The end of the road (are we there yet?)

pgmcpq

Saturday: 18 miles, LSR, Pace: 8.27m, HR Avg 135, Max 173. Temp 75f,45%

A full eight hour sleep makes a big difference ! In bed by 10pm on a Friday - pretty sad ! Up at 6am. Cooler today and decent conditons at 7.30am when I hit the road. First seven miles were around the 8.45-8.50 mark and from that point on I gradually dropped the pace ... finishing at with four miles of 8.0x pace. Decent run - considered pushing it to 20, but this has been a heavy milage week (69 I think) so 2 more miles is probably not worth the risk.

All in all a good morning. Legs are in suprisingly good shape - which may be down to my new post run practice - the cold bath !

pgmcpq

Weekly summary:

First every 70 mile week. I seem to have strayed a long way from the P&D schedule : This coming week will no improve matters as it is a mini-taper to a HM next Sunday - which if conditions are favorable I might use a serious assault on 1.30. The decision will come around mile 7,8 !

Week|PlanWeek|M|T|W|T|F|Sat|Sun|Total
11| P&D 9 | rest | 9 GA | 15LR | 6RP | 13LR | 7RP w6*100 | 16 w/@10PMP | 67
11| MyPlan | 5RP | LT11/6 | 15LR | 7RP w/10*100 | 13LR | 18LR | rest | 69
11| Actual | 6RP | LT11/6 | 15LR | 7RP w/10*100 | 13LR | 18LR | rest | 70
|HR(Avg/Max)| 126/171 | 142/165 | 143/181 | 139/161 | 135/186 | 135/173 | |
| Weather | 76f/64% | 73f/55% | 75f/76% | 78f/88% | ~80f/60% | 75f/45% | |
| Comments | | | | | | Pace: 8.32 | |


Monday: 6 miles, recovery, grass and wood. Temp 77f/77%. Pace 9.26 ?, HR avg: 128(?), max: 152

Messed up watch completely. Forgot to switch the watch off and seem to have truncated one lap/mile.so HR/Pace figures are approximate =(?).
Surprisingly stiff this morning - can only put this down to a "light" core/strength sessions I did yesterday. Seems I hit some muscles that hat not been woken up in a while. My breathing is also a bit off - I have been neglecting explicit breathing exercises for a while - time to fix that.

There's a pm session to follow today later, 4 miles recovery if I get out of work will there is still some light.

pgmcpq

Well the theme for the week has been "mess up the Garmin"

Monday pm: 4 miles, Pace 9.25. Temp mid 80s ?

Did not put the Garmin back on the rest properly in the morning so it was out of juice. Thankfully my loyal 205 remained charged and ready to step in.

Tuesday am: 10 miles, Pace 8.17, Temp mid 70s ?, HR avg 139, max 171.

Was due to meet menosemo later in the day so I was unsure if this session was a good idea. Decided I should get a few miles in ... and one mile led to another .... Conditions were pretty good and at this time of year you run when you can. Curiously HR spiked at mile 5,6 and then settled down again even as the pace picked up over the last few miles.

Tuesday pm: 11 miles+ (?). Pace 9.13 (?), Temp 86f, HR Avg: 143, 169

Met up menoscemo in Central Park to witness the 1,000 mile barrier come down. Enjoyable evening - I rarely get company on runs anymore.
Continuing the theme, I forgot to restart the Garmin after a stop to refill on water. Could not figure out why meno was storming ahead and I stride for stride was making no progress !
Alarming moment when we spotted a Dublin football jersey up ahead and menoscemo picked up the pace in pursuit. Thankfully the encounter was peaceful. Turns out it was a Dublin guy who ran the San Diego marathon this year. Turned out he knew another guy (another Dub!) I know here.
Finished off almost two loops of the park, 12+ for meno and a bit less for me, before darkness closed things down.

A good run - was not sure how I would hold up after two session in a day - after a recovery double the day before. So I was pleased with the endurance.

Wednesday: 7 miles, Pace 9.32, Temp mid 70s(?), HR Avg:136, max 173

A good morning. Legs were a little heavy but once I got started all was well. Max HR is suspect - a spike in mile 1. I'm beginning to think that these spikes are related to acceleration rather than pace. I find the effort to reach a pace tough - but maintaining a pace once I achieve it feels less of a problem. Not sure this makes sense but it does match up with some of the HR figures.

ronanmac

Jaysus, pgmcpq, you're putting up some serious mileage! Impressive dedication to training... fair play!

menoscemo

Good luck on saturday. If the weather stays like this, you just may have a chance of that sub 1:30!!

pgmcpq

ronanmac wrote: »

Jaysus, pgmcpq, you're putting up some serious mileage! Impressive dedication to training... fair play!

Thanks. I'm hoping to match some of your results from this year ! Pretty impressive paces you were putting in pre injury. Glad to see you back from injury. Hope Mrs ronanmac is enjoying the program. There's a lot of advantages to having two runners in the home. I'm putting in higher milage but at slower paces this time around. We'll see if the quality matches the quantity.

menoscemo wrote: »

Good luck on saturday. If the weather stays like this, you just may have a chance of that sub 1:30!!

Nice run Thursday. Might not see another day like today for the rest of the summer - but the outlook for Sunday is not too bad. 1.30 is a big ask - possibly a year to early - but if I can keep it in realistic range until after mile 7 I will give it a go.

Friday: 11 miles, Pace 7.46, HR Avg: 155, 190, Temp 77f, 45% (at end)

Thursday was a rest day altough the weather was calling to me - I had to pack my office,pickup the race numbers for Sunday, and meet up with some people - no running. So this morning I decided to treat myself and drove to the beach at Staten Island. I have run here before but only for 5,6 miles so I was a bit disappointed to find the entire lenght of the runnable area is only about 6+ miles. Went out harder than I expected/wanted - I was planning to keep it above 8.10 and drop in two miles at 6.50 at the end as preparation for Sunday. The two miles ended up at 6.45, 6.41 but the miles preceeding it were two fast and the miles after were around 7.40. Hopefully I won't pay for this Sunday. I was keeping an eye on the watch so these results were a little bit of a suprise. What is interesting is the max HR. 190 is a new high. It occured on the first of two "fast" (H-MP) miles. In the second the max wax 163. This again suggests that it is acceleration that I find harder than keeping a pace - whcih is pretty much how I feel it.

There are two training runs - 20 miles - for fall marathons organized by the NYRR. They offer pacing groups at 30 second intervals. I'm going to sign up. Ideally as per P&D you never do an entire long run at PMP so I am not sure which pace group to hook up with. Hook up with 7.30 and drop off after 10/14 miles, or hook up with the 8/8.30 group and then do do the PMP stuff myself ? It would be nice to switch between groups which I might be able to do if I could cut across the park at the correct time.

pgmcpq

Friday PM: 3.5 miles with 6*100. Pace 9.51, HR Avg 131, Max 175

A slow 3 miles accompanying Mrs P to finish off. A few strides thrown in to loosen up the legs. On to the race ....

pgmcpq

Sunday: Bronx HM, Temp 70f/77%, Pace 6.49

Very good day ! Cracked 1.30 which qualifies me (at my age) for both the NY HM and ....the NY Marathon in 2011 !

The weather gods smiled today and at 7am the temp was a manageable 70f and never rose morethan a few degrees. There was a mini disaster as I lost my sunglasses on the trip to the race ... but for most of the race the sun remained behind nice fluffy clouds.

I had decided to give 1.30 a real go today on the basis that breaking it was the next logical goal but was uncertain if it was really on the cards.
!.30.59 was good enough to qualify for NYM2011. From the second corall the start went well, and congestion cleared up quickly. Passing the first mile marker below 8.00 suggested that the start was good enough.

After a few tentitive races early this year I am trying to be more aggressive in starting. A second change is that I have changed the Garmin to display Lap Pace/Current Pace and Distance. So I am focusing on one mile at a time and letting the overall time/pace take care of itself. Today the goal was to get off to a decent start, settle down and trundle off sub 7 miles for as long as I could and see what happened.

Of course this almost went overboard when after a mile start the course took a right and went up a short but steep hill. Question : What does relatively flat mean ? This course did not fit my criteria of "flat". The first six miles were good - then things started to feel tough. Again there were a few out and back loops where you were able to see what was ahead on the inbound leg. Just as well because there were a few inclines that had me backing off to reserve energy for the journey back. By mile 8 I felt pretty much spent and started dialing back looking for pace I felt was sustainable. I started to figure that if I could keep sub 7 miles for two more miles, then coming homw around 7 should put me in position to finish < 1.31. It's odd because though I felt I was easing back quite a lot the lap pace figures continued to spit out 6.4x . In the final three miles my mind began to loose focus a little and I started to wonder if the 1.30 was still reachable - the drawback of focussing on the mile in hand. Again I began to ease back a little while the Garmin still showed lap pace below 7. There was a moment of panic when I glanced and the pace had balloned to 7.15 but I realised that I had just finished a mile and taken a sharp corner so the pace was measured "across the corner". Not sure if the mile markers were misplace but the mile 13 marker came up blissfully fast. I then gave it everything (though disconcertingly the guy in front of me pulled away!) to finish before the 1.29 I could see on the clock clicked over, and crossed the line with an embarssing roar that got picked up on by the announcer . I then proceeded to throw my hat in the air and failed to catch it :o:o making a complete idiot of myself. Photos for this may be embarassing !

Sadly I missed an AG top ten by about 15 seconds (11th).

However -this results should bump my seeding for future NY races so I can look forward to a few first corall starts.

Unfortunately the NYM qualification only lasts a year so unless I can duplicate this effort it'll be NYM 2011 (unless they change the qualifying times -they wouldn't ... would they ?).

Finally with an eye on the future two slow miles were tacked on to this giving 15 for the day.

Next up - beer and onto qualifying for Boston ... maybe !

Splits:
1 00:07:28
2 00:06:50
3 00:06:40
4 00:06:52
5 00:06:41
6 00:06:37
7 00:06:46
8 00:06:36
9 00:06:36
10 00:06:41
11 00:06:45
12 00:06:33
13 00:06:41
14 00:05:53











Overall Age Net Pace
Place Place Time
172 11 1:29:08 06:49

menoscemo

That's fantastic man, delighted for you. So you got weather just like thursday in the end?

I thought that qualified you for Boston? Didn't realise you were talking about the NYM. I guess Dublin is your Boston qualification attempt?

ronanmac

Absolutely fantastic, some great running! Congratulations, and I'm dying to see those finish photos! For me, there something psychologically tough about having to run a lot of consecutive sub 7 milers. I've only done it twice, in a ten mile race and half marathon, but still find it daunting in my head, let alone in my legs...

pgmcpq

menoscemo wrote: »

That's fantastic man, delighted for you. So you got weather just like thursday in the end?

I thought that qualified you for Boston? Didn't realise you were talking about the NYM. I guess Dublin is your Boston qualification attempt?

Yes, the weather held up very nicely - definately caught a break there. This gets me into the NY marathon and half-marathon. Boston has no HM qualification time. I think NY does to encouage participation in their HM series. Hopefully Dublin will see the BQ time. Boston is more urgent as there are rumblings that the qualifying times may get harder soon given how quickly the race sells out.

ronanmac wrote: »

Absolutely fantastic, some great running! Congratulations, and I'm dying to see those finish photos! For me, there something psychologically tough about having to run a lot of consecutive sub 7 milers. I've only done it twice, in a ten mile race and half marathon, but still find it daunting in my head, let alone in my legs...

Thanks - I'm trying to follow your example! Yeah it is curious how it can come together on race day - that's actually faster than some of the temp runs I have done ! I changed the Garmin settings a while ago and it has had the (unintended) effect of forcing me to just focus on the current mile. The other factor yesterday was that I was willing to risk blowing up a bit more than normal.


For the week:Week|PlanWeek|M|T|W|T|F|Sat|Sun|Total
10| P&D 9 | rest | 9 GA | 15LR | 6RP | 13LR | 7RP w6*100 | 16 w/@10PMP | 67
10| MyPlan | 6RP+4RP | 13LR | 15LR | Rest | GA8 w10*100| Rest | HM Race | 69
10| Actual | 6RP+4RP | 10LR, 11LR | 7RP | Rest | GA11 w2HMP, 3RP w6*100 | Rest | HM Race + 2 | 64
|HR(Avg/Max)| 128/152 | 139/171, 143,169 | 136/173 | | 155/190 | | |
| Weather | 77f/77% | 75sf ?, 85f | 75f ? | | 77f/45% | | 70f/77% |
| Comments | | | | Pace 7.46 | | | Pace 6.46 |

pgmcpq

Monday: 6 miles recovery, grass & wood. Temp: low 70s. Pace 9.11, HR Avg: 128 Max: 137.

Legs were actually not too bad after Sunday. Felt heavy but no injuries.

Tuesday: 15 miles. Temp; 75f+humid. Pace 8.41, HR Avg 138, Max 180.

Weird morning. Very humid following storms yesterday - you could see the stream rising off the high grass. Running though the wetlands preservation area before the the sun had fully risen had a feel of the opening of a horror movie.
Decided I need to get back closer to the P&D schedule so changed plans to do 15 fairly slow and easy miles. Up to mile 10 all was well. The last miles were a struggle - but nothing I did not expect with the HM still in the legs. What I did not expect was another HR spike with miles 10-12 giving a HR max of 178,179,180. The average jump into the 150-160s but the max really stands out. After the three miles the HR lowered - though the pace remained about the same. Second time I have seen this so it's not an statistical blip. There were a few short but steep climbs included but not consistently over the three miles. Strange.
Seems the sauna conditions are about to return so I'm glad I got this run in this morning.

menoscemo

Hey, remember we were talking about mick Rice and that 100 mile race? well, this years one is just over and he won it again obviously!!
He took an absolute chunk of his last years time (50 minutes + I think) breaking the irish Record by well over an hour (though it won't be recognised :rolleyes:)
Here is his race report anyways:
(100 miles at 8:40 pace :eek:)
http://runningthroughfog.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/%E2%80%9Cwe-are-stardust-we-are-golden%E2%80%9D/
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055999127
Thought you might like it

pgmcpq

menoscemo wrote: »

Hey, remember we were talking about mick Rice and that 100 mile race? well, this years one is just over and he won it again obviously!!
He took an absolute chunk of his last years time (50 minutes + I think) breaking the irish Record by well over an hour (though it won't be recognised :rolleyes:)
Here is his race report anyways:
(100 miles at 8:40 pace :eek:)
http://runningthroughfog.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/%E2%80%9Cwe-are-stardust-we-are-golden%E2%80%9D/
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055999127
Thought you might like it

Thanks for that. Amazing stuff. Coffee over keyboard at :

"I knew that once I had passed the fifty-mile marker, I could tell myself that I was closing in on the finish:

menoscemo

pgmcpq wrote: »

Thanks for that. Amazing stuff. Coffee over keyboard at :

"I knew that once I had passed the fifty-mile marker, I could tell myself that I was closing in on the finish:

Amazing that he runs neagtive splits over 100 miles and his last 25 are the fastest :eek:

pgmcpq

Broxns HM photos:
http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event_video.asp?EVENTID=62240&BIB=1552&S=230&PWD=
Garmin:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/44684447

Well, I uploaded from the Garmin this morning before I left for work. It appears nothing has uploaded successfully.

So the last few days from memory:

Wednesday am: 12 miles.

13 was called for in the plan but with Sunday still in the legs. I decided to cut it at 10 and then added 1 miles on as I felt guilty, and then 1 more as I had overshot and needed to return to my water bottle.

Wednesday pm: 2 miles ?

Tried a run form the office but messed up on the logistics and had to carry a backpack that proved way too heavy. Also the Garmin had a melt down and lost the satellites .... so the run was abandoned at probably the 2 mile mark. Need to work on this.

Thursday: 6 miles recovery. Asphalt, concrete.

Recovery run along the western bank of the Hudson river. Very pleasant route though a college campus (very steep rise/fall) and then along a walkway down to a financial district. The big problem is that the walkway is concrete so I do this infrequently. Too hard a surface for a recovery run in particular.

Friday: 9miles w\6 * 800, ( 4 + 6*800 + 0.5)

Uggh. First speed work since before the NJ marathon and it is still my least favorite session. Round the track there is very little to focus on, little to see, and have to watch out for everyone walking randonly weaving about from lane to lane.

Quick mental calculation suggested my 5k should be about 6.25. Suspect I did the first few too quickly (and if I have the Garmin figures I could confirm that :mad:!). By 3 of the 800 intervals I was ready to quit. Gutted out the last 3. Found myself tensing up which I tend to do when tired and found it very hard to run relaxed. Given how long since I did a session like this my priority was to get it done, finish in one piece and let the pace fall where it may. For better or worse it is done !

pgmcpq

Saturday: 20 miles, LSR. HR Avg: 130 Max :180

Another great morning for running - this has been a week. Intended doing 21 slow miles as the followed a V02 session, and came within a week of the HM. Next week I will do a PMP run with a NYRR training run.
Plans changed a bit as when I stopped to pick up my water bottles at mile 12 - they were gone :mad:. Mrs P happened to be on the track nearby and helped me out. However in my confusion I (again!) forgot to turn the Garmin on again and when I did pace info etc was off.
So the rest of the run was an exercise in water conservation. Luckily my gym is along the route so at mile 17 I was able to refill again. So I cut the run at 20 miles as much because I forgot what I had intended as anything else.

Got home, called the family, and found out that my niece and nephew ran the Frank Duffy 10 miler in Dublin today ! I never even knew they ran.

So for the week (the absence of any weather info tells me that the conditions have been good enough not to get my intention - yipee!):

Week|PlanWeek|M|T|W|T|F|Sat|Sun|Total
9 | P&D 8 | rest | 9GA | 9w 6*800 | 6RP | 11LR | GA8 w10*100 | 15LR | 58
9 | MyPlan | 6RP | 9GA | 13LR | 6RP | 9 w6*800 | 21LR | rest | 64
9 | Actual | 6RP | 15LR | 12LR | 6RP | 9 w6*800 | 20LR | rest | 68

|HR(Avg/Max)| 126/137 | 138/180 | 130/189 | 125/135 | 166/205 | 130/184 | |
| Weather | | | | | | 705f | |
| Comments | | | | | | | |


Look at the max HR from the V02 session - 205 :eek: That's much higher than I've seen before. In fact is has been a week of high HR maxes.
Does this mean I am going too easy on myself in training ?

pgmcpq

Monday: 6 miles recovery, grass. Temp: 70f/rain. Pace 9.29, HR Avg 144, 173.

Curses ! The plan actually called for 9 GA miles this morning !! So much for not re reading the plan.
Anyway, curious : felt like a nice comfortable run - though the rain was a bit heavy at times) but the HR is significantly up on previous runs of this type despite a nice relaxing day off and a massage.

Running though the wetland preservation area I saw a large gray blue egret sitting so still I thought it was a piece of driftwood. Really should being a camera with me.

pgmcpq

Tuesday: LT: 12 miles w/7@LT pace (6.32-6.49), Temp 65f, overcast, Pace 7.33, HR Avg: 153, Max 190

Swapped around another V02 session for an LT session with a newly calculated LT pace based on the last HM pace as per McMillan. Found the target pace and distance a bit intimidating but decided to give it a shot. Part of why I find these sessions difficult is that in an effort to avoid steep hills, traffic, and anything else that could interrupt the LT miles I run a loop of slightly under a mile. It becomes very difficult to avoid just trying to count the loops off ... but the time I've done three I start to focus on how far I have to go and lose focus on the process of running. Then it really becomes a struggle. That being said here are the results :

Mile|1|2|3|4|5|6|7
Pace | 6.34 | 6.46 | 6.46 | 6.45 | 6.49 | 6.54 | 6.45
HR A/M | 167/190 | 157/179 | 149/166 | 154/161 | 155/160 | 154/170 | 155/164 |


The end of mile 6 is an example of losing focus - I got distracted by a dog, and some elderly walkers and suddenly realized that the mile pace had dropped to 7.00+ and I needed to bear down again. Other than that the miles are in the new range so content overall. I plan to do this session at least once more in this training cycle so next time we'll try for lower in the range and hit the target on every mile.

Off topic: Yesterday I met a guy who told me he was Roy Keane's cousin ... and that the family came from Roscommon originally !

pgmcpq

Wednesday: 15 miles, Temp 64f, rain.

Again the Garmin upload appears to have failed so I do not have HR or pace info. Suspect pace will be around 8.40.

Actually shivered stepping outside today ! Got the first 3 miles in a very light shower - then the heavens opened until mile 10. Very odd weather for Augest but beats the heat. So this morning it was just me, the ducks and an egret with a dubious expression on his/her face (really will have to start taking a camera with me).
Struggled in the last few miles of this run. Given the LT session yesterday I'd rather have pushed this run a day later but my paying job demands that I make it into work earlier tomorrow, so it was today or not at all for this run.

Sunrise is now about 6.15am so it is getting harder to get these midweek MLRs in. Over winter it may be the threadmill or nothing -uggh!

Krusty_Clown

Fantastic performance in the h.m. Well done. You have 14 minutes on me now. Hope you'll be gung ho for 3:15 or better in Dublin.

pgmcpq

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Fantastic performance in the h.m. Well done. You have 14 minutes on me now. Hope you'll be gung ho for 3:15 or better in Dublin.

Thanks - pretty happy with that result. (I suspect you probably have not raced a HM in a fair while ).

Thinking seriously about 3.15 now - though it still a stretch. (I've not got the gung ho thing down yet:D) I'm joining an organized NYM training run this weekend. There are pacing groups on the 30 second intervals - so I will hook up with 7.30 pace group. Since it's slightly slower than 3.15 pace I am going to try for 12-16 miles and call it a PMP-minus session. A few more successful PMP and LT sessions at 3.15 pace and I might commit !

Thursday: 6 miles w6*100, recovery+strides, grass/wood/track. Temp 68f, sunny. HR: Avg 138 Max: 205 (suspect?).

Needed to get to work reasonably early today to show my face as the big guns flew in. So the session felt a little hurried and unsatisfactory. Really feel cheated as it was a fantastic morning - cool, sunny - the morning for a nice relaxed long session .....
Finished with stides.

I read an article on active that suggested that stides should be a part of every training run - especially at end of LSRs. Interesting notion that I might try out - not every run though!

I think I know what is happening on the HR measurement. My HR spiked in mile 2 for no appearent reason giving the 205 max - which on a recovery run would be ... worrying. I think this coincided with my adjusting the strap as I felt it was starting to slide. Not sure but I am seein some bizzare readings of late. Might see if a change of battery does the job.

menoscemo

pgmcpq wrote: »

I think I know what is happening on the HR measurement. My HR spiked in mile 2 for no appearent reason giving the 205 max - which on a recovery run would be ... worrying. I think this coincided with my adjusting the strap as I felt it was starting to slide. Not sure but I am seein some bizzare readings of late. Might see if a change of battery does the job.

I'd say that reading is very suspect as are most of the maxes you have mentioned through your training/races. There is no way you should be spiking at 205 (which is way above your max hr ) on a recovery run with a 130 av. If you have been reading my log you will have noticed I was getting bizarre readings, but a change of battery has cured most of them (still spiking in the first mile but I think the readings are only accurate after you get a sweat on- this helps conductivity).

pgmcpq

menoscemo wrote: »

I'd say that reading is very suspect as are most of the maxes you have mentioned through your training/races. There is no way you should be spiking at 205 (which is way above your max hr ) on a recovery run with a 130 av. If you have been reading my log you will have noticed I was getting bizarre readings, but a change of battery has cured most of them (still spiking in the first mile but I think the readings are only accurate after you get a sweat on- this helps conductivity).

Yes, the changing the battery idea was stolen from your log ! My doubt is that I have not had the HM for that long - seems disappointingly soon for the battery to be packing it in. I have seen suggestions that you should wet the back of the HM before putting it on to avoid the first mile spikes.

menoscemo

pgmcpq wrote: »

Yes, the changing the battery idea was stolen from your log ! My doubt is that I have not had the HM for that long - seems disappointingly soon for the battery to be packing it in. I have seen suggestions that you should wet the back of the HM before putting it on to avoid the first mile spikes.

I always wet the back but it still will often take a mile to settle down!

pgmcpq

Friday: 8 miles, Pace: 8.04, HR Avg: 136 Max: 194

Ignoring the two outliers at mile 2,3 max heart rate was 149. Nice morning ... decided to ignore the watch and just open it up a bit without exceeding medium effort.

Saturday: 21 miles + 4 miles. Temp 63%, sunny.

Went on an organized training run with the NYRR. It's set up like a race with water stations and pace groups so I was looking to it as a useful PMP session and a checkpoint as to a target for Dublin.

Warmup : 1 mile. Pace 9.04
PMP: 20 miles. Four loopsof 6,5,5,4 miles w/2 minute breaks ,Pace 7.26, HR Avg: 147, Max 186
Walk/Run 4 miles - Slow. Pace: 13.51

The run was a 20 mile run with pace groups at 30 secs/mile interval. Originally I thought the run was continuous and my plan was to warm up for 2 miles, run with the 7.30 paces for 12-14 miles and then drop off and complete the 20. However - a problem with a water bottle meant that the warmup was curtailed at 1 mile. I then lined up with about 30 others in the 7.30 pace group. The route was counter clockwise around Central Park starting at 102St. This means that we were immediately into Harlem Hill - taking the steepest approch to the highest point in Central Park. Races tend to thin out very quickly after this particular stretch - so it is a bit rough to hit it in mile 1.
My pace group leaders took it at a 7.40 pace :eek: ... which left me wondering how long I could really hang with them. After surviving this then settled down to about a 7.25 pace -faster than advertised but ideal formy porposes. After the first loop I was suprised when I found that all the groups took a short (2-3min) break. So I revised my plan and decided to stay with them for longer - treating this as a Target-like PMP session. And so it went - the subsequent loops were shorter and avoided Harlem Hill. On subsequent loops we started to lap the slower groups - got some great encouragement, but also had troubles at the water tables when groups arrived at the same time. Had to up the pace several times to rejoin my group and was very thankful for the approx 6'4" group leader with the baseball cap who became my visual cue. By the final lap I was feeling ok and decided to stay with the group to the end. By now the group was down to about 10 - not sure where we lost the others but possibly they joined other groups at the end of the loops. On the final loop I started to struggle. After mile 18 I was having trouble keeping the pace -but when I looked at my watch it was showing a Lap Pace of 6.5x ! These guys wanted to finish !!! Too hot for me, so rather than rejoin them I dropped off at this point and finished alone. Finished, thanked my pace leaders who were already munching through the food table.

Pace
Loop1: 7.39, 7.15, 7.37, 7.22, 7.17, 7.09
Loop2: 8.08, 7.31, 7.35, 7.28, 7.16
Loop3: 7.26, 7.26, 7.26, 7.28, 7.27
Loop4: 7.39, 7.16, 7.16, 7.10, 7.22(.35 of a mile)

As a set of PMP miles I am pretty happy with that - Not a P&D prescribed session - but enough miles in the 7.25 range to leave me feeling that 3.15 for Dublin might be realistic. Great event -well organized and a useful boost to my confidence - especially as I finished strongly and feeling pretty ok.

About 40 minutes later, after food and a stretch I met Mrs P completing loop 3. She was stuggling a little but determined to finish. So I went and joined her on a slow run/walk for the final 4 mile loop again.

So in total a 25 mile day !

Krusty_Clown

pgmcpq wrote: »

As a set of PMP miles I am pretty happy with that - Not a P&D prescribed session - but enough miles in the 7.25 range to leave me feeling that 3.15 for Dublin might be is very realistic.

Fixed your post.
Running in the evening heat in Spain last week, my aerobic pace was around 30 seconds/mile slower than my typical Dublin aerobic run. Maybe you should be targetting sub 3?

pgmcpq

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Fixed your post.
Running in the evening heat in Spain last week, my aerobic pace was around 30 seconds/mile slower than my typical Dublin aerobic run. Maybe you should be targetting sub 3?

LOL, nice fix! Well the last week has been very pleasant (which is why my mileage has got a bit crazy) and Saturday's training run conditions (about 16c) were close to ideal so there's no "weather dividend" to be gained here. I think I should crack 3.30 before talking about sub 3 ( ..... but I can dream about a year down the line on the right day, right course .... ) Still it was a nice confidence booster to finish up and feel like there more a bit more to give.

It was also the first time I have run with a pace group and it really makes a big difference. You can focus on the simple goal of running - chasing a single target - and not worry too much about pace, etc, etc. It's the same thinking has made me remove all overall stats from the main display on the Garmin to force me to focus on _this_ mile and this mile only. This mind-set is working well for me.

The week - turned into a bigger week than I had really planned. I lost track of milage - hope I do not regret this. This coming week will be an overdue step back week. Taking P&D week9 as my template here - though it really does not line up real well.

Week|PlanWeek|M|T|W|T|F|Sat|Sun|Total
8 | P&D 9 | rest | 6RP+4RP | 15LRP | 6RP | 13LR | 7RP w/10*100 | 16 w/12PMP | 58
8 | MyPlan | 6RP+4RP | LT12 w/7@5k | 15LRP | 6RP | 9GA | 20 w/12PMP | rest | 72
8 | Actual | 6RP+4RP | LT12 w/7@5k | 15LR | 6RP w6*100 | 8GA | 21 w/16PMP | rest | 72
|HR(Avg/Max)| 144/173, 128/183 | 153/190 | 141/192 | 138/205? | 136/194 | 147/186 | |
| Weather | 70f/rain | 65f | 64f/rain | 68f/sunny | ? | 63f/sunny | |
| Comments | | | | | | 1+6+5+5+4 intervals| |


Monday: 6 miles, recovery, grass. Pace: 9.21, Temp 73f/53%, HR 134/188

Heat is making a return this week, but without the humidity. First two miles this morning were a little alarming. Legs seemed very tired once they began to run. After a while they loosen up and while the PMP miles are still there I was comfortable finishing up. As a recovery run - this did the job.

pgmcpq

Tuesday: 14 miles, Pace 8.10, Temp: 72f->78f,56% HR Avg: 158 Max: 185

A mix and match session including 6 hill repeats, a few track loops with Mrs P. Given that I plan to cut mileage this week I am allowing the myself to pick up the pace. So after an initial mile at 8.45 I ran a "medium hard effort" which ended up around 8.00mm. After two great weeks I could really feel the effect of the heat rising again. Recovery tomorrow, followed by a V02 session ..

On a slightly less happy note I started to develop a stitch on the run today. Was able to breath my way out of it but that's not a welcome development.

pgmcpq

Wednesday: 6 miles recovery, grass, Temp: 74f,humid. Pace: 9.28, HR Avg 138, Max 178

Reasonable run. Legs were a little heavier than I would like. Weather is getting warmer again and while still reasonable after even two weeks of cooler weather I can feel the effect. Mad golfer has returned splaying golf balls left and right around the playing fields I run on. Hope he cures that hook soon. He and I would both feel a lot better if we knew where that ball was going when he hit it.

Thursday: 9 miles w/7*800, Temp 75f,68%. HR Max:

My least favorite session. During the three mile warm up I was not sure that I had it today. But on the "give it a lash" principle went for it any way. Wanted to try to keep the 800s consistently at or blow 3m15 per 800.

Plan is 800 followed by recover whie jogging the next 400m loop. Didn't quite make it. Ended up taking 100m walk/water break before interval 4 and a water/bathroom break after interval 7. That being said, the seven 800m intervals look like :

800m|1l2|3|4|5|6|7
Time | 3.09 | 3.08 | 3.06 | 3.11 | 3.15 | 3.14 | 3.18
Pace | 5.42 | 5.54 | 5.50 | 5.53 | 5.56 | 6.09 | 6.05
HR A/M | 168/193 | 160/169 |`159/166 | 157/166 | 163/169 | 162/175 | 169/200 |


A somewhat unsatisfactory session - needed extended recovery twice and still failed to get the final 800 in under target. Oh well - I think the V02 sessions might be the least import part of the program for me.

Use of the track baffles me. Dozens of people walking around the track. There is a very nice waterfront park to walk around - why drive to the park and walk around it ? Don't get it. Still the dodging around people is very race specific training so I should be grateful ! The guy walking backwards and texting at the same time ... now that's a feat.