Confessions of a never has been.....

ThebitterLemon

Nice session D

TbL

Tom Joad

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Nice session D

TbL

+ 1 Good stuff

Duanington

01.04.2014


Monday

I knew I would have very little time in the evening time to run so I got yesterday's run in before work. Nice run around Citywest, taking in a little bit of Corkagh Park too...grass, gravel and tarmac. Legs were fine considering I'd pushed them hard the night before but I did keep the pace nice and slow.

Total miles: 7 @ 8:37 min miles


Tuesday

AM - 4 miles before work again, the usual loop around the business park. Lovely morning for it, I wore the running jacket because there was a bit of a chill in the air but in truth, it was just a beautiful, fresh spring morning and there was no need for it, I was sweating after a mile and regretted that decision.

PM - 20 minute core work then off out for my LSR. I had very little sleep last night so getting my head right for this was a real struggle...lots and lots of voices telling me to take it easy and lie on the sofa listening to the United\Bayern game but I told myself if TbL can fly in from exotic locations in his private jet, speed off to a remote corner of the country and run 20 miles at strange hours of the night then I need to stop whining and get on with it ! Who needs sleep?!
Anyway, in truth, this was a bit of a struggle - down to East Point, back up the coast, into St Anne's, back to the coast then up into Raheny and on home. I upped the pace at Mile 9 to waken the mind ( I had visions of curling up under a bush for a power nap on several occasions) and it did the trick nicely

Total : 12 miles @ 8:31 min\miles

Total for the day - 16

Cleanman

D - what's the idea behind doing a recovery/easy run and a long run all in the same day? I wouldn't have thought it was a good idea but am very open to correction. I guess when the long run is only 12 miles*, the extra mileage might not do any harm but I'd just be careful...

*although I don't think your long runs are usually longer than this?

Duanington

Cleanman wrote: »

D - what's the idea behind doing a recovery/easy run and a long run all in the same day? I wouldn't have thought it was a good idea but am very open to correction. I guess when the long run is only 12 miles*, the extra mileage might not do any harm but I'd just be careful...

*although I don't think your long runs are usually longer than this?

To be honest Cleanman - I wouldn't normally do it and I don't think I'll do it again. There was no real idea behind it either - just a case of me being awake earlier than expected yesterday and heading out for a run then carrying on with the long run later that day - legs definitely tired towards the end last night more than usual as a result.

Having said that - I have found that an easy\recovery run in the AM followed by a session ( hill rep\400\1k reps, haven't tried it with a tempo yet) in the PM seems to work well for me.

You're right though, double days are relatively new to me and I'll have to be careful alright - thanks!

Cleanman

Duanington wrote: »

To be honest Cleanman - I wouldn't normally do it and I don't think I'll do it again. There was no real idea behind it either - just a case of me being awake earlier than expected yesterday and heading out for a run then carrying on with the long run later that day - legs definitely tired towards the end last night more than usual as a result.

Having said that - I have found that an easy\recovery run in the AM followed by a session ( hill rep\400\1k reps, haven't tried it with a tempo yet) in the PM seems to work well for me.

You're right though, double days are relatively new to me and I'll have to be careful alright - thanks!

Cool - was just curious as much as anything as I haven't heard of others doing it. No harm to try it though as you say. It's a little bit of experimentation too and figuring out what your body can handle. Keep up the good work;)

Duanington

03.04.2014

Wednesday - no running, just 30 minutes stretching\press-ups etc

Thursday -

AM - 4 miles easy around Citywest, lovely morning - even with the Fog. Enjoyed the sensation of running on the gravel paths around Citywest. Back at the desk by 08:20 for a hectic day at the office
Total: 4 miles

PM - session night. ( 10x400 reps w\200m recovery - walking the recovery after the 5th)
Home early enough so threw myself into some light weights and some core work with the classic Pearl Jam album - Ten...good times

Ran the mile nice and easy down to my local track ( rose garden - St Anne's) and got started on the reps, which turned out like this:

1:22
1:20
1:21
1:22
1:22
walked 200 metre recovery then went again
1:20
1:24 ( don't know what happened here)
1:20
1:21
1:18

really enjoyed this one, I was always able to ( I've edited this from "I had no problem at all!") keep the pace and felt good all the way through each rep - I tried to run each one tall and worked to keep my form in decent shape. The last two were tougher than the rest but there was always a little bit left in the tank if needed, I definitely could have gone a little quicker.
Total miles - 6

Total miles for the day - 10

AuldManKing

Nice work! Good session that.

Duanington

AuldManKing wrote: »

Nice work! Good session that.

Thanks AMK - best of luck this weekend, you're in super nick. Looking forward to reading all about it

Duanington

05.04.2014


Friday

AM - 4 miles easy. Lovely morning again for a gentle run around Citywest. For some reason I had my first bout of that strange sensation where you are very aware that its quite early , you're running past Qs of traffic while people look at you through sleepy, disbelieving eyes. Funny how it feels so normal to run before work after 2\3 goes.

PM - A little core work then out for 4 more easy miles on the coast. Beautiful evening for it, The sun was shining, people were out in force enjoying the weather and all was good in the world. I noticed that I was feeling quite jaded by the end of this run though, I suppose ( as expected) its only natural to feel a little tired as I increase the miles a bit each week.

Total miles: 8

Saturday - no early morning run this morning ( work pints last night put pay to that) and with the Great Ireland run tomorrow I decided that the legs could do with 3 miles nice and easy tonight followed by a nice bit of stretching

Total miles: 3@ 8:27 min\miles

SamforMayo

Best of luck tomorrow. What s the target?

Duanington

SamforMayo wrote: »

Best of luck tomorrow. What s the target?

Thanks a mill SamforMayo - I've no real target to be honest, I'm genuinely running it as part of the training plan I've put together ( target race is in May). It'll be a fast tempo for me so if I get close to PB territory I'll have worked quite hard and I'll be happy

SamforMayo

Duanington wrote: »

Thanks a mill SamforMayo - I've no real target to be honest, I'm genuinely running it as part of the training plan I've put together ( target race is in May). It'll be a fast tempo for me so if I get close to PB territory I'll have worked quite hard and I'll be happy

Your training is going well anyways, what is the race in May?

ThebitterLemon

Duanington wrote: »

Thanks a mill SamforMayo - I've no real target to be honest, I'm genuinely running it as part of the training plan I've put together ( target race is in May). It'll be a fast tempo for me so if I get close to PB territory I'll have worked quite hard and I'll be happy

Yea right D, you are PBing everything in sight at the minute, looking forward to the update tomorrow

TbL

Duanington

SamforMayo wrote: »

Your training is going well anyways, what is the race in May?

Maynooth 10k - not sure if you've ran it before but its nice and flat, good chance to get a decent chunk off my PB hopefully

Duanington

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Yea right D, you are PBing everything in sight at the minute, looking forward to the update tomorrow

TbL

ha ha - we'll see TbL

SamforMayo

Very good, will look forward to the up dates.

Duanington

06.04.2014


Great Ireland mini run + great Ireland run

Great day out in the park today, the weather started off $hitty enough and for a while I feared the worst for my two kiddies who had come along for the day out - more so for the eldest, at least the youngest was running.

BUT - the sun came out just in time for the mini run. Great craic running the 1500 metres with my youngest on this and I was actually genuinely amazed at the talent shown by some of the kids at the front of the field....some great performances all around.

After the mini run was sorted, I headed off for an easy warmup with my sister who was running her first 10k. The weather had really picked up at this stage and it was clear that heat would probably be an issue for some towards the end of this one. We made our way towards our respective starting areas and off we went.

I settled into a nice pace straight away but noticed that my watch was still on metric from the 400 reps on Thursday night, I'd never run the distance before with that setting so decided to just keep an eye on the laps after each k rather than pay any real attention to the ongoing pace. the first 3k flew by and I was fairly cruising if I'm honest - this was never a target race for me, I have another tough week mileage wise ahead of me this week so I had always planned to run this but to enjoy it and leave something in the tank. Traffic was a bit of an issue and I found myself skipping around people quite a bit.

Somewhere around the 4k mark the heat became a bit more apparent and the field went eerily quiet as we approached the long downhill stretch leading to the 5k marker and the start of the first hill. I passed up the option of water rather foolishly and turned my attention to the hills. I wanted to work on these - keep the pace steady and run right through the hilly sections. Lots and lots and lots of spitting as we moved onto the first hill , I put the head down and moved on up, feeling good and working to keep the pace as steady as possible.
By the top of the first, my breathing was a little laboured but I knew we had some respite for a little bit before the next hill so I worked to maintain my form and keep the pace effort nice and tough.
On through to 6 and 7k markers without any real issues, the hills are tough on this course, there is no doubt about that but I was really enjoying myself - not to say it wasn't very hard going at times because it was but mentally I was strong and although physically my legs were a little tired, I always felt that there was something left to give.
The climb after the 8k marker was a real killer - again, I put my head down and just worked...again at the top, my breathing was a little laboured - the pace had slowed a little now but I steadied up and moved towards the 9k marker...from there I upped the pace noticeably for about 300 metres then again right until the end, kicking strong and steady but keeping the stride in check which felt great. I was working very hard at the end and stopped the watch at 42:10 which I was very happy with.....this is a much tougher course than any of the tempo runs I do and while it was difficult to keep the pace right, effort wise - I was delighted with the run and hope it stands to me.

KM splits looked like:

4:11
4:09
4:10
4:12
4:04
4:14
4:10
4:20
4:21
3:52

Did a lovely 2 mile c\d shortly afterwards and enjoyed the bag of jellies with the kids

Great day out was had by all - happy with the run and the level effort sustained.

ThebitterLemon

Well done D, great run and nice last km finish.

TbL

Duanington

07.04.2014


I had planned to run twice today but I woke up this morning with a headcold so scrapped the morning run and settled for a late evening\night time run instead.

Spent a bit of time making use of the chin up bar at home then headed off for some easy miles. My legs felt quite fresh this evening - I had expected them to be much stiffer given yesterday's hilly route but they felt fine. I kept the pace right down all the same, it would be just my luck to steam on and pull a hamstring at the halfway mark.
The route took me down the coast on the grass, across to the O2 and back again into Clontarf. Headcold is making itself known again as I type so I'll take a few yokes ( lemsips) and head to bead

7 easy miles @ 8:47 min\miles

Duanington

08.04.2014


LSR night tonight but shorter and not quite as slow as normal.

The plan was to run 11 miles with 6 steady. I was a little late home from work but spent a good 20\25 minutes on some core work before heading off out to start the easy miles ....as usual, I started on the coast road on the grass but made my way over to the O2 instead of heading up to Howth.

Once mile 4 was out of the way I upped the pace to "steady" - and decided to judge this by the state of my breathing, which meant lots of talking to myself every few hundred yards or so...( nothing unusual there to be honest!)

Headed on down the quays, turned out at the custom house back out towards Clontarf. I felt very comfortable at this pace, I'm starting to find it the most enjoyable pace to run at, there's a bit more going on that normal LSR pace and yet comfortable enough that the body can cope nicely.

Splits worked out like this

7:41
7:44
7:40
7:30
7:26
7:26

The last 2 were probably a little quick but I was really enjoying this and everything felt good so I just stayed at what felt like steady ( although I stopped talking to myself towards the end now that I think of it!)

Finished off with another 1.5 miles very easy

Total miles 11.5@ 8:01 min/miles

Duanington

10.04.2014

Wednesday

A routine 4 mile trek around citywest before work. I normally take a rest day on Wednesdays but this week I don't have a rest day in the plan.
Lovely morning for it, I'm noticing how the mornings are getting milder and milder at the moment, I'm still carrying a bit of a headcold so I wore my running jacket and paid the price in sweat!
4 miles @8:22 min\mile

Thursday

AM - As above, 4 miles easy, Citywest


PM - No session tonight, energy levels are a tad lower than normal this week so rather than run a cr*p session, I decided to run easy miles instead. 6 miles easy - over to Eastpoint and back home, strangely enough I felt like cr*p heading out and felt on top of the world coming back. Lots and lots of other people out running, walking etc - good to see.

25 minutes light weights and core work to finish

6 miles@ 8:15 min\mile

Total for the day: 10 miles

Duanington

12.04.2014

Friday - A long day in the office on Friday, quite a bit of driving and not as many snacks as I would normally have left me a little jaded at the end of the evening so another easy day of running. 4 miles easy around Clontarf, lovely evening for it actually, bright with a light breeze...kept it mostly on the grass to keep the impact down. Finished off with 30 minutes stretching\press-ups
4 miles@ 8:35 min\miles

Saturday
AM - 6 miles with 10x 80 metre strides
Lovely morning again but just as I headed out the door the heavens opened and I was soaked to the skin within 30 seconds. Made my way down to St Anne's and ran some easy miles around the parkrun route there. Its an odd feeling to run that route at an easy pace...everything is so familiar but looks very different somehow...the main avenue is a pleasure to run at an easy pace but a long never ending road when you're racing !
Kept the strides at a decent pace but not pushing too hard and left plenty of recovery time in between. This is turning out to be a tough week mileage wise as I expected and while the headcold is just about gone, I still feel I'm running just slightly below par.
Total miles 6.2@ 8:07 min\miles

PM - 3 miles easy with the youngwan, lovely jog down the coast and a nice catchup chat. She's running a little bit on her own too these days and it was noticeable tonight in that she was well able to keep chatting and running

Total for the day: 9.2

Duanington

14.04.2014

Sunday - unscheduled rest day. Just a busy day, couldn't get out for a run, a bit disappointed with that but real life can be fun too sometimes :-)

Today
AM - 4 miles easy around Citywest, perfect morning for it, birds out singing..sun in the sky and it almost didn't feel like a Monday...almost
Total: 4 [EMAIL="miles@8:26"]miles@8:26[/EMAIL] min\miles

PM - home from work for some work on the aul chin up bar then off out for some more easy miles. I had no watch or phone for this one so I ran down to St Annes again and took in the park run course to make up the 7 miles. another lovely run, cool breeze, bright sky...lots of people out enjoying themselves. My legs felt great after the day off yesterday - headcold is a distant memory too.

Total for the day 11 miles

Duanington

15.04.2014


LSR night tonight

Another busy, busy day in the office today - I kept hearing comments like " beautiful day out there" and " jaysus there's a grand bit of heat in that sun out there" as people came in and out of the office. I however had my head buried in a pile of work so didn't get to sample the fine day we had been given by mother nature. BUT I knew I'd be heading out for a couple of hours after work so I sulked not and ploughed on with the work.

Got home, cut the grass and got ready to head off - taking in a couple of easy miles on the grass at the coast road before heading up towards Howth. The plan for tonight was to run 15 miles with 4 @ hmp ( which I am still not sure of if I'm honest).
As always, the run up towards Howth was pleasant - lots fellow runners out making the best of the beautiful sunshine and everyone was full of hellos.
I don't pay much attention to the watch on these runs , except to keep the pace slow but I have noticed my average pace creeping up over the past few months which is only natural I suppose. Made way to the first climb just past Sutton and dug in, the hills felt hilly this evening and I had my work cut out to keep the legs pumping all the way through the hilly sections. While I am usually happy enough to let the pace slip a good bit, I do try to work a little harder when climbing these hills - good for the soul.
There were quite a lot of cyclists ( triathlon club I think) on the way up and I found myself in a funny situation where I was running beside a cyclist for a mile or so as she struggled with the climb - once she got to the top though, she whizzed of down the other side and left me for dirt.

Back down into Howth village from the summit and I let the legs freewheel a bit - I'd normally hold back a bit here.
Lots of people strolling around tucking into salty chips which had me driven demented until I ran out of the village. I was glad to have started the HMP miles at this stage!

I made my way back towards Clontarf, genuinely enjoying the pace and keeping my stride\breathing in check. Actually the breathing was great for the duration of the HMP section - my legs tired just a tad towards the end but it was comfortable for the main part. Finished off with 2 easy miles then came home for some chocolate milk and a good feed !
I was tired and very well worked by the end of this session, good to have it done

HMP section looked like this:
7:26
7:24
7:20
7:10
( in other words, I haven't a clue what my HM pace is and I need to sort that out)

Total 16 miles@ 8:17 min\miles

ThebitterLemon

Well FFS it's not 7.26

TbL

Duanington

17.04.2014

Wednesday - rest

Thursday

AM - 4 miles nice and easy before work. Slept in a little this morning and feared the worst ( that is - I wouldn't get across the city in time to run before work) then I copped on that the kids were off and traffic would be lighter...so I fell back asleep and slept it out anyway.

Got across to work just in time to get out for 4 miles before starting work. Nothing much to report, legs were a little tired at first but came good after a couple of miles
Total: 4 miles @ 8:22 min\miles

PM - Home for some light weights and core work, put the beastie boyz on nice and loud and got stuck in for 30 minutes or so. Headed off down the coast road on the grass for 5 easy miles and threw in 6x100 metre strides.
I felt better and better as this run went - I put a little more effort into the strides than I normally would - not quite sprinting but certainly closer to sprinting than I would normally go.
Home for an almighty feed
Total: 5 miles @ 8:07 min\miles

Total for the day: 9

Duanington

18.04.2014

AM - another early start and 4 miles easy before work. It couldn't have been a nicer morning for it either, sun shining, birds singing, very little traffic around and I was back at the desk for 08:20.
4 miles @ 8:24 min\miles

PM - the boss man let us off a bit early today so I took the chance to meet up with my bro in the phoenix park and do my session there. The plan was to do last week's planned session which I canned because of the headcold - 5x1k reps w\75s recoveries

Ran 2 miles easy with the bro and he headed off to do his easy run. I made my way to the GAA pitches opposite the papal cross and got started. My legs felt just a little heavy on the warmup, obviously feeling the effects of quite a high mileage week but this week is possibly the toughest week I will run for quite a while so I can look forward to a step-back week next week.

Reps turned out like this:

1 - 3:42
2 - 3:42
3 - 3:45
4 - 3:44
5 - 3:52

My legs turned to stone towards the end of the 5th rep ( just after I turned into the wind)...I just couldn't hold the pace over the last 400 metres or so. Breathing wise everything was fine ( which isn't usually the case) but throughout each rep I was aware that my legs were complaining.

Finished off with a 3 mile w/d back to the car, meeting my bro halfway. Lots of people out enjoying the park - what a great spot it is, we're so luck to have it.

Despite the last rep I'm very happy with this one - another tough session under the belt

Total miles for the day: 12.1

ThebitterLemon

That's a great looking 5k rep session Double D, well done.

When are you gonna man up and step up to the marathon plate!

TbL

Duanington

cheers TBL, felt the burn today to be honest!

ha ha ha ha - Well I'll be running DCM for sure but I always planned to work on 5k\10k stuff for the first 6 months of the year. You're probably running a couple of marathons next week right?