Running in the Real World

Monday 20 July: Recovery Run
Nice little 3.34 mi @ 10:11/mi (5.37K @ 6:20) to shake out the legs, around Griffith Avenue and Drumcondra.

Tuesday, 21 July: 10.5K Easy @ 6:17 (6.53 mi @ 10:06)
Back in God’s country for this, did the usual local loop with a few extra Km thrown in. I can only run 6 days this week because I’m travelling on Sunday, and am determined to hit the mileage goal for once! Felt great on this run, hills and all, finished feeling energetic… looks like Fingal might have cleared out the funk and refreshed me

And now that I look at the pace for both of these runs, just a little fast… I’m scolding myself before anybody else does :P

Wednesday, 22 July: 5 Miles Easy
5.19 @ 10:04/mi; 8.35 Km @ 6:15/Km
Lovely run, out and back, felt like no distance and the legs felt great. Also did a 2.5 mile walk with the boys (they were very proud of how far they walked), to see some pigs in a field, roaming free. Very exciting. This is what we do for entertainment around here.

Thursday, 23 July: Rest
Was supposed to do 10 miles, but ran out of babysitters and had visitors so had to put it off.

Friday, 24 July: 10 miles with 6 @ MP (actually 16K with 10k @ MP)
9.94mi @ 9:38/mi; 16K @ 5:59/k
Drove back to Dublin, then did this with D... what else are you going to do when you haven't seen your other half for 5 days but go for a 10mile run together? ...out the seafront, a loop of St. Anne's then home on the sea front. Think we might have passed Duanington on his way home from work, but it might have been just a random friendly runner.

Anyhow, the 10k @ MP were great, effort felt good, not too challenging. I was aiming for 5:50/km, which is 4:06 marathon pace. Probably a little ambitious but it will do for now. Splits were a bit all over the shop:
5:50, 5:45, 5:42, 5:51, 5:34, 5:52, 5:40, 6:03, 5:33, 5:35 (from 8:56-9:44/mi)

D took off to do a fast finish, and I struggled through the 3k cooldown... for the first time ever, I thought I might actually faint outside Fairview Park, I was very happy to stop on exactly 16k. Made my way to the spar and refuelled with a sports drink and a 9 bar and walked slowly home through the Ed Sheeran fans. I was hungry heading out, lesson learned again... no running without food for me!

Saturday, 25 July: LSR
10.59mi @ 10:34/mi ; 17k @ 6:35/k
The plan called for 16 miles tomorrow... and the MP session was supposed to be Thursday, but my week backed up on itself... travelling tomorrow, so headed off to attempt 16 miles today, tired and after one (or two) glasses of wine too many last night.

My legs were creaking audibly for the first couple of K, but then settled into it and enjoyed the run. Met up with D in the PPark after about 10k and did the lovely trails. We stopped to chat to a friend on Military Road for a few minutes and my legs were screaming starting up again. D had parked at the Polo Grounds, so I gratefully gave in to the temptation to take a lift home and called it a day, and a week, at 17k. I either wimped out or listened to my body, take your pick

Flying early tomorrow morning to Greece, no doubt that will wreak havoc with the plan again clearly I'm not dedicated enough to my running. No wait, it's warm weather and altitude training

WTD: 57.28 Km/ 35.6 Mi ...Plan called for 40 mi...
MTD: 198.6 Km/ 123 Mi... already highest month ever, think I can make it to 200Km
YTD: 1,047 Km/ 651 Mi... crossed the 1,000Km barrier this week!

....now to consider packing... ugh...

Monday, 26 July: 6.3 Mi/10k in 1:18 -- slowest 10k ever, alternated walking and running. 250m elevation gain!

7am run from Aristi to Vikos with D, temperature perfect, but still sweating. I really struggled through the first 3-4 Km, very puffed, couldn't seem to get my breathing right at all, wondered if the elevation was having an effect, shouldn't be high enough at 600-700m. Also with all the sweating, and not having any water with me, maybe a bit dehydrated.

Struggled on to Vikos, where we were rewarded with spectacular views of the Vikos Gorge, apparently as deep as the Grand Canyon in places. We also contributed to the Greek economy by spending all of 50c on two bottles of water... a lovely Greek lady named Dora was just opening her shop/cafe and welcomed us in, trying to communicate to us in her few words of German... She didn't want to charge us for the water, but we insisted, D gave her 5 euro and she gave us 4:50 back!!! Some confusion was caused by D asking her for 'fleisch' (meat) wasser instead of 'flasche' (bottle). Somehow we muddled through.

Felt much better on the way back and started to realise how uphill it had been on the way to Vikos, the water revived me a good bit.

We passed one runner, a guy we saw here yesterday. There was some sort of ultra event on here over the weekend. The other sight of the morning was a pickup truck passing us, an old lady standing in the back -- skinny, her hair like a fuzzy white halo, standing straight... like a religious icon in the back of the truck.


Tuesday, 28 July: 5.1 mi @ 10:04/mi; 8.2 Km @ 6:16/Km
Out again around 7 this morning, felt much better, breathing stronger. By myself this time because D was doing an LT session. Lovely run on very quiet road, really enjoyed the downhill on the way back. Noticed that I was dripping with sweat, even though the temperature was only 16-17 C and very comfortable. Turns out the humidity was 90%+, that (and the hills) explains how puffed I was yesterday.

A mere 180m elevation gain today.

Felt very virtuous, tucking into a big breakfast afterwards D made up for his session by having 4 cakes as his 'breakfast dessert'.

My plan call for a progression run tomorrow, that won't be happening... the only progression I will be doing will be getting further up the hill without stopping

This a beautiful place, who woulda thunk a great holiday is one where you can run up and down mountains at 7am Mad!

Ososlo wrote: »

hey annapr
hope you're enjoying the hols!
I've been reading your Cork Half report for some inspiration for my upcoming half. Great report btw.

I see you took a few gels during the race. Just wondering if you found the gels beneficial at all on the day? Do you think they made much of a difference if any? Will you take them for your next half? As a matter of interest, what ones did you take?
thanks:) and sorry for all the questions!!!

Bungy Girl wrote: »

+1, interested in this too. I'm almost up to half distance in training now and haven't needed any food/gels or water, so thinking about doing the half in Sept without carrying anything and just relying on the water stations on the day. Don't know if the increased pace on the day would affect the need for fuel ?

aquinn wrote: »

The last two half's in the park have been incredibly hot. I haven't used gels but would recommend water bottle. It's a tough course.

Hey ladies, greetings from Greece. I did take 2 gels in cork and I think in last year's Dublin HM too. If I remember right I took one in cork at around 4-5 miles and the second at 9-10. Rationale being to get an energy boost after about 5 miles when initial energy starts to flag and for the home stretch. TBH, I have no idea if they work, maybe a psychological effect as much as anything, which may be important. I rarely use them training. I use high 5 citrus gels which are very mild and easy to take. And try to take them right before or at a water station.

Agree with Aoife re water, but if there are lots of water stations with BOTTLES not cups then I wouldn't bother carrying my own. Cups are a nightmare.

It's very individual though but I find I need water after an hour of easy running. Also if you can guarantee cool damp weather that helps a lot too!

Ok, way behind with logging and also behind the plan... so to finish off week of July 26th...

Wednesday, 29 July: Hike into the Vikos Gorge... beautiful! only 5k but all we could manage in the heat.

Thursday, 30 July: 5.2 mi @ 10:15/mi
Another hilly early morning run, felt like I was starting to get the hang of it.

Friday, Saturday... Rest, too bloody hot for running in Corfu. Had a few dips in the Med to cool down but can't say the effort was enough to count as cross-training.

Sunday, 2 August: 25K LSR in 2:45 (6:36/km)
Got home in time to watch Dublin v Fermanagh, after a very entertaining last ten minutes, headed out to attempt the 16 miles that was in the plan for last week.

Went out the coast beyond Sutton, looped back to Baldoyle and back in the coast. This was a lovely route and I enjoyed the cool summer evening after the heat of the previous week. I felt good for the first 12-15K but gradually pain took over and my legs hurt badly for the final 10k. I ended up half a mile short of the planned 16 miles, but I was in so much pain that I didn’t care, hobbling home. My legs were in bits all next day, someone even asked me was I limping.

These LSR’s have been so disheartening and depressing. At the end of this one, I was ready to forget DCM this year, it was too depressing to contemplate this pain every weekend between now and October.

So WTD: 52Km/32 miles. The plan has 44-50 miles for this week, so I'm way off. Had a quick look at the Boards plan though and more in line with that for this week.

Also, did 225Km/140 mi for July... approximately double last year's July mileage and my highest month ever, so I consoled myself that all is not lost. If only I could get the LSR's working.

Monday, 3 August -- See above, Rest required because of pain in my legs.

Tuesday, 4 August -- Rest again due to apathy. I did do some aqua-jogging (ok paddling) at the beach in Donegal which felt fantastic.

Wednesday, 5 August… 8.3K @ 6:10/Km. 5.2 mi @ 10:00/mi
Local loop in light rain, very pleasant and easy, felt good, before heading back to Dublin.

Thursday, 6 August... 10 miles @ 10:06/mi; 16.4 km @6:17/Km;

The plan called for 10-12 miles with 2 x 4 @ MP. Met up with aquinn for this. We didn’t really pay any attention to the pace, too busy yakking. Looking at the splits we did about 4 miles at my MP. We went out the Howth Road, out the Coast a bit and back through St Anne’s and the seafront. We stopped at the Esso station beside the Yacht club for water and detoured to see the famous boat. I was suitably impressed, I know I would never be able to manage it.

Enjoyable run and always good to have company. But even with A's positivity, I started to slow on the way home. Once again, my legs were very tired by 10th mile, and sore after. When the 10 miles were done, I wasn’t running a step further and walked the rest of the way home, to A’s surprise.

Friday, 7 August - Rest, no opportunity to get out.

Saturday, 8 August — Used my babysitting credits to go to Croker for quarter finals. Unlike going for a run, I thought I may regret that decision, if Mayo hammer us again. In the end, it could have been worse. And some Oscar worthy performances from Tyrone.

Sunday, 9 August. 11k Easy @ 6:01/Km; 6.8 mi @ 9:41/mi
The plan called for an 18 mile LSR today, but there was no way I could convince myself to do that. So I wimped out and had an enjoyable run instead. Felt good throughout. Considered going longer and doing a proper lsr but decided to quit while still feeling good. Did some strides and a faster km or 2, just for fun.

WTD: 35.7K/22.2Mi (about half what's in the plan )