Gumshoe runs again

RacoonQueen

I love the technical terms to describe the bike parts.

Any triathlons planned for 2012? I might make my debut in Joey Hannon, join me for the carnage.

--amadeus--

RacoonQueen wrote: »

I love the technical terms to describe the bike parts.

Any triathlons planned for 2012? I might make my debut in Joey Hannon, join me for the carnage.

Ahhh but knowing the technical name for parts like the "cage things" is a step closer to tri-poncery - next thing you know I'll be buying and wearing speedos. No plan for a race yet - I looked at Joey but it might come a fraction early for me. I can't swim at all and have a lot to do. I would prefer to start with a "try-a-tri" but someone (I think it was MCOS?) said they would slap me if I didn't do a proper one so still a bit undecided really.

That said - and funnily enough given the main thread on the MdS - I spent NYE drinking with my mate who has done adventure stage races all over the world. He and his wife spent a fair chunk of the night trying to persuade me to do one of them sooner rather than later. They were trying to convince me that I could realistically target a top 10 finish in most of the races (MdS apart simply because of it's size) based on my background and performances. They aren't the kind to blow smoke for the sake of it and I take him seriously when he talks about that sort of thing (I've seen the photos and heard the horror stories). I've always said I'd go long and do adventure races after I start to slow down but it would be nice to place respectably in a tough event. I know I'm capable of going top 10% in any given race field (Amsterdam I was 322 out of 7880, which is top 5%) so in theory targeting a finish in the top 20 in something like the Gobi March isn't beyond me. And we'd be going together to whatever event it was so I'd have the benefit of someone with experience rather than going in green. A lot to think about.

Meanwhile back in the real world I did a lazy 7 with the dogs today - as always running with them is stop / start but I averaged 8 mins/mile when I was actually un-interupted running and legs felt a lot more pop and fizz, cold is clearing and hopefully the training can kick on now.

shotgunmcos

Yes it was me, and yes I will slap you! There is a sprint event at Joey, trust me you will get through it. If you need any faith just call around mine some eveningfor tea and Caz can dig out her Joey sprint war story She was last out of the pool at Nenagh by 2 whole minutes and got the biggest clap of the day too. That was her mountain and it was all smiles and 'see how many I can catch' after that. She put some blushes on a bunch of me on the run section...

I used to collect Salvador Dali posters as a teen and the hung on my wall. Whenever I read you posts the Metamophosis of Narcissis springs to mind

--amadeus--

I'd need to back stroke the whole bloody thing though, I'm not sure they'd keep the pool open that long...

No idea what you mean by that Narcissus comment by the way - arrogant people only think they are amazing. I *know* how amazing I am

Actually today was one of the days when my ego had a right proper bitchslapping from reality. I've spent teh last couple of days feeling hungry but just assumed it was just the after-effects of stuffing myself silly over the holidays (I gained 1.5 kgs ). Today was a horrible day to run - really strong winds and freezing cold. I left the dogs behind for my promised 7 and the wind was howling; white horses running across the river, a leaden sky heavy with the promise of rain or worse and my rain jacket acting like a sail. No records set over the first mile or so. Then just shy of the 3 mile mark as I headed towards the UL boathouse I started to feel a tiny bit weak. Legs were disconnected and head was a little light with a huge void where my belly used to be. It's happened a couple of times on long runs and a gel or simply slowing down always causes it to pass and so I put my head down and toughed it out - not easy when you're feeling cruddy and running in the opposite direction to your house! Made it to the turn around point and thats when all of that promised rain arrived - heavy great sheets of it cascading down, huge drops that felt like stones as they hit you. Of course the wind picked up as well - strong enough to literally take your breath away. Past the fishermens cottages where the little wooden windchime had stopped sounding like the soundtrack to a horror movie and was at a 90 degree angle to the ground. I was glad when I'd fought my way back to the boathouse for the limited amount of cover the denuded treeline could offer. Thankfully things calmed down a little after that but were still on the rough side of unpleasant. Slow run but I was glad to get the miles in the legs.

And I have a speed session tomorrow. Whooppee!!

--amadeus--

Can anyone remind me why we do this to ourselves?

Plan yesterday was 2 mile easy, 6*1 mile tempo (10k pace) w 3 min recovery, 2 mile easy. I was kinda looking forward to it - I enjoy faster running when I get into it and 3 min recovery sounded good. Programmed the Garmin in anticipation at the weekend and was all set.

Apart from the apocalyptic weather. I can honestly say that I have never run in weather like that before. Come to that I doubt I've even been outside in weather like that; pelting rain and gale force winds. So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I set off. 2 miles easy weren't all that easy but averaged 8 min/miles as I made my way down to the loop I was planning on using. It's pretty close to 2 miles on either side of a canal linked by bridges at either end and I was close when the beep went for the first fast mile. And almost immediately beeped to tell me to start my recovery. Thinking I may have got the sequence wrong I did the instructed 3 min recovery and waited for the beep for the fast part. When it came up I checked the watch and realized what I had done... I had edited an old workout rather than starting from scratch and I had set the watch for 1 min fast 3 min recovery rather than 1 mile fast. D'oh!

So I manually created a simple workout - not easy on a wet bezel with fingers that are going blue from the cold. I could accurately measure the 1 mile fast but I'd have to estimate the recovery. The watch acted up a couple more times with the wet but I was able to get the tempo miles timed. First was into the teeth of the wind and it was horrific. I pushed hard enough and recorded a 6:18. Roughly right for pace but the effort was way out of kilter. I ran my recovery and the staggered nature meant that I had a mix of wind for and against for the rest of the sessions and that was the only one with the wind against me almost the whole way and I could feel it in my legs. The next 3 I backed off and ran at 10k effort rather than 10k pace and they were 6:35 / 6:35 / 6:37. By then I was really suffering and the watch was refusing to work properly so I was having to trust autolap rather than a proper measured workout, so it had a quieter alarm. I actually thought I'd missed the alarm and began to slow so it was 6:53. Badly wiped the last mile came within a hairsbreadth of getting binned but I dug in and ran it "fast" in 7:24. By now my trainers were utterly soaked and weighed a ton and the three layers I had on were sodden. A miserable 2 home in 9:27 / 8:52. 5 fast, 1 middling, 4 easy plus another 2 - 3 recovery between the fast miles for roughly 12 in total. I didn't see a single other runner all night compared to the number I normally see by the river!

An hour or so after the run and I had ITB ache in both knees, worse on the right. Not totally painful but clearly from over exertion. Warm bath last night and feet up this afternoon and 2 hours wrapped in Physicool (joys of self employment!) and a recovery 5. Watch battery died close to the end but pace was easy / recovery rather than anything else. Knees were uncomfortable at the start but eased and fine now. I have a very tough progression 14 miler on Sat so I'm going to see how they react to a 7 easy tomm. Any discomfort and I'll back off the 14 to a standard LSR. They aren't anywhere near bad enough to jeopardize training volume but to much intensity and they could flair up, which I can't afford.

--amadeus--

Ran conservatively on my dodgy niggly knee with slow and easy 7's on Fri and Sat (although when I checked the plan one of them should have been a 6, ah well) The original plan had been to run a progression 14 on Saturday but I swapped Sat & Sun and even at that I thought I should be careful so substituted 14 easy instead of the progression. First couple were 7:50s but averaged 8's after that up to about 11 when time slowed to 8:15. Decided to give the last mile a bit of a lash and it ended up being a 6:33. I started too fast though and was hanging on by the end - which just proves that I wouldn't have been able for a full on progression run in any case! Knee was at me intermittently through the run but never enough to affect my gait or leave me in anything other than mild discomfort. Been a tiny bit stiff today though. Recovery 4 later on so that'll be easy.

shels4ever

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Can anyone remind me why we do this to ourselves?

Because its fun .

--amadeus--

shels4ever wrote: »

Because its fun .

Getting soaked while wearing tight and bizarre looking outfits and enduring physical pain might be fun for the british aristocracy but not for the likes of me!

Recovery 4 yesterday at 9 min mile+ pace so nothing to dramatic. Easy 8 today and 1st mile was surprisingly slow at 8:24 - JnrHound was on the lead and normally we go quicker. I let her off by the river and was shocked that mile 2 was 9:12. I was dawdling, not putting any effort in, my legs were just moving of thier own accord. I gave myself a stern talking too and picked it up - not enough to be trying hard but enough to know I was actually moving. Breathing stayed conversational but got deeper and more even and I could feel my legs working. 7:45 and then the turnaround involving a brief pause to convince the dogs that no, in fact I didn't really want to extend the run for a couple of miles through muddy fields in teh dark despite their convincing arguments (8:10) then 7:53 / 7:41 before a halt to reattach leads (8:39 ) and a trot home in 8:09.

Felt really strong, loads left in the legs and probably the first time in over a year that I actually felt like a sub 3 runner again, felt that my targets were actually viable.

--amadeus--

I am convinced that the coach sets Wed sessions more to test my Garmin programming skills than for thier running benefits...

Plan was 2 mile warm up, 2km @ 10mile pace, 3 min recovery and 10*400m @ 10k pace w 45 sec recovery followed by 2 mile cooldown.

I managed to get it all coded in but pushed the wrong button leaving teh house so my 2 mile warm up is lost to eternity. The planned pace for the 2 kms was 6:30-6:45 and I ran 6:32 so that was ok. My intention was to make it to the UL track for the 400s but the beeper went a little early so the first one and a bit were through the college grounds (a car park, over some gravel, down some steps. I bet Paula Radcliff doesn't have to deal with that sort of thing). Rest were on the track but I was sharing it with a Juvenile training session; they were doing 150m sprint drills with full recoveries and it is very discouraging to be passed by a 12 year old girl on the track!

Pace for the 400m laps were 6:23 / 5:59 / 5:47 / 6:02 / 6:01 / 6:05 / 6:05 / 6:07 / 6:03 / 5:58 against a target of 6:00 - 6:15.

Easy home, just under 4 miles (the distance from the track but I went the short way) and at a very casual pace. Until the very end... MrsA had gone to collect JnrMsA from one of her many after school activities and drove past me in the estate shouting out "I'll race you home!". Well when I was 2-300m from home I saw that she was busy gossiping so I put the foot down and beat her back; over priced german sports car 0 Top Donegal Totty on legs 1, I believe

So a fraction under 11 miles today and a good chunk of it at a decent pace. Still not as fast as I would like bearing in mind the targets but it is coming...

--amadeus--

This is lifted from the email I sent to the Coach...

Thursday: 6 miles planned, 6 done, avg pace 8:01. No real issues but niggle was back.

Friday: Another "getting in the miles" run, 7 easy planned, 7 done, avg pace 8:06 link

Sat: Plan was 3 E, 4 tempo, 3 easy. Knee had been giving grief so I was in 2 minds about this. I finally decided to do it on a slightly hillier than normal route and do the 4 middle miles "faster" rather than "fast". 8:0x for the first 3 then 7:03 / 7:03 / 7:02 / 6:46. 3 easy home were 7:49 / 7:52 / 8:14. Knee cycled between hardly there to uncomfortable to outright painful with no really obvious pattern (although strangely it seems to hurt less as I run faster)

Sun. Plan was 16 easy. I really wasn't sure about this. My knee hasn't improved and my worry is that I am doing more harm than good running on it. But I am the worlds laziest and most uncommitted runner so any excuse sees me hitting the duvet rather than the road and since I can walk on it with no pain and move it around with no issue I wasn't sure if I was making more of it than there is. So I planned a route that would let me cut the run short if I hurt too much. Planned to just run very gently and was on grass for quite a few miles. By 2 miles in I was in discomfort and my turn off for the short cut home was at roughly 4.5. Discomfort came and went, got worse and better but a short steep downhill by the turn had me wincing and worse again I could feel secondary discomfort in my quads from compensation. So I cut the run short and just did 9.

I am partly furious - knee didn't get any worse on the way home and I know I could have toughed it out and finished the run. And I'm sitting here now in no discomfort at all. Part of my thinks a big bag of HTFU would have got me through the run and a couple of easy days at the start of next week would have me right again. In my head though I am pretty sure I did the right thing. The pain has moved and is now along the base of my patella and is clearly and unambiguously an over use injury. In the past I have rarely run 7 days a week and pretty much never for a couple of weeks in a row so I had inbuilt recovery, the lack of training over the last year and the transition to 7 days a week seems to have caught up with me.

===

Coach is advocating the smart thing; couple of days off, get it seen to and see how we stand. Advice I would be giving to anyone else in this position. BUT! I have had this before and a day or two and I'm fine. If I go to a physio they will be cautious and I could be looking at a couple of weeks out - time I don't have. I have argued with him and got him to agree to 45 mins or so on the bike on Monday and Tuesday and 4 on Wednesday. On one hand I'm narked at ending a good running streak but realistically a day or two with no running and cross training is no issue. And I will be running after Wed and I will be doing at least 18 on Sunday....


[edit] Narked at myself and the injury, not the coach, obviously!

shotgunmcos

--A-- it was a good call IMO, err on the side of caution. Larger picture, you missed out on a few miles not a whole session or a whole week. A rule I use is if a niggle appears I'll keep going. If it is stil lthere a mile later I take serious note but keep running, if its worse a mile later I back off the pace completely and jog home. If a short cut is an option I take it. We are not getting any younger and any sign of a niggle is to be treated with respect even if it turns out to be nothing. The cautious approach is entirely against my natural make up by the way so its something I really listen to these days.

When do you plan to hit the pool?

--amadeus--

Hallelujah! All praise be due to his noodly appendages because I AM HEALED!!!

Told by Coach to take time off, stretch and get it seen to. Told by MrsA to wise up, grow up, stop being so pig headed and stupid and take time off, get it seen to and sorted. Argued and insisted I should be allowed to cycle and run on Wed and had agreed with Coach to 4 recovery on Wed to see how I was.

On mature reflection - and after a few brow beatings from herself - I took Mon & Tue off totally. As it happens yesterday I had to go to Dublin and wasn't home till very late so couldn't run at all then either. So today I made time and finally got out after 3 days solid rest. I ditched the 4 mile recovery idea because of teh extra days rest and figured I would go out and run a range of paces over 5 miles and see how it felt. Times were 7:18 / 6:59 / 7:55 / 7:17 / 6:23. I deliberately slowed down and sped up to test how the knee reacted and there were no issues at all, even with the 10k pace last mile.

Rotterdam is back on

MCOS - I am NOT aging, thats a vicious lie and anyway MrsA reckons I am perpetually 12... Pool I don't know, I need to swing out to UL and get the times of the classes but I am hoping to do a duathlon in Spring, all else being well

ecoli

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Hallelujah! All praise be due to his noodly appendages because I AM HEALED!!!

Told by Coach to take time off, stretch and get it seen to. Told by MrsA to wise up, grow up, stop being so pig headed and stupid and take time off, get it seen to and sorted. Argued and insisted I should be allowed to cycle and run on Wed and had agreed with Coach to 4 recovery on Wed to see how I was.

On mature reflection - and after a few brow beatings from herself - I took Mon & Tue off totally. As it happens yesterday I had to go to Dublin and wasn't home till very late so couldn't run at all then either. So today I made time and finally got out after 3 days solid rest. I ditched the 4 mile recovery idea because of teh extra days rest and figured I would go out and run a range of paces over 5 miles and see how it felt. Times were 7:18 / 6:59 / 7:55 / 7:17 / 6:23. I deliberately slowed down and sped up to test how the knee reacted and there were no issues at all, even with the 10k pace last mile.

Rotterdam is back on

MCOS - I am NOT aging, thats a vicious lie and anyway MrsA reckons I am perpetually 12... Pool I don't know, I need to swing out to UL and get the times of the classes but I am hoping to do a duathlon in Spring, all else being well

Think I should be sending on your schedule to MrsA rather than you to get you to do what you are told more often :rolleyes:

--amadeus--

ecoli wrote: »

Think I should be sending on your schedule to MrsA rather than you to get you to do what you are told more often :rolleyes:

Let's just say that she can call on more weapons than you can...

You're not the first to say that actually - when I meet the Accountant he gives her the list of things he wants me to do. In my defence I make no secret of the fact that I am lazy, unmotivated, uncommitted, pig headed, stubborn and convinced that I know better in pretty much every situation

--amadeus--

Friday I was supposed to do 3E 4T 3E but left the house in a bit of a grump and wanting to be doing anything but run. It was blustery, wet and cold and I had a crappy couple of days at work. As a contractor I should be kept out of the politics but two projects are coming up; one is a political football with everyone smiling and back-stabbing and the other is just a disaster that they have concocted internally and are now kicking over to me to fix. And I have a feeling I haven't been told everything about it either. Set off and legs felt like lead and within half a mile I had a random set of phantom pains. Ditched the idea of 4T and just ran it for running. Paces 8:09 / 8:04 / 8:08 / 7:57 / 8:01 / 7:50 / 7:54 / 7:43 / 7:59 / 7:37 and felt better the more I ran.

7E on the schedule for today, I did think about pulling the 4T into it but played it safe, bearing in mind the LSR tomm and the recent niggle. Ran easy and with the dogs; paces were 7:51 / 8:05 (stop to release lead) / 7:20 / 7:03 / 7:09 / 7:21 / 8:10 (connect lead) / 6:55. Didn't feel under pressure at all on teh run and nice to see the paces coming down a little.

--amadeus--

18 planned and 18 done, took 2:23 so avg 7:57/mile. Started out a bit quicker with a few miles in the 7:4x range early on but the 7th mile included 28m of ascent so that knocked manners into me. Whole course had a total of 150m of climbs, might not be much for people who mountain run but I figure that it will stand to me on the Dutch flats. What is particularly encouraging is that I stayed at or under 8 min miles without fading right the way through, with the exception of the miles that had big climbs, so my endurance is still there or thereabouts. And an estimated 2,079 calories burned. Time to cook and eat a mountainous Sunday dinner methinks!

--amadeus--

Well where are we up to?

Monday was a recovery, told to do 4 at a slow pace but misjudged it a fraction and did 4.9 with an average pace just under 9 min/mile (started slower but sped up). Felt pretty wiped out actually, I find running slow a lot harder than running faster.

Tuesday was 7E so I did just that, took the hounds and went for a paddle through the riverside mud, 7.06 miles in avg 8:26. Cushdie Legs still felt pretty tired though so I had my concerns over today.

And the plan for today was both complicated and scary. 2 mile warm up, 2@10k pace, 5 min recovery, 1@10k pace, 3 min recovery, 1@10k pace, 3 min recovery, 2@10k pace, easy home. Eek.

On the surface I should be pretty pleased with teh run I did. The Garmin doesn't do mile splits on a workout but the first 2 miles were 8/mins pace and the splits pace were 6:17 / 5:58 / 6:16 / 6:26. Lots of up and down hills and wind from various directions but effort was pretty constant. Also ran in the Hyperspeeds - I know I shouldn't race in them but I am tempted... My 10k PB from a couple of years ago is 38:xx so holding a rough average of 6:15ish is bang on 10k pace.

I can't help but be a tiny bit disappointed though - the last split was a little slow and I should be doing these at sub 6 pace if my targets are to be anything other than machismo and talk. The weather is getting to me as well - constant wind, cold and heavy rain makes these sessions harder work than they should be. I suppose I should take it as a sign of progress that I am disappointed with a session like todays but what I wouldn't give for a transfer to the Bahamas right about now...

--amadeus--

Well Thur / Fri and Sat were all just easy runs so not a vast amount to report on them - 5 / 8 / 8 at paces from 8 - 8:30. Took me a couple of days to shake off the fatigue from Wed but got there in the end.

And then today. 16@7:15 - 7:30 pace. On the surface that shouldn't be a challenge (PMP will be in the 6:40 or under range) but for some reason I was a tiny bit apprehensive. Don't get me wrong I was delighted it was only 16 (I hate long runs) but I wasn't 100% convinced I had rebuilt enough speed to run a sub 1:40 half and then carry on at that speed for another 3 miles - it's not that long ago I was looking at 3:15 marathons and sub 7:30 was PMP so to do it as a "steady" run felt a tiny bit alien.

The first half mile didn't feel great, tbh. Legs felt heavy and my hips were aching. And I had been so busy issuing instructions and orders to JnrA that I left teh house without my sports drink and was well down teh road before I remembered it. It wasn't worth going back so I figured I would run it un-fuelled - once upon a time I ran all runs up to 18 on empty and anything over with just water as part of a drive to improve my efficiency and fat for fuel burning so I wasn't that bothered about doing 16 that way. It didn't take long for my legs to loosen up and it turns out that mile 1 was 7:14. I think all experienced runners develop a mental speedo where they can mentally "dial in" a speed and just let thier legs take care of it and I was delighted that mine was working again. Pace got as low as 7:06 before I started into the hillier section. I juggled the route a little so that the hills were long gradual drags rather than shorter and steeper and pace drifted out to 7:2x and stayed there till mile 11 when a few 7:3x's crept in. I focussed a bit in the last couple of miles (7:28 / 7:29) and finished with an average of 7:25, which I'm quite happy with, thank you very much!

58ish for the week, 7 days running and no pain, just the usual "I'm training and my legs are tired could you please pass me the beer darling" fatigue. Disappointed with the pace on Wed but happier with today. I can live with that.