Keep on moving ...............

Speedy44

Saturday
Was going to run yesterday as it was lovely weather for it. Decided though to take it off as I have done a couple of quality sessions this week already.

Sunday
First longish run in a while.
13mls with a mate around the hills of Tonabrucky and in the prom. Very foggy when we started but it cleared once we reached Salthill.
Going at a decent enough clip which was nice as I felt good. After a first mile of 8:45 ended up averaging 7:37 for the lot. Miles 5-7 were at 7:16 pace.

Week Distance = 44.25mls

Speedy44

Monday
5.75mls easy. Felt ok, better as I went along.

Tuesday
5 x 1ml off 60secs. Times were 5:59, 5:55, 5:55, 5:53 & 5:55.
Happy with that. Would have been happy just to run 6min/mls.
Feel like I'm getting stronger.

Distance = 9mls

Speedy44

Took Wednesday & Thursday off for the daughters confirmation and overindulged on food & drink.

Friday
3 x 10mins off 3mins.
Pace was 6:12, 6:14 & 6:01
Tough session, felt the excess of the past 2 days.
Decided to get stuck into the last one and stay with the lad who was leading the session. Went through the mile in 5:52 but did the last 4mins+ at 6:14 pace.
Not a bad session though.

Saturday
8.25mls easy at 8:18 pace. Didn't feel like I was running that slow!

Sunday
14.14mls on a beautiful, cold, sunny morning in Galway. Always love these runs. Glad I got my butt out of bed and did it, it was fantastic coming off the Tonabrucky hills down to the bay with the Clare Hills on the other side. A lot easier with a large group as well.
After the usual slow first few miles we picked it up and averaged 7:19 for the 9 middle miles. Even threw in a 6:53 there!
Felt pretty good but tired over the last 2 faster miles. Slowed for the last 2mls purposely.

WEEK DISTANCE = 48mls

Speedy44

3 x (600m, 500m, 400m) off 1min with 3min between sets.
Plan was 3-5 sets, but just 3 if you are racing this weekend, which I am.
Decided to add in 3 more 400's at the end as I was feeling ok.

Kind of screwed up the first set a bit. The idea was to go faster as the distances got shorter but the lad taking out the 500m got a bit carried away.


Distance - Time - Pace
600m - 2:03 - 5:30
500m - 1:35 - 5:05
400m - 1:19 - 5:18

600m - 2:02 - 5:27
500m - 1:40 - 5:22
400m - 1:19 - 5:18

600m - 2:00 - 5:22
500m - 1:39 - 5:19
400m - 1:16 - 5:08

400m - 1:18 - 5:14
400m - 1:18 - 5:14
400m - 1:14 - 4:58

Total = 8.5mls

Speedy44

1st race in about 6-7months, wasn't sure what to expect.
Field was limited due to Nat XC been on and a lot of the local elite been there.

Was hoping for around 30mins. Was going to go with my training partner but another lad from the club showed up who wouldn't have been quite as fast so I decided to try and stay with him instead.

2 lads broke away and then there was a group of about 6-8 of us. 2 more lads broke free after about a mile (5:42). Was a bit surprised when I went through that fast, but I felt ok, so I figured, just go with it.
We were now running into the wind a bit so I decided to drop back (I was running 5th) and get some shelter. Went through the 2nd mile in 5:58 and still felt ok.
Another lad broke free not long after that (the lad from my club that I was watching) but I figured it would be foolish to try to go with him.
At this point I was with a group of 3 or 4 and still using one of the lads as a shield from the wind.
Went through 3mls in 6:04, still feeling ok, but a it was getting tough.

We turned then so the wind wasn't behind us so I moved up on thelads shoulder. I hit 4mls with a 6:11, it was a tough mile with a good drag on it. The lads on front of us weren't getting too far ahead of us, which was good.

The 4th mile greeted us with a a nice big hill that dragged for a half a mile. I could hear the lad that was tailing me breathing down my neck. I dug deep and got a bit of a gap. Once we hit the crest of the hill he closed again. but I dug deep and managed to break him once more to beat him by 2 secs.

Happy enough with the race (a rare occurence in itself). I stopped my watch at 30:15, but the garmin read 29:59 for the 5mls. Not too pushed either way, it was more about the effort. Last year I ran 29:15 and was 7th, that was the time that my buddy did this year to win it.
Last year I had done 8 x 1mls at 5:59 pace and 15mls at 6:48 pace leading up to the race, this year I have a 1000mls in 1 month (inc 303mls in 1wk) behind me, so its a different ball game.

tisnotover

back in the game, good stuff ! Pencil in more races!

Speedy44

Monday - off

Tuesday - 6.7mls at 7:53 pace. Slight twinge in the right quad

Wednesday - Forgot to charge the garmin, but got in about 8.5mls easy. Felt ok at first, but then got tired. Think it was more a fact that my head wasn't into it.

Thursday -
Had planned to do 5 x (1ml off 45 secs, 400m off 1min). Forgot my €2 for the track, so headed to the fields instead. Unfortunately had to do it by myself.
Headed off on the first mile, checked my pace after about 1/4 ml and it was 5:52, chked it again at 1/2 ml and it was 6:01, and I was starting to struggle.

Did the 400m in 79, fairly wrecked after it.

Next ml was trying to concentrate on relaxing, didn't work. It almost killed me to knock out at 6:20. At this point I decided to call it a day.

Having a tough, stressful time in work lately and think that could have something to do with it.

Friday
What a difference a day makes!
2 x 12mins at 6:01 & 6:00 pace off 3mins. Could have done the final one as well but didn't want to push it too much.

Speedy44

Saturday
5.5mls easy at 7:56 pace

Sunday
13.06mls at 7:36 pace on a chilly but beautiful sunny morning
8mls in the middle were an average of 7:15. Felt pretty good, although legs felt a bit heavy at the end. Had a couple of beers last night and fish 'n chips for dinner, so not the normal diet before a long run, so that probably accounted for the heavy legs.

WEEK DISTANCE = 47.5mls

Speedy44

Monday
5.6mls at 7:24 pace. Faster than normal for a recovery run but had company and felt pretty good, although legs were a bit sore.

Tuesday
2 x (8 x 400m off 30secs) with 90secs between sets.
Times were 82, 79, 80, 80, 79, 79, 80, 79 - 82, 81, 83, 82, 84, 84, 80, 82.
That's an average of 81secs.

Tough session, could feel it at the end of the first set, so purposely decided to back off a bit for the next set otherwise I either wouldn't finish it or else do 2 or 2 more decent one's and then fade to 90secs or something.

Speedy44

15-10-5min off 3mins rec.

15min - 6:04 pace

10min - 6:01 pace

5min - 5:51 pace

Another tough session, but good. Did it with a mate from the club but he was running a few secs faster per mile, was still good to have him in my sights to pull me along.

Distance = 8.57mls

Speedy44

Friday
An easy 8.25mls at 7:41 pace. Felt pretty good.

Saturday
Ended up taking it off. Made the mistake of not running early, so of course after going to watch the Irish Schools XC and doing a bit of shopping with the daughter, I made an excuse not to go out :mad:

Sunday
Headed out to Craughwell at 9am to run the course before next weeks 10 miler.
Good group of 6 of us there, ranging from 53min guys down to me :rolleyes:

We were going to do 11mls in total and the origional plan was to do the first 2mls easy, then 2mls at mp, 3mls at half mp, 2mls mp and then use the last 2mls as the warm down.

Since the 3 fast guys showed up (53-56min lads - they were doing a 20ml run), we just went with it; splits were:
7:25, 7:01, 6:42, 6:31, 6:28, 6:30, 6:20, 6:25, 6:26, 7:26 & 7:42.

Average 6:48 for the lot, aver 6:33 for the 8mls.

Tough run, but happy enough with it. That's 3 Q sessions for the week.
Was looking to target 61mins for next week but think that may be a bit optimistic. May go out at 6:10's and see how it goes.

WEEK DISTANCE = 41.25mls

Speedy44

Monday 12th
5.87mls easy at 7:37 pace.

Tuesday 13th
4 x (1K off 60secs, 400m) 90secs between sets
3:31, 76, 3:28, 79, 3:30, 79, 3:31, 76
Legs felt heavy after Sundays long tempo.

Wednesday 14th
5.55mls easy at 7:56 pace

Thur - Sat
Had to take them off as I had a cold. It was mostly confined to my head, lots of sneezing and all that good stuff.

Sunday 18th - Craughwell 10 Mile - 64:20
Hadn't completely decided how to approach this from the start after the past few days. Had origionally hoped for 61-62 or so.

Anyway, here's how it worked out;
5:53, 6:22, 6:15, 6:14, 6:33, 6:37, 6:43, 6:30, 6:33, 6:30 - (4:08 )

The first mile is downhill so is always a fast one, I could (should) probably have held back some more but ya know how it is :rolleyes:
Settled in to a good group then. Next 3mls were straight forward enough.

We then hit a good sized hill. Funny enough I was ok going up, it was coming down whereI had the problem. Just couldn't seem to open it up, and when I tried I felt like I was getting into oxygen debt.

Was now running with another lad and again I was strong on the hills but was hanging onto him on the flat.

At mile 7 I figured (6:43) that was it. A lad I know passed me who I had outkicked last year, but then I somehow got a second wind and was starting to feel good again.
Happy enough in the end with the last few miles to be able to keep them consistent. Even managed to do 4:08 pace for the last 73m and catch another lad on the line.

Monday
Legs sore, day off

Tuesday
5.39mls at 7:57 pace. Legs still sore.

Wednesday
8.26mls at 7.22 pace.
Didn't feel like going out but gave myself a push, glad I did now.
Felt good straight away and after a first mile of 7:36 the next 5 were 7:19, 7:06, 7:01, 7:00 & 7:14. The last 2mls I pulled back as I was befinning to feel it a bit.

Thursday
Decided another day off was called for.

Friday
4 x 5mins off 3mins at 5:57, 5:44, 5:45 & 5:36 pace.
Felt good even before this and happy with the session.
Looking forward to doing 3 quality sessions each of the next 2 wks in prep for the National 10K.
I think doing quality sessions and less mileage and more quality may be the answer.

Speedy44

Been neglecting this a bit recently.

For the past 3 weeks I have done about 40-45mls a week, trying to get in 2-3 quality sessions per week.
In between all this I did a 2ml time trial last week in a horrible time of 11:25.
Went off way too fast with a 76sec first lap which screwed up everything.

Apart from 10 x 400m on Tuesday off 1min in 75-76secs, I took it easy this week with the National 10k in mind.

So, for some reason today I decided to go off with a bunch of lads from my club who have in the region of 35min pbs. I knew that after last week that I was only in about 38min shape, but I figured I'd give it a lash.

First k was 3:31, it felt fast, then the 2nd k felt faster still. I was breathing heavy and knew that I could (should) not keep up this pace for much longer. Missed the 2k split.
Was really digging deep to stay with them on the 3rd K and almost let them go. Got there in 10:17, which was about 15secs faster than I went through 3k in the 2ml last wk :eek:
At this point I was wrecked so decided to back off now before I was reduced to a walk or worse. 4th K was 3:59 and 5th in 3:45.
So got to 5k in 18:01, which tbh I wouldn't have been unhappy with for a flat 5k at this time of the year.
Struggled through the next 5K, the usual thoughts of pulling up in my mind, but got there to finish in 39:09, for a 21:08 2nd 5k :rolleyes:

Overall, not unhappy with it.
Target this year is the National Masters 1500m in August and the X-Country in Sept-Oct, so lots of time to get quality sessions under my belt.

Speedy44

I've been a lazy whore recently as far as keeping the oul log updated :rolleyes:

Ran a few 5k's over the last 6weeks, although none as fast as I went through the 5k in the nat. 10K
Went through that in 18:01, the fastest I've managed on an actual 5k is 18:22.
Training has been ok. I had let the quantity drop further than I had planned (average 33 for 4wks :eek:), but I have managed to keep the quality sessions going.
I am happy with how these have been shaping up and last Tuesday did 10 x 200m off 90secs in an average of 32, which I was pleasently surprised with .
Am fighting off a chest infection all week as well which is making the way through the entire family. Hopefully it'll be gone by tomorrow as we have 5 x 3mins off 90secs & 5 x 300ms off 300m walkback rec (3min between sets).
Not sure when my next race will be, but should have the County Track races coming up this month, 800, 1500 & 5000.

Speedy44

Saturday June 2nd
Well, did the 4 x 3mins off 90secs & 5 x 300ms off 300m walkback rec (3min between sets) last Saturday. Was still fighting the chest infection, and after doing 870m & 850m for the first two 3mn reps and feeling like sh*t, I decided to back off. I was actually going to pull the plug on the session altogether as I thought it may do me more harm to keep goingm but there was a lad there that was going at 6min/ml pace so I decided to drop back to him.
This seemed to do the trick and I felt a lot better for this.

We took a good 5mins before the 300's. Coach had said to run them at a relaxd 1500m pace, which should have been 54secs.
We had a good group there sharing the pacing duties. Times were 54, 53, 51, 50 & 48.
Felt good for all of them. Didn't feel the lactic until I went to kick off the final bend on the last rep, eased off a bit then, but happy with the 48.

Sunday June 3rd
11.25mls easy (about 7:30 pace). Felt good, a bit tired on last few miles.
Still not 100%, picked up some manuca honey on the advice of a mate.

Monday June 4th
Planned day off

Tuesday June 5th
Hopefully I've nailed the damn chest infection in the head, finally. Feel a lot better.
Had planned to do the track session tonight, but I have a mile & 800m race on Thursday so coach said to go easy and do some strides.
Did 9mls with 4 x 200m strides at the end in 38, 38, 35, 36.

Speedy44

June 7th
I headed down to Ennis to do a mile race on the track.
Couldn't have picked a worse day as far as the weather went, high winds and rain. Was hoping to get close to 5mins, managed 5:14 :eek:
Not too disapointed as the lad that won it in 4:57 ran 4:42 a couple of weeks ago. Am using these to tune up for the nationals in August.
Went through the first lap (409mts) in 76secs feeling comfortable. I then moved out around my clubmate as I thought it was too slow, so we went through the next lap in 79secs :rolleyes:
Think the next lap was 80. My buddy tried to go by me with about 450m to go but I held him off, ditto at 300m. At 200m he finally changed gears and flew past me. My arms, legs everything were feeling it at this point, I was in serious lactic territory.

June 17th
After been tired after the race on thursday,I didn't feel good for the next few days, and had to cut a session short on Saturday.
Had a good weeks training this week though.

Went out twice on Monday, including 4mls at a very relaxed 6:51 pace at 8.30pm.
On Tuesday I did 3 x 6mins at 5:52 pace, then 5 x 300m in 52, 54, 54, 54 & 53.
Thursday I did 15 x hills (approx 35secs per).

Yesterday (17th) I had the Connacht Senior 1500m, on July 10th we have the Counties !!)
Anyway, low numbers so they set off everyone from U/16 upwards.
Of course as soon as the gun went off all the kids tore off like they were been chased by the cops or something.
I was trying to run conservatively but still went through 200m in 33secs :eek:
Rest of the splits were 73, 76, 77 & 57 to come home in 4:43

Happy enough with it, but mad at myself because I left some out there. Was more or less running solo, picking off some of the young lads that were over enthusiastic earlier on. I had planned to pick it up with 300m to go but more or less coasted home, didn't even get to feel my old friend lactic acid !
Still, hopefully a good indicator of better things to come.

tisnotover

nice running on the track there Speedy, good stuff!

Speedy44

Monday
Got a very easy 2mls in at 11am, and then did another 8.25mls at about 7:15 pace at 6.30pm. My easy runs are getting faster, hopefully thats a good sign. I'm been careful to keep them easy too.

Distance = 10.25mls

Tuesday
3 x (300, 200, 100) with 3mins, 2mins, 1min recs.
Times were 48, 32, 15, 48, 31, 15, 48, 32, 15.
Very happy with that session. It was designed to be at 800m pace without going flat out. I felt in control for virtually all of it. I did feel the lactic creeping up on me about half way but I tried to concentrate on just running relaxed.

Distance = 7mls

Speedy44

Thursday 21st
5mls tempo at 6:30 pace.

Saturday 23rd
Tried 5 x 5mins but after doing the first 3 at 5:53, 5:57 & 6:07 pace, I called it a day. I was just forcing it too much.

Sunday 24th
11mls

Thursday 28th
Would have liked it to be 2-3 secs faster, but happy enough all the same, fastest since I was a kid.
200m splits were 32, 36, 33, 36 - a bit yoyo'ish.
There was only 4 of us in it, and we were all about 10 secs apart, so it was more like a time trial. I didn't have spikes either, ordered them but they got the wrong size delivered.
Nice to have an excuse or 2

Did 6 x 200m afterwards off 1min in 34, 32, 32, 35, 33, 33.

Saturday 30th
18min tempo at 6:04 pace.
Happy with this, kept it even the whole way. Sometimes I tend to go off a bit fast with these but I had some company who would be a few mins slower than me over 10K so I stayed with them for the first 9mins and then I got stuck in.
Did 6 x 45 secs on the grass off 1min after that where I was concentrating on form, a strong finish and running controlled.

Speedy44

Tuesday July 3rd
10 x 400m off 1min
75, 74, 74, 72, 74, 75, 73, 75, 74, 73
Happy with that, plan was for 1500m pace, so 74secs laps would equate to about a 4:38, which I wouldn't sneeze at thank you very much

dna_leri

Speedy44 wrote: »

Tuesday July 3rd
10 x 400m off 1min
75, 74, 74, 72, 74, 75, 73, 75, 74, 73
Happy with that, plan was for 1500m pace, so 74secs laps would equate to about a 4:38, which I wouldn't sneeze at thank you very much

Great session speedy. You doing the 1500 next week? Might see you then.

Speedy44

dna_leri wrote: »

Great session speedy. You doing the 1500 next week? Might see you then.

cheers dna. Yea, I'll give the 1500m a lash. What sort of time are you looking for up there?
Have sore calfs/achilles now after wearing spikes for the first time on Tuesday, but I'm sure it will subside.

dna_leri

Speedy44 wrote: »

cheers dna. Yea, I'll give the 1500m a lash. What sort of time are you looking for up there?
Have sore calfs/achilles now after wearing spikes for the first time on Tuesday, but I'm sure it will subside.

Still only 50:50 whether I will make it Tuesday, but if I do I'd like to go somewhere near 4:30. Probably start out at that pace and see if I can hang on. Hopefully I will either be chasing you or have you on my shoulder to push it along!

Speedy44

After forgetting my runners on Wednesday and it been too late to run when I got home (and me been too lazy!), I had planned to do 3 x 7mins at tempo pace yesterday.

Had a busy day at work with meetings and the like, so this meant that I only managed to grab a scone at 11am and a muffin at 3pm.
I realised this when my arms & legs started to feel tired at the end of the 2nd rep :rolleyes:

Three of us headed off and did the first 7mins at 5:54/ml pace. It felt comfortable enough, although I was beginning to feel it a bit on the last minute or 2.
The first half of the 2nd rep was ok but I started to suffer earlier like I sad. I made a conscious effort to back off as I think I was going too fast as it was.
Finished it at 6:04/ml pace.
The final one I let the lads go and just tried to run comfortable & relaxed, but I was tired the whole way.

Achilles felt sore after wearing spikes for the first time in over a year on Tuesday for the 400m reps.

Speedy44

Friday
7 very easy miles

Saturday
4 x 3mins at 3K pace off 4mins.
Idea was to keep them comfortable. Did them on the grass.
Kept them all at 3:15/k pace, pushing it a bit on the last couple which I was weary of with the 1500m on Tuesday in mind. I was thinking that maybe I should back off a bit, but then I was thinking that its not a target race so what the hell :rolleyes:

Speedy44

Have to say I'm dissapointed with this, was hoping for at least a 4:38.
Decided to go out conservatively, splits were 75, 74 & 75. That left me at 3:44 at 1200m, 2 secs back from where I ideally wanted to be, but still ok.

I thought I would be able to gut out a 54 sec last 300m but it ended up at 58 secs. I tried to up it at 1200m but I had to back off again with 200m to go.
I also didn't push it nearly hard enough coming down the home stretch. Some lad flew past me and I couldn't (didn't) respond at all. I used to have a decent kick in me but I seem to have lost it over the past few months.

I have been getting decent quality sessions under my belt but I have also let slip my runs in between these. I train groups of people so most of my other runs are at a very slow pace.
I am going to up my mileage to 45-50mls/wk for the next 4wks and get out by myself more often as well.

Also, I am going to have to try work on my finishing speed so will throw in some strides/sprints at the end of tough sessions to see if this will help.

theboyblunder

Its perhaps worth remembering that it wasnt so long ago that you were running 30 slow miles a day!

Thats a great time Speedy - you will get faster

dna_leri

Like TBB says I don't think you should be too hard on yourself for not having a finishing kick yesterday. I think you can still work on it in the coming weeks.

You might want to read a couple of good articles by Steve Magness on this subject here:
http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2011/09/science-of-finishing-kick.html
http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2011/10/training-to-kick.html

By all means, up your mileage but I think you will benefit more from upping the quality once a week. I do not know how many sessions you have done at faster than 800-1500 pace. If its only 1-2, then it may take more than that to feel the improvement. A good session I have done is 2x(3x200m) at 400m pace - about 4s per 200m faster than mile pace. Take 2 min rests between the 200s and 5 mins between sets. Also useful are split pace sessions - one I did recently was 500m at 800m pace, jog 100m, then last 200m hard, I could only manage 2 of those reps but they are good for practicing change of pace. Another one is 200s with the first 100 at race pace and the last 100 a gradual acceleration, I think that's from Magness.

BTW 4:42 would have left you in the mix at the masters V3 last year. If you are looking for another race in the next few weeks check out the Dublin Graded Meets. There are 800s & 3Ks in the remaining events - see:
http://dublinathletics.com/attachments/163_163_163_Graded%20Book%202012-B1-2.doc
http://dublinathletics.com/

Speedy44

Cheers dna, nice jon up there yourself.
Have to say I agree with you about the speed (may have to change my alias otherwise!). It will probably take me longer to get the legs turning over the way I want them too. We will concentrating on shorter stuff in the next few weeks leading up to the nationals.
This Saturday the plan is for 2 x (5 x 300m) with 3min walk rec at 800m pace. No doubt we will also be doing some of the shorter stuff as well as the big day gets closer.

Speedy44

Just ran easy on Wednesday, about 7mls.

On Thursday I did 6 x 2mins off 2mins at an average of 3:12/K
They were supposed to be at 3K pace.

Felt ok, they were hard but I kept them all steady enough.