Running to a standstill

Deedee2012

Mon 6th
Rest

Tues 7th
Cycle 10k each way to work and
Ladder session with club not sure of distances at a guess 750m, 1000, 1200m, 1000m, 750m and probably a km each warm up and cool down.
This was tough enough, what seems to happen on each interval is that everyone tears off, I can't keep up and trail at the back but over the course of the interval manage to speed up and put in a burst at the end and overtake a few. Not sure how to improve on this so that I am consistent over the course of each interval. Maybe just practice

Wed 8th
4 miles easy


Thurs 9th
7.00am 4.5mile tempo in the Phoenix Park, lovely morning for it and was happy with a bit of pace. (pace for me that is ) Trying to do a tempo run on my own each week to "practice" the bit of speed being gained in the club session. Or that's my makey up theory at least.

Couldn't make the usual club circuit class due to a commitment, but after that I spent and hour at home replicating the class insofar as possible at home

Fri 10th-Sun 12th
Was away for weekend with family so nothing done bar eating and drinking

Not a great week running wise but couldnt be helped

Mon 13th
7.00am 4.5mile tempo pre work in the Phoenix Park again. Enjoyed this as 3 days previous of no running was taking it's toll

Tues 14th
12.2 miles at 11min/mile Gradually increasing the LSR with a eye to the beginning of the marathon training for DCM. Did this in the evening with some clubmates, none of which have done much in the way of longer runs so I've been making them come with me on my recent LSR's and upping their mileage. Each run is a "longest run ever" for them so they are delighted and I'm delighted with the company. Even with the pace this slow the legs were talking to me from 10miles on.

Wed 15th
Couldn't face putting on the running gear so contented myself with a school run walk for a couple of miles and spent a good 45 mins stretching and foam rolling thereafter.

Deedee2012

Thurs 16th
Cycle to work 10k each way
Club circuit session

Fri 17th
Cycle to work 10k each way

Sat 18th
rest

Deedee2012

Sun 19th
Terenure 5 mile
Loads of runners from my club doing this as it's only mile down the road from us. So plenty of friendly faces around on the day.
Hadn't really been looking forward to this as short races make me nervous due to my lack of speed. Had no idea of a pace to aim for. One of my friends said I'd be well able for 45 mins and I thought no way. Decided to make my self as uncomfortable as I thought I could keep up for 5 miles. The only 5 mile race I'd previously ran was the race series 2012 one in a time of 48.33, so anything would be an improvement on that.
Managed a time of 44.12 which I was delighted with, huge PB and a great morning. It was a very well organised race. Beautiful weather, if anything it was too hot. Tea and cake afterwards. Really enjoyed it. I think I will just have to run more short races as I have ran very few in my short career as a runner.
Need to give a 5k a lash soon as based on the 5 mile time a PB would be very doable

Deedee2012

Monday 20th
Lovely 4 mile recovery run in the Phoenix Park before work

Tues 21st
10k cycle each way to work

Wed 22nd
8mile easy. Should have been 10 but just too little time to fit it in

Thurs 23rd
10k cycle each way to work. Wanted to do a club run in the evening but ended up as an enforced rest day, coming down with something, shivers aches pains etc

Fri 24th
Have a cold so rest day :mad:

Off on Sunday morning for some warm weather training in Portugal am bringing the runners so will hopefully get out for some nice runs

Deedee2012

Ok, time to resurrect the log from the depths now that I’m feeling positive about my running again I think starting to log again will keep me on the straight and narrow.

The second half of the year was about DCM training and not a lot else.
Did the Frank Duffy 10 miles in 1.36.33 which was an 8 minute PB on the previous year. Lined up for the Dublin half and had a DNF at 7 miles. I’d been having some trouble with my asthma and had a bad attack which was a bit of a fright at the time.

Followed my marathon training plan to the letter. Did the LSR’s with some clubmates doing their first marathon. The training overall was very enjoyable and went well. Felt much stronger than the year before and on the last LSR before taper I felt fitter than ever and ready to give DCM a good crack. Next run after that I fell very badly, took out both my knees, one very bruised and swollen and one cut to shreds which ended up getting very infected. I could barely walk for a lot of the taper never mind run which left me not as happy as I would have liked on race day.
The aim was 4.30 finished up in 4.43, found it very very tough and didn’t enjoy it a whole lot. Had the company of my training buddies the whole way round and we crossed the line together which was great. However was annoyed at the finish time, the training I had done should have given my 4.30. Just shows though the marathon is a very all your eggs in the one basket race with not a lot of room for error. Still it was 13 minutes quicker than 2012 so some improvement, but still feel not enough return for all the work put in.

A bad dose saw my asthma at its worse and steroids for 5 weeks. Still on them and chest much improved so onwards and upwards.

It’s really time I started working on some speed. I really love a LSR but my lack of pace is getting embarrassing at this stage. The group in the club that would have been at my level are all getting very speedy and I’m getting left behind so time to knuckle down to some shorter stuff and get as many club sessions in as I can.
Going to use Marlay Parkrun as a bit of practice in short racing if I can get to do it. Hubby seems to be working every Saturday since I decided this so myself. So myself and the kids have done some volunteering there instead. I signed up for the Ladies Meet and train XC series. (after a bit of cajoling from jcsmum!) Ran the first a couple of weeks ago before the steroids had kicked in. I thought I was going to be hospitalised at the end with the amount of coughing done. I didn’t get to do the second as it clashed with my sons final XC of the year and cheering him on was more important. I’ll do the other two in the new year.


The current plan is to follow a HM plan for Bohermeen. Kindly provided by Raycun and I asked him to include as much speedwork as he could with a view to speeding me up a bit. I’ve been cycling in and out of work that past couple of weeks and have started a bit of runmuting. Thoroughly enjoying that, it’s a great way to get the journey done when I can.





Week beginning Nov 18th
4 runs 25 miles, most done since DCM

Week beginning Nov 25th

Monday 25th
Cycle to/from work

Tuesday 26th
Club session. 5 miles covered. First club speed session in months. Was a bit worried about this and what level I was going to be at. Decided to do with the group I “should” be with but who have all got much faster than me in recent times. They’d all have at least 2 minutes on me in a 5k.
Session was 1 mile w/u 6 x 800’s and 1 mile w/d. The first half of the 800 was on a distinct uphill before turning a bend then a slight downhill, so the first half of every second rep was tricky. As was always the case everyone hares off at the start, I can’t keep up but then I get my wind about halfway and I was able to pass bodies on the second half of each rep. Delighted with myself, I didn’t think I would be able to keep up with this group let alone pass anyone and whilst I wasn’t comfortable I was able for it. Felt great to get the legs moving.
Session was 7pm-8pm, I’d a meeting at 8 o clock in the church about my daughters confirmation so it was a very sweaty hungry mammy hiding down the back while all the other mammies were dollied up for the occasion.

Wed 27th
4 miles recovery. In an effort to embrace running as a way of making a journey I ran to the butchers with my backpack, got my purchases and ran home.

Thursday 28th
Cycled to work.
Run home 5 miles 10min/mile

Friday 29th
Ran to work 5 miles 10min/mile
Cycled home

Sat 30th
Rest. did some volunteering in Marlay and met Marthastew and family running/volunteering

Sunday 1st
The plan was to do 8-10 miles - didn’t happen. Still on the steroids and a large problem with them is they keep you awake at night. I read my book Saturday night from 3.30am – 5.30am at which point I turned off my 7.30am alarm and said feck the run if I manage to get back to sleep I’m staying asleep. So was too tight for time to do anything much
Did 4.5 miles
Turned into a progression run by accident 10.30 10.00 9.00 8.45, and .5 c/d 10
Then off to Tymon Park to cheer on son in his XC

Summary of week 5 days running, some faster stuff and 23.5 miles

Monday 2nd
Cycle in/out work


Tuesday 3rd
Cycle in/out work

PM. Club hill repeat session 1.5mile w/u and c/d and 8 x 250mtr hill sprints will recovery jog back down.
I haven’t done any hill repeats in months so was dreading this. But strangely enjoyed it. The full session was 10 repeats but my son was had his training at the same time in another location and I had to get back to collect him.

Wednesday 4th
6 mile @ recovery 11min/mile ish. Felt nauseous the whole of the last mile, think I was just hungry as once I got home and had something to eat I was fine.

RayCun

The only really fast running in that plan is the Tuesday session, everything else is easy or half marathon pace. What you can do to work on your speed is strides. Once or twice a week, at the end of an easy run do 6 or 8 x 100-200m at a very fast pace. Try to run like you're on a track running a short distance, 800m or a mile - head up, shoulders and hands relaxed but arms working, knees lifting high in front and heels lifting up behind. You're trying to run fast, but also stay relaxed so you can keep good form. Take a couple of seconds to get up to speed, cruise at a fast speed for ten seconds then slow down, and jog until you get your breath back before going again. I'll show you this evening or Tuesday if you like.
If there's a football pitch near you, go fast diagonally across the pitch then jog the length to recover (or vice versa)
The idea with these is that you'll get your body used to moving faster, improving your form and your leg speed, but since you're not going all out and you're recovering after each one they don't tire you out as much as a regular session.

jcsmum

I'd second this Dee, for the last mile, half mile of a recovery run, I try to do anything between 5-10 strides (maybe 200m), even try the length between 2 lampposts.
Tempo runs are also great for helping with the speed. Maybe a mile warm up, 2 miles (a bit slower than your 10k speed - 80% effort), 2 miles recovery.

Glad you're back logging - you sound like a woman on a mission.

Deedee2012

Thanks Ray & Jcsmum will do that definitely.

Runchick

Great to see you logging your efforts again Deedee! I'll follow with interest as our issues with speed are very similar Best of luck with all of it!

Deedee2012

Thurs 5th
Cycle to work
Run home 5 miles @ 10.30min/mile

Friday 6th
Run to work 5 miles @ 10.30min/mile

Out the door at 6.45am, ate a banana as I ran the first few yards. Legs hated me the whole way in, knackered!

Will cycle home and then it's time to beautify myself for the Bros Pearse Christmas do which is on this evening!

Deedee2012

Saturday 7th
Rest, needed it after a few drinkies the previous night

Sunday 8th
9.5 miles easy. My Garmin died as I was heading out the door, it was fully charged so I hope it's not kaput! Met up with some running buddies for this at 8.30 and headed up to the Boherbreena reservoir. I usually really enjoy this route but a number of factors meant this was not a good run. I think I was still dehydrated from Friday night, I spend Saturday rushing around all day, steroids meant I'd a rubbish night sleep on Saturday night and it was quite windy. Wind in our face the whole way up to the top reservoir. This was my fifth day running for the week and it was the longest run since DCM and my highest mileage week since DCM so it was just a get it done run and was glad to just get it done.

Summary of the week 5 runs 30 miles, happy with that.

Deedee2012

Monday 9th
Rest

Tuesday 10th
Throat was really sore since Sunday morning, the feels like swalloiwing broken glass sore, not really sure where that falls on ok to run if unwell from neck up but I thought I'd be best keeping away from the club session.

So did 4 miles easy with 5x100m strides at end. Haven't done strides before, enjoyed it, felt a bit odd to be belting along the path at full speed (well full speed for me is probably easy pace for most posters here) but it felt fast :-)

Wed 11th
Throat still really sore but feel ok otherwise. Just did 4 miles easy, trying to just keep ticking over without making myself unwell.

Deedee2012

Thurs 12th
Was feeling pretty rotten throat still sore and just not feeling well so took the day off

Friday 13th
Another rest day still not well

Sat 14th
The weather and not feeling good meant another rest day

Sun 15th
My plan said 12 miles easy, my body said you must be joking... Did 5 easy to try & keep ticking over.

Summary of week, 3 runs 14 miles yikes!! No point running when not well though

Mon 16th
I don't normally run on a Monday but last weeks lack of miles meant I ran into work

5 miles @ 10.30 pace.
After a short while my groin was painful but as it was a runmute I had to keep going, had planned to run home but I'll give that a miss as I was very uncomfortable running in and I want to assess the problem when I get home.

Deedee2012

Tuesday 16th
Cycle to and from work 5 miles each way then
Club session, didn't have the garmin so I don't know distances or pace, it was 1 mile w/u over to the hill the club fondly calls death hill. 1 long uphill guessing half mile, downhill recovery the other side and then hill sprints and jog down recoveries, did 4, the full session is 5 but again had to leave early to collect my son who does his running elsewhere, so 1 mile c/d to collect him..
Had been dreading it but again funnily enjoyed it.

Wed 18th
Just too much pre Christmas stuff to do so a rest day

Thurs 19th
AM runmute 5 miles @ 10.20 pace
PM return runmute and my worst run ever! Baltic, i was freezing the whole way, couldnt feel my hands when i got home and i was wearing gloves! wind in my face and uphill 5 miles, was not feeling the love for running, left garmin in work so don't know pace.
Made a deal with myself that I deserve to drive into work for a reward tomorrow, have only driven in once in the past 3 weeks so that's not bad going. Most days cycle and some runmuting. Starting to get a bit sick of all the showering & changing of clothes in work in the morning and evening and deciding on a packed lunch based on how heavy it might be.

Deedee2012

Fri 20th
Rest

Sat 21st
Rest

Sun 22nd
10 miles in strong winds and horizontal sleet, it occured to me more than once that I must be mad! Groin was sore afterwards, I see a trip to the Physio in the not too distant future.

Mon 23rd
Rest

Tues 24th
Rest

Christmas!!!!
Goal mile with my 8 year old. This was the highlight of the day for me, loved running it with him, he was delighted with himself as it was the furthest he's run in one go. We went down to the Tallaght AC track for this (not jealous of their facilities....much)

Thurs 26th
4 miles, there's not a single muscle in either leg that isn't tight at this stage, def trip to Physio in the new year.

Going to Windy and wet Sligo for a few days, will bring runners but I'm not hopeful :-)

Deedee2012

Friday 27th-Sunday 29th
Rest and too much food and drink

Monday 30th
Back to work today so time to get back to a normal routine. Some club members were planning a session so went along.
The session was supposed to be 500, 300, 400, 1200. There were very few bodies there so the few I ran with improvised at bit and made the shorter intervals a bit longer, which would be uphill a decent bit. My garmin is still in work so don't know pace, just ran as fast as I could :-) Was feeling very sluggish the last few days so it was great to blow off the cobwebs. Groin started to twinge a bit again so need to do my Physio trip this week if I can.

Deedee2012

Tuesday 31st
Rest

Deedee2012

Wed 1st

Yay a new year of running. Hopefully a bit more successfully than the previous one. We have a post on our clubs FB page for people to outline their goals and hopes for 2014. Mine was short and sweet, just need to get faster.
Last year I didn't keep a tally of the number of runs or mileage so I'm going to use the log for this year to do this.

Got out for a run early with two clubmates. Only I had arranged to meet them there was no way I'd have gone. It was torrential rain, howling wind and cold. Most of the paths were like rivers. I don't think I've ever been wetter on a run. We did 5 very difficult miles with the wind never behind us (which I don't understand as we ran a loop) But at least it was run number 1 in the bag.

RTD 1
WTD 5
MTD 5
YTD 5

Deedee2012

Thurs 2nd
Club sessions started back after the break and had fully intended to go, until 6.50pm and I looked out the door, couldn’t face the wind and rain again so chickened out. Was annoyed at myself all evening for not going.

Friday 3rd
Had to redeem myself after not going yesterday so after work went out for 4.5 miles easy and 6x120m strides. It was still really windy and didn’t enjoy this at all (apart from the strides which is odd given that I am allergic to any sort of speed ;-) )
Groin has been niggly recently and was niggly after this.

Saturday 4th
The morning was actually nice weatherwise, not windy, not raining, so it was LSR time. Unfortunately I’d had Indian and a few drinkies the previous night so this didn’t endear me to getting up, but the forecast for Sunday which was atrocious was the motivating factor. Met up with two running buddies and the plan was 10 miles ish. After 5 miles I called it and day, groin was sore and decided not to run any further til I’d seen a physio.

Sunday 5th
Rest

Monday 6th
Headed to physio, nothing serious luckily, tight hip flexors were the culprit after an hours agony he pronounced me sorted. He sorted out a few other niggly bits while I was there so hopefully I’m brand new. A hilly farlek session is next planned run so we’ll see how everything holds up during that.

Deedee2012

Tuesday 7th
1 mile w/up 30 mins fartlek 1 mile c/d
It was a killer. The fartlek was up and over a motorway bridge on the Firhouse rd, turn around and back again. Strong wind in the face going one direction.
Glad to get it done. Groin twingy on the c/d FECK!!

Deedee2012

Wed 8th

My plan said 9 miles my groin said sorry I don't think so. Just did 4 miles recovery very easy. Was kind of uncomfortable going around. Did loads of stretching afterwards really focusing on the hips. Guess I'll be going back for more Physio.
Kind of bad timing as I was aiming for the Bohermeen half and I'm falling very behind my plan, but sure I suppose that's the way of things in the running game.

Deedee2012

Thurs 9th
AM cycle to work 5 miles
PM runmute home 5 miles @ 10.30
Both calves were like bricks, had to stop a few times to try & stretch them out. Uphill into the wind, bleugh!!

Spent a good 45 mins in the evening trying to improve things with the foam roller.

Fri 10th
AM runmute 5 miles @ 10.30
Big improvement on the previous run, calves grand. Downhill with wind behind..nice one!

Groin is still noticeable but just trying to run easy and stretch loads, need to go back to Physio again.

Am not going to do a long run this weekend will try to just tick over without aggravating it.

Deedee2012

Sat 11th
Rest

Sunday 12th
5.5 miles 10.30 pace. Groin sore after a few miles

Not a great week

Mon 13th
Rest

Tuesday 14th
2.5 miles easy, just pulled up after the few miles, wasn't going well

Just going to rest for a few days and foam roll and stretch, getting annoyed now :-(

jcsmum

Ah feck Dee , that's crap!