Groundhog Week

Recently every week seems to be 'do-over again' week.

After feeling rejeuvenated coming from the Paki Ryan pacing gig and the increase in simply training again the whole house has been struck down with chest infection x2, sympathy cold x 1 and a week of broken sleep and sweat-the-beds all round.

All and any planned training went right out the window for the past week.

Couple of good things though.

I was persuaded to visit Derek King of Kingmatics for a Holistic view of my own health. One word, WOW! I'm going to see him again this week.

I managed to take 2 FULL days off in a row!! Hasn't happened since Christmas so it was with delight we brought the kids to see The Lego Movie (again!). If you haven't seen it, borrow a niece or nephew, go see it! It is brilliant!!.

Technically the second day wasn't a day off as I was at events but the atmosphere at the #EnnisDuathlon

 followed quickly by the #Craughwell10 left me feeling vibrant and wanting to head out the door on a run.


It was good to be out and about. I also remembered to bring my camera so I'd good fun shooting pics at both events. There is an #EnnisDuathlon album:

Post by Amphibian King Limerick.

and one for #Craughwell10 too:

Post by Amphibian King West.

We'll see about that run, maybe tomorrow :)

Popping a Cherry at Pakie Ryan Memorial 10k

Last weekend I received a call from Richie from Bridge Milers asking me if I would like to pace the Pakie Ryan Memorial 10k.

I didn't want to tell him I'd probably struggle to run 10k at the moment but needless to say I immediately showed my inexperience by saying "Sure!" and then "What pace?" in that order. There was a sense of relief when he said 50mins followed by the immediate thought I need to get out and run!!

The training log will show what I did to prepare for the task, for now onto the race report.

Saturday was a cracking day, cool yet very bright, perfect running conditions.

Arriving in Newmarket-On-Fergus and parking strategically in the middle of town you could hear the thumping music and general buzz around the place. There were hundreds of cyclists preparing for the Cycle aspect of the Run / Walk / Cycle. We (the pacers) were to meet Richie in front of the Garda station but I was early so rambled into registration for a gander. It was packed with people coming in waves.

Bumped into quite a few people who knew me from the +Amphibian King West - Limerick store so fair bit of chat about the event and the huge crowd (2,200+ I believe!)

Thanks to Siobhan Clifford for her photograph.

Got my t-shirt, number and balloon and heading out with the rest of the pacers (I didn't meet the Sub 40 ) but Paul (Sub 45), yours truly (Sub 50), Billy (Sub 55) and Kate (Sub 60) we posed for the oblig photo,
checked watches (I was wearing two, to be sure to be sure!!) and positioned ourselves into the group of runners.



Is is quite funny to see people's reaction when a balloon pops up in front of them with a time on it. They realise very quickly that this is all about to get real! Cue a bit of shuffling around as people move backwards and forwards.

We got a 10 second countdown and then we were off. I was conscious to go with the gun time so with us being 20m or so behind the line we would have 30 seconds or so to make up over the course.



View Larger Map

The first km was relatively easy. All downhill through the town. With lots of chatter and laughter going on alll round I explained how we'd use this time to settle into the pace, rhythm and let the group go ahead or drop off around us.

First kilometer over in 05:16 and then we were heading straight up a long drag out of the town. The chatter suddenly stopped as everyone focussed on breathing & running. Remembering that I had a job to do, I took stock of who was around me and encouraged them (in the fashion that I have been encouraged by pacers before) to use the arms, drive up the hill, in through the nose, blow out the mouth...

When we hit the highest place there was a brief respite before turning left off the main road, so time to relax the shoulders and let the legs float along, grab the recovery while you can.

From the 3km point our little group started to reel in runners who had set off eagerly and were starting to suffer a little in the growing heat. The road was very lumpy you seemed to be going up or down for most of the time and I could hear from the breathing that some were in trouble. All I could do was quiet words of encouragement, breath in through the nose, out through the mouth, it will relax you a little, that sort of thing.

Water stations were well manned and there was plenty for all.

As we started counting down from km number 5 it seemed to get easier. As I called "4 to go", "3 to go" there was a palpable sense of relief. One or two of the group started to push on a bit so plenty of encouragement for them.

Then the hill at km 8!

This one seemed to go on and on and on!! Some of the group started to come back to us but as we crested and settled again to km 9 it was time for them to go again and with a gentle word of "Push on from here! You're almost home!!" Away they went.

I picked up another couple of runners on the way in and called them to go with me. Last little push and you're there.

I don't know if I was right or wrong. a pain in the arse or not, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to pace this event and I can't wait to do another one.

Thanks to Paul Jeremiah Hayes for the use of his photo.

Splits:

1. 05:16
2. 04:59
3. 04:49
4. 04:51
5. 04:46
6. 04:48
7. 04:50
8. 04:59
9. 05:00
10. 04:52

Total 00:49:39.3

#thirteen

It's funny how perspective changes things. 

This time last year I would have thought nothing of running out a Thirteen.

With just being back I had notions of a Thirteen (miler) but even getting to a Ten was going to be a reach as a first LSR for a while.
Mid afternoon saw me heading out the door for a nice trot through the woods. I enjoy those loops and always find the mental hurdle of starting the second one a nice little 'High 5' moment. More so now as I run myself back to fitness.

Under no illusions, heading into 2 loops I was thinking: "No, be sensible, 10k is enough" (I am a triathlete after all) 

 But with the weekend that was in it, 13k seemed to be far enough and a nice cut off point that would stretch me but not leave me punished for a few days. 
Oh yes, the next few days are important. They are going to cement the 'Back to Training' attitude.  

 

Gonna see that HR vs Pace graph changing over the next few weeks.

13k seemed like a challenge for me today, another couple of weeks and I'll be through Thirteen and it'll seem like the break never happened.

Gotta love the English sense of humour!! :-)

Post by Garry McDonald.

Every journey starts with a first step...

...and mine starts here!

After an extended layoff from training due to a plethora of excuses of which injury was not one, I finally stepped back on the training wagon after stepping off the scale.

Thanks to a self motivation decision to take part in the Beast of Ballyhoura with an exclusively boards.ie team I need to get my ass in gear and fly the flag for the older competitor.

With that in mind, apart from the #Zero25k running group and the odd occasional, unstructured turbo session I have done little or nothing in the past couple of months.

Well, that my friends, is about to change.

No more messing around with apps and beta testing apps, kicking my heels waiting for the +Polar #V800.
 
No sir. No more excuses or laziness

Time to setup my endurance plan and start the Heart Rate training again to find the base level to work from.

Workout 1 done and to show how much my fitness has slipped, my 'Easy' pace would now be considerably over 6min/km:

A little over 10km in a little over 1 hour with AvgHR of 140bpm.

Its a starting point...