Diary of a slow coach

Pherekydes

Finally decided to take the plunge and put my training on-line.

Does this mean I'll have to follow through on my aims? :eek:

Age: 49
Ht: 6'
Wt: 14 st 4
Body fat: too much! (My scales says 28%)

RHR: 50
MHR 195 approx

Background: very skinny as a youth. Didn't participate in organized sport until 20. Joined the army at 17, and began proper physical training. Won some races at 18 over 100m and 200m, but spent too much time messing around with any and all distances. Never really concentrated or excelled at any.

Sample Pbs
100m 11.2
Mile 4:48
Half Marathon: 1:25:36

Current PBs:
Mile 7:57 (age 43) (hence the name slow coach)
2 Miles: 16:15 (age 48)

Aims:
Train consistently and stay injury free. (The bane of my life). Lose weight and body fat. Get a bit faster. Enter some more road races.

That is all.

Pherekydes

Rather than beasting myself in one and a half hour sessions once every two weeks, I've decided to train more consistently (i.e. often). To wit, here's a few recent training diary entries:

7 July 10.6 k walk in 1:25. When I say walk, I really mean a standard walking action (not race-walking) but as fast as humanly possible, i.e. flat-out. The idea, after all, is to raise the heart rate to levels required to improve aerobic capacity. Average HR on these types of walks is about 145 or 65%.

8 July Easy 14k on the bike in 35 mins

9 July 5k run 33:30. You can see by the time that this is really slow running. HR: 150

10 July A nice easy (and early) 14k cycle in 40 mins. Back aching after yesterday's run.

11 July 5.3k Walk in 40 mins

13 July 6.3k Run in 42 mins. HR 153

15 July A hard hilly cycle, 32k in 98 mins. Lucan-CityWest-Embankment-Slade Valley-Home. The Slade Valley climb is nasty, with some 12% sections. I took it a little slowly as it's my first ascent of it this year. Average HR on the climb: 163

16 July 8 am 5k walk 40 mins. Back aching again from yesterday.

17 July 8 am (trying to force myself to get out of bed and train in the morning) A nice easy 14k on the bike

18 July 6.5 k run, 42 mins. Average HR: 153

19 July Sunday! Lazy day! But I forced myself to do my first circuit session of the year! :eek: I know, I'm a lazy sod. Tomorrow is not Monday, it's DOMSday. I can feel the soreness already!

20 July Yes. DOMS has struck with a vengeance. Serves me right for not doing circuits for months. 5k walk this evening.

52

Best of Luck:)

Pherekydes

21 July 22k bike in 54:30. It was quite windy and the DOMS has reached a peak. Ooh, aah.

22 July DOMS has finally subsided! 6.25k run in 39 mins. I feel like a big blob, slogging along. Tacked on some circuits afterwards. More DOMS to look forward to tomorrow.:rolleyes:

Oh well, it has to be done.

Woddle

Only saw this now, best of luck

Pherekydes

27 July 6.25k 42 mins. Missed the last four days due to feeling a little low. Legs felt ok, but lungs were burning. Shouldn't have run in retrospect. The following days felt absolutely drained. Battery flat.

1 Aug 5k 32 mins. Left calf very tight. Felt a lot better than in recent days. Have the week and the house all to myself, so I hope to get a lot of study and training done. With the calf the way it is I'll have to get the bike out.

Pherekydes

3 Aug After that Dubs performance I had to go out for a long spin on the bike. :mad:

47k in 2 hr 4 mins. Pissed on for the second half. Felt fine throughout. Staying off the calf (which is still sore) for now.

Pherekydes

Decided to resurrect this log.

2 years and 4 months? I have been training, honest.

Short term goal: to run under 8 minutes on Christmas day, assuming the weather doesn't intervene. Last mile race was the Goal mile on St Patrick's day (held over from last Christmas, which was -10 and 10" of snow), which I did in 8:11.

Unfortunately, I then got injured and have been cycling more than running. And lately I've gotten very lazy altogether. So I decided to log my stuff online to motivate myself.

Current weight: 14-13 (feck off, scales)

Today's run: 5k @ 7:30 pace. I'll need to get right down to 5 min/km pace, so a lot to do!

Long term goal: a 10k in the spring. (sub 1 hr)

Pherekydes

5.45am, 6th Dec. Temp 2 degrees, wind light. Icy in patches.

5k in 37:30 around Blanchardstown.

Legs are feeling it this afternoon. I should have avoided running on the ice.
I meant to go yesterday evening but there was a power cut and I couldn't charge up the pacemaker. Or the dog ate my Garmin. Or I was too lazy.

Pherekydes

10th Dec, 3 p.m., Temp 5 degrees, wind 13 knots

8 minute tempo run. According to the garmin, I ran 1286m, so only 323m short of an 8 minute mile, with 2 weeks to go. Average pace: 6:13/km. Ave HR: 167 bpm or 80%.

Meant to go out yesterday, but I could still feel it in the legs from running on the ice on Tuesday.

Total running: 38:00

Pherekydes

Feedback from Saturday: DOMS in my glutes after a not-very-fast tempo run? Very unusual.

Tuesday, 13th December, 12:30 pm, 3 degrees, wind 33 knots:

Easy run, 5.34k in 40:00 for an average of 7:30/km. Ave HR: 151 bpm

Much tougher than I'd hoped.