Bread and butter sessions

Hi All,

I am totally and utterly wrecked right now. Today was the last training day before rest day and also happens to be the 4th week of this training phase. Next week is recovery week. By this point in the phase my body is super tired but at the same time with each week I've gotten a little bit fitter and the sessions are a higher quality.

Todays session is the session I have been dreading every week. It consists of 250/230/200 metre rep's and it is very tough. For me it is a strength endurance session as my race is only 100m. I knew going to the track today that it would be tough because I lifted really heavy yesterday and my legs have such a build up of work in them from the last 4 weeks that they are not fresh at all. Despite all this part of me was kinda wanting to do the session just to see how much I can take at the moment.

Before the session we did lots of drills with Terrie. The drills are great to do and get me into the right positions to run efficiently. There are a lot of them and on a day like today I just want to get running and deal with the runs.

After the drills Ian and I were so slow to actually get our arses out on the track, I think we were kinda stalling to avoid starting the torture. Which is obviously irrational as there is no way to avoid the session. Each run had a time target. So every time I ran a rep Terrie had the clock on it and knew whether it was slow, on target or too fast. On days like today I have a little voice in my head and it says things like this "run harder stop being such a wimp" "seriously Derval pick your knees up and work" "come on work work work" "It takes more than this to race fast, move it". I'm not sure does everyone have that voice but honestly I could be in complete pain in the middle of a session and the little voice will not let me take it easy. My body would have to shut down for me to stop or not try as hard as I could because something in my head just won't let me take it easy.

During the session I ran faster than pretty much all my target times. It hurt a crazy amount but the voice kept saying "you can go faster than the target times come on come on come on" In between the reps I was seriously in the cranky place because it was feeling so hard. But come the last rep I was very happy with myself and the effort I put in.

Half way through the session somewhere in a lactic filled conversation Terrie and I decided sessions like today are the bread and butter sessions. They are just the backbone of training. Whilst you don't want to do them you know you have too and you know that you will feel better for it. So another week done and some bread and butter sessions ticked off.

I'm going to enjoy every little bit of recovery day and maybe even a nice bar of chocolate.

Bye bye for now,
DOR XOX

Who turned on the rain?

Oh my goodness it is raining hard in Dublin for the past day and a half. Yesterdays session was a hills session. It just rained the whole entire time we were running up the hill. I'm talking heavy can barely see in front of me kinda rain. After the hills every single part of me was wet. Thankfully today was plyo's and weights which are all indoor so I got to train and look out at the miserable rain.

Alas tomorrow is a big running session so the whole point of my blog is whoever turned the rain on better turn it off by tomorrow morning or else this hurdler will not be a happy camper!

Outside of my weather obsession all is going well. This is the last week of my first training phase. I've been working hard so I'm really looking forward to a few recovery days. I'm planning a little trip to London with my sister during recovery week which I'm super excited about. I can't wait to relax with her and wander around London.

If the rain does not stop soon my training group is gonna start looking like the picture above!

Byeeeeeeeee.....

DOR X

It's been forever blog readers...

Hi All,

I know it's been a while so apologies for the lack of bonding with you all. I had a great break from the track and then started back into hard training and really have not had a whole heap of time or energy to blog.

I'm back training a few weeks now and it's going well. It is very tough. The training schedule is quite intense and there is no 'easy' session. It's what is needed and what great summers are built on so I'm happy to be working hard but not above being moany about it.

This time of year there are certain things that just become the norm. Here is a list of the ones I can think of:
~Lifting the arms above my head is almost impossible
~Most running days I have to talk to myself in my head and say things such as "do not vomit, do not vomit"
~Getting up the stairs after a session seems like a huge task
~Running up next to the hill of tara on a road and waving at cars as a thank you for not knocking me down
~Wearing 3 layers of clothes when running outside
~Fighting the urge to throw myself on the ground and refuse to run one more step
~Lifting weights that are much heavier than myself


Ok time for me to go to bed and get ready to roll out for another day of winter torture.

Mind yourselves,

D X