Can I do it?

LarMan

Thursday

3 miles, I was worried about my foot but although it is still a little sore I was able to complete the run without any problems. Starting to feel like I have a bit of a cold coming so I hope that stays away. Friday is a rest day so that should help.

Weight Friday morning was 90.2

LarMan

Saturday

3 mile pace run. did this in just under 27 minutes.

Sunday

8 miles due today, did not feel great since Saturday. youngest daughter has been ill with a virus and I think she has passed it on. At the same time I still wanted to try the run. I knew from early on I didn't feel great. What was easy enough the week before was difficult this week. By mile 6 I had nothing left and had to start walking, did a little bit more running but most of the last two miles were walked.

I will take it easy this week and won't run unless I feel like I have more energy.

Weighing scales this morning said 88.6KG

LarMan

Tuesday

Ok back after 3 weeks of no exercise due to chest infection and trip to states with work. Very aprehensive about starting back. I took it easy and kept the pace slower than normal. The run itself was fine but this morning my legs or more to the point my groin is sore. Anyway glad to be back running again with only 7 weeks to go the the half marathon.

weight was also up to 89.5 but that was marginal and I hope to start losing it again soon.

LarMan

Wednesday

Tempo Run, the good news is that i completed it and it was a good tempo run in that I kept to the pace I wanted. The bad news is that I am very sore after it and somewhat during it.

I van barely lift my legs up while sitting and can't do it without some discomfort. I think this is just down to not having exercised for 3 weeks but I was surprised at how much the muscles would hurt after what was a relatively short gap. Anyway I think I will take a day off today and run 3 miles on Friday. Again the pace is slower than normal as I recover.

LarMan

Saturday

Gave myself a couple of days off to get let the legs recover. So by Saturday I had no pain in my legs so I did 5KM. I still found this quiet difficult so although I was due to do a long run on sunday I decided against it to allow myself more time to recover. This week I will need to do all the runs as I don't have any more lee-way in preparing for the race.

Krusty_Clown

LarMan wrote: »

This week I will need to do all the runs as I don't have any more lee-way in preparing for the race.

It's better to be under-trained, rather than over-trained. Don't try to catch up on missed runs (though I'm pretty guilty of this myself). When's the race?

LarMan

It's on the 25th of March, was feeling confident before I got the chest infection, not so confindent now. I'm glad I took your advice about starting early as at least I'm not behind - yet!

LarMan

Tuesday

4.5 miles at 10kmh pace. Good run felt good throughout but legs were a little tired by the end.

LarMan

Wednesday

Today was interval training of 400 X 8 intervals with 1 minute 30 seconds walking between intervals.

Weight this morning was 89.5kg

LarMan

Thursday

3 mile run including a pretty big hill. pace was right around the 6 minute per km pace.

LarMan

Saturday

4 miles pace. I ran this at 5:40 per KM pace and was pretty happy with the pace. I do have a little niggle around the groin but nothing that would stope me running.

Sunday
9 miles LSR. so this was the longest I have ever run. The route was quiet hilly at the start and it was tough going. My groin did start hurting quiet early on but again not enough to really affect me. I knew that the first 5 KM would be the toughest in terms of hills, but after that I knew it owuld be flat with the last few kilometers downhill until the last kilometer which would be uphill again.

The run went to plan for the most part untill I hit the 8 mile mark when I had to climb up a padestrina bridge and then was face with an hill. I had to take a walk for 3 minutes or so to get some energy back. I started running again when I had one kilometer to go. I could feel my calfs cramping up so I took it easy. The definately felt like I had run out of puff. Aerobically I felt fine over the run but my legs do feel heavy while running

LarMan

Tuesday

4.5 miles. Outward part of this run was into a stiff cold breeze. No problems om this run and second half with wind on my back I felt strong and pace was good. The only problem I have is my weight is not going down if anything it is slightly up. My diet is not as clean as it should be but I would have still expected to be loosing some weight.

LarMan

Wednesday

40 minute tempo run, pretty fast run with slower sections at the start and end. Probably went a little harder in the middle then I wanted to as I was pretty beat by the end of the fast section. I was able to recover though and was please with that.

Weight today was 89.5kg so no weight lost in a week

LarMan

Thursday

Ran 2.75 fast kilometers to a meeting I was attending. When the meeting was finished I ran 5KM back home. the 5KM back home was quiet tought.

Friday
Hadn't been on my bike for about 7 months so decided to take it out for a spin and rece the route for my Sunday run. I had expected that given the amount of running I had done and the fact that I was close to 3 stone lighter that this cycle would be easy and for the most part it was until I hit a steep hil. I eventually had to get off and walk the hill. In total I cycled 17 KM.

Saturday

This was the first time doing 5 miles at pace. I always feel that this is a tough run and I was pleased to do the 5 miles in just over 44 minutes which is a very good time for me.

Sunday

This was a big run for me, the first time doing 10 miles and these 10 would give me my first marathon distance, granted that is over the course of a week. I decied to bring some lucozade sport with me as I felt the previous week I was out on my feet so I wanted to make sure it wasn't dehydration or lack of carbs that was causing the problem. I did take the opportinty to walk up some of the steeper hills while drinking. When I hit the hills it really hurts but my route has a fast finish with the last 5KM consisting of 4KM downhill while the last KM is uphill. Finished the run in 1 hout 39 minutes which again I was pleased with.

The right side of my groin is still a concern and was tightening through the run. I will need to do more stretching to try and help with this.

Weight this morning was 88.7KG

LarMan

Tuesday

Did the reverse loop of last Saturdays run. I was faster by 40 seconds with the last KM all uphill and into a headwind. What was most pleaseing was that each KM was done in under 6 minutes. I was very happy to have done this on the last uphill KM as previously it would have taken at least 30 seconds more so I see that as a real improvement in my fitness.

LarMan

Wednesday

9 X 400 meter intervals. Weight was 88.6KG this morning

LarMan

Thursday

So I am now only 4 weeks away from the race date and I am still on plan. I am now in week 9 of the 12 week plan. Thursday's run was a 3 mile run. Alot of which was uphill. No drama although those first few Kms always feel tougher than I expect them to be.

scriba

Inspiring stuff Larman. It's great to read about someone ahead of you in their training. Keep it up!

LarMan

Sunday

Today on the schedule was a 15KM race, well I have no race to do so I set my goal of doing the 15KM in under 1 hour 30 minutes. The route was a couple of laps of my home town, this would include some hills but also some down hill so good opportunity to recover.

First lap was fine, my groin felt a little strained but nothing much. I had asked my son to have a drink ready for me on the start of the second lap and he was duly there so I took a minute to take some fluid on board and then the second lap. I hit my tarkeg of doing it in less than 1:30 but only just.

After the run I did some stretches to try and combat the groin strains I am having after the long runs, I think this helped as I was not as sore afterwards.

Only 4 more weeks of training before the race with this week being the longest in terms of milage.

One thing that is concerning me is that my toes are going numb at about the 10KM mark. I eventually got some feeling back into them by curling the toes a few times but it is quiet disconcerting.

Weight was 88.6KG this morning, diet wise I was pretty good so the fact the weight is not going down is dissapointing.

Krusty_Clown

Where did you buy your shoes? Are you sure they're the right size? It's a good idea to move the toes around anyway.

LarMan

I bought them in Amphibian King in Bray after trying on a few pairs. It only happens with the longer runs. Anything up to 5 miles is not a problem.

LarMan

Tuesday

5 mile run. I had to do this during my lunch break as I have a busy evening ahead. First part was downhill for the most part, funny how this is the nicest part of the run. What goes downhill must go back uphill so the second part had a tough hill to get up. Neverless another run under my belt. I did notice that the numbness in my toes was there from the 5KM mark and I am now thinking that it happens only on the uphill sections. I may be putting more pressure on my toes on these uphill sections.

Weight was still at 88.6KG this morning

LarMan

Wednesday

45 minute tempo run. Tough finish as the last two kilometers are uphill, so even though I slowed down it still felt like a tough finish.

Weight today is 87.9 KG

LarMan

Thursday

Light Jog into town, 2 KM and then I had a meeting for a half hour. Then ran home 5KM. This was slow going uphill and I didn't get a chance to stretch out fully afterwards so I am feeling it today in the legs so glad today Friday is a rest day. I won't be running on Saturday till after 5 pm so that will be nearly 48 hours so plenty of time to recover.

Weight was back up to 88.6kg which was wierd.

LarMan

Sunday

Took Saturday off as it was very busy and felt tired. So Sunday was an 11 mile slow run. I decided to try a new route along the Bray to Greystones cliff path. About 5KM of this is on a fairly narrow path and given the weather it was busy with walkers. There were also some puddles from the previous days rain.

The great thing about this path is that you have to watch where you step as it would be quiet easy to turn your ankle so it helped my keep the pace slow. I fet pretty good after the run.

11 miles in 1:52

LarMan

Tuesday

Looked pretty grim outside this evening so put on 3 layers one of which was a waterproof jacket and haeaded out for a 5 mile steady run. First couple of KMs were faster than I should have done them, but it is hard to check pace in the dark and I try to run by feel, as in if I feel jaded I'm running to fast.

Got a little lost on my chosen route so ended up going a little further than I had mapped out. It's amazing how something as simple as adding a new route through a housing state can make you look forward to a run. I have run this route many times but because I added a new section it felt like a new run.

Completed the route earlier than anticipated due to the detour but that meant I had more time for a good warm down so no soreness today

Weight on the scales was 87.9kg this morning which is down by nearly a kilo on yesterday morning.

ger664

Your weight can swing +- 4lbs daily depending mainly on your level of hydration.

Only weigh yourself once a week at the same time. Morning is best when you get up or just before a workout when you should be fully hydrated. Once you do it at the same time each week you will get more consistent figures.

LarMan

Thanks Ger, I always weight first thing in the morning, for consistency I am weighing myself each morning to see if I can see any pattern to my weight loss, weight gain and how it relates to the runs I am doing. I can't see anything as yet though. I do only weigh in once a week officially.

While at times I have days that are not great food wise, for the most part I am pretty good, coupled with doing close to 30 miles a week in running I would have expected a nice steady weight loss but since Christmas I have not really lost anything, about 3 kilos. Some of that is down to what I eat but I feel I should still be seeing better results than I am.

Anyway this week I vowed to be very clean diet wise so I will see how it goes this week.

LarMan

Wednesday

45 minute tempo run, the middle part of the run is downhill so the pace picks up dramaticaly, the last part of the run is uphill so I aim to keep the pace under 6 minutes per kilometer which is a hard slog but I did it.

I also did a bootcamp class in the gym today (Thursday) I found this very difficult felt like getting sick on the second round, the class was at 6:45 am so no breakfast before hand which can't have helped. However I was surprised at how bad I was. I felt like giving up but I will do another class on Tuesday and take it easy until I'm at the point I can do it a bit easier.

I am doing these classes in addition to the running to try and accelerate my weight loss which has stalled over the last few months and also to build up some strenght in my muscles which will hopefully help my running as my core is like jelly

Krusty_Clown

Running and weight loss is a funny thing. I'll run 65-75 mpw for a couple of months, and nothing. Then suddenly pounds will start to drop off. Doesn't seem to be a pattern.

Nice run along the Bray/Greystones path isn't it? The run over the top of the cliffs is pretty amazing too. Best thing is to head over the cliffs on the way out, and come back along by the sea (or vice versa). Hilly, but worth it. There are some nice hilly country roads around Windgates/Glen of the Downs that are worth exploring too.