Consistency, Distance and having a plan

Consistency, Distance and having a plan

I started tracking my run data in May 2017 and I will be honest it was a poor start. I had done a few 5ks fun runs for work and charity back in my early 30's with little or no training or effort, but now in my late 30's I was out of breath after 4km and fighting hard not to stop before I hit 5km so I knew I was in bad shape.

To add insult to injury, as I started back into senior football around the same time, I bought the cheapest football boots and the most basic running shoes I found online and within weaks I was struggling with a flare up of plantar fasciitis. 

Advice:

Invest in your running shoes, if its the one piece of equipment you are going to buy, don't buy cheap. If you have to buy cheap, find good running shoes on sale at the lowest price you can afford. Research the shoe before you buy. Plantar fasciitis, shin splints, injury, all can set back your training by months and stop you in your tracks

Eventually rolling out of plantar fasciitis with some therapy and effort I got back on track, I just wanted to be able to run a fast 5k once a week, and had this small 2km loop near home that I ran a night or two a week as well, and it fitted in with my football training regime as well. 

Into 2018 I started to get more serious, more than doubling my runs and distance, I was playing competitive football weekly, running regular fun runs and charity runs and went through a slight body metamorphosis, the soft round middled Dad-bod was gone and a much stronger physique had taken its place

Mind over matter

Into 2019 as I dropped football and focused on running and aimed for The Warriors Run event in Sligo I had to push my distance up, something I had not really aimed at before, it was almost a mental struggle for me. I used to run every 5k at the limit, burning up over the line, and for someone who now felt myself to be at my fittest in decades, why was I struggling to get my head around longer runs? 

Of course the answer was obvious and just took an adjustment of mindset, to run further, run slower. Obvious yes, easy no. I had a few new Strava followers and local runners I thought I was competing with and this stupid voice in my head liked the fact I hit really good 5ks now in my 40s, and what would people think if I was plodding along slowly over 10k? Stupid right. 

But I eventually put that to rest and also started to go to the local running track once a week and meet other older runners. A combination of speed work, longer distances and consistency meant that in my opinion, 2019 was probably my best year as a runner. 

In the same year I ran my fastest 5k, 19 minutes, my fastest 10k 46minutes, and also completed the 15k adventure race, The Warriors Run in 1hr 31mins, which runs from sea level, includes a 750foot climb up a mountain and a difficult descent back to the start line again. 

The Decline

2020 and 2021, the lockdown years, saw a steady decline again, between changes at work and home and the impact and decimation of races and reasons to run at all. At best during the lockdown I began using kettle bells and running the same 5k loop within my restricted area, but with no races, no team connection, things drifted. 2021, while still my worst year since 2017 when I started, was still a more active year than that, so I take some solace in that. 

Renewal

However, as we started into January of 2022, with the pandemic officially being called off by government the world started to reset, races returned, targets were set and we begin again.

I relocated to Longwood, Co.Meath, started reviewing the local strava heatmaps for inspiration and was told about the local running group. I gave myself a month of private running to get back to a level of fitness I felt was adequate and sent the text to the admins asking to join. 

Having run a grand total of 211km in 2021, in comparison, by March 2022 I had already clocked over 300km. 

At this point I have no idea how the year will turn out. I have to believe that the renewed consistency, the renewed determination, and the framework of training provided should give me results I've never seen before, but at the same time there's almost a chemical change in my body right now. In the past I had been so keenly focused on 5k sub 20, in the last month alone I've been running 10k+ long runs weekly and have the Warriors Run 2022 back in my sights again. Can I do the double, and achieve a fast sub 20 5k in the same year as a fast 10k and sub 1h 31min warriors run? Can I achieve with support at 44, the things I could do at 41? 

 

Late to running - reasons to start

Why on earth would you wake up early in the morning, when everyone else is still sound asleep and pull on some Lycra clothing like a kids party budget superhero. 

Back in 2016 I was heading into the tail end of my 30's and after spending the best part of a decade jumping between 9-5 corporate drone and co-parenting two boys, I had more or less abandoned regular exercise and achieved that round middle Dad-bod. I was now living vicariously through the sporting achievements of my most active son.

The Pain

Life is kind of funny though, often tragic, and one generic day in the office I got the call that my Dad had passed away and I was completely unprepared for how hard that would hit me. The man was my idol. It wasn't just that he had impressed me as a boy with his physical skills, but that growing up I got to see how much of a community man, a peacekeeper, a friend, a leader he was as well. I did a lot of self assessment after he died and I honestly feel that in his passing, he left a final gift to us as well. 

In the months later I realised I was not healthy, I was overweight, I was drinking too much and my diet was not benefiting me in any way. I knew I was not part of the community in the same way he was, I knew I did not have any physical or mental challenges in my life the way he had and so the changes started small and anything you can do regularly can quickly become habit, and habit becomes part of your personality and then stops being a thing you do, it just becomes you. 

The Challenge

The first challenge landed at my feet. I was an underage coach with our local GAA team and in small talk heard that a masters team was looking for people 39 and over to build a panel. I hadn't played since I was 19, but I knew I used to be good, and used to be fast, so under the assumption that I could at least make the subs bench I started running to drop some weight and hope to have the fitness needed to play a few training matches. 

The weight dropped off, my speed somehow was still there under the fat and almost 20 years on the couch meant I had zero injuries to worry about so surprisingly I managed to dig my way into the panel, not only to the subs, but actually playing competitively up and down the country for my adopted county. My claim to fame now is that for a lad raised in Sligo, who never played at Club level in Kildare, I got to play corner back for the Kildare county team for just over two years. 

Running however was the backbone of my training. Every match we lost, every bad performance or missed ball, I would be out on the road the following day, running harder, pushing myself faster. Regardless of coach or team mates, I was my own worst critic, my own motivation. Dad had for years mentioned he liked to watch me play and it was a shame I had stopped when I did, so while I'm not religious I could still feel him watching me, wondering if he was proud of what I had achieved. 

The Decision

After just over 2 years though, the physical toll of full contact senior football was a concern. I was now also back taking part in regular 5k fun runs and towards the end of 2019 had done my first 15k adventure run, so despite my love of competitive football and that camaraderie felt within a team sport, the idea that an injury might impact my running became the driving force that identified which sport I had actually grown to love, and which I had to step away from. 

Running had become part of my personality, or to be more accurate, the runner inside me had pushed himself out from under those personal blockages and taken his place at the surface at last. I remember one day at work, I was heading out for a run at lunch, and one colleague who also ran all the time started talking with me about pace and distance. I asked him to join me and he laughed a little and said "I'm a plodder Enda, I'll get there eventually, but you are a runner, so you'll get there first".