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

adrian522

Thanks! Yeah, going well alright. Agree with you on that, I'll likely go out at 3:30 pace and see how it goes from there.

adrian522

Ok let's try this again. I'd all this typed up this morning but lost it all before posting.

Anyway.

Thursday

5 Miles @ 9:45 m/m

My legs were feeling a bit tender after the session Wednesday so I retreated to the grass pitches in UCD for this recovery run. The laps of the pitch are a bit soul destroying but getting this done on grass really helps the recovery I think. A very strong wind didn't help matters but glad to get it done.

Friday

6.1 Miles @ 9:21 m/m

I got a bit lazy on Friday evening. Got home from work and started watching Athletics, got hungry so had dinner. It was 9:30 by the time I got out. I obviously hadn't left enough time between dinner and running and this made for a very uncomfortable run.

I managed to get the miles done and even through in some strides at the end so happy enough with this.

Saturday

6 Miles @ 9:18 m/m

After a second consecutive night of interrupted sleep (work) got out for an easy 6 miles + strides around bushy park. Had a quick chat with a clubmate also heading to Berlin. He's still doing Saturday track sessions, our plans couldn't be more different!

Headed down to Thurles for the replay in the evening, so a great day all round!

Sunday

18 Miles with 4 x 2 Miles @ MP

This is a nice session and was one that I managed to complete without too much drama. I was down in Kilkenny so it was 2 laps of the ring road for this. 2 Miles Easy/2 Miles MP. Repeat 4 times, then a 2 mile cool down.

I was able to maintain MP without too much difficulty, in fact the only difficulty was keeping it to around MP. The last 2 miles I could feel the distance in the legs a little bit but nothing too bad.

Paces were as follows (who doesn't love a good table?):

Mile|Effort|Pace|HR%
1|Easy|9:03|70.5%
2|Easy|9:07|75.9%
3|MP|7:54|82.8%
4|MP|7:47|81.8%
5|Easy|8:53|78.1%
6|Easy|8:45|77.5%
7|MP|7:49|80.7%
8|MP|7:37|83.4%
9|Easy|9:23|76.4%
10|Easy|8:50|74.3%
11|MP|7:50|81.8%
12|MP|7:44|83.4%
13|Easy|9:16|75.4%
14|Easy|8:56|76.4%
15|MP|7:50|83.9%
16|MP|7:41|83.9%
17|Easy|9:04|80.7%
18|Easy|8:50|81.8%

Overall Thoughts:

Things going well so far. This was a step back week in terms of volume after 3 weeks of increasing mileage.

Next week has the potential to be tough with a mini taper ahead of Tullamore the week after that. Berlin is getting close now, hopefully I can keep things going until then.

I've been concentrating a lot more the last few weeks on slowing down the easy runs. I've all but eliminated the booze the last few months (with one notable exception!) and I think it is making a difference in terms of recovery and being fresh for the sessions.

Duanington

Nice going A - that's a very solid MP session

adrian522

Duanington wrote: »

Nice going A - that's a very solid MP session

Thanks, found it ok. The previous 18 miler I did with 2 x 3 Miles @ MP I found a good bit harder. I guess I'm fitter now though.

adrian522

Monday

4 Miles @ 9:31 m/m

Just a short recovery run on Monday evening. Ideally would have been on grass but I wasn't bothered driving anywhere so made do with this.

Tuesday

7 Miles @ 9:02 m/m

I went down to the club on Tuesday, did the warmup + strides then opted out of the session and did some easy miles around Bushy Park. The club sessions are a bit more marathon focused so I may look at incorporating one or 2 of these at some point.

Wednesday

14 Miles with 10 Miles Alternating between MP -15 secs and MP + 15 secs

This run turned into a bit of an adventure and not in a good way. I'd been pretty tired all day and got absolutely soaked on the bike on the way home. I wasn't overly keen to head back out but got changed, sat down and promptly fell asleep for an hour.

I'd left work early so I could get this out of the way at a reasonable hour but that was now out the window. The shoes I'd intended running in were soaked so I grabbed a different pair. Lunarracers that I'd used many times for speed and longer races. Big mistake.

Before too long the shoes were causing problems, mainly due to the weather. The insoles wouldn't stay in place and were sliding back out of the shoe so half my foot was on the insole the, the front part falling off the edge of it.

This got worse as the run went on, until I eventually had to remove the insoles leaving a shoe with close to no cushioning. This caused me a lot of problems with pain in the legs and I wasn't enjoying it at all.

Anyway, the run itself was fine, the rain was torrential but the paces seemed easy enough to hit. I probably enjoyed it well enough for the first half the second half of the run was a battle with the equipment.

I was really glad to get it finished, a full 10 mins difference between moving time and elapsed time shows how much stopping to make adjustments there was, as well as trying to stretch out.

Having said all that it's a good session to have done even if it wasn't perfect.

Thursday

5.4 Miles @ 9:21 m/m

Very late getting out for this. I was 50/50 on going out at all as my legs were feeling tender all day but ended up going out in the end and getting through just over 5 miles. It felt fine, surprisingly.

Firedance

Crikey, the things you don't know when looking at a run on strava!! double kudos for that....

annapr

Great to see you are humming along here Adrian and in good shape for Berlin. I hope it doesn't clash with the hurling final... But being from KK, I'm sure you factored that in!

adrian522

It doesn't but it would if there was a replay, which could well happen. At the moment I'm trying to figure out the timing for a 22 mile run, getting home, changed and over to croke park on 3rd September. Early start I'd imagine!

annapr

adrian522 wrote: »

It doesn't but it would if there was a replay, which could well happen. At the moment I'm trying to figure out the timing for a 22 mile run, getting home, changed and over to croke park on 3rd September. Early start I'd imagine!

Pfft... Not much sympathy for your dilemma here ! . Maybe switch the LR to the Saturday?

There must have been a replay two years ago... I'm pretty sure I remember the hurling final being on when we were in Berlin... But being from Donegal, it's not a big event on our calendar (neither is the football final most years either)

adrian522

Yeah there was a replay in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Saturday is even worse as I'm going to the American Football in the aviva at 12.30.

Sunday morning it is, once I've started by 8 it should be OK. Starting even earlier tomorrow so no big deal.

tang1

Heading for the Aviva myself on the 3rd, Boston College to win?!

Realt Dearg Sec

adrian522 wrote: »

Yeah there was a replay in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Saturday is even worse as I'm going to the American Football in the aviva at 12.30.

Sunday morning it is, once I've started by 8 it should be OK. Starting even earlier tomorrow so no big deal.

Will you have time to do a full championship fry then? Sounds like you're cutting it a bit fine to be honest.

adrian522

tang1 wrote: »

Heading for the Aviva myself on the 3rd, Boston College to win?!

Cool, should be a decent game, both similar levels but neither all that good to be honest.

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Will you have time to do a full championship fry then? Sounds like you're cutting it a bit fine to be honest.

Yeah, big fry, 22 mile run, All Ireland! What could go wrong.

Realt Dearg Sec

adrian522 wrote: »

Yeah, big fry, 22 mile run, All Ireland! What could go wrong.

Yeah you might have to cut something out of the day. Hard to know whether to drop the run or the match though.

Wubble Wubble

adrian522 wrote: »

Cool, should be a decent game, both similar levels but neither all that good to be honest.



Yeah, big fry, 22 mile run, All Ireland! What could go wrong.[/QUOTE]

Tipp could win?

Sounds like a great day in prospect for you regardless. There's been some unbelievable matches between KK and Tipp in recent years, I'm raging I won't get to see it! (holidays)

adrian522

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

adrian522 wrote: »

Cool, should be a decent game, both similar levels but neither all that good to be honest.



Yeah, big fry, 22 mile run, All Ireland! What could go wrong.[/QUOTE]

Tipp could win?

Sounds like a great day in prospect for you regardless. There's been some unbelievable matches between KK and Tipp in recent years, I'm raging I won't get to see it! (holidays)

Yeah it's been a bit stale with the same teams meeting a lot but in fairness kilkenny tipp games have usually been pretty good and occasionally excellent.

I'm worried they are due a win though.

adrian522

Friday

6.1 Miles @ 8:56 m/m

Legs still not feeling great for this. Probably went too fast for an easy run and feel like I was just teetering on the edge of doing too much in terms of training volume, but got through it thankfully.

Saturday

6.4 Miles @ 9:09 m/m

After a good nights sleep, this was a bit easier than the the previous day. Up around Bushy Park and finished up with some 20 second strides. Felt good after this one to be honest.

Sunday

22 Miles @ 9:25 m/m

This was never going to be easy, longest easy run of the program and at the end of a week of high mileage. It just had to be gotten over with though.

Unfortunately I had to be somewhere for 11:30am so this meant an early start to get this done, it also meant that I'd have to do this on my own instead of having company for at least some of it.

Setting the alarm for 6am on a Sunday morning is never a great feeling, but got up, watched some Olympics with breakfast and went over to the park.

Took a gel before starting and another halfway through just to see how they felt. I'm not sure how much I'd be able to stomach on the day, some more experimentation needed I think.

As for the run itself I took it very slowly, didn't really have to check the pace too much as I was naturally going at this pace.

Did the usual 12 mile loop, followed by the 10 mile loop. The first 10-12 miles were ok, but the legs still feeling the effects of the heavy training and it took a lot of resolve to get thorough the second part of the run, not helped by the weather.

In the end I got through it but wasn't able to rest up properly until much later in the afternoon, did manage to get a sneaky 1-2 hours sleep in the late afternoon though, so that was a bonus!

Overall a good week, 65 Miles, 1 key session and a 22 Mile long run.

Low mileage week this week, with the Tullamore Half at the end of it.

adrian522

Change of plan I think. From reading some logs and seeking advice from a few different quarters I've decided against racing the half this weekend. I guess I'll still use it as a session of some description but it seems to be too close to the big day for an all out effort. I wish I'd have come to this conclusion earlier so I could have found an alternative but I don't want to take any chances at this stage so this weekend will not be an all out effort in Tullamore.

I may take in the Lakes 10K next weekend instead.

aquinn

tang1 wrote: »

Heading for the Aviva myself on the 3rd, Boston College to win?!

Go that team!

I'm going to. I'm told there will be beer for entertainment. Lansdowne road B.

adrian522

Looks like I'll either have to drop the Lakes 10K or the game as the race is at 11am and the game is at 12:30. Decisions.

aquinn

Or find a parkrun and race around twice to replicate the 10km, job done before the game.

adrian522

Yeah, I could just do a parkrun but I've heard very good things about this race in blessington. Also the game will go on a long time so I guess I could always head in late.

aquinn

I, fine Anna too, had a great time supporting last year. It's BG's favorite race, well it used to be before WTF kicked in.

annapr

aquinn wrote: »

I, fine Anna too, had a great time supporting last year. It's BG's favorite race, well it used to be before WTF kicked in.

Can't believe that's nearly a year ago! Adrian, glad to see you are being sensible re. The HM!

adrian522

annapr wrote: »

Can't believe that's nearly a year ago! Adrian, glad to see you are being sensible re. The HM!

Not sure really, I guess it is better to play safe etc but I always like a half in the build up to a marathon, as I said earlier I could have picked a different race if I'd have made this decision a bit earlier.

I think I'd be ok to race it but probably best to err on the side of caution at this stage.

It'll be a tough enough session anyway even without racing it and it will mean the last very long run out of the way a week earlier.

tang1

Best of luck in Tullamore tomorrow A, hope the session goes to plan for you, run well.

adrian522

Monday

Rest Day

Tuesday

Club Session - 4 x 1K @ 5-10K Pace

I started the week with the idea that I'd race a half flatout on the weekend. My idea here was to do a decent session (but not a monster session) early in the week and then just take it easy for the rest of the week.

This was 1K repeats, I kept it controlled, only going for 5-10k pace and only did 4. It was nice doing these on the grass in Bushy Park and also nice to get a club session in as I've missed a lot of these over the summer, doing my own thing.

Paces were:

6:58/7:06/6:59/6:46

Total 5.9 Miles

Wednesday

14 Miles @ 9:03 m/m

After the club session on Tuesday I spoke to a few people and the general feeling was that 4 weeks out was too close for an all out Half Marathon. I fired off a few texts and the responses were fairly luke warm. I had to ask what was the benefit and was it worth the risk. I was really in 2 minds but it is hard to ignore the advice of those that have been there and done it so I cancelled the idea of a flat out race.

In order to get something from the week, I redid the plan to make this week more of a high mileage week instead of a recovery week (I'd done a stepback week recently anyway) so this would be the start of that.

Not ideal doing this the after a session but I figured best doing it now so I'm recovered in time for the weekend. It went fine, no issues on the run, even if I was a bit tired.

Thursday

7 Miles @ 9:13 m/m

I went down to the club session, but just ran at an easy pace around the fartlek laps. Nothing too fancy here.

Friday

AM - 6.3 Miles @ 9:17

PM - 4.2 Miles @ 9:24

Again just some easy running into and home from work, kept it very easy. Ideally I'd be doing the session on Sunday and not Saturday but that's not when the race is so have to make do.

Saturday

22 Miles with 13.1 @ MP

I was a bit nervous about how this would go. I'd considered doing 10 Miles @ MP instead of 13. I'd also considered 10 @ MP and 3 @ HMP, so this was a bit of a compromise.

I was aware of the fact that I'd built up a good bit of residual fatigue in the legs, but I figured this would stand to me on race day.

Started with 7 Miles easy, ran down the course for 3.5 miles (taking a slight detour) and same back. Took a gel after 45 mins.

Back for the start of the race and quick systems check revealed the legs were ok, so off I set @ MP.

My idea has been to train for 7:50 pace and possibly race at 8:00 pace, so I set off at 7:50 pace. It felt ok, I was working a little harder than I'd have liked but I managed it for the most part. I wouldn't say it was easy but I did hold my pace for the most part and there was more to give if needed as evidenced by the fact that frequent checks of the watch had me slowing down rather than speeding up.

I took on water where it was offered and had 2 more gels at 3 and 9 miles (of the race) roughly.

The race itself is excellent, nice course, they even have lads going around on bikes giving out bottles of water.

Finished up with the lap of the track, then back out for a cool down to bring my total for the day to 22 miles.

Quick chat with Krusty Clown afterwards (who finished 3rd I believe), obviously he doesn't have an issue with racing a half 4 weeks out!

There was a really good setup for the race, very jealous of the facilities of Tullamore Harriers. Went for a free massage afterwards. (After eating my fill of baked goods and sandwiches.

Paces are as follows:

|Effort|Pace
1|Easy|9:01
2|Easy|9:03
3|Easy|9:11
4|Easy|9:19
5|Easy|9:26
6|Easy|9:11
7|Easy|9:06
8|MP|7:56
9|MP|7:49
10|MP|7:56
11|MP|7:50
12|MP|7:57
13|MP|7:57
14|MP|7:47
15|MP|7:49
16|MP|7:51
17|MP|7:52
18|MP|7:46
19|MP|7:46
20|MP|7:37
20.1|MP|8:04
21|Easy|9:51
22|Easy|9:32

RedRunner

That's a super days work on tired legs A. Well done. Looking good.

Bungy Girl

Lovely consistency in those MP miles. And good on ya for being so sensible when it must have been very tempting to race. The sense will pay dividends, no doubt about it, well done!

ThebitterLemon

Nice splits, picking it up a bit too towards the end. Well done

TbL