Very Heavy Legs

Last week was probably the most consistent week of training I’ve put together since the beginning of October which probably shows you how challenging the past 2 months have been with different injuries and niggles. Probably no surprise to hear towards the end of the week I was feeling very heavy legged as the week’s training caught up with me, but this comes with the territory of a proper training week and on a whole I’ve felt strong and with a rest day yesterday I feel raring to go for the week ahead. I know I normally don’t document every run or session I completed over the previous 7 days but have decided to this week if anything to show the simplicity and the sometimes mundane nature of a long distance runner’s training! I’ll preface this by saying I’m still building my training back up from a few injuries I’ve been dealing with and also by now I know what works for me when building back up my fitness!

· Monday: 6 miles very hungover in 45.32 after celebrating Cavan’s win with way too many glasses of red wine. I don’t know if I mentioned anywhere but Cavan won the Ulster final last weekend 😉 This was one of those runs that in all honesty was used to sweat the alcohol out of my system!

· Tuesday: 6 miles in 47.10 –Believe it or not this run was slower than yesterdays hungover run! Got this in before a physio appointment with Dara in DC Fitness Physio where he dry needled almost the entirety of my left leg ☹ Dara reckons the Peroneal tendonitis I’ve been managing is making good progress and gave me the go ahead to increase training slightly. We are both on the same wavelength regarding training load. I usually stick to the 10% rule and won’t increase volume by any more than 10% from week to week!

· Wednesday: 7.03 miles in 55.15 – I posted this run on Social media last week to show that not every run needs to be knocked out of the park. Honestly, I would of preferred if this run was faster but I was feeling very heavy legged and tender from the dry needling so I just picked a 7 mile route I knew and ignored the watch! I pretty much knew as soon as I put my foot out the door that this was going to be slow. Still really enjoyed this run and probably used it as one of those mental recharging runs that we all need every so often. Regarding the dry needling, I actually find this a really effective treatment but I find it takes a few days for me to get over it. I know it doesn’t affect some people at all but I seem to react differently!

· Thursday: 4 mile Tempo 22.23 in Phoenix Park, 8 miles in total with 2mile Warm up and Cool down – Legs even during the warm up for this didn’t feel great but wanted to get a session in on this day! Happy enough with this run averaging 5.36 for the overall tempo. Struggled to get into it for the 1st mile and then on the 3rd mile what usually happens with me is that my concentration drifts and I slow down slightly without realising it before picking it up for the last mile. Overall though pretty happy and seeing some progress even on very tired legs! Splits below:

5.44

5.35

5.39

5.24

· Friday: 7.37 miles in 54.44 – Very very tired legs for this run but threw on a podcast and just let time take its course. The goal of this run was to recover from yesterday’s run so the pace of a run like this really is irrelevant. Always run at a pace that you feel is helping to ease the previous days run out of your legs!

· Saturday: 10 miles in 74.30 – Felt sluggish on this run again however can’t blame the dry needling for this one but rather the glasses of red wine whilst emotionally watching the Late Late Toy Show on Friday night. This is actually the longest run I’ve done since the 24th of October but happy to be building back up my weekly long run and will increase this gradually week by week! Enjoyed this run, threw on the Second Captains Book review podcast and the 74 mins flew by 😊

· Sunday: Rest Day – In my opinion the most important training day of the week! I know some runners don’t take rest days every week however I feel they are vital to recover from the previous week’s training and also absorb this training which in turn allows for training adaptations!

So that’s my week as you can see nothing too complicated or fancy. Around 45 miles of aerobic training with some tempo work thrown in! I also complete 2 general strength specific sessions each week whilst also working on mobility and activation work every day! This week the plan is to continue in the same vein abiding by the 10% rule for training load with consistency being key.

Have a great week folks 😊

Noel