Sometimes I just need to get out and run

Fri 28/11 50 mins Easy
A handy enough 50 mins around Celbridge on my lunch break. Pace was probably a little fast but he legs felt good so I just went with it.

Sat 29/11 LSR:
Wasn't sure if I was going to do a LSR or hill run this morning. When I got up and saw hoe thick the fog was outside I figured the LSR was a safer bet. Once I got out the legs were in no mood for any kind of run so I struggled around a little bit. I wasn't enjoying it one bit so I decided to pull the plug at 10 miles and leave it at that.

Sun 30/11 Rest:
Body wasn't feeling great so took the day off.

Mon 01/12 70 mins Easy:
Body feeling much better today so back to the plan. Left it a little later than usual to head out so was well rested from last weeks running. Headed out and ran around Celbridge doing a long loop around the outskirts of the town and then back to work.

I'm going to keep the mileage in and around the 45 mile region until the new year and then up the mileage and get myself comfortable running 50-55 miles in the first half of next year. I want to get the mileage up a bit higher before I start to push out the LSR. I definitely fall into the category of having my long run being too high a percentage of my weekly total so I want to rectify this.

Wed 03/12 PM Runmute home:
about 30 minutes in the dark and cold. Had the headlamp with me for the section through Castletown house with no lights. A nice night and very atmospheric with the fog rolling in over the fields.

Thurs 04/12 40 min Easy:
Just a nice little easy run to keep the legs ticking over ahead of Saturday. Did a familiar lap around Celbridge.

Rest day today and then Jingle Bells 5k in the morning.

Sat 06/12: Jingle Bells 5k.

This race had always been on the cards as it one of the few I do every year since I started running. However with the injury in August and the 6 weeks no running and the subsequent recovery I had no idea how this was going to go. The parkrun I'd ran a few weeks ago was a tester to try and gauge fitness and speed and from that I figures sub 19 should be on the cards. So with that in mind I headed out on Saturday morning with the aim of beating last years time (18:56) and see what happens. I parked down at the Garda boat club and used the jog to the club house and then to the start as my warm up. Bumped into a familiar Tallaght face in the club house and had a quick chat and then headed to into the park (I was beaten last year by the Tallaght runner so I wanted to try finish ahead of him). Once in the park I met lost of familiar faces, some fellow club members, Boardsies (TJ, AMK, CM) and some lurkers that I've met at a few races before (read the AR forums but don't post). I dropped my bag, jacket and watch into the bag drop and made my way to the start.

Once I got going I settle into a nice rhythm between two club mates up until we hit Chesterfield Avenue. Once the crowd spread out a bit myself on one of the club mates pushed on (Him going further ahead). About mid way up Chesterfield TJ and OFAR went past. I decided not to go with them but keep them in sight. I kept pushing hard up Chesterfield and went past the Tallaght runner. Once we turned off I kept the effort up and it felt alot easier on the legs. At this stage I started to pass people and regained some ground on OFAR and TJ. At around the 3.5/4k mark I could see TJ pulling away from OFAR and made a move to go past too as I could see him slowing. As I went past I told him not to let TJ get any further away, but as he mentioned in his log he had no idea what I'd said. I was still making up some ground on TJ as we hit the down hill so I pushed a little harder but was unable to catch him. Had a quick look at the screen after the finish and it had me down as 18:43 on the clock so I was happy to have matched my PB from May. Was even happier to see the chip time on the text later on. 18:36 and 140th.

Was good to have a chat with some of the many boardsies (AMK, TJ, CM, Adrian, pconn, Aero, Yaboya) albeit briefly after the race. Headed back to the club house for a bit with CM, Yaboya and Adrian in search of the chocolate cake but none could be found (myself and Yaboya checked both rooms and couldn't see it). Didn't stay long as I had to get home to bring the kids to my work Christmas party.

I'm delighted with the result when thinking back at it as I didn't think I was in anything near pb shape. The race itself went really well and didn't feel anywhere near as hard as the effort I put into the parkrun a few weeks ago. The plan now is to race the Tom Brennan on New Years day and see if I can push it a little more. I still don't feel like I'm in as good a shape as I was in before getting injured but this was definitely a huge step in the right direction.

Sunday 7/12 Rest

Monday 8/12 60 mins Easy:
Fairly run of the mill easy run, legs seem to have recovered well since Saturday. I waited until a little later than usual to get out for this due to the icy paths. My highlight of the run was passing by a ISPCA inspector as he was checking in on horses in the fields around work.

Tom Joad wrote: »

Nice report Dave - delighted I managed to hold you off too - even if I didn't know you where chasing me down .

How does the scoring system for the smackdown we had planned work again??

We never did work out the details.

Fri 12/12 100mins LSR:
One of the joys of not drinking meant I could sneak out for my long run while the rest of the office were nursing sore heads after the party last night. Headed over to Leixlip and then took in some miles along the canal before heading back to Celbridge and back into work.

Sat 13/12 50 mins V. Easy:
Was very icy this morning so I was only too happy to keep the pace very easy. Headed down to Casltetown House and did some laps on the grass and then back home again.

Sun 14/12 Rest:
Headed over to the club to help marshal the Kildare Fit for Life XC the club were hosting. Was a very enjoyable experience to see a decent number of runners competing.

Mon 15/12 45 mins:
Was over in Carton House at a work event in the morning which meant my time would be limited to get out for a run. Didn't help that the wife's car is in the garage so I ended up running home from work. Did a couple of faster miles in the middle of the run as the legs really wanted to push it after spending the morning sitting down.

Tues 16/12 40 min Easy Runmute:
Run into work this morning. Nothing particularly interesting about this run other than it was quite a mild morning.


I had planned on running the Tom Brennan 5k on New Years Day but that has changed. The club are running a handicapped 5k XC on the 3rd so I'm going to do that instead.

Sat 20/12 Rest

Sun 21/12 60 mins Easy:
Managed to get out for an hour on Sunday morning. Nice pleasant run, pace was nice and comfortable and the legs felt good after the rest day yesterday.

Mon 22/12 65 mins Easy:
Another grand run in the wind and the rain. Enjoyed this and threw in 6 x 20 second strides just to mix it up a little.

Tues 30/12 Club Session:
After the previous few icy days I decided to drive to the track for the club session which meant I'd have a shorter warm up and cool down than normal. The Club session itself was 3 x '2k' with 90 second recovery. The '2k' worked out at 1850m or ~1.15 miles. The first rep started off slow enough for the first lap (4 laps in total) and then the group started to get a bit fidgety and people started to push on. We ended up getting faster each lap. Finished the first rep in 6:59 going through the mile mark in 6:10. Second lap was much of the same but this time I went out in front after the first bend to control the pace a little for the first 2 laps. Again the pace gradually increased with each lap and we went through the mile mark in 6:14 finishing the rep in 7:02. Final rep followed the same profile and went through the mile in 6:17 and the rep in 7:06. Had to cut my warm down a little short as I was booted off the track as the lads want to lock up and head home.

Wed 31/12 60 mins Easy:
This was a tough enough run on tired legs. Thankfully I'd learnt my lesson from last week and had a decent meal after last nights session so the energy levels didn't wain at all.

Thurs 1/1 65 mins Easy:
More tired legs and this time a strong wind to cope with as well on the second half of the run.

Fri 2/1 40 mins Easy:
A handy enough run just keeping the legs ticking over with the club race on tomorrow morning.

Not really expecting much from tomorrows race and will be happy with a good, tough run. Of course that said its a club race so there will be some bragging rights and banter to go with the finish.

Sat 03/01 Club XC 5k
Was up to the club nice and early for this. A poor nights sleep and some food indulgence meant I'd be happy just getting around the course. Got there an registered and went for a recce of the course with some of the lads to see what damage had been done by the earlier rain. The route was 4 laps of about 1200m, 400m of which was on the gravel track behind the grass track with the rest on the grass, zigzagging around the track and the infield, and then 200m or so after the first lap to the finish. The route was in pretty poor condition, some very swampy sections on the infield and about a 1/3 of the gravel track was under icy water. This was going to be an interesting run. Decided to throw on the spikes, the benefit they would give me on the grass would outweigh any loss on the soft gravel.

There was a group of about 5 of us at the same handicap starting together so my goal was to stay in the group and as close to one of the faster lads as possible. I ended up going off too fast for the first section on the grass and got a bit ahead of the group. By the time we hit the gravel track the lads had caught up (or I'd slowed down) and I was happy to sit in the group for a while. The plan for the water features was to just plow through them as fast as I could and make as much of a mess as possible. This ended up highly entertaining as the number of people edging around the water got soaked by those going straight through. After about 2 laps the group broke up some more, 1 guy going ahead and a couple dropping off the back. This left myself and another working together for the rest of the race. I'd take the lead on the grass as I had the spikes on and he'd lead on the gravel in trail shoes and we just dragged each other around. By the 3rd and 4th laps the grass track was getting pretty bad from the 50 or so runners and the infield was a mess. Even in spikes I wasn't sure if my foot was coming back out bare with each step. On the last lap we were coming up on some poor kid as he approached the larger of the puddles, we both made a conscious effort to get around him before the water as he was tiny and would have been washed away by the two of us plowing through the water. In the end I was pipped at the line as I didn't have enough in the tank to kick on in the last 200m. Time was about 20 minutes, but I was happy to finish a couple of second behind my club mate who was well ahead of me in the JB 5k (18:13).

Overall a tough run but a highly enjoyable experience getting covered in mud and soaked.

Sun 4/01 90 mins LSR
Headed out nice and early for this with one of the lads. I was happy to go at an easy pace as the legs were a bit tired from yesterdays race. Turns out the legs were grand as after the first 2 miles the pace quickly dropped in the 7:4x pace and stayed there for the duration of the run. Headed into Maynooth and then back into Leixlip along the main road before heading back in Celbridge. Splits were: 8:26, 8:03, 7:39, 7:45, 7:53, 7:45, 7:47, 7:46, 7:45, 7:46, 7:43, 7:40 (0.7).

Mon 5/01 65 mins Easy.
Legs were pretty tired this morning so when I got out I had planned on only doing about 50-55 mins. Once I got going I was really enjoying the run so ended up staying out longer for the 65 minutes. Pace was a good 30s slower than yesterdays run thankfully so the legs are feeling better now than before the run.

Sun 11/01/2015 95 mins Easy LSR
Headed out with a group from the club at a slightly later time than usual. Headed along the usual route up into Maynooth and then into Carton House and back into Celbridge. Everything was going grand until we hit Carton avenue. As we were making our way towards Carton House one of the lads clipped my trailing leg which caused me to loose my balance. Ended up coming down on my right hand side and hit my shoulder, hip and knee. Took a few minutes to check myself and get going again. Ended up with some pretty bad grazes and bruising on my shoulder, hip and knee. Once I got going again I was able to continue on and finished out the run. Spent the rest of the day nursing my bruises and cuts. Hip was quite sore in the evening but that seemed to be purely down to some bruising.

Mon 12/01/2015 60 mins Easy.
Wasn't really sure if I'd get out at all today as I wasn't sure how the body would feel today. As it turns out I didn't feel too bad. Left getting out as late as I could and did some quick testing on the sore parts of my body to see if they'd be ok (make sure none of my injuries would get any worse from going out on them). The first mile I was a bit unsure but once I got into it my body felt fine. Had originally planned on just doing about 40 mins but once I knew the body was willing I kept going for the full 60 mins. Knee a little stiff afterwards but feels grand now.

Tues 20/01 AM 20 min Runmute:
Dropped the wifes car to the garage (again) before work and then headed straight to work.

PM Club Session:
Headed up to the club nice and early to get a good 2 mile warm up in. Got fairly soaked on the way up but was surprised how warm it actually was. Got changed into the spikes and did a couple more laps of the track to get a feel of the ground. Wasn't as hard as I was expecting so was glad of the spikes. The session itself was 6 x 1k (2 laps of lane 8 or 917m) with 90 s recovery. The reps were: 3:28, 3:20, 3:22, 3:24, 3:24, 3:17. The first rep was a little slow as I still had a coat on and just wasn't comfortable so dumped it after that rep. The next 4 were grand with me tucking into the group for the first lap and then pushing on for the second. Last lap we went through half way in 1:40 and then a couple of us pushed each other to the finish as hard as we could. A couple of mile warm down and home again.

Wed 21/01 25 min Runmute:
Legs were a little sore this morning after last nights session so went straight to work. Took my time and kept the pace in the recovery zones. Legs were feeling much better afterwards.

Sat 24/01 Rest.

Sun 25/01 81 mins 'LSR':
Was short on time for this so decided to try out a new route. Headed from the house around Celbridge and then down to the canal. Did a few miles along the canal and turned off at Ardclough and took the back roads back to Celbridge. Had to fight with a headwind the first few miles but once I turned off the canal the wind was at my back. Edged the pace up a little as I headed back to Celbridge. Was happy with the run, but would have liked to have been out for longer.

Mon 26/01 65 mins Easy:
Usual Monday easy run. Headed around Celbridge and down the Dublin road and back into Leixlip before heading into Castletown house. A couple of more miles and then headed back into work.

Sat 30/01 Rest.

Sun 01/02 90 mins LSR:
Headed out on my own for this since I'm not on any of the marathon plans so there's not much point in doing the longer runs some of the lads are doing. Did a lap of Celbridge and then headed out towards Leixlip. Did a lap around Leixlip and then headed back into Celbridge along the Dublin road. Another lap around Celbridge and I headed home for breakfast.

Mon 02/02 60 mins Easy:
Headed out at lunchtime and had some company for the first few miles. As a result the first few miles were very easy. Once I parted way for a few more miles the pace picked up and was back to my normal easy pace.