Plans for 2016

Finally back with some updates,

Although I was injured in November and December I know things have bounced back and as long as I look after my left leg I'll be fine, I hope!

Originally for 2016 I had two big races planned, the Vartry 100 mile in March which I hoped to do in sub24hours and then the Connemara 100 in August which I've wanted to do since I did my first 50km event in 2012.

Due to my injury issues I've had to scale back my plans and now instead of doing the Vartry 100mile its going to be the Vartry 50mile as I don't feel I'd be anywhere ready for the 100mile due to recent loss of fitness etc.

Last year I took on the 50mile looped course and took it easy enough and finished it in 10hours 10min (I was aiming for 10hours). This year I'm again seeing it as a training run but so far I have no time in mind.

Taking on the Connemara 100 in August will be my second 100mile event and the Connemara 100 thankfully this time is 100 road and hilly which will give me plenty of time to rest on the uphills.    As strange as it may sound the flat course last year at Thames Path I found difficult, the 75% trail route I had to endure during it also really knocked the stuffing out of me because I do 99% of my running on road so I'm confident I can perform much better on a 100% road course.

So now my aim is to work towards a sub 24time in Connemara, I just need to find a support team for the event...anybody want to volunteer? :)

2015 Year in Review

Last year was a fast year and a year of both great experiences and some very frustrating experiences but I don't think I'd hugely change anything with the exception of actually dropping out of the Dublin marathon so I wouldn't have experienced the injury problems I had in November/December.

I started off the year training for the Thames Path 100 which was in May and for the first few weeks I felt like I had one of the best training periods as I had been done some nice long runs until February where I experienced my first bout of sickness the day after a 36mile run.

But I recovered and soldiered on for my training race in April.

At the start of April I didn't take part in the Connemara Ultra which I usually really enjoy and instead I opted for my first 50mile event in Co Wicklow called the Vartry 50.

It was a 5x 10mile looped course which was also hosting a 50km and 100mile event and my plan was to take it nice and easy and finish it in 10hours even....I finished it in 10hours 10min so I was very happy with this outcome.

Although I had been sick in February and this really worried me doing Vartry 50 was a really great boost to my spirits as it made me really hopefully that I could pull off the Thames Path 100 one way or another.

Taking part in the Thames Path 100 in May was an experience, I don't think I could put it into better words then I did in my race report. It was both some of the best experiences of my life and also some of the lowest experiences of my life all in the space of 27 and a half hours.   Its surreal to think that at 2am in the pouring rain I was running through a wooded area somewhere past Reading beside the river Thames, not something I expected to be doing 12 months before.

At the end of May I got back on the road and did my first decent long run by taking part in the locally run Tullaroan Marathon, I enjoyed the time running the course and chatting away to JP. It felt great to be back on the roads and it was a lovely day for it too!

In July I ventured back into ultra-running and took park in the Keith Whyte Waterfront Ultra Marathon III (36miles), I started this race off way too fast and would have been on for my second fastest marathon distance only for the wheels came off at around mile 25 and this resulted in ran/walking to the finish!

After that it was holiday time but by the middle of August and after fitting in some holiday running around parts of Co Wexford and Co Waterford I started training for the Dublin marathon. 

This time I was hoping for a sub 3:20 personal best and as part of the training I opted to take part in the JJ Reddy Half Marathon. 2015 was the first year that the half-marathon distance was being hosted by the organizers.

I knew from the start that it was going to be a hard course as I've run the 10km course twice and the course didn't fail to deliver!

Still I gave it all I could and managed a time of 1:29:33, my first ever sub 1:30 half marathon race time and I was thrilled!

After September my training for Dublin didn't go to plan and although I should have either dropped out of Dublin or aimed for a slower time I stuck with the 3:20 plan and everything fell apart at mile 21.   

In hindsight I know now that when things fell apart at mile 21 I should have dropped out of the race but instead I kept going and this cause my about 6 weeks+ of muscle pain and problems during November and into December during which time I had a few sessions of dry needling which wasn't pleasant but worked great to sort things out.

At times when I was experiencing muscle problems I couldn't run 2miles without being crippled the next day walking down the stairs....a very frustrating experience but an experience I've since taken some lessons from.

As it stands now my legs are returning to normal and I can do 10miles+ with no discomfort in the leg muscles, but I have lost a level of fitness which is frustrating but that's the way things go.

Total Miles for the 2015: 1,670miles
How does this compare to previous years, this is how:
2014: 2,005miles
2013: 1,651miles
2012: 1,513miles
2011: 956miles

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

The road to recovery II

So after last weeks post I decided I was going to run every week day but at a very slow pace and see how things panned out. The results were surprising, although the effort is higher than before I got injured the legs are feeling surprisingly fine for the most part.

The good news is there is next to no pain from the muscle in my left leg that I previously had problems with and more importantly I'm also not experiencing knee pain in my left leg.  

However I am feeling every so slight shin splints now and then in my left and right legs, I'm really not surprised by this considering my running form would have been affected by the injury which was causing me to put more load on my right leg.

For Wednesday I took a break from the 5mile runs and instead opted for 2miles, the first of which I ran around 700metres of at a faster pace. it felt great to run an avg pace of 7:20min for this first mile. For the second mile I took it nice and easy.

Thursday was a different affair, it was pouring out so I decided to do a slow 3mile run which took in a shortcut of a very very muddy country lane near my house.

Friday I was back 3miles but this time on road again, things were slower than Thursdays

After Fridays run I did feel some small amount of discomfort in my left leg near my knee, but once I stretched out my legs as normal everything felt fine.

When I started back running this week my aim was 5miles slow each day, but as the week went on I felt tired so I cut back the miles...likely hoping for too much too soon and also because I upped the pace which I shouldn't have done.

So now I'm taking a break for the weekend and next week I'm going to aim for more slow miles for another 5 days to see how things pan out.

Last weeks runs broke-down as:
- Sunday: Rest
- Monday: 5miles @ 9:01min/pace
- Tuesday: 5miles @ 9:00min/pace
- Wednesday: 2miles @ 7:49min/pace
- Thursday: 3.74miles @ 8:02min/pace
- Friday: 3miles @ 8:10min/pace
- Saturday: Rest

Weekly Total: 18.78 miles
Miles This Year: 1,580 miles

The road to recovery

So I'm still far from 100% but things are little by little improving thankfully.

For one I've managed a run 4miles this week in the morning with little or no discomfort and at an avg pace of around 8:40min/mile so thats a sight better then the 2miles I could manage the week before and experienced pain walking down the stairs the next morning.  

I also did a longer run at the weekend by taking part in the Stook 10mile race on Sunday...I didn't race it!

I had paid for the race weeks earlier so I figured I might as well run it anyway, I took it very easy and only experienced some discomfort around the mile 6 mark.    The funny thing is that the flying mile at mile 8-9 actually helped stretch out the leg muscles and by the time I finished the race the legs felt pretty good.

Another cow bell for the collection

After the race again things were also better as I experienced no pain while walking down the stairs that evening or the next morning.

Two days later I was back for a second session at the sports physio for some dry needing, not the most pleasant experience ever having needles stuck into my leg but its certainly bringing results.  But lots of bruises as well!

My aim now is to take it very easy until Christmas or whenever things feel better, this week I'm going to start back with a few more morning runs at a slow pace because up until now I've been only doing one or maybe two morning runs in the race if even that.

Houston we have a problem!

There's not been many blog updates lately mainly because I've been doing very little running lately.

I know my legs took a beating during the Dublin Marathon and with hindsight now it likely would have been the best plan to call it quits and mile 21 and call it a day, but nope! Stubborn me decided it wasn't going to be a DNF and now I'm paying for it now.

The muscles in my left leg are causing me awful issues the last while, worse then back in February of this year and its really impacting my running.   At present I'm managing just 2-3miles at a slow pace of between 8.30-9min miles...this is seriously frustrating.

The longest run I've done since Dublin was a trail run of around 12mile..about half of which I had to actually walk due to the poor trail conditions (and it was dark but thats another story!) but even with that I really felt it in my left leg the next day as I was experiencing pain when walking down stairs.

I've been into the local sports injury clinic and had some work done on it during the week and while it hurt like hell at the time its really helped, so hopefully that will get me back on track with a few more sessions and stretching.

Dublin Marathon Recovery and looking back

Its been over a week since Dublin and initially it wasn't particularly enjoyable, well ok my legs were
stiff but I've experienced far far worse before so its not the end of the world or anything.

The day after the Marathon I took on a 1.5mile recovery run as well as using the foam roller afterwards, recovery runs are never particularly enjoyable the first day or second day after a longer race but in my experience they are somewhat of a necessary evil as they really help loosen up the legs for me and they did help alot towards feeling back to normal.

Wednesday was no running and so was Thursday, by this point my legs were still feeling heavy especially when in bed but I opted to take in a nice slow 4mile ran on Friday morning and took on 8miles on Sunday morning

Looking back, was running Dublin a clever idea when I wasn't 100%?...well no, it was neither big nor clever but I'd have been seriously pissed with myself if I didn't and I would have always wondered so I certainly don't regret it.

Should I have perhaps aimed for a sub 3:30 time instead........in hindsight without a doubt yes, but then hindsight is 20:20 and I didn't know I'd only get to around mile 21 before the rug would be pulled from underneath me and I'd run into such problems.

All in all it was a learning experience, sure I could get away with running a short fast race when not 100%, hell I'd even get away with a longer slower race while not 100% but aiming for a marathon and trying to get a PB at the same time just isn't that do-able.   I guess you live and learn in that situation.

Dublin Marathon 2015 Race Report (or how NOT to run a goal marathon)

I almost didn't run the Dublin Marathon this year as I could feel the unset of what kind of started to feel like a chest infection during the week but it never seemed to fully develop, but to be on the safe side I went into recovery mode and took anything I could that I thought might help and rested as much as I could.

Luckily prior to Monday I had three whole days off so outside of going to the RDS on Saturday to collect my number I didn't have anything else planned and was able to rest to allow myself to recover!

As of Sunday night my breathing and lung function "seemed" to be fine and I have no unusual aches or pains so it appears I might have stop the unset of something worse, but without a doubt I've been run down the past 7-10 days.

But I decided I'd still give the marathon a shot (this may not have been the best plan) and so I drove up on Monday morning, before the start I met up with one or two of the pacers including Don the race director of the Vartry races in Wicklow and also Paul who was pacing 3:20. Unlike previous years my plan was to stick with the 3:20 pacers (there were 3 in total) and not to get over confident and go off in front of them.

From the start the 3:20 pacer group broke into two parts with one pacer running about 50metres - 100metres ahead of the two others, this certainly helped to spread out the crowd a bit more and although initially the head pacer was running slightly faster miles to create this gap spreading out the group was certainly a good idea.

Marathon Splits (click for larger version)

Despite the weather still being breezy surprisingly the Phoenix park was very calm as we ran up Chesterfield Avenue with only the odd bit breeze pushing across, the conditions otherwise were perfect as it was relatively cool, little or no wind and no rain....certainly a change from last years warmer conditions.

Conditions after that varied with a strong'ish breeze now and then, I learned from previous races and I wasn't out in front anymore, instead i stuck myself behind somebody to try and conserve my energy by letting them do the work.

By the time we hit the half way point I was however starting to feel tired so I took on another gel and that gave me a small boost, but by the time I hit mile 18 I think it might have been the first time Paul mentioned to me to keep the arms moving.

Things didn't vastly improve after that during the ascent of a small hill at mile 20/21 I again started to run into difficulties and although once again Paul did his best to encourage me to get up the hills I just felt like I had a total lack of energy and then the problems really started to start! My left IT band started to cramp really badly!

Due to the cramping I ended up stopping and walking, I tried to stretch it out and it helped a little and I started running again as I the 3:20 pacers were maybe 200metres ahead still so I kept up for a further 500metres but then my right leg started to cramp along with my left calf muscle!    At this stage I knew I was in trouble as I never normally experience cramping this bad.  

I walked for abit and tried to stretch things out and while I was able to run a short distance again things would start to cramp up and then I also started to also experience a very painful stitch on my right side.

At this stage I figured my issues where down to either A. I still was sick or B. I still hadn't fully recovered from being sick and either options were likely affecting my breathing which was likely causing a decrease in oxygen intake causing the cramping and stitch, not a great situation overall.

The rest of the miles were made up of walking very slowly and running short distances, although I did manage to run the last mile nonstop to finish in 3hours 51min 6sec. (Garmin of the run)

Overall a frustrating experience given I was bang on target until mile 20, in reality I likely shouldn't have run the Dublin Marathon or instead perhaps chosen a slower time like aiming for 3:30, but then who knows I might have experience the same issues running for that time also.

But then as anyone that reads this blog knows I'm awful stubborn when it comes to stuff, while I can push myself through hours of running or walking with painful blisters. Unfortunately in this case I couldn't push past the muscle cramping to keep any sort of reasonable pace....what I wouldn't have given for some blisters instead!

The outcome could have been worse of course so I'll take what good i can from the race including that I am very confident I can get that sub 3:20 time...provided I'm not trying to get it when sick or still recovering from being sick.

At this stage I still want to get the sub 3:20 time so I might pick a marathon in the next few months that I'll race in order to try hit that time, I don't want to wait until Dublin near year which is historically the only marathon I actually try and race.

Miles This Year: 1,492 miles

STOP! Taper time!

So I'm officially tapering for the Dublin Marathon on the 26th October!

Training hasn't been very consistent since after the JJ Reddy Half-Marathon but I'm not overly worried as I don't think I've lost much fitness overall, so with that I'm putting my money on the counter and finally committing to a sub 3:20 marathon time.

For the last while I've been debating between aiming for 3.15 or 3.20 but after noticing Dublin doesn't actually have any 3.15 pacers I'm going to play it safe and aim for 3.20 and the 7:26min/avg pace required. I'm reasonably confident I can pull this off and hold the pace together on the day.

On a side note, for the last few weeks I've been enjoying some night trail running by taking part in group trail runs organised by the South Leinster Trail Runners, its early days but numbers are promising with the most recent runs having 16 and 14 participants respectively.

The runs so far have taken part in the Co Kilkenny area so far but here's coping it goes from strength to strength as its seriously good fun.

For anyone interested in coming along and you're curious about the types of routes, you can see Garmin profiles for the three trail runs so far below:
- Jenkinstown Wood
- Castlemorris Wood
- Knockdrinna Wood

Noticing pace improvements,

I said previously I was planning on intervals and that's exactly what I've been doing!...well on and off when I remember.

I have a frustrating relationship doing intervals, they are so much harder to do when your on your own as it can  be hard to push yourself but 95% of my training is on my own but about 7-10 days after doing a couple of hard sessions I have always found some improvement in my pace.

So I really don't want to do them, but I know they are good for my overall performance and they certainly pay off as seen from the recent 1:29:33 half marathon time.

In addition, I've found that shorter runs like my usual 5mile morning or evening run where it would have been a massive push to do just under 7min miles is now down into 6:50min/mile - 6:40min/mile avg pace for the overall run. Its a push to do this but its alot faster then the same effort even before the summer.

Its times like this I wish there was a local running club so I wouldn't have to drive 10miles to do speed sessions etc with other runners (even that can be awkward to get to).    On that note, if there's anyone local reading this that wants to head out for few runs feel free to drop me a message.

Miles This Year: 1,444 miles