From minutes to miles

Had a physical therapy appointment during the week to get the niggle checked out. She did a bit of work on the hip, the glute, around the IT band and that general area. Didn't think there was anything particularly ominous going on - some sort of angry muscles probably from the the awkward jolt the other day, just worked on getting all the tightness out.

Thursday 30th: 4.5 miles @ 10:17, average HR 171bpm

Heart rate definitely higher than it should be, top end of my easy range is mid 160's but I wasn't really watching it to be honest. The early runmutes can sometimes be a big elevated compared to later in the day outings. The pace felt comfortable - if a little awkward after a few days off, and I said I'd just see how the hip was feeling and go by the body. It felt much improved and only one slight bit of discomfort at one stage but not enough to cause me to draw up mid stride like before, it was almost gone before I knew it was there.

Headed to a work table quiz that evening which had a question I could confidently answer (I'm not usually great at table quizes - film and music rounds always let me down especially :rolleyes:) "What type of acid can build up in the body during exercise?".........."LACTIC!!!!!" came the intensely whispered answer across the table :pac: followed by a withering look of pity at the woman who shouted out "lactose acid" at the quizmaster during the answer section a few minutes later

Friday 1st: Rest

Saturday 2nd: 4.5 miles @ 9:50 w/6*10 sec strides, average HR 156bpm

I said I'd go for a few easy miles to loosen out the legs in advance of the Tallaght 5k tomorrow and see how the hip was faring. I had said to myself before going out if I completed the run pain free I'd go tomorrow. And, I didn't. All was going great until 3.5 miles approx when I got the same thing. Again, nowhere near as bad as last weekend but it's still not 100%. I walked for a minute after just to make sure it had died down and I finished off the run fine and included the strides as a bit of a tester and they were fine. But, I think I might skip the 5k. I honestly don't think I'd be doing any major damage if I did do it and if I did get the same thing I could always stop or ease off for the remainder. But would I be happy with either of those eventualities? I had been really looking forward to tomorrow as a chance to make a tilt at sub 25 mins or to get an idea of where I was at even if this race was a bit too soon for that result. It might be best to skip, take the day off, keep easing back in with some more easy runs and if things still aren't right take some more rest or get another session. Training has been inconsistent the last couple of weeks, I might be better off refocusing the mind on the Terenure 5 mile (all going well) and maybe another 5k instead off a better spell..........



......then my mind flip flops back to the other side of "sure give it a go, it might be completely fine by tomorrow"

April 96.98
Runs 17/30
Squash/football 4/30
Rest 9/30

Month|Miles
January|98.82
February|108.20
March|107.44
April|96.98
May|
June|
July|
August|
September|
October|
November|
December|
Total|411.44

The horrible 4 day tummy bug and aforementioned niggle moans account for the mileage drop and number of rest days. Although I thought it might have been worse considering.

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Ooooh decisions decisions...first of all, really glad to hear it's nothing too serious. Was it triggered perhaps by any sort of tenseness today? You may need to focus on staying relaxed...
If you decide to run tomorrow (but you know there is always another 5k if you don't...even a parkrun next Saturday before Terenure), don't be afraid to bail at any stage. If it niggles while warming up/starting but goes away, that's fine. Pain which stays or increases shouldn't be ignored. But you know all this
Good luck with whatever you decide!

Not sure what it would have been triggered by but I'd say I was probably tense, definitely on edge as to whether it would pop up.

I think I'll just see how I feel when the alarm goes off tomorrow. If I go & make sure I do a good warm up, best case it's all ok and I get an idea of where I'm at and a bit of race practice at the very least. Worst case it pops up, maybe bail and come home and lick my wounds and take it from there but at least I'll have got some good study procrastionation done Speaking of which....there must be some logs I can read.......

Went out in the end, no A+ plus goal today but 25:13 still gives me a PB of over a minute and a half so no complaints. More details later, no jip from the hip though.

Tallaght 5k: 2nd May
Previous PB: 26:54 (December 2014)
Chip time: 25:13

Pre-Race

For breakdown of pre race jitters about possible gammy hip - please refer to the last 157 moaning posts about same :rolleyes: Woke up this morning before the alarm went off (why is that, when during the week Mon-Fri I have to drag my half dead carcass out of the bed after hitting snooze on the alarm more than I really should) and took a look at the sunny skies which convinced me to head out and give the race a go. Crammed in 45 minutes of quality study having breakfast, some foam rolling and off I went. The GPS took me off the M50 and into some industrial estate type spot. Pulled over, looked at the map and it seemed to be sending me in the right direction so I continued on and lo and behold I arrived at the club house a few minutes later. I threw the car in a housing estate and took the opportunity to jog back up for a bit of a warm up. Bit of queue at that stage to get the number but not too bad. Dumped my stuff, made the obligatory multiple trips to the toilet and headed off to the start area and did some more easy warm up with some strides. I had misjudged how long the collection might take so didn't have a chance to do as much of a warm up as I had thought I might, only did 1 mile in total. We were summoned to the start and I tried to suss out where to position myself. I noticed I was behind a group of about 10 women and I decided not to stay there. I could have been totally incorrect about this group but I've learned from previous experience such large groups can often string out and take over a huge space so I didn't want to run the risk of getting boxed in. I put myself where I thought the people around looked of a similar interest and before I knew it we were off with no fuss.

Race

The race itself kind of blurred together. I knew from when I went off I was too fast, and I had been warned about the course profile. So I slowed it down a touch coming up to the first half mile. Making the first turn I thought I felt the smallest of flickers from the hip which made me nervous and I was almost waiting to see if there would be more. I concentrated on my "Dubgalian" (TM) relaxation techniques and imagined my hip/glute all tight but letting all the tension out and loosening the muscles. I sound like a loon as I type that and have absolutely no idea if it had any benefit but it distracted me and stopped me worrying. I was aware that I was breathing heavy and noticed I was sweating a good bit. I don't have much experience in 5k's so I know they are supposed to be tough from the start compared to other distances but again not so much that you blow up. The first mile went off at 7:54 which was on target if I was going to get my sub 25 A+ goal. I've never recorded a full mile at under 8 minutes before so it's progress.

That long road, around by Tymon I think (?), seemed to go on forever and seemed very windy. I was starting to struggle, the legs and the breathing, and the mental demons were kicking in around the halfway mark. The field was fairly strung out so I didn't have anyone to aim for. I was convincing myself with "it's just a measly 3 miles, you do these all the time" with the mental response of "yeah but not at this pace", to "training has been knocked recently, it's ok if you slow down and ease to the finish", or the worst one "you could walk, just for a minute......you know you want to......" So I just focused on the basics as others have said here before - one foot in front of the other, get the arms moving, take good breaths, try and isolate what's hurting and see if it's actually hurting or can you just tell it to cop the hell on. I had the words of Duaningtion in my head with "there's always more to give, if you're willing to accept it" and the thoughts of coming back here to say I walked or eased off just kept me ticking along. Mile 2 was 8:02 which was bang on what I'd need so the goal was still on. The last mile was my downfall though. The couple of drags in the profile sucked the legs and I was hanging. I felt relieved when I saw the roof of the gym because I knew it was nearly over. Turned into the club grounds and headed on to the track anxiously looking to see where on the track the finish was. F**K - it was the other side. Mile 3 was 8:16 in the end. Tried to push on for the finish but didn't have much of a kick. Had to take a seat for a few minutes and then I went off for a bit of a easy jog around the outside of the track to help cool down. Bumped into TRR and chatted to him for a few minutes (although when I walked away I realised I'd forgot to reintroduce myself and as I've only met him once he may have had no idea who I was ) and then went to the clubhouse for a bit of cake and met Adrian and Meno again.

7:54, 8:02, 8:16, (8:01)

Aside from the tiniest (real or imagined) flicker at the start, the hip was fine. Hopefully on the mend, will wait and see. My Garmin said 25:08 at the end, I must have lost a few seconds starting it at the start. Of course I've been wondering if I could have found those extra 14 seconds for my A+ goal but I don't know. I felt like a really gave it a good go, but maybe my first mile was too fast? It's still a good chunk off the PB so delighted with that anyway. Everything was smooth about the day with the marshals, support etc - well done to Tallaght AC, and they have superb facilities there. Glad I went in the end, fingers crossed I can get back some consistency now with the training. Total for the day was 5 including warm up and cool down, which brings my total mileage for the week to a whopping 14 :cool:

chickey2 wrote: »

Great report! I was thinking many of the same thoughts as you during the race. Shame I didn't get to meet you after but had to go as the kids came to watch and got bored once the race was over.

Thanks chickey, sorry I didn't get to meet you either, didn't realise you were doing it as well. How did you get on?

Ososlo wrote: »

Fantastic result and pb!!!

Thanks A!!

annapr wrote: »

Laura, that's a great result, especially with your hip worries going into it and really good race practice. You will definitely be cracking the sub-25 any day now, along with Adrian and his sub-20.

Cheers Anna, yeah absolutely, I think it's definitely good practice. The 5k is an intriguing distance.

adrian522 wrote: »

Good race Laura, I like those splits to be honest, the last mile is tough, was for me anyway so good your 3 miles were pretty consistent. Again I don't think the first was too fast, it's pretty much downhill so it should be faster I think.

And yes, the same mental battles I always go though, it hurts from early on but I guess it's supposed to...

Thanks Adrian, good to see you today. Congrats on the PB as well! You're getting ever closer to that sub 20, keep up the great work and the training will pay off with it. It seems like nearly the whole of a 5k is a mental battle!

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Well done Laura. You definitely made the right decision to go in the end. Nice PB, that's a big chunk of time off since December. You'll get the sub 25 on the next outing for sure.

Thanks G, didn't quite have it in me today but as you say a good chunk taken off nonetheless so plenty to be happy with. Hope you're recovering well?

chickey2 wrote: »

23:19 so I was happy. My pb was 23.35 so not much of a pb but I didn't deserve any better! I told myself I'd start a log on here if I got a pb in this race.... Might get around to it tomorrow!

That's great chickey, well done. It's all going in the right direction anyway - looking forward to the log and reading about your training!