Turning point?

August 23^rd 2015

I managed a rescue of sorts this week after what was a very tough opening few days of training. The stomach bug was in my system until last Wednesday but energy levels were pretty dismal to the point I took 2 days off on Thursday and Friday.

 The first 3 days of the week were not good at all. Basically the running day consisted of me going for a hour jogging or so in the morning, breaking into sweats and heavy breathing after maybe 10 minutes and then suffering for a further 45 minutes, stopping for a 3 minute walk doing another few minutes of light jogging before having to stop a mile out for home for a 15 minute walk back to the house. I then would get in the door empty what was left of my gut lie down and drink a glass of dioralite.

Pretty crap (if you excuse me) to be honest. Tuesday was only marginally better – 2 mile warm up 15minutes X 2 at 7.30 pace and a 1 mile cooldown before panning out again. I thought I was over the worst of it by Wednesday but after coming back after another walk run hour I nearly passed out after coming out of the shower. Common sense prevailed and Aoiffe swore me not to run for at least 2 days. It was a easy promise to make. I was a spent force. The gains I had made up to the August weekend were being undermined.

Thursday night I must have slept 12 hours waking up at 10 am. I took another day off Friday and decided to see if I could do a hour light jog on Saturday. Adopting a very slow and cautious approach keeping the pace down to around 9min to 9.15 for the first hour I was feeling pretty ok , all things considered. I decided to keep going. I was feeling ok after 2 hours covering 13.5 miles – a slow pace. A sensible me should have left it at that but I decided to loop back around Pikes Cross and back down the Railway. These last 3 miles were a struggle. I was stuck in the one gear and there was a definite sense of effort involved. The legs were feeling tight and my head was getting tired. I had to stop for a gulp of water in the railway station but these hardships were good things. It meant my body was readapting to the notion of the long run. In all I ran 18.1 miles in 2hrs40minutes – average pace was 8.51- slow and I suspect the Hr wasn’t particularly low either. However I was delighted to have got the work done even if I was wiped for the rest of the day.

We headed up to see Kevin Bridges do a gig in the Opera House – not one of his best gigs and I was wiped out again the next day after a 3 hour round trip to Cork to see the man perform a very odd show. However rather than go for run On Sunday I went for a 40 minute 2.8 mile walk with Aoiffe- the quads and muscles were achey, a feeling that persisted until Monday.

I had plans to run the Ballycotton 5 mile race and the Tullamore half marathon on the following Saturday. I also had plans to run the Liscarroll 10k and the Clonmel 13.1 the week previously. These races were to play a part in my training but maybe a more back to basic approach might be required.

Miles for the week – Monday 7 miles, Tuesday 7 miles, Wednesday 6.2 miles, Saturday 18.1 miles, Sunday 2.8 mile walk. 41 miles in total.

 Holiday photo taken with Toledo in the background, probably one of the nicest places I have ever ran (or visited).

Spanish belly

Sunday  16th August

Sitting on the couch a bit glum. Tummy started to give me a lot of trouble last Wednesday on the way down from Dublin airport. Aoiffe had picked up a serious vomit and tummy bug the night before we left Malaga to fly back to Dublin and it was only a matter of time before I picked it up. I am probably getting over it at this stage – Aoiffe not as much.

In terms of running over the last two weeks I didn’t do a huge amount in particular during the week of my holidays principally because I didn’t expect I had to as I had put down some very big weeks in the lead up to the break. I ran 4 miles and around 7 miles in Madrid on the Monday and Tuesday and another 7 miles and 4 miles in Toldeo. To be honest I have liked to have done more running but I got a pain of a headcold on the Friday and that laid me low over the weekend during the trip to Granada. Sound like a bit of a crock don’t I?

In Malaga on the Tuesday the cold had cleared up and I ventured for a 80 minute run on the Tuesday morning last week. All my running had to take place at around 6.50 am in the morning so warm was the weather during the day with temperature’s hitting highs of 40 degrees. Even at 6.50 am in the morning it was still in the mid to high 20 degrees so the pace had to be slow. I also ran my time using a stopwatch rather than a garmin.

Nevertheless I felt in terms of keeping the legs fresh I had done enough to allow me to run the Clonmel half marathon but the old Spanish belly intervened on Wednesday on the way down. I did run 8.5 miles on the Thursday in Charleville at a relaxed pace of 8.20 per mile but I should have worried when the effort felt harder than it should have. I had no energy on the Friday and things worsened over the weekend with my system acting in a “irregular “ way. Hence no running today in Clonmel and only 17 miles this week and 23 miles the week before.

We will see what the rest of the week brings.

Good workouts before holiday blowout

Week ending 2^nd August

A very good running week. I hoped to pack a good few miles in this week as it was coming to the end of the month and I wanted to get close to nearly 200 miles for the month of July (I managed 199 last year and 193 this time). Also with a 11 day trip coming up in Spain where temperatures are somewhere in the 40 degrees I might be limited to 3 runs a week. We tend to do a bit of travelling around when we go abroad so getting into a settled routine of running is tricky. At least by getting a good week up on my legs the following 7 days allows me to rest somewhat before building it up again for August and the big month of  September.

Monday – routine recovery jog. I had no Garmin but I did the usual 4 mile route. It felt very comfortable.

Tuesday – 8 miles with 5 miles tempo. Average pace for the tempo was 7.10.It was a faster tempo than this time last year and I should have pushed things on a bit for mile 2. Last mile was run in 6.59 pace. Hopefully by September I can get a faster pace on the shorter tempos, ideally around 7 minutes.

Wednesday – I was up early around 6.40 am for a 90 minute long slow midweek medium “long run” running from Charleville – Railway Rd – Bally hea and back via Charleville. I covered 10.25 miles at a solid slow pace of 8.27 per mile.

Thursday – Another early start with a 3 mile warm up jog and then 10 X 2 min intervals at 6.33 average pace. I rested around 45 -60 seconds between each interval and jogged a mile home. I ran 7 miles in total. Again not a very fast pace for intervals as a lot of runners who run a 5k under 20 minutes would be doing these intervals at 6 minute pace. 20 minutes of intervals is enough to be getting on with as the legs felt it the next day.

Friday – 4 mile recovery jog at 9.20 pace. Hr 135.

Saturday – The day of the long run. Like all my workouts this week I was running this on my own. The plan was to spend around 2hrs40mins on my feet but run around 10 miles at marathon pace. I ran 7.5 miles at a slow relaxed pace (7.45 pace). I took a sup of water and then ran the next 10 miles at 7.40 pace. I was very comfortable for the for 8 miles but the last two miles were tough. I should have kept a tighter rein on the splits at miles 7 and mile 8 and I suffered a bit for the last mile. The splits were the marathon pace run were 1) 7.46, 2)7.59 3)7.48 4)7.43 5)7.35 6)7.26 7)7.29 8)7.30 9)7.40 10)7.38. Nevertheless I was happy with the way the run panned out. I suppose it would have been good to have turned out another 2/3 miles but all in good time. I then tacked on another 15 minutes (1.5 miles) of slow mileage simply to get the legs running on depleted legs. A good workout. 19miles.

My next race will be the Clonmel half marathon in two weeks. I hope to get around as the legs will be jelly like after the holidays. Hopefully I can build up the fitness from that point onwards.

Monday 4 miles, Tuesday 8 miles with 5 mile tempo, Wednesday 10.25 miles, Thursday 7 miles with 10 X 2 miles, Friday 4 miles, Saturday 19 miles with 10 miles at MP pace.