Ronnie Runs Riot

ronnie085

Just a quick catch up.

Sun: rest, having a few stomach issues, bit of a bug I think, took a rest day.

Mon: 6.18 miles incl 2 @ HMP

Felt better today but still not 100% but tested the legs anyway and hoped for the best. 2 warm up miles done at a nice steady 7:50 pace, feeling good so then into the HMP interval. Legs felt very fresh and was never struggling. The second mile was slightly slower than I wanted but that was down more to a lack of concentration and a headwind than anything. Finished off with 2 more miles, again a nice handy 7:50 pace. Happy how comfortable I felt at HMP, if everthing falls into place should be on for a good one on Sat .

Splits: 6:23,6:29.

Tue: 6.18 miles easy @ 7:38m/m

Again nice and handy. Felt very comfortable although stomach still acting up a bit. Hopefully it will come around in the next couple of days.

Wed: Rest day. Feeling better

Just going to do 5/6 miles very easy tomorrow with some strides, then 2/3 miles on friday, should be all set then :eek:

cwgatling

Best of luck man, give 'em hell. It's a great course - hammer it home from the turnaround, it's mostly downhill.

ronnie085

1:20:49 by the watch. Delighted, report to follow when i sober, might take a day or 2 :-)

ronnie085

Back in August, struggling with an injury and feeling low I decided to give the Dublin marathon a miss, get the injury sorted and build back up the miles slowly, a hard decision at the time but sensible for a change. After a few weeks I ws back running pain free and decided to target this race and drew up a plan based loosly around the P & D half marathon plan. Training went well, didn't miss a planned session and only one long run in 12 weeks so was all set with no excuses.
Arrived down on a near perfect morning, cold but most importantly no wind. Did a couple of laps warm up around the track and then wandered down to the start. The last time I did this race I got caught towards the back and it made things tough for the first couple of miles so wasn't going to get caught out and managed to line up about 3 rows back. Got the 'secret nod' from the starter and we were off.
The first couple of miles were very fast, dont know if they were downhill or was the freshness in the legs after a low milage week but I felt comfortable with 5:54 and 5:57 miles. Settled into a group of 5/6 at this stage with the leading lady but I didn't last to long with them as the held this pace which was way to hot for me, so slowly dropped back. From about 3 and a half miles I was running on my own, feeling a little isolated but still holding a strong pace.
Carried on on my own for another few miles, running strong and feeling good until mile 6 when I hit a drag, the legs started to hurt, getting worried now, am I going to pay for this pace so eased back a little hoping it was only a bad patch. Hit a slight downhill which seemed to clear out the legs and I was flying again. Turned off the main road and onto the hill still going well, catching the second lady on the climb which gave me a boost but also being caught by 2 lads working together from behind. They caught and past me towards the top of the hill, I dug deep to pick up the pace and get in behind them. It felt good to get a little bit of shelter after running on my own for so long. Back onto the main road, caught the second lady and another lad to make a nice little group, although the first 2 lads were going the best of us and were doing all the work, not that I had a problem with that. We stayed together until the last water station when the 2 lads upped the pace a little more and broke away.
So then there was 3 of us, tiring at this stage but just running side by side, keeping each other honest. Everytime the pace dropped one of us pushed on a litttle bring the other 2 along. Miles 10-12 seemed to be the toughest mentally, while at this stage I was feeling strong it seemed like a long straight road that was never going to end. Started to do a count down in my head, just 18/17/16 mins left, no problem. Hit mile 12 and started to recognise the shops around the place, nearly home, gave me a big boost, felt like I was floating at this stage. Turned the corner onto the track, the other lad gave a little burst but I stayed with him till about 60 meters out and I opened up myself, sprinting over the line with a smile on my face.

Finished in 24th with a time of 1:20:49, over the moon.

Splits:
5:54
5:57
6:09
6:20
6:14
6:26
6:19
5:57
6:22
6:16
6:04
6:14
6:07
0:30 for .11 mile

Brianderunner

Savage run there, you must have had the breaks on doing those mile repeats.

Whats the goals for the new year, sub 29 or sub 60 would be very achievable for you if you targeted Raheny or Dungarvan.

ronnie085

Brianderunner wrote: »

Savage run there, you must have had the breaks on doing those mile repeats.

Whats the goals for the new year, sub 29 or sub 60 would be very achievable for you if you targeted Raheny or Dungarvan.

Thanks Brian, didn't feel like I was holding back on them repeats, they hurt enough . Looking at Enniscorthy 10k in Feb, going to try the Mcmillian 8 week program then that would lead nicely into a 12 week program for the Kildare marathon to give sub 3 a blast.

ronnie085

Wed: 3.97 miles easy @ 8:17 m/m

Planned on 6 today to get the legs going again but cut it short as I felt a little tired and heavy legged. The weekends race still in the legs but other than that no ill effects so should come around with a few days of easy running.

ronnie085

Thurs: 6.14 miles @ 7:49m/m

Felt fresher today, still not 100% but getting there. Running felt easy but HR was a little high for effort/pace.

ronnie085

Fri: 8.97 miles easy @ 7:45m/m

Another easy run, feeling good, nearly recovered me thinks.

Sat & Sun : Nada, will pick it back up from tomorrow. Easy week last week to recharge the batteries, no harm done.

menoscemo

ronnie085 wrote: »

Sat & Sun : Nada, will pick it back up from tomorrow. Easy week last week to recharge the batteries, no harm done.

More of this please Ronnie, take it easy until at least the new year

ronnie085

Yeah noticed your getting a few sneaky miles in, I may behave myself over Christmas to keep you at bay (think you could be favorite at this stage, getting old, cant function with a hangover anymore :rolleyes:)

cwgatling

Great stuff in Waterford! 80 mins is top notch.

I find hungover runs get easier after 4 miles

ronnie085

cwgatling wrote: »

Great stuff in Waterford! 80 mins is top notch.

I find hungover runs get easier after 4 miles

Thanks cwgatling although if I could run 4 miles after a night on the beer I obviously didn't drink enough :P (well thats the standards I used to work off)

ronnie085

Mon: AM 3.89 miles @ recovery pace
PM 6.17 miles @ recovery pace

Back on the horse with a nice easy 10 mile double just to get the legs ticking over, warming up again so no more ice skating, for a while I hope.

Posting up my plan for the week to keep me honest, oh and give meno a target

Mon: 10 mile double recovery
Tue: 8 miles easy
Wed: 6 x 1 mile @ 10k pace
Thurs: 10 mile double recovery
Fri: 8 miles easy
Sat: 12+ miles easy
Sun: 4/6 miles recovery

Should give me comfortably over 60 miles with then session and longish run the important days, hopefully all goes to plan.

menoscemo

ronnie085 wrote: »

Mon: AM 3.89 miles @ recovery pace
PM 6.17 miles @ recovery pace

Back on the horse with a nice easy 10 mile double just to get the legs ticking over, warming up again so no more ice skating, for a while I hope.

Posting up my plan for the week to keep me honest, oh and give meno a target

Mon: 10 mile double recovery
Tue: 8 miles easy
Wed: 6 x 1 mile @ 10k pace
Thurs: 10 mile double recovery
Fri: 8 miles easy
Sat: 12+ miles easy
Sun: 4/6 miles recovery

Should give me comfortably over 60 miles with then session and longish run the important days, hopefully all goes to plan.

Feck that :mad:

I'm of to stalk krusty's log instead :pac:

thirstywork2

Reallygood log,your race reports are great to read.you seem to set your race goals under what they should be,do you play your cards close to your chest or are you just lacking confidence?

Based on your training id say you can go 2.55 or faster.Kildare though wouldn't be a great one to do for a time(MIXED REPORTS LAST YEAR)
Good luck with the training....

ronnie085

thirstywork2 wrote: »

Reallygood log,your race reports are great to read.you seem to set your race goals under what they should be,do you play your cards close to your chest or are you just lacking confidence?

Based on your training id say you can go 2.55 or faster.Kildare though wouldn't be a great one to do for a time(MIXED REPORTS LAST YEAR)
Good luck with the training....

Thanks thirsywork. I wouldn't say its playing cards close to my chest although I probably am a little conservative when I'm settting goals, maybe down to a little bit of lack of confidence because of inexperience. Waterford was the only time I ever specifically trained for a half and only the third time I 'raced' one so still finding it hard to work out what I should be aiming for. As for Kildare, not perfect but do most of my training on the roads and like the idea of putting a good performance (for me ) in my 'back yard' and the timing suits me this year. Apart from a couple of short sharp hills around half way there nothing too bad, well unless the wind plays up.

ronnie085

Tue: 8.22 miles easy @ 7:38 m/m

Lucky I posted my weeks plan, gave me the motivation to get out the door into the rain. After a couple of minutes I was delighted I did, really enjoyable run, just cruising, feeling fresh. Big session tomorrow, half looking forward to it....

thirstywork2

whats the session tmrw?got one myself,little bit of fartlek.Unsure wether to do in the morning or after work

ronnie085

Doing the first week of the mcmillan 10k plan 6 x 1 mile @ 10k pace (5:50 I hope), early one for me, before I chicken out :pac:

Brianderunner

ronnie085 wrote: »

Doing the first week of the mcmillan 10k plan 6 x 1 mile @ 10k pace (5:50 I hope), early one for me, before I chicken out :pac:

Those Mc Millan sessions are pure pain. Enjoy. Very accurate indicator of my 10k potential they were for me, I averaged 6'01 for them before my 37'33 in Dunshaughlin (6'01 pace). 36'30 should be well within your range i would think. I found i had to run them in racing flats to hit the targets.

ronnie085

Wed: 10.41 miles incl 6 x 1 mile @ 10k pace

My god...... could nearly leave the summury at that, Brian wasn't kidding, pain. A mile and a half warm up jog and then down to business. First mile, while no feeling stong was moving along nicely, think I got a little over excited with the pace, endinded up with 5:46. 4 min jog recovery and feeling more confident hit the second one, paced it well and felt well under control, again jog recovery and turn around on the road. Again with the third interval paced it well and felt good until the last few hundred meters when it started to hurt but thats expected. Onto the fourth, the first half again was well under control but started to hurt at this stage, hit a slight uphill drag which felt like a mountain and all the power seemed to drain from my legs, struggling to hold 6:10 pace, wishing for the watch to beeb, eventually it did. This turned into a walk and chat to make deals with myself recovery. Decided to go for a 6 min mile and see what happened. So about turn and off again. Seem to have recoverd well, holdind better than 6 m/m pace and only had to dig deep in the last 400m or so. One more to do, no point in quitting now. Same again but there was nothing in the legs, 6m/m pace was even to much, just tried to keep the effort high and legs turning over, finished up with 6:07. A mile and a bit wobble home to finish off.
Dont know if I went off to fast, just a bad day, last weeks race still in the legs or a combination of all 3 but that was a real battle today to keep anywhere near target pace. Cant wait for the next session :eek:.

Splits: 5:46,5:50,5:50,6:04,5:57,6:07

ronnie085

Thurs: 6.18 miles recovery

Had planned a double day but the lunchtime run didn't happen, work getting in the way again :rolleyes:. 6 miles this evening, nice and mild. Little sore after yesterdays adventures but felt alot better at the end of the run.

ronnie085

Fri 23/12/12: 8.4 miles easy @ 7:36m/m

Didn't expect it at the time but this was the last run of the year to make 2538 miles overall. Had a hectic Christmas, eating, drinking, working and no running at all. Very enjoyable though.

ronnie085

Mon: 6.2 miles easy @ 7:59m/m
Tue: 11.27 miles easy @ 8:07 m/m
Wed: 8.19 miles easy @ 7:52 m/m

Not going well at all, legs seem to have seized up after the 'break' I took, very stiff but improving by the day. Going to take it day by day until the end of the week and decide which way to approach things after that.

ronnie085

Thur: 6.19 miles @ recovery pace

Maybe a bit cheeky to go for a recovery run after 3 days of just easy running but felt like I needed it. Hopefully I'm back to 100% for the weekend, legs felt alot better today although HR still about 10 beats high , getting over Christmas is tougher than getting over a marathon :pac:

ronnie085

A year of ups and downs, plenty of PBs and strong runs the ups, with my marathon performances the big downs, one blow up, Edinburgh, didn't make the start of the other through injury, Dublin. Training went pretty well although could improve a few things like when I miss a day I tend to miss a few in a row. 2538 miles done in total with a month or so missed through injury so happy with that. I considered my best race performance was the Mallow 10 up until a month ago when I ran a cracker ( for me) in the Waterford half. Heres a list of improved PBs (in red) from the year compared to 2010.

5Km - 21.29 18.02
5 mile - No time 30:12
10Km - 43.56 38:19
10 mile - No time 62:45
Half - 1.34.02 1:20:49
15 mile - 1:49:50 No time
Marathon - 3.18.41 3:10:09

So into my third year of running and enjoying it more than ever. Hopefully I can stay injury free, get to 3000 miles for the year, improve on all times, some softer than others and the main goal, sub 3 marathon or better, here go's

ronnie085

Fri: 11.39 miles easy @ 7:42m/m

The legs are on the way back, not there yet but getting there. HR just about normal too although there was still no 'spring' in my step, especially going uphill but its encouraging seeing the improvement. I think I'm learning my lesson, dont stop running ever again..........

ronnie085

Sat: 12.26 miles easy @ 7:38 m/m

Speeding up but the effort level is still way to high. First few miles I felt tired but came around then and felt good for 6/7 miles even tough HR still high for pace but I felt like I was at crusing pace. Last couple of miles I was tired but I was expecting that as I'm getting some decent miles in this week while not feeling great. Sloooowwww recovery day tomorrow.

ronnie085

Sun: 5.09 miles recovery

Nice easy recovery run, feeling better. Going to step it up next week with a session and maybe a tempo run towards the end of the week. My 10k plan has fallen apart, just going to try get back into decent condition, race a couple of 10ks then hopefully I'll be flying form to start a 12 week marathon program at the end of Feb. Solid 61 mile week despite feeling like ****e, good start to the year. (The miles not the feeling ****e:rolleyes:)