A fourth major - Chicago 2013

Peckham

Thursday 30th May
Out nice and early this morning for an easy few miles before work. It's been a few weeks since I've done a pre-work run, and want to get back in the habit as I'll need them for the double-run recovery days during higher mileage weeks.

4 miles @ 7:43 pace

Peckham

Friday 31st May
Bank Holiday weekends in our office mean a 3pm finish, so was able to get out nice and early, get a decent run in and still be home in time to fit in three episodes of Peppa Pig and read some bedtime stories.

Great afternoon for running. Left the office about 3.45 and followed the same route as last Friday. A bit blowy along Sandymount Strand, but was great as always to be running along the sand. A turn up along the canal and all the lights were in my favour so a nicely uninterupted stretch. Into Phoenix Park and almost felt like autumn with a sunny evening but a bit chilly. Hope all is still going as well when the autumn evenings hit and the wind down for Chicago begins.

Felt great turning off Knockmaroon Road onto Chesterfield Avenue and subconsciously kicked for home with the final 6 miles clocked at sub-7 pace. Learned a lesson that M&S Belgian Chocolate Milk does not make for a palatable post-run treat. Not a patch on my preferred Yazoo Banana Milk.

An Indian takeaway and beer or three this evening. Nice start to the bank holiday weekend, and a celebration of the end of a good month of training.

17 miles @ 7:13 pace


|April|May
Miles|165|212
Days ran|23|25
Average miles per run day|7.2|8.5
Average miles per calendar day|5.5|6.8

RunningKing

Nice session, the run not the beer.

Peckham

Saturday 1st June
The start of a new month sees the end of my first block of training. Plan was to get through four 50 mile weeks, and that ended today. A pretty consistent 50-49-51-50 over the past 4 weeks is a decent foundation for what lies ahead. Got the long run up to 17 miles, and got through most of my planned sessions, although faded away towards the end due to mileage. Pleased overall. B+

Now it's into a recovery week (40 miles) that will end with a shot at a 5k PB in Malahide parkrun next weekend. After that it will be time to start building up the mileage towards 70, which is where I'll need to be in about 5 or 6 weeks time.

Today's run was a nice loop near where I live. Was underemployed at parkrun this morning, so spent most of the time playing chasing with Junior whilst Mrs Peckham took a spin around the course. Everyone was heading for a nap when we got home, so a good opportunity to get out for the final few miles of the week.

7.4 miles @ 7:19 pace

Weekly totals
50 miles (50 planned)
6 runs (6 planned)
0.67 sessions (1 planned)
Long run: 17 miles

Peckham

Monday 3rd June
Fantastic weather - easy to tell that the Leaving Cert starts this week! I remember this day almost 20 years ago when I was getting some last minute cramming done with the curtains closed and the noise of everyone enjoying themselves outside coming through the window! If Cork has the same weather, everyone must be struggling down there.

Junior decided on a whim that it was nap time, so I quickly got my gear together before he settled down and hit the road leaving himself and Mrs P to relax. Headed out along the sunny roads, down towards the sea at Loughshinny and back again.

Nice start to this recovery week.

10 miles @ 7:15 pace

nosnagaoithe

Solid month in the bag there Peckham, good stuff. Do you ever take on the hills in Ardgillan as part of your base phase? I've used them in the past and find it great for building the quads...intend to be up there soon to do battle again....

Peckham

Thanks. Don't do much running inside Ardgillan, but have often used Blackhills as part of my long runs (used that area a lot before Boston). We're spoiled for choice in terms of good rolling hills around where we live - even doing that 7 mile loop where you go up by the Educate Together school, head right onto the Loughshinny Road, and then right again after the railway bridge is a decent workout.

I saw some leaflets in the butchers yesterday for the Lusk race. Start/finish/registration has been moved to GAA club - that'll be some sprint finish coming down that hill! (presuming that's the way it goes)

Peckham

Tuesday 4th June
Out for a gentle run in the sunshine before work. Really took it easy on this one, and the early hour of the morning helped keep the pace relaxed.

4 miles @ 7:53 pace

Peckham

Wednesday 5th June
6 x 400 with 200 recovery

Although the McMillan plan doesn't have a session scheduled for this week, with the 5k race taking the place of a session, I wanted to get some speedwork done given that last week had been poor on this front. Naturally didn't want to do too much so that I can give Saturday a decent shot, so settled on 6 x 400.

Kicked off with a 3.5 mile loop near home before heading back to the house to change into the flats that I'd left sitting on the doorstep. Then it was off to a stretch of pavement that I use for these sessions. Planned pace for Saturday is 5:45-5:50, so really that's where I should have been doing these, but they felt pretty easy and pace was comfortably around the 5:35 mark.

The 400s went as follows: 84-82-83-83-84-82

Followed this with a 1.5 mile cooldown.

Not going to get obsessed with pace on Saturday. Plan is to push out with a leading group (if one emerges) and hang on for as long as I can. Will be taking both elements of the TRR recommended approach to 5k running, with no watch and ensuring I'm blowing out of both ends from about halfway round!

Not sure what my PB is at 5k (maybe 17:5x), so that should hopefully be under threat.

3.7 miles @ 7:27 pace
6x400: 84-82-83-83-84-82
1.5 miles @ 7:32 pace
Total: 7.3 miles

Peckham

Thursday 6th June
Another run-mute in the sunshine. Pace was a lot quicker than I would have wanted, but it felt easy and I couldn't keep it in check. Someone commented somewhere else here that running in a commuting mindset could lead you to running faster than you want, and there's probably lots of truth in that. Need to keep an eye on these easy runs, they're consistently being run at a faster pace than would be advisable.

10.4 miles @ 7:10 pace

Peckham

Friday 7th June
Decided to get out early this morning, to give myself a 24 hour rest before racing parkrunning tomorrow morning. Legs were definitely more tired than should have been, so cut the regular 4 mile run to 3 miles in order to allow some time for pre- and post-run stretching. Took it very handy in the glorious, but nippy early morning sunshine.

3.1 miles @ 8:08 pace

Peckham

Saturday 8th June
Malahide parkrun
17:29 (3rd place out of 414 - but it's not a race )

Bit of hassle getting to parkrun this morning with a very uncooperative 2 year old meaning that I missed my train. Got a lift to Malahide, only to find the gate that I was dropped at was closed, meaning I had to walk a bit further and all the set-up was done by the time I arrived. Wasn't in the best mood ever heading off to do a warm-up (which didn't feel great as I probably ate too much for breakfast).

A bit of confusion at the start which lead to me having to jog off looking for a missing timekeeper meant I was last to the startline feeling pretty grumpy and anxious!

Plan was to kick off fast up the hill at the start and be with the leaders at the top, which was pretty much how it transpired. Things settled into a rhythm fairly quickly and it was clear that there were two guys with a bit more quality than the rest of us up the front. They gradually pulled away bit by bit and had their own race. About half a mile in I found myself at the front of the chasing pack, I didn't look around but I'm guessing there were maybe 6 or 8 of us in the group. No-one seemed that interested in sharing the work with me, so I kept pushing on.

I could tell the group was gradually dropping off behind me and at the start of the 2nd lap there were maybe 3 or 4 of us. On into the forest section of the run and a fast starting pace meant I was starting to struggle a bit. Wasn't monitoring the Garmin but I could feel things slowing down a bit (which the Garmin now verifies was the case!). Lots of thoughts about dropping out, how much I don't like fast running, and that this is essentially just a training run so what does it matter really if it's a fast 2 mile run or a fast 3 mile run. During the second mile I picked three different locations where I was going to pull off to the side and start walking, but all I could hear in my head were TRR's words that this is how 5ks are supposed to feel.

The guy on my shoulder eventually did push past me which gave me an incentive to push on. Kept level with him, and then he missed a left turn off the forest path and headed straight ahead. Shouts from myself and the guy behind me brought him back on track but at that stage he had lost touch.

Then there were only two of us which gave me some direct competition to push on. Joining up with the route of the first lap made it feel close to the finish so kept going determined not to let him pass me. The leading two guys were well out of sight at this stage (and I ended up almost a minute behind 2nd place).

Pushing up the final hill I got some distance on him, and it was only then I realised I was going to be the third finisher (not that it's a race! ). Fell over the finish line in a heap and toggled through the screens on the Garmin, delighted to see 17:29 staring back at me. A PB of about 30 seconds I think.

Feeling really good about the result, although not the most fantastically paced run:
Mile 1: 5:25
Mile 2: 6:00
Mile 3: 5:48

Did a cooldown lap running back out along the course. A few shouts of parkrun encouragement to others runners in order to compensate for my racing mindset during the run! Nice chat with the first finisher on the way around.

3.1 miles @ 5:44 pace
3 miles warm-up/cooldown


Weekly totals
41 miles (40 planned)
6 runs (6 planned)
1 session (1 planned)
1 "race" (1 planned)
No long run

Krusty_Clown

Nicely done Peckham and a great confidence booster. You should be within reach of breaking 17, by the time Chicago approaches. Who won?

From my own Malahide experience, I reckon there's a good chance that the Garmin information between mile 1 and mile 2 may not be entirely accurate (tree cover, bends etc). As I hit the early part of mile 2, I reckon the watch was showing a significantly slower pace than I was running, which incentivised me (incorrectly) to pick up the pace (and resulted in my outpouring of feedback). As I learned, if there's ever a race to ignore the watch, it's that one.

Peckham

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Who won?

Everyone is a winner in parkrun world! :P

First finisher was Ciaran McCarthy (with his third first finish). 13 of the first 15 finishers set parkrun PBs, so it was a good day all round. No sign of your Malahide nemesis!

RunningKing

That was me Peckham, taking the wrong turn. Despite me doing this 5 times!

Peckham

Ahh, nice to almost put face to a name!

Peckham

Monday 10th June
Both knees and my right quad felt a little sore all day, so was apprehensive heading out on this run and prepared to turn around after a few hundred metres if all wasn't feeling too great. However things loosened up quickly, the conditions felt good and I had some good songs, so 7.5 miles passed pretty quickly before it was time to hit the main event of the evening - a beer half-mile.

7.8 miles @ 7:18 pace
800 metres & 3 beers: 4:32

Peckham

Wednesday 12th June
Stood up from my desk yesterday to feel a worrying pain on the inside of my right knee. Have had this before and it resulted in a decent layoff, so with the beer mile coming on Friday, this was not good news.

When I got home I got Mrs P to take a look at it, and after her prodding the leg a few times she inevitably decided to produce the needles. A few seconds later the first needle was in and ouch, ouch, ouch. But it works, and only felt a small bit of pain today.

Planned McMillan 10k session this evening was shelved for a few easy testing miles, and will do the session tomorrow evening instead (even if it means running the beer mile on tired legs).


3 miles @ 7:10 pace

Peckham

Thursday 13th June
Plan for this run moved around a bit over the course of the day. Schedule called for the 2x2&2x1 McMillan session, but the tightness from earlier in the week hadn't fully cleared up and with a major race on the horizon I didn't want to risk it.

Ended up getting out after Jnr went to bed with the intention of 8-10 easy miles. I had juggled in my mind the idea of including some threshold miles, but just settled in to what felt like easy but with thoughts of racing going through my head, the pace was often sub-7. Should really have bitten the bullet and thrown in the threshold miles, but ended up drifting along in no-mans land. Wasted miles.

8.7 miles @ 7:08 pace

Peckham

Friday 14th June
Officially my first ever double day, but it may even be a treble day, with 4 recovery miles in the morning, 3 easy miles from work to Dunnes Stores to stock up on Moosehead for the beer mile and then 1 very enjoyable beer mile (report here).

AM: 4 miles @ 7:59 pace
PM: 2.7 miles @ 7:37 pace
Beer mile: 8:07

Peckham

Sunday 16th June
Was away in Sligo for the weekend, and plan was to do an easy 8 miles on Saturday followed by 18 miles on Sunday. Even had some nice routes around Lough Arrow planned out. However, post-beer mile strain hangover meant that Saturday's session was shelved.

Out on Sunday morning into lovely sunshine for a jaunt around Lough Arrow, which I had measured at 16ish miles, which fitted in nicely with the a reduced long run to accommodate lunch plans. Out I went enjoying the serenity of the lake, but then must have missed a turn and ended up running alongside Lough Key. Shortly before Boyle I realised that things had gone wrong, and that trying to complete the loop would result in a much longer run than I was able for. So, about-turned and retraced my steps back to the hotel.

16.2 miles @ 7:10 pace


Weekly totals
43 miles (55 planned)
6 runs (7 planned)
1 beer mile training session
1 beer mile race

Peckham

Monday 17th June
Enjoyable trot in the sun

7.7 miles @ 7:26 pace


Tuesday 18th June
Plan was to do the ultimate McMillan 10k workout, but really my heart wasn't in this one. Went into it with some tiredness in the legs, and apprehension about the workout and the demons got to me.

After a 1.5 mile warm-up I completed the first 2 mile segment (slightly uphill) in 5:48 pace, and was shattered. Took the 5 minute recovery, and felt fine physically when embarking on the 2nd segment, but the mind wasn't in it and stopped in the first quarter of a mile. Was annoyed on the way home and threw in a threshold-pace mile at 6:13 pace (should really have done a second one of these), and then jogged home determined to hit 10 miles.

Complete failure. Incidentally this was only the second time I had worn shades when running, the first time being the Boston marathon! Maybe there's too much of a drag on them.

1.5 miles warm-up @ 7:49 pace
2 miles @ 5:48 pace
1 mile @ 7:36 pace
1 mile @ 6:13 pace
4.3 miles @ 7:33 pace


Wednesday 19th June
Lots of bad thoughts following previous day's failed session, and thoughts of shelving the scheduled 10k. Had set myself a stretch target of 36:30, but realistically sub-37 would be good enough for where I'm at.

Didn't want to re-attempt Tuesday's session, as I felt unlikely to finish it so decided on 2 x 15 minutes threshold pace with 5 minutes recovery. Target pace was 6:20, but cruised through them with paces of 6:14 (slight uphill) and 6:06 (slight downhill) respectively. Feeling a lot more positive than Tuesday evening, but still reconsidering the plans of racing a 10k (both in terms of how I feel and weekend plans).

Feckin watch battery died during the cooldown. Really must get more disciplined about charging it!

1.4 miles warm-up @ 7:20 pace
2 x 15 minutes at T-pace (6:14, 6:06 pace)
1.4 miles cooldown @ 7:21 pace

Peckham

Thursday 20th June
My first ever proper double day. I guess these are important in order to push beyond 60 miles a week.

AM - My standard 4 mile dawn run around the housing estates of Lusk
PM - Despite being stuck in the office relatively late (7.30), I decided to run into town to get my train home. Timewise it works out around the same as if I was getting the Dart, which feels pretty good. Stumbled across the Docklands 10k and just missed the leaders at what looked like the 6-7k point. A nice diversion in the latter stages of my run. Stopped off for a bag of chips just before getting home. There's something wrong about standing in a chipper in sweaty running gear!

AM - 4 miles @ 7:48 pace
PM - 7.1 miles @ 7:29 pace

Peckham

Friday 21st June
A day off today for a wedding, and a busy weekend ahead meant that this morning was my only chance for a long run. Dropped Junior off to creche to give Mrs P a lie-in and me a chance to get out on the roads, so was out nice and early at 8.45.

Planned a nice 18 mile route that would take my on some familiar long run roads. Up to Ardgillan, down to Skerries for a water and pee break, out to Loughshinny and then back home. Pace was nice and consistent throughout with a strong finish (7:02 over the final 4 miles, although with the advantage of a slight downhill).

Nice to get the long run done on a Friday morning, so some guilt free drinking this evening. Out in Greystones tomorrow, so will be doing a nice recovery run in my old stomping ground to top off a 60 mile week. Recently acquired some recovery tights, which I'm wearing today (will be removing them before starting drinking!) and have worn a few times during this week. They certainly seem to improve the recovery process, so seems to be a good investment.

18 miles @ 7:15 pace

Peckham

Saturday 22nd June
Had put off this run for most of the day as through a combination of lingering hangover, humidity, sitting around chatting with family etc. I just didn't feel like going out. Eventually set off around 3pm and did a 5 mile loop from Greystones through Delgany down through Blacklion and back into Greystones. Set the Garmin to "time of day" and ignored pace completely.

5 miles @ 7:48 pace


Weekly totals
60 miles (60 planned)
7 runs (7 planned)
1 session
1 abandoned session

Peckham

Monday 24th June
Nice run on a sunny evening taking in Sandymount, Pigeon House area and back up the quays. All felt very easy on the back of a rest day and a recovery day, so should be set-up for a good week.

11.4 miles @ 7:24 pace

Planning a session this evening, but don't know what to do. Might just pick up the sessions from Daniel's Plan A based on where I'm at in the schedule at the moment (16 weeks out, or rather 15 weeks to build in a contingency week). Have abandoned plans for a 10k race, and instead will be doing a race near home the weekend after this. Have options of 8k or 12k, and will probably go with the latter (and am delighted to see it's included on the McMillan calculator so I can convert away to my heart's content!).

BeepBeep67

You running Powerscourt this year?

Peckham

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

You running Powerscourt this year?

Not sure. Won't be racing it (don't fancy facing into that hill at full tilt again!), but may jog around it.

Peckham

Tuesday 25th June
Felt in a bit of a limbo about this session. The McMillan 10k sessions are confined to history, and I'm not fully focussing on Daniel's Plan A for another few weeks. However a quick look at Daniel's Plan A, told me that I should be doing some form of I-paced session this week. 6% of weekly mileage was what it specified, which works out to be 3.6 miles. I had options of 1k or 1.2k reps but when heading out the door wasn't sure which I'd do. Ended up going with the 1k reps but having confused my metric and imperial measurements, I ended up a bit shy of the target. Did 5x1k, should really have done 6x1k.

5 x 1k - 3:33, 3:27, 3:28, 3:31, 3:31 (average pace - 5:34/mile)

Nice to complete a session like this, given my recent problems with faster running.

Total: 10 miles


Tuesday 26th June
Set the alarm 15 minutes earlier than usual for an early morning run (5:15 :eek:), as I wanted to increase the distance to 6 miles (rather than 4 as is usual). Nice morning, nicely ticking along. Pace increased as I woke up!

6 miles @ 7:39 pace

Peckham

Thursday 27th June
I've been thinking about doing today's run for years, but had never gotten round to it and also part of the route was a bit dodgy until it was made a bit more pedestrian friendly recently.

Leave the office in Blackrock and run all the way home to Lusk. Handily enough, the route is exactly 20 miles.

Another busy weekend meant that this evening was my last real opportunity this week for a long run without negatively affecting family life this weekend.

Legs felt a little lethargic starting off and first few miles were into the westerly winds so was tough going. Took my usual route into city before heading up through Fairview, along Griffith Avenue, Whitehall, Santry, Airport, Swords and Lusk. Took a break around the halfway mark when I popped into Omni Centre for a pee and buy a bottle of Powerade. Was waning a bit up to that point, so brief break was appreciated and pace picked up after that. Surprised to see that first 10 miles averaged 7:34 pace, whereas the second 10 averaged 7:11, with the last 4 miles all faster than that. Tough going towards the end, but dinner was waiting for me when I got through the door.

Nice way to get a 20 miler done. And a point-to-point 20 mile run in pretty much a straight line looks great on a map!

20 miles @ 7:22 pace