DCM Week 9: 8km Regular Part 1

Up at 6:30 this morning and out the door before 7am for a nice 8km run, well it wasn't as nice as I would have liked.  I found it a little tough.  I'm not sure if it is down to that week and a half of no training due to illness or if it is due to being really tired and not fully awake or functioning at that hour of the morning.  Maybe it was a combination of the both.

Any way the weeks to my first marathon is not in the single digits and I'm starting to get a little worried.  I'm not in the shape I would like to be at this moment in time or covering the distances I would hope to cover.  I'm still going to plod along and if I have to walk the last few km's I will.  This is all about finishing, I can always try to be better prepared next time. 9 weeks to go and I aim to finish my training schedule and hope that will be enough to get me to the finish line, one step at a time.

DCM Week 19: Long Run

My long run was on a Thursday last week as I was on a stag weekend in Liverpool and I knew there would be no possible way I would get a run in over the weekend.  I started out from work and had the Garmin set for a 26km long run but I knew that would be optimistic.  After missing training for a week and a half with pharyngitis and a fever to accompany it I knew I would have to start back easy and was not too happy to be losing a weekend also so the aim was 26km but I would be happy with 16km, or so I told myself.

It was a nice enough evening but my legs didn't last the full journey.  I managed 17.5km and then I stopped as I was afraid I would bring on an injury if I kept going as my legs had nothing left.  I feel like I've gone a step backwards but I'll just start building up again and hopefully I reach my goal and complete the Dublin City Marathon in a reasonable time.

DCM Week 12: Long Run

This morning I got up to run the longest run I've run to date.  I got dressed, dropped a Nuun tablet in my water, put on my earphone, turned on my ipod, strapped up my right knee, turned on my Garmin and began running.  A nice 500m warm up and some stretches and the run began.

As I'm in a small, small village today the options of somewhere safe and flat to run are a little limited so I ended up running a single road up and down for what must have been 40 times.  I had to go back to the house to refill my water bottles twice but that was fine as the house was never more than 500m away due to where I was running.

The inital stages were a little tough but I kept myself going by not looking at the Gamin, instead I focused on the water and when that was running out.  At a refill stop I allowed myself to check the watch.  1st stop 11km down.  2nd stop 20km done.

Getting started the third time was a struggle as my legs did not seem to have enjoyed the stop and were getting very heavy.  I pushed through and thankfully made it to 25.01km, my longest run ever both in terms of time and distance.  Next weeks long run is only 16km so it will feel like a holiday.

DCM Week 12: 6.5km Run Part 2

3 days in a row done.  The last time I did this was back in December 2010 and I injured myself.  I hope that doesn't happen this time, touch wood.  I'm not superstitious by the way :-)

A big run coming up on Saturday.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried.  Ah well only one thing to do... Run It!!!

DCM Week 12: 6km Regular Run

Out again this morning.  I got up earlier today and began the smaller 6km run at 6.54am.  Half way through the run the cool air became warm air, I was glad I got early to run.  The first 2km went fine.  I've been running easy due to an tightness in my right Achilles but I am missing the speed workouts, never thought I'd say that.  I decided to run the 3rd km fast just to see how I'm doing pace wise.  A 4:27 for kilometre 3 wasn't bad.  My favourite piece is that I managed to average a heart rate of 149 BPM at a pace of 5:26 over 7km total.  Pretty happy with that.

Another 6.5km planned for tomorrow.  If I do it it will be the first time in a long time that I'll have run three days in a row.

DCM Week 12: 6.5km Run Part 1

Today was hot.  It was my own fault as I couldn't drag my ass out of the bed so it was 9am before I was ready to hit the road.  Out the door, turn on my Garmin and low battery shouts back at me.  I'm wondering if my Garmin is dying. It doesn't seem to be able to hold a charge past a day.  Back into the house and I put the watch on charge for 30 minutes hoping it would be enough to cover the 6.5km I intended to run today.

I had bought a new pair of Ray Ban sunglasses yesterday for normal wear but hoped they would be ok for running too and I aimed to try them out today.  30 minutes later I began the walk to the track.  At 9.56am I began my run.  Did I say that it was hot?  I know running in this heat will benefit me in the end but it was hot, hot, hot.  Well done to those who go out in this weather on a regular basis.  In Ireland this is not something we have to worry about much.

7.54km done today including warm up and cool down.  A nice run out.  The sunglasses were fantastic and didn't move at all.  I forgot I was wearing them most of the time.  Delighted with my purchase now, I was worried yesterday as it was a lot of money...

A nice rest now and off to the beach in the evening.  Gotta love holidays.

DCM Week 13: Recovery Run

As it was going to be a beautiful day and we were going to go to the beach in the morning I elected to get up early in the morning for my recovery run.  I was out the door by 6.40am.  The legs were really tired so the very, very slow, easy pace was as much as they could do for this morning.  They did begin to wake up around 6km along with the sun and the rising heat.  7.58km done and a total of 36.98km for the week, a new PR.

With just 12 weeks left to the Dublin City Marathon the weeks are going to get longer and next week the long run is a 24km.  Having never passed the half marathon distance this will be a new horizon for me.  I hope I'm up to it.

I'm running the Dublin City Marathon on the 31st of October this year to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society.  If you would like to donate some money to this worthy cause please click on the link below or the image for mycharity.ie on the right side column.  Thanks in advance.

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/thomasjfarrell/

DCM Week 13: Long Run

I had to drag myself out of the bed this morning.  I had hoped to be out the door at 7am but it was just after 9am before the door closed behind me and only then becuase I knew it was just going to get warmer the longer I left it.

I walked the 500m to the track to warm up the Achilles tendon and then hit my 500m jog warm up.  After my stretches it was into the run, a nice 14kms easy.  I split the run into two 7km runs.  The first went well as I ran anti-clockwise around the track.  Once the first 7 were completed I turned around and ran clockwise for the next 7km.  The sun also decided to join me and it began to get very muggy with the high humidity.  When the last kilometre approached I felt I could run it hard but as I'm still having Achilles trouble I tried to make it quick but within the pace zone I've set of 5:45 - 6:22 m/km.  I finished the last in 5:47 joint fastest of the day. Covered in sweat I walked back to the house after another good run.

I felt I could have run longer if my legs were in better shape, my breathing and heart rate were good, I guess the McMillan Running Calculator is working for me.  I'm on for a PR tomorrow if I complete the recovery run.  It'll be the most distance I'll have run in one week.  I'm sure I'll have more of these PR's throughout the rest of the training.  So far so good.

DCM Week 13: Mid-week Runs

Tuesday
This was a bad run day for two reasons.
1. 500 metres into the run my Garmin died. I was sure I charged it after my last run. I hope it's not on its last legs.  Two weeks ago it refused to reset after a run, not good.  It's a good thing I knew the route so I could be sure to cover the distance I was supposed to.

2. I think I did something to my Achilles tendon on my right foot. It began to hurt towards to end of the run, not much though, but 5 hours later I had difficulty walking, definitely not good.  Ice pack was required. 7km done.

Wednesday
This was supposed to be a 6km run but the tendon was not up for it so that got shelved and became a rest day with a little more icing thrown in for good measure.

Thursday
"Woke up this morning, feeling fine", well close to it anyway.  I decided to try the run today and see how I got on. The plan was 6.5km, but I would be happy with 3km done.  I changed the pace zone on the Garmin to a nice easy run and left the house.

I walked the first 500 metres to warm up and jogged the next 500 metres to complete the warm up. After a bit of easy stretching off I went.  There was a bit of slight discomfort for the first km but that disappeared quick enough.  I kept a nice easy, slow pace throughout. At around 4km the discomfort came back but never moved into pain.  I finished up having done 7.3km, not including walking and walked the .5km back to the house for a nice round of stretching.

I've iced the tendon up again and with tomorrow being a rest days hopefully it's on the mend, fingers crossed.  It's going to be easy runs, with no speed or hills gore the next two weeks just to be sure things are fine.  I don't want to put myself out for a while.  Also it seems my Garmin is ok.  I must have turned it on to check something but forgot to turn it off, searching for satellites indoors is a quick way to running out of battery.