Running's not just for New Year's, it's for life!

wowzer

That's a nice session, I know that bridge/hill well and it's not easy.

vitani

Easy 5 miles this morning in 00:52:50 - Average pace of 10:31 min/mile. Quite an unremarkable run, which I guess is noteworthy in itself. A couple of months ago, my standard run would have been 3 miles - now it seems to be 5.

I've signed up for another couple of races - as well as the Docklands 10k in less than three weeks, I'll be doing the Clontarf 5 mile in mid-July. Both of these fit nicely into my training schedule. I've also signed up for the 10 miler in the race series. It's only a couple of weeks after the half, so I doubt I'll be racing it, but I wanted to do something quite soon after to stave off any post-goal race blues.

vitani

Just back from my first ever 10 mile run. As runs go, it was pretty perfect.

I've been experimenting with different food before long runs to see what suits and I think I've hit on something that works for me. Peanut butter on a bagel for breakfast, with a cup of coffee. Plenty of water during the morning, up until an hour before my run, when I'll have a banana. Even though it just was a plodding pace, I covered the full 10 miles and needed nothing else, not even water during it. I had money with me just in case, but I was fine, even in this heat.

Ran as far as the Phoenix Park, did a couple of miles inside it and then ran home. Even though it had turned into the Phoenix CarPark, thanks to Bloom, there's something about running there that always lifts my spirits. There was a lovely fresh breeze as well as soon as I got in the gate which was really refreshing.

Last week, I'd been checking my watch constantly from about 7 miles onwards, but today I felt great right up until the end. In fact, about 8 miles in, a set of pedestrian lights were about to turn red when I was coming up to a crossing so I ended up sprinting to get across the road. I felt like one of those cartoon characters with the spinning legs. There's no way I could have done that at the same stage of the run last week.

Overall, 10.01 miles in 1:46:47 - Average pace of 10:40 min/mile

vitani

This week's plan has had to be shifted around as well. My daughter is having sleeping issues so I've had to call a halt to early morning running, and there's been some reschedules/last minute changes. New plan as follows:

Tuesday 4 June:| Yoga
Wednesday 5 June:| 6M (approx 66 mins) easy
Thursday 6 June:| Rest
Friday 7 June:| 1M jog, then 10 x 2 mins up hill, jog back. Then 1M jog at end of session
Saturday 8 June:| 10M (approx 1hr 50) easy
Sunday 9 June:| Rest
Monday 10 June:| 1M jog, then 5M fartlek, then 1M jog

Wednesday's easy 6 became a steady (almost) 5 miles as I had no choice but to incorporate it into my commute home. Beautiful day for it actually. I headed down the quays and through the Phoenix Park. While I was tempted to add an extra mile onto it to do the full 6, I decided the more sensible thing to do in the heat was stick to the 5 miles, as I was going at a slightly faster pace.

4.81 miles in 00:47:21 - Average pace of 9:50 min/mile

Another hill session this evening. I brought the number of reps up to 15 this time. I've noticed that hills are becoming easier on my other runs so I do think the past couple of hill sessions have really helped me. They've certainly helped break down some of the mental blocks I had about running uphill.

For my last mile home, I ran at my planned half marathon pace to see how it would feel after a tough session. It felt good, but I'm still apprehensive about holding that pace for 13 miles. I guess that's why I still have another two months to train.

5.27 miles in 00:51:39 - Average pace of 9:48 min/mile

I'm planning to run another 10 miler tomorrow, but I've left Sunday free in case things don't go to plan. Monday will be a run home from work, incorporating my first ever Fartlek session. That should be an interesting one.

The Muppet

Just read your entire log and found it inspiring and got a few things that I think will help me.

New to running myself, recently completed c25k (april) and moving on to hal higdons 10 k novice plan on monday all being well. I have the same goals as youself.

I am going to buy a proper watch, using endomondo and a lild hrm watch to date. Would you recommend the Garmin you got or would you go for one that has pace etc on the one screen if buying now ?

vitani

Sitting down now to rest after my 10 mile run. I may never get up again.

I knew it was going to be tougher than last week's as there weren't as many days between long runs, but I wasn't expecting the cramp in my hamstring about 3 miles in. I was still able to run on it so I decided to keep going - my logic being that I was closer to my halfway point than I was to home. It made complete and utter sense at the time but I'm now sitting here wondering what on earth I was expecting to happen at the halfway point.

Luckily, the cramp eased after about a mile and I was able to keep on keeping on. The last few miles were tough enough but the thought of coming on here and having to admit I didn't finish the run kept me going.

I got home and I literally couldn't feel any part of my body other than the pain of my hamstrings and calves. A couple of yoga stretches and a cold shower has eased the worst of it, and myself and my foam roller will be getting much better acquainted tomorrow.

10.07 miles in 01:45:04 - Average pace of 10.26 min/mile

vitani

The Muppet wrote: »

Just read your entire log and found it inspiring and got a few things that I think will help me.

New to running myself, recently completed c25k (april) and moving on to hal higdons 10 k novice plan on monday all being well. I have the same goals as youself.

I am going to buy a proper watch, using endomondo and a lild hrm watch to date. Would you recommend the Garmin you got or would you go for one that has pace etc on the one screen if buying now ?

Oh wow, thank you! Hal Higdon's is a good follow-on plan. Do you have a goal race in mind for the end of it?

Re. the Garmin. It turns out that I spoke too soon. There's a couple of different screens to choose from for display purposes and I found out how to change my settings so that one of those could show me pace and distance on the same screen.

With that in mind, I absolutely would recommend it, especially if you already have a HRM. It's basic but it has everything you need. It'd be nice to have a few additional features but there's nothing missing that's needed for running. The only irritation I have is that it can take a few minutes to locate satellites but I think all Garmins have that problem.

The Muppet

Thanks for that, the garmin it is so.

I don't really have any race in mind, I'm really doing it to get and stay fit but I would like to run in some races for the fun of it and just to prove I can do it. I have been looking at a few 5ks on run Ireland but I haven't taken the plunge yet. Perhaps I should be looking at some 10ks now too

I'm slow, just running at 10 min mile pace at the moment on 6k runs , which I'm enough happy with for now as I hadn't done any proper exercise in nearly 30 years but I want to improve on my speed.

Thanks for the advice and the best of luck with the running.

vitani

The Muppet wrote: »

Thanks for that, the garmin it is so.

I don't really have any race in mind, I'm really doing it to get and stay fit but I would like to run in some races for the fun of it and just to prove I can do it. I have been looking at a few 5ks on run Ireland but I haven't taken the plunge yet. Perhaps I should be looking at some 10ks now too

I'm slow, just running at 10 min mile pace at the moment on 6k runs , which I'm enough happy with for now as I hadn't done any proper exercise in nearly 30 years but I want to improve on my speed.

Thanks for the advice and the best of luck with the running.

Races are great, if slightly addictive. Just as a way of seeing where you are, I like them. Plus, you can never have too many free tshirts. And they give me the motivation to get out the door on the days where the couch looks more appealing.

10 min mile is a good pace for us when we're just starting out, IMO. At least I have to say that - I was around the same and still am not too much faster.

vitani

First ever Fartlek run this evening. When I said 'That should be an interesting one' a few days ago, what I actually meant was 'I'm mildly terrified of this'. It ended up being amazing. Being able to run exactly as I felt like meant I was feeling stronger throughout than I ever have on a run.

7.85 miles in 01:13:57 - Average pace of 9.25 min/mile

Tom Joad

Great stuff Vitani - that's a real confidence building session.

vitani

Absolutely, and thanks! I've to do 10 'steady' miles this coming weekend and I'm much less nervous about that now. I'm also getting more and more confident about my time goal for the half.

vitani

This week's plan:

Tuesday 11 June:| Yoga
Wednesday 12 June:| 1M jog, then 15 x 200m (or 1 min) fast, with 100m (45-sec) jog recoveries, then 1M jog
Thursday 13 June:| 6M (approx 66 mins) easy
Friday 14 June:| Rest
Saturday 15 June:| 1M jog, then 6M fartlek, then 1M jog
Sunday 16 June:| 10M (approx 95 mins) steady
Monday 17 June:| Rest

Intervals this morning. They definitely went a lot better than my previous attempts. The shorter time period was a help, and I tried to run them at a fast, but sustainable, pace. The pace mainly stayed between 8 and 8.20 min/mile but there was one or two that jumped to almost 7.50 min/mile.

Overall 5 miles in 00:48:07 - Average pace of 9.37 min/mile

I have to say, I really like the variety in this training plan. I know that I'm early enough on in my running to benefit from almost any training plan out there but the fact that every run in this is different and lets me try out different techniques is great. I'm probably enjoying the training as much as I'll enjoy the actual race itself.

vitani

Today's fartlek run did not go very well. All my own fault - I haven't been watching my diet this week and I didn't drink enough water before heading out this afternoon. The lack of water was particularly stupid as it was quite warm out today. I'm proud of myself for finishing the entire run though - I came very close to taking a shortcut home - but I did have to stop and just catch my breath a couple of times.

8.01 miles in 1:15:04 - Average pace of 9.22 min/mile

Got heckled about halfway through by some lad in a car going past. For the most part, I don't mind being heckled as usually there's some kind of wit behind it but this lad actually seemed really aggressive. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I didn't hear exactly what he said.

vitani

The plan today called for 10 steady miles in approx 95 minutes - I ran 10.05 miles in 1:35:04 - Howzat for perfect pacing?!

Today's run was tough but manageable. I was kind of on the upper edge of comfortable the whole way through - as in, even a little faster would have pushed me into uncomfortable territory. I headed along the canal, starting from Castleknock train station and heading towards the city. Really lovely, flat route and I was delighted to see swans at one point.

I'm very pleased with how this run went, and looking over the rest of the HM plan, that's pretty much as tough as it will get. I've one easy 14 miles a couple of weeks before the end, and two races before then, but there's no other jump in terms of distance or intensity.

FrClintPower

vitani wrote: »

The plan today called for 10 steady miles in approx 95 minutes - I ran 10.05 miles in 1:35:04 - Howzat for perfect pacing?!

Today's run was tough but manageable. I was kind of on the upper edge of comfortable the whole way through - as in, even a little faster would have pushed me into uncomfortable territory. I headed along the canal, starting from Castleknock train station and heading towards the city. Really lovely, flat route and I was delighted to see swans at one point.

I'm very pleased with how this run went, and looking over the rest of the HM plan, that's pretty much as tough as it will get. I've one easy 14 miles a couple of weeks before the end, and two races before then, but there's no other jump in terms of distance or intensity.

It's a nice place to run alright, from the M50 in towards Ashtown you could really believe you're in the countryside. If you go out the other direction from Castleknock towards Coolmine it's fairly wild and the canal ends up about 20 feet down a sheer rock cut, you'd never think it if you were driving above it.

vitani

Yeah, after Ashtown in particular is really lovely - it reminded me of a place near where I used to live in Edinburgh. I love that little canal bridge over the M50 as well.

I'd love them to upgrade all of the canal because I wouldn't be massively confident about running on it before Castleknock at anything approaching a decent pace. I used to walk to school along it from Porterstown to Coolmine and I don't think the path has changed since.

vitani

I'm pretty ecstatic right now. Set myself a goal of under 53 minutes, and ended up with a result of under 51!

It's a funny old world. I had not being looking forward to this race at all. The course change last week really threw me and I wasn't particularly impressed with other aspects of the organisation so I was very tempted to just not run it at all. I decided to go ahead though, because I feel that if I start pulling out of races, it's a slippery slope.

The start of the 10k was an absolute shambles, tbh. People had been assigned different waves but there were no markings to indicate which wave went were and any announcements made were inaudible. So when the race eventually started, everyone just started walking towards the start line in this weird zombie-like shuffle. I was supposed to start in the third wave but after a few minutes of watching people I knew would be slower than me walk towards the start line, I said feck this and joined the crowd.

I'd set my virtual pacer for 5.15 per km. I don't usually run by km in distance or pace so psychologically, it was good because I had no preconceptions about what that pace meant. The first km took me 5.14 and as per usual, a lot of that was spent weaving around people. To be fair, though, the congestion wasn't that bad - possibly the odd, laid-back start helped spread out the field.

Apart from the first km, the third was the only other one to be near the 5.15 mark. The rest were all under 5.10 with the fastest being 4.55. Mentally, the race was great. I ran at a pace that felt good and any time it started to be too uncomfortable, I reminded myself that I could drop back to 5.15 if I needed to and still make my goal. Knowing this took any pressure off although I'm now starting to wonder if I was too easy on myself :pac:

I liked quite a bit about the race in the end. The two laps actually made the race seem a lot shorter and I have to give credit to the people handling the bag drop. The line was long but we were dealt with efficiently and bags found quickly once we reached the top of the queue. Apparently there was water right at the finish line but most people seemed to have missed it. Would I run it again? I don't know. I liked the course but I think next year, I'm going to give more club races a try.

Looking forward to getting my official time now. I had set myself a goal of getting under 50 minutes for a 10k before the end of the year, but I might have to revise that down a little now.

EDIT: Provisional time has me at 50:45!!! That's over 4 minutes off my previous PB!

FrClintPower

Fair play to you Vitani, fantastic result, I think you'll definitely have to revise that target! Based on the work you're putting in surely you should be going for sub-48 at least?

vitani

FrClintPower wrote: »

Fair play to you Vitani, fantastic result, I think you'll definitely have to revise that target! Based on the work you're putting in surely you should be going for sub-48 at least?

I was thinking along the lines of sub-49 but maybe I'm being too conservative. Sub 48 would put my average pace under 8 minutes per mile which would be a massive milestone for me. Yeah, I'm liking the way you're thinking.

Darren 83

Well done great time

vitani

5 easy/ish miles this morning. I'm still tired enough after the race on Thursday and found the first couple of miles tough - to the extent that I was wondering whether to cut the run short or whether I should keep going and hope to shake the stiffness out of my legs. Definitely, the further I went, the better I felt and I had a job convincing myself to stop at all.

I could do with another couple of easy days though before getting back into intervals/fartleks etc, so I'll be juggling this week's schedule around to make sure that happens.

5.02 miles in 00:49:40 - Average pace of 9:53 min/mile

I'm now at over 250 miles since finishing C25K. It doesn't take long to add up, does it?!

Tom Joad

Well done on PB Vitani.

vitani

Been over a week since I updated :eek:

I've still been running but skipped a couple of days following the 10k. To sum up, briefly:

Thursday, June 27: 6.01 miles in 00:56:20 - Average pace of 9.22 min/mile. This was a standard steady run.

Saturday, June 29: 4.97 miles in 00:45:04 - Average pace of 9.04 min/mile. This was intervals of 4 mins fast/45 seconds recovery. I found it very, very tough. Head wasn't in the game at all and I ended up taking quite a few walking breaks. I cheated and stopped the Garmin a couple of times as well so those figures in terms of time and distance are completely inaccurate.

Monday, July 1: 8.2 miles in 1:17:35 - Average pace of 9.27 min/mile. Steady run home from work. I was supposed to do a Fartlek run but again, my head was not in the game so I just meandered along as best I could. Most of my miles were actually in and around the 9 min/mile mark but two extended walking breaks brought down my average time.

I have to admit that I've been struggling the last couple of weeks. I don't think the plan is too much for me, physically, but I do think the time commitment needed is becoming a bit of a chore. I've a few other things going on at the moment with my family and my daughter, and finding the time to get the runs in is tough.

As well as that, I guess the novelty of running has worn off a bit. It's been six months and the first flush of love is definitely over. Now is when it's going to take some real commitment, and effort on my part. What I'd like to happen is that I manage to push through this stage and reach a stronger, more fundamental commitment to running. I've been like an excited puppy up until now, amazed at what I could do. Now it's time to really just put my head down and go for it, and power through the tough weeks.

blockic

vitani wrote: »

As well as that, I guess the novelty of running has worn off a bit. It's been six months and the first flush of love is definitely over. Now is when it's going to take some real commitment, and effort on my part. What I'd like to happen is that I manage to push through this stage and reach a stronger, more fundamental commitment to running. I've been like an excited puppy up until now, amazed at what I could do. Now it's time to really just put my head down and go for it, and power through the tough weeks.

I know what you mean, it's as if the honeymoon period is over, happened some of us after DCM last year when, at the time, nothing else mattered. Once it was over, some of us felt lost and thought where to next. Keep at it and soon you'll get a second wind and the gra will return!

vitani

blockic wrote: »

I know what you mean, it's as if the honeymoon period is over, happened some of us after DCM last year when, at the time, nothing else mattered. Once it was over, some of us felt lost and thought where to next. Keep at it and soon you'll get a second wind and the gra will return!

Thanks. That's exactly what I'm hoping will happen!

Darren 83

vitani wrote: »

Thanks. That's exactly what I'm hoping will happen!

I think if you start to see running as a chore it will start to go down hill, If you can join a local club not only will it improve your running but will also give you a new outlook on running.

Most of my friends don't like running so at least I have that bond with my club mates. I have no problem going to the track and supporting fellow club members and helping with club stuff.

Maybe you could run with friends it can get boring on your own

vitani

I have been thinking about a club but I wouldn't be able to join one until August/September and even then, I'd probably only be able to make one training session a week. It's definitely in my plans for the future though because I really do want to improve my running.

I think what's been happening the past week or two is that I was skipping the odd run or postponing them until another day, and then when it got to that day, which I'd earmarked for something else, I resented having to run on it. This week, I've said from the outset that I'll be running on certain days and because of that, I found it much easier to get out today.

Went out for an interval session this evening - 1 mile warmup, 10 x intervals of 1 minute running, with 45 seconds jog recovery in between, followed by 1 mile cooldown.

I walked some of the recoveries instead of jogging them, but overall I was happy with how the session went. My interval times were all under 8 min/mile pace, with two of them reaching 7.15 min/mile. It's another nice indication that I'm getting faster.

Overall, 4.71 miles in 00:44:20 - Average pace of 9.25 min/mile

The half marathon is in just over a month so I've decided to book myself in for a sports massage a couple of weeks beforehand. I think I heard that about two weeks beforehand is best but will have to double check.

vitani

Steady 3 miles this evening. I'm getting better at pacing myself - mile times were 9.32, 9.32 and 9.31

vitani

Longest run to date so far. Had scheduled a steady 10 miles, but I sort of made the route up as I went along, so it ended up being 10.68 miles in 1:43:30 - Average pace of 9.41 min/mile

Felt pretty good throughout, up until the end when I reached my estate and starting walking. Oh dear Lord, the pain in my calves and hamstrings! A cold shower, some stretching and some chocolate helped.

I'm getting closer and closer to that HM distance. Only 2.5 miles short of it this evening. And less than a month to go as well. The plan is to run with the 2 hour pacers (if they have them) and push on myself after 10ish miles if I'm feeling good.