Moving Forward Faster

blockic

Tuesday – New Year’s Day

Tom Brennan 5km

Time: 18:44
Average Pace: 6.01/mile
Result: 66/452

Arrived nice and early this morning and it was freezing!!! Met up with career_move and then came across tang1 after looking at peoples runners for a good 10mins to try and find yellow ones!:D Great to finally meet you tang after a couple of attempts. We chatted for a good while and then jogged to the start and by this time it had warmed up a bit which was great. Only downside was a strong wind against us when going down Furze Road.

While stretching we met a good few others (RunningKing, davemcmahon and Marthastew) and old and new mentors Younganne and menoscemo! With warm up done, we headed to the start and the game face was on. I knew I had no chance of beating meno but I had him as my target man and my plan was just to make sure I didn’t leave him out of sight!:D After being deafened by the gun we were off. I settled into a good pace pretty early and made sure I didn’t start too fast like the last time. First mile went by in 6:02 which was a few seconds faster than my target pace of 6:10 so I decided to ease off slightly for the second mile to save something in the tank for the finish.

As we turned into Furze Road for the second lap, I was in no man’s land. There was no groups around that I could tuck in with to reduce the effect in the wind (good advice from the boss!) so I had to grin and bear it! I did see meno however tucked nicely into a group up ahead the cunning fox! Second mile went in 6:12 so I was on track.

As I turned onto Ordnance Survey Rd I decided to up the pace a bit and started to pick off runners with a mile to go I was feeling good. I had been glancing at the group ahead now and again to stalk track meno and with about half mile to go I noticed no meno so I thought he had kicked on. I kept on focusing on the next runner in front of me and passed more people one by one. As I rounded the corner onto the finishing straight I spotted a guy between me and the finish. Being competitive, I kicked and as he saw me passing him out he countered with his own burst of speed. Soon we were in an all out sprint and I just got him at the line with a bit of a dip. Photographic evidence in the event’s thread. Third mile was 5:56 (for my first sub 6 min mile!:)).

Very happy with the result as was looking at something like 19:10 today. Great to break the 19 minute barrier and a good start to a big year!:)

Sorry to hear that meno pulled out with a tight hamstring and didn’t kick on like I had thought, hopefully it’s not too serious. Nice to see loads of boardies as well, the t-shirts are great. Including claralara and digger with his imaginary 16min 5k if he actually ran today!:rolleyes:

So starting marathon training this week, 15 weeks to Rotterdam!! Real work starts now!:cool:

career_move

Savage running

tang1

Great to finally meet you this morning, superb race & time. Even though you did cheat by body-checking yer man!! You'll be coming close to 18mins and under by years end i've no doubt.

Younganne

great stuff today and i reckon plenty more to come in 2013!!!:D

RunningKing

Great running today, superb time and great finish. Great to see your hard work paying off.
Nice meeting you too, even if you're an Arsenal fan.........

blockic

tang1 wrote:

Even though you did cheat by body-checking yer man!!

Ah i saw the camera so said i would milk it!

Younganne wrote: »

great stuff today and i reckon plenty more to come in 2013!!!:D

Thanks Anne and also for leading the warm down!!

RunningKing wrote: »

Great running today, superb time and great finish. Great to see your hard work paying off.
Nice meeting you too, even if you're an Arsenal fan.........

Nice to meet you too RK, great running by yourself and with regard to the last bit there, I'm not a happy camper right now!:mad:

BeepBeep67

Nice racing - why am I reminded of this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HV-n9DKEuI

blockic

:D:D, it's a carbon copy!! Except we were battling for 66th place, not first!:cool:

tang1

blockic wrote: »

:D:D, it's a carbon copy!! Except we were battling for 66th place, not first!:cool:

Here i'll gladly take your 66th place any day if your not happy with it!!

blockic

Seeing as it's the start of the year I said I would review where I'm at in relation to my 2013 goal times since I started the log a couple of months back.

Distance|PB@25/11/2012|Current PB| Original 2013 Target
5km|19:31|18:44|18:29
10km|42:30|42:30|38:59
Half Marathon|1:32:29|1:28:32|1:26:59
Marathon|3:29:20|3:29:20|3:09:59

So looking pretty good so far only 2 days in.:)

Contemplating if I should change some of my goal times or not, particularly the 5km and possibly the half marathon? I'm not sure if I should set new ones or just aim to break these target times by as much as I can!!

Anyway, food for thought over the next few days....

RunningKing

one of my goals is to learn to do a table like yours - how the bleedin' hell do you do one?

career_move

Copy and paste

The_Boy_Wonder

blockic wrote: »

Seeing as it's the start of the year I said I would review where I'm at in relation to my 2013 goal times since I started the log a couple of months back.

Distance|PB@25/11/2012|Current PB| Original 2013 Target
5km|19:31|18:44|18:29
10km|42:30|42:30|38:59
Half Marathon|1:32:29|1:28:32|1:26:59
Marathon|3:29:20|3:29:20|3:09:59

So looking pretty good so far only 2 days in.:)

Contemplating if I should change some of my goal times or not, particularly the 5km and possibly the half marathon? I'm not sure if I should set new ones or just aim to break these target times by as much as I can!!

Anyway, food for thought over the next few days....

Congrats on the super 5k time. I reckon the marathon target time might be softish. I ran 3.12 off a 1.30 half PB (and ran 19.11 for 5k six weeks after the 3.12). You've got the speed so if you build more stamina in the legs, your natural speed should be getting well under 3.10, and I reckon you'll be sub 3 by the end of the year all things going well.

18.44 over 5k converts to 3.02.30 according to McMillan and his fancy calculator.

Best of luck in hunting down those targets

RunningKing

I knew it....sandbagger.

RunningKing

career_move wrote: »

Copy and paste

nah - it filters etc - too fancy for copy & paste - must be google docs or something. I'm fairly IT savy but just cant do it..........

blockic

RunningKing wrote: »

one of my goals is to learn to do a table like yours - how the bleedin' hell do you do one?

Magic!!

career_move wrote: »

Copy and paste

Less of it from you!

RunningKing wrote: »

nah - it filters etc - too fancy for copy & paste - must be google docs or something. I'm fairly IT savy but just cant do it..........

Nah, this one doesn't filter! I was filling in the "Best of 2013" thread earlier and saw the table so just made note and formatted it without the filters, ranking etc.

Not complicated at all but looks good!:cool: Just quote it and you will see the format!

menoscemo

RunningKing wrote: »

nah - it filters etc - too fancy for copy & paste - must be google docs or something. I'm fairly IT savy but just cant do it..........

I got my table by quoting someone else's table then copy/pasting + editing.
If it were complicated I wouldn't be able to do any tables :pac:

blockic

The_Boy_Wonder wrote: »

Congrats on the super 5k time. I reckon the marathon target time might be softish. I ran 3.12 off a 1.30 half PB (and ran 19.11 for 5k six weeks after the 3.12). You've got the speed so if you build more stamina in the legs, your natural speed should be getting well under 3.10, and I reckon you'll be sub 3 by the end of the year all things going well.

18.44 over 5k converts to 3.02.30 according to McMillan and his fancy calculator.

Best of luck in hunting down those targets

Cheers TBW, thanks for the advise. I was looking at that alright. I should of ran 3:30 handy based on by half for DCM but I really struggled over the last 6 miles so the stamina is what needs to be worked on big time!!

So as a result of that performance I'm a bit reluctant to put any targets better than 3:10 down in writing.:o

I have the Half in Bohermeen in March so if that goes well then I'll have the confidence to give the 3:10 a good go in Rotterdam and then we where I'm at after that for Marathon 2 at the end of the year.

The_Boy_Wonder

blockic wrote: »

Cheers TBW, thanks for the advise. I was looking at that alright. I should of ran 3:30 handy based on by half for DCM but I really struggled over the last 6 miles so the stamina is what needs to be worked on big time!!

So as a result of that performance I'm a bit reluctant to put any targets better than 3:10 down in writing.:o

I have the Half in Bohermeen in March so if that goes well then I'll have the confidence to give the 3:10 a good go in Rotterdam and then we where I'm at after that for Marathon 2 at the end of the year.

All makes sense. It's easier to find stamina than speed so you have a better chance than most. Best of luck with the prog for Rotterdam. Think there's a few others from these parts doing it

Mr Slow

Savage running there boss, well done.

belcarra

The_Boy_Wonder wrote: »

All makes sense. It's easier to find stamina than speed so you have a better chance than most. Best of luck with the prog for Rotterdam. Think there's a few others from these parts doing it

Yep, I'm doing Rotterdam also and will be aiming for 3:15. I agree with TBW about 3:10 being a bit soft but you are right to leave it til Bohermeen (Which I'll also be doing) and see how you are fixed. Perhaps try a few LSRs with significant chunks at Marathon Pace towards the end so you can work on those issues?

blockic

belcarra wrote: »

Yep, I'm doing Rotterdam also and will be aiming for 3:15. I agree with TBW about 3:10 being a bit soft but you are right to leave it til Bohermeen (Which I'll also be doing) and see how you are fixed. Perhaps try a few LSRs with significant chunks at Marathon Pace towards the end so you can work on those issues?

Yep, I'm starting P&D this week so will have a good bit of PMP miles in the long runs which should benefit me.

Look forward to seeing you in March so to discuss Rotterdam strategy!;)

Good luck with the training.

blockic

So this week is the start of Rotterdam training, the plan I’m going to follow is the 18 week P&D 55mile plan. But there is one small problem. I ain’t got 18 weeks! :rolleyes: I find the 12 week plan very compressed so I am just doing some slight adjustments to the 18 week one to fit it in to the time I have available.

Wednesday
Rest

Took Wednesday off to recover from the 5km. Instead I watched 4 episodes back-to-back of Masterchef Australia! Hooked on this program! Used to cook a fair bit but hardly have the time anymore with training so I just watch people cook instead and get hungry!:rolleyes:

Thursday
10.8 miles easy / 8:30 average pace

Took this on nice and slow, couldn’t believe it is so mild out. Felt like May rather than January. Maybe this is our summer?! :pac: I actually prefer the long runs with intervals, breaks up the monotony a bit. I never wear earphones running, but I might start to on the odd run to break up the boredom running alone.

Friday
Rest

Foam Rolling counts as training, right?

Saturday
5 miles recovery / 8:34 average pace

Handy one yesterday morning before brunch, took it easy before the LSR. Calves felt a bit tight so hopefully the run and stretching afterwards will have them back in good shape.

Sunday
13 miles LSR / 7:39 average pace (incl. 8 miles @PMP)

Headed along the old Kilkenny Half Marathon route for this one out in the countryside. My current PMP I’m targeting is 7:20. However, if this is going well after a couple of weeks I might revise it closer to 7:10. In order to test this I am going to do 7:10 pace for the last couple of miles of PMP in my LSRs and see how they go. So as a result, the run today went as follows:

4 miles easy
6 miles @PMP (7:20, 7:18, 7:17, 7:18, 7:15, 7:15)
2 miles @PMP (7:05, 7:08)
1 mile cool down

For the first PMP mile at 7:20 I felt was pretty fast for MP, how was I going to run at this pace for 26 miles!:eek: However, after the third mile it began to feel comfortable, just was not used to the pace on a long run as all my long runs up to now have been slooooowwww! I targeted 6 miles @ 7:20 and 2 miles @ 7:10. To be fair the last two were tough enough but I’ll keep at it for another couple weeks anyway, it can only do me good.

14 weeks to go.

Week Mileage Summary:

Monday|Tuesday|Wednesday|Thursday|Friday|Saturday|Sunday
Rest|4.4m|Rest|10.8m|Rest|5m|13m


Week Total|Month to Date|Year to Date
33.2m|33.2m|33.2m

tang1

blockic wrote: »

Handy one yesterday morning before brunch,

WTF is brunch........ Its tay or spuds surely!!

blockic

tang1 wrote: »

WTF is brunch........ Its tay or spuds surely!!

Haha, all americanised I am! :P Slept in til 11 so went for my run and then had breakfast for lunch! Simples!:D

RunningKing

good session, fair play targeting 7:20/m. I'd say it'll be no bother with a few more weeks of that.

Do you program your watch to these paces or 'just do it'?

blockic

RunningKing wrote: »

good session, fair play targeting 7:20/m. I'd say it'll be no bother with a few more weeks of that.

Do you program your watch to these paces or 'just do it'?

:D:D

Don't program my watch for sessions at all. What I have on it is auto-lap for every mile and I then go by lap pace on the garmin for the PMP miles.

beeduybe

Best of luck with the P&D plan. I had great success following it for Dublin last year as I got a big PB. Based on your half and 5k times a 3:09 marathon should be well within your grasp by April if you get through the plan in one piece.

blockic

beeduybe wrote: »

Best of luck with the P&D plan. I had great success following it for Dublin last year as I got a big PB. Based on your half and 5k times a 3:09 marathon should be well within your grasp by April if you get through the plan in one piece.

Thanks beeduybe, here's hoping it all goes to plan. Just found your log this evening as well so looking forward to reading up on it!

docjewel

Best of luck with the P&D plan blockic,you've started off the New Year well.
With your speed P&D is really gonna stand to you.