Dublin Marathon, Mile 3

Monday, September 23, 2013

Basel Marathon, done and dusted!

So I completed the Basel marathon yesterday! I didnt get a PB but just to finish was an accomplishment for me. I was still injured in the days before the race and wasnt sure if I was even going to start. I spent the night round our friends Gavin and Anna, who live in Basel, (Switzerland BTW) with an ice pack on my knee and some heavy thoughts in my mind. I was moody, as I had done all the training and wasnt confident that I was going to be ok to run.

But when i woke up the next morning and tested my knee, I thought it felt "ok" enough to give it a shot, so had breakfast, got my stuff together and went down to the race meeting. Only then did I try to run for the first time in a good few days.... and it wasnt good. When landing on the right side my knee wasnt painful, but it was uncomfortable; certainly not the best situation to start pounding it for the next 42 km!

But pound it I did, and after 4 or 5 km's it felt fine. The weather was lovely and the city of Basel was a really nice place to be running. It was a smallish race with maybe only 300 marathoners, so it felt like I was running on my own course for most of the time as most of the other runners were much faster than me. At times I really thought I was the last of the pack but occasionally saw some people behind me, which was nice. :)

Around km 25 my left quad starting screaming more than usual at me. I must have been over compensating for my right knee by leaning more on my left, so my quad was in agony for the remainder of the race. I had kept a good 6.05 per km pace for the most part but had to slow down and introduce some walk breaks in the last 12 or so km's to make sure i got to the end. I didnt want a DNF!

The end result was 4 hours and 50 mins - thats 11 mins slower than my best time in Dublin 2011 but I was simply happy to have been able to get the medal.

Towards the end I said to myself  "no more fcuking marathons David!!" but now as I write this I don't think that will last.... :)

Sunday, September 15, 2013

A week before marathon day means.....

.........injury! It bloody happens to me every time! This time my right knee has decided to crap out on me. I was having a great week of training but then on Thursday me knee started to hurt. Come evening time it was very sore and by the next morning i couldn't bend the fecker. Gutted.

But I i was injured a week before Dublin in 2012 and also a week before London earlier this year, so I am hopefully that come next Sunday, my knee will be OK to run. Not sure if its just bad luck or something I am doing wrong, but thats three out of three marathons that I have been injured in run up to race day. I am following a proper plan so its not like I was overdoing it...

Ah well, time will tell.....

Monday, September 2, 2013

Feeling like a runner again...

Wow, its been a while since I last posted anything on this blog. Anyway, last week was a good training week for me, but it didnt start out that way. After returning from my vacation in Croatia last Sunday, I started the week with good intentions of going hell for leather to lose the KG's I put on whilst eating and drinking away on holiday. The Monday was OK but on Tuesday evening whilst out for a planned fast 6.5 km run, i got a sharp pain in my left knee and had to walk the rest of the way home. Now my knee has been niggling at me for a few weeks and I thought my hopes of running the Basel Marathon in 3 weeks were kaput.
So I got myself a sports massage and got the dreaded foam roller out, and felt a lot better coming towards the weekend.

Come this Sunday it was my last chance to get in a long run before the looking race day, and I am happy to report that i pulled out a nice 29km run at good pace without any issues! BOOM! Davey's back in the game. :)

So, the Basel "run to the beat" marathon is on Sept 22 and I am feeling much better about tackling it now. Only thing is that its a 2 loop run which I have always avoided, but I am sure it will be fine....

Still need to drop a couple of KG's before race day so off the booze completely until after the race. I now have a full size running machine and spin bike at home too, courtesy of someone we know who was refurbing a gym and gave us some of the old stuff!

Week 35- total training time 7.5 hours. Running, spin, gym. 
Longest run 29km, 6.00 Per KM pace. Mannheim - Speyer.