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

Speedy44

Did one of the hardest sessions that I can remember doing this morning.
2 x (5 x 300m) with 3min rec's and 5min between the sets.

Times were 52, 49, 49, 49, 49 - 49, 49, 49, 52, 50.

Not sure if it was the mexican food, ice cream & a few pints (a very rare night out with the wife while the kids were at a sleep over) but I never got into this and felt flat the whole time. I was dragging my ass around each one.

Felt a bit nauceous during it and had a headache and felt a bit dizzy at the end of them. Wasn't the only one though as one of the lads had to stop at 8 and got sick and another lad just managed 9.
It was great though that there was a big group of us doing them, 4 lads & 4 girls. Hopefully this will all stand to me when the time comes !

Speedy44

Did 4mls easy at 8.30am and then another 4mls accompanied by the wife & kids on their bikes.

Managed to get in 44mls this week including the race and 2 quality sessions, so not too bad.

Speedy44

The county 5000m were on and I was going back & forth as to whether I would go the distance or just do the 3000m.
I was leaning towards the 3k as I think doing the 5k wouldn't really be the best idea since I am ultimately training for the 1500m.

I was still undecided on the start line. I was running with a couple of lads from the club and after an 83sec very comfortable 1st lap, the pace picked up to 80secs and I felt it. I had decided to stick with the lads so when we went through 1k in 3:22 and I was working for it, that made up my mind.

We kept it fairly consistent for the rest of it clipping off 80-81 sec laps. The 2nd k was 3:20 and the third one 3:23 to bring me home in 10:05.
Have to say I was happy enough with it. Think I did a time trial way back in April in 10:32 or thereabouts.
Feel like I had a bit left in me and wasn't out on my feet at the end like I always am when I finish a race.

Speedy44

Have to say that is one of the most unusual sessions I have done in my life.

3 x 30m & 3 x 60m flat out with 20m lead in/out.

Managed 4 x 30m and 2 x 60m then pulled up as it felt like my right hamstring was about to pop. Seeing the lad less than half my age pull up lame just before me didn't help either !

Coach was trying to time 30's & 60's to compare drop off, and then try to replicate in a few weeks and compare.
Hard to accurately capture the times though because we were going so fast

dna_leri

Thought I was doing speedwork with my 200s yesterday, but that was the real deal there Speedy with the 30s & 60s.

I guess you would really need timing gates to get accurate times but did you get a benchmark for the 30s anyway? I presume you took long recoveries between the reps too?

Speedy44

dna_leri wrote: »

Thought I was doing speedwork with my 200s yesterday, but that was the real deal there Speedy with the 30s & 60s.

I guess you would really need timing gates to get accurate times but did you get a benchmark for the 30s anyway? I presume you took long recoveries between the reps too?

yea, the recs were whenever we were ready to go again.
Not sure I'll be attempting them again for a bit though, hamstrings are still a bit delicate.

Speedy44

Friday
8mls, started off easy and then settled in to a 7min/ml pace.
Hamstrings were still very sore after yesterday.

Saturday
Decided to have a rest day to try and see if it will help.
Also, had a bunch of beers last night so was feeling a tad dehydrated.

Sunday
Back on the track again for 3 x (800, 400, 200).
Times were:
2:28, 73, 34
2:27, 71, 34
2:38, 70, 31

Took 4mins after the 8's, 2mins after the 4's and 5mins between the sets.
Both hamstrings were still very tight, couldn't get going properly so took me a good 100mts to get into it.
Not sure what happened on the 3rd 800m rep. The first set were tough but I felt better on the next one. Relaxed a bit for the first 200m of the 3rd 800m and when I went through it in 38 I think it threw me for some reason and then I hit 400m in 77, 600m in 1:56, 6 or 7 secs down and lost interest for the last 200m.

Went into the lake after the session for a few mins and it seemed to help. I have a rub down scheduled for tomorrow as well.

Had the 15yr old nephew there for company but he was doing his own thing, thankfully. 800m in 2:18, 600m in 1:39, 400m in 63, and 2 x 200m all in 31secs !
Great to be young :rolleyes:

Speedy44

Monday
Did 8mls nice and easy to recover from yesterday.

Tuesday
Planned 4 x 800m off 3mins.
Weather wasn't cooperating and we ended up running in monsoon like conditions. The track was flooded in places as well.
The only good this was that it was warm and calm. After the first 2 reps I had to discard the top because I was so wet.
First time was 2:28, felt good in it, especially in the first lap. There was only one other lad doing the session and although he is a 2min 800m runner, he is coming back from injury so was about 10secs behind me.

Legs started feeling heavier on the 2nd rep and it went out to 2:33, and I had to work hard for that.

3rd (and last as it turned out) rep I took my foot off the pedal a bit as I was really feeling it and ended up with a 2:37.
Decided to leave it at that as I had 8 quality sessions under my belt in 8 days, including a race.

Wednesday
A deserved rest day

Thursday
Just did 4 x 200m strides, more or less to test out the hamstring as well.
Times were 35, 35, 36 & 30. Decided to push the last one a bit, 85-90%. Felt a slight twinge in the hammer, but not too much.
Did 4mls before it and 2mls after it as well.

Friday
6.5mls easy.
Felt tired doing this and really had to force myself out the door.
Didn't really start to feel ok until the last mile.

Saturday
Club session comprising 3 sets of 250m, 200m & 150m @ slightly faster than 800m pace.
90sec rec between reps and 6mins between sets.
Times were:
38, 31, 22
38, 32, 22,
38, 30, 22

Have to say I'm happy with that session. Ended up doing them at 2:04 pace, which is probably a bit fast, but felt good. Could feel the lactic alright from the 2nd set onwards but kept it controlled.
Was going to do something longer but decided I'd risk it more for the company than anything else.

dna_leri

Going well there speedy. Will you do Dublin graded meet this week or have you anything else lined up for the next few weeks?

Speedy44

dna_leri wrote: »

Going well there speedy. Will you do Dublin graded meet this week or have you anything else lined up for the next few weeks?

cheers dna.
Not sure yet about Dublin. A few of the lads from the club are heading up so I might join them, are you going up?

dna_leri

Speedy44 wrote: »

dna_leri wrote: »

Going well there speedy. Will you do Dublin graded meet this week or have you anything else lined up for the next few weeks?

cheers dna.
Not sure yet about Dublin. A few of the lads from the club are heading up so I might join them, are you going up?

Planning to go up for 800, maybe see you there.

Speedy44

Sunday
11mls easy at 7:49/ml pace

Monday
4mls easy, 4 x 200m strides in 37, 34, 37, 36, 2mls easy.

Tuesday
Rest

Wednesday
1200m at 1500m pace (3:40) , 12min rec, 4 x 400m off 3mins (84, 74, 75, 69).

This was a little bit all over the place. Splits for the 1200m were 71, 75, 74. Tough going by myself, wind and rain didn't help either.
Didn't bother running during the 12mins rec so was very flat for the first 400m. Felt better for the rest of them.

Thursday
4mls easy, 4 x 200m strides (battery died on garmin), 1ml easy

Friday
6.5mls easy at 7:19 pace.

Saturday
3 x 800m off 4mins & 5 x 200m off 3mins, 4min between sets.
Times were 2:35, 2:39, 2;35 - 32, 33, 31, 31, 29.

Plan was 3K pace for the 800's and a little faster than 800m pace for the 2's.
Paced a couple of girls from the club doing a 1500m TT during my 2nd 800m, hence the slower time.
Good session, felt very much in control.

2wks to go to the Nat Masters 1500m. May take in an 800m next weekend in Cork, could probably do with another race. Happy enough the way things are going though.

Speedy44

Can't believe that I'm calling 11mls a long run these days :rolleyes:

Club session at 9am. Started off at our usual easy pace, 8min/mls or so. As usual it gradually quickened until one of the lads put the hammer down and made the 10th mile a 6min/ml :eek:
Thankfully we backed off a little bit for the last one. Of course I didn't have to go with the pace, but I'm a great one for not practicing what I preach !

Speedy44

After taking yesterday off as scheduled, the plan this evening was for 3 x 300m off 15 minutes, and no, thats not a typo :rolleyes:

Did a good warm up of about 3.5mls and the usual drills & strides.
The left hamstring was a little bit sore but nothing major.

There was 4 of us doing the reps, one lad is a 1:52 guy and less than half my age! The other guy is a sub 2 and the 3rd lad is a flyer over the shorter stuff.
As soon as the first one started I was thinking "oh fu*k, I can't go this fast, and I felt like I was really struggling. Held the gap to the 3rd lad though after the first 100 and was surprised to see that I finished it in 44.10. Still had a little more to give as well.
The 15mins rec seemed to take forever but I was looking forward to the next 2. Your man flew off again but slowed after about 75-80mts. I was holding the gap again and hoping to close it going into the home stretch. Felt the left hamstring at about 160-180, and then the bloddy right hamstring went on me :mad:.
It is sore but hopefully won't take too long to recover. I went into the lake afterwards and iced it when I got home. Going to see the physio tomorrow as well.

Talked to the lad afterwards and he went through the first 200 in 25.12, so its no wonder the damn thing went with me trying to hang onto that pace !

Speedy44

Took yesterday off and got a rub down and put more ice on the ham's.
Decided to run today, maybe not the best idea, but I love running in this weather with the shirt off

Anyway, did a 2ml warm up, stretched in between, then did my strides and drills. Could feel it alright but it wasn't too bad. Felt it almost go on me again in my 3rd and final stride, maybe that should have been a sign :rolleyes:

Plan was for 3 x 6mins with a 90sec continueos running rec.
Did it on the track. Wanted to start out easy, so first lap was 1:34.
Ended up with a comfortable 5:56.
Could feel the ham's becoming more noticably sore as the 2nd rep went on, was trying not to limp and keep my style going. Kept it steady enough and finished it in 6mins.

Decided to leave it at that and not push my luck. Went into the river after.
May have to take a couple of days off at this point.
Hard to do though with the sun shining.

BeepBeep67

Are you running SoG?
I'll be down for the craic!

Speedy44

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Are you running SoG?
I'll be down for the craic!

unfortunately not beepbeep.
I am supposed to be running the National Masters 1500m on the 18th, have been training like a bast*rd for it so don't want to risk anything at this point.
Pity though because its a great course, and its supposed to be a hot one as well, and as always in Galway, the craic is guarenteed

dna_leri

Hopefully you are feeling up for it yourself. Good luck in the 1500 in tullamore tomorrow.

BeepBeep67

Have a good one this weekend.

tisnotover

best of luck in the 1500m!, nail it!

Speedy44

Well, after joining my first running club 37 years ago, I finally won a national medal, and not just any medal, but gold baby
And to make it all the more sweeter, I did it on my daughters 10th birthday.

Even though I have had a dodgy hamstring for the past 10days and haven't been able to do much quality work, I was feeling confident about this. I felt I was in 4:35 shape anyway.
Got up there in plenty of time and was delighted with the weather, although there was a bit of a wind down the back stretch.
Got 2.5mls of a warm in and also did 2 x 400m in about 85secs.
Thats the only thing I don't like about the track, you never know exactly when your race is going to start so you have to guesstimate when to do your warm up.
I tired to stretch out the hamstring and the left one was still sore so stuck some deep heat on it. Didn't do many strides and just decided to go for it.

I was happy when they decided to run off the V1 & V2 together, especially when I saw the pace they were going at.
I knew who I wanted to keep an eye on in my race and had a plan going into it, but as is normal (for me anyway) once the gun went off the plan went out the window.

There was a large field and a lot of pushing and shoving. I got into the inside lane but was already weary about how to get out of it. When I heard the 400m split of 77 I was a bit more weary. Next lap was worse, 80 secs! I had planned on going through 800m in around 2:24-26, we went through in 2:37.
At this point I was still on the inside and getting very concerned. I was thinking back to the olympics and listening to myself shouting at the tele and wondering why they don't move out. Well, its easier said than done let me tell you.
One guy moved at 600m and at that point I just had to drop back a few places to find the narrowest of gaps and move out.
Then with 450m to go, I decided to make my move. This was immediately covered by 2 lads who opened up a gap on me straight away. I went after them and caught one of them with 250m left. I was trying to stay relaxed. and keep my form. As soon as I passed the lad, he went by me again. He had about 5 yards on me with the other lad about the same distance ahead of him.
I was hurting bad going down the home straight and wanted to stop. I couldn''t hear anyone behind me but still thought I may be caught.

When I finally made it over the line I was happy enough to get my first medal, although a bit disapointed that it was only bronze, especially considering the time.
It wasn't until the medal cermony that I found out that the 2 lads on front of me were in a different catagory
My last 700m was 2:05, and since I didn't pick it up until 450m out, I would say that the last 400m was under 70secs, which I am happy with.

My nephew won silver in the U/16 3000m a few weeks back, so it was good to go one better than him :rolleyes:

dna_leri

Great racing speedy, that's what it's all about, well done, you have worked hard for it. Sorry I could not wait to see it.

tisnotover

great stuff Speedy, well done on the gold medal, hard work has payed off!

Speedy44

dna_leri wrote: »

Great racing speedy, that's what it's all about, well done, you have worked hard for it. Sorry I could not wait to see it.

cheers dna, great job yourself, congrats.

Speedy44

Well, not exactly completely different!

Now that I've achieved my goal of getting my long sought after All-Ireland gold medal, my next target is the Gerry Farnan XC on October 21st.
These also are of course the trials for the Irish Masters Teams for the Home Countries International and I would love to be able to win my first international cap (is it a cap, or a vest ). This will be a big ask as there are some serious guys taking part in this every year. I haven't given the XC a real stab for a while and only have a little over 8 weeks to get ready for it, but I think if I get 6 weeks of quality training under my belt I'll be in with a shout.
I am going to gradually increase my mileage to the 60-65/wk mark, and keep gettting in the quality sessions but throw in more hills, tempo runs and fartlecs. I won't ignore the shorter stuff completely and may still do some 400 & 800m reps to stay sharp.

Anyway, after 3 days off (it was going to be a week :rolleyes: ) I started back yesterday and just ran 4mls relaxed.
It was a bit faster than normal but while I didn't force it, I didn't hold back either. Splits were 7:21, 6:41, 6:39 & 6:47.
I slowed down purposely on the last mile and was surprised that it was still well under 7mins.

Speedy44

Friday 24th
6.5mls easy at about 7:10 pace.

Saturday 25th
Opted to do the club session, turned out to be a bit too much too soon me thinks :rolleyes:
Was going to do 2 x 2ml off 3mins. Started off way too fast, especially since my right quad was noticably sore warming up. Was running with our coach who is on the road back after loads of injuries, and when I checked our pace after a minute or so it was at 5:54/ml, next check it was 5:48 :eek:
Started to tire after a mile or so which I think I went through in 5:52. Ended up struggling through the 2nd mile in 6:15-20, lesson learned, I hope!
Was too early to be pushing my body again after the track season, and like I said, started off way too fast.

Monday
8.25mls easy at 7:03/ml pace.
1st mile was 7:31, the rest of them were average under 7mins with a couple at 6:52. Didn't force this at all, but all the same felt sore for the last couple of miles. Will have to slow down I think, although I am heading to Boston tomorrow for a week and have a session with the brothers club planned for Wednesday and a 5K race for next Monday !

ecoli

Just catching up on your log now. Congrats on the win this year amazing to see you go from a 1000 mile event to winning 1500m All Ireland titles.

Best of luck in the Cross country season I will see you there planning on giving the XC season a good stab this year myself

Speedy44

ecoli wrote: »

Just catching up on your log now. Congrats on the win this year amazing to see you go from a 1000 mile event to winning 1500m All Ireland titles.

Best of luck in the Cross country season I will see you there planning on giving the XC season a good stab this year myself

cheers Ecoli, looking forward to getting stuck into it

Speedy44

Well, been away for a while. Spend a week in Boston with the family. Maanged to run all but 1 of the days, even went out twice the day after I arrived. Woke up at 4.3am so went for an easy 4mls at 6am. Then I joined the brothers club for some hills & mle reps that evening.
Also took in a 5k race and won my category
Been running ok since the nationals, I think. My easy runs seem to be faster, although I set to do a 40min tempo last Saturday thinking I would do it at about 6:15 pace, only to start off too fast (6:06!) and had to pull the plug at 2mls. Took 3mins and tried to do another 2ml rep but was struggling to hit 6:24 pace so called it a day after a 1/2ml and just jogged home.

Did my first club session for a while this Tuesday evening. Great turnout, must have been 30-40 people up there, lots of new faces from NUIG with one particularly fast lookin kid, Paddy somethingorother, whose down from Finn Valley.
Anyway, did 6 x 4mins off 1min around the fields. Strap on Garmin is gone so not soo sure about pace. Did go off too fast again on the first one but kept the next 5 consistent enough. Tough session though. Need some more of these.
Felt the worst I had felt for a long time doing my 6.5mls last night, although did feel a bit better on last mile or 2.

At this stage, a ood performance in Gerry Farnan seems along way off, but I still have a good 4 wks of training to get under my belt. Should hit close to 50mls this wk.
Going to do the Loughrea 10k on Sept 23rd and then the County XC on Oct. 7th, so they should be a good test of where I 'm at.

Speedy44

Friday
Was supposed to run 8.25mls but the kids came with me on their bikes so I decided to turn t into two 4ml loops, but then I got lazy and decided to just do the one. Have to get stuck into training more seriously now and get that mileage increased.

Saturday
Club session at 10am.
Had a few beers last night, but worse again had a 1/2 bag of chips & a bag of popcorn :eek:
My stomach was doing somersaults in the morning.
Anyway, 2 x 12mins was on the menu, tried this twice since the nationals and coldn't finish it, so was quetly determined to get this done. With this in mind, I went off conservatively, was running with one of the lead girls from the club.
Felt ok at the start, as you would expect. Were running on the tails of the lads running 6min/mls, we were targeting 6:10-15, so when they increased it I made sure we let them off. Started to feel it a bit at about 8mins, my buddy was hurting and backed off about a minute later, I finished the 12mins at 6:12 pace.
Took our 3min rec and then it was into the next one. We ran out and back over a trail and the plan was to start the 2nd one where we finishe the first one and try to get back to the start again in the 12mins.
We started off slow, 6:30, but I wasn't too concerned. She was struggling to keep up now and I was tryiong to encourage her to keep the pace. She was only doing 6mins this time and we went through that at 6:17 pace.
Once she stopped I was hurting, trying to relax and keep my form. Really wanted to stop but as I said, wanted to get this one done.
Managed to finish it at 6:16 pace, which I was very happy with. These are the type of sessions that I will need to get under my belt if I am to do anything in the xc season.

Distance = 8mls.