Thank you

2 more sleeps.

Been a tough week, trying to stay off the feet, look after the body, get a massage in, work with the roller, avoid too much running, 'keep it in the pants', work, family too are important, our young lad has had a bug (seems over it now, thankfully).

Last weekend for the first time in what seems, forever, we'd a family Sunday. A proper one, where there were no races, no big training, no work to interrupt us going out and doing stuff.

We went off to Kinvara & explored around Newquay after a lovely lunch in Linnane's. The kids loved the Martello Tower and we'd a time trying to figure out where the door was while watching out for pirates on the horizon.

A great day out and nice to relax with the family.

This Sunday will be different.

This Sunday I will be away from the family.

This Sunday I will be putting all the miles, all the frustrations, all the encouragement, all the doubts, all the 'everythings' to good use.

This Sunday I will be working hard to achieve a goal for me.


On Monday I return to my family. To be with my family. To be there for my family.

Thank you for the support, for delivering me to the start line. I will do you proud.

Almost there!

My wife is right. I don't say that often.

I have a default setting in that I can only do something 100% I have to be fully immersed in it, to give it my all. She said this to me when I was talking about tackling +Ironman Triathlon Frankfurt in 2014.

She actually worded it in such a way as to enable me to convince myself that she was right and I was wrong. I wouldn't be able to devote to the right training scheduleon account on work & family especially with the store in Limerick.

She was especially right when she observed that I wouldn't be happy doing an event in which I knew I not fully committed to in training.

She's right.

Now that I'm tapering I'm starting to doubt myself.

Training volume is reduced (obviously) so after weeks of high volume and high intensity training I feel like I'm doing nothing. I've suddenly got available time.

So what do I do?

Fill it with something else. Not for me the idea of relaxing, storing energy, saving the body. No I'm up and about getting to events, preparing banners, hanging them, taking them down. Zipping around the place.

The danger is, that 'little' 9k training run doesn't take precedence. "I can do it in my sleep", same goes for the 40mins easy, "M'eh! too busy!"

So last week I didn't miss any sessions, I made a conscious decision not to bother with them, this is not good. I haven't once done this this year. Things crop up, sessions get missed, that's different. Not like me to get complacent and I really don't like the idea of rot setting in with days to go.

 

They're all being done this week. Including the little 20min session on Saturday. Probably will be right after being off the plane, but it's getting done

After that, it's feet up and time to trust my training, my legs and my self.

 

Time to Taper

Almost there!!

The dreaded words every #marathon #runner loves to hear but hates hearing them. Cos you know 'almost there' usually means you're about to hit a hill or you've still 5 miles to go.

No, for sure, I'm almost there.

When I consider that this stage last year I had managed to hobble myself with a stupid mountain bike, I'm almost there.

Tapering this week and next with Amsterdam Marathon on Sunday week I'm really looking forward to it.

Am I ready?

I feel ready, but know that tapering torture is going to have me doubting myself, my training, my coach right up until the moment that gun goes off.

Almost there!!

The Last BIG session

 Between getting home, putting the kids down and getting organised I was facing into a 9pm start time. I'd had dinner at lunchtime knowing I would be stuck for eating time so set myself up with a couple of gels and a bottle of Endure I went at it on the treadmill listening to a genius mix on the ipod.

The good news was my entry for #Amsterdam Marathon arrived

Thursday:
Planned -
10mins E pace, 75mins M pace, 5mins E pace to warm down - 19k

Actual -
With 10mins of warm up I was not looking forward to this. Again the head playing games - "Ah, you don't really have to do this!", "You're cracked! Who else would be running at this hour?" etc

Time to SIU!

Kicking into gear at the start of the 'Work' phase I set myself a goal of a drink every 5mins so I would click down the time as the km clicked through. After 25mins I took the first +Agave #9 gel with some water and settled into my stride.

On the treadmill I focus on how I'm running. I don't use mirrors, instead I try and sense what my feet are doing and where the majority of landing force is happening. It helps pass the time too!!

Sipping and swapping water for Endure every 5mins I took a second gel with 30mins to go.

Running into the last 10 mins of the 'Work', "Highway Star" came on, I love the rhythm of it, I was wiping sweat off my face  when all of a sudden a shout beside me caused me to jump like a scalded cat.

The Mrs was only saying "G'night!", but I was zoned out of it, jumped, stumbled, grabbed the safety key, came to a grinding halt and she cracked herself laughing. That's why the arse fell out of the data:

I suppose I could trip in a race? So, back on and winding the pace back up again I finished stronger to make up time.

Wk20 Thursday - Phases

Finished well, with all the work in the right places, cooled down and went for a dry off and something to eat.

My view for 1:30

Wk20 Thursday - Summary

Keep it in your pants!!

So went the email from my coach in reaction to my last post about being fatigued:

You got carried away on the Monday session and did not keep it in your pants!!  That run along with cumulative fatigue did not help you for the week.  Two tough sessions left and then its time to ease off.  If you were not tired this week i would be more concerned, work is more or less done, time to put the icing on the cake.

With that in mind I was aiming to stick to the plan in tonight's session.

Week 20 - Half a week down

Its been a good but rough start to the week.

Looking back now, I'd a red flag on Monday after the stormer of a session on Sunday and should have been more aware of how the fatigue was building on the body. Here's how I was shaping up for Monday - red flag indicating 'Training is not recommended'

Wk19 - Training Load indicators

I went out Monday evening and felt great, had a solid session, got lost in it and did a bit more than expected. I'm feeling the rolled up effects of that good session and pretty poor sleep this week and its only Thursday :(

Monday:
Planned -
60mins E pace running, throw in 5x20sec strides - 12k

Actual -
In hindsight I only ran 2k or so further and clipped along 40 sec per km faster than goal pace. I had my music on and felt good so was just rolling with the session nicely. HR was relatively low, I felt good, then.

Wk20 Monday - Summary

Tuesday:
Planned -
10mins E pace, 5x30sec strides/30secs easy, 3x(3km T pace + 5secs with 1km E pace recovery) & 5min E warm down - 16k

Actual -
I seemed to struggle to get going in the first place. Normally I loosen up through the warmup and start to come to life around 3-4 km into a run. It just didn't happen for me this evening.

Tpace is 4:20/km so targets were to have been 4:25/km for the 'Work' and 'Recovery' in the 5:23/km area. As can be seen all of the paces were off by too much. Not an overly hilly loop and it was 2.5 loops so the 'Work' phases shifted around a bit.

Wk20 Tuesday - Phases

I'm blaming my choice of footwear for this and will discuss this again. I had Zero recoil or lift in my feet and really had to work hard on each step. Left drained and sore after the session. Calves tight and all (very unusal for me)

Wk20 Tuesday - Summary

Wednesday:
Planned -
45mins E pace running, throw in 5x20sec strides - 9k

Actual -
This ended up being a treadmill session. The boss was playing a water polo game at 10pm so after a visit to see a new S&C coach in Limerick I was home to settle our daughter and line up a session on the treadmill.

I think being straight forward tired is the root of the issue this week.

One foot in front of the other, get this done!! I wasn't doing a step further than 45mins for this. Normally I'd be ticking off the full 9k, end of!

Wk20 Wednesday - Summary

Looking at my training load indicators:

Wk20 Training Load indicators

that fatigue is rolling up day on day. I'm not looking forward to my session tonight but I will get it done, click off the rest of the week and then it's taper time!

Planned Week (so far) - 37k
Actual Week (so far) - 38.42k

Physically - lots of tiredness, restless sleep.
Mentally - lets just get it done!!

Literally as I write this my buddy messaged me: "That run tonight is the last of the hard stuff"
Yeah, lets just get it done!!

Autumn Change of Scenery

With the winter evenings settling in on us pretty quickly I'm running more in the woods simply for a change of tererain in recovery runs and a bit of variety.

Out the past two evenings and this previous blg piece popped into my mind on forest running -
Regaining Ground: Soundtrack for an Overactive Imagination. Not much has changed I'm still listening to the same soundtrack, I run in a different woods now and generally run more of it.

I still love the variance of the footfall and stride patterns.

Try it some time!