Send in the Clowns - BAC 10K Challenge

Krusty_Clown

Today: Woke up with a very stiff ankle from yesterday's IMRA race, and a very sore head from yesterday's partying. Really found it hard to motivate myself to get out, as every muscle was aching, and wasn't sure if I could put enough weight on the ankle to get a run in, not to mind 17 miles. So come 3 o'clock, I finally got my ass in gear (literally) and took a few tentative steps outside. Cool, I didn't feel any ankle pain in the running range of motion, so all I had to do was avoid hills, paticularly downhills, and I'd be fine.

This run was a real slog. Toughest run of the program so far, despite being shorter, slower and less effort than many of my previous runs. It felt like the closing miles of a hard marathon, but I guess that's why the program is designed like this. If you can push through on days like this, than it'll pay off on race day. And push through I did, though much of it was mind over body. Swimming tomorrow will be tough after the real DOMS sets in.

That's it, no more smoke and mirrors, the booze is off the menu for the next four weeks. My body is a temple. No more fun-boy-bobby.

Summary: 17 miles in 2:09, @7:38/mile, HR=138.

55 Miles for the week, mileage is dropping from here on in.

Slogger Jogger

Well done. Great tenacity to get out and do it. I'd an LSR on the agenda this morning too but twisted it around so that it became a 'time on the feet' exercise instead. It too felt like the closing stages for the marathon. Sessions like that are what get us through in the end though. Keep it going.

village runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Just agreeing with you! (Run slower in the first half and then make your decision).
How's the ailment? Are you off your feet for a spell?

Nearly there.

Krusty_Clown

Last night: One hour of swimming lessons. Definitely out-grown the class, and finding it quite boring, even with the body in shreds after the weekends activities.

Tonight: Body felt sore, but loosened up within a mile or two. Nice recovery run along Bray promenade. Had planned to head a half mile towards Greystones on the cliff walk, but forgot the head-torch, and it's a little too dark and dangerous without it, so headed back to the park instead. Also did 6 x strides in preparation for tomorrow's intervals.

Summary: 7 miles in 54 mins, @7:46/mile, HR=136

misty floyd

You always seem to run somewhere interesting. Thats a good part of the country to live for a runner I'd imagine.

Krusty_Clown

Yeah, it's great, if you don't mind a few hills. Every direction seems to start and end with some hills! There's also the three mile perimeter park, for intervals etc. and the trails, if you can stomach the climb up to them.

Need a bit of variety in my 20 mile runs though. Think I've hit every road in the south of Dublin.

Sosa

Well Krusty,
How do you feel your training is going for Barca ?
Your pmp runs are spot on and your long 20 you did a couple of weeks back was impressive also.
What have you done different for this one to hopfully get you to 2:55 ?

Krusty_Clown

Hi Sosa, I guess my approach is a little unorthodox, but it seemed to work out well in Berlin, but might fail completely in Barcelona. I'm following the same program as the last time, except it has more PMP mileage, and I usually do around 5 miles a week more than the program suggests. What I'm doing is upping the pace for..well.. pretty much all of the runs.

I stuck 2:55 into McMillan, and have been using the equivalent paces to guide my runs, so for V02 sessions @5K pace, I use the McMillan equivalent 5k pace, rather than a previous 5k time. Same for LT runs, long runs, aerobic runs etc. It means I'm constantly pushing myself; not necessarily in mileage, but in intensity (quality over quantity). The results so far seem to be good. Consistently faster paces, at a lower heart rate.

But the marathon is a wayward beastie. I know that all the confidence and PMP runs in the world don't guarantee that I'll have a good day in Barcelona in 26 days time. An upset stomach, an open shoelace, a forgotten watch, a calf strain, a dodgy lasagne, and it'll be back to the drawing board for another 3 months. Just gotta keep trying.

Sosa

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Hi Sosa, I guess my approach is a little unorthodox, but it seemed to work out well in Berlin, but might fail completely in Barcelona. I'm following the same program as the last time, except it has more PMP mileage, and I usually do around 5 miles a week more than the program suggests. What I'm doing is upping the pace for..well.. pretty much all of the runs.

I stuck 2:55 into McMillan, and have been using the equivalent paces to guide my runs, so for V02 sessions @5K pace, I use the McMillan equivalent 5k pace, rather than a previous 5k time. Same for LT runs, long runs, aerobic runs etc. It means I'm constantly pushing myself; not necessarily in mileage, but in intensity (quality over quantity). The results so far seem to be good. Consistently faster paces, at a lower heart rate.

But the marathon is a wayward beastie. I know that all the confidence and PMP runs in the world don't guarantee that I'll have a good day in Barcelona in 26 days time. An upset stomach, an open shoelace, a forgotten watch, a calf strain, a dodgy lasagne, and it'll be back to the drawing board for another 3 months. Just gotta keep trying.

Well,best of luck with it Krusty,i look forward to reading about the run up to barca and of course the race report.

You seem to be nice and relaxed about the whole thing,which i think is important.
I was a bit wound up for most of my Dublin prep,and thought a bit to deeply about it,wont happen next time round.

eliwallach

You're flying Krusty.
Your training log is an example to all here, and you manage to work funny in too.

Best of luck in Barcelona - it'll be a wonderful city to go sub 3hr in.

I've run that section by the olympic port a few times and never experienced any onshore winds (well, not in July/August anyway )

smmoore79

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Hi Sosa, I guess my approach is a little unorthodox, but it seemed to work out well in Berlin, but might fail completely in Barcelona. I'm following the same program as the last time, except it has more PMP mileage, and I usually do around 5 miles a week more than the program suggests. What I'm doing is upping the pace for..well.. pretty much all of the runs.

I stuck 2:55 into McMillan, and have been using the equivalent paces to guide my runs, so for V02 sessions @5K pace, I use the McMillan equivalent 5k pace, rather than a previous 5k time. Same for LT runs, long runs, aerobic runs etc. It means I'm constantly pushing myself; not necessarily in mileage, but in intensity (quality over quantity). The results so far seem to be good. Consistently faster paces, at a lower heart rate.

But the marathon is a wayward beastie. I know that all the confidence and PMP runs in the world don't guarantee that I'll have a good day in Barcelona in 26 days time. An upset stomach, an open shoelace, a forgotten watch, a calf strain, a dodgy lasagne, and it'll be back to the drawing board for another 3 months. Just gotta keep trying.

Not long to go for ya now Krusty, hope all the hard work pays off. and hopefully i'll be doing the same myself come October! Might try that quality over quantity ethos myself! This might seem like a stupid question, but are you worried about the weather? Not sure what the weathers like this early in the year in Barca..

shotgunmcos

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

.....An upset stomach, an open shoelace, a forgotten watch, a calf strain, a dodgy lasagne, and it'll be back to the drawing board for another 3 months. Just gotta keep trying.

Feic that KC, even with all those things and a headwind you will get your sub3 with the quality and consistency of work you are putting in. You deserve it at the very least for your efforts!

Krusty_Clown

Thanks Sosa, eliwallach shotgunMCOS and smmoore79 (are you really only 31? Whipper-snapper!). No, not too worried about the weather, with the possible exception of wind. If it's a very windy day (and most feedback would suggest that it's not terribly likely) then I'll just need to adjust the target. In the second half of Berlin, the temperature rose to 24'C, and I remember myself and Rusty_Cogs running in the shade of the buildings where we could find it, and Mithril looking ghostly, with the liberal dose of sun-tan lotion.

Not hitting 2:55 but getting in under 3:00 wouldn't bother me in the least.
3:01? Different story! I think I could cope with complete and utter collapse better than I could than if I just ran slower on the day. Complete training philosophy would be out the window:)

Here's what previous Barcelona runners have had to say about the wind:
"We had great weather, but a headwind and small climb at the end were tiring."
"...down to the seaside, where you run along the beach areas quite a ways (into the wind, unfortunately, but good temperatures),"
"The track is much too windy, and the long, straight distances - especially at the beach with no visitors - and headwind are real killers."

But thankfully, we should be able to predict the wind (and impact) the day before.

mithril

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Today: Woke up with a very stiff ankle from yesterday's IMRA race, and a very sore head from yesterday's partying.

The head should sort itself out but you really need to watch that ankle. There is very little soft tissue around the ankle and if develops into a full blown injury it takes ages to clear up or becomes a chronic niggle like what I have.

Why do you think the ankle is stiff? Is it a tight calf muscle reflecting downwards which massage and stretching will improve?
Or is it that wear and tear on the joint over the years has reduced the flexibility? If the latter, you need to be thinking of how you can give it additional support, perhaps with orthotics or a different shoe, before it further deteriorates.

smmoore79

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Thanks Sosa, eliwallach shotgunMCOS and smmoore79 (are you really only 31? Whipper-snapper!).

Well 30 now, 31 in October. So plenty of years left to get sub 3!!! Though id love to get it this year :rolleyes:

Krusty_Clown

mithril wrote: »

Why do you think the ankle is stiff? Is it a tight calf muscle reflecting downwards which massage and stretching will improve?
Or is it that wear and tear on the joint over the years has reduced the flexibility? If the latter, you need to be thinking of how you can give it additional support, perhaps with orthotics or a different shoe, before it further deteriorates.

I think it breaks down to two problems:
1) Slight pull in the achilles - This happened during the snow season, and is probably on the back of the skiing, or the 17 mile hill run in the snow, which definitely forces a different orientation of the legs. Physio thinks it's caused by a weak/tight left calf (which plagued me last year). The achilles hasn't healed entirely, and I reckon it wont for some time under continuous pressure, but maybe the upcoming taper/reduced mileage will help.
2) The down-hill section of the Annacurra race is mostly on fire-trail with some rapid direction changes and sudden braking required. I haven't run trails in quite some time, and certainly not at race pace, so this caused the problem with the lateral stiffness in the ankle, which doesn't impact during running. I'm hoping this will clear itself up by avoiding IMRA races in the short term, and continued icing.

When this marathon is over, I hope to move to slower (but longer) running for a while, which should help with the calf, and take the pressure off the achilles. That's the theory anyway!

Krusty_Clown

Tonight: 10 miles including 4 x 1,200m, @ 5K pace. Went really well today, so well that I had to check the numbers when I got home afterwards, as it felt as comfortable as the 600m intervals last week.

Timings: 4:11/4:14/4:15/4:16
Average Pace: 5:39/mile
Average HR: 160

Summary: 10 miles in 1:14, @7:23, HR=143

--amadeus--

Brilliant running and training. I'm sitting here green with envy

Krusty_Clown

Feels like it's almost going too well. I'm beginning to look over my shoulder. I've got that final destination feeling. I've been enjoying your blog. Good to see that your target pmp is the same as my own. After a couple of weeks, the pmp runs become a cinch (particularly after the half-marathon pace runs!). Which race is it to be? Limerick?

--amadeus--

I know that feeling, the "things can't possibly go this well, there's a bump ahead" thing... I'm looking forward to the race report actually, I chickened out of a 12 week plan but you seem to be getting great results from it.

Cheers for that and yep, target is the same as yours - I'm hoping for a similar thing to last year. You go out and do a stonking time and then I go out a few weeks later and sneak in 20 seconds faster I'm avoiding Limerick - I was supposed to be doing the 10k as a babysitter for MrsA but she seems to have got cold feet so I'm aiming at Cork now. Week 2 of the plan but I crocked my knee cross training tonight so I'll have to wait and see.

Krusty_Clown

If I manage twenty seconds slower than your target I'll be more than happy. I'm not greedy. Sorry to read about the knee. Hopefully just a temporary blip.

Peckham

Catching up with things here, and nice to read over the past few pages of your log. You seem to be in a good place both physically and psychologically for your Barcelona assault. Keep it going.

Krusty_Clown

Peckham wrote: »

Catching up with things here, and nice to read over the past few pages of your log. You seem to be in a good place both physically and psychologically for your Barcelona assault. Keep it going.

...and then I read Tergat's latest post, which runs exactly 90' from the philosophy I have been following. I guess everyone has to follow their own true path.

donothoponpop

Another one here green with envy. Ya jammy bast... you're hitting every note you need to hit, you're in a great place. Two week taper?

Wouldn't get too hung up on that heel (although everyone needs something to worry about in these countdown weeks:)), more than likely the result of Annacurra downhill all right.

Krusty_Clown

Tonight: 11 Mile hilly run
This one's on the schedule for tomorrow, but I have family obligations tomorrow and while it was less than ideal to run it this evening, after yesterday's intervals, I felt it was the lesser of two evils. It's not nice kicking off an 11 mile run at 8:30pm, when the temperature has dropped to below zero, and you haven't eaten dinner and you're already pretty tired, but I'm a slave to my goal, so I wrapped up warm, picked up the head torch and headed for the hill.

It was an enjoyable run. I think it was donothoponpop who mentioned that hills in the dark aren't as bad as the same hills in daylight, as you can't focus on what's ahead of you, just what's around you, and that's how I felt today, ignoring the watch completely, and just enjoying the city lights, start and boats out at sea. No audio books tonight, just some thumpy music to keep the legs moving, and while I was glad to arrive home (to some food) I was glad to have enjoyed the hill too.

Two days of recovery runs ahead, and then my final 20 miler.

Summary: 11 miles in 1:21, @7:26/mile, HR=141

Krusty_Clown

Today: Out to dinner, and didn't make my pre-dinner recovery run, so threw on the shoes afterwards and did 4 very easy miles (see there is a positive side to being off the alcohol!). Wouldn't have even made a tiny dent on the amount of food I ate. So much for losing a few pounds!

Summary: 4 Miles in 32 mins, @8:13/mile, HR=137.

belcarra

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

No audio books tonight, just some thumpy music to keep the legs moving, and while I was glad to arrive home (to some food) I was glad to have enjoyed the hill too.

What's your source for the audiobooks Krusty? Itunes?
I'm thinking I might get a few for these next few weeks of really long runs...

Krusty_Clown

belcarra wrote: »

What's your source for the audiobooks Krusty? Itunes?
I'm thinking I might get a few for these next few weeks of really long runs...

It was the first time I had tried one belcarra, and didn't know if it would work out, so didn't want to make a big investment, so I went with a 'try before you buy arrangement, if you know what I mean'.

The local library does carry a large selection though, which one could borrow, if one had the inclination.

Krusty_Clown

This morning: Pre-brekkie 'recce. Haven't done a pre-breakfast run in around 12 months (another advantage of being off the juice), but with a busy day ahead, and a 20-22 mile run tomorrow, I figured I'd get it out of the way.

Lovely morning for a run, with the sun trying to break free from the clutches of the clouds. Only the serious runners run this early in the morning (the one's who didn't polish off a bottle of wine, or a half dozen pints the night before. It was a nice run to do, but also nice to have it completed, and have the whole day free ahead of you. Now, time to start the children's shuttle service.

Summary: 5 recovery miles in 39 mins, A7:49/mile, HR=137

Slogger Jogger

Its great to see your progress KC. Not long to go now.