Send in the Clowns - BAC 10K Challenge

Krusty_Clown

Speedy44 wrote: »

what a wimp, I did my p1/2mp run yesterday with a hangover, and actually felt great

LOL. I thought that hangovers were supposed to get harder with age.

Krusty_Clown

Today: 18 miles with 12 miles @PMP
It was really hot out there, but it's all good acclimatisation for Berlin. Still, this was a tough session, particularly towards the end of the 12 mile pmp, when I was beginning to wilt, without any water. Still, it's the last pmp session in the program, so it was important to get it right, and work through it no matter how hard it got.

Started with a four mile gentle uphill climb, and then stopped for some water before beginning the pmp miles, as I didn't want to interrupt the next section, so I wouldn't get any unwarranted recovery. There was a gentle wind blowing which made the north-facing miles pretty tough. Effort levels felt pretty high at times (on the uphill drags) but the miles were ticking off nicely. I was glad to see the end of the session. Stopped for a well needed sports drink, and then hit the road for the remaining 2.3 miles for home. My half marathon time would have been around 1:23, so happy with that too. A tough session, but a very good session.

PMP: 12 miles @6:20/mile, in 76 mins, HR=149

Summary: 18 miles in 2:03 @6:44/mile, HR=144

tisnotover

Savage PMP running, well done!

Sosa

I am tired reading that KC,fair play.
After Cork i realised that i could have done 2:55 on the day if i didnt stop for the toilet breaks and if i pushed over the last 6/8m...so therefore i now reckon if i could do that in Cork that means i could go sub 2:50 at a later date...but could not see myself doing 12m @ 6:20 as part of an LSR...that is a serious session..well done...sub 2:48 all the way

Slogger Jogger

Super running. Thats proper training. Should see you well placed for a rewarding performance on the day.

donothoponpop

That's one you should take confidence from- and move on. Great run at this stage.

seanynova

good running! some going at 12m PMP this far out....

Krusty_Clown

Thanks for the vote of confidence guys. I remember doing my last 12 mile pmp session (for Barcelona marathon) and finding it equally as difficult and having the same doubts about being able to carry it on for a full 26 miles, so I won't start gnawing the desk just yet!

These training programs are a real leap of faith, aren't they? No more pmp sessions and I'm barely half way into the program. At least I have the benefit of having followed very similar programs already. You can understand why those new to marathoning have so many doubts.

Krusty_Clown

Whoops. Page 4! Can't take a recovery day around here, without having to try and find your training log in the dungeon.

Yesterday: Just a short walk/hike to stretch the legs, which didn't feel as bad as I expected. A bit of tiredness on the quads but that's it.

Tonight: 9 Mile Aerobic run with a good climb and 10x100m strides

In the early part of the run, I was suffering from Tuesday'itis (a condition I get occasionally after a hard run on a Sunday, where I wish I was in the pub instead of out running). But after the initial climb, everything seemed to sort itself out and as I crested the hill, took in the evening sun and was re-energised. Did the strides where I could on the flats, before a final mile in the park. 15 miles again tomorrow. Ugh!

Summary: 9 miles in 1:06, @7:23/mile, HR=145

aero2k

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

PMP: 12 miles @6:20/mile, in 76 mins, HR=149

Summary: 18 miles in 2:03 @6:44/mile, HR=144

My HR hit 195 just reading that! Very impressive. And, as we've both commented before, while PMP runs are a bit of a slog, somehow the same pace seems comfortable on the big day - at least for the first 20 miles or so!


I've just been over on the Frank Duffy thread and now I've revised my target to 59:58.99.:D (tho' I have to get the excuse in early and say that my legs feel broken...)

Krusty_Clown

aero2k wrote: »

I've just been over on the Frank Duffy thread and now I've revised my target to 59:58.99.:D (tho' I have to get the excuse in early and say that my legs feel broken...)

Good luck to you! That's too rich for my blood!
I have a 7 mile tempo (as part of a 12 mile run) this Friday at 6:05/mile, so that'll be a good indicator of how likely I'll be to hit sub 60 on the day. Ugh.. Not looking forward to it already.

Krusty_Clown

Tonight: IMRA short hill race + 6 easy miles
Schedule called for a medium long run of 15 miles, but the OH was heading up to do her first IMRA race, so I figured I might as well head up too (so at least she was car-pooling!), and try and pick up some easy miles afterwards.

The race: It was a short IMRA race, just 4 miles (but advertised as 5k) so I figured (very incorrectly as it turned out!) that it'd be just an easy climb, up to half way, and a fast descent afterwards. Ugh. How quickly you forget how tough these hill races are. Just a 260m climb, which by typical IMRA standards is a baby run, but for road softies like me it was tough. My poor maths skills left me expecting the turnaround point every time we crested a hill, but each hill was followed by another. I made good progress up the hills (glad to say there was no walking!) and was passing a decent number of runners. I was delighted when we finally looped around Fairy hill (castle?) and started on the descent.

I wasn't really sure where I stood on the descent, but there were three ahead to catch. Two of 'em seemed to tire, or didn't like the risks of taking a tumble, so they were easy enough to pass. The last guy took a few minutes to catch, but eventually I took some high ground and pushed past hard, in the hope that I wouldn't see him again. Nobody around for the next while as I launched myself down the bone-shaker. At one stage I hit a 'v' and took the wrong turn, quickly realizing my mistake and re-climbing a little to head down the correct path. As I neared the bottom of the boneshaker, I glanced back to see one runner up above me. The marathon mileage legs were put to good use to keep the distance between us. Very glad to see the finish line, and I only counted around four or five runners ahead of me, so a good result.

A few blisters and sore feet made it clear that doing the extra 11 miles wouldn't be a good idea, so I headed home ad did a 6 mile recovery run on the grass instead, to bring it up to 10 miles.

Summary:
Race: 4 miles in 30:40, @7:35/mile, HR=173 (I was working hard!).
Post-race: 6 miles in 50 mins, @8:18/mile, HR=134

Slogger Jogger

This clearly demonstrates you have the talent for this type of race and you are benefitting from your training. A longer hill race should suit you too. Fair play to you for the willpower to be able to get out afterwards to do the additional miles.

Krusty_Clown

I dunno SJ, it was a pretty hard slog going up that hill! Had it been another 100m vertical climb, I would have been wiped, and Mrs Clown would have taken her first scalp! But I enjoyed it nonetheless, and hopefully scored my highest ever finish in a race. I do enjoy the longer ones a lot more, as you can take a little more time to enjoy the views and pace yourself better.

My selective IMRA running this year is going to give me a very flattering average finish position (8th or 9th ). Must keep an eye out for the races where the big dogs don't turn up! Hopefully next year I'll back off the marathon plans, and have more time to do more races.

claralara

You make it sound so easy peasy!! I went through every painful emotion in my 45 minutes. From 'What have I done?' to 'When's the next one?!'

Well done on an awesome run!

I seriously thought I'd never get to the top!

Krusty_Clown

claralara wrote: »

You make it sound so easy peasy!! I went through every painful emotion in my 45 minutes. From 'What have I done?' to 'When's the next one?!'

An average heart rate of 173 tells a slightly different story! Easy, it most certainly isn't! Congrats on popping your mountain running cherry. Hope you enjoyed the experience. A very friendly and welcoming bunch, aren't they?

claralara

Haha! I'd love to know what my heart rate was last night. I have a worrying low resting heart rate so it'd be interesting to see how it reacts to the things I put it through at the time!

Ah last night was brilliant. They're a great bunch. I reckon I'll get suckered into it next year for the 'easy' ones so hopefully get to know some people! Brilliant experience and delighted I did it. Hal might not be so happy with me for abandoning ship on the training plan :rolleyes:

Krusty_Clown

Tonight: Cut the 7 mile recovery run back to 5 miles, as I really was feeling the worse for wear, and it made no sense doing the extra miles with a very hard session tomorrow (sadly not of the drinking variety).

Summary: 5 miles in 41 mins, @8:15/mile, HR=128

Krusty_Clown

Tonight: 11.7 miles with 7 miles @LT pace (6:01)
I knew this was a bad idea right from the start. Yesterday's recovery run failure set alarms bells ringing in my brain, that I was over-training. As I struggled through the 3.5 mile warm-up today with dizzy spells, hot flushes and feelings of exhaustion, I was ready to pack in the session. But damnit, it's the last LT session in my entire 12 week training program. I don't want to miss this one, or mess it up. I stopped to stretch in the local park after the warm-up and started to feel even worse. After 5 minutes of putting off the inevitable, I decided that I might as well give it a go, as stand around waiting to fail.

Half a mile in, I was ready to jack in in. The watch read 6:47, and I didn't seem to be able to get the pace down any quicker, despite effort levels feeling really tough. As I emerged from the woods, I realized that I had misread the watch and I was running at 5:47, which explains why I was so shagged. Dropped the pace back a few notches, with some relief, and started into the miles proper. Come mile 3 or 4 I was rightfully shagged again, but determined to keep on going as long as I could. My mantra? "This isn't as hard as mountain running." Then the tick down began. I'll stop at 5 miles. I'll stop at 6. I'll see how far I can get.. Done.. Collapse. Had to sit down for a couple of minutes.

Next week, when I have to string 10 of these together, one after the other, I'm going to do a mini taper, and not run a four mile hill race two nights beforehand at an average HR of 173. I mightn't make my target, but I'll give it a good lash.

Two good things today: I came 4th in the IMRA hill race on Wednesday night. My highest ever placing in any race, ever. Secondly, I'm finished LT and PMP training until next year! Yippee!

LT Mies: 7 miles in 42 mins, @6:01/mile, HR=163

Summary: 11.73 miles in 1:19, @6:44/mile, HR=149

seanynova

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Tonight: 11.7 miles with 7 miles @LT pace (6:01)
I knew this was a bad idea right from the start. Yesterday's recovery run failure set alarms bells ringing in my brain, that I was over-training. As I struggled through the 3.5 mile warm-up today with dizzy spells, hot flushes and feelings of exhaustion, I was ready to pack in the session. But damnit, it's the last LT session in my entire 12 week training program. I don't want to miss this one, or mess it up. I stopped to stretch in the local park after the warm-up and started to feel even worse. After 5 minutes of putting off the inevitable, I decided that I might as well give it a go, as stand around waiting to fail.

Half a mile in, I was ready to jack in in. The watch read 6:47, and I didn't seem to be able to get the pace down any quicker, despite effort levels feeling really tough. As I emerged from the woods, I realized that I had misread the watch and I was running at 5:47, which explains why I was so shagged. Dropped the pace back a few notches, with some relief, and started into the miles proper. Come mile 3 or 4 I was rightfully shagged again, but determined to keep on going as long as I could. My mantra? "This isn't as hard as mountain running." Then the tick down began. I'll stop at 5 miles. I'll stop at 6. I'll see how far I can get.. Done.. Collapse. Had to sit down for a couple of minutes.

Next week, when I have to string 10 of these together, one after the other, I'm going to do a mini taper, and not run a four mile hill race two nights beforehand at an average HR of 173. I mightn't make my target, but I'll give it a good lash.

Two good things today: I came 4th in the IMRA hill race on Wednesday night. My highest ever placing in any race, ever. Secondly, I'm finished LT and PMP training until next year! Yippee!

LT Mies: 7 miles in 42 mins, @6:01/mile, HR=163

Summary: 11.73 miles in 1:19, @6:44/mile, HR=149

very good tempo session krusty, will stand to ya....but im sure you will get in another tempo run before the end of the year!

just remember in the 10m race you will have a kick at the finish to bring you in for a decent last mile....so 59:59mins or lower all the way!

Krusty_Clown

seanynova wrote: »

very good tempo session krusty, will stand to ya....but im sure you will get in another tempo run before the end of the year!

Can't you let me dream, if only for a moment?

I did neglect to mention that all of those pmp and LT sessions are instead replaced by V02max intervals (e.g. 4x 1mile @5:30/mile) so hardly an easy substitute! Bring it on!

seanynova

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Can't you let me dream, if only for a moment?

I did neglect to mention that all of those pmp and LT sessions are instead replaced by V02max intervals (e.g. 4x 1mile @5:30/mile) so hardly an easy substitute! Bring it on!

well in that case tempo/PMP runs are the dreams....vO2 max intervals are the nightmares!
best of luck with them....but you did well on the 1000m intervals so not much to worry about...

Krusty_Clown

Today: 6.3 mile recovery run
Nice run in the sun, but unfortunately the blister that I started to develop on Wednesday, despite treatment, is now impossible to walk on, so tomorrow's long run is in jeopardy. I've never had trouble with blisters before, I just pop them and keep going, but this one seems different. Very sore to walk on, despite piercing it twice, and using compeed. Any suggestions?

Summary: 6.3 miles in 49 mins, @7:51/mile.

another world

Careful there! I had one a while back, decided to run on it but I ended up running waay off proper gait to avoid hitting it and I´m sure this caused me to get injured.

Recently, I´ve been taping the area I get/have a blister and that seems to be working grand. It might work for you.

village runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Today: 6.3 mile recovery run
Nice run in the sun, but unfortunately the blister that I started to develop on Wednesday, despite treatment, is now impossible to walk on, so tomorrow's long run is in jeopardy. I've never had trouble with blisters before, I just pop them and keep going, but this one seems different. Very sore to walk on, despite piercing it twice, and using compeed. Any suggestions?

Summary: 6.3 miles in 49 mins, @7:51/mile.

On that program "Without Limits" a blister done him. He developed a new way of running so as not to hit the blister. Be careful mate. A Long one tuesday odd would do no harm(maybe xlose to 10 miler) But as you said its all about Berlin.

Krusty_Clown

another world wrote: »

Careful there! I had one a while back, decided to run on it but I ended up running waay off proper gait to avoid hitting it and I´m sure this caused me to get injured.

Recently, I´ve been taping the area I get/have a blister and that seems to be working grand. It might work for you.

Thanks for the tip. I did something similar a year ago when I had a sprained toe. At the moment gait is the least of my worries. I can't put any weight on my heel, so i'm worried it might be infected, which would put a bit of a damper on things.

seanynova

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Thanks for the tip. I did something similar a year ago when I had a sprained toe. At the moment gait is the least of my worries. I can't put any weight on my heel, so i'm worried it might be infected, which would put a bit of a damper on things.

just clean it with alchol as best you can then, and cover it with a plaster when wearing shoes or socks....and duck tape the plaster if you need to...

donothoponpop

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

...unfortunately the blister that I started to develop on Wednesday, despite treatment, is now impossible to walk on, so tomorrow's long run is in jeopardy...
Any suggestions?
.

Eyes on the prize. You're in great shape, training going very well, treat this blister like a minor injury (which it is), and take the two or three days out until it heals a bit- or until Compeed works on it. Elevate the legs, hold something for balance (TV remotes work well), and roll a cold metal object to sooth the affected area (l'd suggest beer cans, but bear in mind the Second Law of Thermodynamics, so they may need constant refreshing).

Krusty_Clown

donothoponpop wrote: »

Eyes on the prize. You're in great shape, training going very well, treat this blister like a minor injury (which it is), and take the two or three days out until it heals a bit- or until Compeed works on it. Elevate the legs, hold something for balance (TV remotes work well), and roll a cold metal object to sooth the affected area (l'd suggest beer cans, but bear in mind the Second Law of Thermodynamics, so they may need constant refreshing).

You're wasted in art'ematics. You should've been a doctor (Patch Adams variety).

Krusty_Clown

Today: 50 Mile cycle - Dublin Bay from Shankill to Howth and back
A bit more butchery on the blister, and put on the running gear, but didn't get too far, as the blister area is still very tender. In two years of marathon running, I can say with some certainty that I've never missed a long run, but I made the most of a frustrating situation, and hopped on the bike on a fantastic day and headed for the sea. I took the pace handy. Didn't really have a choice, with sunny day beach traffic, and slow cyclists.

Lovely cycle, and the views from Howth back over the bay to the Wicklow Mountains is fantastic (shame about the smell of sewage). You DNS guys are spoiled with your tarmacadam, and your posh cycle tracks.

Summary: 50 miles in 3:16, @24km/hour, HR=126'ish