Who Am I?

I am an avid runner and have been running since I was 15 years old. I began running low to medium distances while on my high school track team, running the 800 meter and 1600 meter races (I was a sub 5 miler and a 2 minute 800 runner). In addition to the track team, I also joined the cross country team. After high school I still wanted to run and decided to start doing road races. I have probably ran a couple hundred 5k races (16.29 PR)along with many 10k's as well. In 2009 I decided to step up my game and try to tackle my first marathon. I will be honest; the only reason I did this was because my father ran a few and I wanted to show him that I could do what he did. I trained poorly for my first one and regret it. If you are going to run a race, train like you want to win. I still continue to run marathons and other distances as well, and every race is a chance for me to better myself.
I started this blog to hopefully communicate with other runners and to shed any knowledge I may have about the sport that can help other runners. I believe running is the best sport and can be a great stress reliever. I encourage all runners to spread the word of our sport and show people why running is so good and why the community of runners has such great people. You can follow me on twitter @byrne1324 or find me on facebook- Shaun Byrne

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Back To Training!!!!!!

     This was my first week back to full training since the marathon.  I still wanted to take it easy so I wasn't to worried about my times or distances.  The more important thing was to put in a solid week of training and getting myself back into the routine. 

     MONDAY
     Since this was my real first day back into training, I wanted to take it slow and just do a few miles.  I picked a route that was fairly easy with little hills. 

28:20 for 3.18 miles.  Not a fast pace but still not a slow pace.  A pace that let my body loosen up and didn't get me to tired. 


     TUESDAY
      This day was used for my speed workout.  I think I may have slacked a little in this area my previous marathon so this time around I will treat this as important as my long slow run. 
     I went to a track by my house but there was a soccer game being played on the field and there were tons of parents on the side watching the game.  Normally I have no problem running on a track with people watching me, but when I do speed workouts I always get nervous.  I don't know why, but I start to think people are judging me for sprinting around the track.  I guess this is another thing I am going to have to overcome.  It's summer and there is a lot of soccer games. Since I have ran at this school before I knew if you ran around the school it equals 400 meters. Exactly the same distance as 1 time around the track, and it even had some small hills.  I ran the loop 10 times with a 90 second walk in between each lap.  My average pace was 1:25 per lap, which isn't to bad with the hills.  I was beat down when I finished but I knew this was worth it.  A janitor at the school came out and told me he had been watching me the whole time and  he said I was a beast for doing that.  Made me feel pretty good to know someone was watching and thought I was doing a good job.

     WEDNESDAY
     Wednesday was a great day for me.  I came home and checked my email to find out I won a grand prize on Facebook.  I follow Race Addicts (@1RaceAddict) and she is always great for teaming up with sponsors and doing huge giveaways.  I normally will enter one here and there when I am on, some are geared for more woman.  This doesn't stop me from entering because my wife would just take the stuff.  But this was a benefit to me.    I don't own a Garmin so that was a huge score for me.  The RunningLuv will be taken by my wife and the socks are for me as well.  All around great score and I am so thankful to Race Addict for doing these giveaways.  I got the Garmin yesterday in the mail and can't wait to use it tomorrow on my run. 
     My sister needed someone to babysit this day as well so I figured I would run to her house and still get my run in.  I was pretty proud of myself for not pushing my run to the side and still figuring out a way to help her out and still get my training in.
     It was just a bit under 5 miles from my house to my sisters. My goal was to start with a slow mile then speed up every mile.   Worked out pretty good except mile 3 to 4 was a huge down hill so it was my fastest mile.  Mile 4-5 was up hill so I slowed a few seconds.   Still was a fairly good run for my first week back.


THURSDAY
I decided to use this day as my rest day.  I don't have a set rest day, I usually will schedule it around with whatever day I am busy.  Thursday I had plans to go eat dinner at my sisters, so it made sense to rest this day.

FRIDAY
Since I use Saturdays as my long run I like to use Friday as a day to stretch and foam roll.  I did about 45 minutes with the foam roller and then did some other exercises for about another 30 minutes.  One of my major problems is my calf muscles.  Some days they are fine and some days they will make my leg go numb from the pain.  During the marathon I finally figured out how to get them so there is no pain.  So the day before my long run will be used to work out those muscles and other muscles as well.

SATURDAY
    Once again since this was my first week back I didn't plan on a real long run.  I figured start out slow and build back up again.  I know I could easily go out and run 12 miles but I want to start from ground zero and build.  It's like I am a building and I needed to be knocked down and rebuilt from the ground up.  

I did a nice slow 55 minute 6 miles.  Didn't really break a sweat and just took the time to work on some mechanical things.  It was hard at times because I wanted to take off and start really running, but I did good at holding back and keeping a steady, easy pace. 


SUNDAY(TODAY)
    My wife and I took our dog down to the North Shore trail walked about a mile and a half.  We would of loved to of went longer but we have a lazy dog that gets tired out pretty quickly.  I will also be heading to the gym later to cross train.  The plan is to go and ride the bike for about a half hour followed with some lifting. 

Overall review for the first week was good, and for the most part I ate better for the week too.  I know it is only 1 week but I felt really good.  The goal is build on this week and if I keep to my training I know everything will fall into place.  I am excited to get some races done in the next month to see how I am improving or what I need to change.


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4 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 19, 2014 at 12:48 PM

    Sounds like a great week back to training. Love that the janitor thought you were a beast AND that you scored a Garmin. Very cool.

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    Replies
    1. UnknownMay 19, 2014 at 12:53 PM

      Thanks, I am pretty pumped to try the Garmin today. Hopefully the weeks continue to be good

      Delete
  2. Running BearMay 20, 2014 at 8:10 AM

    Cool speed work. After my first half marathon last September I started doing some 400m intervals. Pushed it too hard and it contributed to getting plantars fasciitis. For now, I'm going to use longer intervals as my repeat, and slowly build to the occasional short/fast track style workout.

    Congrats on the watch, that's a fantastic win. Looks like you already had GPS capability from your phone, but the convenience of a watch is nice.

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    Replies
    1. UnknownMay 20, 2014 at 8:23 AM

      I normally try to stick to longer intervals and run a ladder but I figured try some 400's and see how I felt afterwards

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