Things will come to those who wait...

belcarra

P - What or where exactly is Oldbridge (Drogheda?) and how long are the trails or whatever yo were running on??
Any other info as I'm just a little curious.

pconn062

belcarra wrote: »

P - What or where exactly is Oldbridge (Drogheda?) and how long are the trails or whatever yo were running on??
Any other info as I'm just a little curious.

Yes sorry, I should explain. Oldbridge is just outside Drogheda (just off the M1 in fact) and was the site of the Battle of the Boyne (if you remember your history!). Basically it is a large estate, with Oldbridge house, an estate house now converted to a museum, being the primary feature. The site also contains a number of fields, mostly grassland but a few trails as well. The grass in well maintained but is also very short due to the amount of people who run there. Because there are a number of fields which are all joined, you basically end up running laps. But the laps are quite large, ranging from about 1k up to 4 miles if you do the outward most loop. We did 2.8 mile laps this morning. It's a great place to run, usually very dry ground and some challenging hills and inclines. Very popular down here for runners and walkers. There are also toilets which you can change in and a cafe that serves food and hot drinks and stuff at the weekend.

pconn062

7 miles @ 7.36 pace

This was a special run, not necessarily special in a good way, but special. Set out in the dark with my headtorch into the awful weather this evening. Was going fine for the first 5 miles until I made my way down along the sea for the run home. The sea was wild, throwing waves over the wall onto the road in front of me. The wind and rain were pounding into my face, mixing with the sea water, stinging my eyes. Was slightly spooky running around on deserted country roads on my own in the pitch dark with the awful weather, with just the occasional car passing, which itself raises the heart rate by a few beats. Situations like this make you more alert of your surroundings and your senses become hyper sensitive. You become aware of all the rustlings behind you and every shadow on the road and in the hedges. As miserable as the conditions were and as spooky the whole thing was, there was simply nowhere else I would have rather been at that moment in time. Was awesome to be out and experiencing something like this. Without sounding too cheesy, it makes you feel really alive.

So another week out of the way, with more respectable mileage, 50.5 in total. The body feels pretty good, some niggles but hopefully all the extra strength work I am doing will start to pay off in that respect. Hoping to get up to 55 miles next week. There is a BHAA race on next Saturday, I don;t intend to run it but I'm somewhat expecting a call from the coach saying he is going up. If it's a mudbath, I'm not going near it!

MYTD: 79

AuldManKing

Great post P, but as you felt alive, with the wind rustling behind you and the senses heightened, did your arm sleeves irritate you?

pconn062

AuldManKing wrote: »

Great post P, but as you felt alive, with the wind rustling behind you and the senses heightened, did your arm sleeves irritate you?

Ha, I wasn't wearing arm sleeves, just a compression top, t-shirt, long sleeved top, hi-vis jacket, hat, gloves, running tights and headtorch. You know, the usual.

pconn062

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 7 miles @ 7.26 pace w/4 stride outs

Knew it was a bad idea to delay this run until the afternoon. As soon as I stepped out of my car it started raining, sods law. Enjoyable run all round despite the mank weather, legs felt fairly good apart from a reoccurring niggle in my left shin. Did a few strides at the end, my form was pretty bad for these and I felt awkward. The grass was slippy and I didn't trust myself not to fall over, not a lot of grip in a pair of Kinvara's. Tempo run tomorrow night at the club, my coach is going to join us so will be on our toes.

MYTD: 86

Stazza

Been through your log since Sept - present. Do you want me to pm you my thoughts or do you want them on the log? The good news is, even though you are improving nicely, with some smarter training there's huge room for improvement. Also, I think you are selling yourself way short with your goals for this year.

pconn062

Stazza wrote: »

Been through your log since Sept - present. Do you want me to pm you my thoughts or do you want them on the log? The good news is, even though you are improving nicely, with some smarter training there's huge room for improvement. Also, I think you are selling yourself way short with your goals for this year.

Oh wow, really appreciate you taking the time to do that Stazza, very good of you. I'm not afraid of a bit of criticism so don't mind if you post it here in public (as long as you don't mind), might be useful to some other people as well.

Might as well throw today's training in here while I'm here.

Today

AM: 4 miles @ 7.46
PM: 7 miles w/4 mile tempo in 24:40 + 4x200m strides

Easy run early this morning before breakfast, always struggle a bit with these runs, mentally more than anything. Good to get a few double days in though.
Then out to the track tonight for the session, another 4 mile tempo. Conditions were very similar to last week although it was a bit colder this week. This felt tougher than last week, was working hard after a mile and a half but managed to keep the pace steady. Went thought halfway in 12:17 so only bled a few seconds on the the second two mile. Finished off with a few strides, these felt good, splits were 37, 36, 35, 36. Not pushing too hard on these but rather just tried to concentrate on good form, getting up well on my toes. Going to finish off with a bit of a strength session tonight, maybe a bit of foam rolling.

MYTD: 97

Stazza

No criticisms just some suggestions that you might like to think about.

For me, given the mileage and commitment that you’re putting in, you’ve got to be gunning for more. From Sept – now you’ve trained well but without any real structure or purpose – there’s a lack of meaningful progression. Yes, you are getting a bit better/stronger but you should be getting more for your buck. I don’t mean you should be banging out 4x1 mile off 90 secs in 4:50 but if you go through the workouts they seem to be all over the place.

If the 1500m is your main goal for the summer and the 5k thereafter, your winter training should be about measurable and progressive sessions that work in cycles of 2-3 weeks. This means uphill circuits that last 4-5 mins with equal rec (these do not need to be plyometric at this stage of your development), which progress into hill reps (alternating 6x2mins @ about 10k effort with jog back rec/10x50 secs @ 5k effort/10x100m at 1500m effort with a 2 min jog back rec or 8x8 sec hill blasts) which pave the way for multi-pace track sessions in the spring/summer. There should be a weekly 5k type session (4x1 mile off 90 secs/ 6x1k off 90 secs - this type of session is a must for a 1500m runner) and there must be a LT session which would be best served in your long run. The LT sessions should be of a rebound nature in the early stages and progress more into Lactate shunt sessions. Your easy runs should be very easy, much easier than they are and they should, as much as possible, be on soft surfaces. AIS is a must if you want to avoid injury and develop a powerful and efficient stride. Drills and strides should be in there too ( I notice you’ve introduced some pick ups and strides etc – good).

So, main sessions for the week –
Long run: 10-14 miles with some form of LT work
A hill session of some sort
A 5k type session
Easy runs in between.
AIS
Myrtles after some of the easy runs with clams, reverse clams and lying leg raises.

3 months of the above (Feb through April then transition into the track May and June working on multi-pace training; july and Aug fine tuning the speed endurance and looking to run sub 4:05) Two week break and start building with some real purpose for 2015. Happy days.

pconn062

Great stuff Stazza, appreciate you taking the time to post that. Lots to look into there and I will definitely take what you're saying and implement it. My training is a bit unstructured definitely, particularly when it comes to what to do for middle distance training. I've only recently made this my main focus so lots to learn, I'm a real greenhorn!

I realise I'm being a bit cheeky here but could I just ask you to explain one thing, the lactate shunt sessions? I've never come across this term before, also when you say "rebound nature"?

Stazza

pconn062 wrote: »

Great stuff Stazza, appreciate you taking the time to post that. Lots to look into there and I will definitely take what you're saying and implement it. My training is a bit unstructured definitely, particularly when it comes to what to do for middle distance training. I've only recently made this my main focus so lots to learn, I'm a real greenhorn!

I realise I'm being a bit cheeky here but could I just ask you to explain one thing, the lactate shunt sessions? I've never come across this term before, also when you say "rebound nature"?

Tomorrow, Grasshopper - bed beckons:D

pconn062

Stazza wrote: »

Tomorrow, Grasshopper - bed beckons:D

With all the great advice you've been giving out here recently, you need all the rest you can get! Again, really appreciate it.

Stazza

First off, don’t worry about asking what something means – my bad I should’ve explained. And please, ask away.

Ok then, Lactate threshold 101 (The Stazza Way)

First off, 95% of the runners I’ve encountered do their Lactate Threshold and Tempo runs too fast. They normally get it wrong because they work out their LT or MP incorrectly and then end up running too fast. They also don’t take into consideration the fact that they are in the middle of a block of training and their real LT is even lower than if they worked it out correctly.

The best way to do LT runs, if you haven’t got the proper means of testing, is to run by feel. Example, yesterday I wanted to bang out 8 miles as a progression run working up to LT. Didn’t happen. Legs were too heavy and tired and so I ended up modifying the 8 miles to incl 4 miles at a moderate pace. My LT pace yesterday would’ve been substantially slower than today. It moves about depending on how your body feels etc.

So what is ‘by feel’? Feel doesn’t mean the pace that you can handle for 60-65mins. It means the effort you could handle for about 60 mins, depending on your ability – most people on here would fall into the 55-60 range. And by feel, you should be running comfortably hard – blowing a bit but not knocking the back out of it; you should be going fast enough so that your mind isn’t thinking about your holidays etc – you need to be focused on maintaining a relaxed rhythm. When you’ve finished a 20 min effort, within a 2 min jog rec you should be able to repeat the 20 mins, no problem. A lot of people go out and run 20-24 mins but most wouldn’t be able to repeat it after a 2 min jog rec. Too fast.

So, we’ll call the 2x20min EFFORT the starting point. This is the easiest session. Yep, you use a watch for the time, but not the pace or distance. We then take this session down to 4x10 mins at the same EFFORT – not pace. The recovery remains at 2 mins. We then take the session down to 3x8 mins at the same effort but now we take 3 mins rec – there’s a good reason for this (but I’m not telling why: it’ll start getting messy). From here we drop down 4x6mins at the same EFFORT off 3mins. Are you ready? Now we rebound out and work our way back up with the exact same EFFORT and recoveries. Once we get back to 2x20 mins – substantial improvement has occurred. What’s even better is that because you haven’t used your Garmin you’re not sure how much improvement you’ve made and that’s part of it.

We then shift into the Lactate shunt sessions. These are awesome and they too are done in a rebound style. Here’s how they go:
1.3x (8mins at LT EFFORT, 1 min jog rec, 1 min at 5k EFFORT, 3 min jog rec) How great is that, ay?
2. 4x(6mins at LT EFFORT, 1 min jog rec, 1 min at 5k EFFORT, 3min jog rec) You’re liking these babies, aren’t ya?
3. 5x(5mins at LT EFFORT, 1 min jog rec, 1 min at 5k EFFORT, 3 min jog rec) Super-smashing-great I hear you cry.
4. 8x(3mins at LT EFFORT, 1 min jog rec, 1 min at 5k EFFORT, 3 min jog rec) This is the daddy of all daddies.
And then, yep, you’ve guessed, we rebound back up. And how fit are you now? Don’t forget you’ve been doing your hills and 5k pace session and your AIS and your supplementary strength and condition work and I haven't even started to talk about balance and coordination and how to smile for the camera before you kick off the bend. Hope this helps – this is the beginners stuff.

pconn062

Stazza, that's brilliant, thanks for taking the time to post that. It's great to have someone posting on here who really knows what they are talking about. I'm going to take everything you said into consideration and put it into plan. Hopefully I will reap the benefits of it during the summer!

Stazza

My pleasure. If you need any help, just ask...

belcarra

pconn062 wrote: »

Stazza, that's brilliant, thanks for taking the time to post that. It's great to have someone posting on here who really knows what they are talking about. I'm going to take everything you said into consideration and put it into plan. Hopefully I will reap the benefits of it during the summer!

That's some dig at poor RFR!! Harsh, but true though!:D

pconn062

Thursday: 5.2 miles @ 8.47 pace

Friday: 4.5 miles/no watch

This is week where real life got in the way of running. Usually I am pretty good at fitting in my running no matter what but the next 9 days are really going to challenge me. I have to head to Dublin tomorrow morning and stay over until Sunday evening for a work thing. I am also trying to move house between this week and next week and to make matters work I have a load of issues to sort out at my old house. Then to top it all off, I have to go to Cork next weekend for two days for a conference. After next Sunday everything will be back to normal but it also looks like Raheny is going to have to take a hit. Will try and squeeze a run in tomorrow before I go to Dublin (long run will have to miss out) and the rest of the week will all be about fitting in whatever training I can.

Stoopid real life.

MYTD: 107

Stazza

Chin up kidda:)

How did it feel running without a watch?

pconn062

Felt fine actually. I actually don't use a Garmin a lot, maybe only 2 times a week. The rest of the time I just use a stopwatch to record the overall time. I fact I'm well known in the club for my old, pink Casio stopwatch!

ThePiedPiper

I hear you're moving into the parish here... I think..

pconn062

RunForestRun wrote: »

I hear you're moving into the parish here... I think..

I am, might see you at Mass!

pconn062

Saturday: 7 miles in 54 minutes

Sunday: 7 miles/no watch


Two easy runs to finish off the week, lovely run tonight in the dark with the headtorch down by the sea, lots of boats out in the calm weather. I am taking Stazza's advice on board and am going to slow my easy runs down. I always run these at the faster end of my easy pace which was perhaps hampering my recovery slightly so it's easy street on these runs from here on in. The Garmin is being left at home as well.

So 42 miles for the week, no what I was hoping for but the best I could do with the week that was in it. Have to change me days around this week as I won't be able to run next Saturday so I will train tomorrow instead. Going to try a hill session and then a tempo run on Wednesday. Will wait until next week before starting 5k interval work.

MYTD: 121

madon

pconn062 wrote: »

Did this again out in Oldbridge, it really is a great place to do long runs. If I was training for a marathon (which I have no intention of doing) I would be doing all my long runs out here.

I run out there quite a lot, along with the routes around old bridge itself they are finally building the path up by the canal- although the ramparts are blocked (again:roll eyes:) when its all ready to go (probably take another five years:p) the whole area will be runner territory.

pconn062

Monday: 5.5 miles w/strides

Tuesday: 8 miles

Wednesday

AM: 3.5 miles easy
PM: 8.5 miles easy w/2x20 minute tempo

Hill work got cancelled on Monday, just didn't have time enough time with work and the house move. Did a short easy run and some strides at the end to make up for it.

Tuesday was another easy run, felt good, had no watch on either of these runs as I've seemed to mislaid them during the move.

Yesterday I decided to try the first of Stazza's tempo runs. He was absolutely right in saying that I was doing my tempos a bit too fast so wanted to start correcting that right away. Had a good group doing this which made it much easier. Again I had no watch for this so was just going by the lads pace. First 20 minutes at 6.20 pace and this felt comfortable. 2 mins rest and we were off again. Again this rep felt good, working a bit towards the end but certainly not going into the red, 6.18 pace. I think I possibly went from one extreme to another, maybe did this slightly too easy and felt a little bit too comfortable but will get it right at some stage. Probably better to do it slightly too easy that slight too hard. Good session, really enjoyed it.

Going to just run easy for the rest of the week, finally have this move out of the way so should be a bit more organised. I have to go to Cork at the weekend which is a pain but after Sunday things will return to normality. Shame I'm missing Raheny this weekend but there will be other races.

MYTD: 146

Stazza

pconn062 wrote: »

Monday: 5.5 miles w/strides

Tuesday: 8 miles

Wednesday

AM: 3.5 miles easy
PM: 8.5 miles easy w/2x20 minute tempo

Hill work got cancelled on Monday, just didn't have time enough time with work and the house move. Did a short easy run and some strides at the end to make up for it.

Tuesday was another easy run, felt good, had no watch on either of these runs as I've seemed to mislaid them during the move.

Yesterday I decided to try the first of Stazza's tempo runs. He was absolutely right in saying that I was doing my tempos a bit too fast so wanted to start correcting that right away. Had a good group doing this which made it much easier. Again I had no watch for this so was just going by the lads pace. First 20 minutes at 6.20 pace and this felt comfortable. 2 mins rest and we were off again. Again this rep felt good, working a bit towards the end but certainly not going into the red, 6.18 pace. I think I possibly went from one extreme to another, maybe did this slightly too easy and felt a little bit too comfortable but will get it right at some stage. Probably better to do it slightly too easy that slight too hard. Good session, really enjoyed it.

Going to just run easy for the rest of the week, finally have this move out of the way so should be a bit more organised. I have to go to Cork at the weekend which is a pain but after Sunday things will return to normality. Shame I'm missing Raheny this weekend but there will be other races.

MYTD: 146

If you're a real person and you really did that session, then really well done: Paddy the Kenyan was explaining to me about multiple identities and trolls and how the internet works and the like:o.

So, if we presume you're real and the people you did the run with are 'real', then that's a great start. Sounds like you got it just about right. And like you say, better to start a bit slow. Well done.

pconn062

Stazza wrote: »

If you're a real person and you really did that session, then really well done: Paddy the Kenyan was explaining to me about multiple identities and trolls and how the internet works and the like:o.

So, if we presume you're real and the people you did the run with are 'real', then that's a great start. Sounds like you got it just about right. And like you say, better to start a bit slow. Well done.

I assure you I'm very real! Paddy the Kenyan sounds a bit paranoid! I've had this training log going for over two years, that would be a long time to spend pretending to be someone I'm not!

belcarra

pconn062 wrote: »

I've had this training log going for over two years, that would be a long time to spend pretending to be someone I'm not!

That's exactly what TRR would want us to believe!!

Cleanman

pconn062 wrote: »

I assure you I'm very real!

Himself and RFR are actually the same person. One half of him is a track fairy and the other is a hardened marathoner:pac:. One of these days, we'll all find out his true identity and it'll turn out he doesn't run at all:p

ThePiedPiper

I'm really annoyed I'm missing Raheny this weekend too. But I'm afraid this big house party I'm having will take its toll on me. Very strange that I'm having a house party on the same weekend that PConn is moving into a new house. very strange indeed.

I'm still very annoyed that this bloody track fairy, PConn, beat me in the Jingle Bells race by 1 second. But then, I'm always beating myself up over things like that..

pconn062

RunForestRun wrote: »

I'm really annoyed I'm missing Raheny this weekend too. But I'm afraid this big house party I'm having will take its toll on me. Very strange that I'm having a house party on the same weekend that PConn is moving into a new house. very strange indeed.

I'm still very annoyed that this bloody track fairy, PConn, beat me in the Jingle Bells race by 1 second. But then, I'm always beating myself up over things like that..

I'm just very annoyed that you're having a big party in your house on Saturday night and you haven't invited me!