retired footballer to FASTEST MAN IN THE WORLD(at 10k)

Rossin

So my 28yr old legs cant handle Sunday pub league standard football any more , I've always liked my odd run here and there so I've decided to now make it my number one sport! oh and become the best in the world at it

My only real race experience was a 10k last summer(hard 10k I reckon), it was off the back of a football season so I had fitness and I managed 48min which I was delighted with tbh, but after running 1-2 times a week for the last few weeks I ran one in 43.40min the other day(extremely chuffed,it was a very flat fun run thingy, but still.. )

My next target race is a 10k on the 6th May, so 6 weeks...

I'm thinking 40-42min target, I'm not sure what's realistic, but I've ordered my garmin so It will hopefully be easier to judge then, cant wait to get it!

now to make(steal) a plan...

village runner

Best of luck with it.......As your running more watch the paces........Little steps re times.....min her and there is great

Rossin

Okay I'm going to plan my 6 weeks loosely based on these workouts

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056231396

throw in a LSR at the weekend, some hill work, easy run here and there and I think I'm good to go! Bit of gym work here an there just cause I enjoy it really

Going to start 2moro with an easy run as my legs are still a bit tender from the 10k at the weekend, might loosen them up a bit!

Hopefully my garmin will arrive asap and I can try out one of these workouts, get a feel for what I should be aiming for(and what im in for)

Rossin

thanks village runner, I am quite injury prone and have a habit murdering myself doing any sport so ill try be patient...!

Donelson

Yah! With all the triathlete around here I thought us 10km'er were a dying breed. Best if luck with the training, I'll be keeping an were on your log.

Rossin

Ha good to hear Donelson, I'm actually reading through yours now, bit baffled by it tbh, a few questions to follow!

Rossin

So after a moment of clarification during a jog today, I've decided to tone down my plan. Seen as I'm injury prone and relatively new to running I've decided to do most of my training off road for the few weeks up to this race. The plan is to build up some strength in the legs to give them a chance in the long run and ill aim to beat my non race pb of 43.40. Then all going well I can continue my quest to become the fastest man in the world after it

this is me trying to be sensible for the first time ever when it comes to exercise, I guess I want to make sure I can keep this up a lot longer than 6 weeks!

Rossin

WEEK 1/6

Injury update- my left knee while not sore feels like there's something up with it, for this reason I plan on doing all my training on grass for the time being and limit myself to 3 times a week for now. There's also a slight burning sensation that comes and goes on that large muscle to the left of my right knee. I think a trip to the physio is in order when I gets paid

Strength training- felt particularly weak in the gym this week, like about 1/3 of my expected strength, Ill put it down to taking a week off training in prep for my 10k fun run

Weekly Log-
Monday - slow run/jog 5.38km @ 5.38km,
Tuesday - light leg/core weight session and volleyball training for 2 hrs
Wednesday - run 5.35km @ 4.42km followed by a slower run 4.8km @ 5.17km
Thursday - Weight training, upper body
Friday - Core training & my garmin arrived yeeeoo!!
Saturday - LSR 12k @ 5:04km (long for me )
Sunday - Rest


Conclusion- I dont think my niggling injuries are serious, ill continue to ice them and run on grass but will up the work rate a bit. It was great to use the garmin for the first time ill have to read up on its various functions. Still not sure what my target time will be, I guess a pb for now will do

ThePiedPiper

Rossin, it'll be interesting to see how injury-prone you really are now that you're doing running as your main sport, and not football. I used to get a lot of injuries in my teens as a footballer; broken toes, pulled muscles, you name it.. The nature of GAA sports being a series of short, sharp sprints and change of direction, etc. is half the reason that there's so much injury. In 7 years of marathon-running, probably a total of over 10,000 miles training, I've only had two injuries that kept me off the road for longer than a week.

Be sensible with your training. The mindset in GAA is to give 100% in every session. THIS WILL DESTROY YOU IN ATHLETICS. This isn't to say that every session shouldn't have focus and a goal to it, most should. But, as my coach, who was once a 2.18 marathoner has told me often, Train Easy, Race Hard.

I see no reason why you shouldn't progress well at running and be doing sub 40 for the 10k in no time at all. 43 minutes off GAA training is very good, I've seen county/provincial footballers just scaping under 45, so it's nothing to be sniffed at. Best of luck with your new venture into running. It's a very different world from team sports. May I suggest you join an athletics club, as this change from a team sport to completely going solo is massive. A club will bring focus and quality to your training.

Rossin

Thanks for the advice RunForestRun. I will definitely consider joining my local club, the thought had crossed my mind a few times. I guess the next few weeks will be a good way to see what its like on my own first then I can try it out.

Donelson

Just chiming in with runforestrun's comment about 100% in every session being a bad idea. I learnt this the hard way in the last 4 months.
Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
I'll give you one example from my own training, I did a 5km swim for the "craic" about 2 months ago and it took me the guts of a month to get over it.

train as smart a you can and keep up the good work.

Rossin

Week 2/6


Monday 8.00 km Time: 40:27 Avg Pace 5:03 min/km
nice and easy, legs still a bit tight from saturdays lsr


Wednesday 1.63 km Time:6:43 Avg Pace 4:07 min/km
0.82 km Time3:15 Avg Pace 3:57 min/km
3.39 km Time:16:49 Avg Pace 4:58 min/km

okay so this was my attempt at doing some sort of interval training. as you can see it didnt work because I overcooked myself straight away. It was interesting to see how fast I have to run to do less that 4min/km, and i have to admit, its not very comfortable!! After feeling like id wasted a training session I decided to contact my local athletics club. It turned out they were doing a trial run of the race im training for on Saturday, happy days.


Friday - I left my runners in Cork! Decided id buy a new pair and give mine to my brother to try and encourage him...after a quick google amphibian king seemed to be the place to go. off i went and got my gait analysis checked, everything checked out normal thankfully enough. got a nice pair of new balance runners that feel great.

Saturday- 10k - 46min

so I met up with my local club, they said they were running at a slow pace but it turns out they all went at different paces anyway, i stuck with a group that done it in 46min, which was just within my comfort zone I guess. Hard to now if that means I can beat 43.40 on race day?? It's still my target anyway

I'll be meeting the club this evening to train with them, looking forward to it although my calves are still quite sore

Rossin

week 3/6

Tuesday - I went to my local athletics club and done interval training, was very tough but I enjoyed it and definitely worked harder because I was in a group so looking forward to keeping that up

Thursday - I couldn't make training on time so I just went for a run myself, approx 8k 4.7k min/km I would guess

Sunday - 5k @ my approx target race pace of 4.27 then 1.5k @ 5 min/km

I wouldve liked to have done a lsr but wasn't feeling up for it due to a 21st on Friday.

I would like to up the amount of runs I do but legs don't feel up for it. Maybe they'll adapt soon...

Rossin

Week 4/6

Tuesday - interval training
Thursday - Tempo training, 3k x 3 at a fast pace, a lot faster then I'd be racing at anyway!

Saturday - LSR -12.84 km Time:1:06:37 Avg Pace 5:11 min/km

strength work on rest days,upper body & core

Conclusion - I'm going to try and use my garmin during the club training, I hadnt so far because the first time I brought it I couldnt get it to work!

I still wish I was doing more running but legs feel they need the day rest in between, especially with the interval training. I could possibly do 2 x 8k instead of the interval training?? I have to say training with the club feels good, they're pushing me a lot more then I would if I was on my own, but then again maybe I should be out clocking up more miles....

Rossin

Week 5/6


Tuesday - interval training
Thursday - 8k

Saturday - LSR -13.54 km Avg Pace 5:40 min/km , I was running with a friend for the first 7k so was a little slower than id like but lovely run and my distance is going up slightly every week


The race is next Sunday, I'm not feeling great tbh, throat is sore and feeling a bit run down the last week, it doesnt seem to effect me too much when I go out running though so ill do my usual training and hopefully it doesnt get worse for the race...bring it on!!

Still not sure what pace to run it at, so long as its less than 43 I guess id be doing well, I might do a 5k tempo run later in the week to see how I manage 41-42, or maybe ill just go for it and hope for the best

Donelson

Just reading back over your log, your flying, and the race sunday will be no bother to you at all, once the race nerve kick in you'll forget all about your sore throat.

Rossin

ha thanks

I went for a tempo run yesterday to get a feel for running at 4.2km

lasted to 5.4k and stopped as my knee was sore and I felt awful, jogged home then

hopefully not a sign of things to come! Nevertheless im going to aim to run around 4.2km/min, I think on the day ill push through to the end and maybe if i ease off the disprin and what not 2moro ill feel a bit more fresh come sunday

cant believe im run down now when my health has been perfect for well over a year! Anyway there's no excuses, sub 43 or failure

edit: the right side of my right shin is swollen, dont know where this came from, ice ice ice for the next 2 days, fingers crossed

Rossin

So the race went pretty well, I had a few problems along the way in the form of chest pains and the mother of all stitches but made up for it during the slightly less painful periods of the race

1 3:42.4 1.00 3:42

Some guy told me at the start he was aiming for about 40 so I decided I was going to follow him for as long as possible, sure he flew off at the start! I think that gave me the incentive to go pretty fast as well, ducking in and out of peeps along the way.

2 4:07.7 1.00 4:08
3 4:03.9 1.00 4:04

Realised at this stage that I wasnt going to last very long if i kept this pace up so decided to ease off a little, to note its almost all uphill until this point so I was punching way above my weight

4 4:15.0 1.00 4:15
5 4:10.9 1.00 4:11

plodding along, feeling the burn a bit but fine I guess, I noticed I wasnt passing anyone out anymore, there was only people passing me out now and again! My throat was annoying me a lot, Ive had that lump in the throat sensation for just over a week now and its very annoying when running and trying to swallow, urgh

6 4:23.7 1.00 4:24
7 4:33.4 1.00 4:33

2k of pain, had pain in my chest, didnt know what it was, possibly heartburn or something, i don't want to think anything worse! I was afraid to keep pushing it so just kept it steady and concentrated on my breathing

8 4:23.0 1.00 4:23

chest pain was easing off, still people passing me every now and again, no sign of me passing anyone, ever

9 4:42.6 1.00 4:43

well low and behold the worst stitch i've ever felt in my life, I thought I was going to have to stop, it was horrible!

10 4:07.3 1.00 4:07

Thankfully the stitch was gone and with the crowd there to spur me on I ran pretty fast for the last km passing out a good few people, finally! at the bottom of the hill there was a 200 meters to go sign which i mistook for the finish line so i sprinted up to it and then had to do it again up a hill, horrific stuff but I dont think it done my time any harm

That adds up to 41.10 but my chip time is 42.36 so im happy with that, pretty much bang on what I was hoping to get! There is another local race next month so I give that a go and with college finishing soon im going to up my training a bit and start myself on the road so sub 40 woohoo

pconn062

:eek:

That's a brave way to race a 10k!! Well done on the result, keep it up and sub forty should be attainable. I ran 41:10 on New Years Day this year and ran 39:17 last month so it's very possible.

jester1980

Well done mate, nice to hit your target, makes it all worthwhile. That was some pace ya went off at for the 1st k.

DogSlySmile

Well done in the race Rossin. If I had a nickel for every time I've gone out too fast in the first mile of races...:rolleyes:

Be careful about that though, if you go out faster than you are used to you get a build up of lactic acid in your muscles and you can struggle for the rest of the race. As you said you were 'feeling the burn', try to pick a pace that you know you can handle for the entire race. It will make the race all the more enjoyable and you can relax and settle into a rhythm you know you are capable of maintaining.

Best of luck with the training

Rossin

pconn062 wrote: »

:eek:

That's a brave way to race a 10k!! Well done on the result, keep it up and sub forty should be attainable. I ran 41:10 on New Years Day this year and ran 39:17 last month so it's very possible.

not so much brave, more like not knowing what I should be doing

jester1980 wrote: »

Well done mate, nice to hit your target, makes it all worthwhile. That was some pace ya went off at for the 1st k.

Yep the guy I decided to follow was a lot faster than I expected, ill be pacing myself next time!

DogSlySmile wrote: »

Well done in the race Rossin. If I had a nickel for every time I've gone out too fast in the first mile of races...:rolleyes:

Be careful about that though, if you go out faster than you are used to you get a build up of lactic acid in your muscles and you can struggle for the rest of the race. As you said you were 'feeling the burn', try to pick a pace that you know you can handle for the entire race. It will make the race all the more enjoyable and you can relax and settle into a rhythm you know you are capable of maintaining.

Best of luck with the training

Thanks man, there's a race coming up in june so Im going to try and do it using that tactic, maybe slightly faster start and finish but nothing like that one!

My plan to move forward, once my legs have recovered! is to try up my running to 4 days a week, ill just add in an easy run for the moment. Then when I start my job in the summer im going to start swimming as well in the hope it improves my breathing and general fitness while not adding stress on my poor legs!

have to say im really enjoying my running, lots of my friends and family done the run with me yesterday and a few were there at the finish line as well, it was some buzz then straight in for pints afterwards, great day!

Rossin

Race Report:

A strange month for training, between finishing college, starting job, moving house, i was just running whenever i got a chance, no club running or actual routine, just got out and ran about 3-4 times a week, usually about 8-10k and at an easy pace

With that in mind I wasnt sure how this race would go, all i knew was that I trained harder for the last race and that this course was tougher, but I also knew I had another month of running behind me which for a noob probably means more than it would usually.

So with the advice I got above I decided to try run as close to 4.2 as I could for the whole race with the aim of beating my 42.36 time


The break down

4.11
4.20
4.18
4.20
4.21
4.11
4.19
4.19
4.17
3.44

if you add in the milliseconds its comes to 42.25, so just about PB!! felt very comfy though, signing up for the fingal 10k and gonna push myself a little harder, aim for sub 42, small steps

in other news my new apartment is beside the local running club, no excuses now!

Rossin

right so... signed up for the fingal 10k

There's also a 10k in ardee and annagassan not long after so plenty of opportunities to improve my time

Went back to the running club last night(now that I live beside it!), I ran with the B group which tbh were a little slow, didn't feel like id worked that hard after it, problem is with the A group it'd be the opposite! Anyway i'll keep at it. So plan for the next few weeks is running club every tues & thurs, with normal runs on the days in-between and a lsr at the weekends, sunday off to rest and be hungover

This will hopefully get me closer to 40 int he coming races...