Reach for the sky...

Oryx

I love the odd runners thing! Brilliantly absentminded.

woody1

my 5 year old is a bit scattered to say the least.. regularly puts trousers and even tops on backwards, shoes on wrong feet etc.. hes imaginative and creative and is thinking about so many things at the same time that he cant be concentrating on mundane things like putting clothes on right..
i have no such excuses.. im just tired
he took great joy in bringing in the right runners to me ..

woody1

fri 29th 5k fun run / race.. predict your time , closest to predicted time wins,
couldve won this , as in been first , shouldve won it, in the end was 2nd by 6 seconds, ran out of gas in the final stages, but ended up with third prize for time prediction ( which was 1 min 30 out ) a trophy and a voucher .. and a new 5k pb.. finally got into the 20s.. 20.54

sun 31st august..had no plans to do anything, i have this chesty throaty bug that half the country seems to have, brother in law offers to go for a run and better half will cover , this is the sole training run for a half marathon we are both doing in edinburgh next weekend .. so off we trot.. 18k loop at a slower pace than he would run at but probably a tiny bit fast for me..
glad we did it , was hoping to get through edinburgh half on experience alone, not sure it was the best plan

was supposed to be doing wattbike today but i cancelled it, still a tiny bit chesty and i want to clear it totally before the weekend, also i discovered today that the planned last triathlon for the year is closed for registrations so we missed out on it.. so thats it for tri's for the year..:( bit of an anti-climax to say the least..

will have to trawl d'internet and see what else is out there between now and november ( sea to summit ) to keep me motivated..

woody1

tuesday 2nd sept 5.5k run, shouldv been swimming, couldnt be bothered, went running

so when i thought that what wouldve been my last tri of the year was full i was a bit depressed at the thoughts of a years training for 3 triathlons, but the joys of having a log mean i can go back through what i did this year
so

7 5ks
2 aquathons
1 2.7k swim
1 adventure race
3 triathlons

and yet to come there are, a half marathon, another adventure race, a duathlon and at least 1 if not 2 swim events.. and there was me thinking i raced less this year .. :rolleyes:

woody1

saturday 7th sep
scottish half marathon, edinburgh 21.1k

ideal weather, an easy and fast course, well organised from start to finish, ran 1.47.40 something.. which isnt amazing but i wasnt aiming to break any records, just to run around and enjoy it ,
did a total of one training run for it , so was pleasantly surprised to be within touching distance of my pb,

woody1

few days off ..to recharge from a hectic weekend, not so much socially hectic , just a lot of different things going on..

10th Sep wattbike 4 , grand, got tougher as it went on,

13th Sep bike run bike run bike run, 8k, 6 hill repeats, 10k , 4 hill repeats, 10k, then 8k home again, 1k run to finish.. sea to summit training.. steep hill on each bike loop , so 3 times up the hill.. a session il be looking to do weekly for a while , or at least variations on it..

quiet week , feel fresh though, will be trying to get a shape on things from here to november .. would like to have a decent crack at sea to summit this year..wattbike sessions have put a bit of a structure on cycling, thinking about an end of year 5k pb to motivate me to get running more structured too.. will have to dust off run less run faster and actualy read it

blacksod by all accounts was warm sunny and relatively calm.. mustve been judging by swim times of those that would normally be around me in the swim.. couldnt go, o/h working and not fair to ask someone to take kids at that hour in the morning.. hopefully next year !

woody1

15th sep 5.5k run, 3 x 400m hard

17th Sep wattbike 5, followed by 5k run

19th Sep 5k run , 1 mile w/up, 1 mile hard , 1 mile warm down

20th Sep 8k bike, run 6 x 300 hill repeats (3600 ) , 30k bike , 1k run..4 x hill climb on bike loops

21st Sep 46k slooooow bike..

woody1

24th sep 6k treadmill, 3 x 400 fast
25th wattbike 6..
26th 20k bike .. 750 night swim
27th 5k run

tricky week, lots going on, did well to get these 4 days done, the night swim was a highlight, 22 tri club members in the bay in kilalla with glow sticks on our hats and wrists, couldnt have got a better night for it and it worked really well, although it was very obvious that i hadnt swam in over a month..

had a wedding on saturday in galway, so we went home via ballinrobe to watch the lough mask swim challenge, 1500 and 3k race, was kind of sorry we didnt have any gear with us as it went off a bit late and hadnt started by the time we got there, probably better in the end that we didnt

thats the wattbike sessions finished, i think theyve made a difference, il give it a week or 2 rest and then see about starting another block, duathlon next weekend might give and idea whether they have really made any difference at all

turns out that scottish half marathon was ( allegedly ! ) up to 500m long ! trying to look at my splits afterward
i managed to clear all the data off my watch so i have no idea myself, but so many people are querying the distance
now that the organisers have said that they are re-checking it, anyway 500m less and id have been under my pb, just
by seconds but still,

woody1

wed 1st 5k , 2 x 1km hard

thurs 2nd . turbo, first one using cadence sensor, was a bit tougher than usual

sat 4th 5k run , 8k bike, 1k run. limited time , couple of fast efforts in the first 5k run, tried to keep the bike speed at 30k for the few minutes but strangely enough found it tough, despite lack of any wind..

jumped on the scales after and got a serious shock with weight at 11 st 9 , im normally pretty good to keep an eye on it with an eye on not letting it drop too much, i aim to keep it around the 12 stone mark, recent running has had more intensity to it than my normal plodding so im guessing thats what did it, in any case ate all around me at my sons birthday party yesterday and we have lots of leftovers from it in the house so shouldnt be too hard to get it back up

sun 5th local 5k race, technically first man, in reality beaten into third by 2 under 14s , new p.b. though . 20.17 down from 20 50 something so thats a nice chunk too.. getting closer to the sub 20.. should be on track to get it stephens day, so long as theres not too much indulging the day before..

as usual went off far too fast, it was a 5 and a 10 mixed together , so one loop for 5s and 2 for 10, robert malseed was in the 10k and shot off like a rocket as usual but i was next behind him so i was leading the 5, i knew it wouldnt last and i was caught by 2 at about 1.5k, i knew one was a 10k runner but wasnt sure about the other, numbers were different but i couldnt get a look at it, at about 4k there was maybe 4 or 5 of us together with 1st and 2nd in the 10k out of sight ,another 2 had caught up, still didnt know who was running what but it made little difference as i was out of gas by then, one young fella breezed by with 6 or 700 to go and like all kids that age looked like he was just at his ease and this wasnt pushing him at all, i was mid coronary and wasnt able to go with him , finished in 3rd, happy with the pb, nice to get another chunk off it...

might try to pace the next one a bit better and see if that makes it any easier or is it just better to go completely balls out and hang on for dear life ,

woody1

more running,

did nothing til thursday ,

thursday 9th, evening, i met up with a new meet and train running group in a small village close to me, did 5k in the fast group, was a little bit on the fast side for me but as part of the run less run faster approach i need one fast 5k a week so this group will probably do nicely for that

friday 10th, treadmill 5k, boring, overheating, couldnt get finished fast enough

saturday 11th oct , evening 6k , nice run, 2 x 400 and 1 x 800 @ 4 min / km,

sunday 12th oct, foggy morning 6k, 1.5 miles @ 6.5 min mile pace , rest easy

woody1

Tuesday 14th 5 k run. 400, 600, 800 at 3.45

Thursday 16th 10k , 5 before meet and train group , with 2k at 4.10, 5 with meet and train easy

Saturday 18th castlebar parkrun, 5k in 22.23, tiny bit slower than the pace I was meant to run it at but close enough,

I re_read the Run less run faster plan at the start of the week and discovered that I was doing the intervals a bit slower than I was supposed to be , so this week I had a go at doing it properly , the short ones were manageable , just, but the 2 longer ones were just a touch too fast for me, I'll probably have to do this weeks work again next week before progressing through the plan

Depending on weather might get out for easy run tomorrow

woody1

mon 20th , 5k with 5 x 400 @ 3.40 ish pace,

thursday 23rd , 10.1k, 5k on my own, 2.6k supposed to be @ 4.10 but closer to 4.20, 5k with group, after a bit of a warm up km, ran with a girl that would be bit quicker than me and got 2k @ about 4.10 or quicker, took the last 2 easy as a warm down

today, sun 26th , zombie run 5k, like tag rugby, you get a belt with tags and the zombies are trying to take them off you, great craic, even if i had lost all my tags by half way, fastest over the distance with the most tags left wins.

we went in costume to get into the spirit of things for this week

woody1

mon 27th 10k run with 5k @ 4.30 ish, didnt have gps with me but have a fair idea of pace

tuesday morning woke up and stretched hands behind head, and shoulder blades locked ! fun with a 4 year old trying to pull you out of bed, anyway got loosened out eventually but back wasnt right all day, rang physios , ended up in 2 physios, got a booking for thursday but then another one rang me on wednesday with an appointment, different approaches but still stiff after first one whereas second one seemed to loosen and relieve it, doing back stretches over a foam roller daily since, back hasnt been this loose in a long time,
hip flexors one of the culprits, so also doing a lot of stretching on those too,

thursday 30th, 10k , 5k with group , 5 on own, both at about 5 minute pace

sunday 1st November, 15k trail run, trail half and full on next weekend in ballina so went in to run a few loops of the course, nice run, ran in old adrenalines that are probably past their best but i still like them better than newer runners i have, but, sore knees later.. new ones required..

swimming is back this week ( technically last week but cried off with sore back ) which is great, i find having something fixed in the week is great for making me put a bit of thought and structure on things, i know if im swimming tuesday and thursday then running will have to be on such a day and cycling on the others ( although i not doing any cycling at the moment ).. whereas when theres nothing fixed on it all tends to get moved around and ah sure it can be done tomorrow kind of thing..

woody1

Gave up coffee 2 weeks ago , coinciding with the vice challenge, it also cuts down on sugar as I take 3 spoons of sugar in coffee and just 2 in tea, and I just don't drink as much tea, first 3 days were hellish, by the end of the first week I was over the worst of it but was being a bit of a grouchy pr1ck so as a compromise I am now on one cup in the mornings , as opposed to the usual 5 cups a day, saving me at least 5 spoons of sugar a day ,

catweazle

Would you not just try and give up the sugar in it instead - It was tough for about a week for me but I couldn't touch one now if there was sugar in it its rotten

woody1

Would you not just try and give up the sugar in it instead - It was tough for about a week for me but I couldn't touch one now if there was sugar in it its rotten

ive a very sweet tooth, couldnt give up sugar,i put a small mountain of it on porridge although i am gradually moving to honey lately,but nice honey is very expensive ( when compared to boyne valley muck )
i do kind of skip between sweetener and sugar about 50/50 ( not aspartame )
i drank a lot of decaff for a while but most of it is muck, tea is nicer, it just seems that i need my caffeine kick in the mornings to stop me being a grumpy b0l0x..

woody1

4th nov, swimmings back, 1500 swim, all technique stuff
5th Nov, 5k 400 and 2 x 800 @ 4 ish, because i have 2 half marathons in the next 2 weekends im repeating week 7 of the 5k plan, this way il finish the 12 weeks a week before the target race
6th nov 10k, 5 on my own, 5 with group, supposed to do 2.6k @ 4.20 ish but had half marathon on sat so i left it out,
8th nov trail half marathon, 4 laps, twisty turny up and down, went out hard, have gone out easy too many times, wanted to try something different, so first 2 laps hard, 3rd lap maybe a minute ish slower , 4th lap same as first 2, took 2 complete stop 1 minute breaks to drink properly and get a half a gel in at the start finish area, ended up with a 3 minute pb, 1.42,
of course now the thinking is what could i do a road half in,

Dory Dory

Congrats on the pb, woody!!!

woody1

mon 10th . 8k ish recovery run,

tuesday 11th swimming , 1500 drills

stiff as a board after the run, better half busy with work and other stuff so between one thing and another i decided to take a break until tomorrows run in tollymore,

after which itl be back on the last 5 weeks of the 5k plan,

new runners arrived , big thanks to akw, havent ran in them yet though, their so white ! wont use them this weekend, trail half marathon is not the place for shiny new shoes,

woody1

tollymore trail half 15th Nov 2014

did this with better half, try to do something together every now and again, for someone thats normally on the ball with regards to the details of a race i missed a trick with this one, i knew it was hilly but although i looked at the profile i never looked at the numbers on the profile ! 1800 ft of climbing ! better half hasnt much running done but in my ignorance i wasnt too worried,
4k in and we hit the first climb , 3k and over 500 feet later i was beginning to wonder if i'd make it round never mind whether she would, downhill and flat for a while and then around 12k theres another 3k and 500 feet up ! mercifully after that it was mostly downhill or flat and we could relax and enjoy it, this was run as an ultra of 3 laps, marathon 2 laps, half 1 lap and a 10k, we had a lot of respect for the ultra guys as they were coming through on their 3rd lap and therefore their 5th and 6th climbs of the day.. i was having trouble with just the 2,
route was on trail in tollymore forest park, it was, despite the climbs, an enjoyable race in a beautiful location,

finished together in 2.20, fair play to oh she stuck it out til the end, despite having no running done for the year and being brought to do one of the toughest halfs around !!


link to profile of course :eek:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/591221607

Dory Dory

Well done to you both! And downhill can be as brutal as uphill!!! :eek:

MojoMaker

Well played the Woodies.

woody1

cheers, yeah knees are a bit tender going down stairs ..

really good video of event

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8uCsPsyGDQ&feature=youtu.be

woody1

tuesday 18th swimming, all drills, 1100 ish
wednesday 19th 7k run @ 4.50 ish
thursday 20th 4k run, 2.5k @ 4.30,
friday 21st 8k trail run with headlights with tri club . no idea of pace
saturday 22nd, park run with brother in law, ballinas first parkrun, slow pace but good craic nonetheless
sunday 23rd , 5.3k , 400 and 2 x 800 flat out, had to cut the 2nd 800 short, legs are still baked from the 2 half marathons but it was nice to be getting back into the hard work..

thats a lot of days consecutively for me, but better halfs drama rehearsals are ramping up over next 2 weeks so im taking any opportunity to get out if and when it arises, id imagine il be lucky to get 2 runs and a swim in between now and next weekend..

during the week my brother sent me this challenge
from a standing position , drop and do a press-up and stand again, then in sequence do 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,and 10, standing after each set.. total of 55 press ups, im not sure what the rest periods should be but i took about 5 seconds after 7 ,8 and 9, i didnt think it was too bad, yesterday when i did it ,but my chest is in bits today , took me a while to remember why..

woody1

24th 5.5k run 2.4k@4.10
25th 5.6k , 2.5@4.30
29th Parkrun 5k 40 mins, done with bro in law
30th 10k, 6k and 4k run at a guess around 4.30 pace..

thats november done with, highest running mileage this year by 50k, conversely there was no cycling at all..
onwards and upwards, 4 weeks til sub 20 ! unless i manage to crack it at one of the parkruns, which id prefer , allow me to be lazy on stephens day ,

MojoMaker

What's your current 5k PR woody?

woody1

20.17 from about 6 weeks ago

woody1

quietest week in a long time ,

tuesday 2nd , swim 1000m

wednesday 3rd , 5k run,

was due to run again thursday and friday and race on sunday but i felt a niggle around my achilles or slightly above it, so i took thursday to saturday off with a view to racing on sunday, sunday came and was cold and miserable and along with the sore achilles i just couldnt be bothered,a out sunday night, hungover monday, other half away tonight, might get out for a run tomorrow, i mentioned to my older boy ( all of 6 ) that maybe we'd go for a run in the woods someday, just sowing the seed but thinking no more would come of it , he seems to be more of a reading / colouring / thinking kid than overly into sporty stuff but hes been asking me a bit lately so im going to have to find a half hour somewhere this week to bring him for a short trot and see what he thinks...

woody1

so its a week since i've done anything, amazing how it seems to work, the less that you do the less that you want to do, weather is wild here today, better half is off work so i have a massive window to get out and do something but i just cant be arsed,

i don't overly mind bad weather, i've plenty of gear to cover up in, i ran ( shuffled ) up the booster in castlebar in wind driven hail in january before and i loved it , i've done plenty of hillwalking / hiking in atrocious conditions, just looking for excuses today..

the sub 20 5k target has been my excuse for not doing any cycling and f*ck all swimming but i need to get going with one or other just to kickstart this month.. normally i do very little in dec / jan , maybe thats where the problem stems from, dark nights and mornings, crap weather, other halfs work and time commitments , all excuses. need to get my arse in gear..
ive 140k to cycle to make the nice round number of 2500 km for the year , wont take much to do it but it might be enough to get me going, i have to make the next 4 coached swims , their paid for in blocks , ive paid for 8 ive only done 4,

thinking about a swimming streak, for january / february sometime to try to catch up a bit, same idea as running , month solid, obviously harder to work it as theres driving in, driving out, timetables etc to deal with , and my local pool is a no go area on weekends so itd have to be a hotel pool , but i think itd be worth a lash, 1000m a day every day for a month ? and seeing as brett sutton says its okay, i can do it all with a pull bouy, makes it more appealing

anyway kind of a pointless post but maybe itl help me get my arse out the door later..

woody1

so after my little rant last week did i get off my arse ..well not that night but i did get up at 7 am for possibly the most sluggish and boring treadmill jog / walk / crawl ever.. running early in the morning outside isnt too bad, once you wake up into it, treadmill is soul destroying.. but it got done..and got me re-started .. kind of

thursday 11th dec 5k treadmill

friday 12th 8k run with triathlon club group

saturday 13th 7k bike. cycling as a lead rider for our local parkrun as they changed the route marginally and they didnt want anyone going wrong, very leisurely stuff but still better than nothing , just , low turn out due to icy roads but still 50 odd , mostly locals on a very cold morning so that augurs well for later in the year

xmas party on friday which most likely means i wont be at next weekends parkrun, so its looking like the 5k is going to be stephens day,