A life without races is a life half logged

druss

I've decided to start my own log after a prolonged period of rather obsessively reading through the logs of others. Firstly, I’m including the obligatory background stuff, in which our anti-hero explains the series of events which now force him into a strange twilight existence of pounding red-faced along pavements, a vision in luminous Aldi gear.

Background:
Male aged 37

I took up running at the end of July of this year. Initially this was due to the lack of regular football games. I used to play a few games of indoor football per week but, for various reasons, that has been happening less and less.

Before July, I would very very occasionally go for a lunchtime run near work. I’m talking about maybe once or twice a month. In retrospect, the distances involved were always very short..maybe 3km or so. I used to go out with some work colleagues for the run, would keep pace with them for a few laps of the pitch, and maybe throw in a burst of acceleration at the end of my session. I would then jog back to the office with a smug sense of self satisfaction. Work out complete. I ignored the fact that my colleagues were staying out quite a bit longer than I was and were generally achieving more than one running day a month!

Cut to: July 2012
Football is cancelled due to lack of numbers. Again. I have my football gear and runners with me anyway, so I decided to go out for a jog.
As i'm getting ready, I bump into a few more lunch time runners who say I can tag along with them on a road run if I want. I asked how long their route for the day was and thought I heard 5km. I assumed I could do this, even if it was a bit further than I normally did.

In actual fact, it was a five mile course. (Maybe this was selective deafness on my behalf?) Even half way around, I was starting to flag and then we came to a hill. I waved my companions on...and wheezed my way forward for another bit. I then walked a bit, jogged a bit and finally scraped my way around. I don’t remember my exact time, but it was pretty awful. Just over 50 mins, I think.

My colleagues weren't setting a particularly challenging pace and weren't deliberately messing with my head. Even accepting that they were training reasonably regularly, I had to face facts. I was not remotely as fit as I'd imagined. A few checks confirmed this. I discovered that I was slightly overweight (I'm not someone who checks their weight regularly) and my blood pressure was alarmingly high. It shouldn’t have been a shock, but it was.

Another colleague at work is involved in athletics coaching. I complained about my humiliation (repeatedly!) and she explained just a few of the very many and very obvious mistakes I'd made. She challenged me to pick a race a reasonable distance away and to train in a structured fashion for that. Probably just to shut me up.

I'm living in the south east, so I picked the Faythe Harriers 10km race in Wexford town at the end of September as my “goal race”, I also added the Mick Murphy 4 Mile race in Ferns as a tune up race.

Vanity meant that I had a huge fear of further humiliation on raceday. So, again through work contacts, I was pointed in the direction of online coaching. This suited my circumstances well, in that I wanted to do this properly but also wanted to work away at times of my own choosing. I sent off my requirements, availability, targets, etc and discussed a bit with my coach. I then received an 8 week training programme to get me to my target race, the 10km.

I should note that 8 weeks is a good bit shorter than my coach would recommend, as normally a longer aerobic/base training element is favoured. But I had already picked the target race, so the whole schedule was truncated a bit to fit. I also said that I was only available to train four days a week, as I was still keeping a window open for occasional football games. I did however follow the plan without skipping workouts.

My race results were;
29 mins for the Mick Murphy four mile race.
45 mins for the Faythe Harriers 10km.

I was very happy with that, as going into the programme I wanted to beat 50 mins for the 10km. In training so far, I’ve lost weight and I’m now back into “normal” territory again. My blood pressure was also moving in the right direction but was still too high. At one stage, my doctor asked that while trying out some medication, as a precautionary measure, I shouldn’t do any competitive or “intense” sports. This really worried me! Given that I’ve only done two races, I really didn’t want to be told that I could only gently amble around the place in future. However that embargo has now been lifted, and my programme is now good to go for end 2012 into the beginning of 2013.

For starters I have at least 10 weeks of aerobic/base building phase to look forward to. This will then be adjusted slightly based on my race dates.

My targets for 2013 are:
- to get closer to 40 mins for the 10km.
- to actually do a 5km and get close to 20 mins.
- to do a few 10 mile races in and around 1 hour 15 mins.
- to do a half marathon. I don’t really know what to aim for here, and I haven’t discussed it yet. Maybe survival, maybe better than 1 hour 40 mins.

As I said earlier, I did a lot of reading of training logs on here. I found it really interesting to see how people with a similar age profile progressed over a few years. Particularly those from a “beginner” status. There are some truly inspirational achievements out there. Anyway, I hope that just typing this stuff up will be another factor forcing me to stick to this.

druss

Anyway, summary of the week so far.

Saturday 24 November– Circuit run (Come back day!)
43.27 mins
8.21km at an average 5.17 pace
This wasn’t really on the programme, but I decided I’d start with this as a test run before moving onto a long run on Sunday.
It was dark when I went out. Footpaths that I remembered as being lovely and leafy from September are now mulchy and treacherous. The road was definitely the safer option. But feeling fine.

Sunday 25 November – Long run (Official Programme start)
1 hr 35 mins
16.93 km at an average 5.40 pace
Lashing rain all day and again I venture out in the dark. My goal distance for the day is between 11.2km and 17km. I decided to pitch it at the higher level.

After a few minutes I’m soaked through. The wind is howling and the rain driving into me. Nevertheless I still discover a burst of acceleration while trying to avoid being splashed by cars. Some of the side roads are flooded, so I have to rethink my route twice. I pass two other joggers and we give each other a nod to acknowledge our shared insanity.

This is actually the first time that I’ve gone over the 10 mile barrier in training. It’s nice to know that I can make that distance and I felt that I could comfortably go on further (even to half marathon distance) if I wanted to.
Well maybe not that comfortably. The driving wind and rain has meant that I’ve discovered bleeding nipples for the first time.

Monday 26 November – Fartlek session
42.38 mins
8km at 5.19 pace
After the night before, this was a bit of a tentative fartlek road session. Nice to finally run in daylight, but its still bloody freezing out. Sudocream and plasters on the chest not really solving the nipple situation.

clouter

Hi druss, best of luck with the training. Curious as to what site you got your online coach on, sounds like something I could do with myself.

Thanks

druss

Today is a rest day, with a "medium" long run scheduled for tomorrow. So i'm jotting down some of my plans for the immediate future. As I said earlier, I haven't really set out my actual schedule.

My first programme was (in my mind anyway) basically about survival. I couldn't run 5 miles, so getting into the mindset of 10k was the first hurdle.

My second programme will hopefully allow me to improve on my 2 pbs. I've also decided to push the boat out in terms of distance and gradually move into half marathon territory. For now, I am denying all interest in marathon distance. Mainly because I don't want to devote quite so much time to training runs. I will do one at some stage, but not this year.

I am not even hugely enthusiastic about the half marathon, but i do think getting some extra distance into my legs should help elsewhere.

I have two races booked already:

Dungarvan 10 mile on 27 th January 2013.
Wexford Town Half Marathon in 21st April, 2013

I hope to get a spot in the Ballycotton 10 in 3rd March 2013, but that is dependent on me getting to the post on time and on the subsequent draw favouring me.

The initial comments from my coach are that Dungarvan comes a bit too soon for me, as i'll still be mid-programme. But of course i'd already paid up by the time that was mentioned! I can treat it as a quasi training run anyway.

I also hope to fill in the gaps, as my time and my wallet allows.

Possibles include:

O'Hanrahans Turkey Trot 4 Mile - 30th Dec 2012
Ferrycarrig 5 Mile - 13th Jan 2013
Enniscorthy 10k - 10th Feb 2013
Wexford Tesco 10k - 10th Mar, 2013
Strawberry Five Mile, Enniscorthy - 26th May 2013
Kilmore Quay - 13th July 2013
Kilmore Quay 10k -14th Sep 2013

I probably won't do all these, and i will also consider other short runs as they appear. I also hope to return to Ferns and to the Faythe run if they are scheduled next year.

druss

clouter wrote: »

Hi druss, best of luck with the training. Curious as to what site you got your online coach on, sounds like something I could do with myself.

Thanks

Thanks! Hopefully all will go to plan.

I'll PM the details, as I'm not sure if posting the details in thread is allowed? Don't want to break any forum rules!

RayCun

you can if you like, it would only be a problem if the trainer him/herself was posting looking for business...

druss

RayCun wrote: »

you can if you like, it would only be a problem if the trainer him/herself was posting looking for business...

Thanks for the clarification. In that case, I use this lot.

http://www.championseverywhere.com/about

And this is what the programme looks like.

http://www.championseverywhere.com/training-programme-features

Five days a week in mine. They do coaching workshops etc as well, but for now I'm going the online route.

druss

Tuesday 27 November
No running, but I decided to wear the Garmin and HRM for my game of indoor football. Mainly to see what kind of cool map it came up with. And the map is indeed pretty cool.

I'm surprised by how little i actually run in a game. It was only 2.7km and total average pace was 18.5 km.

However the training intensity and heart rate are very high. Very, very high in the case of heart rate. I presume this is the stop-start nature of the game, with sudden bursts of all out acceleration thrown in?

Wednesday 28 November
Medium Long run.
9.25 km
51:05 mins @ 5.31km pace

Not that long as it turns out. I slightly misjudged my break time. The distance itself is ok, and within the parameters i was offered. (Between 9 and 13km). However I went slightly faster than I should have, and I should have been out for around an hour.

Not too bad though. The football game definitely added a bit of stiffness to my legs, so it was good to go for a slightly longer lunch time jog.

druss

Thursday 29 November - Speed training run


Distance: 8.11 km
Time: 44:12
Avg Pace: 5:27 min/km

This works out as a slow enough overall effort. I did some all out sprints and strides at random moments over the course, but the warm up/warm down and recovery between acceleration bursts brought me back a bit.

This should be my first week with five days running. My previous programme was based on four days.

However, even with four days down so far this week, i've already done more than in any previous week.

Mapmyrun gives me 26.3 miles run for the week (27.85 if I include the football game!). My previous record was 22 miles.

With another run to come on Saturday, I'm beginning to feel it a bit though. Rest day tomorrow will be welcome.

druss

Saturday 1 December - Circuit Run

Distance: 10.02 km
Time: 49:37
Avg Pace: 4:57 min/km

I was supposed to aim for something between 8 and 11 km tonight, and at circa 5.10 pace. My subconscious decided that this really meant going for a nice round 10k, but didn't share this information for a while.

I was moving along reasonably comfortably for the first 5km, at just under goal pace. I was thinking that it should feel a bit easier at this stage though.

Around the half way turn, I reminded myself that I have only actually run the 10k distance 3 times before, in two training runs and one race. The training runs were both back in August and I made a serious all-out effort to go sub-50 (with my best effort being 52.44).

When I remembered that, I cheered up. Today was just a training run, and I wasn't pushing or in race environment, but if i kept going at a solid, unchallenging pace i would do my 2nd best 10k. And so it transpired, over a much more relaxed second leg.

52.3 km on the road for the week.

druss

Sunday 2 December - Long Run


Distance: 17.50 km
Time: 1:39:04
Avg Pace: 5:40 min/km

Slightly longer than my last long run. Exactly the same pace.

I wore the aldi compression vest today, which held off the blood flow. However discomfort definitely seems to kick in a bit after the 10k mark. Time to wuss up and get some bodyglide.

I may have to do some travelling this week, so I'll need to either change the training days or give the garmin a chance to find some new satellites.

druss

Monday 3 December - Fartlek Run (+ Test drive of the Boards AC shirt)

Distance: 9.27 km
Time: 48:25
Avg Pace: 5:13 min/km

Arrived into work to find my new shiny Boards AC shirt waiting for me so I decided to wear it out for my lunch time run. I put it on over my aldi compression top, as I thought it might be a bit cold out there. The compression top wasn't really required and i think i'd have been better off without it.

The Boards top is no Three Wolf Moon tshirt, as I can't suddenly knock out sub 4km laps, and I don't appear to be thinner. However it does look rather cool IMO. So thanks again to Kurt Godel.


I'm still feeling a bit sore from yesterday evenings long run, but for whatever reason I couldn't slow down to meet overall goal time (around 5:35 min/km for 9km). This may mean the shirt has some latent powers that take a while to kick in.:P

I did also find that I was involuntarily accelerating a bit every time i passed other runners. (I think this is just a male thing). I've a feeling that I may regret this tomorrow and later in the week.

Other than that, the Ballycotton form has left my desk. Fingers crossed.

druss

...and the rest of the week descended into chaos.:(

I had a game of football on Tuesday, and found out that I did indeed have to go travelling to sunny Copenhagen for two days.

"No problem", I thought. "Sure I'll pack the runners and a few tops in case it's a bit chilly".

The flight out was delayed, due to essential runway de-icing in Denmark. In fairness, that is pretty essential.

"No problem", I thought. "Sure my hotel has a gym. If it's too bad, I can get a treadmill run in tonight and early tomorrow morning and that will see me home."

Footpaths in Copenhagen did not look promising. More slushy and icy than the swept paths, surrounded by clean white banks of snow that i had fancifully imagined. Of course when I found my hotel, I also found that the gym was closed. I then went off wandering for food. I passed one late night runner, in fairness he was well dressed for it. I'm sure i imagined the look of reproach I got.

Next day, I realised I'd forgotten to do something and I spent my morning typing furiously instead of running. Then I was almost late for my appointment, was late for my trains, almost late for my flight etc.

Basically if there is any aerobic benefit to running around like a headless chicken, dragging snow encrusted luggage behind me, then I demand a Garmin category be set up.

Saturday 8 December - Circuit run/Exercise in stupidity

Distance: 8.48 km
Time: 42:22
Avg Pace: 5:00 min/km

I decided to pick up here in my schedule. I planned to go out around mid-day. But breakfast became brunch, and I dawdled round the place.

Just before I got in, herself asked me how long I was going out for and reminded me that her Christmas do was tonight and I had promised to babysit. Curses.

I had planned on doing 50 mins, but thought I'd cut that back a bit. I accelerated off a bit faster than expected. When I checked the Garmin, I thought I'd push for a sub 4 km. Which was a stupid idea. I managed it, but was a bit out of puff for the next few km. Other than that, came in on target though.

Hopefully I can get back on track in the next week.

druss

Oh, and Ballycotton form arrived at it's destination.

So my confirmed race list for 2013 now stands at;

Ferrycarrig 5 Mile - 13th January
Dungarvan 10 mile -27th January
Ballycotton 10 - 3rd March
Wexford Town Half Marathon - 21st April

druss

Sunday 9 December - Long Run

Distance: 15.70 km
Time: 1:27:16
Avg Pace: 5:34 min/km


Actually it was a bit more than this, but not that much.

Forgot to charge the watch.:mad: At around 10 km mark the Garmin started complaining.

When it finally packed in, I carried on for a bit longer...probably just enough to do the 10 miles. I then decided that if it wasn't being measured that I wasn't bothered and walked the last km home. Coincidentally this bit was all uphill, which I am sure had nothing to do with my decision.

Still though, the garmin measured bit was enough to get me to daily target.

druss

Monday 10 December - Fartlek

Distance: 9.49 km
Time: 49:57
Avg Pace: 5:16 min/km

It's icy out there. I felt a bit nervous on a couple of my acceleration bursts. Back to eat my own weight in chocolate.

druss

Wednesday 12 December - Medium Long Run

Distance: 15.00 km
Time: 1:17:01
Avg Pace: 5:10 min/km

Tuesday was a scheduled day off, which was just as well as I was fitted to a blood pressure monitor for the day. Anyway, latest prognosis is that stuff is stabilising, keep on taking the pills and no objections raised to continued athletic activity. Go me.

I was joined on todays run by a considerably fitter colleague. We moved along at a fair old pace. However having company for a change and keeping up a conversation just made the time fly by. I also went on a slightly different and quite scenic route. I felt comfortable throughout.

I'm not sure that it entirely meets the 'long run' criteria. I exceeded the distance to be covered, but also the goal pace. Duration was about right.

My target time for Dungarvan is 1 hour 20, to be revised downwards to closer to 1' 15 by the time Ballycotton rolls around..but i think that maybe i should push for 1' 18 in Dungarvan.

druss

No running on Thursday due to mad work stuff. I was supposed to do some speed training on the day.

On Friday, I took up the option of a football game as I may not get another one in this year. I also thought this was sort of like a speed session anyway. Only 3.5km covered, but it was quite intense and I have the scars to prove it.

And so we come to....

Saturday 15 December - Circuit Run

Distance: 9.26 km
Time: 46:54
Avg Pace: 5:04 min/km

That felt awful. Legs still sore from football. Thirsty after 1km. Thinking about stopping after 3km.

I came in more or less on pace target, but it was a bit up and down as my enthusiasm ebbed and flowed.

My circuit runs have all been rubbish actually, mainly because my build up to them has been rubbish. Oh well..another attempt at a proper week to start tomorrow.

druss

Sunday 16 December - Long Run

Distance: 18.51 km
Time: 1:43:40
Avg Pace: 5:36 min/km

I'm slowly (very slowly!) closing in on that half marathon distance. Still a bit tentative starting out, before relaxing a bit and inadvertently picking up the pace on the return journey.

druss

Monday 17 December - Fartlek

Distance: 9.27 km
Time: 49:21
Avg Pace: 5:19 min/km

Legs still feeling it a bit today. The obvious answer is that I keep going a bit faster than I should at this stage.

My opening and closing kms were very slow..the first one because my co-runner for the day pulled up and I waited for a bit to see if he wanted to go on (he didn't!).

The last km was slow because I was running up a hill. Other than that I got into a cycle of noticing that I was finding it a bit tough, realising I was going too fast and trying to slow up a bit, rinse and repeat.

I've a day off tomorrow. I think I could do with it!

RunningKing

just started reading your log - best of luck with it.
Like yourself, I play 5-Aside football - but dont run before race weeks & give it up a month or 6 weeks before the marathon - its a tough gig the 5 aside!!
I have to manage myself a bit better with the footie - after every game I do a 10 min stretching regieme and always end up putting the shower on cold over my legs at the end. I'm also a believer in recovery shakes & Electrolyte tabs (if you're a big sweater).
The next day I try to do a 4m recovery jog as slow as possible. Sets me up really well.

Anyway - I'll be reading with interest!

druss

RunningKing wrote: »

just started reading your log - best of luck with it.
Like yourself, I play 5-Aside football - but dont run before race weeks & give it up a month or 6 weeks before the marathon - its a tough gig the 5 aside!!
I have to manage myself a bit better with the footie - after every game I do a 10 min stretching regieme and always end up putting the shower on cold over my legs at the end. I'm also a believer in recovery shakes & Electrolyte tabs (if you're a big sweater).
The next day I try to do a 4m recovery jog as slow as possible. Sets me up really well.

Anyway - I'll be reading with interest!

Thanks!

I did give up the football in the countdown to my two races this year, short and all as they were. I was just nervous i'd do something to crock myself. In 2013, I won't mess around in the build up to Dungarvan, Ballycotton or the Wexford half. I was planning on taking off two weeks in advance of each. For other races, i'll see how it goes but I hope to keep playing. No plans for a marathon.

I have found that running has been very good for my performance in football games, but the reverse is not true. Interesting on the nutrition stuff too.

Oh and it seems that your current PBs are where I want to get to by end 2013.

druss

Wednesday 19 December - Medium Long Run
Distance: 14.00 km
Time: 1:12:29
Avg Pace: 5:11 min/km

I bought the Irish Runner yearbook this morning and found myself being distracted by all the glossy marathon ads. Is Cork Marathon too soon?

Ans: Yes. It is.

druss

Friday 21 December - Speed Training

Distance: 10.5 km
Time: 57:45
Avg Pace: 5:30 min/km

I wasn't much looking forward to this session as a) I had the office do yesterday and b) I had no sleep last night as the baby was feeling a bit under the weather. I was feeling a bit too sleepy for a lunch time run.

I did most of this run on tarmac. I did a warm up run to the "arena"then did a few slow laps.

I then did 5 all out sprints of 30 metres, following each with a 2 minute warm down.

I then did 10 x 100 metre sprints with 2 minute warm down intervals.

Then another warm down lap and back to work.

I tried to set the garmin up for the intervals, but made a complete mess of it and also managed to pause the session for a while. I actually didn't record my two fastest efforts . I'd be interested to know exactly what I can do over 100m. I'd have to admit that my runs were slightly wind assisted, and more than a tad downhill.

druss

Saturday 22 December - Circuit Run
Distance: 8.20 km
Time: 40:30
Avg Pace: 4:56 min/km

Another mediocre circuit run. My other half had to do some shopping before hand and was late getting back.

It was lashing rain and very windy and she managed to fall over in the mud while walking home. Needless to say, she thought I was mad to insist on heading out again.

Other than being under pressure to get back, it was fine though.

Sunday 23 December - Long Run
Distance: 16.58 km
Time: 1:29:24
Avg Pace: 5:24 min/km

We are travelling today, so had to get out a bit earlier this morning to start packing on my return. As a result this is a bit shorter than my recent long runs, and a bit faster.

druss

Thursday 27 December - Medium Long Run

After a 3 day layoff due to concentrated eating..


Distance:13.20 km
Time: 1:08:13
Avg Pace: 5:10 min/km

...and I'm happy enough with that as a comeback. Still a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't head out over the last few days, given that I did drag the gear with me.

It's almost two weeks to my first race of 2013 and I'm still not sure what kind of shape i'll be in for it. Hopefully adrenaline will kick in and i can at least equal race pace from 2012.

druss

Friday 28 December - Fartlek

Distance: 9.18 km
Time: 47:04
Avg Pace: 5:08 min/km

I'm coming in slightly short of target today. However I am claiming that the galeforce wind really made the amount of effort expended equal to about a 15k run. :pac:

druss

Sunday 30 December - Long Run

Distance: 21.20 km
Time: 1:52:00
Avg Pace: 5:17 min/km

Otherwise known as "My first half marathon" trial run.

I had a few different options running through my mind for today's workout. A few people at work had been talking about doing the Duncannon 8 K Turkey burner run. I didn't really think that I should do a race today but I had an offer of a lift and was tempted.

I also had an offer of doing a mixture trail/beach run of around 10 miles.

However, eventually, I decided to stick with my original plan of doing a longer run. Breakfast was rather later (my fault!), so I went out rather cautiously and hoped the burbling would subside after a bit. It did.

My first 10km averaged over 5.30 per km. Partially due to the aforementioned caution, partially because of the wind, and partially because i was trying to stick to target pace on the way out.

At half way point the winds were in my favour and i was feeling perfectly relaxed, so I decided to up the pace slightly. As a result there is a major negative split on this run, with the return journey coming in around 5.00 per km.

Again, this probably isn't a proper long run in that I did the second leg a bit too fast. However (self justification time!), I still feel that I wasn't attempting an uncomfortable pace.

druss

Monday 31 December - Fartlek

Distance: 9.30 km
Time: 49:07
Avg Pace: 5:17 min/km

And today demonstrated (before my coach gets a chance to tell me!) that I did do a bit too much yesterday. My legs were complaining even before I started and the grumbling escalated when I tried to accelerate.

I could probably have benefited from taking today as my rest day. On the other hand running today means that I can take tomorrow off, which frees up valuable eating and lazing about time.

Mediocre as todays effort may be, in December 2011 I would not have believed that I would spend the last two days of 2012 running a half marathon and an almost-10km.

I am therefore thanking those colleagues and friends who gave me the gift of running this year. It's been challenging, infuriating and fun. It has also helped me to feel a whole lot better about myself in just five months.

Also thanks to those posters here, whose blogs and posts I pillaged for information about Garmins, development, equipment etc, etc.

She won't see it here, but I should also thank my other half for only occassionally complaining when I disappear for almost 2 hours on a Sunday.:D

druss

Wednesday 02 January - Medium Long Run

Distance: 14.5 km
Time: 1:11:48
Avg Pace: 4:59 min/km

First training run of 2013. Again, I tagged along on the tailcoats of a faster individual. For the first half of this run we were fairly bombing along. Correction: I was bombing along, my running companion was merely gliding.

I was starting to suffer a bit after reeling off 3kms at circa 4.45 min pace. Luckily we then started into a nice downhill patch, so we started going faster but i started enjoying it a bit more.

The closing stages were dogged by dogs, more precisely a rather daft pup who interchangebly tried to either nip me or trip me up.

I also managed to knock the strap off my garmin while trying to get rid of my unrequired base layer meaning I had to do some watch repair in full flow.

Finally, the hills on the return leg put some manners on me.

Summary: That was faster than I would have gone for on my own. Can I do better in my next actual race? I don't know.

With my excuses hat on, yes of course I can. (Dog, garmin, stuffy nose, nurofen and post New Year blues). So with some race day adrenaline, I should be fine.

But i did find today tough at times.

druss

Thursday 03 January - Speed Training
Distance: 9.46 km
Time: 55:12
Avg Pace: 5:50 min/km

Apparently I did the last speed training session a bit too agressively! So this was a less intense version, again done on tarmac track for the sprints and strides.

A warm up run out there and one lap, followed by 3 * 30 sprints with warm down.

I then did 8 strides sessions of 100 metres each, with warm down in between. I finished up with another warm down lap.

I was coached on this session too, so I picked up some more useful stretching exercises.

Overall, this was a more relaxed session for me. I just laughed at something though, and felt my stomach muscles twang in some distress.