[RACE REPORT] - Craughwell10

You know when you set out to not do something but then end up doing it anyway? Well, that's what happened to me at the weekend.

Going Coast to Coast in Ireland

Time for me to step up to the plate and register for some other races in 2015.

My wife has expressed interest in Adventure Racing so after a bit of discussion and looking around we settled on taking on the Non-Stop Coast to Coast Challenge from Co. Sligo to Co. Down in May for our own bit of team building exercise:

16 – 17 MAY 2015 – ENNISCRONE, Co SLIGO – NEWCASTLE, Co DOWNNON – STOP & 2 DAY MULTISPORT RACE ACROSS IRELANDIreland, an island steeped in history and mythology with scenery which rivals that of any other sights around the globe. For many years visitors have flown or sailed to Irish shores to take in these sights and to go home with great memories of this fantastic island. For one week in May many travelling will have their sights set on a truly iconic event – the 26 Extreme Coast to Coast Multisport Race Across Ireland.
Traversing Ireland in a west to east format the route of the 26 Extreme Coast to Coast will pass through unspoilt rural locations, through quaint villages and along one of the most famous waterways in Ireland – The Shannon – Erne Waterway. Whether you choose to race the NON-STOP version or the TWO DAY version you will follow a route which winds its way along 316km of the best cycling, paddling and running terrain Ireland has to offer. Competitors will be truly astounded at the scenery and challenge laid down before them in this fantastic event.

We’re entered to do the Non-Stop version.

Ireland – Coast to Coast – Saturday 16th to Sunday 17th May 2015
Course Option: Non-Stop
Team Type: Pair
Class: Mixed
Club: Team #TriHarder ARTeam Type Name: Gotta Run
Team Member 1: Sean Conroy
Team Member 2: Edel Conroy

Apart from enjoying the experience and completing the main goal for us is to see how we get on together working as a different kind of team, without the kids around!! 

As most Adventure Racers will know there is a dynamic to the team and how it works together before and during a race. It is this dynamic that I think will be different because we are a couple and life partners too. I’m really looking forward to this as it opens a whole lot of new doors for us. What else could be better than finding out that both of you love Adventure Racing?!

Imagine a whole new world opening up for holiday destinations!! 

I've laid out my training diary and goals for each week, I'll post shortly with those. Be sure to follow Team #TriHarderAR as the entire team continues to work on core training fitness towards this years bug goal race.

–

See you out there!

Sean

When mañana arrives - you'd better be ready!!

#TrailTuesday - nightime trail runs

I get so distracted that I forget to update this little thing of a blog that is supposed to keep my training honest.

It's so easy to let it slip, slide away. Skipping a day leads so easily to a week or 4 of doing little or nothing.

"Mañana, mañana" so easily becomes the refrain.

I'm often always motivated by what others are doing and it helps if I do something to motivate them to motivate me kinda like a Gerry Maguire senario :)

This is how #TrailTuesday, #AKWRunstreak and #Zero25k came about. By organising a group event I 'encourage' myself to not back down. I know I have to organise my Tuesday so I meet the group, I get my exercise. I know with Runstreak I have to help motivate others and by default motivate myself. 

Zero25k I get a great kick out of it. By encouraging others to begin  I get to reaffirm the realisation of how fortunate I am that I run. 

I choose to run. How I motivate myself to run comes across as selfish but we all need different tricks to keep going sometimes.

So for the past month I have been training away and now I am building my base mileage through to the New Year when the next generation of Zero25k runners will start and my next group challenge begins for the experienced runners.

Will you be ready for it?

[Training Diary] Week in Review & Back to Ballyhoura

Week ending 19th October: 

Date	Run Distance	Bike Distance	Time	Avg BPM	AvgPace/Km	KCal
13 Oct 2014	9.5		00:49:38	147	00:05:13	787
14 Oct 2014		9.6	00:23:40	141		343
14 Oct 2014	11.82		00:57:59	156	00:04:54	1009
15 Oct 2014	9.52		00:52:01	148	00:05:27	830
15 Oct 2014		9.5	00:25:15	137		355
16 Oct 2014		9.73	00:27:29	137		387
16 Oct 2014	11.63		00:59:56	156	00:05:08	1059
19 Oct 2014		23.74	02:00:43	148		1933

Taking a look at the second half of the week the basic premise is I am wrecked.
The kids, daughter mostly, have attrocious sleeping habits. It's like a merry-go-round in our house with everyone swapping beds. I'm normally a sound sleeper but when I'm woken in the night I don't go back easily and often end up reading for 2 or 3 hours.

Post Lactate Threshold testing

Last Thursday I was over with +Matthew Bidwell of Fitness Analytics in Claregalway to have my Lactate Threshold Tested. I planned a really long and complicated post explaining what the process was but with HR being so individual I decided to just summarise it and show what it means to my training.

Finding your way in Orienteering

An event invite from Western Eagles Galway Orienteering popped up on my Facebook timeline a few weeks back and I added myself as a plan for a Sunday morning outing with the family.

My son loves maps and is always drawing treasure maps which only he can follow so I pitched the idea to the family for a bit of fun outing.

Edel has never done orienteering, its been 20+ years since I did any (outside of +Beast of Ballyhoura Adventure Race this year) and its great fun for the kids to go exploring in the woods.

So off we went this morning to register at Merlin Park Woods in Galway. We were handed two maps and two control cards.

Getting the maps and outline instructions

Ruaidhri had it all worked out that we would work as a team with him and daddy going one way and the girls going the other way.

He's 4.

Once I explained the map and what we would be doing he decided we could all go together. He was 'Chief Navigator', daddy was assistant, mummy was the controller in charge of dibbing in at the stations and Rachel was scout, who took instruction on directions and found the control points.

Chief navigaor pointing out the way.

All sorted and off we went. The course was mapped out nicely and the first control points were easy to pick out. Once we were into the woods we had options of following trails or cutting through the woods.

We had to make team decision on what route to choose and at one point after explaining that (1). we could go through the woods but if we got stuck we'd have to turn back and go around or (2). we could stick to the main path and make good progress.

The scout decided to stick to the path.
 

 

Fun in the sun.

There was one sticky situation towards the end where we pushed through a trail in the woods to find we were heading away from our goal. Doubling back along the fence line we found a gap and with a quick one, two the kids were fired over and we followed off to CP8.

From here it was a short trot back towards CP9 and a circum-navigation of a fenced area back to the starting point were scout ensured that the team was together (good practise for #AdventureRacing) before dibbing in and handing back the control cards.

All in all a great morning adventure and the best thing is there will be another event in 2 weeks time in Renville Park.

Keep an eye on the Western Eagles blog or Facebook page for more details. If you are are looking for a fun way to get fit and involve the family, orienteering is a great option.

[10km Focus] - Week 1: The plan so far...

The plan so far has been of the 'wing it' variety. It is also likely to remain so for the next few weeks too.

I'm working on base mileage and introducing speed work as I go with increasing focus on longer and longer tempo sessions at slightly faster than race pace but the lynchpin of the training, I believe, will be based on interval sessions of 200m and 400m repeated over and over and over bringing these down to 47 & 95 seconds respectively.

So far this week has looked like this:

40	29 Sep 2014	9.5	00:50:07							146	00:05:16	782
40	29 Sep 2014	9.5	00:49:00							150	00:05:09	802
40	30 Sep 2014					9.5	00:19:54			134		267
40	30 Sep 2014					9.53	00:20:26			132		266
40	1 Oct 2014	9.47	00:47:26							148	00:05:00	757
40	2 Oct 2014	9.5	00:49:34							141	00:05:13	723
40	2 Oct 2014	9.46	00:49:56							143	00:05:16	745

Green is running (km and time), Orange is bike (km and time). In Pink is Average Heart Rate, Pace (running) and Calories, I'll keep this format going forward, oh and blue is swimming! (Once upon a time!!)

Wednesday evening (1st Oct) was the interval session:

• Warmup - 3km
• 8 x 
• 200m in 55secs
• 200m recovery

• Cooldown - 3km 

Happy enough that I brought the 200's in around 47-48seconds each.

Another double run Saturday and possibly a longer steady pace run on Sunday should have a decent block of running to start this program with.

[RANT] Country roads take me home (& to work)...

My commute, daily, in and out is mostly along country roads.

Quiet country roads.

At least, that is, until there are roadworks on the main roads.

Then every divil in the County uses my road as a bolt hole, an escape route, a rat run.

Seasonal Slump

Often at this stage of the year your body can go into a little bit of a slump. The weather is changing, the days are getting shorter, you're tired after a long summer with the kids under your feet, work has been hectic and you have been squeezing exercise into an ever decreasing time slot.

You're bound to be tired. You are bound to be demotivated somewhat.

But do you know what?

Forgetting about the plan for one or two runs won't spoil your overall goals. Head out for something different, if you are road running go to a trail for a few runs to find the gra for it again.

By taking the pressure off and changing the route you will be amazed at the difference it makes and how quickly you will find that running mojo again.

[RACE REPORT] - Club Vitae Coast Road 5km

If you are in work there is Sound below which can be muted!

Three men, a tent, 24hrs and a tub of Vaseline

I've been trying to get my head around a report after an epic weekend of running at #Endure24. I'm not sure of the sensations that my body is feeling but there is a ton of elation, satisfaction & pride to go along with the swollen feet, sore legs and tiredness.  

The Background:
A few weeks ago I got an email invitation from +Mizuno RunningUK about an event that was coming up, Endure 24, a trail running event on a 5mile loop with solo runners or teams runnign over 24hours. A Le Mans for runners.

Me being me, thought, "Yeah, that's mad, let's do that!" and immediately went about roping in my Beast of Ballyhoura cohort Mike and my wife Edel to form the Team #AKWest.
Unfortunately due to work commitments Edel was unable to travel but with a last minute ' volunteer' substitute on Friday last in the form of Noel we were back to a 3 person team. Noel called into the shop in Limerick for a chat, I hadn't seen him in a while and he asked what the plans for the weekend were, as you do. When I told him, running around a forest for 24hours he laughed. Soon changed his tune and talked himself into joining us :)

We managed through the power of Twitter to get the seats transferred before he changed his mind and that was that. He stayed with me Friday night and 3am Saturday we were en-route to Dublin Airport.

The Journey:
Now there are a number of "do as I say, not as I do" moments over this weekend. Number 1 is nutrition.

We got up at 3am and the first mistake was turning down the opportunity of breakfast, "sure, we'll eat at the Airport."

Didn't happen. Airport was jammed, schools are out and everyone and their dog was trying to leave the country. Ended up in the 'Closing Flights' queue and a scamper in the wrong direction to the gate had Mike wondering about my navigation skills.

'Breakfast' was a coffee and Twix on the flight. "Sure, we'll eat when we get there."

Bristol airport - hire car collection, busy, lost time, not time for food. Couple of wrong turns on the way to Reading meant our time was getting trimmed around the edges.

We ended up in some small village doing a Challenge Anneka (Google it!) to get toilet roll, water, fruit, food, insect repellent, and probably forgot something too.

We arrived at Wasing Estate at what looked like a music festival. We even had a nice storm to announce our arrival.

Stopping at the Mizuno VIP area (yeah baby yeah!) we got a nice bundle of Mizuno goodies, poncho (with a brilliant cameraless photo op of Mike doing a 'pooh' face whilst squatting in the poncho) singlet, shorts, socks. We'd gotten our brand new Mizuno #Hayate during the week and Noel got his Friday so good to go in brand new, unbroken in shoes for 24hours! (Number 2 moment).

The boys have arrived at @MizunoRunningUK @run24uk Meet Thunder, Lightning & Downpour! #Endure24 pic.twitter.com/AprdPfALcL
— Amphibian King West (@amphkingwest) June 28, 2014

Car parked, tent up in 2 seconds flat, gear scattered, me changed into my gear, timing chip on and standing on the start line within 40 mins of arriving and with a dazed look on my face, wondering what the hell am I doing here!

The Event:
Awesome!

Not much more to say.

8k loop, run around it and pass the band to your teammate, they run around and so on and so on.
We had a classic race strategy, the Leggit Strategy of Team Relay. When all else fails just leg it!

Plan (on empty still remember, no time for eating properly!) was I'd run the first lap let Noel off and Mike and I could chat about a plan which over the next lap would be recounted to Noel. Thanks how it went. We settled on doing 2 laps each which would bring us to mid afternoon, then do a double lap each which meant the resting runner had the guts of 2 -2.5 hours to sleep / rest before being up again.

When I finished my double I got a thingy of Swedish meatballs and pasta down my neck. I actually only wanted protein, mind said 'pasta', but head said 'no pasta' (tiredness was kicking in ;) ) Nothing to do with the catering but the pasta felt gack & I just craved protein, so that was that.

By the time the guys came in with storming double runs it was 11:40pm and we'd 120km run between us. Time for a little celebration -

Not really proper hydration but you gotta mark 12 hours of team #AKWest running @run24uk somehow! @noel_mccarthy pic.twitter.com/rh4yvBkLMo
— Amphibian King West (@amphkingwest) June 28, 2014

Plan from here was to go on solo runs, easy, and hand over at the tent rather than hanging out at the line. It was allowed and worked for us. I ran into Sunday and handed over to Noel and instructed Mike to wake me when he came in after Noel, kinda due in around 2:30am.

I stirred at 3:30am, saw Noel at my feet, no sign of Mike and thougth "Ah poor bugger's still out there..." as I fell back asleep.

Same again at 4:00am and Noel stirred also telling me Mike was asleep in the car. I was terribly put out that he didn't wake me, and indignantly dozed off again.

A short while later Noel and I went in search of food. The guys had kinda agreed that we'd a fair chunk done with 144k = 48k each and as none of us had really trained it was a great accomplishment. I was fully in agreement until a bacon butty and sugary tea set me off on another lap.

I intended it as a warmdown, thank you lap to all the marshals and to take photos. However, the two lads welcomed me back at the tent with "You know that's 95 miles now, don't you?"

B^st@#ds!!!!

So there was a second, slower, warmdown lap with more gratitude to the volunteers and we had 100miles!! The best part was returning to the pitch to see the two boys had packed up all the gear, but the hillarity started with packing the tent.

More bacon butties, more tea (I'd traded my chip in for a medal at this stage) and we were all set to welcome the last of the runners home.

Ok everyone two more tweets from us tonight. 1: make sure you sleep with this under your pillow: you earned it! pic.twitter.com/PK1fmkjUbI
— Endure24 (@run24uk) June 29, 2014

Fantastic support. Fantastic organisation. Fantastic participants.

Homeward bound:
It's amazing the effect tiredness has on the body and this was one of the things we were exploring so we could recognise the effects in each other.

At one stage, like an excited child, I announced my joy at one of my best ever 8k laps 1hr 11 mins. It was my slowest. Ever. But my brain had reversed everything. So it was my best. Go figure.

Dropped back the car, played some 'Spot the Career' at the airport whilst waiting to board, which was a really funny game until I 'walked' to the board and was identified as a rentboy. :/

Flight home was uneventful. I'll let Mike tell the story of the bar & gel fuelled fart, but my sides are still sore from the laughing.

Amazing experience, thanks to everyone for the support. Edel for supporting me through the journey.

Would I do it again in 2015?

HELL YEAH!! :D

A quick update

The summer is taking shape.

With The Beast of Ballyhoura taking centre stage in August I have along with my wife Edel and Beast teammate Micheal signed up for Endure 24 which takes place over 27 - 29th June and involves 24 hours of running laps on a trail in England .


Micheal and I are using this as a (serious) training event. We expect it to be hard, to test us and also to see how we cope under 24 hours of strain before we head into the 40 hours of The Beast.



Following the Endure24 I have been invited to take part in #RacetoKinvara2 with +Saucony this is in July.

Race To Kinvara from Saucony on Vimeo.

The Beast in August.

And then in October Edel & I are heading to +TCS Amsterdam Marathon where we both have our own targets in mind.

All in all it is going to be a busy running summer! :)

For now though, some light, but necessary reading.

Back wheel keeps on turning

That's all that went through my head as I pushed off from the junction.

Clipping into the pedals, the legs spun and spun and spun. What the heck?! Momentum carried me across the road before realising that it is now time to CLIP OUT!! as the back wheel keeps on turning and you are going nowhere.

8 years of faithful service in cycling and the freehub has finally packed in. Good innings, just not convenient when I'm already pushed for time anyway.

I did Tweet the start of the week:

When your van battery is dead on a Monday morning you get the sinking feeling it could be one of 'those' weeks.
— Amphibian King -Sean (@amphkingwest) April 7, 2014

And it's haunting me. Good week training, but now a little mini-disaster that will force a change for Sunday.

Thursday 10th April
Day off as long day driving and working in Limerick. Changing this next week.

Friday 11th April
Limerick again and while I'd a rough idea to run am and turbo pm, between staff arrangements and travel it meant I would be back in Oranmore for the evening, so #runmute home

Run: 9.6km, HRAvg 151bpm, Pace Avg 05:15

Saturday 12th April
Aimed to run into that the #Zero25k group but a late wake up left be scrabbling for my bike.
Positive - meant extra few km on the bike = less pessure on Sunday
Negative - short on run km so make-up required.

As per intro, plan went to hell in a handbag. Required a pick up and delivery to bring the group out as arranged (30 eager souls ready & 'willing' to run). I'll need a run this evening as out early doors to do a looonnnng cycle on my TT bike.

Run: 3.8km HRAvg 131 bpm, Pace Avg 08:34

Might miss the bike target for the week but solid start & room for improvement next week.

Thanks for reading.

Rollin', rollin', rolling...

Laid out my plan, I did.

Goal is 40-50k running and 200k cycling for the next 3 weeks and then work from there. Shock the system back into action, kick this ass into gear burn off some excess kg's and crack on.

Monday 7th April
Treadmill running, nice and steady planned but just to alleviate the drone I threw in a km with a little bit of pace.

Funny now but not at the time.

Not much pace mind you but enought to have me thinking: "Man 4:45 per km and your struggling for 1k!!" The annoying thing sbout using the phone for music is the constant bleat and whistle of Twitter, Facebook and email alerts (Note to self - Airplane Mode in future). Anyway one of the emails was a response to an enquiry to a CMod from earlier in the day which needed an immediate action from me. Hence the step off for a moment.

Run: 8.01km, HRAvg 136bpm, Pace Avg 05:49

Tuesday 8th April
One of my usual favourite runs in the woods. Two loops reversing for the second loop. Wearing the Hoka Bondi trail / road shoe & my quads are thrashed!! These will take a bit of getting used to, or maybe my runs are just not long enough yet.

Night time run so had the place to myself pretty much and it was lovely.

Run: 12.06km, HRAvg 157bpm, Pace Avg 05:30

Wednesday 9th April
Turbo time with Tacx.

Using one of the preprogrammed workouts with rolling hills I went for a little over an hour, steady and solid. Missing my bike computer head at the moment so no power info to refer to.

HRM kinda mirrored the gradient too.

Turbo: 33km, HRAvg 141bpm

Good start, now to keep going for the rest of the week. Long day Thursday as in Limerick and late night shopping on Friday so plan to keep the run / bike / run / bike going through to the weekend.

As always comments or suggestions welcome.

Start again?

Finally a bit of training being done.

I'm one of those types that needs a purpose to train. I gave myself the goal of cycling down to Lough Cutra to do a lap of the bike (olympic) course and back as a job that needed doing.

Friday 4th April
So with Friday morning off, myself and Mrs. AKW got out for our first joint bike ride in ages. With a couple of obstacles in the way we'd a bit of backtracking to do, so all in all nice comfortable 30k

Bike: 28.8k, HRAvg 135bpm

Saturday 5th April
I've also started a new session of our #Zero25k group from +Amphibian King West - Galway  on Saturday mornings which will run over the next few weeks right up to June 8th. Last year this worked out nicely as I'd run in, do the session and run home before doing the day in the shop. It means 30k or so done nice and early and a great way to cap the week.

Run: 3.8k

Sunday 6th April

I'd messaged some of the guys to see it they were up for it and ended up going out in the wind & rain by myself as others contented themselves on the turbo (looking at you Cinders!! :) ) Job done, Lough Cutra loop and back
 
Bike 70k, HRavg 147bpm, Speed Avg 21.6kph

Plan this week is to get the run km's up (40-50km) and end up running in on Saturday morning as well as clocking 200+ km on the bike between outside & turbo.

Summary
Bike: 99km for the week
Run: 3.8km

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.

#Runstreak Week 1 in Review

A week can seem like a long time.

 It doesn't seem like a week since I was running in the dark with a dead headlamp
or indeed running around in circles like a hamster but as the week went on myself and Edel fell into a pattern of pushing each other to get out and complete the daily run task.

There were no records set. I'm definitely struggling with elevated HR and slow pace at the moment. I have been snuffling and coughing for the past fortnight or so, so there is a bit of seasonal adjustment and dietary adjustment going on. I've cut back on the junk and processed stuff now that the training mojo is coming back and a couple of those ill-gained kilograms have shifted again, so happy days.

#Day1 - 6.5k, PaceAvg 05:23/km
#Day2 - 5.3k, PaceAvg 05:40/km
#Day3 - 5.0k, PaceAvg 06:00/km (treadmill preset, hill interval)
#Day4 - 6.95k, PaceAvg 05:45/km
#Day5 - 6.11k, PaceAvg 05:01/km, HRAvg 146bpm (treadmill)
#Day6 - 6.95k, PaceAvg 05:20/km, HRAvg 148bpm
#Day7 - 12.13k, PaceAvg 05:38/km, HRAvg 142bpm 

Total for the week 55.76km

Now onto Week 2 and more of the same though I might stretch this week to a 45 minute minimum for myself.

#Runstreak #Day1 - Until the Lights Go Out

My Kilcornan training ground

Now I'm not going to bore you with #Day1, #Day2 etc for the next 31 days.

It'll be a weekly summary at most, unless something worthwhile happens.

We've started a Runstreak for the month of December and invited everyone to join us for 30 mins (minimum) every day. Its a great way to get yourself in the habit of time-out everyday and does wonders for clearing your head of life's stresses.

Out yesterday with the family to see Santa in Oranmore, the kids loved it too! It was getting dark when Edel headed out so I was persuading her to bring a light. It was only afterwards when I caught the kids playing shadow puppets that I realised she'd only the flashy red lamp which would be useless in the dark for running Kilcornan.

Cue loading the car to go find mum. She arrived back as we went out the gate, typical!

My turn.

Gear grabbed, light on and out the door I went. As I went down the avenue through Kilcornan ready to start the first loop back around my lamp suddenly dimmed. 

Oh dear! Of all the running I'd done through the evenings it had to be this evening that my batteries run out!! I'll never live this down!!

That was the end of that, 18 mins down the avenue turn around and head right back where I started. No way was I chancing the woods with low batteries as I'd be stumbling around with a broken ankle in no time.

Home with my 'wear a headlamp' tail firmly between my legs for a brief 36min run.

Ah well, run 1 done, another one makes a #runstreak.