Ever Decreasing Circles:

BeepBeep67

donothoponpop wrote: »

Didn't take you long to get back on the horse! I presume the fast session tonight is an excuse in case of a slow race tomorrow night?;)

Reverse actually - so I won't be tempted to race tomorrow night, I know I'm not ready for that yet so I'll be on helpers duty.

donothoponpop

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Reverse actually - so I won't be tempted to race tomorrow night, I know I'm not ready for that yet so I'll be on helpers duty.

Yeah that makes sense. Decent clip though, you must have been out to banish temptation but good!

BeepBeep67

Helping out at the F4L this evening so deliberately left my gear at home to avoid temptation. Hopped on the treadie afterwards and got in 5 easy miles @ 7:45 while watching the end of the footie - 167 miles for Feb, the plan had 260, but it's a base to build from.

BeepBeep67

A Solid Mid Week 10
Hit Shanganagh after work to put another piece into the Rotterdam Maybe jigsaw puzzle, this inclusion was to increase 1 mid week run for the next 4 weeks. This went pretty well took a couple of miles to get comfortable with the pace I wanted at about 150 HR (80%), but after that I zoned out catching up with Marathon Talk (I'm a year behind :eek: - need more medium and long runs), this felt pretty comfortable another good sign.
10.1 Miles @ 7:30 pace @ 147 Avg HR

BeepBeep67

Just a 40 minute recovery run this evening, I have some football and GAA pitches quite close to me so apart from crossing the car park a few times 96.3% of this run was on grass. Timed it to collect the kids from athletics and felt like the hare in greyhound racing a few times as they were let off in groups behind me, so I moved to the next pitch to give them some space.
Test in the morning 16 miles with 10 @ 6:50 pace.

Dory Dory

Better stay off the booze and get some sleep tonight!! Will be waiting on your report tomorrow!

BeepBeep67

Dory Dory wrote: »

Better stay off the booze and get some sleep tonight!! Will be waiting on your report tomorrow!

This body is a Lenten Alcohol Free Zone - but I am treating depriving myself this evening and having one of these

Dory Dory

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

This body is a Lenten Alcohol Free Zone - but I am treating depriving myself this evening and having one of these

Oh my.....what have we all come to with this Lenten madness?? ;) I fully expect you to incorporate this "sports" drink into your report tomorrow!! A sort of Siskel and Ebert review, perhaps. I, on the other hand, will be kicking back tonight with a glass of Gnarly Head Pinot Grigio and a big bowl of creamery ice cream while watching my boys in red with hockey sticks in hand bust a few on ice. My warmup to the 20 miler I will be subjecting myself to in the blasted wind and rain tomorrow.

BeepBeep67

Too Much - Too Soon
So today was a test of sorts, a could I still aim for sub 3 in Rotterdam test, it was asking a lot off 3 weeks training, but if you don't try, you won't know.
The plan was to run 3.X miles @ 7:30 pace, run 10 miles @ 6:50 pace and then finish with 3.X miles @ 7:30 pace.
Net is that it didn't go to plan and having thought about it let's get the influencing factors out of the way first;

• Under trained
• Coming back from injury
• Added to many changes to this weeks training (pace and distance)
• A to B route against a stiff breeze
• Tummy didn't feel great this morning
• Morning running highlights my recent injurys

So first part of the run went according to plan 3.14 miles @ 7:31 pace felt pretty easy as I hit the lap button to start doing some work. As I ran through Ashford glancing at my lap pace I just couldn't get it below 7, there was a stiff breeze and there is a marginal climb, but this felt too hard too early - a 7:07 beeped but that's ok I thought I can pull it back towards the end, 2nd mile wasn't much better at 7:02 and the 3rd which included a little climb to the N11 was worse again 7:09, the legs just wouldn't respond. Mile 4 is a make up some time mile and I tried to stretch out, but was only rewarded with a 6:55, battled through the 5th for 7:01 and was now a full minute behind the target and was really feeling the effort, stopped to have a gel and get my head together had a decision to make at this point and as I felt like I was flogging a dead horse, the decision was to change this to a steady state run, stop clock watching and start running by feel. I'm happy to say that even having made this decision I did finish the 2nd half of the run at 7:17 pace, so still a decent workout.
So apart from having my ass handed to me this morning, there are some positives from this run, I did have 2hrs on my feet, I did run 16.5 miles at 3:11 pace and I kept my pace pretty steady for the last 8 miles, so the get you round plan B should be ok.

16.5 miles in 2:00:08 (7:17 pace)

Non Alcoholic Beer, 2 words - Why Bother!

Krusty_Clown

I didn't want to say anything before your run, but 10 miles at PMP on the back of the last few weeks you've had, would have been a massive undertaking. I fear these runs for a week in advance, and that's without any injuries and uninterrupted training. A 16.5 mile run at 106% of pmp was a far better session for you anyway and a far better result. Plenty of time left to sort out PMP runs.

Dory Dory

I don't dare try and follow Sir Krusty with any words of wisdom (not that I have any words of wisdom) other than to say nice way to readjust your run.

Non-alcoholic beer usually isn't worth the bother.....my Pinot Grigio on the other hand......

donothoponpop

Another Mother Hen here clucking after the fact- that 16 miler sandwich with a 10 PMP filler raised my eyebrows too. I'd agree with KC and say you got the best result for the day.

What's with these brazen Yanks and their freewheeling wine guzzlin'... don't they understand we're all damned to the fiery pits of hell if we don't fast for Lent? Thats 14 dry days for me, as of today. Sometimes I think we're the only one's holding back Apocalypse, beepbeep.

Dory Dory

donothoponpop wrote: »

What's with these brazen Yanks and their freewheeling wine guzzlin'... don't they understand we're all damned to the fiery pits of hell if we don't fast for Lent? Thats 14 dry days for me, as of today. Sometimes I think we're the only one's holding back Apocalypse, beepbeep.

So, are you suggesting I dump the rest of the bottle down the drain? Now THAT would be a sin!

donothoponpop

Dory Dory wrote: »

So, are you suggesting I dump the rest of the bottle down the drain? Now THAT would be a sin!

Feck it, a combination of BB's non-alcoholic beer cry, and your Pinot Grigio, led my to breaking my fast with a nice bottle of red.

To Beezlebub's reign, the Year One!:D

Dory Dory

donothoponpop wrote: »

Feck it, a combination of BB's non-alcoholic beer cry, and your Pinot Grigio, led my to breaking my fast with a nice bottle of red.

To Beezlebub's reign, the Year One!:D

I'll drink to that!!

BeepBeep67

Dory Dory wrote: »

I'll drink to that!!

...and here's me settling for a cup of tea of a Saturday night

donothoponpop

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

...and here's me settling for a cup of tea of a Saturday night

What, is life a cricket match or something? Irish up that brew, that's an order.

-Mr. D. Ablo

BeepBeep67

donothoponpop wrote: »

What, is life a cricket match or something? Irish up that brew, that's an order.

-Mr. D. Ablo

Saving myself for one of these - brewed in Rtm, then I can kill 2 abstinents <word?> in 1.

BeepBeep67

Well the plan today had been to sneak out of the house before anyone woke up and hit Carrick for an early morning run. However the kids had other ideas and after they kicked the OH into one of the other rooms Daddy time was demanded. So we snuggled under the duvet flicking through the recorded programs before settling on Bear Grylls in the Northern Territory which resulted in lots of heads under said covers as he tucked into ants, spiders and water snakes :P. Later this week the OH reaches a milestone birthday so after that it was off the Dundrum in time to get back for the Rugby.
So once the game was over I was off to Carrick about 10hrs behind schedule, but looking forward to it nonetheless, grabbing a small camera after getting inspired by SJ shots.
The running in Carrick is fantastic at the moment and I haven't been up there since my injury woes, the underfoot conditions, with the expection of some shaded areas are super and I just took it handy stopping at some opportune moments to take the odd pic and reaching the high point at 5 miles (8:18 pace). The final 3 miles are beautiful as you wind your way back down some nice open fire road to join the course at the 1M point, not using any effort, just checking the footing and getting the heels out behind you without knowing it sub 7 pace is a breeze - finished up with 8.1 miles @ 7:46 pace.
Good week this week had a little bit of quality and the increase in mileage did not cause any issues.

WTD: 57.4M (92.3k)
MTD: 39.8M (64.0k)
YTD: 256.2M (412.2k)

Flickr Pix

Slogger Jogger

Nice run and pics BB. We'll need to work out a nice challenging route for the IMRA race to be held on Carrick in the Leinster League. More single track, less fire road

BeepBeep67

Just an easy 50 min recovery run in Shanganagh this evening, nice evening but the light faded quickly. I was expecting a few aches and pains, but I was in surprisingly good nick after my highest mileage week since November.
6.13 Miles in 50:04 (8:10 pace)

dna_leri

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Just an easy 50 min recovery run in Shanganagh this evening, nice evening but the light faded quickly. I was expecting a few aches and pains, but I was in surprisingly good nick after my highest mileage week since November.
6.13 Miles in 50:04 (8:10 pace)

When the easy ones feel easy then you know you are on the way back.

good luck.

BeepBeep67

Ever changing weather conditions, with a nice wind whipping around my nether regions and spots of rain in the air I got changed in Shanganagh and was thankful to find a gillet in the bottom of my gear bag. The plan was another threshold run, so off I trotted on a bit of a warm up, followed by some stretching.
I've a nice just slightly longer than half mile lap on the far side of the tracks that's great for sessions, but this proved difficult tonight with about 300mts of each lap into a pretty strong breeze so I was happy to get out of this 4 miles session in 25:31 (6:23 pace), 3 secs per mile slower than last week, but similar effort. Finished off with an easy jog back to the car.
6.5 Miles in 46:35 (7:10 pace)

BeepBeep67

4 Seasons in 1 run

Out of the Office today as the OH is having her legs rewired, so that left me with a window between dropping her to the hospital and collecting the kids to get my mid-week medium length run in. The plan was to get in 12 miles steady - so after a quick stretch I was on my way around Shanganagh - this run had everything weather wise, wind, rain, hailstones, sun, more wind, more rain, at one stage I ran past a group of blue rinsers sheltering under a tree from the hail giving me funny looks. All in all had to work a little to maintain the pace into the wind but kept the splits pretty even, with the 2nd half a little quicker than the 1st (7:12 for the 1st 6, 7:06 for the 2nd 6) for 12 miles in 1:25:48 (7:09).
Strongest I've felt in a while and could have kept going.

shels4ever

Good to see your running well again lot of time for the summer track season, Are you going to plan another marathon this year?

BeepBeep67

shels4ever wrote: »

Good to see your running well again lot of time for the summer track season, Are you going to plan another marathon this year?

All still up in the air at the moment - definitely some shorter faster stuff June - August, will play it by ear after that - could try another 8 week marathon program :rolleyes:

BeepBeep67

Dropped my 1st born to kick boxing and took the opportunity to go for a recovery jog along the Murrough, kept the pace gentle and completed 6.23 miles for my 50 mins in fading light. Came home to fun and frolics, the OH hit a milestone birthday today and her family bought her a piano!!!! Let the good times roll!!!

BeepBeep67

Fri
Easy run around the local football pitches while the kids were at athletics, ran 5 miles easy and then finished off with some drills and strides for about 5.75 in total.
Sat
Went to bed early enough last night with the plan to get up at 6 and have my long run finished by 9 (busy day ahead), several snoozes later I got out for an easy 8.6 at 7:36 pace - long run hanging over me for tomorrow now, really didn't want that but hey!

BeepBeep67

Time on the feet
I've been hop, skip and jumping my made up Marathon plan and playing Russian roulette a little, with the intention being to get in 5 solid weeks with aggressive progression, before I deal with another preparation curve ball which is a trip to India with work at the end of the month. 3 weeks ago my long run was 12.3 miles, today it needed to be 20, madness after injury - probably, but I'll spin the wheel and hope the ball lands on black again.
Yesterday / Last Night was party time in the house as I pulled a Mulligan on Lent and enjoyed myself with fa too many of these, a nice Indian, chocolate cake and pavlova mmmmm. Took a bit of time to re-hydrate and get going today, but eventually headed out on my 20 mile run. No major focus on this run only to spend time on my feet, I've never ran more than 17 miles before, so going into unchartered waters I was adopting a cautious approach.
Miles 1-6 are a gradual climb up to Dunganstown and I ran these at a relaxed pace, trying to conserve energy, part of the plan today was to start practicing race day nutrition, so I had 3 gels with me planning to take them at 5 mile intervals and took my first as scheduled, felt in great shape getting through 6 in 7:40 pace.
The next 2.7 miles are an undulating, but net downhill trot down to McDaniel's pub where I considered stopped for a toilet break as my stomach was a bit bubbly, decided to keep going - bad move, within a mile I was in the ditches .
The next 6 miles are lovely along the coast, past Blainroe and Wicklow golf clubs and on into Wicklow Town - I ran these at 7:30 pace, tried to take a gel just after 10 miles, but only succeeded in ripping it apart and send it all over my shorts and legs - rather than take another I pushed it out to 12.5 miles stopping this time to make sure I got it in - note to self bring a spare gel for Marathon day.
Turned off at Dunbar and headed down the harbor, along the Murrough and out the port relief road, was starting to feel it a little at this stage, but was still running 7:30 pace. At this stage I knew heading straight home would only give me 18.4 and as tempting as it was I continued on out and into Tinakilly House to add on the required miles before heading back to the house on a slow uphill finish. A bit wrecked after it, but glad it's done, planning another 2 over the next 2 weekends :eek:.
20 miles in 2:31 (7:35 pace) to bring up my highest mileage week in 28 years

WTD: 65.3M (105.0k)
MTD: 105.1M (169.0k)
YTD: 321.4M (517.2k)

Dory Dory

20 miles in 7:35...and never having gone beyond 17 miles before.....and doing some good hills....and logging in more mileage than you've logged in 28 years.....AND breaking Lent the night before!!?? Wow. I say breaking Lent looks good on you. Nice run. Seriously nice run.

(dpop...this smacks of Beezlebub's reign, Year One.)