Family Fitness 5K

Yep, I maanged my race this morning. Now, given I did enter a few weeks back, and have telegraphed this race here, I was still a doubt last night, thanks to the British & Irish Lions fabulous victory over South Africa yesterday, and a few celebratory pints as we sat in the pub disseminating the entire tour!

Anyway, I managed to get up, out, and down to Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park here in Dublin. The event was billed as a Family Fitness Day with the 5K kicking events off for all the family. There was a good turnout for the event, and good to see Paul McNamara fron my club, although he was there in his working for Athletics Ireland mode today, and not running, but we had a brief chat and he's gearing up for a crack at the Dublin Marathon in October.

Sonia O'Sullivan was the Official Starter, and off we went at 10.30 on the roads around the Park. As ever there were slower runners near the start, but in general terms the start was orderly and I quickly settled into an easy rhythm. Amazingly, given this was organised by Athletics Ireland, there were no Km or Mile markers, so it was hard to gauge the pace, but having a good idea of the lay out of the Park, I could tell I was running inside my 25 minute target, perhaps a little too fast, but it was only 5K!

Nothing really dramatic to report about the race really, I plodded on, felt the Guinness from yesterday around 20 minutes into the run, so had to ease off the gas, and when we re-entered the Farmeligh estate we only had 400m to run, and a quick check on the watch showed I had a comfortable margin of ewrror, so I didn't bust a gut in sprinting too hard, and finished comfortably with the watch at 24:34.

A decent time, but not a great run, thanks to the Guinness and the lack of distance markers, but a reasonable standard for the summer and the plethora of races I have lined up. Next up is the DCC 5K at Irishtown on the 15th, and I'll be targetting a better run and time there.

Speed work

Well, OK, it many ways, its slow plodding work, but given that my legs haven't turned over at much more than 8 minute mile pace for quite a while, and I do want to duck under 25 mins on Sunday, I thought I would foresake the sunny evening, head to the gym and have a go at running with some "speed".

So, the gym it was, and a treadmill session. A warm up eased me into it, and then I hit the speed dial, and ran a 2K time trial in 9:23 - Not fast by so many standards, except my last 12 months of running :) - So I enjoyed it, warmed down, went and had a sauna and hope that this will translate to a decent run on Sunday - Stay tuned!

July arrives - Where's the year gone? <17 weeks to Dublin

Realised tonight as I was running in the sun (for a change), that the Dublin Marathon is less than 17 weeks away, and my training is on par for a decent 10K in 17 weeks, rather than a 42K run.

Notwithstanding the above, I ran a nice 5 miler along Sandymount Strand, nice and easy, just under 41 minutes for the run, and a lot of sweat. Stands me in good stead for Sundays 5Km race in Farmleigh. It really was a lovely evening for running, the sun was out, the temp was gorgeous, and it was great to see so many others out on the strand, kind of makes those winter wet runs all worthwhile.

Oh Boy! There goes another month

Where dows time go to - Must be a sign of getting older but the months seem to tick by so quickly, and at times so slowly. They rush by when you are injured and have a marathon planned for 20 weeks away - oops - make that 17 weeks away - see another three weeks missed! - When you are waiting for something nice to happen, the days tick by slowly, tick, tock, tick tock.....dragging out each minue, each hour....

Well, it's the end of June, and my Marathon, Dublin, is at the end of October. Another month has passed when my training has been more like that of someone training for the school sports egg and spoon race. On the plus side, I managed another race, a 10Km whilst in Argentina, and I clocked 52:14, which isn't too bad, but on the minus side, just as I got my training into a pattern, I came down with flu, so ten days lost... C'est la vie!

Anyway, Thursday I was back to work and back to the gym, and an easy 4km, and this morning I went out and ran one of my favourite, albeit short, training runs, The Two Bridges I call it, using the Liffey quay as my base. It's been a regular sounding board for my levels of fitness over the last three years, it's only 2.4 miles, but a good guide, and today I ran 19:38 on a plesant sunny morning. It felt hard, as it should given I had missed those ten days from a low base in itself, but I got around and feel good for the run.

A 5K race next weekend is on the agenda, and despite everything June will be my highest mileage of the year to day - again, the base wasn't that good, so nothing to write home about, but hopefully, all is going in the right direction again.

Recovery Run

I could get to like this running lark!!! After yesterdays race, and a day with my books, I went the gym and managed a recovery run in 14:53 for 3Km on the treads... Is this a sign that I am a runner again - two days in a row :)......

Hey - I'm a Runner Again! I ran a RACE!

I know there hasn't been a lot to read, two steps forward. then one point nine steps back - But, finally I managed to get myself into some form of shape that I could actually line up on the start line of an actual race.

I checked - it's been almost a year to the day since I last crossed a finish line, and I could be forgiven for thinking I might never bother doing it again, but despite all the setbacks, and the aches and pains of mellowing age, tonight I made it to the start of the Docklands 8Km road race. Well, I had little excuse for not getting to the start, seeing as it started 100 yards from my front door, so along with over 1000 others, I lined up for the race around Dublin Docklands.

Given its been so long, and my training (if you can call it that!) has been sporadic, I had no idea what would happen, or what time I might run. I had a figure of 45 minutes in my head as a worse case scenario, that's nine minute miles, and knowing the course was measured in kilometres, I sort of had 44 mins, 5:30 pace in my head. I haven't run farther than 5 Km in 6 months, so this was going to be a shock to the system.

It's a flat course, through the Docklands, as it's name suggests, with only two little climbs over water, and to be honest, there is not a lot to write about. I ran the first couple of Km's inside my target time, hit 5Km in 26:02, then felt a littler sick, so took a walk break, and picked it up at the end to finish with a sort of kick, clocking 43:09, not my best ever race, but not bad given where I have been.

I'll let you know how I feel in the morning, but at least I have raced again, and I can but improve from this, and I know I can do it again...... I had begun to doubt that.....

Feckin Inevitable!

Wouldn't you know it - Just as I start to feel I am heading in the right direction, something goes wrong. I can't even tell you what happened, but my left foot is killing me. So bad, I can't walk easily, let alone run - Maybe I should just give up any thoughts about running well ever again, degenerate into an old fat slob, and watch TV......

I hate this.............................................

Another week passes

A relatively easy week, not a huge amount of running as I want to tread carefully and not go overboard. On the plus side, I ran a 3 Km Time Trial, of sorts, on Thursday evening, and managed to run 14:46, which despite seeming slow by some standards, is the fastest I have run 3K in over a year.

It's a long way from the heady days of running a full marathon (42K) at that pace, but its yet another step in the right direction. The weight doesn't seem to be moving down, although thankfully not up either!, and I'm hovering around 196 lbs, a long way to go on that target - But, onwards and upwards, and Saturday coming (May 2nd) I have the RTE 5 Mile race to enjoy (or should that be endure!)... On On.....

Amazing - Another Post

Another week passes, and my weight is hanging around 198 - Lat night it was a 4 K run, adn tonight, I managed 3Km in 15.37 which is as quick as anything I have run recently, if not earth shattering...

I have an idea of a race on May 2nd over 5 Miles, and the 8K Docklands run on May 19th, then we can assess the rest of the year - Looking at Fall Marathons, and BA is looking good, and Dublin's 30th anniversary - Lets see how May goes first.....

That's where I left my Blog!

Amazingly, it is 4 months since I last wrote anything on here. I know I have been lax in the past, but this just about takes the biscuit...

Have I been running - well, not really. I managed to acquire a groin injury before Xmas last, and I found it difficult to shake it off. Must be old age! What it meant was, I could run on a Monday, the groin would stiffen up the next day, I would need 48 hours for it to "de-flame", and then on Thursday I could run again, and go through the stiff/de-flame process again - so as you can guess, very little real training was done.

So here we are, Easter 2009, and I am glad to report that after a complete rest from running through March, the groin has cleared up, and I am back running on a daily (ish) basis. Obviously taking it gently, step by step, not helped by the fact that my weight ballooned up to around 205 lbs, but I have actually got into double figures for mileage this week, and I can build from here.

My first challenge is likely to be a 5 Mile Road Race on May 2nd, part of the BHAA series, but it will be a very gentle excursion, and will indicate how much I need to do before I can realistically start to set goals for the second half of the year. The only real goal I have is to run injury free for 6 months - Mind you, I think I have set that one before!