Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

adrian522

Ososlo wrote: »

You legend you! Fantastic result! Well done:D

Thanks 21:09 officially. Delighted with that as little enough done since dcm.

Ran fairly relaxed for most of it so there is probably more to be gained if I concentrated on the distance for a little while.

Now for some drinks.

Ososlo

adrian522 wrote: »

Thanks 21:09 officially. Delighted with that as little enough done since dcm.

Ran fairly relaxed for most of it so there is probably more to be gained if I concentrated on the distance for a little while.

Now for some drinks.

Absolutely! Huge amounts to come off that Adrian in the future but great to see the marathon training paying dividends despite the recent break.
Enjoy the well earned pb beers!

overpronator

Smashed it man, well done, you'll be sub 20 before you know it.

adrian522

Preparation for this wasn't great but the suspicion that the long months of marathon training would see me through and so it proved.

After DCM I took a solid month off from running completely, which wasn't exactly the plan but not necessarily a bad thing either.

Over the last 2 weeks I got back to running, 4 times a week, mainly easy pace but one or 2 runs with short faster runs.

I hadn't raced a 5K since September 2013 so my PB was very soft.

Pre-Race

Ended up getting the Luas to Hueston and jogged up to Chapelizod gate from there and on up to the start line. Nice atmosphere pre race. Headed for the "Sub-25" pen, but looking around realised I should probably be further forward unless I wanted to walk the first part of the race. Ended up at the Sub 20 sign at the start.

Mile 1 - 6:56

We were off bang on 11am to the sounds of jingle bells from the band which is a nice touch. Despite me being ahead of where I should have been starting there were people walking ahead of me right from the start, they must have been in the sub 16 section.

Anyway enough bitching, I settled into a nice pace but needed to weave in and out of a few people. After some time I was comfortable enough but noticed my pace was pretty quick well below 7 min miles, so decided to ease off a bit.

Mile 2 - 7:00


The Pace was still faster than I'd intended but I just tried to run comfortably and keep up the pace if I could. I was running beside this really heavy breather who was obviously using me as a marker and everytime I tried to ste it up he'd follow me, quite annoying but managed to lose him eventually.

Mile 3 - 6:29, 0.1 - 6:06 Pace


After the turn off Chesterfield I started to pick up the pace and was passing quite a few people. I eventually settled in behind this one girl who was going at a decent pace and was happy enough there, not with enough in me to overtake her.

As we came down Glen Road she was fading a bit and said something along the lines of "Fair Play to you go on ahead" or something. I could see the finish area at this stage and put the foot down to empty the tank for the last few hundred meters, known at this stage that I would be well below 22:00.

Post Race:

Finish time of 21:09, obviously delighted with this was as my A goal was 22:00 and I thought that was pretty optimistic, but obviously I still have some residual fitness left over from DCM training.

Strava tells me this run contains my fastest times at half mile, 1K, 1 Mile as well as 5K so obviously happy with that.

Went for a few drinks afterwards with Dubgal, Carreer Move, Yaboya1 and cianmc.

All in all a good days work and I think I'll take Sunday off after that.

Jingle Bells 5K - 3.1 Miles @ 6:47 m/m

adrian522

Sunday:

Rest. I seem to be doing an awful lot of that lately.

Monday:

Easy Paced 60 Min. Run - 6.3 Miles @ 9:34 m/m

So I was still feeling the effects of the race a little bit in the legs so decided to just keep to an easy pace last night.

For now I'd like to just settle into a routine/plan for the next few months as things have been a bit stop/start recently.

I'm not sure about the Tom Brennan on New Years day but if I'm in Dublin I'll consider it. I'll probably show up in Raheny for the 5 mile, another PB there for the taking I think.

I't's probably time I went about joining a club so I may do that sooner rather than later also.

adrian522

Tuesday

Club Speed Session 8.2 Miles @ 8:33 m/m

Well I finally made it down to a club session. Jogged down the 1.5 miles to the clubhouse. After a quick chat and a bit of waiting around we were off. A small warmup jog, some strides and then a 1.5-2 mile loop that was quite quick by my usual standard, more like a tempo pace.

Then we went into 200m repeats, I think I managed 7 before we called it a night and I jogged the mile or so home. So all in all over 8 miles and longer than I was expecting. The group running was a bit different than I'm used to but I kind of enjoyed it.

I didn't hang around to chat afterwards but hopefully I'll be back soon.

It's also kind of difficult to capture a session like that on the Garmin but I tried as best I could.

All in all a good session and glad I went down.

menoscemo

Sportsworld?

adrian522

Yeah..

menoscemo

adrian522 wrote: »

Yeah..

Good stuff, a good club but don't get into the habit of racing your easy runs or your warmups/cool downs as can sometimes happen

adrian522

menoscemo wrote: »

Good stuff, a good club but don't get into the habit of racing your easy runs or your warmups/cool downs as can sometimes happen

Yeah I know, I'll keep an eye on that. Was a good session though, I was impressed by it.

adrian522

Wednesday

60 Mins @ 9:50 m/m (6.1 Miles)

Just an easy run last night, slower than I would have liked, I'm guessing a combination of the effects of the previous days session and a very strong wind. Running into the wind up the road on the back side of Bushy Park was very tough. That mile clocked in at 10:20.

In truth it wasn't a great run as I struggled through a lot of it. I may ease off on the plan for this week and not try to do too much. I've been running 4 days a week so far so I may just go with 5 days this week rather than jumping to 6.

adrian522

Thursday

60 min run (again) @ 9:46 m/m


Another easy paced run last night. Pretty bleak weather conditions to be honest but not too bad once you get into the run.

I was going to go back to sportsworld last night for another session but decided against it as I've been feeling the effects of the increased workload in my legs and have the odd niggle. I may try Clearier's session tonight as it looks pretty ok.

My running has been ok since I went back after the short break but diet has gone to **** completely. So much junk food right now. It'll probably be the new year before that's sorted out if I'm honest.

Got my flights to Berlin booked last night so no turning back now. Ended up flying out with Ryanair and home with Aer Lingus as the times worked out best that way. i.e no 7am flight on the way out and get back early-ish on Monday with Aer Lingus.

adrian522

Friday

Rest. I'd been having a little bit of a niggle on the last 2 or 3 runs so gave this one a miss.

Saturday

10 Mile Run @ 9:23 m/m

It was pretty cold heading out but it ended up being a really enjoyable run. I probably went a bit faster than I'd intended but it was just one of those days you feel you can go on forever.

No sign of injury issues today so happy with that also. 37 Miles for the week.

Just one session this week with the rest being easy paced stuff, hopefully add a second day of quality next week.

annapr

adrian522 wrote: »

Thursday

60 min run (again) @ 9:46 m/m


Another easy paced run last night. Pretty bleak weather conditions to be honest but not too bad once you get into the run.

I was going to go back to sportsworld last night for another session but decided against it as I've been feeling the effects of the increased workload in my legs and have the odd niggle. I may try Clearier's session tonight as it looks pretty ok.

My running has been ok since I went back after the short break but diet has gone to **** completely. So much junk food right now. It'll probably be the new year before that's sorted out if I'm honest.

Got my flights to Berlin booked last night so no turning back now. Ended up flying out with Ryanair and home with Aer Lingus as the times worked out best that way. i.e no 7am flight on the way out and get back early-ish on Monday with Aer Lingus.

Are you signed up for the Berlin Marathon?? Brilliant if you are, you will love it.

adrian522

annapr wrote:

Are you signed up for the Berlin Marathon?? Brilliant if you are, you will love it.

I certainly am yeah...

adrian522

Sunday

Rest. Severe Hangover. Barely able to reach for the phone to order take away, so yeah, rest I guess is the technical term. Manchester United v Liverpool followed by Clermont v Munster, followed by back to back NFL games was about the height of my activity yesterday.

Monday

Late in to work, so had to stay late. Then had to hang around waiting for someone to call over, before I knew it the time was 9pm and I'm still messing around on the Internet.

Eventually get out and sort out the session that is prescribed for tomorrow. Don't think I'm going to get a chance to get back to sportworld this week, it'll be like turning up for the first time by the time I get back there I reckon.

20 mins Easy + 30 Mins @ M-Pace + 10 mins Easy

total 6.7 Miles @ 8:56

Very nice run, beautiful night and little to no one out at this time at this time of year. Also took the new running jacket out for a test drive. Very happy with it even if it is totally unnecessary on a night like tonight.

Mile Paces

1. 10:10
2. 9:23
3. 8:42
4. 8:32
5. 8:11
6. 8:33
0.7 9:05

HR: 150.

Tomorrow brings more pints and another struggle to fit in a run at some point.

adrian522

Tuesday

60 Mins Easy Paced Run 6.4 Miles @ 9:22 m/m


Well there was nothing easy about this run. Weather was horrible and my paces were all over the place. I wasn't really checking the watch at all. Well, I was checking it but only to see how long was left not what my pace or HR was.

Looking back my HR was actually higher than the marathon pace session the day before. This isn't good and may be a sign of an illness coming on and sure enough the first signs of a sore throat and general cold symptoms this morning. Not much to be done about it though.

Paces are below, as I said a bit all over the place but the first 3 miles are slightly uphill with the last 3 slightly downhill.

1. 9:46
2. 9:20
3: 9:29
4. 9:04
5. 9:08
6. 9:17
(0.4. 9:36)

Dubgal72

Do you find that your pace increases anyway without any extra effort as you warm up? That might explain the increase, as well as the nice downhill
Bad luck about the cold, get that vitamin c and paracetamol into you. I just got my 4yo some Sambucol in a health shop, it contains, among other things, black elderberry juice which apparently is an 'antivirin'. If all else fails, a hot whiskey may not cure you but it will make you feel better about being miserable

adrian522

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Do you find that your pace increases anyway without any extra effort as you warm up? That might explain the increase, as well as the nice downhill
Bad luck about the cold, get that vitamin c and paracetamol into you. I just got my 4yo some Sambucol in a health shop, it contains, among other things, black elderberry juice which apparently is an 'antivirin'. If all else fails, a hot whiskey may not cure you but it will make you feel better about being miserable

Yeah, I usually start off quite slowly and gradually increase the pace, just wasn't expecting such a big difference between the various miles last night.

I kind of knew that I was going a bit too fast at times last night though.

On the cold I'm sure I've been burning both ends for too long to stay healthy...

adrian522

Wednesday

Rest. Was sick, so didn't head out.

Thursday

8x30 Seconds Hill Sprints - 7 Miles Total


Took the day off work but was feeling better by the evening so decided to head out. The plan had 8x30 secs hill sprint.

All well and good, the weather was bad but not brutal. I felt good so added in about 6 miles on top of the hill sprints to give about 7 miles in total. Good session, glad to get it it the books.

Hill repeat paces:

6:49
6:28
6:55
6:53
7:24
7:13
7:24
7:07

Can't have been working that hard as my highest HR was about 89% of max.

Friday

7 Mile Run @ 9:11m/m

Headed out straight after work, only way I was staying out of the pub I think. Went down along Ailsbury Road, Merrion, up towards Booterstown, Blackrock and back via Mount Merrion Avenue. It would all be very scenic if it wasn't pitch dark.

Hopefully I manage a nice long run over the weekend, but even if I don't I'm happy with my weeks work so far.

adrian522

Saturday

Rest. I'd hoped to get my long run in on Saturday and recovery run on Sunday but it never materialised. I woke up late with a significant hangover and needed to head into town and sort some Christmas shopping and ended up going for a few afternoon beers.

Decided to write off the day altogether.

Sunday

12 Mile LSR @ 9:08 m/m

Woke up quite late so it was 1pm by the time I got out for this. Headed over to the Phoenix park, the weather was quite warm so I felt a bit overdressed, then at other times it was really windy so I glad of the jacket, you can't win I guess.

The run was fun though, first time hitting this distance since October and it felt good to get a good run in to finish the week.

Weekly Mileage: 39.2. Closing in on 1600 for the year.

adrian522

Monday

7 Miles @ 9:22 m/m Easy run

I essentially ran the same route as Friday but in reverse. I find it interesting that you run a route in the opposite direction and it has a completely different feel, keeps things fresh I guess.

Strong enough wind tonight which made it a bit of a struggle at times.

I may drop down to Sportsworld again tomorrow to try another session, hill spronts I think is what they have planned.

adrian522

Tuesday

Fartlek 60 mins - 6.8 Miles @ 8:49 m/m

The graduate plan had a Farlek down for today. Never having done one befoe I wasn't sure what to expect. i was pretty tired after work and actually went to bed for an hour first.

Eventually I got going, so out I went, 10 min warm up then various periods of faster running ranging from short sprints, e.g to the next lamppost, or to the next turn off etc or else temp paced or slightly faster for a certain time, e.g 3 mins or 5 mins or whatever. Finished with 10 mins easy running as a warm down. 60 mins total.

Not sure if that was correct but hopefully it was broadly correct.

Interesting HR/pace data there on strava.

adrian522

Wednesday - Christmas Eve Run

7.5 Miles @ 8:57 m/m

Finished work around 12 on Christmas eve, still had loads to do, packing, buying stuff etc. Decided to get my run in early as I knew I wouldn't get a chance later on.

Hit the road and due to being a little wound up I probably went faster than intended, but all in all it was a good run even if I was feeling a bit of shin pain.

Got down to Kilkenny with enough time for the traditional few afternoon pints in the local.

Thursday - Christmas Morning Run

6.9 Miles @ 9:10 m/m with 4 x 20 Sec Strides at the end.


Woke with a slight hangover and again a little bit of time pressure to get this done, had to be out and back in about an hour. Wonderful weather and almost deserted Kilkenny streets made for a very enjoyable run. Even had time to give an obviously lost American couple directions to their B&B. Not completely sure where it was but I think I sent them in the right general direction.

Arrived home a little too late but still got roped into visiting all the relations I only ever see once per year.

Time to get my drink on.

adrian522

Friday

Form Drills + Hill Sprints

I'd never done these form drills before, but decided I wanted to give them a go, so I brought the phone down with me so I could consult youtube as I was doing them. I'm sure I was quite the sight doing these but what the hey.

3 Mile Warmup

9:31,9:41,9:18

Drills

8x10 Second Hill Sprints

Warm down -

9:36, 9:26, (9:48)

Total 6.9 Miles, 1:04:56

adrian522

Saturday

Kilkenny Parkrun

Well this is a lesson in how not to prepare for a race. And yes I know technically it's not a race.

Firstly, been doing a lot of heavy training lately. Secondly, eating and drinking to beat the band. In the pub last night and hit the chipper on the way home.

Anyway, I felt this would still be a recipe for a decent time, so I jogged across town, hoping for the best.

At the start I set out at normal 5K pace, but realised quickly that this wasn't happening, and slowed it down a bit, but before the first mile was through I knew that this would be pretty slow so settled into more of a training/tempo run.

Not a great day out but the parkrun itself was fun, nice morning and all that. I was over 24 mins for the 5K which is just crazy slow. Anyway, finished off with a jog home.

Total 6.4 Miles

Warmup 1.6 Miles @ 9:05
Parkrun 3.1 Miles @ 7:57
Warmdown 1.7 Miles @ 10:01

Hannibal Smith

fantastic log! you've worked so hard and its paid off.

adrian522

Sunday

No Running. Needed a bit of recovery more than I needed a long run.

41.5 Miles for the week, happy with that for the week that was in it.

Monday

5.3 Miles @ 9:06m/m

Pretty frustrating run. The paths were icy in places but OK where there was sunshine. I headed out but after a few miles it was clear that my intended route was not going to be pleasant or safe, so I headed back towards town. Too many people around to run on the footpath there so turned around and headed for home. Only a little over 5 miles but better than nothing I guess.

adrian522

Tuesday

5K pace session

Back in Dublin but still not back in work so after a long sleep I got out and found the weather greatly improved. Decided to head up towards Tymon Park.

Warmup, 2.4 Miles @ Easy Pace
4 x 4 Mins @ 5K Pace with 3 mins Recovery
Cooldown 2.1 Miles @ Easy Pace

Total 8.1 Miles.

This was tough going at times but was probably needed as I was a bit down after my efforts in the parkrun on Saturday. The 5K sections were done at a full 5K effort, the difference in elevation meaning the difference in the paces while trying to keep the effort consistent.


Rep|Time|Elevation|Pace|HR%
1|4:00|-2|6:43|85%
2|4:00|14|7:16|88%
3|4:00|-6|6:59|88%
4|4:00|-3|7:04|87%

adrian522

Wednesday

7.5 Miles Easy with 8 x 20 Second Strides

The last run of the year pushed me over 1600 for the year. I'm happy with this number considering my first run wasn't until mid-February and I took nearly a month off after the DCM.

Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for reading the log this year. It's been a very successful year for me as the table below shows, Big PB's at all the distances and a huge increase in the number of miles on last year.

On the injury front I had a few niggles here and there but never really missed more than a couple of days over the year. However I did feel I was teetering on the edge of injury for a lot of the marathon training program.

Highlights of the year for me were

1. Consistent training and really enjoying my running for most of the year.
2. Dublin City Marathon, great race, great atmosphere and wonderful time afterwards ending my drinking ban.
3. DLR Bay 10K. Again a great race, wonderful day, challenging course and ice Cream afterwards.
4. The race series 10 mile and half marathon. I had a great day in each of these races and wet much quicker than I ever thought possible. The half is probably the performance I am most proud of.
5. Jingle Bells 5K, knocked the last of my goals for the year off my list, and over 2 mins faster than ever before.

As a comparison of where I came from here is my mileage total by month for both this year and last year

|2013|2014
Jan|7|0
Feb|10|53
Mar|7|111
Apr|26|154
May|69|121
Jun|75|93
Jul|67|212
Aug|101|233
Sep|85|261
Oct|4|179
Nov|13|28
Dec|6|163
Total|471|1606

Finally I wanted to throw up a table to show how my performances stacked up against my goals for 2014.

|2013 PB|2014 Goal|2014 PB|2015 Goal
5K|23:39|22:00|21:09|20:00
5 Mile|44:22|40:00|38:30|35:00
10K|51:51|50:00|48:24|42:00
10 Mile|1:29:39|1:28:00|1:18:58|1:15:00
Half Marathon|2:02:23|1:55:00|1:42:51|1:38:00
Marathon|N/A|4:00:00|3:49:23|3:30:00

2 Supplementary goals

1. Run over 2000 Miles in 2015
2. Spend more time on core work, strengthening etc.

That would kind of wrap things up for 2014. Enjoy your New Years Eve everyone!