March 1st – March 9th
Sat: 15 min WU, 3 x (3 min @ 4:10 (90 jog) 2 min @ 4:00 (60) 1 min @ 3:50 (45)), 10 min CD
Complete. Paces slightly quicker than prescribed. 12k total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/13756375142
Sun: 60 min easy
Complete. Moate. 12.68km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/13767285339
Mon: 60 min cross training or 30 min easy run
Complete. 60 mins elliptical.
https://www.strava.com/activities/13779042675
Tue: 15 min WU, 10 x 1 min on @ 3:40/ off @ 4:20, 15 min CD
Complete. Lucan track and windy. 11.70km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/13786369933
Wed: 50 min easy
Complete. Starting to feel good. 10.60km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/13798416233
Thur: 15 min WU, 3 x 5 min @ 4:10 km pace (60), 15 min CD.
Complete. 11km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/13807902422
Fri: Off (elliptical)
https://www.strava.com/activities/13816137925
Sat: 15 min WU, 2 x (5 min @ 4:10 (90 jog) 3 min @ 2 min @ 4:00 (60) min @ 3:50 (45)), 10 min CD.
Complete. Made a balls of pacing. On the track. 12.55km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/13821231728
Sun: 70 min easy.
Complete. Heart rate high, legs good. 15.10km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/13831167080
Periodisation – a concept that all good runners and coaches embrace to ensure that your body (and mind stay) stays fresh, you ward off any potential injuries and to prime the body for the times when your training is to be specific. Or at least I think it means something like that.
My training has been periodised for years but one thing I have not included is the complete absence of training for any prolonged period of time. Although I did a small bit of running in Vietnam, it was essentially a complete break from any structured training and I only ran when the holiday allowed. I flew home to Dublin, safe in the knowledge that I had executed the rest period well and was ready to crack into a new phase of base training for the year ahead. I had a handy enough session of 10 x 1 min on/off to ease me back into speed work. Towards the end of the session, my right calf was starting to tighten up slightly but by the close of the last rep, I couldn’t even walk. It was like a vicious cramp had taken over my legs and I had to ring Emma to come collect me to take me home. I iced the leg and thankfully was able to walk in the morning, but with some discomfort. I visited the physio who diagnosed a strain in my soleus muscle – exercises were prescribed with a 2-3 week period of no running. Disaster.
I was very diligent with the exercises and also didn’t run at all. By the time the two week period was up, I ran for 15 minutes on the treadmill and my right calf felt great. When I say great, I mean it felt like nothing. The way it should. However, my left leg was completely shot. I had a nerve type pain in my hamstring and my calf was tingling. Neither of these pains had I felt before. I went back to the physio to tell him earnestly that my right calf was A1 and, forlornly, told him that my left leg was about to fall off. I felt like some sort of half dead being; a cross between Frankenstein and The Undertaker at Wrestlemania XX. We did some strength tests and the physio was confident there was no muscle injury in either the calf or hamstring and that the symptoms were consistent with nerve inflammation. He prescribed very similar exercises to the ones I did when I had sciatica in 2021 and thankfully the pain has largely abated. I’m finally starting to see some light at the end of this injury plagued tunnel.
And so to the training – since I have been able to run, I’ve been on a diet of short easy runs and slow sessions. It is all part of taking the medicine to get better but it certainly does nothing for the ego. On easy runs, I have taken to checking my heart rate at random intervals and trying to guess what it is at.In general, it is 15-20 BPM higher than what it would have been at the equivalent pace/effort before Christmas. Thankfully, I know the medicine works – slow, steady and patience will all see me right.
This week, I have started to see some progress in how the body feels as the sessions slowly get a little more difficult (relatively speaking). At the track on Saturday, I made a balls of pacing the reps but other than that the effort felt good and controlled. There isn’t much to really say about the training other than that. For the moment, I am just trying to build back a base to allow me to base train. And if anyone ever tells me to take a break from running again, I’ll kill them.
Buckets of Rain 