Weekly Training Blog 2: "Shit I'm at least how old?"

9:30 am class I was coaching on Wednesday morning. Class was full as the sixth and final person arrived for the small group PT session.

”Seán” she yells across the room, grabbing everyone’s attention.

”I hear that you’re running 4 miles”, she continues, “every 4 hours”… “for 48 hours”… “as a birthday treat”… “for your 40th birthday”.

After taking a good 10 seconds to deliberate how to respond to that, I could only address the one part I was sure that wasn’t true.

”But I’m not 40 for another 6 years”, I replied!

And while I’m not sure a birthday treat is the right way of putting it, the 4x4x48 Challenge will be something that I will be doing in March. Was this the scary thing I was talking about to end last week’s blog? Nope. Not even close. I will be talking about 4x4x48 in an upcoming training blog but on Monday, after my 49ers achieved one of the most improbable comebacks of all time, I rewarded myself by jumping into a swimming pool!

Monday, Jan 10th
My first swimming lesson in Naas - 10 am.
There were 5 of us in the beginner session. I have never been able to swim a full length and still get pretty anxious going into the water. But, with the goal being set to swim by my 34th birthday (no, not a birthday treat either!), I feel motivated enough to say that this is the time I’m finally going to get over this fear.

The session started very slowly. Walking towards the edge of the shallow area of the pool. I understood why, to ease us in and feel more comfortable. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel uncomfortable in the water. After a few breathing drills, we were using the boards and kicking. By the end of the session, I was able to outstretch my arms and kick a few metres. I tried a few times to turn my head to breath, only to guzzle in some delicious pool water. Maybe next week.

The main goal for session 1 - surviving. Mission accomplished.

The afternoon was spent doing 45 mins on the AirDyne bike, building the legs towards Quest Glendalough while also limiting the impact of an easy run followed by a 45-minute upper body session (including pull-ups for the pull-up goal I also have in 2022).

Tuesday, Jan 11th
It’s interval session time. And this is something I would never do with our my running coach, Rachael Smyth, putting it into the programme. But I need to get over my struggles and hatred of intervals. After the warm up, the drill consists of 3 different intensities of running, gradually getting more difficult each minute. My tempo run, the middle run, is definitely too fast and I struggle to go up a gear for the last minute of the run before slowing down to a light jog to catch my breath. Give me a 10 mile run over this any day. But, that’s exactly why I need to do it!

By the fourth round, I need more than a minute to catch my breath. I’m barely getting under a sub 4 min/km pace for the fastest intervals and breathing very heavy to keep it. And my goal is to run at that pace for 20 minutes some day? Not in 6 weeks!

But I finish the session and feel good about building past a 21:55 PB in Clane on Tuesday, Feb 15th.

Tuesday afternoon is lower body day. Barbell back squats were on the programme but felt my lower back again when I tried to increase the weight to 60kg for 3 recently. So I leave them out and opt for goblet squats, straight into split squats and then pull ups for a rest on the legs. 4 rounds of that along with backwards sled drags has my quads on fire! Not a good thing before an evening of coaching! I finish the session.

Wednesday, Jan 12th
A stretching day, especially after increasing the pace in the run followed by a lower body workout, is much needed. And my calfs are like painful rocks today! As soon as the massage gun, breezes off them, I am wincing in pain. Thankfully, today’s workout is short. Upper body, mainly shoulders, upper back and triceps. Really bodybuilding kinda session, but am grateful the legs are getting a breather.

Thursday, Jan 13th
Lower body session followed by another 30 mins on the AirDyne bike. 30 mins because I am struggling with time getting the session done in between a split shift and, to be honest, it’s a bit of a cop out as the legs are very tired!

Unlike Tuesday’s lower body session, this one is more focused on the posterior with deadlifts, swings and duck walks on the sled to hit the hamstrings hard! With my back, I take it easier on the deadlifts this morning and push in other parts of the workout.

Friday, Jan 14th
No gym work today, but we are back to a different type of interval session. More tempo running. And I am struggling big time to maintain a faster pace. Breathing is pretty poor. The claves twinge a few times near the end and I cut the final tempo run short to be on the safe side.

Saturday, Jan 15th
Bike day. Cycle into work and get my third pull up session of the week done. It’s a neutral grip pull up (palms facing towards each other - easiest variation) and the goal is to get 4 solid full rep pull ups every minute on the minute for 10 minutes. I get talking during the last round and jump on the bar late but 40 pull ups done in around 10 minutes before others get in. A slightly longer cycle to Maynooth follows coaching the 8am run club and one PT sessions after it. Some coffee and then it’s back to the farm. 43k in all and I felt my legs more tired as the cycles continued. I chicken out of the big 2k hill on the way home, opting for the longer, easily route to the house… I’ll come back to that hill in a future week!

Sunday, Jan 16th
Long run Sunday got cut short today. Calves are still like rocks so definitely need to ease back into the faster paced runs. It’s always been an issue when I’ve increased the pace. I knew 5.5k into today’s run that I was risking injury going any further. So I stopped to walk about. After a km of walking, decided to jog an try nasal breathing so I would be forced to keep it really slow. Maybe it will help my breathing for swimming and adapting to the faster pace? Something to look into but I know that I really struggled to maintain it for 3 plus kms today.

Overall, the goals of my training are

• To build towards the 5k PB in February, G

• Get used to the legs running on tired for the 4x4x48 Challenge in March

• Swim my first length by March

• 15 straight pull ups

• Quest Glendalough

And the date has been officially set. October 30th, 2022, for the return of the Dublin Marathon and sub 3:30 goal.

No idea if any one is getting benefits of these blogs but it’s helping me stay on track!

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