Shotgun 2020

I haven't decided whether to update daily or weekly. I guess it will be somewhere in between. The last 2 weeks I averaged 25 miles with a long of 8 miles and some Yoga and it feels good. The running is slow and easy as it should be. My intention is to bring it up to 30 miles this week.

Monday 5 Nov
Easy 3.87 miles @8:42
Lunchtime short one with my new work run buddy. Out around the Clontarf prom but she took me through a gap in a fence to get onto the wet muddy bank. On the Prom itself there are grassy trails so you can do it all off-road. Lovely run, shooting the breeze

Tuesday 6 Nov
Strength: Bootcamp Calisthenics class.
I try to get to this if I'm up in the big smoke. Again at lunchtime, 17 of us packed into the work gym in pods of 3s. Each station had three exercises that you did hard for 45secs with 125secs rest. All 3 times. We did a dynamic warm up then toons on and stuck in..
Station 1: Weighted standups, dumbbell shoulder press, burpees
Station 2: Rowing Erg, single leg bridges, burpees
Station 3: Planks, 20kg kettlebell swings, burpees

It was 45 mins all in but solid work. Today I feel a good "hurt2 in various limbs but look forward to a run to loosen up. Weighed in at 81.2kg this morning.. moving in the right direction

Thursday 8 Nov
Easy 6.01 miles @8:07
I opted for country air today. I'm lucky that I can find trees within a half mile of work. I circled around the back to a small, immaculate estate and a little graffiti art wall. Live your dreams, butterfly wings, dominoes and angel wings. Whatever that means. It takes a mile and 2 decent hills to enter County Limerick but instead of continuing out the Fedamore road I turned up a smaller country road with a sign hidden in the bushes to Donoghmore Church. The next 4 miles were wonderful, how have I not run this before, I do not know!

The road was so quiet I could run in the middle of it. Much of the next mile was up a long gradual climb. I kept a lid on the effort and the legs felt great. Just after the top there are evergreens flanking the road to a sharp left hander. At the turn is a house blocked by a huge tree covered in rusty autumn leaves from light ambers to blood red. The sun caught the tree from behind to make it look like it was in flames at the end of this green corridor. The left turn brought me up past the tiny sleepy village of Donoughmore. I used to cycle down here as a teen on summer evenings to play basketball in the school yard.

As I had climbed a little the view to my left stretched right over Limerick city, hidden in a basin, to the Cratloe hills and even beyond to Moylussa, the highest point in Co Clare. Although the wind gave a slight chill, I felt the warmth of the sun on my cheeks and beads of sweat on my forehead. Over those hills too were some dark heavy clouds heading toward town. I turned back at the junction to the busy Old Cork road to retrace my steps. Smiled as I ran down that long hill again, remembering the joy of speeding down it on my bike, racing my brother. Over the flyover and last hill I ran through the "Welcome to Limerick City" signs, smiling again that the work was done and I had beaten the oncoming clouds to steal an hour of daylight sunshine.

Friday 9 Nov
A Swim! 2,000m Steady @1:49/100m
I swam once a week up to Juneand then swam once more in July before my injuries. 28 whole weeks without a swim this year too meant this was not going to go smoothly. It didn't. My pace was all over the place, I had to take a few breathers after 1,200m and my stroke rate increase while pace decreased for the last 400m. I did love being back in the water though.

I didn't really catch the water or get a good feel for rotation or any other technical nonsense during this but kept going. There is a new grippier wall at the far end of the UL 50m. Its too high to grab with my hand though so I resorted to tumble turning woefully. It took 10 goes before I could plant both feet and I invariably go too deep and gasp for air on my next stroke. I get nowhere near the distance and a standard push off the wall but I tried and I'll try some more until I get it right.

I did see perfect turns in action though. There was a bit of slower traffic for me to negotiate but then a shark in an Ireland swim suit hopped in and glided past me as though I was tethered to the bottom. I saw her doing a tumble and tried to copy it, nearly banging my forehead off that grippy wall in the process. I think she had enough of us slow coaches and hopped into the next lane as soon as it was free to do her actually training. Bit depressing that passed by so gracefully and fast on her warm up! I'm nowhere near ready to join the masters. I simply have to do some swimming with some sort of regularity first. My triceps will feel this in the morning!

@Kurt - Everest to climb to be in shape for that

Saturday 10 Nov
Row Open 30mins rate 20
18hrs since that run and it's the same day. Feeling it now. This is a short but brutal test. Concept 2 Erg: pull your best score while holding a low rate of 20 strokes per minute. You want to ease off, you want to raise the stroke rate, you want to stop but pain is temporary. I'd eventually like to hit 8,000m or 1:52.0/500m pace. This was a first go and I hit 7,695m or 1:56.9/500m. Not good but at least I know now what the gap is. My max heart rate only hit 176 which means there is room to not just get fitter, but hurt more. 176 is only a few feet into the pain cave. 180+ is the pain territory I should be in for the last few minutes. First, get fitter...

Monday 12 Nov - T-6 Weeks to the start of the Hansons Plan
Easy-Steady 7.38 miles @8:03
I just had to get out today. Big work day and up to the big smoke tomorrow. If I didn't it would be Wednesday that I got my first run of the week and would have had to run 5 days in a row. Pretty chilly windy conditions and lunchtime city life was busy. I rain straight to and through town out the other side along the Condell path. I could smell the river. Good fresh smell not pollution. Mile 3 beeped at the pier I often pause at but I decided to finish the length of the path. The watch hr was spiking and unreliable but I tried to keep the effort easy. I maintained pace on hills or into the chilly wind which was more steady aerobic. I retraced my steps up through town but opted for the Hyde Road back to work. It was a mile of headwind but satisfied to put another 59 minutes running down. A quarter of the running weekly volume in the bag.

Wednesday 14 Nov
Yoga with Adrienne 36mins. Long day after a 3hr drive, all I had the energy for but needed it.

Thursday 15 Nov
Recovery 4.2 miles @8:40
Nice easy trot around suburbia on a chilly windy wet evening. Hamstrings were heavy but looser by the end.

Strength: HIIT 32mins
5 sets of 45secs on 30secs off of
Advanced push ups
Burpees
Lunge with torso twist
Side lunge with toe touch

I didn't go anywhere near as hard as Tuesday. Even pace throughout focusing on quality of movement and full range of motion. Felt good doing this after the run

Monday Nov 19
Drawing a line under last week
Weekly Summary - Total 4hr53
What|#|Hrs|Dist
Running|3|2hrs43|17.81 miles
Strength|2|1hrs26|
Rowing|1|0hrs42|10,000m
Yoga|1|0hrs36|

Not happy that I missed the weekly targets. 7hrs, a swim and 30 miles. The weekend just ran away from me. I salvaged something with a 10k capped row late last night. My diet was rubbish for the weekend too but the weigh in this morning of 80.9kg showed no difference there. No planned travel up and down the motorway this week so zero excuses.

This week minimum: 7hrs, 30 miles, a swim and clean up the diet.

Wednesday 21 Nov.
Swim 2,200m
Early morning triathlon group. I jumped into the middle lane for a warm up with fins then managed to find myself more or less in the same spot in the line that I was 5 months ago, doh! The main set of work was as follows
2 sets of (200m, 2x150m, 4x100m). Pretty innocent. The 200s and 150s were at about 1:44/100m pace and the 100s were at 1:39-1:42/100m pace.

I managed to hold onto the 2 leads for the first set comfortably. However, after the second 200 I blew a gasket and held on for dear life for the rest of the 2nd set. I was gulping air and giving it socks on those 100s to not fall off the pace. Very pleased to get through it but I was hanging over the lane ropes for a finish. This will improve if I can get swimming consistently.

Still Wednesday 21 Nov
Steady Run 6.72 miles @7:46
Much later on a cold evening with a colder breeze under a full moon. I really procrastinated, sat at the bottom of the stairs for ages. I eventually put some beats in my ears double long sleeves and a hat and hit the road. The first mile (7:48) was just about getting warm. Mile 2 should have calmed a bit but I was still cold (7:50). By mile 3 I was struggling again to control my breathing and a (7:59) meant I was not doing a good job of slowing down to help. I walked for a minute to relax my shoulder and breathing. Once I had it under control set off again. Caz reminded me after the run that I should have used the inhaler before the run too.

Mile 4 was mainly downhill (7:44) but my heart rate was 10+ beats lower and I felt much more relaxed. I just kept up a fresh cadence. I kept an eye on the heart rate which stayed in the low 140s but mile 5 (7:42) and mile 6 (7:33) kept getting faster. I felt great and the legs were full of running. Despite the pace I kept the heart rate well below the cap for the last 3 miles. A run of 2 halves that thankfully ended better than it started. I need to ensure the rest of the weeks miles are easy now.

In other news, mince pies are no tempting me everywhere I go. I made a deal with myself that I'd eat no crap Tesco ones etc.. If I'm going to have them they will be form the Market or home baked. That should hopefully curb the annual mince pie related weight gain

Cheers KG. I've done her post run routine so I'll give this a go

Thursday 22 Nov
Easy 6.31 miles @8:03
It looks so lovely out the window but boy is it Baltic! I opted for the country route. 3 miles out and back with he middle 4 between trees and hedges. The amazing autumn leaf display have given away to barren branches since I last came up this way. The second mile was challenging, into a biting wind and up a log hill. At the turnaround the noise of the wind in my ears suddenly stopped and the fridge encasing my head was lifted. Very pleasant run back to work in low bright winter sunshine. No niggles to report but the legs are need of a good stretch.

Sunday 25 Nov
Easy 9.32 miles @7:59
75mins running! Woop! I felt great on this, legs full of running. It was calm, cold and dark. I had to check the pace after the first few excitable miles @7:40s. I had the watch covered but glanced at it occasionally to ensure the effort matched the zone. It was a suburban route and I wanted to run over an hour. I knew I'd have it at 8 miles but went a longer way around the last block to hit 9 miles and my longest run in months. I went back over the diary from the summer and when I restarted in May I was at 10 miles after 4 runs. I expect to hit 10 miles this weekend but it will be after 5 weeks of running 3-5 times a week and 30 miles. Much more sensible approach! If I hit 10 miles and feel good I may start to gradually bring in intensity

Putting a line under last week it was a more respectable 7 hours but I hot the running and swim goals for the week. All Good. Weight Check also down to 80.3kg.

Goals this week are 35-40 miles with a 10 mile medium long run, a swim and bring back S&C

Weekly Summary - Total 6hr57
What|#|Hrs|Dist
Running|5|4hrs45|35.86 miles
Swimming|2|1hrs12|3,800m
Yoga|1|0hrs50|

Wednesday 28 Nov
Swim 1,500m steady
Its a bit gnarly out there with storm Diana. Strong gusts and driving rain, hmmm maybe a run later then. I drove across to the pool instead. Due to the commute I'd only get a small swim so 1,500m straight was the goal. I practically had a lane to myself so I could practice tumble turns unsuccessfully without risk of injuring anyone but myself.

First 700m at 1:48 pace, next 400m at 1:47, next 200m at 1:46 and last 200m at 1:40 pace. I started easy but the tumbles slowed the end of each lap and probably added a few strokes as I didn't push off the wall with the same power. After half way I just tired and had to work so grabbed the wall and kicked off. I was instantly getting 2m more on the glide. For the last 200m I just pushed it up to 4th gear and finished out. 26:33. Unfit, satisfactory.

Tuesday 4 Dec
Row Steady State 20 mins, Run Steady 5.12 miles @7:49
Christmas parties are starting early this year. The weekend and up to Tuesday were party, hangover, party, hangover. This was a hotel gym session en route to another one. I was hanging.

The row was at 1:58 pace, 5,089m covered and about all I could manage. The run was the treadmill, which I hate but much better than running around rush hour Dublin city center traffic. Steady pace and effort but sweated buckets. I'm repeating last week to hit the weekly targets. I want to hit them clean for 3 weeks in the lead up to the start of the marathon programme.

Yet to indulge in a mince pie which is good, but alcohol not good. Not able!

Sunday 9 Dec
Medium Long Run 11.11 miles @7:11
My first run outside this week. Its been a week with 5 parties and more alcohol than I have consumed all year. Today I felt human and again and since it was going to be the run that would take me over the 1,000 mile mark for the year I decided to make it a tester. 1:19:45 is my longest run in months and it was steady for 8 miles and tempo for the last 3.

I just ran as I felt at a solid but aerobic pace, incorporating miles 13-20 of the GLR route. It was chilly, windy, wet and sunny out, a real mix. The first 8 miles steady were probably around marathon pace except for hills and headwind. The last 3 miles were 7:03, 7:02 and 6:57. The last one was into the wind too so the heart rate hit the red zone for just a moment. Overall I spent some 50 minutes at tempo.

It was a rubbish week but a good way to end it. I certainly won't be doing long runs at this intensity but more like easy with "stuff" thrown in. Ran through 10k in 44 minutes too which is my fastest in years.

On the 1,000 miles. Its the first time in 5 years completing it! I have run 200-300 miles each year for the last 4 years.