Mundane

40 mins on bike

30 mins on Treadmill, 4.17 miles

Nothing really of note to report. Shin was toiight like a toiiger but isn't really getting any worse, and I'm continuing to work on it every day. Looking forward to getting some new kicks, but that will wait a couple of weeks till I get states side and save on the $$. Even my shins are at the mercy of the recession. 

CERA - not the guy from Superbad

4.17 miles, 30 mins

40 mins on X-trainer

Got a good 40 mins in on the X-trainer doing the 'hill workout', sent the HR up to 190bpm on occasion, and got me nice and limbered up for the treadmill. The right shin is a little tight still as I can't work the knot out of the neck of my calf, but its very manageable and not causing me any problems. Did my weights routine after and felt pretty good post-workout.

So Rachid Ramzi is a drug cheat. Should I be surprised? No, and sadly I'm not. Despite his pedigree as a prior World champ (which I naturally assume now was also drug-induced) someone who came into the Olympics with hardly any racing over the last 1+ years should not win a race of that caliber after coming through the rounds. Hopefully they throw the book at him (Literally would do just fine as well). The people I feel for are Kiprop and Willis who were denied the chance to celebrate their just achievements at the time. Typically the 4th place finisher behind a drug cheat is also denied their opportunity to get on the podium, but I don't believe that Baala is any cleaner than Ramzi, so don't have much sympathy.

There's my rant for the day. Back to watching Ronaldo fall around the football field like a little girl.

Me No Likee

4.25 miles, 30 mins

They say familiarity breeds contempt. Now, I don't know who they are, but after today's outing I'm inclined to agree. Due to a desire to see some Champions League football I decided to work out at the gym where I supervise the subjects from my study exercise. Figured one cross trainer is the same as the next. Nuh uh. After 15 mins of a planned 40 on some contraption resembling a X-trainer my legs were toast, my HR was shooting skywards, and I was on the lowest possible setting. F that. Initially thought about making up the extra time on the treadmill but decided to be smart, stick to the plan, and finish at 30 mins. The run was fun, although I didn't enjoy the mirror to the side of me. It made me realise a) how painfully short and ugly my stride is now, and b) my legs are HUGE, and not in a good way. I must be carrying a good 10lbs excess baggage down there, and am not really sure how, since my bones are whittled away to nowt. Attempted to do my usual weight routine, and again, was totally out of sync on the different machines. Bagged it till tomorrow, and did a bunch of core/flexibility work. Looking forward to returning to normality tomorrow.

Big props to Jokin for the win at the OKC marathon. It's funny, but thinking about it, it seems very rare to hear of someone you know actually winning a marathon. Its a race so defined by time (and Kenyans) that trying to win is never usually a factor. Congrats man.

Doy Aff

Respect the beast

5.75 miles, 37:08

Don't know what the reason for it was, either being hungover/slightly drunk, being inspired by the London marathon, or the fact that there were some women playing a bit of gaa but this was my fastest run in a long time. Opened up the first lap with a 5:00 and gradually worked down to a 4:25. Felt nice to open the stride up a little but at the same time feels a bit depressing that this pace is quicker than normal yet is still slower than my target marathon pace. Legs felt great and the run helped clear the head. 

Initially the title was supposed to refer to the marathon itself, but I'm thinking more and more that it should instead refer to Sammy Wanjiru. The guy is a total freak. After a ridiculous 61:35 first half of London, a few slower miles were followed by a 4:25, yes 4:25 19th mile. Thats just crazy. He then led Kebede by no more than 2-3 seconds for the remaining 7 miles continuing to throw down surges just as Kebede kept closing on him. It must have totally demoralised Kebede to not ever get fully in touch. Wanjiru between this and Beijing has blown away all 'conventional' thoughts about how to run the marathon. Ridic.

Good to get outside

4.25 miles, 29:39

Felt good to get back outside and enjoyed the run on a beautiful spring day. Started out with a 5:15 first lap and gradually opened up the stride a little so that by the end my final couple of laps were 4:48s. Did some good work both pre- and post-run on the calf which seems to be responding and alleviating the stress on the shin. 

The day was spoiled somewhat by Spurs trip to Man Utd. For the third visit in a row we took the lead, but this time managed to go in at half-time 2 up. We were then robbed by the referee giving a ridiculous penalty to let Utd back in, and Spurs proceeded to perform the customary collapse and get a 5-2 trouncing. Shocking stuff. 

Oi me Nips!!

45 mins on bike

25 mins on T-mill, 3.5 miles

Wore a football jersey as opposed to a 'traditional' running top today and f*ckin A if I dont regret it. Serious chafage of the nips occurred. Definitely not a mistake to be repeated. Was pleased to find the bike relatively easy today despite the legs being pretty tired. This week is the hardest I have worked out (despite the low mileage) since Browntown days, so glad that I'm still feeling good and enjoying the workouts. Looking forward to getting home for the weekend and running outside again though. 

Sat night has a birthday party for a friend in store. I'm telling myself now that I'm going to take it easy as I want to be up to watch the London marathon Sunday morning. Me & Self discipline, we go way back. Should be no problem.

Draggin Ass

55 mins on X-trainer

25 mins on T-mill, 3.5 miles

Last couple of days caught up to me in a big way today as my legs were pretty upset with me on the cross-trainer for the first 10 mins or so. Did the XC workout which had me workin, but legs started to respond and felt fairly strong towards the end. HR hit a high of 189 after one of the climbs, but recovered nice and quick back down to the 140s. Run felt good although I do still have some tightness in the right calf that I'm struggling to loosen out but otherwise no problems. Very happy that tomorrow is Friday, its been a long week. 22 days and counting to the wee mans return to the US of A.

Gym rat

45 mins on the bike

25 mins on T-mill, 3.5 miles

Got to say that despite all my initial apprehension I'm starting to love the gym. Main reason being the lashings of sweat that are coming off of me, makes me feel like I'm getting in a great workout and continuing on the path to being less of a fat bastard. Didn't have the HR monitor but always watch the Watts on the bike as it gives me a comparison to the VO2 max test I did back in October time. Its definitely not as accurate as the equipment in the lab, as in the Vo2 test I max out at 270 watts (only 60rpms though) whereas on the gym bikes I'm always between 230-320W for the duration (at 100rpms). Nice to think I'm making progress though. 

Run was triffic, felt good and relaxed, can't wait to do the real thing outside again at the weekend.

Missing midweek football because of work also sucks a fat one. 4-4 between the scum down the road and the scum on merseyside, even I would have enjoyed it. 

sweatbox

45 mins on X-trainer

Avg HR = 160, range = 138-181

25 mins on T mill, 3.6 miles

Avg HR = 170

Got in a great workout and sweated my bollocks off for a couple of hours (not literally of course). Wore the HR monitor to gauge the effort throughout on the X trainer and was pleased with what I was seeing. Not so much on the T mill, although effort wise it felt extremely easy, and will put it down to some lactate and junk following the X-trainer. Did weights and all after, cos lets face it, I'm just that good. 

Listened to Boston while working yesterday, watching it whenever the commentators got excited and the last 3-4 miles of both races. Very inspiring to see non-Africans in the mix, although was in complete agreement with  DeReuck about the womens race being embarrassingly slow through 20 miles. Was rooting for Hall and was interested to see him describe himself as feeling like a rookie because at the time I couldnt get his tactics. After all the Boston-specific prep he did I couldnt believe he took it out the way he did. Can't decide if his not covering the break was a throwback to London last year when they came back to him after Merga made a similar (but less substantial) move or whether (I think more likely) his legs weren't responding after the first 10k. Either way, a podium finish at a major marathon is a ridiculously good run. Would love to see him back in Boston next year as he can only learn from this and would back him to finish a couple of spots higher if he does (i.e. win)

Also took yesterday off. No reason other than no time to run. Never thought I'd say that in college.

Sound body, sound mind

4.25 miles, 29:38

Went for a few pints last night and was pretty sensible to decide to leave early. However my decision to attempt a new shortcut throught the fields home from Fitz backfired pretty dramatically. Ended up scraping the right leg pretty good on some barbed wire and looks like I'm going to have a nice little contusion there but other than that no lasting damage done. Didnt feel too bad waking up this morning, and the run was perfect for clearing the system out. Opening lap was 5:13, and finished with two 4:48s, averaging a coupla ticks a lap quicker than yesterday. Calf is improving nicely from the isokinetic tests on Friday, and the DOMS is clearing from the hammy. Repeated the slightly longer run today given that the weather was again exceptional and I dont have the gym to supplement the workout. 

Savage day

4.25 miles, 29:50

Started out with a 5:15 lap of the fields and gradually brought the pace down to 4:50s for the last couple of laps. Had some DOMS in the right hammy but other than that felt excellent on the run. Did the long run (I use this term liberally) for the week today as the weather was unbelievably good. Plan is to run 50% longer on a Sunday than every other day of the week. Really enjoyed the run.

Isokinetic, Isometric, Isosore

Volunteered to demonstrate some new equipment in the lab that determined isokinetic and isometric forces from concentric and eccentric contractions in the quad and hamstring. Naturally, I hurt my calf. Not too sure how that works. All the testing was on the right leg, so am expecting some soreness there tomorrow, especially in the calf. Following the test, did 25mins on the bike, followed by the usual 20mins on the Treadmill. Followed up with weights felt pretty good, especially after working hard yesterday.

Insane in the membrane

Amazed that my sanity remained intact through a surprisingly enjoyable hour on the cross trainer where I worked up quite the sweat. Did the XC workout on the machine which broke the hour up nicely, pushing the HR up to 194bpm on the steeper climbs. Was very happy with the fact that the HR recovered quickly between the harder intervals. Followed up the hour with the 20 min yog on the T-mill. Found this a nice way to finish off the workout, gradually bringing the pace down from 7:45 per mile to a slightly more respectable 6:58 to get the 2.75 miles in for the 20 mins. Legs are feeling decent, but I'm bloody knackered, and am looking forward to a good nights kip.

And repeat

Treadmill, 20:00, 2.8 miles

Got crazy and mixed things up by hitting the bike before getting on the treadmill. Life is wild sometimes, you just gotta roll with it. Feeling good on the runs, still some very minor niggling going on up and down the shin but seems to be stemming from the calf muscle. Working on loosening it up as I speak (or type?) 

Trinners life

Treadmill, 20:00, 2.8 miles

I hate the treadmill. But I also want to get fit, which isn't going to happen on 20 mins running. Hit the cross-trainer for 40mins hard effort prior to jumping on the T-mill. Will only have to do this for another 2 weeks before I can head straight to the cricket fields for the run (only allowed following May 1st). Just as well as the T-mill has a pre-programmed max time limit of 20 minutes; convenient for this week, total balls for in general.

Quickies

Pats Field, 2.75 miles, 20:00

I don't like posting numerous days at once (take note Jokin) but I've been both periodically busy and lazy since Sunday so here we go. Hit the football fields again to take advantage of the soft surface and really enjoyed the run. The lungs are strong as expected from the gym work but the legs are probably only at about this level of fitness for running. Happy to have the legs feel good and feel fresh post exercise.

No run Monday as I was wicked hungover. Sunday night was spent in Kells (Not an Irish hotbed of entertainment) as a group of us headed down to check out a band that are now playing at the brother's wedding next summer. Monday was spent travelling home/resisting the urge to puke/travelling back to Dublin.

Put it on the board

20:36, 2.75 miles

1st day back out and it wasn't too bad. One or two twinges from the shin at times, but from varying locations and no tenderness post run was all good. Plan is to run this type of length 5-6 times this week, supplemented with gym work once I get back to the big schmoke, followed with increases of 5 mins per day each week, with the 4th week of each segment a recovery week. While its not an ideal plan, it should (hopefully) keep me healthy. Was good to get back out there, hoping to do it more often.

Love for the Blogs

No running since last Wednesday, but plenty of good gym work to help (slowly) get this mass of a man to a more reasonable level. Felt motivated to post despite the lack of running material to post because of a convo with Coste and reading Keith's blog post for today. Basically I haven't run for 3 years. I've been dabbling, building up, getting injured etc etc and tried (at times, not always) to cross train through the injuries without much success till this year. This most recent shin trouble has arisen after around 3-4 weeks running following the last injury. The insight I'm drawing from Keith and Coste is that when I started running a month ago I jumped straight back into 4-6 mile runs (nothing special, but about as much as I was doing pre-injury) because the cardiovascular fitness was there but the legs were clearly not. So the next comeback will start from scratch. I need to re-train my legs to run 5-6 days a week, so will be starting slow, and will continue to supplement with gym work until I (hopefully) reach a point where the body can handle running a reasonable amount. I have 28 weeks till the Dublin marathon, of which I hope 12 will be the re-training time and 16 weeks of decent enough quality running to get me home under 2:50. The shin has been feeling a lot better in recent days, and given that gyms and all shut down for Easter here, I may venture out for some yogging this weekend. 

biablyzi: The future star of the 2010 World Cup

So I have now not run in a week, although I have managed to get some gym work in pretty much everyday. The disappointing news is that even with the week off my shin is still pretty tender and at times sore to walk on. Wait, I think I've done this before. Weird thing is the shin is much sorer post-icing, which makes me not want to ice. Because the gym work is going ok, and because college is now kicking my ass, I'm pretty much certain I won't be running for at least another week. At which point I'm hoping my shin has worked out its issues, and if it is a s.f. (you're not supposed to say it out loud) then I'll already be 2 weeks into recovery mode. On the plus side its 28+ weeks to the Dublin marathon which is plenty of time to get in shape. On the negative side, if I'm getting a s.f. on 25 miles a week then my chances of running sub 3 for the marathon are about as good as me shagging Jessica Alba.