The best years of my life, well kinda

DigiJem

24th April: 3.58 miles @ 9:16 min/mile avg pace

At the folks place for the weekend so a rare run with my brother. A few laps of the football pitch then out & back on a quiet country road. Not enough to burn off the excesses of the weekend but a nice run none the less.

DigiJem

25th April: 25k cycle @ 27.92 km/hour

A busy day but I finally got out on the road bike, a really nice evening for a shortish spin. Tried to push the pace on the way out, then hit the usual bypass headwind on the way back.

DigiJem

26th April: 3.5 miles @ 8:39 min/mile pace.
Nice run, a bit faster than planned but felt like pushing it a little.

27th April: 4.27 miles
Was reading an article on Daniel's cruise intervals today, so I thought I'd try them out this evening. Based on his chart my threshold pace should be 8:26, so the plan was for 3 x half miles @ that pace, with 60 seconds recovery.

1 mile warm-up @ 9:54 min/mile pace

I didn’t get the pace quite right, but not too bad. Did 3 x half miles at:
8:32 pace with 65 seconds recovery
8:21 pace with 80 seconds recovery
8:11

Then 5 x 100m of strides plus 1 mile cool down @ 9:55 min/mile pace

Training feels a bit aimless at the moment; I need to get myself sorted with some new targets and a plan of action.

DigiJem

28th April: 3 miles @ 9:22 min/mile.
Planned an easy run just to loosen the legs and I stuck to that pace. Out at lunchtime in the sunshine, went down along the canal. It felt great, like I could have run all day but I had to reluctantly trudge back to the office. I really need to find those 6 winning lotto numbers.

I haven’t run 3 consecutive days since early Feb so happy with that; time to start logging the miles again. Out on the bike this evening, 20k @ 26.2 km/h

MTD 47.95
YTD 285.30

DigiJem

May 1st - Boyle Fire & Rescue Service Charity Duathlon (5k run, 20k cycle, 2.5k run)

A lovely sunny morning beside Lough Key. Registered, picked up the race number, ankle chip and a nice red tee. Grabbed a coffee from the visitor centre and sat out by the lake. Felt very relaxed and lazy, could have sat there all day.

I eventually moved myself & sorted the bike & gear, put it on the rack nearest the lake so I'd hopefully find it ok. A short warmup, then the race briefing, and then we were off.

I didn't bring the Garmin as I hadn't a clue how to pace this anyway, and for once I just wanted to run by how I felt.

Started well, a nice little hill after about 600m slowed my pace down which was probably a good thing. A lovely run through forest trails followed. I felt good until about 4k, then i suddenly felt rough and eased off a little. Got to T1, that went smoothly enough, running with cleats wasn't as bad as i expected.

So off on the bike, a bit of a drag up some county lanes to start, then out onto the N4. A lovely smooth wide hard shoulder, pushed hard into the headwind. Things got a lot easier after the turn, gained a tailwind. Felt I was flying at this point; this was the only time I missed the garmin, I wanted to know what speed I reached.

Came off the N4 after about 18k and back onto another country road, took it very handy here as it was full of potholes and bumps. My rear end was really missing the cycling shorts at this stage but I was nearly home.

T2 wasn't too smooth, took ages to get my laces done up. Off I went for last 2.5k, legs felt like jelly and after the cool breeze on the bike I suddenly felt very hot.

That little hill near the start felt like Everest this time around, fought the urge to stop and walk. It was ok after that, felt I was going too slow but knew there was nothing left in the legs so I thought sod it, let's just finish and enjoy it. Trotted around the remainder, back to the lake and the finish line. Finished in 1:28:34, don't have the splits yet, but a PB seen as it's my first duathlon; I defiantly want to try another one now.

Lough Key forest park was a lovely setting for the race, a friendly crowd, very well organised and sunshine as well. Really enjoyed it, its great to be back racing

liamo123

DigiJem wrote: »

Training feels a bit aimless at the moment; I need to get myself sorted with some new targets and a plan of action.

Good 2 see u back injury free and competing again....What about Addidas series with a view to running Dublin in Sept or is it duathlons all the way ??

DigiJem

liamo123 wrote: »

Good 2 see u back injury free and competing again....What about Addidas series with a view to running Dublin in Sept or is it duathlons all the way ??

Thanks liamo, I hope to slowly build up the miles in May and June towards a half-marathon in early July. For now I'm going to stick to the shorter races. All going well, the Addidas series will be in the plan for Dublin. I'll try to squeeze in a few duathlons along the way.

jcsmum

Great going there! Well done.

DigiJem

Going to follow the last 8 weeks of HH Intermediate half-marathon plan, to lead up to the Enniscorthy HM at the end of June, which hopefully will give me a little focus while building up the weekly mileage. So...

4th May: 4 miles @ 9:23 min/mile.
Late evening run, away with work and got home hungry & grumpy. A quick banana, out the door and I return 4 miles later a much nicer person.

5th May: 3.8 miles (warm-up, 7 x 400m, cool down):
Haven’t run in rain in ages, it was brilliant. Drove out to a local industrial estate this evening, figured I’d find a quiet road to do intervals. Did better than last time, managed to keep the recovery at 60 seconds. Every 2nd interval was into a steady breeze so it felt like a good session. Target pace was 7:44; did 7:28, 7:54, 7:38, 7:47, 7:20, 7:45 & 7:27

jcsmum

DigiJem wrote: »

Going to follow the last 8 weeks of HH Intermediate half-marathon plan, to lead up to the Enniscorthy HM at the end of June, which hopefully will give me a little focus while building up the weekly mileage. So...

4th May: 4 miles @ 9:23 min/mile.
Late evening run, away with work and got home hungry & grumpy. A quick banana, out the door and I return 4 miles later a much nicer person.

5th May: 3.8 miles (warm-up, 7 x 400m, cool down):
Haven’t run in rain in ages, it was brilliant. Drove out to a local industrial estate this evening, figured I’d find a quiet road to do intervals. Did better than last time, managed to keep the recovery at 60 seconds. Every 2nd interval was into a steady breeze so it felt like a good session. Target pace was 7:44; did 7:28, 7:54, 7:38, 7:47, 7:20, 7:45 & 7:27

Love that!

DigiJem

Uneventful lunchtime run today, 3 miles @ 9:15 min/mile. Yoga tonight for an hour. Rest tomorrow, then Leixlip 5k on Sat.

MTD 63.41
YTD 300.76

DigiJem

7th May: Le Cheile 5k, Leixlip

My 5k pb was done in this race last year, I did 24:06 so though I’d try for under 24 mins this year.

Pretty grey before the race but the rain held off, met mrslow & chinguetti before the start. A quick chat then we were off; I started a little too fast but the first hill quickly ensured my pace slowed back down.

The 2nd & 3rd k flew by, my pace felt fine and I knew I was doing ok time wise. It started to hurt coming up to 4k, felt that gut churning feeling I only get during 5k’s. A bit of a drag up the last hill then into the track, hadn’t any sprint left and finished in 23:46; very happy with that.

Met mrslow, chinguetti, ral3 & ultraman at the end. Didn’t hang around to taste the cake, was feeling a bit rough; fast running doesn’t agree with me


After I recovered from the run, I changed into the cycle gear and headed up to the Hellfire club, wanted to try out the duathlon cycle loop. A heavy shower after 2k wasn’t a good start but I soon dried out. I’m still pretty poor on descents, braked way too much, guess I need more practice. Did 2 loops, had planned to do 3 but I couldn’t face going up Cruagh road a 3rd time. Called it a day, a nice spin but tougher than I expected.

DigiJem

8th May: 8 miles @ 9:41 min/mile

Plan had an 8 mile LSR for today. Wasn’t sure if the legs would be ok after yesterday but headed out and everything felt fine. Ran through lashing rain & wind, then sunshine, then more rain. Felt like the weather was doing intervals, nice run though.

jcsmum

Great going in the 5k, well done!

DigiJem

10th May: 4 miles @ 9:28 min/mile. Sides & abs in bits after pilates last night. Felt ok once I was out and running though. Picked up the orthotics today, have a couple of weeks to break them in before using them full time.

MTD 78.51
YTD 315.86

DigiJem

11th May: 40 minutes tempo run

1 mile warm-up @ 9:36 min/mile
2.5 miles @ 8:15 min/mile
1 mile cool-down @ 9:25 min/mile

DigiJem

12th May: 3.2 miles @ 9:30 min/mile.
13th May: 3 miles @ 9:17 min/mile.

A couple of easy 3 milers, got soaked during both of them. A rest day tomorrow, then Sportsworld on Sunday, hope the weather is a bit better.

MTD 89.2
YTD 326.5

RayCun

Cool, see you Sunday

jcsmum

Best of luck on Sunday!

DigiJem

May 15th - Sportworld 5 mile

Weather looked very grim driving over but the rain stopped before we got going. The race started sharpish, I went off way too fast, just got caught up the in crowd. Eased off after the first mile. My pace for the remainder of the miles was ok, apart from the breezy stretch along Whitehall road. Particularly on the first lap, the impact on my pace caught me by surprise.

Not much else to report, felt pretty good throughout and finished pretty ok. Happy enough with the time 39:15 . Nice to see so many boards tops out, and cheering at the home straight, including the 20 milers who interrupted their LSR.

Headed out to Amphibian King for new runners afterwards, needed to get a neutral runner to wear with the orthotics. Tried a few pairs, I really liked the pro glide but they didn’t have then in my size. In the end I went with the Nimbus 12s, felt the lightest and it’s the first asics I’ve owned that isn’t an awful color which is a bonus. Popped into Liffey valley on the way home for a little retail therapy; I’m exhausted, and so is my credit card

Woddle

Well done today and nice to meet you.

rainbow kirby

Nice one today

jcsmum

You did great yesterday and looked really fresh at the finish line.

DigiJem

17th May: 4.5 miles @ 9:53 min/mile.
Late heading out tonight and struggled to get going, felt very sluggish. A shower of rain helped lift the spirits around halfway and the legs felt less heavy for the second half of the run. Intervals tomorrow, hope the legs come back to life before then.

MTD 98.7
YTD 336

DigiJem

18th May: 4.5 miles (warm-up, 8 x 400m, cool down):

1 mile warm-up @ 9:57 min/mile.

Target pace was 7:39; did 7:50, 7:37, 7:50, 7:36, 7:23, 7:14, 7:30, 7:23. Avg recovery time was 67 seconds.

1 mile cool-down @ 9:18 min/mile; felt way slower than this.

DigiJem

19th May: 3 miles @ 9:31min/mile. A nice easy lunchtime run along the canal

21st May: Plan was for a 4m pace run, target pace was 8:24 min/mile

Half mile warmup @ 10:00 min/mile
4 miles:
1 - 8:16
2 - 8:30
3 - 8:22
4 – 8:26
Half mile cool-down @ 9:33 min/mile

DigiJem

22nd May

Somehow managed to avoid all the rainshowers today, even got lovely sunshine for the last 20 minutes. Plan was for 9 miles but I couldn't resist tagging on an extra one; 10 miles @ 9:38 min/mile. First double digit run since last Feb so very pleased about that.

MTD 121.2
YTD 358.5

DigiJem

24th May:

4.5 miles @ 9:27 min/mile. Bit of a grim one, my head was stuffed up with a cold all day, and my sides ached from yesterdays pilates class so dragging myself out tonight was a struggle. Anyway job done, it felt tougher than it should have at that pace, sweated buckets. Lemsip & an early night required

DigiJem

25th May: Plan was for a 40 min tempo run, hadn’t a specific plan just run a couple of miles at a hard pace. Did 4.8miles:

1 mile warm-up @ 9:27 min/mile,
Mile 1 @ 8:12 min/mile
Mile 2 @ 7:57 min/mile
Each mile followed by a quarter mile walk/jog recovery, about 3 minutes
1.3 mile cool-down @ 9:51 min/mile.

RubyK

You look to be back on track DigiJem, delighted for you. What's the plan racewise for the rest of the year?