Turning a mule into a race horse.

The unofficial is now official.

37:14

Lost time in congestion at the start and never got it back. Will edit a proper report later.

Edit:

Ok. So truth time. Going into this I had a mad mad mad notion that perhaps I could hit my year goal of 36:30. That would average 7:18 a mile. 7:30 a mile being 37:30 time. Not much difference but I guess that's the nature of the beast when you pass by the easy progress gains of early days.

I was ****ed though before the race started. I got to the start a little bit late. Tried to get up the field at the start line but it was very congested. I got as far as I could but looking around me I knew in my heart and soul I was fitter than most around me. That sounds unbelievably egotistical but it is the truth. I knew before this started I was in the wrong place.

Gun went off and yes I was so unbelievably right. I just couldn't get around the crowd. The first mile was spent weaving in and out of traffic but with a certain sense of **** you are royally ****ed here as you expected. I tried to tell myself it was a good thing. Hey for once you're not going to go out too fast.

First mile clicked in at 7:35 - 5 seconds off 37:30 pace and a whopping 17 seconds off 36:30

Second mile and STILL the congestion. Got onto the howth road and we were coralled into one lane about 4 people wide. Penned in again and I just couldn't get going at all. Turned left into a downhill section and I had a bit of space to increase the pace a little. Actually got back on track.

Mile 2: 7:19

Mile 3 wasn't too bad. It was again slightly downhill. I had thoughts of catching up the seconds lost in mile 1 but if I'm honest with myself wussed out a bit. At that stage I wrote off the 36:30 completely and set my sights simply on a PB.

Mile 3 7:21

So far so reasonably good. Into mile 4. Not that far off. But the course was about to bite me and bite me hard. We entered the park in Raheny and had to run against the wind up the hill up the main avenue towards a 180 degree turn. It seemed to go on forever and made worse by all the souped up feckers running back down the avenue. Hit the turn and I expected a much easier run back but it didn't seem to be as easy as it should be. Passed mile marker 4.

Mile 4 7:30

That sucked. It sucked so so bad. I really wanted this to come in at 7:15 direction. It just didn't. Ok fair enough. At that stage I had a rough calculation in my head and felt a PB was on (off my unofficial PB that is) I had in my head that if I could just hang on until half a mile from home I could kick a bit and come in at a decent time. I was hanging on - or so I thought but looked down at the watch at about 4.5 miles in and the predicted lap split was over 7:30. I could have cried tbvh. The wind up the avenue had really sapped me. At that point I decided not to look at the watch for the rest of the race and just give it 100%. Got into the home square as such and I knew I was about a 1/4 a mile from home. Kicked a bit. Got to the square. Thought I kicked a bit more. Rounded the final bend and gave it all I could down the home straight. Mrs Mule and the kids were there to cheer me home. I still ended up on my knees for a few minutes after the finish line. Looked at my watch and it said 37:17. Gutted.

Mile 5 7:19

Chip time came in at 37:14

Pox upon it

So I turned my unofficial PB into an official PB. I should be happy and I kind of am. But at the same time I can't help but think I came up a bit short today. At the very least a better start position would have had me 20 seconds up. Slightly bitter sweet but at the same time I do have to be happy with the time. I'm not racing fit at all so to hit a PB like that under the course / weather conditions from today isn't a bad result at all.

Hello and perhaps more accurately goodbye for a while.

Obviously haven't logged here in a while. Haven't had much to log to be honest. Have had to scale back the already low mileage more and more as knee pain persisted. Eventually a week off running due to personal circumstances and the knee was sore simply from walking around / doing my job. Bullet bit. Medical route now of doctor and MRI booked for next week from that as well as physio / sports injury treatment with our local practitioner here. Anyway I didn't really feel like posting 15 mile weeks here as I felt there was little to no point in it. And I'm sure going forward there's even less point in posting about a gradual return to fitness. Boring.com. So I think I will be leaving this log here for a while. Hopefully come back to it to report how Terenure goes in May.

Edit: Removed a paragraph about thoughts of a more longer term break. Some valid points made by pm about the gap in my logic of that Will be around just not logging for a while.

Slán go fóill

Genuinely surprised there was any interest in this. Thanks again to those who posted, PM'd me here and off boards. Would be wrong to leave the log sitting here so the state of play is this ....

I went to see Myles Splitz before the MRI - as always I heartily recommend our resident physio. He had a good look and examination, performed a few tests and was happy to declare that the knee passed all the major tests for the normal injuries. He listed out a long list of tendons and ligaments that I wouldn't remember now never mind spell them here :pac: and all were ok. He speculated on some tightness elsewhere as well as possible inflammation within the knee joint. Advice though was not to run until MRI results were in.

MRI was completed last Thursday and results were with the docs yesterday.

Nearly 3 weeks without a run at this point and the knee is still sore on a daily basis. So when the docs said that the MRI had shown no problems at all I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

On one hand great news that there is no obvious injury. No tears, strains, inflamation, bone issues (as far as MRI can see), stress fractures, arthritis signs. Absolutely nothing untoward other than normal wear for a person my age. The doc was almost apologetic that he didn't have something more than that.

The recommendation was to go and see a physio and also to consider having my day to day footwear looked at (somewhat reluctantly as doc felt it was going to be costing quite a bit for a long shot return) There was talk of referral to a bone / knee specialist but doc reckoned first thing a specialist would do is head for physio and report back in a few weeks.

The million dollar question was could I run again / now and the doc was happy for me to do so. To be fair I phrased the question along the lines of would it be fair to say that running couldn't do more damage to my knee as there is nothing there damaged at the moment. A leading question ;)Throughout it all it hasn't been crippling pain just an uncomfortable pain sensation that I can walk on, work through and run on. So given that the doc was happy enough for me to continue once the pain wasn't getting worse.

Got out for a 5k as soon as I got home

Was in touch with MS who is doing me up an excercise plan. Now we know there is no tear or strain to damage in the knee I can plough on and excercise to help it. Will be concentrating on general mobility excercises as well to loosen up whatever is tight and causing the strain / pain on the knee. Fingers crossed that sorts it out and can get back to training properly.

So this day last week I was waiting for results of an MRI and expecting something wrong. 3 weeks of no running and daily knee pain persisted. When I got the results and knew it was ok to run even if it was a bit sore I gladly did. But still there was pain there and there was no obvious injury.

I spent the week paying attention to my form in everything I did, not just running but walking around in general. When I did the chi running course it was noticed that I tended to even walk with my feet slightly outwards which would create a jarring effect on my legs with each foot strike. I noticed that this had crept back in. A concious effort to keep the feet straight made for sore hips in particular but was evidence to me that the chances are there was ongoing fatigue in the hips which was leading to strain on the knee.

Had 4 runs, 3 shortish 5-6k and then yesterday decided to experiment and push it a bit. Did 10 miles in total yesterday concentrating on form. The knee only gave some very minor grumbling. When I felt it building I was able to ease it away by making sure form was right and using the quads in particular to take some of the strain and not rely on the knee to lift the leg.

I know that form changing needs to be done very carefully but this is more about form correction than changing. End result was sore quads last night and this morning but not a hint of pain at all from the knee. I could well have been out injured from running awkwardly. But to see 20+ miles on the clock this week still feels like a minor miracle at the moment !

Lesson learned for me now is the importance of form and flexibility. I'm clearly still too tight all round. Actually found a minor heel spur which is again a sign of tightness from calves into plantar fasciitis. Seems that all my niggles and injuries stem from tightness in those damn calves and weakness in the hips so will balance off running time with flexibility work over the coming weeks.