Dublin Marathon, Mile 3

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Marathon training - update

Its been a while since i update this blog - lots of things going on. As this is a running diary, i will fill in the training since last entry:

Week starting May 14th (after the half marathon), was feeling ok in general but quads and Achilles were very tight. Has one 50 min gym session on the Tuesday and then went in search of a Sports Massage place to help with the legs. Found a place approx 30 mins from my house and booked an appt for Wednesday evening. I have to say it was fantastic! The masseuse didn't speak a word of English but i explained to her where to problems were and she done her thing very well. If it wasn't so far away i would book one every 2 weeks whilst  marathon training, but i think i have found somewhere more local.
Thursday 17th, first run in a long time without the knee brace! 6km.
Friday 18th an hour in the gym, done. That was it for WEEK 20.

Week starting May 21st (WEEK 21)
This week me and Michelle were in our vacation home in Croatia, a place near Split called Ciovo. Got off to a bit of a dodgy start as i had a few beers on the previous Friday and forgot to bring my passport home from work, which was an hour from home. So, we had to drive to the office in the middle of the night on the way to the airport once i realized i didnt have it with me. (oops).
Once there the weather was crap for the first half of the week but we made the most of it. Hired some bikes and done some good mileage.
Tuesday 1hr30 mins, hilly
Wednesday, no rain! So went running for 1hr40. This was when i realized i didn't have my GPS watch with me, gutted! would have been great to have logged the altitude and route etc. I did have my camera though and took some photos along the way:





Thursday AM - no rain! Went for a pretty extreme ride. Lots of hills up, but an awesome off road trail back into town downhill for 20 mins!



Thursday PM - beer on the beach! OK, more than one. Quite a few but hey, i was on holiday. :) Saw a big storm coming in and caught some cool pics here:


Friday AM - awoke with a little bit of a hangover, but decided to get up and go for a run. So i did, and i ran. for a long time. Clocked up three hours! Thats a lot more than i have ever done but the sun was shining and it was awesome. i didnt have any GPS or music (i normally run with both) but maybe that made it more enjoyable. Was definitely one of my best runs ever and i was very happy with myself for being in one piece at the end..
So seven hours of training whilst on holiday - not bad me thinks.

Home on Sunday and got my training plan for this week from my instructor - 10 hours. TEN! Thats the most ever for me! (Thanks Darryl, if you are reading this :) ) Will give me a chance to run off the calories from the holiday anyway...

Weigh in - Nah, next week.





Monday, May 14, 2012

Weekly recap and Mannheim Half Marathon

Recap -
This week was pretty quiet on the training front, in anticipation of the weekends Half Marathon in Mannheim. Monday was 1 hour light bike ride, Tuesday was 50 min gym session. Noted a pain in my Achilles (old reoccurring injury that comes back to haunt me all the time). Lots of knee/quad stretching as my knee hasn't been 100%. Wednesday was 5km run; knee was ok with this. Not perfect, but was good enough for me to decide to run the Mannheim Half. Thursday was run/walk with stretching and using the new "blackroll" self massage thing. This is sore as hell, but works well!

Mannheim Half Marathon - Saturday 12th May 2012



The Mannheim Half and full Marathon is in the evening, so i worked Saturday morning from home, and then went shopping for a new camelback to use in the race. (i know you shouldn't try something new on race day, but it had to be done). The weather was changing all week from rain, to wind, to 34C so i was happy to see that come Saturday lunch time it was sunny, dry and around 18C. That was perfect for me.
The Mannheim race is organized really well and has around 12,000 runners. The start was a bit congested but i got off ok. Looking back though, i could feel the pull on my Achilles right from the start.

Pre race i was hoping to do this race in 1 hour 59 mins and for the first ten km i was keeping a pace of approx 05.45-05.50. But half way through the achilees was getting sore and i needed a toilet stop. After the toilet stop at 13k the achilees was getting more than just uncomfortable, so i decided to pull back the speed so as to avoid any injury. My pace time dropped down to approx 7mins+.

Final time was 2 hours 20 - ten mins slower than the weinstrasse race 3 weeks ago, but the good news is that i am still in one piece and can continue the training for Dublin!


Post race was a good craic - there was a good gang of us having a few beers. Friends had come from Ireland, England and Switzerland. Will need to find another race to put in the diary now!

NOTES:
Total training time for the week: 7 hours and 7 mins
Weigh in: 92.kg

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Training Update


Unfortunately for me, on the Wednesday after the half marathon 2 weeks ago, I injured my left knee. Not out running, but getting in and out of the office at work! The step is higher than normal and I felt it was uncomfortable at the time, and by evening when I got home and sat on the sofa, it was swelling up. GUTTED! How could it be that I ran the race so well and then injured my knee at work??!! (As it turns out, I probably aggravated the knee in the race from a lack of warm up and stretching pre-race, and the injury was a result of that).
Had a few days in the UK to see family and friends from 26th – went to the Isle of Wight which was awesome and then to a mates party on the Saturday night which was great fun too, and then on to Cambridge to see the family. No training at all that week as the knee was still too sore.
Managed to get a swim in at Parkside Pool on Tuesday May 1st. Must have been 20 years since I was there last so it was a bit weird but cool at the same time. (2000m good form).
Got another swim in on Saturday back in Germany (1500m) and this morning done a gym session with knee/quads exercises, weights, Cross trainer, and finally some running. J (90 mins total).
Need to keep working on the knee/quads/hamstrings this week to make sure am fit for Saturday’s half marathon in our “home” town of Mannheim. There are some other friends running and my mum is coming from the UK too! Its an evening race starting at 1830 and should be good fun afterwards…

Was aiming for 2 hours so will see how that goes. J

Note: time this week – 4hours 30 mins.
Weekly weigh in  - 92.0KG.
Ordered this item to assist with the knee/quad rehab: http://www.blackroll.com/home/