The Road to Berlin

macinalli

Getting slack at keeping this log up to date. Anyways, Monday was the usual 8k progression run with the work crew. In hindsight this was not a good idea with the half marathon still in the legs - feeling a few niggles by the end. Tuesday was a 5.5k recovery run - nice and easy, followed by todays fartlek session - about another 8k.

All in all the running is going well lately, but I need to start up again on my core work. I've had problems before with tight glutes and a couple of weeks doing planks tends to make them go away. Some discipline is needed!

YTD: 638.7k

macinalli

Thursday was a nice recovery day - 4.5k at a nice relaxed pace. Followed by some drinks later that evening, which led to a ropey session of 400's today. My running buddy had tired legs from a midweek race - I was happy that he was only doing 4 reps - times of 83, 80, 81, 79 off 50 sec recovery.

Plan for tomorrow is a Wicklow Way recce - am running the relay next week and need to check out my leg!

YTD: 647.7k

macinalli

My leg of the WW Relay is leg 8 - outside Tinahely to Shilellagh. Turns out to be a bloody long way from Dublin! It's down as 10k so parked up and ran about 5 miles of the course, before doubling back to the car. Didn't run all of it as it's a clear run to the finish line and wanted to get back to see the rugby. And as a Spurs fan I'm feeling pretty disgusted with Bayern - how many chances do you want to win a game?!?

A good weeks training, just under 50k run with a few good sessions at the start of the week. Looking forward to the relay next weekend!

YTD: 663.9k

macinalli

Monday is always a progression run and today was pretty quick with the warm weather. Was feeling good but about 500m from home I felt a right knot in my calf and pulled the session. Nothing serious - a niggle that's been there for a couple of weeks decided to make itself heard. New plan for the week is easy running with lots of stretching, hopefully will be gone for the WW relay at the weekend.

YTD: 671.9k

macinalli

Super-frustrating week. No running, lots of stretching and no improvement. Went for a 5k jog this morning, I can run ok, but there's a constant ache and I know that speed is out of the question. Training for Berlin is supposed to start on Monday - my new plan is to go to the physio ins tea. Annoying.

YTD: 677.5k

macinalli

A week interrupted by work travel, but sadly not much training to report anyways. Went to the physio on Monday morning who decided that I'm just pretty stiff and inflexible - the knot in my calf is just a case of the tightness having to make an appearance somewhere. Was given calf stretches to do twice a day every day, and some stretches for everything else to be done twice a week. It'll take a lot of discipline, but something that just needs to be done. Stretches for lower back, hamstrings, quads, ITB, calf & achilles - the works really!

Was told that I'm ok to get back running, but not to run through any tightness; instead I'm just to stop & stretch. Got a couple of short runs in abroad (30 degrees in south of France!) and then a longer one in this morning - 8k, my longest run in 2 weeks!

Week 1 of my 18 week training for Berlin and I managed a whopping 17k. NO cause for alarm bells yet - I've a good base built up already this year so will focus again for the next week on being a good boy and getting this calf sorted.

YTD: 694.5k

macinalli

So far it's been a good week of running and stretching, with runs of 8, 4.5 and 8k on Mon-Wed. These have all been accompanied by my exercises and the calf is definitely on the mend. Will keep at it til next Monday when hopefully I'll start marathon training proper.

An interesting point was that the physio diagnosed the tightness as being due to neural tension, which explains why my legs are tight all over. It put me thinking about this thread that Heffsarmy posted before and I decided to give it a go. Tried to touch my toes, got nowhere. Did the head/neck exercises and tried again - got about 3 inches closer! All very strange! Later that night I was back to square one, but I thought it was interesting and have included it in my regular stretching.

YTD: 715k

macinalli

Last Thurs & Fri were two very wet 5k runs - not exactly enjoyable but still felt good to be out. Took the weekend off as I was away at a wedding and today was a run home from work, followed by a bit extra with the dog when I got in.

I'm officially now on week 3 of my P&D 18 week plan for Berlin but so far I haven't followed any of the sessions! The calf is improving all the time and it was about 10 minutes into todays run before I felt any tightness at all. Plan for the week is to run every day, but won't take part in the fartlek or track sessions. Hopefully I'll get my first LSR of the programme done on Saturday, fingers crossed!

YTD: 734.7k

macinalli

Tuesday was the usual 4.5k recovery run - nice and relaxed, didn't feel the niggle at all. Which meant I changed my tack completely and joined in the fartlek on Wednesday! I was struggling with the pace - my first bit of fast running in 3.5 weeks, and eventually bowed out about 3/4 of the way through as the niggle was threatening again. All was good again afterwards after some stretching so I definitely think the niggle is on the way out. Today was a cold, wet 10.3k around the Phoenix Park. Finished pretty quick - think I had one eye on the footie kick off. Come on Ireland!

YTD: 757.5k

macinalli

Friday is a track session with the guys at work but didn't want to push it. The leg is almost right again and the priority was to get my first LSR for Berlin down in the morning - an easy 5k at lunch time.

Today then was the LSR which I did in the Phoenix Park this morning. Got soaked in the first 5k, dried off over the next 10k and then got absolutely drowned between the 18 & 20k mark. A couple of the guys I run with at work used to train with the late great Noel Carroll, who apparently used to say that "there's no such thing as bad weather, only weak men". A super line, but I felt pretty good as I kept going through the deluge while others were running for cover! Finished up today with 23.6k in 2.04 - an average pace of 5.16/km which is just what I was hoping for. The leg also felt fine today - only felt it going up the Kyber after about 16k. Will keep up the stretching but am happy that it's all going the right way.

Looking back at the week that was, I did 6 runs, totaling 62k. Not much speed work in there, but a good week all the same. Will start following the P&D 55mile plan properly from Monday - the hard work starts now!

YTD: 786.1k

macinalli

Monday is usually a tempo run at work and I wanted to try and bring this into line with the P&D schedule. Ended up doing about 1.5k warmup, 7.5k progression run (average 4.30/km) followed by a 3k warm down. Very tired at the end of that. Today was a recovery run and again I'm trying to add distance in - a nice relaxed 7k.

YTD: 805.1k

macinalli

Wednesday was supposed to be 12k general aerobic but the guys were doing a fartlek session so I decided to join at least some of it. The legs were tired before I even started so wasn't too sure. Started off with an easy 2.3k warm-up, but after about 4k of the fartlek I was starting to feel the pace and pulled out. Carried on then for another bit on my own - brought the session up to 11k.

Thursday was a recovery run - nice easy 7k. Today was also supposed to be recovery but there was a hill session on that I enjoy. It's a very restrained session - 5 times up a 380m hill, target pace of 1.30 each time. We hadn't done it in a couple of months and the effect of the track training was really obvious - first 2 reps were 1.24 and 1.25:eek: After that a bit of disciple kicked in and the last 3 were 1.29 - 1.30. A nice warm down brought the day to 9k.

Plan tomorrow is about 25k in the Park, we'll see what effect these unplanned sessions had!

macinalli

Today was an LSR in the Phoenix Park which felt great throughout! Ended up at 24.5k in 2hrs10, an average pace of 5.18/k which is pretty close to my target. Started off nice and easy, first 10k took 54 mins. Was a bit tired until 4k when the legs loosened up and got into a nice rhythm. My 2nd 10k was in 53 mins, again felt relaxed. After 19k I turned for home and got hit with a strong wind at my back, and from there on it was a struggle to keep the pace slower than 5.00/k! A nice complaint, and it's great to to a long run and finish up feeling like you could have done more.

Looking back at the week, it was 6 days running for a total of 70.5k. Feeling good about Berlin in that the race is over 3 months away and I'm getting some good quality running in. Just a case of keeping it up for the next 13 weeks:rolleyes:

macinalli

Tough run today - 12.8k with 8k at pace. Came in at 38.00 for the 8k, was hoping to be closer to 36.00 but was a bit off the pace. Lost about 30 sec with a dead end due to some building works, but the rest was just due to tiredness - the LSR on Sat took more out of me than I thought. Still, a good session, and probably my only one for the week. A busy week ahead, will just try and get some easy running in whenever I can.

YTD: 869.4k

macinalli

7.4k recovery run, legs were v tired at the start but loosened up nicely. Bloody warm out there!

YTD: 876.8k

macinalli

Wed was silly with lots of travel followed by family stuff - no run. Thurs & Fri were both 8k easy runs, squeezed in between the chaos. Happy to just get out! Tomorrow is a tough day in the Park, an LSR with 16k at race pace - will be interesting!

YTD: 892.8k

macinalli

Was a bit unsure of how to handle this weeks LSR - P&D have demanded 16miles with 10 at race pace, my first run of this type. My plan was to do an easy 5 miles, find 10 miles that I could get a good run at around the Phoenix Park, and a 1 mile trot home afterwards.

My first 5 miles were a bit of a mess to be honest - pace was far too relaxed. Stopped for a toilet break and to chat to some people that had done the race series 5 miler - it was more like a race warmup than part of an LSR. Anyways, after 7.5k I started onto my 10miles at pace, which was not easy at all. Target was 75/76 minutes for the 10 which I thought would be ok. My PB for the distance is 69.xx but I hadn't realised how much race day adrenalin gives you! Found it very hard to maintain the pace at the start and the first 5 miles was in 39ish. Dug in for the 2nd 5 miles and finished up in 77mins dead. A jog back to Stoneybatter left me with a very mixed 25.3k.

YTD: 918.1k

macinalli

Monday was our usual progression run - the plan is usually to start off at about 5 mins per km and build up to about 4 min/km. My new routine is to do a nice 1 mile warmup, then 4 miles in 28.24, followed by a 3 mile cooldown. It felt a tough run, especially after the LSR on Sat. Good session though! Today then was a nice recovery run, 7.5k around campus at a nice relaxed pace.
From tomorrow I'm abroad for 8 days; will bring the gear but will probably just keep to the easy running.

YTD: 937.9k

macinalli

8 days in Italy where the weather was damn hot. My plan was to get a few easy runs in - just to keep things ticking over really. Managed to get 4 runs in, each about 35 minutes - not many kms, but hard going in 30deg C!

Got back late Wed, followed by an easy 5k with the work group on Thurs. A recovery run for them, I spent most of the time complaining about the cold! Today then was a hill session, 5 reps up a 380m hill at 85 seconds. All felt very easy:) Did a 4k warm down to bring the session to about 9k.

Back to reality with a bang tomorrow - 29k LSR in the Phoenix Park:eek:

macinalli

18 mile LSR in 2.36. I hadn't run longer than 10k in almost 2 weeks so I knew this one would be tough and it duly obliged! At the start I just couldn't get on the pace - every time I hit a hill the pace dropped and I would just plod along at 9.00 - 9.30 per mile. Target pace was 8.30 per mile so this wasn't good. I improved as the run went on and my second 9 miles was much better. I ran this as an out and back LSR. The 9 miles going out was run in 79.30; the run home was 76.30! By and large I'm happy with this run - I needed a harsh session to get my head back in marathon training gear and this was it.

macinalli

8k easy run at lunch time. This is often a tempo session but the weather was awful and the legs were feeling pretty tired after the long run - was happy to change to an easy run and lots of stretching afterwards.

macinalli

Legs just recovered after the weekends LSR, did a bit of a double take when I saw P&Ds plan for today - 19k easy run. Not used to these distances mid-week - this was going to be a shock. Am home alone this week so decided to try and bring the dog along for the first half of the run. Ended up cutting it to 5.7k as the dog just couldn't cope with the heat and wanted to stop constantly! That 5.7k took 40 minutes - v easy pace:P
Deposited dog at home and took off again for the rest of the run - turned out I couldn't handle the heat either. Although the pace was fine, the run was anything but easy. Still, job done 20.6k covered with 14.9k in 77 mins flat - 5.10/k. Tired legs now and a protesting toenail - could be the first casualty of Berlin training.

macinalli

P&D said rest on Wednesday but the legs were sore from my 'easy' run in the heat & humidity - decided to go for a v slow recover run. 5k in 33 minutes, followed by lots of stretching. Good idea!

Today though was back on the hard stuff - a 10 mile run, include 6 miles at lactate threshold pace. I'm still not too sure what my LT pace is, but P&D say something between my 10k pace (6.30) and my HM pace (7.10). I was still tired from the other runs (permanently tired these days!) so decided to go for the lower end - about 7.00/mile. A nice easy warm up - about 3.2 miles in 30 minutes before heading off. First mile was 7.20, after that the next 4 were all 7.10, before fading to 7.18 on the last. Total for the 6 miles was 43.18; I was on my own for this one and it's not easy to keep on pace but it was a true run session and I was well happy with that. Finished with a 0.8 miles jog back to the sports centre on tired legs to complete the 10 miles.

beeduybe

macinalli wrote: »

I'm still not too sure what my LT pace is, but P&D say something between my 10k pace (6.30) and my HM pace (7.10).

I think P&D actually recommend between 15k and HM pace which should be a bit slower than your pace for 10k. Not a problem for yesterdays run since your pace stayed around HM pace anyway but something to keep in mind for your future LT runs.

macinalli

I feel a bit better knowing that! That type of session is tough anyways, but it's a bit harder when the legs are tired before I even started

macinalli

Friday was a nice easy 7.5k - just let the legs recover from the LT session on Thursday before the weekends LSR.

Today then was my first 20 miler of the programme and also my first time running with the Boards crew. Good company on the run - we had meno & raycun for the first part, basster for the second part and digger and claralara for the lot. The pace felt relaxed throughout and every time I glanced at the watch we seemed to be just inside the 8.30 pace. Lots of good chat and the miles just flew by; didn't feel tired til we reached farmleigh which was about 15/16 miles into the run. Came home in 2.50 for the 20 miles which is bang on 8.30 pace - thanks folks!

Looking back on the week, I had 6 days running including a tough 'easy 12 miles' in the heat, an LT session and a 20 mile LSR. Total for the week was 89k; delighted with this and I definitely feel like I'm back on track. Will have a well deserved beer or 2 tonight:)

macinalli

Monday was a scheduled recovery run after the weekend 20miler and it was needed! Muscles protesting for the first few k but felt good. A nice easy 8k in total.

Tuesday was a longer run - ended up doing 21.6k in 1hr55. Started with a loop around UCD, then along the canal, through the Phoenix Park and home. At the start there was a lovely misty rain to keep me cool, but after a while that gave away to miserable weather and was soaked by the time I got in. Still, a good run for a weekday evening.

Wednesday was a very short 4.5k followed by lots of stretching. Deliberately cut the run short to allow for this and I'm thinking it was a good idea. Plan now is easy running for rest of the week, followed by a PMP run at the weekend.

macinalli

Getting very slack at keeping this up to date. Anyhoo, Thursday was an easy run day - 9k at a relaxed pace. Felt a couple of niggles on the run which wouldn't go away, will need to keep an eye on this.

Friday was 8.5k easy with 6x100m strides at the end. Had always wondered about the benefits of strides but I'm being convinced! Saturday was a PMP run and the legs felt loose from the start. The plan was 16miles with 12 at race pace (7.30 per mile). After a 3mile warm-up I tried to keep the pace constant and then took time checks at 4mile intervals. All things going to plan these would be at 30mins. The splits for the run turned out to be 30.31, 30.03 and 29.57 for the 4 miles so I was well happy with that. Conditions out there were quite tough and the 30secs lost on the first split were all coming up the upper glen road in the Phoenix Park - up hill, into the breeze and I think I was just a bit conservative. From then on I was very focussed and felt pretty comfortable throughout. Finished with a 1mile run home that was supposed to be easy - ended up doing 7.40 pace without noticing it!

Looking back on the week then it was 6 days running for a total of 78k. Lots of easy running and a PMP session at the end - it all felt pretty easy so definitely signs of progress. Next week is the first of the VO2 max sessions - I think there'll be nothing easy about those!

macinalli

Monday was a nice easy run - 12.5k at a nice relaxed pace.

Today was a different animal altogether - my first VO2 max session in the P&D plan. When I headed out for my run it was lashing down rain so I decided to leave the session til tomorrow. After about 5k I was told that the forecast was crap for the week, and all of a sudden it stopped raining. Took that as a sign and got set for the session. 5 reps of 800m at 5k pace, which I reckon to be about 6.15/mile. I decided then to go for about 3.05 - 3.10 for my 800m reps. Took off for the first one, way too hard, finished in 3.01. Realised then that I had no idea what my recovery was to be, decided on the cuff to take 2.30. The next 4 were much better - splits of 3.04, 3.07, 3.04 and 3.04. Did a 1.5k warm down and then back for a much needed shower. Tired legs and a complaining glute, but easy running for the rest of the week.

macinalli

Nice easy miles this week, giving the body a chance to recover. Wednesday was recovery - an easy 9k around campus. Thursday was officially a rest day but I find the slow miles helpful - an easy 4.5k. Today was also an easy run - 8.5k, but with 6x100m strides thrown in at the end. I find that these nicely loosen up the legs and enjoy doing them before an LSR.

Tomorrow is a mere 14miles - seems like it should be a doddle after recent weeks. Left the Garmin at work, so will have to just run by feel!