Tales of a Tortoise

BrokenMan

Concerned2 wrote: »

No need to panic yet Nules , there is loads of time to get started on the marathon plan. Its hard to imagine starting to train now for a race that won't be on for another 22 weeks :rolleyes:

You wont feel the weeks going by.

And the summer will be along tuesday week, the Leaving Cert is starting then

Concerned2

BrokenMan wrote: »

You wont feel the weeks going by.

And the summer will be along tuesday week, the Leaving Cert is starting then

Ha Ha , ya I forgot all about the leaving cert ! We're guaranteed at least 2 weeks around then

Concerned2

Rest day today (Monday). Yesterday did a 6 mile easy run , pace was 9:10 min/miles with an avg hr of 146. Weather was yet again cool & breezy out. Can't wait for the 2 months (oh sorry days) of summer we are promised next Thursday & Friday

Concerned2

Start of marathon plan week 2. Todays session was 800m w/up then 2 * 1 mile @ 10k pace with 800m easy in between then 1.5 miles easy to cool down. My 10k pace is around 7:12 min/mile but I think I'm capable of better than that so I did the intervals in 7:02 & 7:04 pace. Total distance covered was 4.5 miles , avg hr was 149 with a max of 172. I also paid/ my entry fee for the 8k streets of Galway race , its a great race & my 8k pb is awful so unless I get injured I'll get a pb there easy.


Month|No. of Runs|Miles Run
January|17|83.93
February|3|15.85
March|21|110.73
April|22|129.88
May|18|102.78
Total|81|443.17[/QUOTE]

Concerned2

Yesterday I did a 5 mile easy paced run @ 9:14 min/mile pace, avg hr was 145 & max hr was 168.

Today I had to do w/up followed by 5 * 800 Meters @ 5k pace with 400m easy in between . I usually do these sessions on the track in U.L but the track was swarming with national school kids so I had to do the session on a grass pitch. I find running fast on grass awfully difficult , the softer surface really seems to suck the speed from the legs so this session was pretty tough. At least there was no wind out & it was nice & warm for a change .

Details of the intervals are

1) 6:36 min/mile pace , avg hr 162 , max 167
2) 6:36 min/mile pace , avg hr 167, max 175
3) 6:43 min/mile pace , avg hr 171, max 177
4) 6:42 min/mile pace , avg hr 173, max 178
5) 6:37 min/mile pace , avg hr 175, max 180

I think the heart rate monitor readings are a bit more accurate than usual because I was sweating enough for a change for the monitor to pick up the heartbeat. I've never hit a hr of 180 before , even in races ! Can't wait to go for a easy run in the sun tomorrow

BrokenMan

Thats a good session given you had to do it on the grass and it was a lot warmer than recently. If you find the heart monitor isnt getting a good connection then wet it and your chest before you go out. No need to dip it in a bucket of water just a wipe with a wet sponge. that should help.

and yeah, you can't beat an easy run in the sun, pure bliss

Concerned2

BrokenMan wrote: »

Thats a good session given you had to do it on the grass and it was a lot warmer than recently. If you find the heart monitor isnt getting a good connection then wet it and your chest before you go out. No need to dip it in a bucket of water just a wipe with a wet sponge. that should help.

and yeah, you can't beat an easy run in the sun, pure bliss

I do usually wet the monitor before I put it on (I usually spit on it :eek:) . The high hr reading may have something to do with cardia drift as it was towards the end of the workout.

Today I did a 5 mile easy run at lunch , pace was 9:09 min/miles , avg hr was 149 & max was 176. I did 3 * 100 meter strides towards the finish which accounted for the high max hr reading. Right groin was a bit stiff & sore for the first 2 miles but loosend out after that. It was sore yesterday as well so hopefully its just a mild strain. The sunshine was absolutely lovely out there , only complaint was around 3 miles into the run my runners started to stick to the road as the tar on the road was melting ! If only this weather would last until October :rolleyes:

Concerned2

Saturday I did 4 easy miles , avg pace was 9:08 min/miles , avg hr was 143 with a max hr of 168.

Sunday did 1 mile easy & then 30 mins @ 10k pace + 25 secs (around 7:31 min/mile pace) & a small cool down. The pace for the 30 mins came out as 7:28 with an avg hr of 158 , max of 170. This pace is a tad faster than my half marathon pace so its a hard but manageable w/out.

Monday did 800 meters easy w/up , then 3 * 1 mile @ 10k pace (aiming for 7:06 min/mile) with 800 meters easy in between & 800 meters easy to finish.

Intervals came out as
1) 7:02 min/mile avg hr 153 max 162
2) 7:03 min/mile avg hr 163 max 168
3) 7:03 min/mile avg hr 164 max 168.

It was a pretty miserable morning for the w/out , cold & showery. Still when lunch time came around I was delighted to have gotten it out of the way because by then it was bucketing it down. Looking at the weather forecast for the rest of the week I'm dreading this weeks training

Concerned2

Easy 5 miles this evening avg 9:42 min/miles , avg hr was 140 & max hr was 158. I did this run straight after dinner so I had no choice but to keep the pace very easy or else I'd get a stitch. Legs have all sorts of niggly pains at the moment so I'm dreading tomorrows interval session which is a mixture of intervals @ 5k pace & intervals at faster than 5k pace.

Concerned2

I got up early to get today's interval session in before work. It turned out I was blessed with he weather as it was perfect for hard intervals , it was slightly cool but there was no breeze & the sun was shining. Today's session was 6 * 800 meters @ 5k pace (around 6:45 min/mile) with 400 meters easy between intervals , then 800 meters easy followed by 4 * 400 meters @ 5k -15 secs pace with 200 meters easy in between. I did 3 very easy laps of the track to warm up before hand & did 4 strides & a couple of dynamic stretches as I was afraid of tearing something in this session. Thankfully the legs stayed in 1 piece , if anything is particularly strained I probably won't realize it until I go for a run tomorrow. The details of the intervals are as follows

800 meter Intervals
1) avg pace 6:45, avg hr 153, max hr 163
2) 6:45, 162, 170
3) 6:43, 164, 173
4) 6:45, 164, 173
5) 6:45, 164, 175
6) 6:41, 167, 174

400 meter Intervals
1) avg pace 6:23, avg hr 163, max hr 172
2) 6:27, 166, 173
3) 6:30, 166, 175
4) 6:22, 167, 175

Total distance covered was around 7.46 miles. Glad to get this session over with because it was very tough.

BrokenMan

Im in pain just looking at that session. Fair play.

Out of interest what are your interval sessions going to be like once you hit your peak weeks? I know you posted up your plan somewhere before but I cant find it now.

Concerned2

BrokenMan wrote: »

Im in pain just looking at that session. Fair play.

Out of interest what are your interval sessions going to be like once you hit your peak weeks? I know you posted up your plan somewhere before but I cant find it now.

It was a fairly painful session alright. Thankfully there isn't another session as painful on paper until about week 7 of the plan. The training plan I'm following is

http://www.runningplanet.com/training/marathon-training-beginning-competitor.html

I'm just finishing week 3 of the plan. Next week there is a 10k race nearby on Friday that I'll probably do so I'll do next weeks hill run on Sunday , drop the Sunday run & do Fridays easy run on the Thursday. I very much doubt if I'll be able to get a PB either because the legs are pretty sore & tired at the moment.

Concerned2

Yesterday I did a 5 mile easy run. Even though I had a long sleeved t-shirt & a cap on I found it very cold out for this time of year. Legs are pretty stiff & sore so just ignored the pace & plodded along. Today I had a 4 mile easy run , again just plodded along to make up the miles. I'm really looking forward to my rest day on Monday ! Stats from the 2 run are

5 mile Avg Pace 9:17 min/miles Avg hr 132 Max hr 159
4 Mile Avg Pace 9:13 min/miles Avg hr 139 Max hr 160

Nules10

concerned2 just catching up on your log... i was off in sunny spain last week Your training is coming along nicely despite the pretty rotten weather that you despise.

Concerned2

Nules10 wrote: »

concerned2 just catching up on your log... i was off in sunny spain last week Your training is coming along nicely despite the pretty rotten weather that you despise.

Hi Nules , bet you're delighted to be back to our lovely Irish weather I'm so jealous of anyone who managed to get away to wherever the sun has been hiding the last few weeks . Training was going well , up until yesterday I hadn't missed a single session that was on the training plan . That is until yesterday , I feel like such a wuss I was supposed to do a 8 mile run & I just couldn't force myself to go training in the howling wind & rain God forbid it starts raining in the race itself :rolleyes: A extra rest day will do me no harm anyway as the legs were getting very sore , I added up the mileage I've done on my current runners & it was in the region of 650 miles so the only running related thing I did on Sunday was buy myself a shiny new pair of runners I don't want to get them wet & dirty though so the weather better improve sharpish

Nules10

Don't be so hard on yourself for not going out yesterday.. i doubt many people went out. I couldn't bring myself to go out in it either. Anyway you started your plan early so allow for days like that New runners are just the best. Perfect day today for breaking them in

Concerned2

First run out today in my new runners & I ended up very lucky on 2 counts which I'll explain further on....
The run planned for today was 1 mile easy followed by 4 miles @ PMP and finish with 1 mile easy. The running calculators all all indicating I'm capable of a marathon around the 3:30 hour mark so PMP works out at roughly 8 min/mile pace. However the more marathon reports I read the more I realize I don't have a hope in hell of achieving this time but I'm going to train @ that pace @ decide on a goal time closer to the race. Anyway the 4 middle miles of my run were done @ 8 min/mile , avg hr was 150 with a max of 161. Its a strange pace to train at, its a nice bit faster than I do my easy runs in & a lot slower than I usually do my hard runs in. I'm sure it would be hard to maintain for 26 miles though!

Now for my 2 bits of good fortune on this run... I didn't get a chance to run until this evening, it had been a lovely day but when I headed out the sky was black. Thankfully the rain held off & I was only home about 10 mins when it started to flog rain Yesterday at lunch I got a chicken roll in the local shop that I though tasted a bit off , I was actually expecting to be sick yesterday evening but I was fine so I reckoned I was just being paranoid earlier.Half way though the run today I had to stop with a cramp in my stomach. It eased & I took off again. My last mile was a mixture of jog , walk , cramp , stop, walk , panic , run .... lets just say I was mighty relieved to get home


Month|No. of Runs|Miles Run
January|17|83.93
February|3|15.85
March|21|110.73
April|22|129.88
May|18|102.78
June|11|56.57
Total|92|499.74

Concerned2

Easy 5 mile run this evening. Weather was pleasant enough , would have been a bit windy for intervals but for a easy run it was grand. The run was done at 9:19 min/mile pace , avg hr was 137 & max hr was 161.I'm over half way to the 1000 mile challenge for the year

Concerned2

16/05 - Easy paced 5 mile run. Avg Pace was 9:19 min/mile , avg hr was 137 with a max of 161.

Concerned2

I've done 3 10k races in the past & never been satisfied with my finishing times so I was hoping to do a bit better here but I wasn't too confident of a PB for a few reasons , the weather looked like it was going to be wet & windy , my legs are sore in a number of places , I've had a cold the past few days & the profile of the race from mapmyrun didn't look like it would be a fast course. The race was on at 8 in the evening so I wasn't sure what to eat throughout the day so I wouldn't be starving come race time or I wouldn't have something sitting in my stomach to give me a stitch during the race. I just eat my usual couple of sandwiches for lunch & I tried a energy gel around 5 O'clock to keep the hunger pangs away. I've never eaten 1 of them gls before & they really are awful tack , don't think I could keep 1 down if I tried eating it in an actual race.
I got to Bilboa over an hour before race start but I didn't waste any energy on a warm up & just waited in the clubhouse for the race to start. Its very intimidating at these low key races watching people registering because a high proportion of the entries are club runners & they all look so incredibly fit & fast.
I lined up quite near the front & my finishing time was only 2 secs different from my garmin so it didn't take long to get past the start line when the gun went. Its an odd kind of course , the first 5k is mainly downhill or flat , the next 3.5 k is mainly uphill & the last mile is all downhill. My plan therefore was to hammer the first 5k & try to hang on for the second half. I think most people had the same idea because the first couple of K were very fast. I past 5k in 21:10 which is only about 15 secs off my 5k PB so I was nearly redlining it. The field really thinned out as the road started to climb & there was very little overtaking for the second half of the race. As far as I remember for the second half of the race 2 people past me out & I passed out 1. It only made 1 shower in the race when I was around 7k in & climbing a big bloody hill but I didn't mind as I was well warmed up by that stage. It was great to have the last mile downhill because the legs were knackered. I finished in 43:52 (43:50 on the garmin) in 81st position out of about 235.

Distance|Time|Avg Pace|Avg Hr|Max Hr|Best Pace
1.01|6:32|6:29|154|168|5:38
1.10|7:34|6:51|164|168|6:10
.90|6:19|7:00|161|167|6:39
1.00|7:26|7:25|164|171|6:52
1.01|7:38|7:36|165|172|6:34
1.01|7:02|7:00|165|170|6:20
.21|1:16|6:01|167|169|5:36

Nules10

I finished in 43:52 (43:50 on the garmin) in 81st position out of about 235.

Well done concerned2... that's a new PB for you too isnt it? The weather just doesn't know what it wants to do today.

Concerned2

Nules10 wrote: »

Well done concerned2... that's a new PB for you too isnt it? The weather just doesn't know what it wants to do today.

Thanks Nules , tis indeed a PB for me. Its been dark & very windy all day here in Co.Limerick , looks like it could bucket down at any minute but we've only got the 1 shower of rain this morning. I'd settle for decent spring weather at this stage

BrokenMan

Great running, you are in flying form at the moment

Concerned2

BrokenMan wrote: »

Great running, you are in flying form at the moment

Cheers , I'm very surprised by that PB , I really didn't feel very confident beforehand. In a couple of weeks time there is another 10k in Dundrum (Tipperary) that is meant to be pancake flat so I might manage to knock another couple of secs off there .

Concerned2

18-07 Easy 4 mile run , avg pace was 9:16 min/miles , avg Hr was 137 with a max of 157. Legs felt a bit rubbery & weak after the 10k yesterday. There was also a very stiff breeze which was tough enough to run against even though I was only jogging.

Concerned2

19-07 . According to my marathon plan I had to do hill repeats today. The general idea was to find a moderately steep hill, run about 100 meters up it at what feels like 5k pace , jog back down & repeat by 8. The most suitable hill I could find is around 2.5 miles from home so that made a good warm/up. I reckon hill repeats are the best bank for your buck workout you can do. It really works all the muscles in the aul legs & it ingrains good technique having to lift the knees well to get up the hill at pace. The total distance covered was 6.65 miles , avg hr was 145 with a max of 172. It was also a lovely afternoon for a run , totally calm out & the sun even made an appearance ! I just noticed on my yearly total I've surpassed the amount of miles I did last year , I reckon by the end of this year I'll have done double the mileage

Concerned2

Easy enough week in store according to the plan as I've no runs to do for Wednesday or Friday. The run planned for today was a track session made up of 1/2 mile w/up , then 4 * 1 mile @ 10k pace (roughly around 7:01 pace) with 800 meters easy between intervals & 1/2 mile easy to cooldown.
The intervals came out as follows
1) avg pace 6:56 min/mile , avg hr 151 , max hr 159
2) avg pace 7:00 min/mile , avg hr 160 , max hr 165
3) avg pace 6:59 min/mile , avg hr 161 , max hr 168
4) avg pace 6:57 min/mile , avg hr 165 , max hr 170

I did this run early in the morning before work & it was mild but very wet. Total distance covered was 6.5 miles.

Concerned2

23/06

Track fartlak session. 1/2 mile w/up , then 20 mins alternating 1 min hard 1 min easy. Did this on the track in UL at lunch. There were loads of national school kids running around the track in all different directions which was very annoying.

Total distance covered was 3.26 miles , avg hr was 144 with a max of 174.

Concerned2

25/06

Easy 4 mile run. It was a lovely day for a run , nice & mild but quite humid. Avg pace for this run was 9:06 min/mile , avg hr was 144 with a max of 170 .

Concerned2

10 mile easy run today & oh Christ what a epic struggle it was. After my run on Saturday I had a quick bite to eat & headed into Limerick for a few shots of tennis with the brother. I havn't hit a tennis ball in about 20 years but must have gotten bit by the tennis bug from watching a bit of wimbeldon (they make it look so easy !) . Anyway we played for FIVE hours , I was crippled coming off the court. Sunday morning I could hardly get out of bed , if it hadn't been such a nice day out I would'nt have done the run. Starting out on the run everything was hurting & I mean everything , neck , shoulders , quads , hamstrings , ankles , feet , even my bloody ass. I kept the pace very easy but even so I'm not quite sure how I got through this run. Even now (Monday morning) I'm having to use my arms to get out of my chair at work . I think the tennis doesn't really complement the run training so I'll not be playing again until after the marathon .

Details for the run are 10.78 miles @ 9:28 min/miles , avg hr was 148 with a max of 166.

God know how I'm going to the track session on my plan tomorrow