Training while on holiday’s

Friday 19th July…Put the runners in the bag for the first time ever while I was packing and hoping that I’d have the discipline to get out and follow what John had told me to do while away…arrived over on the Friday night and decided I’d do my first run on Sat evening…I have 6 runs to do while away so I said I’d get off to a good start…I started my run at 19:40 in the evening and did a full 80 minutes with only one stop for a bottle of water in a shop…was running on my own as my running partner hadn’t arrived yet and don’t know what pace etc I did as I have no watch (need to get one of these) but was happy to get the run in….a few tips John had given me over the last few weeks came back to me such as running in the shade if possible, running on even surfaces (footpaths were uneven), relaxing the arms, be aware of my breathing etc and I really enjoyed the run and felt relaxed throughout…this might have been because I wasn’t running at my normal pace but it was probably the most enjoyable run I’d had since I started as everything felt right…the change of scenery might have had a lot to do with this as well…. Ciaran has mentioned in his blog http://fatdadrun.blogspot.ie/ about running being as much a mental activity as it is a physical battle I’d agree totally with….tonight mentally I was enjoying a new route and my holiday so I wasn’t even thinking about the next corner or hill in front of me and time seemed to fly by.

On Monday, David Spain (Brother in law) and myself headed off at 18:45 and we did a similar run to what I had done on the Saturday…the pace was up a bit…Dave would have done a good bit of running when he was younger and he still has it in the legs even though he doesn’t do a lot of running now…says he’s going to get back into it more and is going to do the Tullamore half marathon on 31st August…we did 80 minutes tonight with a few stops for water and this is how we looked when we got back..

Wednesday night the plan was to go out so we said we’d go out in the morning…anyway this didn’t happen and the only time we could get out was at 15:30….the temperature was very warm and even with all the water I had taken on board during the day etc…..10 minutes into the run I was struggling…we went out in one direction about 2 miles and I had to stop for water in a local shop…started again and went about another mile and was really struggling at this stage…Dave said we’d go to the next roundabout and see how we are get on…by then I was out on my feet….Dave was feeling ok so I said to him to work away and I’d turn back and he could catch up on me before I got back….on the way back I would say I stopped about 5 times with a few walks in between…stopped twice to buy water in local shops and wasn’t feeling good at all…eventually got back having done about 70 minutes but this included stops/walks etc but again was happy that I at least got out…said I’d take a break then for a few days and decided that we’d do a long run on Sat.

Saturday we decided to run at 7:00 in the morning but couldn’t get out of bed and eventually hit the road at 8:20….Dave had route planned and it was about an 8-10 mile run down to the marine and back….a lot of big hills etc and really tough. I always find the first 15 minutes of the runs hard and this morning was no different as it takes a while for the body to loosen up but was going ok….after about 35 minutes I was feeling ok and this was because I was doing down a hill…before we went down the hill we had to go up a hill that is about a mile in  distance…before you start up the hill there is a lidi shop and as I was half way up the hill I could hear a guy behind me for a while..i was waiting for him to pass me out and as he did I couldn’t believe he was running with a bag of shopping in each hand…didn’t feel as good as I did about conquering the hill then…we got down to the marina in about 45 minutes and we had a quick stop for some water…we then started to make our way back through the old town and back along the coast…did a full 90 minutes with 1 stop on 45min for water and 1 stop at 55min for a photo…next Monday the plan is to do the full 90 minutes with no stops so hopefully I’ll be able to do this….Running at different times of the day has taught me that the time you run at each day is very important if you want to have the energy to complete them….running when it’s cooler in the morning or evening is a good idea and also run in the shade if possible.

Monday we went out for a run at 18:45 and I wanted to run the full distance without stopping…Dave said he’d go ahead of me and pick up water when it was needed...Got down to half way point at marina in 45 minutes and Dave called into a shop for water…there was a queue in the shop when Dave called in so I was parched by the time Dave caught up on me….Dave had the iphone with him and was using runkeeper tonight so we got exact distance/time/pace etc for the run…we ran for 1:26:36 at a pace of 11:02 and a distance of 7.85 miles…happy enough as temp was 27oC and a lot of hills etc…

Had planned to go for a run today Wed 31st but similar to Ciaran on his blog…I was doing cross training as well last night…had a great night out and ended up on the dance floor showing a few moves….anyway the DJ played “One Step Beyond – Madness” and the legs were in overdrive…didn’t get to finish off my dance moves as I pulled up with a pain in my right calf….don’t know did I pull something or strain it in some way…..as I write it’s still not right so hopefully nothing to serious as I see Ciaran is nursing an injury as well at the minute…we’ll need to get these sorted as we only have 4 weeks to go before the half marathon….will be back training with Ciaran this weekend and we plan to do the Ballycumber 10K run on Sunday…here is the details…Ballycumber GAA are holding a 10k run & Family 5K walk on Sunday August 4th at. Entry is €10 per person & kids go free.

Finally just after finishing a book called “Kings of September – The day Offaly denied Kerry five in a row”…what a brilliant book about Offaly GAA and it’s a great read from start to finish…I never got a chance to read it before and if you haven't read it you should get your hands on a copy..it shows the preparation, time and effort this Offaly team put in to achieving something that was unthinkable and they spent years as a group working towards the goal of winning a All-Ireland.…as was said in the book…it’s a story of ordinary men who did extraordinary things...we live in hope that we’ll see days like this again in Offaly…

Here is a few photos Dave took of me on our Runs....Until later...only 4 weeks to go..

 

Ray and The "Jelly Beans"

Tonight Tue 16th July I was on my own with John as Ciaran was off on holidays but fair play he got out himself as well today…see his blog here… http://fatdadrun.blogspot.ie/2013/07/in-kingdom-of-kerry.html

Meet John in the harriers for 6:30 and we were on the road for 6:40…as usual has a lot of water in me before the run…we were going out the Mucklagh bypass tonight and then back in via Mucklagh. The first 2 miles were the toughest and this is because the legs were so tired from the run we did on Sunday. We were running at a pace of 10:15 per mile which wasn’t too bad...the hill going up the Mucklagh bypass towards the blue ball is about 1.5 Mile and you’d notice the incline when running but I knew when we got to the top of it we’d be on our way home so I just kept going….on the turn for home the legs were loosened out at this stage and I wasn’t feeling too bad…the run into Mucklagh was fine and John’s refilled the water bottles from the graveyard and the holy water gave us the boost going up the hill…we then turned into Charleville at Barnes Gate and came out the main gates and back to the harriers….we finished up with half a lap of the tarmacadam track to bring us up to 80 mins with an average pace of 9:59 per mile…another good nights run.

Wed 17th July..Leona is one of the girls in work that is doing the half marathon and I’ve been onto her for the last few weeks to go out on a run….we eventually got to go out at lunch time…we left work at 1 and we headed towards Charleville…neither of us had a watch to tell us distance/pace etc so I don’t know what pace we went out at…when we got into Charleville we headed towards the castle gates(a route I knew) and then we swung a left through the forest…when we got out the far side I thought the road we were on was going to bring us out Barnes Gates(Charleville bypass roundabout) but we ended up going up towards the farm and then we came back and went another way and got lost…I was telling Leona I was used to these routes as I was running them a lot during training and then I get lost in the grounds of Charleville…god only know what she was thinking …anyway eventually we got back on track and found our way out of the forest….during the run we had to make a stop as we were going too fast compared to what Leona was running at…it was the first time we’d run together so I didn’t know what pace we should be running at but anyway after a quick stop we got back and we did a 40 minute run and we were both happy with this…I’d find out myself tomorrow night the problem with going out to fast..

Thursday 18th July….Heading up to harriers for 6:30 and John said that we were going to be joined by Ray Murray for the run.…we started off with a 2 Mile run around Charleville …the weather was warm as it has been all week and we ran up to the castle gates and then towards the farm house and then back to the big tree via the outer perimeter of the big field…I definitely noticed we were going quicker than normal and when we got back after the 2 mile I was out on my feet…I asked John what pace we had run at and he told me 9:20…the previous day when I was running with Leona we were going at a quicker pace than she was used to running at we had to stop for a shot break…today after running the 2 mile at 9:20 pace and I knew what she was feeling the previous day…I needed a break and I finished off nearly a litre of water at the big tree….then John said we’d get going again to Mucklagh graveyard via Charleville…this wasn’t as hard as the previous 2 Mile but when we got to Mucklagh graveyard we needed to stock up on water again…John has a water belt that holds 2 water bottles and he bring this for Ciaran and myself each time we’re been out over the last few weeks and tonight was no different...I drank both of John’s bottles and 2 of Ray’s bottles as well...I think John brought Ray tonight just to carry extra water for me…anyway filled up at the cemetery and headed back the same route…on the way back Ray gave me a few “Jelly Babies” as he called them…small little different coloured beans…he says sugar in them will give you a lift…John didn’t have any so I had his as well…with some of the world elite athletics getting into trouble over the last week I was thinking should I have asked more about what was in these “Jelly Babies” but Ray seemed like a nice guy so I’m going to trust him…hope I don’t get disqualified from the half marathon for eating these little coloured beans.

Going back was a lot easier and I think this is because mentally you feel you are on your way home and every step you take you are closer to home OR maybe it was the “Jelly Beans”…drank 4 more bottles on the way home (2 from John and 2 from Ray) and we got back to the harriers with 8 Miles completed....this was one of the toughest run’s I had done and I’m putting it down to a few factors: the run the previous day had me tired (I seem to do better when I have a day’s rest between runs) and I was working in the sun all day today that made me tired as well but I think the main reason was that we had gone out to hard at 9:20 a mile...in my head I was thinking I’d like to run the half marathon in under 2 hours but I think it will be around the 2 hour 10 Minutes mark….I’d have to run the full half marathon in about 9:20 per mile to do it in under 2 hours but I don’t think I’ll be able for this..…anyway time will tell….just delighted to be able to run 8-10 Miles now without stopping even though tonight I stopped twice!!

Tonight was my last run with John for 2 weeks as I’m away on holidays but I’ll keep you posted on my progress…Ciaran had a program to stick to that John gave him while he was on holidays and he stuck to it and I plan to do the same...I have to do 2 x 80 min runs and 1 x 90-100 minute run each week….I’m doing about a mile ever 10 minutes so this is about 2 x 8 miles and 1 x 10 mile runs each week..…Ciaran over the last week on his holidays was out running the roads with his brother Hugo and I will be out running the roads with a brother in law of mine David Spain…Until later…keep running….only 6 more weeks to go......

First 10 Miler Ever!!

Have to do a post as it’s my first 10 Mile ever to do…Previous few days……after run on Thursday (previous post) I was feeling OK on Friday and went out Friday night in town for a few drinks…had friends/family back from the USA and had a great night out…finished off the night with a chicken burger meal with curry chips and diet coke and then headed home and into bed for 3:30..mightn’t have been the best preparation for the run on Sunday but it was what the body needed on Friday night…Sat morning was up around 9 and didn’t feel too bad...Drank water throughout the day as it would be needed for the run tomorrow and was in bed for 22:15….not bad considering everyone was going out again tonight but I wanted to be in good shape for the morning as when I signed up to complete this 10 week challenge with the harries I told myself I’d commit to it….(didn’t say I couldn’t have the odd night out though)

Sunday morning up at 7…had a slice of toast, banana and a pint of cold water. Arrived up to the harriers at 7:50 as I didn’t want to be late (usually the case) and noticed a huge amount of cars up there already and a bus…turns out the club were going to Sligo for the National Track and Field competition but the “elite runners” had other plans...a 10 Mile run around the Ross road….looked around and none of the elites were around….turns out I was early and maybe too keen for a change…anyway everyone arrived by 8 and we got a quick photo and off we went towards the finger board….John had arranged for us to join the girls and it was great to be heading off with a large group…got to the fingerboard and Paul Hennessy & Denis Flynn(they didn’t make the photo) were waiting to join us and I was saying to Ciaran that this wasn’t a bad idea and I might try this the next night but I don’t think it would wash with John..

The first few miles were OK and everyone seemed comfortable. The conversations were flowing but as time goes on the chats gets less and less but there is always time for some slagging…complimented Mary Mann on her sexy “pink water” bottles and we discussed her “pink” nails that complimented her pink training top…now that is dedication to be that colour coordinated….think I’m going to have to inject some colour into my training gear as the black isn’t cutting it when we’re out with the girls…at 3 miles John as usual had water stashed away in a ditch somewhere and he came up behind me and gave me a bottle….as usual the water didn’t last long but it was needed at that time…most of the group had brought water with them(seasoned pros) but me and Lynchie are just trying to carry ourselves at the minute..

Got to Screggan cross in Mucklagh which was about 6 miles and the group was beginning to spread out a bit then…great thing about going in a group is that everyone finds a  comfortable pace to run at and you’ll always have someone to run with…turned left and headed towards the blue ball onto the bypass, then turned right and we were heading for home… felt good at this stage and I was putting it down to all the training we were going over the last 4 weeks…we had trained 3-4 times a week for the last 4 weeks doing about 12-15 Miles in our first week with a lot of breaks during our sessions. Now at the end of week 4 we were up to running 24 Miles (3 sessions) in a week with no breaks during our sessions…the last 2 miles I could feel the legs getting tired and sore but kept going and was delighted to get back to the harriers in one piece…

Finished off with a lap of the tarmacadam track in the harriers with Elysia, Josie and Dave and then my first ever 10 miler was done…I did it in about 1:40. I didn’t think that 4 weeks ago that Ciaran and myself would be going go well but we had put in the training and it was paying off. The main reason I signed up to do the challenge was that the harriers said they would coach us and I wanted to learn how to run correctly and to pick up some tips etc on what to do and not do…we have been very lucky to have John O’Connell looking after us and the little tips etc he gives us have really helped…anyone I seem to talk to up in the harriers says that John has trained or helped them in some way and they all say we are lucky to have him training us.

Before we left the harriers we got another photo...so that we’d have a before and after!! You can make up your own mind how we looked but everyone was still smiling….. even though it was tough it was enjoyable and I personally was delighted we had completed it....Said a final farewell to Ciaran and shed a tear as we won’t be training together now for the next 3 weeks due to holidays but we’re both going to keep a separate blog on our progress and we both have a plan to stick to…..went home and had a shower and was feeling tired after the run…Everyone went to mass in Tullamore and I said I’d stay at home and mind the baby (she’s 9 month old)….when everyone left both baby and Daddy enjoyed nearly 2 hours sleep….it’s not easy minding babies…until next time…enjoy...

 

 

 

 

My

Toughest Week Yet

Last Thursday (3rd week of training) we ran around Charleville for over an hour and even though it was tough the run was enjoyable… Charleville is where the guys in the harriers train once a week and it’s a great facility to have in the town with lots of different routes that you can run…tonight we went through the grounds and out at the bypass roundabout and down to the Mucklagh Bridge and then back the same route…got back to the harriers tired but felt we had done well again…the next challenge was going to be the Marian Geraghty 10K road race in Mountbollus on Sunday so I didn’t do any training on Friday or Sat..

Sunday morning was up early as I had to go to Cloghan before the race and I made it over to Mountbollus for about 11:40..race started at 12 so I had some time to prepare..togged out in the car and put on the harriers singlet for the first time and was ready to go about 11:45…Ciaran had me registered and I got my number 69 and we headed to the GAA field to do a few laps of the field to warm up…warming up was something I never would have done before..any race I did before i would have just arrived at the start line…chatted a few before the race started and then headed off…doing a warm up definitely was a good idea as I was ready to go when the race started and I did the first few K’s in a quicker than normal time…John told me and Ciaran to run at our own pace so after starting the race with a good friend of mine Gary Mahon who was gone after about 20 sec.. I then looked around to see if there was anyone I could run with…I caught up with Paddy Roland who was wearing the Tullamore GAA jersey and we had a good chat for about 2K and then I had to let him off as he was going a bit faster than I was able to keep up with..I could have stayed with him longer but something John had said to me about going out to fast and then dying for the last part of the race was in my mind so I ran at my own pace and let Paddy go….for the rest of the race I was running on my own and between 3K and 5K I was overtaken by about 10 runners but was happy enough to keep going at my own pace..

With 5K completed there was a water station and I got some water on-board and then turned the corner to see a hill with no end in sight…this stretch was for about 1K and it was very tough both mentally and physicially…I was very tired at 6K and I could hear someone coming up behind me and Sharon Daly went past and she gave me some encouragement that was appreciated...and then for the next 3K it was up and down hills and I just kept telling myself I have run this distance before and to keep going..when I got to 9K I remembered John had said the last 1K is nearly all downhill so I pushed it on a bit…Finishing the race I got a lot of encouragement again from the harriers crew....i finished the race with my best ever time for a 10K…it was 56:05…I enjoyed the banana and bottle of water that was given to me when I finished and I waited for Ciaran to come in..he was just behind me and we were both delighted with how we did..Adrian then organised a photo with all the harriers crew and then John had us do a few laps to cool down….as we ran around Paddy Roland was on the pitch running around with his top off exposing his torso and this gave the ladies doing their streaching something to admire…afterwards we had a quick shower and then enjoyed some refreshments in the community hall before going home..really enjoyed the whole event even though looking at me going over he finish line you wouldn't think so..

Back to training on Tuesday for week 4…Ciaran and myself were up in Midlands 103 with Michelle Mullaney(Club PRO and regular contributor to Will's show on financial matters) this morning on the Will Faulkner show giving an update on our progress…the audio is here if you want to listen.. http://www.midlandsradio.fm/custom/public/files/tullamore-harriers-1.mp3 . Temperature for training was in the late 20’s and we were up in the harriers for 6:30…I drank about 4 pints of water between 5 and 6:10 before I left the house because I was so thirsty…got up then for a light run or so I thought(John had told us this on Sunday)…John appeared with a belt for holding water bottles so me and Lynchie knew what he was up to…we’ll run the Ross Road he informed us (7 mile)..good god…my legs were still score since Sunday..anyway drank another pint of water before we left and we headed out the road…I found this very tough and was feeling the pain even at the finger board..the water bottles that John brought for me and Lynchie were drank by me mainly..we had to refill them in Mucklagh and I had them gone again shortly afterwards…eventually got back to the harriers and was completely shattered…Between 5 and 8:30 I drank about 8 pints or 4 litres of water and I didn’t need to visit a toilet until nearly 11 o’clock that night..don’t know if this is good or bad for the body but I have never experienced that thirst before and I would say to anyone reading this how important it is to get water on board when running on warm days..had a good chat with Ray Martin and his wife Angela about running etc and Angela was telling me that John that lined up a group of girls to join us for our long run(10 Mile) for next Sunday so it will be good to have company for the longest run either Ciaran or I have ever done..

Did nothing again on Wed and we were up in Charleville this evening running up and down the lane from the big tree to the castle gates…this is about .7 mile one way and we ran up, down and up again…this is 2 miles and we did this 3 times with a break of 2 mins between each run...Sandra Busteed joined us this evening for a while and all the harriers crew were up there again. John was filling us in on a guy called Denzil Jacobs from the club that is doing 10 marathons in 10 days down in Sixmilebridge in Clare…..he has 7 done as of today 11th July…then Larry Rigney stopped to chat us and he has done about 170 marathons and he was down in Clare last weekend running the marathon with Denzil and is going down again on Saturday to run another one with him….said he couldn’t go down today as he was working and had to bring in the hay…he was talking about it like it was a short run with a friend..…anyway another example of the great spirit that is in the club with everyone supporting and encouraging each other..the school principle in Cloghan John Healy is also doing the 10 marathons in Clare and out of the 26 people I think that started it..only 16 are left..just shows the different challenge people set themselves…the half marathon is something I’d like to achieve…for other people running a 3K, 5K or 10K is a great achievement..whatever you want to achieve..set your goals and keep going…

Next Sunday we are going to be doing a 10 Mile run and we’ll be leaving the harriers at 8am and anyone that wishes to join us is more than welcome…we should have about 15 people doing it so the more the merrier…Hope to have 2 audio blogs out at the weekend…keep up the running and don’t forget the relay if you can get a friend to do it with you…..you can run or walk the 10K …you still have 6 weeks to get there and you can register online via the website http://www.tullamoreharriers.com/

Also don't forget Ciaran's blog where he has a daily post on our progress http://fatdadrun.blogspot.ie

Until later........

2nd Week Into it

Last week was a tough one…..after training on Tuesday in Tullamore and Wednesday on the track in Athlone we did a 10K run on Thursday along the canal towards Ballycommon…this was the toughest run we had yet..the surface was uneven and we both were very tired from the previous 2 nights..i was suffering as well from chafing between my legs so the run wasn’t that enjoyable at all…we decided then to take a few days rest and we did nothing on either Friday or Sat and then on Sunday morning we meet up in the harriers with John and the rest of the crew at 8:30 and we did our longest run yet… Ciaran has everything up on his blog so you can see how we got on here http://fatdadrun.blogspot.ie/2013/06/sunday-running.html

On last week’s blog I was saying that Ciaran and I went to a talk in Athlone organised by Mike Murphy who trains people over on the track each week. The 2 presenters were from the http://www.sportssurgeryclinic.com/ in Dublin - John Foster and Dr Andy Franklyn-Miller. John Fosters talk was about running re-education and the presentation he gave was similar to this one online http://prezi.com/u3-ohhdf8bfe/running-re-education/ .He went through a lot of areas such as the different between landing on your Heel when you run vs landing on your forefoot (Heel vs Forefront Strike)..really everyone is different on how they land when they run but he was saying its ok once you you’re somewhere in the middle and not too much in either direction. Lots of other areas are covered in the presentation and well worth looking at.

Andy Franklyn-Miller gave a talk on “Running Injury Myths Exploded” and looked at 6 myths to do with running injuries and he dismissed each of them one by one..One of the Myths was that “Foam Rolling” (I’d never heard of it before but simple explanation from google is : it is a technique that is meant to be effective for many muscles and It is accomplished by rolling the foam roller under each muscle group until a tender area is found, and maintaining pressure on the tender areas (known as trigger points) for 30 to 60 seconds)…anyway he was saying that this technique can't physically get into these areas where its meant to and the rollers are just another gimmick etc ..it caused a good bit of debate afterwards in the Q&A with a few physio’s etc that were there and they disagreed with Andy which I think he enjoyed as he liked a good debate..really what I’m getting in my short time (2 weeks) at this is that different people have different techniques/ideas etc and take the bits that work for you and keep doing them.

The main point I took from the talk from both presenters was that if you need to change your running style for whatever reason….reducing injuries, improve times etc is that …“runners won’t change the way you run…changing your running style will change the way you run”. obviously a good pair of runners is very important but do they alter the way you run or is it just a way of getting you to buy a more expensive pair of runners..i don’t know the answer put I thought it was a different way of lucking at it.. Anyway Mike is hoping to be bring the talk over to Tullamore in the next while and its well worth going to when he does!! Mike is also involved in the Athlone half marathon and he asked us to tell people on our blog about a 12 week training programs he has on their site that you might like to follow.. So if your a first timer or seasoned runner Mike has a training plan to suit your needs.

• Beginner plan for First timers
• Intermediate plan for those trying to improve their times
• Advanced plan for the speed merchants out there

Also this week we did our first audio blog..until next week hope your enjoying the training for the half marathon..keep it up only 7 weeks left.

Audio Blog No.1 : Preparation for Half Marathon

This is the first of 10 audio blogs before the race..this blog is a chat with Ciaran Lynch (other person that is hoping to do the half marathon in 10 week) , Mary Daly (Ladies Club Captain) and John O'Connell (Previous Men's Club Captain for the last 8 years and our coach)... hope you enjoy it..

Tullamore Harries Half Marathon is on 31st August 2013 and all information is available on www.tullamoreharriers.com .



https://soundcloud.com/raybellireland/run-bubby-run-audioblog1