The "what the hell do I call my training log?" training log...

ncmc

Don't be hard on yourself C, we've all had crappy runs (I know I've had more than my fair share!) sometimes you can't even put your finger on why the run was crap, it just happens. As you say, it could have been the miles you've been putting in lately, the soaking you got at the start of the run or maybe you just had a rough week in work or something small like that!

Important thing is, you got the run done and dusted. Now put it out of your head and onwards and upwards you go!

upthe19th

+1 to all said. To be honest C, you looked like it took nothing out of you at all but I know it did a bit. I would have said it was mild discomfort if anything and a feeling that you were not in total control. Believe me, when I crash, I really crash and you weren't there. That's pretty great then considering the mileage you are putting in.

Dilbert75

5k recovery done on the light dusting of snow we have - not enough to be real trouble but enough to make the paths slippy and to make running tricky. Took it easy and the only real close call I had was 150m from my door when I failed to remember a speed hump I cross at least twice a day. Managed to stay upright though thankfully. Was very slow, as intended, at 6.00/km average with an avg HR of 127 (measured with an old HR strap cos mind seems to have died along with its battery - new battery didn't revive it either).

Hope the snow clears up before my 19k on Wednesday - lovely to look at, pain in the butt other than that. Bit of a snow grinch I'm afraid.

Dilbert75

Right well the snow cleared for my 19k but I should have wished for a dry evening too. Was probably past borderline late when I started out - pesky work again - and the sun was already dipping over the horizon when I hit the unlit roads with no paths. Then the clouds gathered and opened all over me. By 7k I was soaked through from head to toe. Kept it going and splashed my 19.17km out in 1.38, avg pace 5.08/km, avg HR 138. I'd hate to think what my body temp was by then though.

On the topic of HR, my HR strap is alive again but I'm still a bit scooby dubious of its accuracy. Seems like it's reading low - even running up steep hills when I'm ready to cough a lung it only shows in the 160's.

Dilbert75

Mustered the very last scrap of HTFU in the house (found in the back of the press with the last of the old light bulbs). After probably 3 attempts to get out the front door I finally did and almost immediately felt.... not too bad actually.

Plan was 2k warm up, 6k at 10mP and 6k at normal pace again. Despite being stopped for directions twice in 750m (different people, different directions) the first 4k or so were fine. Crossed the bridge to find all the street lights were out. Running on a narrow, uneven path beside a main road was never going to be a good idea so I turned back and finished my 10mP on the running track. Devised another route to get my remaining 6k done. So far so good.

About half way around that I started feeling a twinge in my left Achilles tendon and it wasn't going away. Got to the point where I could go straight and finish the run or turn off and bale out at 12k, So that's what I did - walked home and am sitting here with it on an ice pack, hoping for the best. Total distance 12.12km in 59.10 - average 4.53/km, avg HR 147.

career_move

Sorry to hear your run didn't go to plan. Hopefully it's just a minor thing. You did the right thing to stop though.....no point risking it for the sake of a few more miles

ncmc

Sorry to hear that C, hopefully it's nothing too serious, you might have been running funny along that narrow dark path! It's actually so dangerous to run in the dark, I find my form alters as I try and find purchase in the dark. Plus there is obviously the danger of falling over something or into a pothole.

You did the right thing in cutting your run short, hopefully you'll be ok for your lsr.

upthe19th

Good call there fella. That bridge pathway is not great in daylight not to mention any other time. Mind that injury. In the greater scheme of things the run is a drop in the ocean. you would like to be completing it but not at the risk of a worse injury.

Dilbert75

Very true. Probably going to can my 8k today and my long run tomorrow - may take a spin on the bike instead. Don't want to either aggravate it or get stranded far from home. At this point I've more to lose than gain.

blockic

ncmc wrote: »

I try and find purchase in the dark.

haven't heard purchase in a while! You're like Ger Canning in a GAA match!

scriba

blockic wrote: »

You're like Ger Canning in a GAA match!

An outrageous slur. I'm not sure of Ger's workrate or fielding skills. :P

Dilbert75

Well I've spent the last two days resting from running and foam rolling my calves cos I discovered that there are knots the size of my knuckles in them, despite stretching them out regularly. It seems like they are pulling on the tendons causing them to hurt (presumably the weakest past of the chain).

Anyway I tackled a 15k spin on the bike first - went fine, avg about 24km/hr - and then some running around some of the trails in the local woods. There's a loop there that's about 1.5k, so did 5 laps in lieu of my 8k recovery run due today. Could feel the tendon after the first lap but it didn't really trouble me at all. 5 laps took about 42 mins which was decent enough given that there's a proper hill in the middle of it.

Met the kids and dog then, pulled on some wellies (over running tights, shorts, 2 t-shirts, snood and jacket - anyone who met me must surely have thought for a minute they were in Milan, Paris or New York) and went to splash in the stream for an hour - great craic!

May go foam roll again now and try make sure that's as bad as it gets. Off work next week so will have to seriously consider getting a general rub-down to ward off any more of these niggles.

Dilbert75

Ok well I'm tentatively back on track. Ish. Plan called for 16k with 5x1000 with 50-90% recoveries. Couldn't quite figure out where to go so ended up just running down to the track, doing my 5x1k around it and running home.

So the first 4k were dispatched in 5.10, 5.14, 5.07 & 5.13. Paused to stretch for a few mins at that stage and to consider whether the twinge in my Achilles was worth worrying about. Decided to give it a go. Did another 1k in 5.02 to get me going before the fast stuff started.

From here I planned on running the 1k's fast enough to get my HR into my VO2 max range (assuming of course my HR monitor is accurate) - last time I did this session I was running 4.10/km and was 10-20bpm shy of the range, so it was going to take a bit more pace to get there. Tackled into it - tried 4.00/km but it wasn't getting the HR up there. To cut a long story short, I ended up around 3.30/km and the HR was getting up around the right region. Rests consisted of 2.5 mins including 1.5mins walking and 1 min jogging.

So the split times for the pace runs, and the distances for the rests, were: 3.30, 379m, 3.26, 352m, 3.39, 303m, 3.40, 307m, 3.32.

After that I took a walk for a min or so and started jogging again, but much more slowly than normal - the data shows I was getting tired and this was borne out by the rest of the splits: 6.45, 5.54, 5.56, 5.58, 5.58. On the up-side, they were my LSR paces 6 months ago. Overall run was 16k in 1.21.58 - avg 5.08/km, avg HR 139.

Supposed to have torrential rain down here tomorrow, as well as my daughter's first confession, so I'm not sure yet how the rest of the week will pan out. I've also got something on for Sunday so any LSR will have to be on Saturday. I'm not going to panic over a couple of missed runs anyway. The ankle is holding up pretty ok - foam roll and hot bath when I got in surely helped - so I don't want to push too hard too quickly.

Dilbert75

As expected, Thursday was a wash-out with Daddy-duties and apocalyptic weather keeping me indoors. Yesterday the weather was better but work got in the way - didn't much feel like catching up on my 19k from Thursday when I got home at 9.30 after a 13 hour day. I was bringing my LSR forward to today anyway so that's what I did.

Plan was 24k with 19k at PMP (4.58/km). Decided I'd take 2 or 3k to warm up, hit top gear and then have the remainder to cool down. Got to the end of the first k faster than PMP and told myself to cop on and slow down. This worked...briefly. Got to the end of the 2nd k faster than PMP and said sod this and kept going. Was doing an out and back so turned at 12k and had the wind at my back for the return leg. Started overheating but stuck with it.

19k of PMP ended at the top of the biggest hill on the route so I said feic it, I'll coast down and see what happens. Along the straight I was keeping the pace still and didn't need to slow much on the way up the other side. Ended up finishing off the whole run at PMP - 24k in 1.55.43, avg pace 4.49/km, avg HR 153 (higher than normal so it obviously wasn't coming that easy).

And, touch wood, my Achilles isn't hurting!

Gavlor

Dilbert75 wrote: »

As expected, Thursday was a wash-out with Daddy-duties and apocalyptic weather keeping me indoors. Yesterday the weather was better but work got in the way - didn't much feel like catching up on my 19k from Thursday when I got home at 9.30 after a 13 hour day. I was bringing my LSR forward to today anyway so that's what I did.

Plan was 24k with 19k at PMP (4.58/km). Decided I'd take 2 or 3k to warm up, hit top gear and then have the remainder to cool down. Got to the end of the first k faster than PMP and told myself to cop on and slow down. This worked...briefly. Got to the end of the 2nd k faster than PMP and said sod this and kept going. Was doing an out and back so turned at 12k and had the wind at my back for the return leg. Started overheating but stuck with it.

19k of PMP ended at the top of the biggest hill on the route so I said feic it, I'll coast down and see what happens. Along the straight I was keeping the pace still and didn't need to slow much on the way up the other side. Ended up finishing off the whole run at PMP - 24k in 1.55.43, avg pace 4.49/km, avg HR 153 (higher than normal so it obviously wasn't coming that easy).

And, touch wood, my Achilles isn't hurting!

I have a feeling I'd be impressed if I understood your numbers

blockic

Great day's work there, I can't convert the distance but 2 hours at PMP in any language is super going!:cool:

Just catching up on your log too,that 5x1000 session is wicked!!

career_move

Super run today. You're really motoring

upthe19th

Dilbert75 wrote: »

As expected, Thursday was a wash-out with Daddy-duties and apocalyptic weather keeping me indoors. Yesterday the weather was better but work got in the way - didn't much feel like catching up on my 19k from Thursday when I got home at 9.30 after a 13 hour day. I was bringing my LSR forward to today anyway so that's what I did.

Plan was 24k with 19k at PMP (4.58/km). Decided I'd take 2 or 3k to warm up, hit top gear and then have the remainder to cool down. Got to the end of the first k faster than PMP and told myself to cop on and slow down. This worked...briefly. Got to the end of the 2nd k faster than PMP and said sod this and kept going. Was doing an out and back so turned at 12k and had the wind at my back for the return leg. Started overheating but stuck with it.

19k of PMP ended at the top of the biggest hill on the route so I said feic it, I'll coast down and see what happens. Along the straight I was keeping the pace still and didn't need to slow much on the way up the other side. Ended up finishing off the whole run at PMP - 24k in 1.55.43, avg pace 4.49/km, avg HR 153 (higher than normal so it obviously wasn't coming that easy).

And, touch wood, my Achilles isn't hurting!

Nice going chief. Glad to hear all is well Achilles wise.

menoscemo

Just catching up. That 5 x 1k session is savage, you do realise you should be targeting a sub 18 minute 5k off that (No joke)?
I had a feeling you have been sandbagging us (and possibly yourself) for a while. Lots of super times to come from you if you push yourself.

Dilbert75

Gavlor wrote: »

I have a feeling I'd be impressed if I understood your numbers

For the metrically-challenged that's about 7.45/mile for 15 miles. It's not exactly Gavlor or Blockic territory but I'm happy enough with it.

blockic

menoscemo wrote: »

Just catching up. That 5 x 1k session is savage, you do realise you should be targeting a sub 18 minute 5k off that (No joke)?
I had a feeling you have been sandbagging us (and possibly yourself) for a while. Lots of super times to come from you if you push yourself.

+1

This post made me go back to my exact session 3 weeks ago for a look. Your 1km splits are pretty identical to mine!! :eek: Fantastic progress! 7:45 for 15 miles is a great run too. Surely a substantial sub 3:30 in Limerick has to be your target now?

Gavlor, I think Dilbert has taken over my soft target title?

ncmc

That's amazing running C, well done! Your confidence must be sky high after that! And so glad to hear your injury seems to have cleared up.

I have to agree with the others, I've been feeling for the last few weeks based on your LSR times that 3:30 is a really soft target for you. I reckon you'll be closer to 3:15 than 3:30

upthe19th

menoscemo wrote: »

Just catching up. That 5 x 1k session is savage, you do realise you should be targeting a sub 18 minute 5k off that (No joke)?
I had a feeling you have been sandbagging us (and possibly yourself) for a while. Lots of super times to come from you if you push yourself.

+1. Definitely a lot to come from dilbert75. Im gonna need a new, slower training buddy really soon.

Gavlor

blockic wrote: »

Gavlor, I think Dilbert has taken over my soft target title?

Was just thinking the same thing!!

One or two little pep talks needed over the next 6 weeks dilbert!!

RunningKing

Don't know of I'm more impressed with the rate of progress here or the fact that there's a 37 yr old using KM's :-)

Great running young man!

Dilbert75

Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement folks, though I'm not as convinced of my untapped potential as some of you seem to be.

I had been thinking a sub-20 5k might be feasible but sub-18 doesn't seem likely to me any time soon. Likewise I think 3.30 is a fairly realistic gold target (3.35 & 3.40 would be silver and bronze respectively) for the marathon. Remember I'm coming from 3.54 so already a huge chunk off.

My problem, if you want, is that I tend to run to plan and I plan to what I know I can do. So if I set out with 3.30 in mind, I'm not likely to get to a mid-point where I'll think I should push harder and be able to push hard enough to make it worth while. At that level 10s/km is quite a bit but I'd need to turn up the wick a long way out before I'd gain more than a minute or two. Maybe I'll have to think some more about strategy.

RunningKing

"10s/km"

Is that Latin or Chemistry or something?


"If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got."

-- W. L. Bateman

Dilbert75

RunningKing wrote: »

"10s/km"

Is that Latin or Chemistry or something?


"If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got."

-- W. L. Bateman

Harsh.

Gavlor

RunningKing wrote: »

"If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got."

-- W. L. Bateman

You sound like my boss!!!

ncmc

I would be the same as you Dilbert, I am very much a 'plan follower' and I don't like messing with the plan during a race unless I have to. It's the same for me with distance, if I know I have to do 19 miles then that's grand, however if I think I'm doing 18, the thought of that extra mile would kill me!

There's nothing wrong with being conservative regarding time. Yes, you have to push yourself, but for me, enjoying the experience is more important. I'd rather get a comfortable 3:30 then absolutely kill myself to get 3:25. But then maybe that's me being a bit unambitious!

Do you have a final race coming up before limerick? That would probably give you a better indicator than anything. Pity Wexford HM wasn't a couple of weeks earlier, that would be perfect for you!