Battling the elements

The past couple of weeks have been tough mentally as well as physically with mother nature throwing everything our way. Also had a small setback of sorts the week before last but nothing major. More details below:


Monday 3rd Feb - Recovery Run

5.03 miles @ 10:08

Just a loop around the town at a very sedate pace to freshen the legs up a bit. Wasn't feeling the best in general after this so had an early night and took a couple of paracetamol hoping to stave off anything.


Tuesday 4th Feb - Session

1.78 miles w/u @ 9:09

7x2 mins w/1 min recovery (6:59, 7:28, 7:22, 7:01, 7:05, 6:54, 6:59)

0 CD

4.22 miles in total.
Hurricane like conditions greeted us along with driving rain and flooded track. Started to do a bit of a warm up to see how bad it was and was soaked after one lap so decided I might as well stay put with the rest of the lunatics. When Gary arrived I think he got a bit of a shock with how bad it was and took it easy on us this week. The paces really mean nothing as it was just a case of putting the head down and battling through the wind. Got it done eventually and for the first time ever nobody did a cool down. Fair play to all the hardy souls that turned up.


Friday 7th Feb - Tempo

1.65 miles @ 9:46

7 miles @ 7:43 (7:46, 7:46, 7:54, 7:43, 7:50, 7:30, 7:30)

1.67 miles @ 9:52

Had woken up on Wednesday with a knot between my shoulders that stayed there for a couple of days which meant no running, but had eased off enough for this session on Friday evening.

Met up with Rosemary for this and used the same 2 mile loop as last week. Was good to have the company and made it pass a bit quicker.

Even with the reduced miles this week just wasn't really feeling the love for it. Feeling pretty tired despite getting plenty of sleep. I think it was more a case of doing too much last week and also maybe some sort of viral thing going on.

Saturday 8th Feb - Ardgillan Parkrun

5K in 27:27

This was the first hosting of the Ardgillan parkrun and I decided to head up and do my easy run and support the event. Seemed to be a great turnout despite the weather. Was talking to Michelle from the club waiting for it to start and out chat continued over the first couple of miles that were mainly downhill or flat. Knowing Ardgillan all that means is while it's great to be running downhill you have to get all the way back up to where you came from. Even at an easy pace and not trying to run a time or anything I really struggled and just felt empty. Got there in the end anyway and look forward to giving it a proper go in the future.


Monday 10th Feb - Easy Run

9.5 miles @ 8:55

Pulled the plug on Sunday's long run as didn't fancy another slog and struggle. Ended up watching the Rugby on Sat afternoon and having a few drinks with the lads which I enjoyed.

With that in mind I did a longer than normal run this evening but not too long that it would impede on Tuesday's speed training.


Tuesday 11th Feb - Session

Last weeks storm was replaced with snow this week which didn't have an effect on the underfoot conditions just the back straight that was into the wind and the snow making it more difficult than normal.

Session was 3 sets of 2 mins @5K pace, 45 sec recovery, 6 mins @10K pace, 3 min recovery.

Paces were (6:54, 7:12, 6:49, 7:04, 6:52, 7:03)

Felt the effort was pretty consistent throughout and happy enough with the paces given the conditions. Was really a case of getting a breather when the wind was behind and digging in when into the wind. Finished strong which was the main thing.

Some week soon we must be due decent conditions.

6.78 miles in total incl w/u & c/d.

Thursday 13th Feb - Tempo

Plan was for 9 miles @ MP-10

9 miles @ 7:49

(7:53,7:48,7:52,7:46,7:56,7:51,7:55,7:43,7,41)



Delighted with how this went given the conditions.

11.3 miles total.

Friday 14th Feb - Recovery

6.05 miles @ 9:44

First early morning weekday run in a good while, but having seen the forecast for later it proved to be a wise decision. Was a lovely morning for a run but by the time I was in work the weather forecasters had gotten it right. Legs were tired from the previous evening and right knee was a bit sore.

Saturday 15th Feb - Easy Run

5.5 miles @ 8:54

A few hilly miles around the silverstream loop as it's known with a few from the club. Feeling a lot fresher this week compared to last week. Definitely think I was run down or something last week.

Sunday 16th Feb - Long Run

16 miles @ 8:32

A lot of the usual crew were heading to Bohermeen to do a trial run there but with time pressures and also a longer run to do I stayed local. Basically did the Balbriggan 1/2 marathon route with the bit to/from my house making it up to 16 miles. This had a nice blend of hills throughout but with it being a loop it all balances out in the end. After a couple of slower miles to start the pace gradually kept falling as the miles ticked by. Bit of frost in some spots but navigated these ok (apart from one spot on a hill). Toyed with the idea of tagging on a few extra miles but decided to stick to the plan in the end as had plenty of miles in the bag from this week (55). Really happy with how this went.

Summary: So after a bit of a setback last week it was followed by a much better weeks training this week. Fitting everything in continues to be difficult but helped by a very understanding wife. Another busy week coming up but we'll do our best to squeeze everything in. Having 3 days off work will help ;-)

10 weeks and counting...

10 weeks to go to London now which I'm trying to put to the back of my mind for the moment and just take the training as it comes. Below is the rest of my training from last week.

Tuesday 28th January - Session

2.03 miles w/u @ 9:30

3 x 400 w/90 sec recovery (88,87,88)

20 min tempo @ 7:25 pace, avg HR 141

.81 miles c/d @ 9:05

I wasn't looking forward to this one after the race and long run and to be honest legs were feeling pretty crappy as expected during the warm up. I wasn't expecting to push it too much during this session.

Started off with 3x400m that was actually .23 according to the Garmin (the track we use in the winter is not a standard athletics track and around 475 metres so hard to get exact distances).

After that there was a 20 min tempo. Then came the light at the end of the tunnel. Gary told anyone that had done Raheny to just try and aim for HMP. This seemed to help my outlook and we started ticking off the laps and minutes. It felt a lot easier suddenly than HMP normally does and picked up the pace gradually for the last few minutes.

Really happy with how this went. Few laps cool down to finish.


Wednesday 29th January - Recovery

5.05 miles @ 9:51 Recovery run this evening keeping it effortless basically. Followed up with 30 mins S&C class. Main set was below 7 times Pull ups x 5 Dips x 5 Deadlift x 5 Hopefully the feeling in my arms comes back soon.

5.05 miles @ 9:51

Recovery run this evening keeping it as easy as possible to try and flush out the legs between sessions.

Followed up with 30 mins S&C class involving some new exercises (pull ups, dips & dead lifts).


Thursday 20th January - Tempo

This one had me worried. Had a serious case of Doms developing in the upper body and arms during the day to the point where it was a struggle to change my top beforehand. Was also worried it was a bit close to race/long run/session from the days previous. Still there wasn't going to be too much time in the rest of the week to fit it in so I got on with it.

Just over a mile warm up brought me to the traffic lights on the Naul road, where I would use a mile out and back on the ring road for this session.

8.5 miles @ MP -10 secs

Split HR

7:51 138
7:46 138
7:54 141
7:49 141
7:53 138
7:44 132
7:51 138
7:26 130
7:40 133

Avg Pace: 7:46
Avg HR: 137

The odd miles were into a stiff enough breeze mostly so took a bit more effort to get close to 7:50 pace which was the target. I wasn't killing myself to hit it as I knew I could balance it out going the other way. Not sure what happened with the 7:26 mile, think I had switched off with it being the last mile and thoughts of getting finished led me to pick it up without knowing it. Strange to see a drop off in the HR as well in a couple of later miles but maybe that is just a glitch?

Glad to have this session done with the way the body was feeling.

Nice slow cool down home to finish up with over 10.5 miles.


Friday 31st January6.08 miles @ 8:57
Avg Hr:130

Easy run this evening with Ken. Didn't look at the watch once as we were just chatting our way round. Was a bit harder than it should with upper body in a bigger jocker than yesterday. Legs were ok though if a bit tired.

183 miles for the month which is probably my highest ever. Certainly not far off anyway. Happy with how most things are going at the moment.


Sunday 2nd February

18.2 Miles
Avg Pace: 8:50

They say there is a benefit to doing your long runs on tired legs right? Well I hope so. Got an early start to get 4 miles done before meeting the usual crew at 8:30. Legs and body were just generally feeling tired but the miles ticked off harmlessly enough. On one of the country roads a dog came to greet us and then 30 secs later we heard this thud. The poor dog got a belt of a car. It sounded pretty bad but the dog was moving around when we left it back into it's owners house. The driver of course hadn't stopped.

Had to make a pit stop after around 14/15 miles so ended running the last bit of the run solo. This was tough with the wind and terrain including a few nice hills. As bad as I felt though and as slow as I thought I was going the mile splits were ok, despite the mental anguish.

Glad to get sight of the cars in the end but need to make sure in future I at least have a drink with me it we're not going to be passing the cars. We didn't expect the loop to be 14 miles though!!!

Just over 60 miles in the last 7 days which is a lot for me and too big of a jump but in my defence the long run last Monday really belonged to the previous week so it is more a case of 84 miles over the last 2 weeks.

Hopefully another good week's training lies ahead and the weather doesn't turn out to be as bad as they say :-(