#10yearchallenge - times not photos

January 2009
2 whole years before I got into geeky tables like Beepbeep!

I was still reeling fitness off my 2008 3:27 marathon pb and remember feeling truly delighted about that! I ran 107 miles total in January. Kicked off on 1/1 with a 5 mile race 32:21, did 4 long runs 10-14 miles and hit a training time trial half marathon in 1:34. I also did 2 progression runs aimed at 40 min 10k pace. My goal was sub 40 10k and my first triathlon so I was learning to swim too.

On 1st Feb I missed Dungarvan due to floods and hit a 10 mile training time trial pb 65:37 in the lashing rain feeling amazing. On 1st March I hit the sub 40 10k at Adare: 39:13. Back then Krusty was also aiming for his first sub 40 10k and I beat him to it! It hasn't been the same story of continuous improvement though as I darted off for a number of years doing other stuff. When I read back on the way I approached things then, it reads more like my 20 year old self than my 30 year old self.


January 2019
On 125 miles and should finish on circa 190 miles. 3 weeks into first marathon programme since about 2009 and aim to do a bit better than 3:27 on my next attempt. A bit more care and structure to things these comeback days...

Those tables are amazing to see the progress. Well done men, presumption based on just number ID.

Your 10 mile and HM progress, wow.

Van.Bosch wrote: »

What age are you if you don’t mind me asking, would be interesting to see the progression versus age.

Turned 25 in 2009, so 35 this year, and still very much expecting to PB at all distances (ok, the 400m is more of a hope than an expectation)

28064212 wrote: »

Event|2009|2010|2011|2012|2013|2014|2015|2016|2017|2018
400m|||||||1:05.49|1:05.51|1:02.78|1:03.70
800m|||||||2:20.75|2:26.37|2:18.25|2:17.99
1500m|||||||4:49.84|4:46.74|4:38.05|4:38.56
1 mile|||||||5:13.00||5:10.65|5:05.48
3000m|||||||10:10.00||9:56.24|9:51.46
5k|||||0:18:09|0:17:29||0:16:57|0:16:51|0:16:21
5 mile|||0:41:39||0:32:47||0:28:36|0:28:20|0:28:08|0:28:21
10k|||||0:41:35|0:38:22|0:36:45||0:35:17|0:34:28
10 mile||1:34:59|1:24:19|1:22:06||1:01:46|0:59:16||0:58:43|
Half Mara||2:19:47|1:49:30|1:46:19|1:31:33|1:22:23|1:18:32||1:15:35|1:17:27
3/4 Mara|||3:25:12|2:44:17||2:13:14|2:03:56|||2:00:08
Marathon|||4:09:10|3:41:29|3:02:05|2:51:21|2:41:33||2:48:14|2:35:59
Yearly Kms|0.00|69.39|596.01|1001.75|2422.36|3859.33|5058.55|3026.87|4489.01|5339.20
Yearly Miles|0.00|43.12|370.34|622.46|1505.19|2398.08|3143.24|1880.81|2789.35|3317.64

Only took up running in 2010. Steady progress through 2015. 2016 was a disaster, picked up a bad ankle injury playing astroturf football. 2017 should have had a marathon PB, but three weeks before DCM, got a minor muscle injury, just enough to put me out. 2018 went much better

2012 to 2013, swoon. Other than the big increase in mileage what if anything did you do different in 2013 to achieve such progress?

Incredibly interesting. Inspiring too.

With that mileage increase goes injury risk. Must have been a lot of S&C and smart recovery to sustain it.

Event|2008|2009|2010|2010/11|2011/12|2012/13|2013/14|2014|2015|2016|2017|2018
60m|||||||||8.05|8.19|7.80|7.97
100m||||13.8h|13.36|12.82|12.63|12.97|12.68|12.35|12.20|12.45
150m|||||||||||19.15|
200m||||28.2h|26.92|25.62|25.44|25.42|25.45|25.10|24.87|25.47
300m|||||||||40.47|||
400m||||63.9h|58.68|56.26|55.00|54.88|55.61|58.35||
800m||||2:34.9h|2:27.6h|2:23.8h|2:15.2h|2:19.70|2:14.98|2:26.73|2:25.03|
1500m|||||5:27.98|5:04.36|4:52.06|4:53.84||||
1 Mile|||||||5:29.0h|||||
5km|21:46|21:02||||||19:46|19:47|22:36|21:53|22:38.91
10km|46:59|45:32||45:24|||||||46:24|
Half Marathon||1:49:06||||||||||
Marathon|||4:07:35|||||||||
4x100m relay||||||49.36||||50.71||47.96
Long Jump||||4.17m|4.32m|4.40m|4.83m|4.20m|4.95m|||
Triple Jump||||8.93m|9.28m|||||||
High Jump|||||1.25m|1.26m|1.31m|1.29m||||
Pole Vault||||||1.30m|1.40m|||||
Shot Putt||||5.67m|6.51m|6.21m|6.75m|5.95m||||
Discus Throw||||14.65m|14.17m|16.67m|16.59m|15.31m||||
Javelin Throw||||13.21m|10.83m|8.37m|12.05m|14.66m||17.53m||
Decathlon|||||2290|2561|2903|2546||||
Beer Mile||||||8:19*|8:27|9:07|10:36|8:43.37|9:21|9:53


Been a busy 10 years of athletics since deciding to run the Great Ireland Run in 2008 for charity. The MSB 5K a few weeks before this was my first race since the few track races I did at West Leinster and Leinster Schools from 2000-2003 (mainly the walk, but once tried the 1500m). Quite a hiatus before starting running again.

My road running life didn’t last too long. Shortly after I finished the Rotterdam Marathon in 2010, I went travelling and moved to Australia, where after some settling in time, and trying various events, eventually dedicated myself to sprinting (400m specifically). I had 3 thoroughly enjoyable full seasons there, the last of which (2013/14) I have never been fitter (before or since). Moved home in 2014 and got stuck into the Irish track scene, finally running sub 55 for 400m at Nationals. There was to be no further improvement in 2015 however, and I slowly lost the love for the distance. I switched over to 60m/100m/200m after the 2015 season, and improved over the next 2 years, finally running sub 25 for 200m at nationals in 2017, which was possibly the best season I’ve had. Found the training, time commitment and motivation quite unsustainable after the amount that went into 2017, and I’ve experienced a drop off since.

I don’t see any of my track PBs falling at this point. I’ve one more full season as a senior before I become a master. Perhaps that might bring new motivation. I’ll most likely stick to the shorter distances as I’ve no desire for the pain of a 400m anymore unless a PB is up for grabs.

Lots of field events in the above table, but I never trained for any of these events specifically, with the exception of a brief period training for long jump, which ended quite swiftly with a torn groin.

It would be wrong to not include the beer mile. The * beside one of the times denotes an unofficial time as my beer didn’t meet the criteria.

I’ve also included some parkrun times in my 5k season’s bests for completeness, even though most of the time they’d be just used as off-season training runs.

El CabaIIo wrote: »

Just curious why you say you haven't ever been as fit since you left Australia Chivito because it's not something that sticks out in the results with all your target pb's coming after moving back. Do you mean all around fitness or what?

I suppose I mean aerobic fitness and speed endurance. In terms of speed and power I was at my best in 2017. My coach in Oz always used the term “fit” to mean endurance and “fast” to mean speed and I guess it just stuck with me. Your right though, fitness is a vague term and differs depending on the event.

That last season I had in Oz, I unfortunately was made redundant and had the impossible task of finding another company to sponsor me to stay in the country. The upshot of that however was that I trained like a full time athlete. An opportunity I didn’t have before, haven’t had since, and hopefully won’t ever have again. Not working makes a huge difference with recovery though. Make no mistake about that. I was hammering out 6 days a week pretty much throughout, as opposed to 5 since I moved home.

While my 400m PB came the following season, it was just an improvement by 0.12 of a second. It was a one off performance, while my last season in Oz, I ran under 56 seconds 8 times (while I managed it just 5 times in the next 2 seasons combined).

Hope that makes sense.