this crap up. I tan did 5 mile - threw in some moderate paces to see how it felt . I didn’t feel great but I could still run and heart rate was slightly up on normal but not nuts .

Panic mode then set in . Was I anxious about the race and causing myself to have shortness of breath . Was it allergies , was it asthma was it bloody hormones .

I really didn’t want to run but I didn’t want to let my mate down - sounded pathetic even to me when I tried to explain how I felt .

We did a shakeout run on Tuesday and my heart rate again was higher than normal but like nothing mad. Voice raspy and it felt uncomfortable.

Was hoping id actually get a cough or something to prove to myself and the world that I wasn’t nuts and that I had a solid argument not to go.

Wednesday arrived - windy of course . I took antihistamine, drank 55 litres of water , inhalers , rubbed vix Vapour run on clothes and under nose . Sucked strepsils , swallowed rescue remedy and even took a caffenine gel .

I had no plan - I was convinced I’d be lucky to finish it . Nobody believed me - was I the worlds greatest sandbagger ?

Bluesquare · 21-04-2023 4:22pm

Dundalk 10k race report :

So I went into this thinking that maybe I was making up the whole breathlessness bit. So I thought I’d start with the sub 50 pacer as it was quite blowy . This plan went out the window as had a last min tiolet dash and didn’t get back to the balloons in time .

First Km was into the wind and I made a good effort to slow here as didn’t want to die after 800m.(4:55). Next three kms felt ok - I really had to push the pace to keep at 5:00 or below .( 4:54,5:00,4:54,4:56) . The 6th km the wind started to pick up and I started to struggle a little - I was running the same effort but just couldn’t get the pace under .5:00. The 7th Km brought a hill and more wind and it broke me . I just walked . I probably could have kept running but I just walked . Slowly . I was just dondering along feeling sorry for myself when some random guy ran along aside me and more or less cajoled me into running again . ( 7th km 5:28)

The 8th Km was a windy enough struggle on the coast road. I could see the pacer ahead and kept thinking I could catch them - I tried to accelerate pace but couldn’t seem to get faster than 4:59.

I knew I had only 2k left and I swear I tried to speed it up . I did pass a few people . But alas 4:59 seemed to be it . No pony home , just 4:59.

Crossed the line in 50:38 which I was quite happy with given my mindset going into it . When I look at my watch after I could see my heart rate was at 93% of max from the 2nd Km .and gradually got higher and higher . My little walk didn’t seem to bring it down much . Maybe that’s normal for a race but generally for me I wouldn’t expect that until the second half of a tenk . Anyways my heart rate yesterday was through the roof with resting heart rate now only coming back to normal .

Took myself to the doctor today - she advised I needed to change my asthma regime - so I have changed my preventive inhaler and got a strong antihistamine. Apparently the pollen count is mad at the moment . Hopefully I start feeling normal soon. Episodes like this put me off doing the marathon - a lot of training for 1 day . On the other hand 50:38 is the second fastest 10k I have ran so fairly impressive I suppose with mis managed asthma and a touch of the crazy . A bad marathon day might actually be a good day !

Kellygirl · 21-04-2023 10:14pm

Sorry to hear the asthma is getting to you. Good to read your last sentence about it being your second fastest 10Km and that you recognise you are actually doing very well. You’ll fly again once sorted.

Murph_D · 22-04-2023 12:40am

Asthma and everything aside, it looks from the splits and your description of conditions/demeanour that you just went out a bit fast for where you are at the moment. A positive split of over a minute is quite a lot in a 10k (not that I haven't been there myself).

I would genuinely discount any watch based Hr unless you were wearing a strap. (The optical HR on the watch is pretty good for resting HR though).

Bottom line - this race means nothing on its own. I think when you settle on a good training strategy with appropriate pacing you will see vast improvements. I know I've probably said this before - and so have other posters here - so apologies for the repetition. You seem to care about this aspect of your running. You can do better, but only if you can see it yourself. I think you know this. I'd imagine you have a huge amount of strength that is just waiting to be unleashed with the right approach, and I look forward to seeing it when it happens.

Bluesquare · 24-04-2023 9:28am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120506355#Comment_120506355

If we ignore the fact that I felt a bit off before the race - which I was trying to do then I’m not sure how the pacing was off . I complete a 1:49:11 half marathon a month previous so looking at Tinman and macmillan 49 seemed like a reasonable target . Now I thought because of the wind etc I would I wouldn’t push for that in the first half and was trying to target 49:59 . To do this on that course you would need an average of 4:56 a km . Which my spilts in the first 5k line up to.

I am doing another 10k on Sunday . The course is tricky enough with a km hill in the first mile. My plan for this was to try again for sub 50 - taking the hill 5/10 secs slower than target pace . So I’m really not sure how I should change this plan . I do believe I’m fit enough ( and hopefully lungs will be tip top) .Totally open to pacing suggestions .

This is my home town 10k which I just like doing - and I think I should give it a decent bash . I will target Dunshaughlin in June and try to do some 10k focussed training .

I didn't get this far to get this far.

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