Cross Training

The Midnight Midlands Sevens was a huge success in the Rugby Club on Saturday. I was there all day and I didn't have to ref, as two extra refs turned up on the day.  I kept the score for all the matches on one of the pitches instead, and then I was an In Goal judge ( just to confirm try's or conversions ) for two of the finals. The day was really well organised with loads of volunteers helping out. When the last match was over, I headed home, my leg and also my back was quite sore. I got to bed around 1am but there are stories that some of the others didn't make it home until 10am, so it looks like I missed a great night. However, waking up with a refreshed body on Sunday morning has its own rewards.

I went to Physio, Chris Coombs today, to get my sore leg checked out. He diagnosed tendonitis, which he says is quite common for people who start running long distances without building up the muscles gradually. His advice was to rest the leg and then continue running a maximum of 3 days per week with recovery sessions in the pool or on the bike in between, until I've built up the muscles in my legs. He gave all my leg muscles a rub, which was sore at time, but the legs were feeling great afterwards.  Chris also advised me to stretch for 15 to 20 minutes each evening, and he gave me some exercises to perform, to increase my flexibility.  I thought it was great that my calf muscles were feeling hard, but Chris described them as tight, and says if I don't stretch them properly, I'll have problems later on.

So, this evening I went for a swim instead of a run. I'm not sure how far I swam, as I lost count somewhere around 18 lengths, but I swam for 40 minutes.  I feel I could have gone for a run, but this time I listened to the advice I was given.  I will probably go for another swim tomorrow, and then I'll definitely go for a run on Thursday. With the Half Marathon so close, I don't want to fall back in training. If I had more time, then I'd ease down on the training, and build it up more slowly, however as I want to run the Dublin Marathon this year, I just have to increase the workload. I think the trick will be in working hard at recovery, i.e. stretching and cross training. That's the update for the moment folks. I'll post again on Thursday after training, until then Slán.

Why Didn't I Listen To My Coach?

John was in touch yesterday, to see how my legs were after Thursday's speed session. I let him know that they were quite stiff and the right leg in particular was sore behind my knee. His advice was to take it easy today if my legs were still sore, and we'd do a long run in the middle of the week instead.  So, bearing that in mind, I went for a run this morning at 7am. My target was 10 miles, first of all  I drove the route taking notice of the mile markers, and then I left some water at the 5 mile mark and drove back to the gates of the Harriers. I was stiff at the start so I decided to do a warm up lap and see how I felt. Despite the the fact that I was a bit tight, I was determined to give it a go anyhow. I still wasn't fully comfortable at the two mile marker and I was thinking of turning around and coming home, but I then I was thinking that my legs have been stiff after nearly all of our training sessions, and I nearly always want to turn around after two miles, so I should quit my whining and keep going.

I had a similar debate with myself at each mile, and then I took a break and stopped the watch after 5 miles. I started to walk back, and then after a minute started to run. My right leg was quite sore, and I felt this wasn't right, it should be fully warmed up by now, and while I'm usually tired by this point I haven't been in pain before. I tried to walk it off, and then run some more, but things weren't improving, so I just walked back. That left me walking around 4 miles in a soaking wet t-shirt, cursing myself every step of the way. Why hadn't I gone on a shorter route? I could have done it twice if I felt like it! Then of course there's the shame of being dressed like a runner, going like a walker. I was tempted to exaggerate my limp, just so anybody driving by would know that I was injured, rather than have them think I'd given up.(I'm sure they probably didn't notice me at all, but these are the things I was thinking at the time). Anyway, I got back to the car around 9.30am, with my stopwatch telling me I'd run for 61 minutes. (I'd been at 52.20 min at 5 miles), my legs were aching, and I was looking forward to a cold bath.

I've had the cold bath, and I'm supposed to be reffing some rugby games this evening in the Midlands Midnight 7's up in the rugby club. I'll have to get a massage and see if that helps, and then if that fails I'll just have to consign myself to the role of touch judge.( It's much easier to hold a beer while doing the touch anyway!) I'm really looking forward to this afternoon and have been for a while. I really hope Mick Glew can work some magic, and there's not too much wrong with me.

So that's the end of the 6th week of training. This day 5 weeks is the Half Marathon, and what have I learned?
1.  The body reacts quite quickly to training, it's amazing how fast things have progressed.
2.  Running is as much a mental activity as it is a physical battle, sometimes you nearly talk yourself into a "I can't continue" attitude, and when you change that sentence in your head to "one more km", things become easier.
3.  Running with others is definitely better, I reckon it cuts the mental battle in half.
4.  When on a nights drinking, the thoughts of running the next day don't seem too bad.
5.  Running after a nights drinking is torture, The Americans could use it, to get info out of Terrorists.
6.  Listen to good advice when your given it, I know I will be in future.

Well, this has been a long post, one of the side effects of writing in the daytime, as opposed to just before bed I suppose! Until Tue night, Slán.

Speed Session

I'm like a big kid, every time I write or say "Session", I think of a drinking session and dream ( just like Homer Simpson).  Of course a session means an entirely different thing in the Harriers. John had decided, that we'd take a break from the long runs tonight and do something different. We ran 3/4 of a mile, took a minute and half rest, before doing it again. We repeated the cycle 6 times. By the time we had finished, the average pace per mile was 8.25, up considerably from what we'd being doing before.

I ran the first leg in 6 min even, and thought that was quite fast, and I'd have to watch it or I'd struggle to complete the 6. The next leg was faster in a time of 5.52, then 5.48 and then the big one, 5.40. It's easy to attribute the fast pace on this one, Mary Daly ran the last half of it with us, and of course I wanted to impress, and hence I picked up the pace. I struggled on the last two putting in a great deal of effort to run in 5.48 and then 5.43 for the last one. I was starting to wretch with 100m to go, and when I finished, I needed the support of a tree to expel some unwanted bile, that just wouldn't stay down.  It's been while since I've put so much into a training session, but now that it's over I'm gald I did. I've improved hugely after every workout so far, and I've no reason to believe the results from tonight will be any different.

It's getting close to the big day now, and the excitement is building in the club. I'm really looking forward to it, and I hear that here have been people registering for the race from all over the country. If you haven't registered yet, what are you waiting for? log on to www.tullamoreharriers.com and sign up now! The race is on Saturday the 31st Aug 2013 at 12 O Clock. There is a big car park, with excellent changing room and shower facilities, chip timing, free t-shirt for all finishers, as well as water stations on the route, and of course refreshment afterwards.  There's also the option of doing it as a team of 2, splitting it into 10k each. Irish Olympian Pauline Curley will also be running, so why not try and measure yourself against the best?

Tullamore Rugby Club are having a big 7 a side tournament on Saturday evening with the Final to be played at Midnight! I'll be reffing some of the games, and I'm sure I'll be enjoying refreshments until the early hours of Sun. Therefore, I decided it might be a good idea to get my long run in on Sat morning, as the only chance I'd have of meeting John on Sun, would be if I called into the Harriers on my way from the rugby!  John is working, and Ray is still on Holidays, so it looks like it'll be a solo effort. It'll be interesting to see what the time will be for my 10 miles. I'll let you know on Sat, until then, Slán.

Running without Bubbles

It was just John and myself tonight and we ran 8 and a quarter miles with an average time of 10.25 per mile. The intention had been to run for 90 min, but I had to referee a tag rugby match at 8pm, so I needed to be back a bit earlier than originally planned. I think John was trying to inject pace the whole run, as we ran the first 3 miles at 10.15 pace. My legs were sore, and I probably ate too much too close to training, as I wasn't comfortable at any stage of the run. John was upping the pace and I was struggling to stay with him, but I wouldn't let myself ask him to slow down.  I slogged it out, and it was definitely one of those runs where you're happier when you've finished than you are at any stage during the run.

I should have mentioned last week how Denzil Jacobs, a member of the Harriers ran 10 marathons in 10 days.  It's a massive achievement especially considering the heatwave that broke over Ireland during the 10 day spell that the races were on.  I'd like to offer a big congratulations to Denzil, who was running to raise money for Saplings School for Autistic Children. You can read his story on the Tullamore Harriers facebook page, and if you want to donate he has set up a page online at www.mycharity.ie( search for "Denzil's doing it")

I'd also like to congratulate all the members of The Harriers who organised a brilliant 5k race through Charleville last Friday evening. There was a big turnout for the well laid out circuit.  The race was won by Catch Grennan and I was raging I missed it, I might have given Catch a run for his money, we'll just never know now, as the time has passed!

I'm missing running with Bubbles, I'm sure he's getting on fine on his warm weather training, I only hope the Sun is shining on Aug 31st for our Half Marathon. He's a new post up on his Blog (www.runbubbyrun.blogspot.ie) which is quite good. Can you seriously imagine getting lost in Charleville? Anyway, I'll be going for a solo run tomorrow night, so until then , Slán.

The Second Ten Miler

Around 14 of us took off this morning at 8am, for another 10 mile run. This was only my second attempt at this distance, and after indulging myself over the last week on Holidays, I was a little bit apprehensive.  Ray wasn't with us this morning, but I believe he's burning up the roads on the continent, with all the running he's doing over there.  John set the route, in that we would run out the Ross road for 5 miles and then turn around and run back. The unfortunate thing for the other runners, was that John stayed running with me, and I was of course, lagging behind the others, so when we'd gone the 5 miles, the rest of the group had gone a good bit further. John let a shout and we turned around and ran home, automatically promoting me to leading the field! I felt strong on the way home, and was able to pick up the pace a bit, and I finished the 10 miles in a time of 1 hour 43 min exactly, 1 minute and 44 seconds quicker than last week. So the progress curve is still pointing up.

I've decided that I'm going to enter for the Dublin City Marathon in October. I was chatting John this morning about what sort of training would I need to do, to be able to finish it. His advice was, once more, fairly comprehensive, but the gist of it is, to continue what I'm doing, but step up the long runs on the weekend.  I've 12 weeks to the Marathon, and The Tullamore Harriers Half Marathon will fit perfectly into my schedule. In fact it's a great spring board, as I'd now be very disappointed if I couldn't finish the Half Marathon, due to the progress I've made to date. I'm completely surprised by that, as only 5 or 6 weeks ago, I thought trying to run a half marathon with only 10 weeks training, was a little bit bonkers.

I've included a few pictures below. The first one is of Hugo and Myself getting out of the sea, after cooling off, having completed a run. I was trying to recreate the Daniel Craig pose from James Bond, but I'm not going to show you those attempts. I guess the camera can only take what's in front of it, and what was in front of it was far from Daniel Craig!  The other picture's are a poor attempt by me to try and capture some of the scenery from where we were running. It honestly looked much better in real life.  Until Tue, Slán.

The Ring of Kerry could put you in a Hoop!

The running is still on schedule even if the writing had fallen a bit behind. My brother and myself went for a 5 km run on Wed, it took me 30 min, and Hugo went on and ran a further 3km. You might have noticed that I'm now measuring the distances in km instead of miles, this is due to the fact that I'm fitting in with Hugo's plans and that's all based on km's.

Yesterday we had another crack at the 12km route, and I ran it more sensibly, we started off slower, and I finished it without stopping. We ran it 6 min faster than Tue, and I stopped the watch when we stopped on Tue, so I was quite happy overall.

The holiday is going well, loads of cycling, swimming, surfing and paddle boating. I'm in Dingle at the moment( Dick Mack's pub to be precise). And we stopped just before Connor Pass to climb halfway up a mountain to look at a spectacular lake! There's an easy way to have a holiday and then there's this way. Don't get me wrong I'm thoroughly enjoying it, and the weather is glorious, but I'll need another holiday when I get home.

The next run I do will be on Sun morning with John and the crew in the Harriers. John and Ray have been in touch to see how I'm getting on. Much and all as I've found the training hard this week, I think I'd have found it tougher to tell the lads I hadn't been running. Anyway I'm proud to returning in better shape than I left(I hope). Picture to follow, so until Sunday, Slán.

In the Kingdom of Kerry

My family and I got down to Castlegregory yesterday evening around 5pm. It was 9pm before Hugo(my older brother) and myself got the awning set up on the caravan, and that surely deserved some holiday pints, to go with the recovery pints from Sunday. They failed to work by the way, maybe I didn't have enough!

Hugo and myself went for a run at 10am. We ran for over 80 min, but the distance was disappointing, only 12km. The route was spectacular in places, but of course that means Hills. There was also a good sea breeze blowing. When you combine these factors along with a warm sunny day, you might be able to understand why I'm a little bit like a Lobster this evening. I meant to go back and take some pictures to post on the blog, but I was wrecked all day. We went for a swim after the run and spent the rest of day playing with the kids, eating and sleeping.

I'm writing this while having a meal at the dog track in Tralee. The reception at the campsite is not great, so my next few posts might be a bit late, and the pictures mightn't appear until next week. We're going for a 5k tomorrow, I hope I don't find it as tough as today, because for a number of reasons I really struggled today. I even stopped once, and that made it more difficult to get going again. Anyway, at least I'm clocking the miles, so until the next time, Slan.