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

adrian522

Thursday

6.3 Miles @ 9:41 m/m

Stayed in last night as I was on call but the suspicion was there would be no calls so I was tempted to head out. The only issue is there is really nowhere to go for a "quiet one" on New Years eve, so I stayed in and just as well as I got called around 12:30 or thereabouts. If I had been out that wouldn't have been a great situation.

Was dealing with the call for over 2 hours and was another 2 hours before I got any sleep so decided to leave the running until the evening. Man it's windy out there. 60-70km/h gusts apparently. That I guess is the reason for the slower pace. My excuse anyway.

Here's to failing much better than ever before this year.

adrian522

Friday

Form Drills + Hill Sprints

2.8 Miles @ Easy Pace
Form Drills
8x8 Second Hill Sprints
3 Mile Cool down

Total 6 Miles

Back at work today. In retrospect I think it was a good idea to go back today. Just one day, then the weekend off. Got my email queue cleared and a few things done.

Another crack at these form drills. I'm fine with most of them but some of them just feel all wrong, anyway I'll persevere. The Hill sprints were only 8 seconds each and were fine.

Looking further down the plan I'll need to find a hill for 60-90 second repeats. Not sure where I'll use yet.

Finally I've been thinking about how I'd go about joining a club yet still following my plan, would this be at all possible as you are pretty much going to be doing whatever session the club are doing? I'm pretty sure they are all focusing on XC now too which doesn't help me much.

It certainly doesn't feel like a Friday but I'd better make plans for the weekend.

Calvin Johnson

Play offs

adrian522

Calvin Johnson wrote: »

Play offs

It's just not the same without the 49ers finding ever more creative ways to f**K up in the most heartbreaking fashion possible.

Calvin Johnson

Will you miss Jim?

adrian522

Ah yeah, gotta miss his side line antics and hilarious press conferences.

Calvin Johnson

Rex will be entertaining too.

Keep up the good work this year.

adrian522

Saturday

7.3 Miles @ 9:31 m/m


Plenty of procrastination going on today. I didn't think a run was on the cards at all as I as tucking into a pint of Rebel Red and watching the Leinster game.

Fast forward 4 or 5 hours and I got it together to head out.

Near perfect running conditions had me going further than intended. It was very enjoyable though. Cold, but no ice. Not many people out and about and a fog that gave everything a cool eerie quality. I only wished I'd a camera with me.

Anyway home around 9 and now settling into a night watching the NFL playoffs. Hopefully get out for a long run tomorrow, mileage is increasing at the moment, 40 miles already this week.

Hopefully another 12 or so miles tomorrow.

adrian522

Sunday

13.1 Miles @ 9:25 m/m


Bad run today, don't know why. Missed my long run last week, went out late this week, about 1pm. Was OK for a while, I stopped to buy water at one stage, was really cold afterwards and couldn't warmup.

Maybe I didn't eat enough or something but I really struggled towards the end, just glad its over.

9:34, 9:20, 9:38, 9:40, 9:18, 9:15, 9:25, 9:35, 9:28, 9:22, 9:06, 9:31, 9:14 (8:49)

53 Miles for the week, which is good I guess.

adrian522

Monday:

No Running, day off, rest, recover. Call it what you will, there was no running done this day. After running the previous 7 days I had thoughts of "keeping the streak going" then I thought back to the tough long run and told myself to cop on, need a day off.

Tuesday:

Tempo Run 7.3 Miles

22 mins Easy @ 9:43
22 mins Tempo @ 8:08
22 mins Easy @ 9:37

Another tough run for me, just wasn't feeling it at all. Maybe just one of those days, maybe not properly recovered from Sunday's run. Maybe the day off threw me off kilter, who knows. I got through the session though at no point did it ever feel easy. I even started feeling shin splints at one point which I almost never get. Finished it out anyway but didn't take much from it.

Wednesday:

Easy Pace Run with 8 * 20 Second Strides

A really s**t day in work had me in bad humour, had planned running home from work, got changed and everything, got outside and absolutely torrential downpour with heavy wind, f**k that, headed for the car to drive home.

By the time I got home the weather had improved greatly so I headed straight out. Really enjoyable run for the first time in god knows how long. Probably went a bit too fast at times due to the mood I was in but settled down after a while. Threw in some strides at the end.

Kept it to 6 miles or so as I am trying to have a bit of a stepback week after logging more than 50 miles last week.


9:43, 9:11, 9:10,9:10,9:27,8:57

6.1 Miles @ 9:18 m/m



Onwards.

adrian522

Thursday:

AM 3.2 Miles @ 8:57
PM 3.1 Miles @ 9:37

Tried out the running in and out of work. Not sure about this, the runs seem a bit short to be of any real benefit, I may have to extend the route a bit. The run in is mainly downhill, while the run home is mainly uphill.

Murph_D

I have a similar commute, even shorter in fact. I've been trying the run commuting thing too but so far I'm in two minds about it.

adrian522

Yeah, I feel I'm probably better off with one 6 mile run than 2 3 mile runs. I may try to run 3.4 to 4 miles each way instead.

i've read somewhere that runs of less than 30 mins don't really benefit your aerobic fitness.

Calvin Johnson

Hardly feels worth all the hassle for such a short run to or from work?

JohnDozer

Could you not get a bus in to work, and then run a long 6/7 mile run on the way home? I'd be the same, wouldn't really value 2 * 3 mile runs versus a 6 miler.

adrian522

Calvin Johnson wrote: »

Hardly feels worth all the hassle for such a short run to or from work?

Yeah but it beats sitting in traffic for the same length of time. As I say I can change my route to make it a bit longer which I will experiment with.

JohnDozer wrote: »

Could you not get a bus in to work, and then run a long 6/7 mile run on the way home? I'd be the same, wouldn't really value 2 * 3 mile runs versus a 6 miler.

Not really, I could drive in, then run home the long way, then run in again the following morning then drive home again or something like that.

Dubgal72

How about a 3 miler in the morning and a 5-6 miler in the evening, could that work?

adrian522

It could I guess yeah. Pretty happy with my mileage as it currently is, but that would be a good option for later in the year when the miles start to go up.

adrian522

Friday

Hill Repeat Session

2.72 Miles Easy
6 x 60 Second Hill Repeats with Full Recovery
1.47 Miles Easy

Total 6 Miles.

Windy, Very Windy. A nice warmup brought me to the bottom of the hill at Fosters Terrace. Nice hill, starts gradually, gets steeper then eases off a bit at the top. The problem with these was that the wind was pretty strong and running into it was tough when the wind picked up, as it seemed to do on the steepest section of the hill.

For recovery I'd take 3-4 mins walking before going again.

Finished off with a jog back down Roebuck and Clonskeagh Road.

menoscemo

adrian522 wrote: »

Not really, I could drive in, then run home the long way, then run in again the following morning then drive home again or something like that.

That's what I generally do, but it's a good 7 miles each way. It would take a lot of discipline to turn a 3 mile run into a 6/7 miler first thing in the morning!!

adrian522

Saturday

Easy Paced Run

Headed out this afternoon around Terenure with a lap of Bushy Park thrown in. Nice to be able to do that during the daylight.

Added in 2 strides/pickups towards the end. Other than that not much to report.

6.3 Miles @ 8:51 m/m

adrian522

Sunday

Long slow Run - 12.4 Miles @ 9:10 m/m

I'm sure everyone is sick of hearing about the wind so I won't go on about it, but it was windy, particularly towards the end of the run.

Overall the run felt good, didn't struggle with it really unlike last week. It was pretty enjoyable for the most part.

On the advice on Clearier in the Graduates thread I've started doing this Kinetic Revolution 30 day challenge. Essentially each day brings 20-30 mins of various stretches and strength exercises. Today was day 2 which I did before heading out. I certainly wouldn't have been doing it after I got back.

The trick will be to keep it up for the 30 days.

Mileage for the week is 44.5. I feel my body is thanking me for the stepback from last weeks 53 miles.

So far so good, Raheny is closing in quite quickly at this stage.

adrian522

Monday


No Running. I did do Day 3 of the James Dunne 30 Day Challenge.

Tuesday


The plan had 5 x 4 mins @ 5K pace. I contemplated going back to Sportsworld instead of this session. I started into Day 4 of the 30 Day challenge and by the time I was finished it was too late for the club session.

I headed out intending to do the session but with footpaths very icy in places I didn't fancy running at 5K pace and worrying about my footing so I decided to just do an easy paced run and hope to do the session tomorrow.

Not overly happy about this but better than having a fall and missing more time I guess.

Mile Paces:

9:23, 9:19, 9:14, 9:10, 8:48, 8:52, 9:12

HR average was 146 (78% of max)

Total 7.1 Miles @ 9:08 m/m

adrian522

Wednesday

5K Pace Session

1.5 Mile Warmup
5 x 4 mins @ 5K effort with 3 mins Recovery
1.5 Miles Cool down

Another day, more **** weather. I headed out not realizing quite how bad it was. I got about 1 mile up the road, running into the wind thinking this is never going to work.

I edited the workout on the Garmin to remove the target paces and just decided to run by feel. It was tough as half the time you are running into a ale force wind and the rest you've got it to your back.

Not sure I got the paces right, maybe a bit slow bu the best I could do in the circumstances.

Looking at the forecast more "character building" to come I guess.

Paces:

7:00/7:32/7:39/7:10/7:32

adrian522

Thursday

7.4 Miles @ 9:17 m/m

Not sure if it was an accumulation of all the running in the strong winds or a hangover from trying to do 5K pace stuff in the worst of it but it was a bit of struggle here.

Also had a few issues with the quad on the left leg, never felt that before but hopefully a bit of stretching and foam rolling will sort it out.

Was surprised by the pace when I got home as I thought it would be slower.

9:36/8:49/9:06/9:35/9:23/9:25/9:06/(9:22)


HR: 145 (77% of Max)

adrian522

Friday

WU+Drills+9 x Short Hill Sprints+CD

Usual Friday Session. 3.6 Miles Easy, then the normal form drills, followed by 9 Short Hill Sprints. Finished off with 1.9 Miles easy.

Pretty cold out there this evening but happily it was dry and not much wind. I'd take that weather every day if I had the choice. This weekend will be interesting, I'll have to try to get a run in early tomorrow, then hopefully get a long run in on Sunday.

Next week brings the Raheny 5 Mile and the week after the Trim 10 Mile (which I'm not yet committed to), so training will need to be amended somewhat.

On the subject of the "30 Day Challenge" I'm still on track, today was day 7. Not sure how long I'll stay with it but so far so good.

Total for the day 5.7 Miles.

adrian522

A bit of catching up to do here...

Saturday

7.4 Miles @ 9:07 m/m

I knew I was going to struggle to get everything done I wanted to get done especially when I got up late on Saturday. Time to prioritise so I went out for this run. It went well, maybe a bit too fast but nice enough weather on Saturday morning.

I had to go out for lunch and knew there would be drinking but no time to get to day 8 of the James Dunne challenge. I had hoped to get it done later but no such luck.

Sunday

No Running.

Yesterdays lunch turned into more of an all day thing and I was in no real state to do a long run. I almost convinced myself to head out but as I was getting changed I knew it was a bad idea.

I get very annoyed with myself when this happens but I guess no real long term damage done to miss one run. I did manage to get Day 8 of the challenge done but not feeling great about the missed run.

Monday

Tempo Run with 33 mins @ Marathon Pace

I decided to move the quality session to Monday as I did nothing on Sunday. This will also set me up better for Sundays race getting it out of the way a day earlier.

Straight after work I headed out. Started with 17 mins easy, then 33 mins at Marathon Pace then finished up with about 20 mins Easy Paced.

A bit of quirk on the HR monitor, HR of 208 during my Easy paced segment.

The Marathon pace was fine, it seemed like a pace I could stick with for longer if needed.

17 mins @ 9:28
33 mins @ 8:23
21:18 @ 9:14

Total 8 Miles.

adrian522

Tuesday

Easy Paced Run with 8 * 20 Second Strides

Wasn't really feeling like going out and felt quite lethargic at first. I got over that though and threw in some strides towards the end. I love running in this weather, it's pretty much perfect but for some reason nobody else seems to share my enthusiasm for this weather.

Total 6.4 Miles @ 9:13 m/m

Also completed Day 10 of that challenge I've been doing. Not sure I'm doing everything correctly but I'm doing my best.

adrian522

Wednesday

Easy Paced Run - 7.4 Miles @ 9:20 m/m

This week seems to be dragging a bit, still only Wednesday? OK, stuck in work until nearly 7. Got home, did my Day 11 of the James Dunne thing.

This is getting tougher to the point where the legs are quite sore heading out. Anyway, finally got out at nearly 8pm.

No strides or anything fancy just easy running, nice night for it. Seemed to be a few more people out running than recently.

9pm when I got home, by the time I'd showered, cooked and washed up not leaving time for much else.

Race Sunday

adrian522

Thursday

WU + 8 * 60 Second Hill Repeats + CD


Ended up late in work again, headed out at around 7pm, didn't seem that cold but I brought the hat and gloves just in case.

Warmup of 2.7 Miles @ easy pace.

Then the hills, 1 minute sprint, then walking recovery of about 3-4 mins.

The pace on the hill repeats went like this (6:33,6:50,6:55,7:04,7:08,7:03,7:07,6:49)

The first one is faster because I started in the wrong place so it was not as steep. I don't think pace is the most important thing here but looks decent nonetheless.

Finished with 1.7 miles CD. Really glad I brought the gloves and hat as you get really cold doing the walking recoveries and the run back to the office was very cold.

Drove home, then did the latest James Dunne workout, last day of stage 2 which is "Basic Strength and Core Training" Back doing more flexability stuff from tomorrow apparently.

Total 6.5 Miles