Once in a Lifetime....for now

Thank you all for your very kind comments. It is very humbling. You're a great bunch.

Your mojo will pick up as the weather does. Your training is definitely going in the right direction. As for shorter stuff for me... it'll be purely for fun and not specifically trained for. History shows that's when I break down.

You are one person who can most definitely relate to what I went through. After your great recent race hopefully it's onwards and upwards for us both.

Thanks E. You know from the days I met you to run a couple of miles, the days I met you half way through your run cos I couldn't do the distance, the sessions I did where I had to watch you run off into the distance, that it has been a long road. I want to thank you for never letting my head drop and always having an encouraging word. That, and having the goal of beating you kept me going 😂😂

I really am pure $hite at this updating lark. Since the half I have not been doing anything much worth logging. I haven't done a session since as I have concentrated on getting myself a half decent base for a marathon block. Weekly mileage has averaged about 50, April was 230 miles and I finally hit the 8 hour for a week target that I think I need for the block. It has all been easy stuff with the odd steady run thrown in.

I will 'race' a 5k in May to see where all this easy running has left me. Between now and then I might throw in some slightly faster stuff but the focus is purely on marathon. This is something that will apply to any races I do during the summer....run them hard but not hard enough to need much recovery or a taper to prepare.

Well after D's call to arms on his log I felt I should update this. My intention is to keep it updated regularly through the training block for Amsterdam.

So where do I stand? I'm not quite sure. After pretty much losing late '19, most of '20 and '21 and the first half of '22 to repeated on/offs due to injury I have finally managed to put 12 months of uninterrupted training together. The focus has been on getting a decent increase in the 'time on feet' and mileage numbers. This is something of a necessity as I believe it has been faster paced training that exacerbated my injury issues. As the problem in the glute area is still lingering I won't be taking any risks on that front.

My mileage for the last 12 months is 2550 with 1250 of that being in 2023. The general shape of my training for Amsterdam will mirror the last year in being miles heavy and lacking in faster stuff.

I have only been to 5 races over the past few months with Jingle Bells being a surprise 19:10 PB, Den Haag being a decent HM PB, Raheny being a good solid training run and a couple of pacing gigs at the Leixlip and Bohermeen 5k races. I will be 'racing' the Kilcock 5k on Friday night with 2 goals...a PB and a sub 19. I have decided to ditch my usual ultra cautious start (mile 1 in JB was 6:36) and this is putting the fear of God in me!! I'll still be intending to run a negative split and not hit target pace until 3k but I hope to only be a few seconds off the pace. Time to try something new in what is basically a free hit off no distance specific training and a heavy 245 miles over the past 4 weeks.

Hopefully I can keep this updated weekly until mid October anyway.

Well 🤣 That went up in smoke!

Tuesday and Wednesday I did some EIM 200's and 400's just to remind the legs what a bit of faster turnover was like. Very generous walking/jogging recoveries prevent them from being too taxing. Thursday was just a gentle 3 mile jog.

Kilcock 5k

The lead up to this was pretty horrible. I really regretted posting on here and elsewhere of my plans. It was such an alien approach for me and I couldn't get comfortable with the thoughts of it. I availed of a lift from S who I had paced in Bohermeen. On the way I downed a triple shot espresso and a can of Red Bull in the hope it would drive the fear out of me. The only noticeable difference it made was a very elevated HR during my funereal paced warm up jog. 🤪 Mister Jinx, who I had met during my jog, suggested this was a sign of pre-race nerves and adrenaline! I also spotted AMK, Murph_D and Lainey going through their pre-race rituals. We headed down to the start with a couple of minutes to spare and got a reasonable position in a very congested area about 2 rows back from AMK.

1st Kilometre

A bit of a struggle initially to get through some bodies and around the first corner but that was the end of any congestion issues. In an attempt to run by feel I had reduced the data on the watch screen to time and distance so I just settled into what felt like the right pace. In a change from the early stages of most races things settled very quickly with little or no overtaking or being overtaken. Everyone around me seemed to be motoring along at the same pace. Km 1 beeped at 3:46, a few seconds faster than the planned 3:48/50 but nothing to panic about.

2nd Kilometre

I settled really nicely along here tracking a female runner from Trim with a fancy tattoo on her left calf. There wasn't really a group, more a case of lots of well spaced runners filling the width of the road. This km finished with a little drag which was negotiated easily enough. Watch beeped at 3:35 for the km.....fook!

3rd Kilometre

Decision time! The logical part of my brain told me to slow down. That km was at 17:55 pace and wasn't sustainable! Then some alien voice in my head told me to plough on and see what happened. What happened was fairly predictable...a long drag which slowed me a bit but not enough to be categorised as easing off, legs starting to feel heavy, seeing 2.5k appear on my watch with 9:11 as elapsed time, legs heavier, a token few hundred metres of trying to keep it going before deciding in an instant that there wasn't going to be a good outcome! Plug pulled and the jog of shame to come.

4th and 5th Kilometre

Plodding along watching and listening to many people passing by including the aforementioned S, Lainey being encouraged by Craig and then Mister Jinx.

Met up with them, V and D afterwards. Everyone was in pretty good form after good runs except for the 2 older men, the Waldorf and Statler of the group, both of us pretty underwhelmed by our performances. Hopefully that can be put down to the fact that our attentions have long since turned to September/October events.

Of course there was a post mortem...in the pub over a rake of pints and a 2am curry 🙈 First things first....to be fair I can't draw any conclusions on the benefits of even paced running as I failed to control the early pace and hit the planned 3:50 splits. I'm not sure I'll try it again as I simply don't like (and can't deal with) the feeling of slowing down in a race. I did learn that I need the watch to control pace. I don't have that self awareness that's needed to run by feel on shorter distances. Some of the data backs that up....a 400m at 3:07 pace, a half mile at 3:30 pace and a 3:35km early in the race show that quite clearly. After years of thinking my max HR was 183 I found out that it is now 186 which I reached at the end of 2k. That was never going to end well 🤭

So in to Croker tomorrow as part of a day of football and Guinness then I'll knuckle back down to Amsterdam training and put any thoughts of experimental racing aside for a very long time.

Well everything went as planned....After Kilcock I spent the weekend drinking and got to the Dublin v Mayo match. That led to a year long lowest weekly volume of 31.3km but after 4 heavy weeks I don't think it did any harm. I have also decided to convert to metric for this block. My lack of prep for Den Haag nearly led to a cock up that I wouldn't have forgiven myself for. In Amsterdam I will be prepared for, and familiar with, km markers and splits 🙈

Monday 3rd: 12km @ 5:24. Pretty vanilla run on a loop that takes me through Ballymun, Santry Demesne, Beaumont and Whitehall. It has become a staple route recently.

Tuesday 4th: EIM 6*1k, 13.65km. The usual generous 800m recoveries, this time with an overly generous 1 minute of walking included. It's all part of my intention to keep easy as it should be as the mileage stays consistently high. Splits were 4:15, 14, 15, 15, 19 and 16.

Wednesday 5th: 12.31km @ 5:26. Pretty much a rinse and repeat of Monday.

Thursday 6th: Long run day as I knew I'd be working over the weekend. 26.17km @ 5:14. Out to Castleknock along the Canal before turning back into the Park before the last slog up the hill from Glasnevin. All done nice and easy with a 30 sec surge to marathonish pace every km just to reset the stride from plodding to lighter plodding 😂 The plan is to do this every second week and a long run with "stuff" on the alternate weeks.

Friday 7th: 10.47km @ 5:53. A lovely relaxed recovery run in the Park.

Saturday 8th: 18.57km @ 5:05. This was 75 mins steady with the pace at an average 4:57 for the 75 mins. I met E in the Park for this and a most enjoyable run it was. The effort was spot on for most of it but the last 15 into the wind up the North Road were definitely at too high an effort...

Sunday 9th: 10.38km @ 5:47. An hour of easy recovery on a local tour of housing estates. Uninspiring 🙃

Happy with that week, a nice return to planned mileage with plenty of easy stuff in there.

Week: 103.5km (64.4 miles)

Month: 103.5k (64.4miles)

Year: 2136.7km (1327 miles)

Hey E. It's brilliant! I wouldn't have a bad word to say about it. As well as it's accuracy I have to say that being able to remove to sensor to wash the strap is another big plus.

Monday 10th: Rest Day

Tuesday 11th: 15.4k @ 5:11. This was an EIM 4*2k with 800m walk/jog recoveries. It's done at 88-90% of LTHR and should bring about paces somewhere in the MP range. I did it on a loop which I regularly use which takes me through Santry, Northside, Artane, Beaumont and Whitehall. I enjoy running it but it is a bit downhill for the first half and back upslope and into the prevailing breeze for the second half. Paces were 4:29, 4:22, 4:44 and 4:39 for the 2k reps. I've really been enjoying the EIM 1 and 2k reps but unfortunately they are about the fastest paces the tendinopathy can handle so there won't be any 200s or 400s for the foreseeable.

Wednesday 12th: 13.7k @ 5:28. EIM 4*1k. Up to Poppintree Park for this. I like using the lap of the park as it is as near to 1800m as makes no odds so each lap is perfect for the 1k rep and 800m recovery. Splits were 4:09, 4:08, 4:09 and 4:10.

Thursday 13th: 21.4k @ 4:55. The main body of this was 82 mins @ steady pace. I decided to test my mental fortitude by doing this on a track so it totalled 40 something laps of Lane 8! 🤣 Thankfully it didn't drive me mad. Paces per km were spread between 4:38 and 4:50. I went to see The Waterboys in the Iveagh Gardens this evening. Sadly the performance didn't live up to my hopes but a great night was had anyway. Last time I saw them live was in the 80's and that theme was revisited post gig with a visit to Bruxelles for numerous pints. When combined with pre gig pints in Bowes on Fleet Street and Mulligans of Poolbeg Street and €7.50 pints in plastic tumblers at the gig it resulted in a tired and emotional Skyblue 🤢

Friday 14th: 12.36k @ 5:26. For a large part of the day I didn't think a run would happen but I must have made a Lazarus-like recovery as Strava tells me it happened. I however have no recollection of it.

Saturday 15th: 14.5k @ 5:19. A very enjoyable pre AI semi final run. Nice to get out in a cooling misty rain.

Sunday 16th: 27.5k @ 5:13. This was in the PP with Lainey. She deserves a medal for dealing with me dealing with a hangover from 2 heavy nights 🙈 It was a long run with a bit of stuff, the stuff being 6*2k at EIM effort but done without the usual walk break in the recoveries. The breakdown of 8k easy, the reps and a couple of km cooldown made the near 2.5 hours pass very quickly.

Week: 104.9km/ 65.2 miles

Month: 208.4km/ 129.6 miles

YTD: 2241.6km/ 1393 miles