Diary of a middle-age runner

gerard65

Thurs 10th June
5.78mls in 50min.
Legs tired and heavy. A couple of days off needed.

Sun 13th June.
10.1mls in 80:14.
The first 4 miles were mainly uphill (with the mountain plod in mind) and the last 6 downhill or flat. Legs weren't too bad tonight. I think I'll have to cut the number of training days to three per week as I can't seem to manage 5 or 6, the legs don't seem to recover even with easy runs. I'm going to take on the Furman type of program from now on with just 3 big sessions per week with some swimming or walking on the other days.

aero2k

gerard65 wrote: »

I'm going to take on the Furman type of program from now on with just 3 big sessions per week with some swimming or walking on the other days.

I tried a version of the Furman program for DCM '08. At the time I was devastated by my poor performance, and blamed the program, among other things.

In retrospect it was actually very good. I realise now that I didn't use the correct training paces, and that I had actually got a very good performance up to about 19 miles.

I certainly avoided injury / overtraining, and if you do some quality cross-training you may find it works well for you.

gerard65

Tues 15th June
5.87 tempo.
Mile 2 - 6:59, mile 3 - 6:56, mile 4 - 6:50, mile 5 - 6:51. Out of sorts this evening, been moving big paving slabs and bags of gravel the last couple of days and was wrecked when I got home this evening, would have taken this evening off but with Thursdays race I wanted to get a session in today. Rest tomorrow.

shels4ever

gerard65 wrote: »

Tues 15th June
5.87 tempo.
Mile 2 - 6:59, mile 3 - 6:56, mile 4 - 6:50, mile 5 - 6:51. Out of sorts this evening, been moving big paving slabs and bags of gravel the last couple of days and was wrecked when I got home this evening, would have taken this evening off but with Thursdays race I wanted to get a session in today. Rest tomorrow.

Best of luck with the race on Thursday its a great event.

gerard65

Thurs 17th June
BHAA Trinity College Track Meet
800m & 3000m
800m- I used to be able to run 800m in under 2 mins, but that was over 27 years ago, so tonight was a venture into the unknown. I slotted into 4th for the first 200m by realised the pace was too fast so I eased back and was passed by 2 or 3. Went through the bell in the low 70sec's. Really tired down the back straight and by 200m to go the legs were full of lactate, a feeling I had forgotten about. I stopped the watch at 2:32 somewhere midpack. Hav'nt done any speed work so I was happy with that time on grass.
3000m- Started slowly and eased my way through the field. Felt good and in control during the race and maintained good form. Kicked with about 150m to go and managed to get up on my toes over the last 50m, first time in many years. I'll have to wait for the results but finished midpack. Happy with 11:31.
A very enjoyable evening of real running. The BHAA only do 4 track meets in the summer, would love to do more.

OFFICAL RESULTS:
800m - 2:31. 3rd in age group. 5th in standard.
3000m - 11:32. 3rd in age group. 4th in standard.

shels4ever

gerard65 wrote: »

Thurs 17th June
BHAA Trinity College Track Meet
800m & 3000m
800m- I used to be able to run 800m in under 2 mins, but that was over 27 years ago, so tonight was a venture into the unknown. I slotted into 4th for the first 200m by realised the pace was too fast so I eased back and was passed by 2 or 3. Went through the bell in the low 70sec's. Really tired down the back straight and by 200m to go the legs were full of lactate, a feeling I had forgotten about. I stopped the watch at 2:32 somewhere midpack. Hav'nt done any speed work so I was happy with that time on grass.
3000m- Started slowly and eased my way through the field. Felt good and in control during the race and maintained good form. Kicked with about 150m to go and managed to get up on my toes over the last 50m, first time in many years. I'll have to wait for the results but finished midpack. Happy with 11:31.
A very enjoyable evening of real running. The BHAA only do 4 track meets in the summer, would love to do more.

Well done solid running .
Still on for tomorrow morning?

gerard65

shels4ever wrote: »

Well done solid running .
Still on for tomorrow morning?

Yep

gerard65

Sat 19th June
10mls in 92mins.
Met up with shels, memo, RQ, Eoin and xebec this morning in the PP for an easy, long run. Thankfully the pace was nice and easy as my legs were still sore after Thurs. The miles fly in when running and chatting in a group. Hope the legs are OK by Mon as I want to start a program for the half in Sept.

gerard65

Wed 23th June
65mins easy

Thurs 24th June
68mins easy

Sat 26th June
51mins easy

Bad week. Sitting into the car on Monday morning I pulled something near my hip. Was in a agony for a couple of mins, could'nt move. This was still sore during the week but was able to run on it, very easy, from Wed. This morning I headed out to the Phoenix Park for a long run but I knew after a couple of miles that it wasn't going to happen. Felt awful, sweating badly, nothing in the tank, so called a day after 50mins. I may skip Tues race, confidence is a bit low.

gerard65

Mon 28th June
33mins easy

Tues 29th June
43mins easy

Sat 3th July
12mls in 2hrs 9mins(approx. Stopping and forgetting to restart the watch)
Recon for the 'mountain plod' half marathon.
A bad week. Not feeling great, tired and sleeping poorly. Maybe its the humid weather as I heard a few people complaining of tiredness and not been able to sleep. I like a 'dry' heat but this humid weather drains me. So a week of no motivation, a few smokes and a few pints. Needed a nice run this morning to lift the mood and I think it did the trick, will def add more of this type of running into my training, I think running the same routes all the time can add to staleness. One more doss week and then a 10 week buildup to the half in the park.

Krusty_Clown

A lovely route, isn't it? I'm definitely going to try and do this route every couple of weeks. I always find myself heading off in different directions as I'd get bored running the same routes all the time. These days though I find I've run most of the roads in my area, so I'm going to have to move house sometime soon.

How did you find the second climb up to Tibradden? tough isn't it?

gerard65

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

A lovely route, isn't it? I'm definitely going to try and do this route every couple of weeks. I always find myself heading off in different directions as I'd get bored running the same routes all the time. These days though I find I've run most of the roads in my area, so I'm going to have to move house sometime soon.

How did you find the second climb up to Tibradden? tough isn't it?

Its a great area for running. I live down the road but I never go up that far, I will from now on, really enjoyed been out on the hills away from the boring routes I usually run. Theres only two tough parts - masseys wood and the hill up to Tibradden mountain.

Krusty_Clown

gerard65 wrote: »

Its a great area for running. I live down the road but I never go up that far, I will from now on, really enjoyed been out on the hills away from the boring routes I usually run. Theres only two tough parts - masseys wood and the hill up to Tibradden mountain.

...and the hill towards Cruagh mountain (after you exit Masseys). I think there'll be a water-station there on the day of the race though, which should make it a little easier.

gerard65

Dublin Half Marathon Training Plan
Week 1

Mon 5th July
30 mins easy

Tues 6th July
5x800m with 2mins rec. Pace<4min/km
Done on grass. Tougher than expected.
Total miles - 5.2

Wed 7th July
30mins easy.

Thurs 8th July.
4mls tempo. Avg pace 7.06min/mls
Done on grass. Tougher than expected.
Total miles - 6

Fri 9th July
30mins easy

Sat 10th July
11.74mls hilly in 1hr 50mins. Avg pace 9.22min/mls
'Mountain Plod' course.

First 'structured' training week for a half marathon target of sub 1:35. Tues and Thurs sessions were harder than expected, maybe due to running on grass, but I may have to adjust my expections down in the coming weeks if things don't improve. When you're young you tend to adjust your expections up the more you train, but the years on the clock tend to demand more realistic targets. Next week is an odd week with two races back to back so I'll have to use the 5mile as a training session and the 'Plod' the next day will be 'survival'.

gerard65

Dublin Half Marathon Training Plan
Week 2

Mon 12th July
30mins easy

Tues 13th July
5x1k with 2min walk/jog rec. Done on grass.
4:03, 4:03, 3:58, 3:59, 3:58.

Wed 14th July
30mins easy

Thurs 15th July
35mins easy.

Fri 16th July
Rest

Sat 17th July.
Race - Irish Runner 5 mile.
4.9mls in 33:33.
Splits Pace - 6:57, 6:57, 7:08, 6:55, 6:05.
With tomorrows race in mind I used this as a training run. Felt very good throughout - cruising along nicely. Dont really know what happened on mile 3, don't remember slowing down, maybe just went asleep. Job done.

Sun 18th July
Race - Mountain Plod Half Marathon.
13.13mls in 1hr 57mins.
At last the day had arrived. Been looking forward to this for a few weeks. Got to Marley about 9 and picked up my number. Chatted to SJ and EE for a while. Just after 10 we were off. Started near the back and made my way through the field. By Masseys Wood I was in a group of about 8 or 9 and surprisingly this group finished around the same time. I found the uphills very hard and often lost touch with my group but on the downhills I was king. At last we made it to the top of the last hill where KC was taking photo's and the last 3 miles we're downhill. A few of my group stopped at the last water station and I got the jump on them, did'nt see them till the end. Mad race, really enjoyed it. On the way home I was thinking if I'd do another hill race but I really can't fit anymore races in to my year, but this ticks another box on my 'to do' list before I'm too old.
Shattered now, off to bed for a couple of hours.
Results 61st out of 198. 12th out of 34 in M40.

Krusty_Clown

Well done Ger. You were looking strong when you shot past me. You seem to have a knack for this kind of thing. Maybe you should do more of this, and less of t'other!

gerard65

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Well done Ger. You were looking strong when you shot past me. You seem to have a knack for this kind of thing. Maybe you should do more of this, and less of t'other!

Liar:D I was totally fooked, and I staggered by you. I maybe OK running down the hill, but that was tips I picked up last night while reading 'Born to run', unfortunetly for every downhill theres an uphill. I'll certainly continue using parts of this route as training, I really enjoy been out on the hills and I can see the attraction of this type of event. Maybe after a bit more hill training I'll give another IMRA a go, now I'm a member.

RacoonQueen

Very impressive time for that route. Well done.

gerard65

Dublin Half Marathon Training Plan
Week 3

Mon 19th July
30mins easy

Disaster for the rest of the week. Picked up a stomach flu which wiped the rest of the week out. Maybe overdoing it last weekend left my immune system down or it was just one of those things. I had schedualed a 'bad' week into my plan but I'll have to ease off next week as well. Missed todays 10k and better miss the mile on Wednesday, which is disappointing as the mile is my favour distance and this is the only one in the year - down with the metric system. Hopefully thats my last and only setback.

BeepBeep67

Missing the mile myself as I got my dates wrong when booking a few days away - will do the Raheny 2 instead.

gerard65

Wed 28th July
Race: Aviva 1 mile, Irishtown Stadium. 5:38.
Bad and Good. A couple of weeks ago I'd planned for a 5:30 mile but the legs just would'nt move at that pace this evening, I never felt comfortable and could'nt find my pace. However I can't be too disappointed as I only decided to run this race this afternoon after been down with a stomach flu last week. Also its 4 secs faster than last year which gives me confidence going into the 3k and 2mile over the next few weeks.

menoscemo

gerard65 wrote: »

Wed 28th July
Race: Aviva 1 mile, Irishtown Stadium. 5:38.
Bad and Good. A couple of weeks ago I'd planned for a 5:30 mile but the legs just would'nt move at that pace this evening, I never felt comfortable and could'nt find my pace. However I can't be too disappointed as I only decided to run this race this afternoon after been down with a stomach flu last week. Also its 4 secs faster than last year which gives me confidence going into the 3k and 2mile over the next few weeks.

Nice one. I really wanted to do that as I have never raced on a track/anything under 5k, But I was up in Tyrone for a dental apoointment :mad:

gerard65

Dublin Half Marathon Training Plan
Week 4

Mon 26th July
Sick

Tues 27th July
4mls easy

Wed 28th July
Race

Thurs 29th July
30mins easy

Fri 30th July
3ml Tempo. Total 5.4mls

Sat 31st July
30mins easy

Sun 1st Aug
10.45mls in 85mins

Only issue this week was Fridays tempo run. I was struggling to maintain the pace that Daniels suggests. Odd that this pace feels easy in a five mile race but feels too tough in training. I'll slow it down next week, running tempo sessions too fast defeats the purpose.

gerard65

Dublin Half Marathon Training Plan
Week 5

Mon 2nd Aug
30mins easy

Tues 3th Aug
30mins easy
Achilles sore over the last two days so took it easy

Wed 4th Aug
VO2MAX Session. 4x1200 with 4min rec jog/walk
Total 7mls

Thurs 5th Aug
40min easy + 6 strides

Fri 6th Aug
LT Session. 3mls tempo.
Total 5.2mls

Sat 7th Aug
30mins easy

Sun 8th Aug
LSR. 6.2mls. Should have been 12mls but just did'nt happen. Tired and when the calf started getting sore it was time to pull the plug.

Not a bad week apart from today. Might need to adjust the pace of my lactate threshold runs to get the full benefit, still feels a bit too quick.
Race next Wednesday so I'll take it easy for the start of the week and then work on the hills and LSR.

nosnagaoithe

Gerard - re LT pace runs....how do you calculate the optimum pace for these?

gerard65

nosnagaoithe wrote: »

Gerard - re LT pace runs....how do you calculate the optimum pace for these?

In his book Jack Daniels reckons its the pace you can maintain for about a hour. Its difficult to judge as it could be 10k race pace for some and 10 mile race pace for others. He has a table in his book you can estimate different training paces from resent races but my paces from my mile time and say my half marathon are way off, so I'm trying to find the 'comfortable hard' pace he describes. You want to raise your blood lactate to at or just above your threshold for about 20 mins to get the benefit from this training but if you go too far beyond your threshold point you lose the point of the session. Its natural to 'race' your 20 mins but you should feel you've a fair amount left in the tank, if your wrecked you've run too fast.

gerard65

RACE
BHAA/Irish Life and Perm. 3000m. Irishtown Stadium
Time 11:09.
Very happy with that time. I ran this race in 11:36 last year and McMillian put me at 11:11 for tonight, although Daniels got it bang on. I was a bit low in confidence coming into this race after a poor training run on Sunday so I'm really chuffed with that time.
Was going very well up to 800m to go when the legs went.
This puts me very close to a sub 12min 2 mile in a couple of weeks. Daniels puts my 2 mile time at 12:02.

Woddle

Great stuff man, well deserved.

menoscemo

That's class running.

xebec

Well done, you were looking very strong and well-positioned for most of the race. It was clear that you were working hard over the last lap or two just to try to keep up with the guys around you, tried giving a shout of support but obviously didn't give the desired boost Cracking time though, fair play!