Not a very good day out. Not good at all. This was my 4th half marathon since September - Tullamore 1.55, Charleville 1.47, Portarlington 1.48. I hadn't even tried to race those previous races as I was only finding my way back but it was still a effort to get around. That was understandable given my sporadic training, having a bit of weight on me and turning away from running in general the last 12 months. However I had targeted Waterford as a chance to run a time of sub 1.45, a modest target which for many years would have been a pleasant training run. Most of my better half marathons were (in historic terms) generally in the 1.33 to 1.36 range , a sign I was doing well.
By the time I drove down to Waterford I.T for 9 am I had a few worries, namely a head cold which limited training during the week and that blasted pain in my left glute which was making running and driving quite uncomfortable the last few weeks. Nevertheless, all excuses aside I was hopeful I would do ok enough. I felt good during the warm up, chatting to my cousin Don Ryan,dual Ironman finisher, who was expecting a comfortable 1.28 finish. Don has come a long way in 7 years. My hamstring and glute felt relaxed and the nose was clearing up nicely.
Mile 1 to Mile 3 I was in trouble. The first mile went by in 7.30 (a pace which was now too tough for me) the rest followed in around 8.30. However by mile 8 I was ticking away nicely coming up to 63 minutes on the clock, precisely where I wanted to be. I felt reasonably ok no longer overly troubled like I was in the first few miles. My pace was around 7.50 per mile, I had no garmin but was hopeful of doing ok. By mile 9 I was walking. I had no energy left and the back of the right leg was very tight and sore, a dull pain was now getting more and more angry and mobility was getting very restricted. I tried rolling it out over the last few weeks but it had little impact and it was coming home to roost today. Mile 10 was a Connemara like hill except on the motorway and walked up that. I walked ran the remaining 3 miles putting in a little spurt for the last mile to come in around 1.55. Mile 11 was the worst of all shifting the weight off the right leg by leaning more to my left side and stopping for stretches.
I was fair fed up coming over the line and just wanted to get away from the place as quick as possible. I chatted briefly to Don and a few clubmates, collecting my goody bag and medal and drove home stopping twice on the way home to stretch out the leg. I was in the car shifting around to get relief. Getting out of the car when I got home proved to be a struggle. Ah it was a shit day no two ways about it.
On reflection I think I would have struggled at modest 7.50 pace regardless of the tight leg thing. Maybe it's a weight thing or a age thing but the decline has been quite startling. Either way I will have to draw a line under it and drive on, it's happened before and I have bounced back from it..
No comments:
Post a Comment