Bolloxed – such a great word, not a great feeling. Often used in sentences such as – “I’m bolloxed, I’m too old for this shit”. Well that is me at the moment, bolloxed and seriously too old for this shit.

Lets rewind.

Losing weight was always just step 1, it was a necessary step for a few reasons, firstly for my health protection, but also at nearly 20 stone I couldn’t do any amount of serious training. To be honest, I couldn’t do any amount of serious anything. As the weight came off I started to introduce running back into my life, and it became easier, but even that was just a means to an end. I needed to have a good level of fitness to be able to REALLY train. That fitness seems to be back, I can run for an hour, I can run on the track and I can get through a training session without a) puking or b) dropping down dead. So, check mark against step 2 – get fitness back after losing weight.

[Cut to present day]

But this is me we are talking about, never do anything by halves. I can see from all the numbers set out on my spreadsheet and apps that I can run for an hour and feel good after it. What would any normal person do ? More to the point, what would I advise any normal person to do ? – take it easy, build slow. Then why oh why did I think that as soon as I can jog I can sprint ?

I had planned to do a 10K at Christmas, but I needed a bit of speed. I am good at speed sessions, well planning them anyway, so should be no problem there. My body however had other plans. The senior club training plan for speed and tempo comes out every week and lands in my email box, and although in the 6 or 7 years I have been receiving these emails I have never ever done one of these workouts I thought it was about time to give them a go.

Session 1: 3x 6 minutes, off 2 minutes. I asked the person setting the session what pace I should be aiming for – I (of course) promptly ignored that advice and went out at 15s per km faster than 5k pace. I also got out on the roads to do this session. For those of you reading this from Athenry will know the new section of road from Raheen Woods, past the new Pres and upto the roundabout where Kevin Burke tyres have moved to – well I did it on there. For those of you who have absolutely no idea what I am talking about, well it is a lovely stretch of road 1km in length and looks flat, but it isn’t, not by a long stretch, however if you are doing 1km repeats it is a great path to be using. Session complete – all on target, but was hard, a lot harder than I expected. By time I returned home (less than 15 minutes) I didn’t feel particularly well. Felt light headed, felt sick, felt about 90 years old. The next day it got worse, was almost like I had flu (but I didn’t). Was I dehydrated ? I took some time to rehydrate, took my electrolytes, but was I too late in the game, should this have been done BEFORE the run ? Took me five days to get over this session, a simple speed session had left me absolutely bolloxed this was not looking good.

Session 2: 2k tempo followed by 3x 250m at 800m pace with 250m walk break. This was done indoor in Athlone Arena. Absolutely no problem with this session, hit my paces, hit my times… hit the floor afterwards, but in a good way. Bolloxed for a good reason.

Session 3: aka ‘The one that broke me’. I suppose I was getting cocky at this point, 1 very bad speed session followed by a good one so I must be ready for some major work right ? errrr wrong. However, in my defence I was feeling good, I was feeling fit and chomping at the bit to do something meaty. Now, what is my real go-to session that I love, both to do and give to other people – 200m repeats. Yes, it was time for the 200s. One lazy Sunday morning I again found myself in the fantastic surroundings of Athlone Arena and its lovely blue Mondo track. Start off with a steady 20min jog around the arena to get myself warmed up before hitting a session of 10x 200m, all done in 42s with a 200m walk between – well that was the plan. Rep #1, 45s – hmmm, need to go faster. Rep #2-4, 42ish seconds, nice, I will have that. Rep #5 – 48s – oooooops. Time for a break. Give myself 10 minutes to recover and reload. Rep #6 – 42s, Rep #7, 42s. Rep #8 – I hit the 100m mark in about 22s, no problem there as I always power off the bend and down the straight. Rep #8 – 150m mark and I have already gone past 40s, what happened, my legs have stopped working. Cross the finish line in a little over 50s – thats it, I am done. I am bolloxed. Decide I need a quick lie down, feet up on a bench, the hard Mondo surface is nice and cool and brings life back to my body. However, something is not right. My groin is hurting, hurting bad. I have had a few issues with my groin since I have been back running, thought it was my poor running form, poor fitness and that I am still over 14 stone or even the runners I am using, but this is quite severe today. I join the rest of my training group for a cool down jog and I know I have done something bad, can barely move, my groin hurts but also my right butt cheek is throbbing. Feck it, I am bolloxed.

Not just bolloxed, am injured. First time in many many years I have picked up a bona fide running injury. Seems I have either a small tear in a glute muscle, or a slight strain in one of the ligaments (or both). Either way, I am going to have to rest, and I don’t do rest very well.

Bollox.