Confessions of a never has been.....

Duanington

10.08.2014

Busy day with the kids today but I did get a window of opportunity to run a little earlier than I had expected so I nipped out between showers and made my way nice and slowly towards St Anne's

The plan for tonight was originally 12x400 with 200 jogged recoveries BUT with Mr Blister still not healed up I made the incredibly mature decision to cut it to 8x400 and if all felt well, I'd tag on the other 4.

This was a strange session, I lost concentration completely during some reps and on others I was running tall, focused entirely on rhythm, arms, bouncing off the ground etc..

Anyway, splits worked out as

1.19
1.26 ( I think I may have dozed off here :eek:, it didn't feel any different though)
1.20
1.20
1.19
1.20
1.21
1.18

I felt good throughout this one, a bit disappointed that I couldn't get a few more reps in ( as I had planned to this week) but I knew that I would be pushing things a little by going any further, I could feel the little bastid swelling up on the underside of my foot towards the end.

Made my way home nice and easy to take the total mileage to 6.

outforarun

Duanington wrote: »

3 minute collapsed-lying-on-my-back-in-a-heap recovery then I got on with the warm down, feeling good about the session and making my way home for a nice feed.

Great session off 2 min recoveries.

Duanington

12.08.2014


No running on Monday, did a good 40 minute session of core-work\weights instead


Tuesday brings LSR night and the plan for tonight was to get a 2 hour run in all nice and easy.

Took in the coast road, East Wall, the O2 - back out to the city centre, up the Malahide road, down through Raheny, St Anne's then home, a nice route actually, a lot to see and a few good climbs too

Had to stop briefly a couple of times to take phone calls from work ( on call this month) which was a bit of a bummer but I just slowed to a crawl while I said my bit before getting going again.

Total miles 14.5 @ 8:30 min\miles

Duanington

14.08.2014

Wednesday

5 miles easy before work around Citywest, nice trot - legs were a little sore so I kept the pace well down in the recovery zone. The route that I run is quite hilly towards the end so left me feeling a little more jaded than I wanted

Thursday

Had to work again at 9PM tonight so I had a smaller window to run in that I had hoped which meant shrinking the planned tempo a little.

1.5 miles warmup
4 miles @ tempo 6.40, 6.47, 6.39, 6.37
2.0 miles warmdown

The route had plenty of drags\bumps over miles 2\3 and I certainly felt it in the effort, although I did try to resist the temptation to work too hard up hills etc

Tougher session than I expected but a good session all the same.

Duanington

17.08.2014

Friday

5 miles recovery before work - usual trot around Citywest, legs weren't to stiff from the night before.
I had planned on another 5 in the PM but just couldn't get the time in the end

Saturday

7 miles easy nice and early, very enjoyable run down the coast road where it was fairly windy. The wind didn't stop the hoards of other runners, walkers and football teams getting out and doing their thang - good to see it too.
Threw in 8x70 metre strides over the last couple of miles.
Came home and did a pretty decent stint on the chin up bar - had a bit of time to spend on this so I did a few more than usual and I could certainly feel it later in the day !

Sunday

Plan for tonight was to run 9 miles inc 5x1k reps ( 90 second recovery)

I had hoped to get this done early this morning while the house was still sleeping but that didn't happen so I got out this evening instead. Head off down the coast into quite a strong breeze and winded my way up to St Anne's.
After a good warmup ( 3.5 miles) I got started, using the grass\football pitches and trails around the park for most of the reps ( all but 1)

The first 2 were a bit of a pain the hoop, having to run into the wind but after that I felt strong on each rep, easing my way into the kilometre and finishing strong each time

3.47
3.44
3.42
3.40
3.34

I felt stronger as this session went on and it shows in the times, although the terrain and wind were probably a factor over the first two.

Made my way home nice and easy to bring the total distance up to 9 miles for the session- job well done

Duanington

19.08.2014

Monday

Bog standard trot around Citywest before work. I missed out on this run last week so I was glad to get it in this week. Legs were a little creaky from the night before but not as bad as I had expected. I kept the pace right down and left out one of the big hills that I normally run on this route to keep the distance at 4 miles
Did some chin-up\core stuff in the evening - and thoroughly enjoyed eating for the rest of the night !

Tuesday

The plan for this evening was to run a 12 mile progression type run. In theory it would look something like: 4 miles easy, 3 miles steady, 3 miles hmp then back down to 2 miles easy to finish.
I'm dog-sitting in my dear pa pa's house for a few days and am a little out of my comfort zone - small things like not having the right music to start things off throw me a little, it shouldn't but it does. I did a few press-ups half heartedly anyway and trudged on out the door.
There was quite a breeze when I started off along the coast and I was struggling to find the mental motivation to get going at all so I decided to break it up into stages..run the 4 easy then call it. I got to the 4, having almost fallen asleep a few times and felt a little better so kicked on into the steady section
7:29
7:25
7:20
Halfway through this section I woke up and started to feel good about the run, tis a strange, strange thing this brain of mine!
I had planned the route so that the HMP section would start just as I reached the climb from the coast road up into Killbarrack\Raheny, I did have to work hard here to keep the pace up but tried to relax and focus on running rather than breathing.
The last HMP mile was tough but probably partly down to a bad case of male pride ( I stumbled across a whole bunch of people who were finishing the weekly 2 mile road race in Raheny - of course I ran faster than I should )
HMP section worked out as :
6.44
6.40
6.38
This brought me to the entrance of St Anne's where I took a quick breather then got going on a 2 mile warm down.
Good session and one that has me feeling a little more confident again.

Total for the day: 12

Duanington

21.08.2014


Wednesday

4 miles easy before work. I forced myself into bed early on Tuesday night to make sure I got 7+ hours sleep and it made this run much more enjoyable.

As always with recovery runs, I kept the watch at bay and ran at a conversational pace..actually I could probably have sang a song I was moving so slow but it was an enjoyable run around the cool trails in Citywest.


Thursday

No run in the AM as planned, instead I topped up the planned run this evening by a couple of miles.
Back at HQ tonight which means I have music again so I stuck on the tunes, did some core work\weights then headed off out into the rain for 8 easy miles.
The last two nights' sleep have been around 7.5 hours ( I would usually get around 6) which has definitely made the last two runs more enjoyable.
St Anne's was a hive of activity tonight, footballers going through the rigors of pre-season, dogs running amok in the dog playground, families out for their leisurely walks along the trails and teeny boppers skulling cans in the woods - ah Dublin

Total miles : 8 ( no idea of pace..8 something)

Duanington

23.08.2014


Friday

I had planned to rest on Friday but the house came to a standstill last night around 10ish , everyone was asleep, it was crisp and clear outside and the little wannabe runner inside got the better of me...off I went for 3 easy miles. Beautiful night for it, not a sinner around either which was odd.

Saturday

Frank Duffy 10 mile

I'd never raced 10 miles before today so I was a little unsure on how to approach pacing this one. To be honest, I was that unsure that I gave it very little thought and decided to just enjoy it and run as many sub 7 minute miles as possible - this would hopefully get me 6\7 miles close enough to the planned pace in Athlone in a few weeks and would leave me ok to keep running over the next few days too.

Up bright and early as always on race day, porridge, toast and peanut butter, tea, packed the bag and off to meet the bro in the park.

Got to the park before 9, parked up, dropped the bags off and we were free agents :-)
There is something very uplifting about race day in the Phoenix Park, the chatter of the gathering crowds, the music pumping from the road-hog and the sense of freedom the park itself brings- it is spectacular on race day, it gets me every time. An oasis within the City
We took in a couple of easy miles to warm up and made our way to the starting pen.
I was a little surprised to see such a big crowd - why I was surprised, I still don't know but even in the starting area I under-estimated the size of the crowd in front between us and the elite athletes ( which I later regretted). The announcer warned us over and over again about the climb over the past 1.5 miles which seemed to get people around us a little edgey but I know the park well at this stage and looking at the route during the week, there were plenty of friendly flat and downhill stretches to welcome us along the way too
Said hello to one or two familiar faces and we were off...running down Chesterfield Avenue, into the glorious sunshine. It became very clear, very early on that this was going to be a slow mile or so. Half a mile in and we were boxed right in, running at 7:30 - not ideal...I had planned to run the first 2 miles at 7.10 ish and then kick on.
We spent the next mile or so ducking and diving, bobbing and weaving...probably pi$$ing people off actually - it was a schoolboy error on my behalf.
I decided not to stress about it after the 1.5 mile mark, I knew I'd wasted enough energy already and the field would spread out anyway after a couple of miles.
Sure enough, just after the 2 mile mark around things began to open up a little and I started to up the pace to just below the 7 min\mile mark.
Up the North Road we flowed and I could see people turning right at the junction with Chesterfield ...heading back up to the u turn at the Castlenock gate. The heat was starting to pick up a little but I was feeling good. The miles were ticking along nicely at this stage and I was holding a good rhythm - not really paying too much notice to the watch, if I was coming in under 7 min\miles, I was happy. I knew I had lost a bit of time over the first 2 miles but figured I'd pick up a little on the downhill stretches ahead.

The second leg of the Chesterfield run was a hot affair, the sun was right in our faces now and had risen that little bit higher into the sky - the scene ahead did look quite amazing though, hundreds of runners streaming off down Chesterfield and into the depths of the park.
Turning at the monument onto the downhill stretch, I noticed that the field had become very thinly spread out and people around me were breathing very heavily. A quick status check had me a) breathing ok, moving well but mentally I was starting to slip a little - the consistency was giving a little...where once there was a little push in the step to keep things on target, there was now a tendency to relax a little and run with others. I snapped myself out of it by grabbing a quick cup of water at the next water station and throwing it over my head...upped the pace and came down the downhill stretch out onto Cunningham Road.
A half mile or so down Cunningham road and that feeling was back again....maybe it was the wind, maybe it was my mind playing tricks but the road ahead looked downhill and welcoming but felt anything but, I knew my pace was slowing and it was time to start digging in.
I put the head down and started to work that bit harder to keep things going, 2 miles to go and I was starting to hurt.
Leaving Cunningham Road and heading back into the Park, I had built up a fair bit of momentum and was starting to move up through the field again ( which I always find helps) , the sight of the climb ahead brought a collective groan from everyone around - maybe not an audible groan, more of a physical, body language type slumping of the shoulders. Head down, pump the arms and on we go.
I tend to work well on climbs these days, it hurt like hell today but the knowledge that we were closing in on the finish makes it that bit more bearable.
I moved past quite a few people on the way up the hill, offering gasping words of encouragement where I could - some people had packed it in and were walking at this stage ( which I found odd). A quick check of the watch told me that I was hovering around 7 min\mile coming towards the top of the climb - I was pleasantly surprised and this gave me a very welcome mental boost.
By the time we slipped passed the 9 mile marker I was breathing quite heavily and had my form had suffered a bit so I re-grouped mentally, decided to start upping the pace a little and make for home.
With .5 mile to go I landed myself between 2 club runners who looked to be having a bit of a ding dong, I was oblivious at first but noticed that one would make a charge ahead, the other would follow and they would both ease up a little and come back to me...this went on for a few hundred metres until someone shouted "400 to go lads, just a 400 metre rep to go"...I was feeling very good at this stage, running strong and tall, my breathing had recovered from the hill so I kicked on for home, moving past the two lads and on towards the finish area, people around me were kicking for home too though and I think I was overtaken once over the last 200 metres - this spurred me on a little and I found another gear to chase down the culprit !
I can't remember if I caught him but I did finish that last 200 metres quite fast, 1:10 something on the clock and a chip time of 1:09:49

I'm not sure what to think of the result - I was certainly tired at the end and worked very hard over certain sections of the course but I was recovered afterwards very quickly and felt that I had left a little out there, particularly over the first 2\3 miles.
A great day though and I really enjoyed the course - very fair and only the one real climb of note.
I left my watch in the bro's house today so can't upload the splits but I do remember that there were 3 miles of over 7 minutes and a couple too many around the 6:55 mark so it wasn't quite as consistent as I had hoped
BUT
I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is nothing like racing to bring out the best in ourselves and produce good sessions that stand to us in the future!

I've a fair bit of work to do between now and Athlone and not a whole lot of time to do it in, today's run almost gave me the confidence that I was hoping to get from a long HMP session.. but not quite - I'll hopefully get that over the next 10 days

1 mile easy to bring the total for the day to 13

Murph_D

Great stuff - enjoyed your description of ducking and diving which reminded me of my debut Frank Duffy a couple of years ago. Completely agree with you about Conyngham Road, although that might have something to do with its unfamiliarlty (why would we run the road when we have the park - makes no sense). Great time, well run.

Duanington

Murph_D wrote: »

Great stuff - enjoyed your description of ducking and diving which reminded me of my debut Frank Duffy a couple of years ago. Completely agree with you about Conyngham Road, although that might have something to do with its unfamiliarlty (why would we run the road when we have the park - makes no sense). Great time, well run.

"Conyngham Road" so that's how it's spelled

Cheers Murph_D - looks like you had a good day at the office today, congrats

FBOT01

Duanington wrote: »

"Conyngham Road" so that's how it's spelled

Cheers Murph_D - looks like you had a good day at the office today, congrats

I thought I saw you after the race but decided that auld age had me imagining things as I didn't think you were in for this one....I am not losing it afterall:)

Nice days work, D and good report.

Duanington

FBOT01 wrote: »

I thought I saw you after the race but decided that auld age had me imagining things as I didn't think you were in for this one....I am not losing it afterall:)

Nice days work, D and good report.

Cheers FBOT01 - should have given a holler, next time

Duanington

25.08.2014

Sunday

Thought about having a rest day but got my life stuff organised earlier than usual and the legs felt good so I trotted off for 4 easy miles on the coast. I found the fact that my legs were fine after the FD 10 mile on Sat a little disappointing but no point in dwelling on these things. Onwards and upwards and all that.
Squeezed in a few chin ups for the craic in the afternoon


Monday

A very, VERY busy day in the office left me bursting for a run as opposed to longing for a sleep which is usually the case so I spent 20 odd minutes doing some core work before heading out onto the windswept ( and can I say ..cold??) coast road. Ran 7x100 metre strides in St Anne's on the home stretch - not flat out but feeling good and running strong during the strides.
Total for the day 6.5 miles

ThebitterLemon

Hey DD,

What's the target for Athlone, you should smash your PB again.

Are you following a specific plan?

Saturday doesn't seem to have taken much out of you, I'd say you're getting in on this sandbagging lark in advance of Athlone

TbL

Duanington

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Hey DD,

What's the target for Athlone, you should smash your PB again.

Are you following a specific plan?

Saturday doesn't seem to have taken much out of you, I'd say you're getting in on this sandbagging lark in advance of Athlone

TbL

Howdie TbL - target is to go under 1:30 in Athlone, it feels like its maybe 2 or 3 weeks too soon for me at this stage but I'm looking forward to it all the same. ( Sandbagging for me is keeping races very very quiet )
Just following another makey-up plan as always, quite a lot of HMP miles dotted around the place and I'll see how it goes!

How are you feeling after Longford?

Duanington

26.08.2014


LSR night tonight - the plan was for 15 miles nice and easy with nothing too fancy.

I haven't ran up over Howth in quite a while so decided to go back to that route and test the system a little with the hills that go with it.

Straight out the door after getting home from work, no time for anything else. The wind was a bit of a factor at first but eased of nicely the closer I got to Howth. As always, the climb up to the summit got the lungs working but I didn't push the effort too much, I had settled into a nice rhythm and was enjoying the run so I didn't pay any real attention to the pace.

Coming back down into Howth, I was reminded of one of the reasons I find this run a bit of a mental challenge - the smell of salt\vinegar drenched chips is torture ! The stomach started rumbling from that point on and its probably no coincidence that the pace increased just a little

The wind had died down by the time I came back out onto the coast road and I was feeling nice and relaxed so I headed into St Anne's to take in another climb or two before heading home.

Felt good and tired at the end without being drained

Total miles: 15 @ 8:28 min\miles

Duanington

29.08.2014

Wednesday - off
Thursday - off

The work-life balance thing didn't go to well over Wednesday or Thursday which meant I had to knock running on the head. Bit of a bummer really because I had a session planned for Thursday that would have been a real tester. I had also hoped to have quite an intensive week ( relatively speaking) this week and ease things up from next week on.

Anyway, got back on the wagon tonight with some core work then out for 6 miles with 4 steady. As you would expect, the legs felt great after a couple of days off, I had really just planned to get 6 easy miles in but after a mile, I felt great so just upped the pace a little and got into a nice rhythm.
Steady section worked out as:

7:40
7:40
7:32
7:20 ( got carried away a bit here obviously)

Nice night for it actually, even with the wind on the coast.

I'll run some easy miles with strides tomorrow and then have to decide on whether to run mile repeats on Sunday or a straightforward tempo run.
I would have just gone with repeats if the week had gone as planned but that hasn't happened which presents a conundrum !

Glad to be back at it

ThebitterLemon

Hey DD,

How's J's DCM training going? Are you get any marathon envy pangs!!

It's a bummer when the job get in the way of a jog!

TbL

Duanington

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Hey DD,

How's J's DCM training going? Are you get any marathon envy pangs!!

It's a bummer when the job get in the way of a jog!

TbL

He's flying at the minute but he's away for a week from tomorrow so I suspect there'll be little or no running done till he gets back!

I have to admit to a little bit of envy alright, its not quite regret yet but its early days !

Its a bummer when work gets in the way and its probably un-natural how pi$$ed off it makes me ( and others I'm sure!) ha ha

You're in fine form these days TbL - keep it up, very impressive stuff happening down wesht

Duanington

31.08.2014

Saturday

5 miles easy bright and early before breakfast. Once again the legs felt in good shape but I resisted the urge to do anything other than easy miles.
Out the coast and back, bit of a breeze as is the norm , bit of a pain but those warm summer memories are fading fast!
Ran 6x100 strides during the 3rd mile.
Chin ups in the PM - a decent session for the first time in yonks


Sunday

I was debating whether to run 4x1 mile repeats or a 6 mile temp tonight...spent most of the day chewing over it and in the end I did neither :pac::pac:
I had this idea for a session a while back and decided to give it a bash tonight;

The plan was to run 1.5 warmup then run 3x2 mile tempo sections, structured as follows;

Section 1: 2 miles@ tempo pace
.5 mile easy
Section 2: 2 miles : 10k pace ( through a hill section)
.5 mile easy
Section 3: 2 miles @ hmp
Warm down

I had hoped to trick myself into thinking\feeling that HMP miles are a piece of pi$$ by running this section last, hoping that I would "relax" back into that section after a tough middle 2 miles.


Splits went as follows ;

Section1: 6.33, 6.34
Section2:6.23, 6.24
Section3: 6.54, 6.45

While Section 2 was largely uphill and definitely the toughest in terms of terrain and pace, I found the start of Section 3 a lot tougher than I had hoped. When the watch beeped for the first split, I was immediately thrown by the slower split time and sulked for minute or two...I did, however snap out of it and kick on into St Anne's park ( where I ran the final mile in the pitch dark along the main avenue - creepy) and got back into a good rhythm.

Ran a mile easy to finish and bring the total to 9.5

Tough session and one with 5 good miles out of 6.

Duanington

03.09.2014


Monday - rest

Tuesday - 12.5 miles easy. Not quite an LSR but still long enough to leave me tired at the end. In fact, a good bit more tired than I would normally feel on these runs, maybe Sunday's session was a bit tougher than I thought because I felt fine on Monday.
Nice route for this one, down the coast, through east wall, Fairview, Collins Ave, Drumcondra, Beaumont, Artane then home - ran through a few spots that I'd never ran through before so I enjoyed this one.

Wednesday - 4 miles easy before work, nice run around Citywest as usual. These runs are dreadful for the first 2 minutes then super enjoyable for the rest, there's a lot to be said for arriving to your desk after an early morning run.

Athlone is a week and a bit away now and I'm starting to think that the lower mileage just isn't for me, in fact - I know it isn't. I'm glad I tried it though and there's no point in changing anything between now and the day itself, I've two more hmp sessions planned and the rest will be easy peasy with just some strides thrown in, if nothing else, I'll arrive fresh as a daisy on the day and take it from there.

yaboya1

What are you targeting in Athlone D?
1:27/1:28?

Duanington

yaboya1 wrote: »

What are you targeting in Athlone D?
1:27/1:28?

That was the plan a few weeks back alright Yaboya1 - I'm a little less confident now though so I'm just aiming to come in under 1:30. If I do that, I'll be happy - if the day goes well, maybe I'll be very happy!

Duanington

04.04.2014

Nipped home in no time after work this evening for some reason but still felt shattered after a busy day in the office - didn't hang around when I got home because I knew if I sat down I'd be a gonner.

Stuck on some tunes ( Jurassic 5 - new album, great stuff) and started some press-ups to break the ice on proceedings, still tired heading about but I know if I dwell on these things I find an excuse so I got on with it.

The plan for tonight was for 8 miles with [EMAIL="4@hmp"]4@hmp[/EMAIL] - not the most taxing session on paper but I wasn't looking forward to it.

Took in 2 miles easy on the coast road, down towards east point, turned around and got started on the HMP section ( into the p*xy wind:mad:) , I felt a lot better by the time I started the faster section but it was still feeling harder than it should have, the effort wasn't matching the pace on the watch at all.
First mile was 6:50 - a little slower than I had planned ( I was aiming for in and around 6:45) but no biggie, I kicked on and started to feel a little better over miles 2 and 3, my breathing settled and I was starting to enjoy the run. Towards the end of mile 4, I started to fade a little - again, nothing major it just felt tougher than I would expect it to.

Miles 2,3,4 worked out as 6:44, 6:42 and 6:36 ( a little fast and maybe explains why it didn't feel as comfortable as I expected)

Finished off with 2 miles easy back towards home , bringing the total to 8

A decent little session with a few more hmp miles in the legs, while the effort was a bit more than I would have hoped for, I have been tired and a little run down the past couple of days. Nothing a few good nights' sleep won't sort out hopefully

Duanington

05.09.2014


5 recovery miles before work this morning. Beautiful morning for it too, I was in bed early last night and up and about fresh as a daisy at stupid o'clock this morning ( feeling much more energetic than in recent days)

Chose the bumpy route around Citywest this morning, simply because the legs felt good but kept the pace right down at the same time.

A little bit of work on the chin up bar later and that'll be me for the day

Total miles: 5@ 8:40 min\mile

Duanington

07.09.2014

Saturday - Plan had 4 miles easy which was heaven sent as I had a couple of beers on Friday night for the first time in ages - left me feeling fairly fragile yesterday morning. First mile was painful, 2nd mile less so and the others felt great. By the end I was gunning for a good feed and the hangover was banished

Sunday - the plan was for 8 miles with 5 of these @steady pace, steady being somewhere around the 7:20\7:30 mark.
Another perfect night for running out there, Dublin bay was calmly bathing itself under a beautiful moonlit sky, nice gentle breeze and mild without being warm at all.
Started off with a mile easy then got straight into the steady section, I love these runs - tipping along at a decent pace without pushing too hard or worrying too much about splits etc..

I felt great over the first few miles, 7.
23, 7.21, 7.18, legs felt good, breathing was spot on and the run itself was just one of those enjoyable runs. I found that I had to put the breaks on actually a few times, mindful of the fact that Athlone is closing in and I definitely run best on well rested legs. HOWEVER, the watch beeped for the 4th mile ( 7.19) and I was still full of beans , I decided to ramp it up a bit and just embrace the good vibes! Moved fairly quickly into a fast pace and kept going for the rest of the mile - 5:52.
I would normally stick to my plans fairly rigidly but I felt good tonight and have decided to drop a planned HMP session on Tuesday because I don't think I've anything to gain from it with only a few days to go - I'll run a few steady miles if I feel good, otherwise it'll be easy from here on in.

2 miles easy to finish off and bring the total to 8 for the night.

Now to catch up on the multitude of updates on here, some great running over the weekend by the looks of things

Duanington

09.09.2014

Monday - no running, just some core work

Tuesday - a few minutes on the chin up bar then out for 7 easy miles along the seafront. Perfect evening for a run\stroll and the crowds were out in force.
Really enjoyed this run, legs felt good and there is a beautiful full moon out there too tonight.

Threw in 6x strides towards the end

Total miles: 7

Duanington

11.09.2014

Wednesday

Getting home late meant a later than planned run but it was once again under a spectacular moon. 4 miles easy along the seafront, beautiful night for it again.
No strides, legs felt good though - rest day today and I'll do some easy miles again tomorrow.

outforarun

Best of luck tomorrow D.

Tom Joad

Best of luck tomorrow - hopefully will catch up with you there.