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

adrian522

Ah Yeah, it's definitely not all bad at all. It's just frustrating to go so close to sub 20 in 2 separate races.

statss

do the Rathfarnam 5k in September...you'll hit around 19.40 I'd wager...

adrian522

I've got a hot date in Berlin that day! Might have to wait for Jingle Bells in December. Or hit up one of the parkruns at some stage!

adrian522

Thursday

Easy Miles - 7.1 miles @ 9:14 m/m

Headed down to the club tonight. They were doing a fartlek session. I figured I'd do the warmup and then join one of the slower groups and just jog around. It was a bit weird, at the pick off points they would speed away from me, I'd continue at the same pace and usually catch them when they were doing the recovery bit.

Strange experience but I think good to give the session a miss after Tuesdays race.

Onwards now.

Murph_D

I think I know where you're coming from there - there never seems to be anyone doing an easy or recovery run when I show up at the club post-race either. Hoping that will change during the summer when there are probably more Dublin events like the race series to keep at least a dozen or so people in relative sync. Good for you though - the temptation is often to bin the recovery and dive in to the session which can be hard to resist.

adrian522

Friday

8 miles @ 8:50 m/m

Easy Pace, and on the easy side of easy if that makes sense. Wasn't really in the mood for this after work. Just wanted to go home but got it done nonetheless. I was tempted to cut it short but once I'd decided on the route I forced myself to stick with it.

Then had a cycle home from work to look forward to after this was finished.

Later:

2 x Water
2 x Moosehead off 30 secs recovery.

This wasn't pleseant. It's pretty much made my mind I'll be taking my time and just aiming to avoid a penalty lap on the big day. The first moosehead was 27 seconds, but the second one was closer to 50 seconds. No way I was fit for running 400m after that second one.

Ososlo

adrian522 wrote: »

Later:

2 x Water
2 x Moosehead off 30 secs recovery.

This wasn't pleseant. It's pretty much made my mind I'll be taking my time and just aiming to avoid a penalty lap on the big day. The first moosehead was 27 seconds, but the second one was closer to 50 seconds. No way I was fit for running 400m after that second one.

will you do any specific drinking and running sessions in the build up?

adrian522

No, I figure I'm following the novices plan. Keeping everything nice and simple, just going to go out and enjoy it for my first one.

Track session tomorrow though, not sure how that would go down at 9am though.

adrian522

Saturday

Track Session

200m/300m/400m/600m

and then in reverse

600m/400m/300m/200m

1 min recovery between reps and 3 mins between sets.

Good session this, I felt it went well. My only small regret is only doing 2 sets and not doing a third. I ended up in a slower group, which was fine for my pace but the group called it a day after 2 while the other groups did a third.

Anyway, should leave me fresher for a long run tomorrow.

|Set 1|Set 2
200m|0:39|0:39
300m|1:04|1:00*
400m|1:27|1:27
600m|2:15|2:14

*The time for the second 300m is a bit short as I stopped the watch at the wrong line, should be an extra 3 or so seconds there.

Overall happy with the splits but could easily have done another set.

Total: 3.68 Miles

adrian522

Saturday PM

Recovery Cycle

Instead of a recovery run I got out for a cycle this evening. I figure an hour on the bike at a comfortable pace is the equivalent of about 35-45 mins recovery run.

That's the theory anyway. I'll see how the legs are tomorrow before deciding if this sort of thing is a good idea or not.

15.7 Miles in 1:07:10

adrian522

Sunday

16.1 Miles @ 8:30 m/m

Woke up late today so missed the club run. Decided that I'd run over to the Phoenix Park and do a loop on the trails and run home.

I had the calculator out figuring out what my HR was supposed to be on these runs according to the plan. The idea is to start out at the lower end of the range, gradually pick it up and finish strong at the upper end of the range.

That's the theory anyway. Probably started out well enough, maybe a bit too quick but generally OK. The issue was later in the run when I felt able to pick up the pace but the HR was going outside the upper range so I had to keep it in check rather than pushing on.

Overall I'm happy with the run, hopefully as my endurance improves I'll be better able to push on towards the end, but happy that I felt good and strong throughout.

As I arrived disaster struck. I reached into my pocket to find no keys and a whole in my pocket. Feck. Spent most of the next 2 hours getting buses in and out of work where I had a spare set and a lot of walking and waiting around. Could have done without that to be honest.

Eventually arrived home 4 and a half hours after I'd left.

Weekly Total 48.4 Miles

adrian522

Monday

Rest Day

Been a while since I had a day off. I was tempted by a 3 mile recovery jog but left it alone in the end.

for the first time in a very long time I actually tried some strength work. I learned that I have a lot of work to do in this area.

This is what I attempted.

http://running.competitor.com/2014/07/training/book-excerpt-build-your-running-body_109459?utm_medium=whats-hot

I failed miserably in most exercises. I aim to do one strength and one mobility session each week. Hopefully some stretching too, not post run but just a 20-25 mins stretching session each week. I'll probably start out well enough but forget about it as my mileage increases when I need this stuff the most.

So feel free to question and criticise me if I don't post about these things regularly.

Also 2 x Moosehead off 30 seconds recovery. First one about 30 seconds, second one took about 45 seconds. I don't have the ability to pour one down the throat in 4 or 5 seconds like some around here.

adrian522

Tuesday

9 Miles with 4 @ Tempo

Last Sunday marked 18 weeks to go to Berlin. This marks week 1 of the P&D 18 week plan. I'm ot sure how religiously I'm going to follow it. I had intended on mixing in some club sessions but after doing this I think I'm of the opinion I need to work on endurance so I may just stick to it as much as possible.

I've done a lot of 5K and 10K sessions over the last 6 months, now I feel it's time to work on endurance a bit more. I may do Dunshaughlin on June 20th as it will be a good session in it's own right but I won't be doing much speed work between now and then.

One thing I do want to do on this plan is hit all the tempos (there about one every 2 weeks) as they get progressively more difficult so I think it's important to do them. I also want to do one MLR and one weekend long run every week. That's not going to leave much time for anything else but I may try to squeeze in the odd club session just to stay in touch.

For tonight session, the 4 tempo miles, instructions were 10 mile to half marathon pace, with HR in the range of 154 to 170. I calculated these values based off HR reserve. It seemed to give me 7:05 pace up to about 7:25 depending on the terrain and the wind etc. but I tried to stick with the heart rate as much as possible.

It was tough, very tough. glad I got through it, MLR tomorrow. Joy.

|Pace|HR
1|8:46|136
2|8:24|146
3|8:07|150
4|7:22|164
5|7:05|168
6|7:26|169
7|7:34|170
8|9:32|154
9|9:07|148

Finished with the Myrtle routine off you tube, I like this one, it's not too taxing as it's based on flexibility more than strength.

Any suggestions on strength or flexibility or core routines send them my way!

adrian522

Wednesday

Medium Long Run - 11 Miles @ 8:14 m/m

There is a mid week club run that happens on Wednesday's. They start at 7 but I was good to go from 6:20, said I'd do a few miles first and then meet up with them. Unfortunately I miscaculated my route so I missed them.

The wind was crazy strong, it really annoyed me how it always seemed to be against me. I struggled through with yesterday's tempo still in my legs.

This run is supposed to be run at a decent pace, not a plod around for 11 miles. The idea is to start slow and to gradually build up a pace to finish fast. I use Heart Rate to monitor effort due to things like wind and hills and as such this run should be in the range of 137-156. Starting at the lower and ending at the higher end of the range.

This makes it quite a tough run, there are lots of these in the plan so I guess I may get used to them.

|Pace|HR
1|8:58|134
2|8:30|144
3|8:10|144
4|8:04|148
5|8:03|151
6|8:19|154
7|7:54|154
8|8:18|155
9|8:22|156
10|8:07|154
11|7:50|156

Tom Joad

adrian522 wrote: »

Any suggestions on strength or flexibility or core routines send them my way!

I do this twice a week (some weeks ) for core and find it good
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=486

Use this for flexibility and find it good

http://www.hartmann-international.com/articles/5/hope-on-a-rope.aspx

adrian522

Thanks, I've seen both of those before but never went as far as actually doing them, but I'll try both of them I think!

adrian522

Thursday

5 Recovery Miles @ 9:09

Got this out of the way at lunchtime. Struggled a bit with it, had a bit of a low blood sugar bonk after about 2 miles, but other than that it was ok.

A bit of a rain shower towards the end of the run too, all good though.

adrian522

Friday

9 Miles @ 8:23 m/m

This is a "General Aerobic" run. Harder than an easy run, but still at a fairly comfortable. Fairly windy tonight, but apart from one section it wasn't really an issue. Very nice evening for a run, nice sunshine and fairly close to perfect temperature.

Hopefully the decent weather holds up for the Cork Marathon and Dublin mini marathon.

adrian522

Saturday

5 Miles Recovery (8:59 m/m)

Went for a few pints last night, should have left it alone after closing time but hit up the late bar, and whats that? Bottles of Lagunitas? 6.5%? Sure why not.

At least it was just a recovery run today. Uneventful.

adrian522

Sunday

16 Miles with last 8 @ MPE

I was looking for new routes in and around Kilkenny. Came across the website irishtrails.ie, and that brought me to a nice trail out by the river towards Bennnetsbridge.

It's a nice run but maybe not the best for this particular session. There are a lot of barriers/gates etc to be negotiated which is fine on an easy run but when trying to maintain marathon pace it is not great to be stopping and starting so often.

There is also one section with an electric fence on one side and trail is quite narrow there so you have to really watch your footing. I also had the dubious pleasure of swallowing a bug and getting another one suck in my eye!

As far as the run was concerned, I started out slowly, then maintained a decent pace up until the 8 mile mark. Then I picked up the effort levels to try and hold marathon pace for 8 miles. This wasn't easy as I said, but I was much happier once I got back out on the road and the last 3 miles were more like what I'd expect for this sort of run.

Also managed to lose €10 on the run so couldn't pick up recovery foods in the shop

Happy with the run though, happy with the effort levels, not overly impressed by some of the splits but I guess its pretty unavoidable.

|Pace|HR
1|8:54|148
2|8:31|154
3|8:26|153
4|8:54|149
5|8:29|149
6|8:46|146
7|8:44|146
8|8:36|145
9|7:55|153
10|8:24|156
11|8:11|157
12|8:08|157
13|8:41|156
14|7:45|156
15|7:44|158
16|7:44|162

Total for the week is 55 Miles. Week 1 is in the books, marathon training is happening. I even managed to do some core/strength/flexibility work 3 times this week as well as some stretching in the evenings. Hopefully I can keep this up.

adrian522

Another month gone. The wind is still fairly strong out there, not really much summery weather so far.

The main goals for the month were to continue base building, run well in Tallaght 5K and the Enfield 5K. Follow that up with the start of marathon training.

Looking back it was fairly successful. 2 PB's in the 5K's (but no sub 20 unfortunately). I trained right up to the Enfield race which in retrospect was probably a mistake. I'm half tempted to run a parkrun to see I I can go sub 20 but another part of me thinks it's a little silly as it's not the main goal for this part of the year and I've already taken over a minute off the 5K time this year.

Looking forward, I'll try to keep things ticking over with marathon training but I'll also try to race Dunshaughlin. I like to race so not sure I'd be a fan of doing no races for months on end. So far I've resisted the temptation to race a half marathon at this stage of the year.

Tables:

Days Running|29/31
Sessions|8
Long Runs|4
Races|2
PB's|2

Month|2013|2014|2015
January|7|0|191
Febraury|10|53|196
March|7|111|207.9
April|26|154|165.2
May|69|121|219.7
June|75|93
July|67|212
August|101|233
September|85|261
October|4|179
November|13|28
December|6|163
Total|471.2|1606.2|980.6

Bungy Girl

You really need to sew up those holes in your pockets!

adrian522

No hole in the pocket this week ! No zipped pockets either though.

adrian522

Monday

Rest. Complete rest, no strength work or anything.

Tuesday

8 Miles with 10 x 100m Strides (8:14 m/m Pace)

Got this in after work. It was very windy out. It seems like it's always very windy out these days. The pace varied considerably depending on what the wind was doing. Anyway, I felt a bit lethargic on this and probably needed the strides at the end as it seems like a long time since I've done any "fast" running. Not that fast but still nice to get the legs moving a bit quicker. I feel like I should throw in a track session or something so I don't lose all the gains I've made since the start of the year. Not very logical but it's how my mind works!

Did the Myrtle routine afterwards. Didn't get to do any stretching last night though.

adrian522

Wednesday

12 Miles @ 8:32 m/m

12 Miles yesterday evening. The club has a bit of a run on a Wednesday ,nothing too taxing. I went along and I thought it was way too slow to start with but after a few miles the pace gradually picked up. They finished up after about 7 miles and I finished with 4 or 5 miles by myself.

To be honest the early slower miles are probably a good idea so I'll try to make this a regular thing. Finished strong at the upper end of the recommended HR scale.

Also ticked over 1000 miles for the year last night. 3 months earlier than last year.

Recovery Run today.

adrian522

Thursday

Recovery Run - 5 Miles @ 9:28

Just a recovery run today. Nothing too taxing, took it very slow. Felt a bit of a tightness in my calf towards the end that seemed a little more than the usual tightness in the sense that I could still feel it afterwards and didn't seem to go away after stretching. Something to keep an eye on certainly. Foam rolling will be required.

Cycled home, hit a huge pothole with the back wheel. Puncture. Not to worry, nearly home at that stage but spent the last 20 mins changing the tube. Didn't find any glass or anything so presume the pothole did it.

Anyway, finished with the darkside core routine. Still can't do press ups.

adrian522

Friday

9 Miles @ 8:34

Got out after work for this, nice evening at first, but last 3 miles the wind was unmerciful, really bad. Kind of getting sick of it at this stage.

Felt good apart from that. Cycled home and did some strength work, squats, single leg squats, lunges, single leg dead lifts and calf raises. Not too many of each but better than nothing.

adrian522

Saturday

5 Miles Recovery Run @ 9:24


Really strong wind again. Found it really hard to keep within the recommended HR range. Glad when it was over to be honest.

Maybe do some AIS or foam rolling or something tonight, or then again maybe not. Long run tomorrow anyway.

Bungy Girl

adrian522 wrote: »

Saturday

5 Miles Recovery Run @ 9:24


Really strong wind again. Found it really hard to keep within the recommended HR range. Glad when it was over to be honest.

Maybe do some AIS or foam rolling or something tonight, or then again maybe not. Long run tomorrow anyway.

I'm finding the wind really tough going as well. It seems to have been the norm for at least the last month or so. Down with this sort of thing. Forecast for tomorrow is practically zero wind so that'll make a pleasant change. On the plus side, all this free resistance training will see us emerge like bats out of hell with PBs all round once it calms down

adrian522

Tomorrow, Sunday, will be dry for the most part with good sunny spells and just a few passing light showers. Highest temperatures of 13 to 17 degrees in moderate west to northwest winds.

Sounds good to me, given I'll be in the Phoenix Park where it's always windy I'm glad the wind is due to die down a bit.