Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Feb 7th to 13th and 14th to 20th weeks' summary

Monday - Day off
Tuesday - 10 miles in forest
Wed - AM circuit class in fitnessworx, PM 7miles in forest 3 fast laps with robbie then 1 easy
thursday - Day off
Friday - cycled to and from tracton forest 40 mins each way with 5 miles on trails (right foot a bit sore today. tendon is swollen)
Saturday - 7.7miles in forest
Sunday - Day off
Total - 30miles
Not the best week in the world but i was feeling the tiredness from the previous weekend and also my right foot which is pretty sore at the moment. the tendon going from the front of my right shin,down over the front of my ankle and in to my toes. the second toe on my right foot is also a bit tender and swollen on and off. however these niggles dont seem to bother me when im actually running.

Monday 14th - AM 1hr 40min on Mountain bike in forest, PM 6miles in forest
Tuesday 15th - 8 miles on road
Wednesday 16th - 7 miles on road in Cobh
Thursday 17th - AM 8 miles road and forest PM cycle to work
Friday 18th - day off
Saturday 19th - 26.71miles on Ballyhoura MTB trails (4hrs 30mins) + 40mins to and from start of trail on Mountain bike.
Sunday 20th - 8 miles on road and forest
total - 64miles

This is my highest weekly mileage of the year and i suppose it shows that im going in the right direction for Lakeland 100. I will try to get at least 1 if not 2 more long runs before the Wicklow Way ultra on March 26th. After that i think Im going to have to introduce some back to back long sessions, for example something similar to my recent Ballyhoura runs followed the next day by a long hike /run of 4hrs + over more open mountain terrain, like the Galtees or the Nagles, both of which would not involve too much driving to get to.
The right foot that has been giving me a little hassle recently is no worse than it was and i was reassured by a recent visit to the Physio that as long as i do the strength work that he has prescribed along with regular icing, the problem should dissipate over time. That was music to my ears, and my mindset went from the negative thoughts of thinking i needed a full week off running on monday morning to flying out the door as soon as i got back from the physio that same afternoon. Just goes to show how easy it is to let negative thoughts take over.

Lastly im excited about trying out a new pair of brógs that im waiting on to be delivered, as seen here being test run by minimalist advocate Michael sandler(actually i think he is using the older model but there is feck all difference apart from the colour i would imagine). i will probably only use them on the road but when the forest drys out a bit in the coming months they might get some usage there too! Roll on the dry sod!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

week mon 31st to sun 6th February 2011

Mon - easy hour mountain bike and stretching
Tues - easy 4 miles. wanted to try spikes before wednesdays cross country race
Wed - CrossCountry 10km phoenix Park - 1st place 36.25 1mile warm up and 2 mile warm down
Thur - easy 40 mins mountainbike and 2 miles easy barefoot on grass
Fri - 25.1 miles in Ballyhoura (4hrs 15mins)30 mins mountainbike to and from start of trail
Sat - 7.5 miles garryduff woods 1hr 20mins very hilly kept pace easy
Sun - 8.5 miles same as yesterday with extra loop. felt surprisingly good considering last 2 days
Total- 55miles
This was a good week overall and was nice to get a race in and open up the lungs
I wore my inov 8 f-lite230s in ballyhoura so this is my longest run in them and i am more certain now that they are the right shoes for the Lakeland 100 and also the Wicklow Way ultra next month. Only problem is they have large holes in them now even though i have only been using them since mid november. this is a bit disappointing considering the relatively conservative mileage i have done in them. However in terms of their performance and minimal feel they are top class and easily the best shoe i have ever worn.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

a good weeks work

This past week (Mon 31st to Sun 6th of Feb) a good running week. On Wednesday i did a 10km cross country race in Dublin and got on very well despite my lack of any speedwork. The amount of hilly running i typically do thouggh tends to make me stronger for the off road stuff. i took it easy then on thursday in anticipation of a trip to Ballyhoura for my first real long run of the year, bar art o neill of course. I have typically only going as long as 2hrs 30 since christmas and i planned to bump this up a bit. i will probably make the trip to BH a regular thing over the coming months as i think it resembles the underfoot conditions of the Lakeland 100 course ie. rocky, stoney, hilly and also a little boggy in places and of course undulating.
Well to the run itself. . i parked about 30minutes cycle from the mountain bike centre at the start of the trail so i could get the legs warmed up a bit before i began the run. I left the bike in the care of a gentlemann who was running the trailriders van at the trails. he was full of chat and said i could leave whatever i liked with him. sound man. I decided today to tackle the blue loop which is 41km in length and set off with a rucksack and a few gels and water. it was a very windy morning and looked like it was going to rain too but this thankfully didnt materialise. i quickly realised that i was probably overdressed as it was also quite mild. I wore my inov 8 f lite 230s and i think this run has made up my mind that these will be my shoe of choice for the Wicklow way ultra next month and ultimately the Lakeland 100 in July. One thing i have noticed about getting rid of the orthotics and ridiculously overcushioned shoes is that i have never once gone over on an ankle in all the technical trail miles that i have run. i would typically do this every once in a while until i ditched the clogs.. another factor that reinforces my view that minimalist is 100% definately the way to go. . Another compelling factor is the lack of soreness i felt the day after this run even though i was on nights for the weekend and  got f**k all sleep that night. Anyway 4hrs and 15 minutes and 25.1miles of running later i was back at the start of the loop. all in all a good session. i backed this up with 80mins on saturday and 90 on sunday to round off the week well. For anyone who likes to run on trails Ballyhoura  is worth a trip and is even better if you get off the marked loops and explore a bit