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

adrian522

Sunday

Rest. Had thought about recovery run but woke up late with a hangover and needed to get to Croke Park for 1pm so no run.

Monday

Had thought about running to and from work to get my double in but woke up late with a hangover (again).

Anyway got out at lunchtime for 6 miles and after work for 4 miles. The lunch run was fine, quite enjoyable after a day off. The evening run was a bit more of a slog but not too bad. Could do with strengthening up my ankles/achilles I think.

This weeks plan calls for 2 tough sessions, a 5k pace session and a marathon paced long run as well as an easy paced MLR mid week. Going to be tough.

annapr

How's the injury holding up Adrian? all back to normal now?

adrian522

It's holding up ok, no real issues. I wouldn't say it's completely back to normal yet, but hopefully it's well on the road to recovery at this stage.

It still seems weaker than the other leg though.

adrian522

Tuesday

11 Miles with 5 x 0.75 Miles @ 5K Pace

It's been a while since I've run a session with this sort of pace built in. In fact the last time was a track session on May 23rd. 2 and a half months ago. That figures.

Obviously this was a big tester for the injury and I came through fine. No issues from the calf. The ankle on the other side seems a bit weak so I'll be doing some work to strengthen that over the next while.

The session itself wasn't great but I expect that not having run this pace for such a long time and still not back to the level of fitness I was before taking time off with the injury.

5K pace should be around 6:25 m/m, target HR should be in the region of 174-178.

Paces were as follows:

Dist|Pace|HR
0.75|6:38|157
0.75|6:33|166
0.75|6:38|161
0.75|6:46|165
0.75|6:55|166

So, struggled to hit the pace or even get all that close to hit (kind of expected) but also not hitting the HR either but it certainly felt like the effort level was there. Obviously with the recoveries (about 3:30 mins, until HR returned to 65 % of HRR) you are going to see lower averages but I thought it would be closer to the target range given how hard I was pushing.

Overall I'm happy to get it done, feels like I'm entering the last phase of training and good that the leg responded well to this session, but over the next few weeks I hope to see an improvement in the pace I'm hitting in these sessions.

Total for the day was 11 Miles.

adrian522

Wednesday

15 Miles @ 8:52 m/m

Well 15 miles the day after a 5K pace session which involved 11 total miles. Really hot day and pretty tired before starting, this is going to end well.

Anyway, idea was to keep it slow and comfortable and not worry about pace at all.

After about 5 miles I found it tough going, once I got to around 9 or so miles I stopped for a drink as I was feeling the heat. Got through it alright in the end but the last few miles were a real struggle. To be expected given I haven't run this distance since July 12th, exactly 1 month.

Looking back happy enough with it, the last 2 miles were the fastest and I think it will stand to me when I do the longer runs over the next few weeks.

adrian522

Thursday

10 Miles @ 9:01 m/m

Managed to get out early yesterday, 5:30 or so, found it really hot and a bit of a struggle to stay hydrated. Hit up Tymon for this run, 3rd day in a row of at least 10 miles and the legs were certainly feeling it.

I'll get back to a 6 mile recovery today and hope to be refreshed for long run on Saturday (or Sunday)

This was really a make or break week, I'm happy with how it's going, it's been tiring but no injury issues. If I get through this week there is nothing too scary in the rest of the schedule.

Firedance

that's great Adrian, glad to see you're back on schedule again.

ThebitterLemon

6 miles today as a recovery run seems a bit on the long side to me especially after you're coming back from an injury and your last 3 days mileage.

TbL

adrian522

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

6 miles today as a recovery run seems a bit on the long side to me especially after you're coming back from an injury and your last 3 days mileage.

TbL

Really, what you think would be appropriate?

ThebitterLemon

Just from a personal perspective, I'd be doing 3/4 miles real real slow.

TbL

Firedance

adrian522 wrote: »

Really, what you think would be appropriate?

I was told recoveries should be max 40 minutes (anywhere from 30/40 mins) so whatever distance you cover in that time at your super slow pace is sufficient, apparently no matter how slowly you're going, anything over 40 mins will tire you which is the opposite of what you want.

adrian522

Well the plan I'm following has had recoveries at 5 or 6 miles the whole way through, I don't really want to throw that out at this stage.

belcarra

adrian522 wrote: »

Well the plan I'm following has had recoveries at 5 or 6 miles the whole way through, I don't really want to throw that out at this stage.

Adrian - If even just for this run I think you should knock a couple of miles off too.

You are coming back from a dodgy couple of weeks injury-wise and an extra couple of miles at recovery pace will do nothing to help you in Berlin. Just remember it's recovery and after the last 3 runs you have said you're feeling a bit tired so take this one handy, focus on getting the LSR completed at the weekend without any drama and then next time out you can revert back to the plan's recovery distances.

Just over 6 weeks now...!:)

ThebitterLemon

200% agree with Belcarra who put better context around the point

TbL

adrian522

Thanks lads, I agree with taking a bit off this week anyway. I'll limit it to 3 or 4 miles.

OK, this weeks long run has a bit of a session included....

18 Miles with 12 @ PMP

Is this something I should be looking at? I could put it off till next week if needed?

belcarra

Maybe just do the 18 mile easy pace and then do the 12m @ MP as a standalone run a couple of days later??
Again, just with one eye on interrupted training the past few weeks...that's a big session any time so perhaps tread carefully?

Come through those runs unscathed and I'd consider you back to full health/fitness and free to resume the plan.

adrian522

Thanks, If I get through Berlin I'll buy ye all a beer.

* you have to show up in Berlin though

annapr

adrian522 wrote: »

Thanks, If when I get through Berlin I'll buy ye all a beer.

* you have to show up in Berlin though

FYP

Firedance

adrian522 wrote: »

Thanks, If when I get through Berlin I'll buy ye all a beer.

* you have to show up in Berlin a Dublin pub though

fixed properly this time

adrian522

Ok, thanks for all the advice everyone. While it may seem like I'm not following very good advice and igoring people who are giving it that is not the case.

I welcome all feedback good and bad and appreciate everyone who takes the time to do this.

However I do also talk to people outside of boards, in this instance I spoke to the former poster who's been helping me through my injury (and who coaches a few on here) and he was happy for me to do the marathon paced long run as long as i was sensible if I noticed anything untoward.

Anyway I went and did the session and it went well, no injury issues whatsoever, I just wanted to explain why I did the session at all.

Friday

4 Miles @ 9:44 m/m

Limited this to 4 miles and took it very slow. All went well, a bit sore from the recent mileage but no problems on this. Got it out of the way at lunch time and just as well as I ended up having to work late.

Saturday

18 Miles with 12 @ PMP

As discussed above I gave this a good bit of thought before deciding to go ahead with it, fully prepared to back off or abandon it if the leg was giving trouble. Thankfully it didn't and I was able to finish it out without issue.

Started with 5 miles easy, kept it very easy and no ill effects of this weeks runs.

After 5 miles I planned to up it to PMP, problem is the route I was following has quite a bit of trail, and not so easy to maintain pace. Also a strong wind at times causes the times to be a bit all over the place.

I did my best to maintain a consistent effort but the paces didn't really stack up. Not overly worried about it though as when I was on the flat the paces were ok. Also still have the final predictor session of the Tullamore half in 2 weeks.

Not sure if I'll manage 3:20 ish or if it will be closer to 3:30. If I'm going at 7:45-7:50 pace on the day I'd settle for that.

Tried out my race day gear, shoes, socks, shorts etc. Happy with all of that so overall very happy. Finished with 1 easy cool down mile.

I'm not going to lie, I found this tough on my own, I could have done this at the RNR half, but it just came too soon.

Paces with HR (Target HR for MP is 149-164)

1|9:47|135
2|9:32|142
3|9:29|144
4|9:04|145
5|9:23|144
6|7:43|158
7|7:55|161
8|7:59|164
9|7:44|164
10|7:55|161
11|7:59|162
12|7:54|164
13|8:02|165
14|8:15|164
15|7:53|164
16|7:55|164
17|8:19|171
18|9:19|156

Total for the week is 68 Miles, day off tomorrow. Happy with where I am right now.

aquinn

Suspiciously quiet, what's happening?

adrian522

Indeed it is.

Sunday was a rest day, this went quite well, there was food, there was drinks, there was Tipp getting knocked out of the championship.

Monday, 9 Miles with 10 x 100m Strides...This went quite well too. First run in ages where I had to check myself to keep the pace easy rather than trying to convince myself to get through it, very nice run

Tuesday, 15 Miles MLR, fairly lethargic heading out, but nice evening and nice route planned out to Dun Laoghaire and back. Anyway 3 miles in and I got that old familiar calf pain, but not in the same leg, in the other leg. Couldn't believe it, now my bad leg is my good leg and well neither of them are all that good.

Wednesday - Rest again. Foam rolling and stretching. Deja Vu.

Thursday, a good bit better this morning, maybe cycle later today with a view to running tomorrow.

adrian522

No running yesterday, none today either.

Sports Massage tomorrow.

At this stage it's hard to be overly optimistic about hitting the startline in any sort of shape. Hopefully make the startline in some capacity though.

Firedance

I have nothing helpful to contribute but really sorry to hear that Adrian.

adrian522

Another day of no running. Had the sports massage, painful. Hopefully do a short tester run tomorrow.

Worst race prep of all time.

Murph_D

Hang in there A, an easy week is no harm at all, better one now than four or five later.

annapr

Fingers crossed for you Adrian, hopefully taking it easy for a bit will sort you out.

adrian522

Monday

0.27 Miles @ 9:51 m/m

Haven't run since last Tuesday, went for Sports massage on Saturday, was advised to try a run on Sunday but wasn't feeling it so left it another day.

Tried a run today, felt wrong right from the off, persevered for about a quarter mile before walking back.

I think I can forget about the half this weekend, Berlin is looking none too promising either.

Bungy Girl

Really sorry to hear this Adrian. You've put a helluva lot of work into this and it's all in the bank. Hope you get to the root cause of the injury soonest. Fingers crossed.

tang1

Sorry to hear that, hopefully Berlin isn't dead in the water yet.