A man with a plan!

So I'm finally settling into some sort of routine after many months out of routine and its about time too! I also have some plans finally too!

Over the past few weeks I'm consistinately doing between 35-45miles per week which isn't a bad weekly total, my pace is also gradually improving and to help with that I've picked a goal for December.  I'm going to run the Waterford Half Marathon and I'm going to aim to beat my PB of 1:29.

It's perhaps a big ask and the last time I tried this last summer I managed just over 1:30.
To get an idea of how capable I am right now I did a 13.1mile distance last Monday and managed it in 1:35, not a bad time for a training run with effort. It wasn't all-out effort but I felt it none the less.

So my plan over the next few weeks is to rebuild my endurance first and then work on upping my pace, in preparation for the half marathon I also have some plans for:

17th Nov - Stook 10mile
23rd Nov - Long Way Round Mountain Run
7th Dec - Waterford Half Marathon

Is doing a mountain run of 9miles my best plan whilst training for a half marathon...properly not, but I always really enjoy the event and I like to support South East Mountain Rescue who organises the event.

Last weeks training was
Monday: 13.1miles @ 7:16min/mile pace
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 2miles @ 8:33min/mile pace
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 6miles @ 7:52min/mile
Saturday: 8miles @ 7:06min/mile
Sunday: 17miles @ 10:56min/mile

It's been sometime since I posted...

Dublin Marathon
Credit: Marathon Club Ireland / Vincent Guthrie

It's been awhile since I've posted an update and it's also not been a very activate few weeks.

Why?
Well, back on the 13th October I headed off for a spin on the road bike which I had been doing to maintain fitness while I've eased off from running to allow recovery.          All went well until I reached around 200metres from home where the road bike just went from under me and I hit the ground hard. 

I wasn't even doing any sort of fast speed but I still managed to cut up my arm and bruised my ribs from the fall.

It's over 30 days later and only now can I do a run where I can a run at a decent pace without any sort of pain or discomfort. Up until now it hurt to breath deep, hurt to lay down in bed and if I coughed. All of this really makes it awkward to do any sort of decent running.

Due to the injury sustained in the road bike I did still go ahead and run the Dublin Marathon but I opted instead to only use it as a slow training run with the aim of finishing somewhere between 4hrs-4.30. I did manage to pop by for a Marathon Club Ireland group photo before the race though.

Since then things have improved and during the week I managed my first run where I could comfortably run at a sub 7:30min/mile pace without feeling discomfort from the ribs so that was a good feeling. I did this for 9miles.

However, yesterday when I ran the Stook 10mile (for the 5th time) I still opted to take it nice and handy and also treated this as a normal training run and took it handy at around a 8:30-9min/mile pace for the vast majority of the run I also spent most of the time talking to people including Catherine Guthrie who represented Ireland at the Belfast 24hr in July of this year.

The exception to this was the flying mile (mile 8-9) where I ran the mile in 5:35min, I'd have run it faster only for the road was wet so I actually slowed myself as I was afraid I'd slip and fall on the steep hill.   Grace also joined me at Stook this year and she took part in the 5km event so it was nice to spend time together at the event.

The Famous Stook Cowbell

So whats next?

Next Saturday night I'm taking part in the Long Way Round which is a fund raiser for the South Eastern Mountain Rescue in Clonmel. It'll be a challenge as its almost all trail and mountain but it should be an enjoyable event and I'm looking forward to it.

The road to recovery III

I can feel things starting to get better week and week and its pretty hopeful!

This week I managed some 10mile runs with only some slight discomfort, I even felt like some of the speed was coming back into my legs as the pace improved for some of the miles. They legs are still holding up well the next day but I must ensure I do alot of stretching afterwards or I'm in trouble!

To be honest the stretching side of things is really no harm at all, I've always be awful for doing stretching after a run and I guess at this stage its coming back to bite me on the arse.

All was going well until Friday night when I was doing a 11mile looped run and I managed to twist my ankle in a pothole around 5miles from home.

While I didn't hurt at all during the rest of the run or even after after stretching on Saturday it really flared up after stretching and is painful enough today (Sunday) so no runs on Saturday or Sunday which is no harm I guess. 

There's no bruising and swelling from what I can see though so I'm going to ice it this evening and see how things are tomorrow.

This weeks runs broke-down as:
- Sunday: Rest
- Monday: 4.41miles @ 9:13min/pace
- Tuesday: Rest
- Wednesday: 11.01miles @ 9:23min/pace
- Thursday: 3miles @ 7:49min/pace
- Friday: 10miles @ 7:51min/pace and 1mile @ 9:19min/pace
- Saturday: Rest

Weekly Total: 29.45 miles
Miles This Year: 1,610 miles

Stook 10mile Road Race 2014

My cowbell collection is growing....

Another year and another run at the Stook 10mile road race organized by Gowran A/C in Dungarvan, Co Kilkenny.

This is the third year that Stook has been held and the second year I've attended and I must say I enjoyed this year more then last.  Its a well organized event and hats off to the local community for helping to put on the race.

After running Stook last year I knew what I was in for so I wasn't very hopeful of setting a new 10mile personal best, however I still figured I'd likely set a course PB as I've been doing a lot more hill training these last few months.....surely that has to stand to me?

The morning didn't begin well with the car not starting so after a mild panic about not making it to the race and getting a loan of a car 30min later I made it to Dungarvan with time to spare thankfully.

A quick 1mile warmup and I was ready to go!  The conditions this year were great, it was relatively dry with the exception of some water run-off from fields in places but more importantly it was lovely and cool.

Got chatting to a few familiar faces including Vincent who is the race director of the Tullaroan Marathon which is also held in Co Kilkenny, had a few mentions of people reading the blog as well from people.

At 12 midday we were off bang on time, I felt good from the start so I started with a 6:40 pace for the first mile however as the first small climbs hit this dropped to 7min pace for mile 2. But I was able to bring it down to sub 6:50min pace for miles 3-5.

By mile 7 I was finding the hills hard and the legs were tired so the pace dropped to its slowest of 8:34 as an avg pace for this mile, while this is slow its still faster then the same mile last year which I ran over a 9min pace....so overall that is an improvement even when I'm tired :)

By the time I hit the start of the flying mile the legs were pretty tired but I was hoping I'd be able to get a bit of a re-charge on the downhill so down I went and I ultimately managed a 5:56min pace for this mile which I'm happy with as this is still 4seconds faster for the same mile last year.

Unlike last year however two people managed to pass me on the flying mile and I didn't manage to catch anybody, I have to say this was a bit of a knock to the confidence as at the time I didn't think I was doing a very fast pace at times.  

By the time I hit half a mile to go to the finish I was really hoping for the finish but I could hear somebody right behind me and I was determined that they wouldn't pass me so I just gave it everything and upped the pace to finish the last mile strong with a 6:38min pace. 

I finished with a chip time of 70min 10seconds, this puts me 3min and 2 seconds faster then last years run so while its not a PB (PB is 69:20) its a course PB and if I can do this time on a hilly course I can certainly improve on my PB on a flatter course.

Garmin log of the race, also full results from the race are available here.

This weeks runs broke-down as:
- Monday: 9miles @ 7:46min pace
- Tuesday: Rest
- Wednesday: 4miles @ 8:36min pace
- Thursday: Rest
- Friday: 3miles @ 8:46min pace
- Saturday:Rest
- Sunday: 10miles @ 6:59min pace + .95mile @ 11.03min pace (warm-up)

Weekly Total: 27 miles
Miles This Year: 1,813 miles