Winter Training Grind

I must confess I’ve been putting off writing this blog all day as like many Cavan People around the country I woke up this morning in a bit of a fragile state after celebrating Cavan’s Ulster title win with a few too many glasses of red wine! Got a 6 mile run in earlier and that got rid of the hangover thank Christ 😊 I have to admit to being filled with immense pride with the guts, determination and never say die attitude displayed by the Cavan team not just yesterday but all through the championship thus far. Incredible to see those lads winning an Ulster title in particular a player from my own club Killian Clarke.

Better move on to talk about running as all I’ve talked about since yesterday is about Cavan winning which my girlfriend will testify to 😉 Last week was a good week in terms of making progress and getting back to some sort of decent fitness. I had 2 sessions pencilled in, a 4 mile Tempo on Tuesday and a steady progression run on Friday with the other 4 days (I take 1 full rest day each week) consisting of 40 – 45 min very slow recovery runs. Volume remains quite low as I don’t want to spike another injury flare up increasing load too much too soon. The 4 mile tempo on Tuesday was really tough after 10 mins easy running I ran the following mile splits:

· 5.53

· 5.42

· 5.35

· 5.29

Although the last mile looks decent I have to admit to struggling badly during it and filled with lactate. Normally I proceed straight into a cool down but had to walk and stand about for 5 mins until I could get my breath and composure back. I must of looked really bad as a passer-by in Phoenix park stopped and asked me if I was ok! I eventually completed a 10 min shuffle back to my car. As I drove home I felt really deflated as I know how much I had exerted for paces that I normally can do in my sleep and it made me think Jesus how long is it going to take to get back to normal fitness. I rang my brother as he was also completing a session at home and we had our usual post session debrief and I think he sensed I seemed quite down and hard on myself. When I got home my downbeat attitude didn’t alter as my girlfriend informed me that my racing bike had been stolen. So, all in all I wasn’t in a very positive mindset. I went into the planned session on Friday not expecting much as my legs were incredibly heavy and tired and as everyone knows at the moment weather conditions aren’t exactly ideal however I completed one of those sessions where it gives you that little bit of confidence you need. I ran 7 miles in 40.37, getting progressively faster throughout and feeling good doing it. As I passed through 6 miles seeing a 5.30 mile appear I cracked a smile to myself thinking how dramatic I had been on Tuesday over one session and had I not learned by now not to over react to one good or bad session! This time as I drove home I rang my brother in a much more upbeat mood 😉

Tuesdays session was completed in very windy conditions and one thing we need to be aware of this time of year is that sessions on your watch may not look overly fast but in terms of effort they can be just as good if not better than the same session in optimal conditions. A few of my runners had similar experiences last week, a few completed the Run in the Dark 10k last Wednesday where the wind was really strong and seemed downbeat with their overall time. However, the value of the effort put in, in these less than optimal conditions is like grist to the mill and will stand to them moving forward. Training during the winter months can be tough and feel like a grind with wind and rain but I like to think its like adding a bit of resistance like adding extra weights to an exercise, whilst it may be really challenging now will make the difference when you start competing again. For myself in a weird way I love winter training as it reminds me of training for cross country and the pain, hardship and utter fatigue that comes with cross country running. This may seem like a weird sentence but any cross country runners out there reading this will understand!

Slightly shorter blog this week! One of my friends messaged me earlier today to say we’ll be doing well to see any kind of blog out of you today 😉

Have a great week folks and UP CAVAN!!!

Noel