Where are my legs???

Had a busy weekend of racing and unfortunately things seemed to go from bad to worse. Had thursday off work so decided to go to Ballyannon wood as I hadn't been there in ages & with the current dry spell I knew it would be quite nice. In hindsight it was a stupid move, with the sharp inclines and downhills reeking havoc on my achilles which had been slowly but surely improving. In fairness I took it very easy as I felt jaded but it was still a bit sore after.
Friday brought with it a cross country race in the shape of CIT v UCC on the CIT pitches. I decided from the start that I would n't be taking it too seriously as I had the more important matter of Dungarvan 10miler to look forward to on Sunday. Sure enough when the gun went one of the UCC lads who had represented Ireland the previous weekend took off I thought good luck to him rather than trying to hang in for a while. I settled into the chasing bunch & felt grand for the first 2 of 4 laps. On the 3rd lap I decided to try and stretch things out a little but I just couldn't find another gear. With about 1.5laps to go two lads overtook me & I just couldn't go with them. I spent the rest of the race resigned to my fate & ended up looking behind me rather than in front but managed to hold on for 4th. My pace was 5.56 over the 4.25mile course and considering I did a 5mile tempo run in similar conditions at Christmas at 5.50pace it left me wondering what was happening. My HR never got up to pace but my legs just felt like lead.Splits were 5.38,5.54,5.56,6.09 & 6.25pace for the last quarter - they pretty much speak for themselves!
Just did 2miles easy on Saturday hoping the rest would do me good and headed down to Dungarvan confident of running at least 57.30 seeing as I had managed 58.01 last year in very windy conditions. My plan was simple - 5.40miling for as long as I could and just hang on for the last bit. As per usual as soon as the gun went the plan went out the window with the first mile covered in 5.25. It was shortly after this that the wheels came off. I found breathing difficult and I wondered had I overtightened the chest strap on my HRM as it had become loose on friday. I struggled on but groups started to pass me and spit me out at an alarming rate. One of my regular rivals past me just before the 3mile mark & sort gave me a look to go with him but after trying for a few hundred metres I knew it was pointless. At this point I was running 6 minute miles plus and decided there and then that I was taking a break for a few weeks as soon as the race was over!! Around the first water stop another group went past me containing the leading lady who had a cyclist outrider. Vanity seemed to take hold as I managed to pick up the pace perhaps not wanting to be beaten by a girl. With the increased pace I actually started feeling a bit better and just concentrated on the bike and not on anything else. This seemed to work and suddenly I was leading the group totally focused on keeping pace with the bike and managed to bang out a few 5.50's which although was slower than my target pace was a lot better than what I had been doing only a few miles earlier. Passed through 5miles in around 29 minutes but to be honest I didn't really care anymore about time. Faded a bit once we got passed mile 8 and the lads from the group passed me and got away again. Finished out the last mile fairly well for a time of 58.43. Splits were (5.25/5.42/6.00/6.05/6.01/5.49/5.50/5.50.6.07/5.51)
My HR averaged at 166 which is well below usual, which suggests that it's my legs that are holding me back. So what to do now? Take the break I had decided on after 2miles? Just put it down to tiredness?Did an easy 6miles yesterday morning just to test the water & got through it ok although my achilles was quite sore. Feeling a bit better today so will do the 3K race in Midleton tonight. My time should be a good indicator of what I should do. If it goes ok I will train hard for the rest of the week, and start winding down next week for the IUAA indoors on the 13th & the national intermediate xc the following week. If it goes badly I might just take that break...
Last week: 67miles
Mon:6miles @ 7.24 HR138

22miles in 12 hours, well almost

Did a session of 400's yesterday, not at the track but on a stretch of cycle path that is exactly 400m's long that we discovered last week. Now if anyone from the Netherlands ever happens upon this blog and wonders why you would have a cycle path only 400m long, the only reasonable explanation I can come up with is to accommodate runners who can't be bothered making the long trip to the track!
Anyway it went pretty well with 10 in an average time of around 69secs. Only did 8 last week and was absolutely wrecked doing the last one although I did a hard run the day prior to it. Managed to get out early this morning and had 11miles done by 7.00am although I'm feeling pretty sore and tired now. Have a race friday and Sunday so doing the old front load the week trick to bank mileage.
Tuesday: 3.7warmup + 10x400 in 69 with 85sec recovery + 3.5warmdown
Wed:11.1miles @ 7.25 HR149

Injuries, bad performances & excuses

Since my last post I picked up an achilles tendon injury which meant I only managed 20miles or so in the week leading up to the Munster XC. This included missing a round of the 3K series in midleton. Not ideal preperation but I thought the rest might be a help. Turned out it was n't with one of my worst performances ever which seems to be the story of my XC season. Started well which was probably a bit foolhardy & was in the top 15 for the first lap and a half. Just went back ward after this though and after one of my club mates passed me for the final team spot things went from bad to worse & I ended up in 39th place in the end.
Got back on the horse last week and managed to get 60 miles in and set a new PB for 4miles on Sunday covering the distance in 21.40. Was hoping to break 21.30 but my excuse was that I inadvertently did almost 10 miles on saturday as I got a bit lost while doing a 6 mile run! Still my splits were pertty good with my slowest mile being 5.30.
Did another 5miles Sunday evening & managed to squeeze in 10 last evening so even though my achilles is still not right, I'm getting back into routine.
Sunday:AM Warmup:2miles Race: 4miles Warmdown 3miles
PM: 5miles
Monday: 10.26miles @ 6.49 HR145

Snow let up

Finished off the week with some easy runs and a hill session. The hill session was the first in a long time out in Welshtown. I had forgotton how tough it is out there. Felt like I was going badly but looking at my times compared to previous sessions it was n't so bad at all. Just need to get out there more often!
Thurs: 10.7miles @ 7.37 HR134
Fri: 8.5miles @7.21 HR140
Sat: Hills
Weekly total: 75.5miles
Long run yesterday, back in Welshtown. With the munster XC (weather permitting) next sunday, did 12miles although the last few miles got a bit hot dipping below 7min/miling for the last few which is brisk on that terrain. Ground is covered in snow today so getting out this evening may be difficult...
Sun:12.2 @ 7.15 HR148

Slow Down - Ice!

I'm really starting to get ticked off with the weather, tuesday night headed to the track for a session only to find it frozen for the third consecutive time. Ended up doing an hour at a crawl, really felt crappy. Have a bit of a cold but maybe it was the Delayed onset Muscle Soreness after Sundays exertions. Went to CBS last night to get some sort of speed work done & after warming up hummed and hawed about what to do as the ground was completely frozen so kinda dangerous in the dark. After resisting the urge to go home ended up running 3 sides of the pitch as I've seen one of the other lads doing. Did the first one in 94 secs so said I'd aim for 90 for the remainder. Did just that with one 91 & a few 89's & 88's towards the end. There's a little short sharp hill in the middle but I was still a wee bit dissappointed with distance covered - 0.28miles or roughly 450metres. No wonder I was able to do 12!
Tuesday: 7.1miles @ 8.32 HR122
Wednes: Warmup:2miles 12x90secs with 80sec recovery Warmdown: 4miles

Beat the sun(down)

Managed to get out of work early yesterday so's to get as much of my run as possible done in daylight. While it was pitch black by the end, I did n't have to hit the light on my watch untill about 6 miles or so, happy days. Although I was on grass the ground was pretty frozen so made for a fast pace.
Tues: 8.5miles @ 7.06 HR143

New Years Resolution

Gonna post more regularly, yadayadayada...
Anyways goals for 2010:
3K: sub 9.30 (road) sub 9.15 (track)
5K -Sub16 (road), sub 15.50 (track)
10K. Break 34minutes (yes I know thats 1.45 off my PB!)
5miles: Sub 27minutes
10miles: Sub 57minutes
Half: sub 75
Full: Not even gonna go there!
Won't bother with performance based goals as they rely more on other people to a certain degree.
Anyway onto training: Got a lot done over Christmas despite having a stag party & wedding to contend with. Managed 70miles last week although only managed a tempo run in terms of quality.
Started this week with a double doing nearly 2 hours yesterday morning & another 40minutes yesterday evening. Probably more than what was ideal but with the threat of bad weather later in the week, decided to try and bank some miles:
Sun: AM: 15.4miles @ 7.09 HR 144
       PM: 6.1miles @ 7.19 HR 145

What a difference a week makes.

After last weeks performance in the Road Relays I was given  a dose of reality in the Intercounty cross country championships where I finished an abysmal 91st. In hindsight it's no less than I deserved, having had a pretty bad week in terms of commitment (sleep,diet,strectching etc.) On the day my only excuse, although possibly a valid one was my hydration level. I drank a bottle of water on the bus up but was finished it by 11:30. With my race at 15:15 I went through the rest of the time including warm up without drinking anything which was foolish & I knew it.
When the gun I went I knew after a hundred metres I was in for a bad day, with my hamstrings already feeling like they were after doing a hill session. I struggled around the course & just could n't get the legs going, and could n't suffer as much as usual either. All in all a big dissappointment but not a waste of time as the experience of racing against such a large (and talented) field will not doubt stand to me down the road (or field!)
Got back on the horse on monday by doing 85 minutes as the weather was pretty good for a change. Did 50 minutes on tuesday in the pouring rain followed by a talk given by a dietician. She emphasised the importantance of hydration (why couldn't it have been a week earlier?) but surprised me in saying that water is n't really enough when training really hard. She also reiterated the importance of timing and especially the first 20 minutes post exercise so I will try and make a concious effort now to make sure I've food/drink in the kit bag for after training. A final point of note she made was the importance of protein with each meal & highlighted that it's usually missing from brekkie so I've substituted the marmalade with peanut butter. We'll see how it goes!
Onto yesterday and it was time to see how the legs were in a session. The weather was awful but thankfully I had two lads with me to make things easier. Did 8x400's in 71 (last 2 were 72) and then managed 4x800's on my own in 2.30,2.32/2.34 & 2.31. Very pleased with how it went as it was definitely my hardest track session ever. In the back of my mind it helped to know that it was 10 days out from the National novice cross country. The last hard sesssion I did (14x400's) was 10 days before the intervarsities so hopefully there's something in that...
Sunday: Warmup: 3miles Race:5.6miles Warmdown:2miles
Monday: 12 miles @ 7.07 HR 142
Tuesday: 7.6miles @ 7.15 HR 145
Wednesday: Warmup: 1.5miles + 8x400 in 71-72/ 4x800 in 2.30-2.34 Warmdown: 1.5miles
 

Clean Runners

Went out in the dark last night for an hour. Wasn't really in the form but as I neared home actually started looking forward to it. It was n't raining but I passed through the route I was planning on taking & as it was flooded I made other plans. Unfortunately the water was unavoidable as all roads in the area were under water at some point. Of course as luck would have it the worst occurred at the furthest point from home with a 200m strech under 6" of water making for some cold feet but some clean runners!
Did a session earlier today: 2x800's followed by 6x400's. The 800's were grand with a 2.30 & a 2.29 but the 400's were a bit slower at 74secs's. Wasn't exactly flogging myself with the national intercounty XC championships on Sunday so no complaints.
Monday:8miles @ 6.58/mile HR144
Tues: Warmup:3.5miles 2x800 + 6x400 Cooldown:2.5miles

Athletes Diet??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiQMwfNHmB0
Steak & Chips, followed by 6 jaffa cakes & a snack before bed of 2 jumbo sausage rolls. What does this lead to? Arguably my best ever race performance!Had a bad week running wise picking up some bug that had me in bed shivering at 8.30 last Sunday night. Had managed 3rd place in the Lisgoold 5K earlier in the day and decided to do another 7 miles that evening for good measure. Shortly after coming home however started feeling off so decided to try and sleep it off. Took monday off & did the 2nd midleton 3K on tuesday evening recording a time 9.45 which was 8 secs off last time despite perfect conditions. Did n't feel physically or mentally up to it, and during the warm down had some terrible stomach cramps. Took it easy for the rest of the week & found it hard to motivate myself for the IUAA road relays which were being held in Maynooth on Saturday. Decided to head to my parents place friday night to break up the journey & that's why I decided not to bother with my usual pre race meal of wholegrain pasta and chicken.
The relay consisted of legs of 1-2-3-2-1 miles of which I was doing the 3 mile. I was very nervous of not letting the side down & hoped that the stomach cramps would  n't return. Settled into a nice pace on the first lap and managed to hang on to a guy from UCC as he went past & just stuck on his shoulder. Knew he was faster than me so said I'd hang on as long as I could. Went through the first mile in 5.02 but felt  ok so carried on. Struggled a little on the 2nd lap but still managed to stay on the other guy's shoulder. Around half way around the 3rd lap I was ready to let him off but suddenly I found myself ahead and drove for home. The last few hundred metres were tough but there was great support which helped.Managed to cross the line in 15.27 which I think equates to a sub 16 5K so was absolutley chuffed with that.
Took a day off today & will go easy again this week. National Intercounties are next weekend so will do that & then start back training hard for the munster cross country champs in January. Or thats the plan at least!

County Cross Country Championships

Woke Sunday & felt like turning over & going back to sleep. Not good. I shook it off & got up & went through my usual raceday routine of some light stretching followed by breakfast of a large bowl of porridge with banana mashed in & about 6 slices of wholemeal toast washed down with coffee & water. It certainly didn't feel like the day for which I'd been waiting for the last six months. Was a bit late setting off for Clonakilty but made pretty good time so was there about 90minutes before the off. After exchanging pleasantries with some of my clubmates & other people I knew we set off to walk a lap of the course. The 30mm of rain that had been forecast to fall overnight was evident & just in case this didn't make things wet enough there was a stream that had to be traversed twice per lap. The course climbed gradually to high point before losing all the elevation in a steepish downhill. I liked it as a course and was glad I had gone with the long spikes.
So onto the race: as we started on a slope situated on a bend I positioned myself at the outside effectively giving me a more gradual climb than the very inside. Started fast & found myself in 3rd postition after 100m or so. I relaxed a little and settled in around 6th for the first lap. With 2 clubmates ahead of me & a 3rd & 4th to pass me as we entered the 2nd lap I found myself in 5th place (8th overall) and with 4 to score out of the medals should we win. I hung in for the next lap or so but found the gap opening as the race wore on. As the laps progressed I was passed by 4 other runners but I managed to stay on the shoulder of the last guy to pass & got away from him on the last lap. Ended up in 11th and bitterly dissappointed not to medal but on the day it was a bridge too far.
Went out & got Royally p!ssed Sunday night as I felt I needed to blow off some steam afterwards. When looking back at the stats for the race on my Garmin afterwards I noticed my Avg. HR was quite low (170) for the race. Maybe this was because negotiating the mud was tricker than the effort available but I don't think so.
Managed to drag myself out for 8 miles monday even though I felt awful. Was planning a session on tuesday but still fet a bit crappy but as soon as I got going I managed 14x400m in around 72 which was grand. Just an easy 7 on wednesday.

Break out the 12mm Spikes!

As I type this it is pouring rain outside as it has been for the last few days. It seems to be constantly dark with not even a glimmer of Sunshine breaking through the gloom - perfect cross country weather then!
No more can be done other than recovery & fuel up. Got a massage yesterday & just went for an easy 50minute run in the evening. Will take today off completely (first since 21st of September) & just do a 3 mile jog in the morning to stay loose. Think I've prepared pretty well, but at the same time I don't have the 'mad to get out of the blocks' feeling that I've experienced after tapering for a marathon. Only time (or finishing position rather)will tell how well it's worked I suppose...

Total mileage for week: 39.5miles

Last session

Into the home stretch now so for a session last night I did 8x400's instead of the usual 12. The times were n't great 72-73secs & I felt pretty crappy doing them. That said the track was very wet & there was a fairly stiff wind on the back straight. I remember last year on my last session before the counties my first 400 was in 67secs & I ran terribly so maybe the opposite will happen this time. Really clutching at straws now am n't I??

East Cork Cross Country Chmpionships

No I'm not running the marathon. If I had to say this once over the weekend I had to say it 100 times. Went out for a few drinks (well Ballygowan) with some buddies on Saturday night & they were asking was it the marathon I was doing & when I said it was a 6k cross country race the inevitable 'shur I could do that' was the reply.
Anyway enough whingeing, did a brief 4 miles at the beach on saturday morning. Had planned on having a dip afterwards but the water was seriously choppy & I would have had to walk through a tonne of seaweed to get to it so I wimped out. Onto Sunday, a total of 11 men toed the line for the East Cork CC champs, we were the only club with a team (4) so we were always going to retain the trophy. This was one of the strangest races I ever did. Two of my clubmates who are undeniably much faster than me went to the front but the pace was easy enough to stay with them. We mustn't have been going too slow though as everyone else got burned off within a lap or two. By the the 3rd lap it still felt a bit easy so I took it out, don't know why - I suppose I knew I wasn't going to win so might as well get a decent workout. I dropped back again after this but the pace was still very manageable. Finally just starting out on the 6th & final lap one of the lads took off, I tried in vain to give chase. The other guy came around me with half a lap to go & even though I stayed with him for a few strides I decided that resistance was futile so let him on his way. With about 150m's to go he was however still in reach so I decided to give one last effort & as the line hurtled towards me I thought for a split second I had him but he copped me coming and put on a little burst himself. Still, was happy enough with my run & my first senior medal. A good preparation for next week.
Did a handy 8 yesterday morning - was home before 25,000 feet hit the streets of Dublin.
Last week: 53 miles total

Did I mention I forgot to do some hills?

As I mentioned in the last post I hadn't really done any hill work recently (which wasn't strictly true as I had done 4 x 1200's at some stage in the last month or so). Anyway I decided to put this to rights yesterday & decided to go to Walshtown wood where we do our club hill sessions. I couldn't remember what times I had been getting last year so just went by effort. The session consists of 3 x 0.3mile which gets gradually steeper, followed by 0.2 mile all out sprint on the flat followed by 4 x 0.2mile up a gradual slope & finishing off with 3 x 0.28 mile up a slope that's gentle at the beginning tough in the middle & not too bad at the end. It felt like I was putting in a decent enough effort although in truth I probably was n't pushing as hard as if I was chasing one of my faster club mates. This might come back to haunt me Sunday week as it was exactly 10days away so was supposed to be my hardest session before tapering for the county champ's. Still it's done now so there's no point in mulling it over too much.
Just did 8miles easy this morning as I woke early - nice to have it out of the way!. The East Cork XC champs are on this sunday so will do another easy run in the morning & then relax...

East Cork 3K series:Race 1

After a hiatus of nearly a month from blogging, I can thankfully say I've been a bit more consistant with my training. It is now less than 2 weeks to go to the county cross country championships which is my main race of the winter. My training has gone pretty much to plan (so far) with my endurance phase leading up to the Cork half Marathon. Since then I have been trying to build stamina (using 800's,1000's & long 7 mile tempo runs).Over the last week or two I have started doing 400's & shorter faster 5 mile Tempo runs & also cut my mileage back from 70 to 55ish to enable the quality work to be done. The one thing I have lacked really is hill work but hopefully this won't count against me too much. I managed to squeeze in a XC race 10 days ago & it went well, without being spectacular.
So onto last night & the first race (of 7) in the East Cork 3K series. I love these races, they were my real introduction to racing and as it's over the same course your time really lets you know where you are. My best time from last year was 9.52 but I was confident of bettering it. I had it in my head to try and do 3.10 per lap which would give me 9.30. I felt like I was flying when I was doing my strides beforehand - better than I've ever felt before so went to the line brimming with confidence. On the first lap I found myself a few seconds down on the leading 2 after the first 600m. Then amazingly without any extra effort they started coming back to me & I actually caught them coming down the hill which ends the lap and first Kilometre. Our time was called as 3.06. As we rounded the corner I left the two lads to their own race & just concentrated on holding my pace. Even though I still felt ok I had slowed down a bit over the second half of the 2nd K & my time was 6.21 at the end of the lap, a second behind schedule. The last lap was a struggle (as it always is!) but even though I was really tiring my time was almost as fast as the second lap so I ended up with 9.37 (3rd place) which I was happy enough with. Conditions were n't ideal so hopefully the 9.30 barrier is achievable before the winter is over...

Slowly does it...

Did an easy 65minutes on Wednesday, mostly on grass. On the advice of a clubmate I decided not to a session yesterday on the basis that I would still not be recovered after Sunday's efforts. I ended up doing 6miles fairly easy in Ballyannon wood, was going to do a few more but my knee became a little sore so I'm definitely glad I did n't do a session. Did 4 miles very easy this morning & will hopefully get another few in this afternoon.

Cork Half Marathon Championships

I had made a rough raceplan after seeing the course in my attempt to break 77minutes, which I felt was an ambitious but achievable target. This plan entailed getting to 6 miles in 36minutes (6min/mile pace)and running 5.45's for the the remaining 7 & a bit miles. In the back of my mind the 5.45's were a bit worrying so I was thinking maybe a tad under 36minutes would be needed.
The first few miles were fairly undulating and I felt reasonably comfortable doing 5.45s. I was in a group of 5 or 6 and we shared the lead with about 12 runners in a line ahead of us. This group was whittled down to 4 by the start of the hill & at this point I let the other guys go as I wanted to go up the hill at my own pace. By the top two of the lads came back to me and we caught another guy on the downhill. The downhill was murder on the quads but I was relieved to see a split time of 5.40 at the 7 mile mark. From here on for the next few miles was a gradual down hill and I was delighted to see my splits were hitting 5.30's. At this stage I knew I was on for a pretty good time as long as I could hold it together. I managed to do just that and even passed 3 or 4 people who had obviously put in too much effort over the hill. I took on some energy drink at around mile 10 & forced down half a cereal bar (and I really mean forced - it took me three full miles to eat it - sustained energy release or what!) I didn't want to repeat the fading off that had occured in Qatar.
I crossed the line in 76.10 knackered but delighted!!

Warmup:1.78 Race13.1miles 10th 76.10(5.40,5.43,5.44,5.46,6.06,6.24,5.40,5.30,5.35,5.39,5.45,5.45,5.43,1.06)Warmdown:1mile

Knee was a bit sore on monday so just did 50 minutes easy. Had planned on doing a session of 1000's yesterday but after the first one taking 3.32 I had to admit to myself that Sunday had taken more out of me so only did 3.
Will take it easy again this evening and try and do some quality work tomorrow.

Build up to Cork Half Marathon

As I mentioned Sunday is the Cork (and Munster) Half marathon championships so I have eased back a bit for the remainder of the week. Did easy hour on Wednesday & 4x800 yesterday evening. Decided to get to do todays run early just to maximise recovery time so did just under an hour as the sun rose, which was nice.Took a spin out to Blarney at lunchtime to check out the course and it looks pretty tough. The first half is around 70% uphill (as in the quantity not the gradient!) and a lot of this gain is lost in a sharp quad busting downhill. It's the same for everyone though so I won't complain.
Wed: 8miles 7.18 HR143
Thur: Warmup:2.5 4x800(2.29/2.31/2.32/2.33)with 400 recovery Warmdown:1.9
Fri:7miles 7.46 HR136
Total:52miles

Fun in the Mud

Did a 'half' session yesterday or 4x1000's. Had planned on doing 6 but a stomach cramp put paid to that idea. They ranged from 3.27 to 3.23 but as it was quite muddy I won't more too much. Running the Cork half Marathon on Sunday so maybe it's not a bad idea to have take it a bit easier.
Warmup:2miles 4x1000 with 2min recovery, warmdown 2miles