Thursday, July 30, 2009

Rejected

8 miles, no time

Continuing with the no time deal for the week, I have to say I'm enjoying it. I have more than once caught myself trying to check the time on the non-existant watch, which is pretty pathetic. First 200m of the run I had some real soreness in the left achilles/soleus, which was a little surprising given yesterday's off day. Didnt take long for it to work out though, and after that I have to say I felt pretty darn good. Contemplating going 18 for the first time on Sunday, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Recruiting for the study has gone pretty terribly the past couple of weeks. I got 5 straight no's today just asking if I could talk to them about the study, let alone ask them if they wanted to take part. Times like this make me wonder whether its worth it, and more importantly, am I ever going to finish? Dilemmas........

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Non-Hungover recap

After another night of the cold sweats, I'm feeling pretty close to normal, although it still glows when I pee, no matter how much water I drink. Either someone put some neon dye in whatever I was drinking, or I still have some serious toxins in my body. No matter.
Last week I should have hit 56 miles on 6 runs. Given my social life interfered with this, I only ended up with 40. Disappointing, but this coming week was a recovery week anyway, so a reversal of last Sunday's run with this coming Sunday and I'm pretty much back on track. Every run between now and this Sunday is slated as an easy run, so I'm ditching the watch for the week. While this means that the pace might not necessarily be 'recovery pace', its so relaxing not to be a slave to the watch that the mental break is key. Today I did an easy 6 around Ringsend park, before finishing in the gym. Only did 2 sets of everything in the gym as opposed to the usual 3 in keeping with the 'recovery theme' but to be honest this felt like a bit of a waste of time and probably won't be repeated.

Before a quick recap of the concert, I have my laptop back from its life-saving surgery. There are some definite quirks that are pissing me off. For example, thus far any press of the 'i' key mutes the speakers, the 'k' key freezes the mouse pad, while this afternoon I had the pleasure of discovering that the ',' key increases the volume. Therefore typing anything involves periodic losses of music with periodic moments of deafness, during which the mouse typically won't respond to violent thrusts towards the volume control. But at least I have my baby back.

The concert. Holy batshit was it good. Post is too long already to go into mad detail, but the setlist is here. Link also has a brief video of Larry coming onto the stage and showing how friggin cool it must be to be him. 23 songs from 8 different albums. The show had everything, not to mention the greatest stage/lights I've ever seen. Will have a ton of pics on facebook that I'm currently uploading to the pc. Wish I had tickets to more than one night, and urge anyone in the US to look for tour dates in Sept/Oct and get your asses out to see it for yourselves.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Alive? Damn Swine Flu is a bitch

I however, have been suffering with nothing more than a hangover since, um Saturday morning.
Note to self: Jameson and training do NOT mix in anyway shape or form.
Sat: 5 miles, 36:40
Sun: Near death, no run
Mon: Not much better, 8 miles, no time
Mon night. Still hungover, debating whether I'll ever recover.

Will return to legitimate posting hopefully tomorrow, along with pics from the concert. Right now I'm going to try and sleep, as opposed just having cold sweats, f*cked up dreams and visions of rats climbing the walls. Someday I'll follow through on my threats to quit drinking.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Breathe

8 miles, 55:56
Gym


Ran a bit longer today and will go shorter tomorrow instead for reasons I'll outline below. The run was good, felt fresh for the most part; although on occasion I did feel some tiredness in the legs. The gym was the gym. Moseyed round, posed in the mirror for 20 mins and called it a day. The usual.
Tonight there is a lot going on. The London grand prix promises to be a sick meet, and unfortunately its the first time in years I won't be watching. Additionally Spurs are taking on Barcelona. While its only a pre-season friendly, it's not often your team gets to play the (legitimately) best team in the world. However, I'll not be watching this either.
Instead I'm going to check out this band, don't know much about them, think they're an up and coming group. Doubt there'll be many at the gig. U2, ever heard of them?? Nah me either.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Not what was planned

On tap: 8 mile tempo

Reality: 4 mile tempo, 5 min jog, 8x400 w/ 1 min rec

Splits: 5:35, 5:42, 6:00 (uphill), 5:42 - 22:59
72.96 (59.96), 71.06 (61.2), 73.92 (59.6), 70.5 (59.7), 72.04 (58.3), 70.98 (59.9), 71.69 (58.3), 70.1.

The combination of work, lack of sleep and training caught up to me today. Had a perfect 4 mile loop plotted in the park taking in most of the route from the race on Saturday with the intention of doing 2 loops somewhere between 46-46:20. However, after the uphill 3rd mile my legs were totally gassed. A pity because for the first time in a tempo my breathing was so comfortable and relaxed, but the legs just weren't there. No point trying to force it. So after a few mins jog I did some 400s on the finishing straight for the race last week as the 400 to go and finish line were still on the roadside. All the odd ones were done into the wind, which is pretty evident given they're all 1-2 secs slower. Surprised and pleased with the 400 splits, as I didn't expect them to be this quick at all. Definitely glad I did them as it gave me some pleasure from a poor workout. But had you told me a month or two ago I would have done this I'd probably have thought you were high, so all in all things aren't bad.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Tired

It's late, I'm hungry and tired. No details today.

Mon: 5 miles, 34:56

Tue: 10 miles, 65:44, followed by the gym.

Legs have some pop, the rest of me is just poop. In desperate need of sleep. Day off tomorrow should aid with this.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Week 6

6 runs, 55.8 miles

Very pleased again, primarily as I got in the required miles while also making a solid return to competitive running. The legs recovered well, although I need to make sure to take the next day or two very easy to ensure no lasting side effects. Excited to give the course in the Park another crack in 4 weeks with the Adidas 10 miler.

Easy trot

13.25 miles, 97:48

Woke up this morning a little hazy after a nights boozing with Enda that was cut a little short as I was refused entry to our last destination for being 'too under the influence'. This was definitely beneficial to this mornings run, although I didn't quite agree at the time. I was also sporting a nice little gash down the front of my shin courtesy of a little concrete wall that came out of nowhere on me last night.
The pace early doors was extremely easy as myself and Enda were accompanied by his brother John whose training for Berlin. Headed out along the canal for the Park. After ~40 mins with John we continued up on a shortened loop through the park before returning home.
The run was a little longer than I intended, but the pace was so gentle that the legs felt good pretty much the whole way, with little to no side effects from yesterday.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Most Impressive Performance by a recent Brown Grad this weekend goes to....

Not this guy, but I'm pretty chuffed

3 mile w/u
5 mile race, 27:28
5 mile c/d

Splits: 5:09, 5:26, 5:36, 5:44, 5:32

If you were to judge this race only by the splits, and not knowing the course, you'd think I'd run like a complete arse. However, the effort was pretty consistent, and after the first half mile I picked up 20-25 places over the course of the run without getting passed by anyone. The first mile had about a 1km straightaway which was pretty flat, possibly a slight decline. A right turn took us towards the mile marker with that 600m gradually downhill. In truth the first mile was too quick, but only by about 5-10 secs, nothing major. Just past the mile marker we had a steep half mile downhill, before a sharp right turn into a steep half mile uphill and into the wind. I tried to conserve as much energy as possible on the downhill and really attacked the uphill, with this section being the area of the race I made up the most ground. The third mile was predominantly flat for the first 1200 before starting to climb, so was pleased to see that the split for this mile was my target pace. The fourth mile was all uphill, although the gradient wasn't too steep. As I was running I did think I had slowed to a greater extent than I actually did and was pleased to get to 4 miles in under 22 mins. At this point however, I was fucked with that capital F, with a pretty severe side stitch. Despite the last mile being flat, I did think I was going to struggle to get home in the 6 mins I needed to break 28. However, drawing on the spirit of Frank the Tank, I managed to keep my composure, not freak out, and realise that the 2 guys ~10 yards ahead of me weren't pulling away despite my struggles. Made a reall effort to make the ground up on them, getting there with about 500 to go, and despite having absolutely no kick at all managed to pass the 2 goys to get in.

I'm very happy with this run as I got in ~30secs quicker than I was hoping for, but the most pleasing thing about it was how quickly I recovered afterwards, and the 5 miles after the run was really pretty easy. The base is there, I'm definitely lacking quality work in training, but I'm not changing the plan. If I can keep doing what I'm doing for the next 14 weeks till Marathon Monday then I'm going to have a great base to start thinking about running this type of distance more competitively in the future. Definitely great to be back competing though. I was sitting on the can this morning (Sharing too much??) wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, when I realised that that type of feeling was what I had missed about running. Definitely helped with the nerves, and totally enjoyed the day.

Ridiculously long post I know, but final point, was there was 5800 people in the race. Surprised but happy that so many people are making an effort to improve their health. Given what I do, I spend a lot of time around out of shape, overweight/obese diabetics who totally abuse their bodies. It's pretty inspiring to see people make the effort to improve themselves.

Friday, July 17, 2009

oh boy

6 miles, 41:53

Thank god that the race wasn't today because I would have been fucked with a capital F. I felt flatter than Keira Knightley's chest (I still so would), which can entirely be attributed to a lack of sleep last night (~5 hours). Still, have plenty of time for recovery before tomorrow, and am getting pretty excited about the race. I'm very curious to see what I run, and have never been so unsure of what to expect, but I'm going to play the ballsy card and say that I'm aiming to run 28mins. I would be pleased with sub 28:30 though, but we'll see what happens. The course is set up tough, and if I don't get the pace right in the first two miles I'm proper fucked.

Went to the Porterhouse last night for the first time, and will definitely be back. Quality establishment, with some savagely good beers. Drank the fantastically named Galway Hooker last night, which tasted as good as the name sounds. Happy days.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

So little time.........

8 miles, 56:06
Gym

Had intended on doing 10 today, but didn't have the time to get 'er done before I was due back in for testing, so cut it a wee bit short in order to keep the gym session. Legs felt spectacular due to the day off yesterday, although I'm severely questioning the accuracy of the run length as it felt a bit quicker than 7 min pace. Maybe I'm just doing badger miles.
Really looking forward to the race on Saturday, some nerves setting in, but mainly on account of the fact that all going well I'm going to run 2 mins slower than I was running 3-4 years ago and actually be pleased with myself. This sucks.
Taking the Jeff T/Tarpy rule of having a few beers the night before the night before tonight. Not thrilled about the prospect to be honest, but has to be done, and if I race well, I may just keep it up.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Knackered

10.1 miles, 71:09
Gym

Felt pretty knackered on the run today, legs still a bit beat up from the long run. Combined with the fact that the weather was shite it was making for a pretty miserable run. Ran into Orla O'Mahony on the run and the company definitely made the run pass by a lot quicker.
Gym session was good, feeling strong on the weights.
School is doing its best to get me down at the minute, and loss of sleep is a definite factor in the tiredness going on at the minute. Tomorrow is a welcome day of from running, but given that I'm looking at a 14 hour day means I'll still probably feel pretty shagged on Thursday. College isnt supposed to be like this!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Hot damn thats a slow one

5.5 miles, 39:30

Very much a recovery run today after the long run yesterday. Could tell the pace was 'leisurely' but was enjoying it as I had some definite creakiness in the joints after yesterday. No specific pains/aches but felt very much out of sync. Spent some quality time with the trigger wheel and foam roller afterwards and feel pretty good right about now. Bout to sit down to finish watching Old School and polish of a half pint of Phish food. Happy days!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Week 5: Check

6 runs, 55 miles

A very good weeks training. Got in a good tempo run, 2 gym sessions, and my longest run to date. The shin issue that caused me some concern last week in the right shin was a total non-issue this week. Today's long run had some hip/IT tightness on the left side that I need to pay some attention to, but otherwise I'm in pretty good nick. This week should allow me to recover nicely as I've nothing but mileage till Saturday when the weeman makes his return to competition. Prepare for embarrassing slowness over 5 miles!!

More wrong turns

15.75 miles, 109 mins
Map

Was hoping for 16 today but took a wrong turn just past the 11 mile mark, going right when I should have gone left, but my memory of the map failed me. Very enjoyable run, and managed to keep the pace very easy and relaxed bar the couple of occasions some dogs took a liking to my ankles and I had to pick it up. Did notice some tightness in the left hip/IT band, nothing major, but just something I need to pay a bit more attention to. In terms of distance, it felt pretty easy to be out this long, however I'll need every bit of training in between now and October to get fit enough to be out there an hour more than today.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

No dramatics today

8.15 miles, 57:06

Had a fairly massive hangover this morning after a few pints of the Black stuff in Fitzers turned into many pints later in the night. Had a very rough first 10 mins of this run but felt grand after that. Right hammy was a bit tight but no major issues aside. Looking forward to the long run tomorrow

Friday, July 10, 2009

Tap that ass

6 miles, 42:26
Gym

Had to get out early today cos of work, so was a little out of it at the start of the run. Ran from the gym and not 30 seconds into the run I ran past some random dude who, I shit you not, smacked me on the ass as I went past. Between shock and the fact that it was 7am it took me a few strides to register what happened. I turned round trying to come up with something to say but as soon as I faced the guy he blew me a kiss. Seriously disturbed, all I could think to do was flip the bird and keep going. It was a gorgeous morning for a run and the tide was out so decided to run on the beach. Legs felt very good on the run after yesterday, and I got a good weight session in after.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Temp-ho

2.5 mile w/u (18:05)
6.15 mile tempo (35:18)
2.4 mile c/d (18:32)

HR during tempo = 177 - 189

Very happy with this workout. Was 53 seconds faster than when I did the same thing two weeks ago. 3 reasons why are a) I had the day off yesterday whereas last time out it was the 8th day in a row out; b) I'm a bit fitter; c) I ran a bit too hard today early on. Was about 20-25 seconds quicker through the 1st two miles which are the hardest two on the run being uphill and today into the wind. As a result I started to rig pretty bad on the 3rd mile, but after about 2.75 the park starts to work downhill and I used the downhills very well to recover from the first couple of miles. Last time out I kept a pretty even pace through 5 but rigged pretty on the last mile. Today after the downhill recovery I felt very strong and would guess that the last mile was the fastest which is encouraging. Recovered very quickly afterwards and the legs have felt good all day since.

Got the race number and course map for the 5 miler in the park Saturday week. Of course the course runs in the opposite direction to what I've been running, with the first 2 miles downhill and from 2-4.5 uphill. Going to be tough going. Also the timing chip is attached to the number which has to be the dumbest thing ever. What the hell is wrong with just lacing it into the shoe like the good old days???

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Beefcake!

~7 miles, 49:06
Gym
1.15 miles, 8:19

Woke up early this morning to run before Coll-ege! only to be in such a tired daze I couldn't remember what day it was and what run I was supposed to do for a good 5 mins. Once I got out I felt pretty good, although the calves are tight still. Tried to hit up the usual pre-gym run at Ringsend park but some lazy bastard hadn't opened up yet, so went down to Irishtown, and the nature park, meaning I got a good half of the run on grass. Had a great sesh in the gym, and a nice comfy trot back to the aportement. Day off tomorrow.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Recovery

6 miles easy, 43:10
HR = 143 - 149

Kept this nice and slow, but was happy to find that the soreness/tightness in the soleuses abated after a couple of hundred yards leaving me a nice easy run in the sun. Surprised at the lack of soreness from yesterday, and think it might be waiting to creep up on me tomorrow. Left off the gym an extra day too, when you look this good, its easy to lay off waxing the guns a day or so.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Month 1: Check

Weeks total: 53 miles, 6 runs

Very pleased with this week given the events of last weekend/travelling back and the occasional twinges/niggles in the shin which seems to have worked itself out (fingers crossed). Finished the week very well with an excellent long run today. To get through the first month of the training program on track and with a 100% record for runs is very satisfying. Only got to do that 4 more times and we'll see what happens on race day.

Oops

15 miles, 98:50

Had the perfect 14 mile route mapped out last night on Gmaps in preparation for this morning. However, because I live out in Boggerland, I can't zoom in enough on the satellite image to get landmarks, which resulted in me taking a wrong turn. Once I realised my error I took a chance on changing the route around Cooley, but this resulted in the run being longer than I planned. Didn't have splits for the majority of the run, but clocked the last 3 miles in 18:50. Didn't realise I was moving at that kind of tempo but delighted as it felt easy. Definitely need to pay more attention to pace as the whole point to these long runs is to maximise the amount of time I spend on my feet. More importantly I had zero issues with the right shin/calf, and the legs felt great. Very, very pleased with this run.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Hangover, followed by The Hangover

8 miles, 53:33

Had the day off yesterday, and the legs were very grateful. Last night was an Abu Dhabi reunion night, and unsurprisingly was messy. Had a savage nights craic, which of course meant that I was savagely hungover this morning. Missed the early bus back to Dundalk, and got home later than planned. Ventured out the door around 5pm, which was much later than planned, but felt better for it and enjoyed the run. Legs were feeling good, but after about 5 miles a little tightness crept into the shin, still not on the bone but a nuisance all the same. I desperately need to get a massage. I'm due a long run tomorrow, and will see how the leg responds. If its not positive, I'll crosstrain for the first few days of next week as I want to get on top of it early.
Just back from watching the Hangover (finally). It's all been said about it already, so awesome will suffice as a recap.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Tallafornia

~10 miles, 68:08

Shit got crazy in Dublin last night. Got woken at 4am by a mofo of a thunderstorm the likes of which I hadn't seen since, well, last Friday in DC. Apparently we got 2 weeks of rain in a single hour. And it kept raining the night through. Needless to say, everywhere was wet this morning, which made me decide to avoid running in the parks. Decide to hit the canal as it bends south towards Tallaght around the 3 mile mark and I hadn't ventured down there yet. I should have known better. Tallaght, or Tallafornia, is not known for its wonderful scenery, but rather pie-bald ponies wandering around housing estates and the like. So despite mapping out my run on Gmap with a clearly visible path on the satellite images, I ventured about 4.25 miles down to discover the path had been fenced off, and what looked like a series of petrol bombs set off the far side of it. Ran on the other side of the canal along a (wet) grass bank and passed some of said ponies and horses. Didn't manage to get to the 5 mile turnaround as someone had barricaded one of the through passes on the opposite side of the canal as well. Added on some at the end to get roughly 10, although Gmap suggests its closer to 9.75. I'm all about the whole numbers game.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Hoomid

6 miles, 43:06

Wasn't particularly enthused about running today as Wednesday is my usual day off and my legs were pretty gassed yesterday. However I'm not going to get a chance to run Friday so got my ass out the door. Legs were still tired and very stiff/sore in the soleus muscles, which was evident from the 7:30 first mile, followed by a 7:20. After this the legs loosened up considerably and I even managed to duck under 7 min pace on the last mile or two. Hit the Ice cup up last night and again tonight and the shins are very receptive. Looking forward to running a respectable length run tomorrow.