Confessions of a never has been.....

SamforMayo

Are you sure your pain is toothache? I ask because you mention the stuffed head. I had a sinus infection last year and was driven demented with pain in my teeth. I had nt connected the 2 until a trip to the doctors. Hope you are on the mend soon.

Duanington

SamforMayo wrote: »

Are you sure your pain is toothache? I ask because you mention the stuffed head. I had a sinus infection last year and was driven demented with pain in my teeth. I had nt connected the 2 until a trip to the doctors. Hope you are on the mend soon.

You're probably onto something there SFM, thanks - its not my tooth as much as the general jaw area, a good bit better today after drugging myself and an epic sleep last night. I'll see how I feel later but I'll only run if I genuinely feel ok to do it.

Duanington

12.01.2015

After a few drugs and a whopper sleep, I woke up this morning feeling much better but not yet convinced that I would run this evening. I brought the gear into work with me and decided to see how I felt at home time. Ate well throughout the day and I generally felt a lot better than I have, still a tickly cough but still a lot better than before.
I decided to chance a run home and see how I got on.
Perfect night for it really, nice and calm, no real breeze and the air was nice and cool. After the 4 miles to the house, I dropped the backpack off and went on for another 3 easy miles.

Hopefully that's it now for the rest of the winter, I don't get colds\flus very often and I'm not a very good patient when I do !

Total for the day: 7 @ 8.23 min\mile

Duanington

13.01.2015

14 miles with 6 @ steady

After a nightmarish day at the office, a long run was just what the doctor ordered ( and what the plan presented, more importantly). The brief flurries of snow had cleared by the time I left the office this evening thankfully but there was a serious bite to the wind as I headed off from the office.
I ran the first 4 miles nice and easy, dropped off the backpack and jacket ( threw on a long sleeved top though) and quickly got back to it.
The steady section took me up towards Howth, turning in at Bladoyle, back down through Donaghmede and Raheny then home again. I like this route, there are a few bumps along the way and the wind can be rough enough in sections but it skipped along nicely tonight, despite the freezing cold.

My cold hands struggled to turn the key in the door when I got home, had to use the aul 2nd hand to get the door open, hard as nails me !

Splits worked out as:

8.23
8.20
8.25
8.27
8.10
7.20
7.17
7.11
7.16
7.23
7.22
8.07
8.05
8.10

Total miles: 14

A few light weights to finish off the session

Duanington

15.01.2015

Wednesday

Brought the gear with me to work, got changed and headed off out into the wind and the rain. I like running in the rain, I think most runners do but when you throw the wind into the equation, its a whole new kettle of fish - I hate it.
Made the 4 miles home nice and easy then tagged on 2 more miles, passed Raheny ( I think) doing their sessions on the grass at the seafront, fair play to them, there was a good crowd there battling the elements.
Finished off with 6 very easy slow miles ( legs felt good after the long run the previous night)

Thursday

Session day today, the plan was to repeat last week's session but to change the recoveries around ( jogged instead of walk\jog)

10x400 metres w\200m recoveries

The wind was stupidly strong down on the "track" for this one, there were times where I found myself working far too hard for a session like this and not enough times when I had the wind at my back!
The net result was that I didn't get the nice clean consistent reps that I was after, they are all over the place really but the effort was there to make it a good session.

Reps
1.22
1.25
1.22
1.21
1.24
1.21
1.23
1.26
1.25
1.23

Total miles including warmup and cooldown: 6.5

P_Fitz

Duanington wrote: »

I like running in the rain, I think most runners do

!!!!!! Jaysus I'm definitely not most runners

Duanington

P_Fitz wrote: »

!!!!!! Jaysus I'm definitely not most runners

Light drizzle then?!

Duanington

16.01.2015

Once again, brought the gear to work this morning, took the bus in and planned to run home, tagging on a couple of extra miles for good measure.

We had a crowd in giving a talk to the runners group that we have in the office last night which I couldn't get to but the presentation they gave was knocking around the place, some interesting stuff in there with regards to easy pace running and diet in particular - I say interesting but to be honest, its nothing that you wouldn't pick up from reading through some of the logs here which once again shows what a great resource this forum is. I had a good scan through the presentation over a cup of tea, took in the bits I already know and ignored the sciencey stuff that looked too hard form my brain to grasp.
I'll give that a go over the weekend!

Anyway, back to the running - nothing special tonight, legs felt good after yesterday's session so I ran the 4 easy miles and dropped off the backpack to run 2 more easy miles. On the way around my 2 mile loop, I got chatting to another dude out running ( coming up the hill from the coast road into Raheny), very nice guy and as happens when you get chatting, I forgot about the 2 miles and ended up running another 4.
Finished off with a core session at home.
Lovely night for a run out there, I'm off to the US tomorrow ( west coast) with work so I'll most likely have to take a rest day but I'm hoping to get out most days while I'm over there.
Just checked the forecast for the next few days ( for Ireland) - mind those footpaths people!!

Total for the day : 8

Duanington

18.01.2015 ( in this time zone)

A day of travelling yesterday put to bed any ideas I had of sneaking out for a few miles, by the time I got to San Francisco, it was late, I was dehydrated and verrry tired.
My head\stomach is still on European time obviously so after I woke up at silly o'clock starving, with the restaurant in the hotel not opening until 7:30 and no food in the room, I went down to the gym, did a few weights then headed out for 4 easy miles - there is a small map at reception with suggestions on various running routes in the area so I gave one a go.

Back for a breakfast to beat all breakfasts then I tried in vain to get some sleep
A few hours reading\watching American football was a nice way to spend most of the day and left me nice and refreshed by the time run number 2 came around.
Plan for tonight was:
10x30 second hills sprints + 1-2-4-2-1 Fartlek ( 5k pace, 50% recovery in between)

After running a few easy miles dodging the gangs of squirrels around the place, I had no problem finding a rather large hill for the first piece, there were kids having great craic free wheeling their bikes down the hill and hitting serious speeds by the time they got to the bottom. ( lots of shouts of encouragement from the kids too when I got started - lots of shouts of "great job mister" ..wouldn't get much of that in Dublin!)

Reps were tough and I worked very hard to keep the pace right through each rep . I was shattered by the end, my little crew of cheerleaders had gotten bored and freewheeled off somewhere else and left me to my own devices.
After an easy mile to take the jelly feeling out of the legs, I got started on the fartlek section - I didn't look at the watch for pace on this section but wanted to hold 5k effort for each section, the 4 minute section was a killer towards the end and I was glad to get back to the 2 then 1 minute sections

Average paces worked out as

Hill reps: all between 5:46 and 6:00

Fartlek: 5.56, 6:00, 5:59, 6:01, 5:56

Ran a few easy miles in the dark to bring the total to 11 miles

Shattered and sweating at the end but delighted with the effort.

Total for the day: 15

cianc

Seriously impressive session, especially on the back of jet lag. TbL would be proud.

FBOT01

Serious Kudos, D. That looks like a great session and the farleks reps are very consistent given you were doing them on effort rather than the watch.

PS I often get shout outs from the young folk of DNS and they have in the past provided me with the necessary encouragement to keep the pace going:D

Duanington

cianc wrote: »

Seriously impressive session, especially on the back of jet lag. TbL would be proud.

Cheers Cian - Although we both know that TbL would have been gotten the few sly miles in as soon as he stepped off the plane - he has it down to a fine art!

Duanington

FBOT01 wrote: »

Serious Kudos, D. That looks like a great session and the farleks reps are very consistent given you were doing them on effort rather than the watch.

PS I often get shout outs from the young folk of DNS and they have in the past provided me with the necessary encouragement to keep the pace going:D

I suppose you're right there M - a shout-out is a shout-out, regardless of content

Duanington

20.1.2015

AM - up very early again this morning but with the sun not rising until 7ish here and my knowledge of the local routes non existent, I decided to have breakfast first then wait an hour or so before heading out. Got out after a fine feed for 4 recovery miles, I must have passed 50 squirrels on the route, TbL would have had a melt down given his recent encounter with a lone squirrel in the UK. ( there were black ninja-like squirrels out this morning, stealth like).
Took it very handy on this one, the legs were tender from yesterday ( a combination of the session and a lot of walking)
Splits were as follows:

9.07
9.12
9.08
9.03

PM - got out of work a little earlier than expected so I took the chance to run while the sun was still out, found the first couple of miles tough enough but settled into a nice rhythm after that, ended up near enough to Stanford University then made my way back through a nice park into Palo Alto - really nice area and an enjoyable run.

Splits

8.37
8.37
8.21
8.04
8.02
8.07
8.01
4.20 ( .5 mile)

7.5 miles total

Stretching afterwards, some corework and pressups and now I'm off for a feed and perhaps a couple of beers :-)

Total for the day : 11.5

Duanington

20.01.2015

No run this morning, although I was wide awake at 5 am yet again so went down for breakfast as soon as they started serving in the hotel. I seem to be hungrier and hungrier each morning, the staff in the restaurant gave a few double takes as I went back and forth to the buffet - as mammy D would say " that youngfella's hollow"

Busy but a very good day at the office, lots of meetings, pressing the flesh etc - when I got back to the hotel the sun had gone down which would have made it tricky to run tonight's session:

8 miles with 5 tempo ([EMAIL="1@steady"]1@steady[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="1@hmp"]1@hmp[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="1@tempo"]1@tempo[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="1@10kpace"]1@10kpace[/EMAIL], [EMAIL="1@tempo"]1@tempo[/EMAIL] pace).
I couldn't chance running this on the "sidewalk" because a) I don't know my way too well and b) there are too many places where you have to cross the road which is not the easiest thing to do in California! Off I trudged to the gym and the waiting dreadmill :-(

I hate the threadmill, I always have and I always will - I had President Obama for company on this - giving his state of the union address.

1 hour later and I found myself dripping with sweat but safe in the knowledge that America has turned the page, the economy is growing at its fastest rate since 1999 and that Republicans really do sit on their hands when the Democrat side of the house give 435 standing ovations during the Presidents address, I thought it was a figure of speech :pac:

No idea of the splits but I finished off with 20 minutes core work ( then went for a Chinese )

Total miles: 8

ThebitterLemon

Hey DD, you must have been doing the dog on it at the breakfast counter if the Yanks were doing double takes!

You're going well over there on the running and eating front.

How long are you there, if you're there much longer you'll need a gastric band

TbL

Duanington

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Hey DD, you must have been doing the dog on it at the breakfast counter if the Yanks were doing double takes!

You're going well over there on the running and eating front.

How long are you there, if you're there much longer you'll need a gastric band

TbL

Howdie C - yeah, I'm a big eater normally anyway but for some reason I'm out-doing myself here.
I'm here until next Tuesday, there's a couple of busy days ahead but I'm hoping I can still sneak out for runs...then stuff my gob afterwards:D

Duanington

24.01.2015


Wednesday - long drive after work to a place called Chico where I had meetings lined up for a couple of days, it was late by the time we got there and it was straight to bed - no running :-(

Thursday, up at stupid o'clock and with the knowledge that I was heading out for dinner with the crew from the local office later, I took the chance to get out for 4 easy miles. It was f-f-f-freezing and dark but I stumbled around the streets and found a nice little 4 mile loop ( as in, I ran in a straight line, turned around and ran back.

4 miles total

Friday

AM - no time for a run so I did some core work\pressups before work.

PM - back to Palo Alto but I arrived to the hotel a little earlier than I expected so got the gear on and went straight out the door for 8 easy miles.
Nice route on this , through a local park and then into some squeaky clean business parks, it was dark coming back through the park which was a little eerie - the park runs parallel to a HUGE graveyard.

Total miles: 8 @ 8:14 min\miles


Saturday

I had a lie in this morning and woke when the sun came blazing in my hotel bedroom window, the place is pretty stunning in the sunshine. I had been looking forward to today all week, having a bit of time to myself to run a session without having to rush back for work etc..

I had noticed a track at a local high school near the park I have been running through so I decided to head down there after breakfast and see if it was open to the public.
After a few easy miles, I arrived at the track and was delighted to see it open to the public. In fact, there was a great game of what I can only call "frisbie" taking place on the grass in the middle of the track, 7v7 one frisbie, the aim to either catch a throw from your team mate or intercept a throw from your opponent...looked like good craic.

The plan for today was:

4x400 ( 200 jogged recovery)
4x600 ( 300 walked recovery)
4x150 ( 60 second standing recovery)

By the time I got to the track, heat was most definitely an issue so I decided to lengthen the rest between each set to 4 minutes ( from 2).

Splits worked out as

400s ( target 1:22)
1:21
1:21
1:21
1:21

600s (target 2:10..more like 5k pace as opposed to 3k)
2:09
2:10
2:10
2:05

150s ( target 27(ish)
29
27
27
25
26 ( The sun obviously has me a bit dozey, I ran a 5th rep on these)

I was fairly wiped out by the end of this, it was approaching mid-day and the sun was quite strong so after a couple of easy miles to warm down, I retreated my pasty irish self to the safety of my hotel room

Total : 8.5 miles


Best of luck to anyone racing Raheny tomorrow, 2nd year in a row I've missed it!

ThebitterLemon

Duanington wrote: »

24.01.2015


Wednesday - long drive after work to a place called Chico where I had meetings lined up for a couple of days, it was late by the time we got there and it was straight to bed - no running :-(

Thursday, up at stupid o'clock and with the knowledge that I was heading out for dinner with the crew from the local office later, I took the chance to get out for 4 easy miles. It was f-f-f-freezing and dark but I stumbled around the streets and found a nice little 4 mile loop ( as in, I ran in a straight line, turned around and ran back.

4 miles total

Friday

AM - no time for a run so I did some core work\pressups before work.

PM - back to Palo Alto but I arrived to the hotel a little earlier than I expected so got the gear on and went straight out the door for 8 easy miles.
Nice route on this , through a local park and then into some squeaky clean business parks, it was dark coming back through the park which was a little eerie - the park runs parallel to a HUGE graveyard.

Total miles: 8 @ 8:14 min\miles


Saturday

I had a lie in this morning and woke when the sun came blazing in my hotel bedroom window, the place is pretty stunning in the sunshine. I had been looking forward to today all week, having a bit of time to myself to run a session without having to rush back for work etc..

I had noticed a track at a local high school near the park I have been running through so I decided to head down there after breakfast and see if it was open to the public.
After a few easy miles, I arrived at the track and was delighted to see it open to the public. In fact, there was a great game of what I can only call "frisbie" taking place on the grass in the middle of the track, 7v7 one frisbie, the aim to either catch a throw from your team mate or intercept a throw from your opponent...looked like good craic.

The plan for today was:

4x400 ( 200 jogged recovery)
4x600 ( 300 walked recovery)
4x150 ( 60 second standing recovery)

By the time I got to the track, heat was most definitely an issue so I decided to lengthen the rest between each set to 4 minutes ( from 2).

Splits worked out as

400s ( target 1:22)
1:21
1:21
1:21
1:21

600s (target 2:10..more like 5k pace as opposed to 3k)
2:09
2:10
2:10
2:05

150s ( target 27(ish)
29
27
27
25
26 ( The sun obviously has me a bit dozey, I ran a 5th rep on these)

I was fairly wiped out by the end of this, it was approaching mid-day and the sun was quite strong so after a couple of easy miles to warm down, I retreated my pasty irish self to the safety of my hotel room

Total : 8.5 miles


Best of luck to anyone racing Raheny tomorrow, 2nd year in a row I've missed it!

No food updates, thought you had drowned in the potato salad ar the all you can eat buffet

TbL

Duanington

ha ha TbL - to be honest, its just been more of the same, eat as much good stuff as I can at breakfast because I KNOW the rest of the day is going to be a disaster in terms of nutrition !

Although I found a lovely Indian restaurant last night, that was worth the walk ( 30 minutes each way)

Duanington

25.01.2015

Having decided against running a few easy miles last night, I decided to get breakfast early this morning and give myself an hour or so before heading out for 5\6 recovery miles.
After another fantastic feed, I skulked back to the room to watch some high quality American morning TV for an hour or so :rolleyes:

THe plan was to head out for 5\6 this morning and depending on how I felt tonight, head out and run the same again.
After heading off towards what has become my usual route through a park just west of the hotel, the legs were actually feeling quite good - certainly better than I had expected. The sun was starting to heat up but it was just after 9 am and there was a nice breeze coming in from the coast that kept things civil, after 3 or so easy miles, I reached my turn-for-home point.....then I spotted a road that I hadn't really explored yet. It actually ran alongside a massive HP office and had a few too many hills ( San Fran style) for my liking but the sun was shining, I was feeling good and I had time on my side so I decided to tag on another mile or so. Once I ran to the end of the road ( climbing a monstrous hill in the process), the most beautiful, stereotypical Californian landscape came into view....rolling hills, horses in meadows, hawks or eagles of some sort soaring in the sky over the hills - and a trail of some description cutting and winding its way right through the lot. The sun was heating up a little at this stage but buoyed on by the sight of a few cyclists taking off into the trails, I thought "f*ck it, I might never get this chance again" and off I went !
The trail in question was actually a bike track, I climbed along the perfectly smooth surface for about a mile before it came to a T junction, right for more smooth stuff and away from the hills or left for a rough trail and up into the hills - of course I went left and bounded off into the landscape, the trail hugged the outer rim of one hill in particular, wrapping itself around the mound and allowing me to just about manage the climb - it was incredibly tough at times though!
When I eventually got to the top, I was greeted with one of the most amazing views I have ever seen- the while Bay area spread out in front of me, the mountains behind me, praire dogs ( or gophers - I don't know what they were), rabbits, eagles, some purple looking sparrow-type bird all within sight, really breathtaking stuff. The massive satellite dish at Stanford University was maybe .5 mile away but I had no clear trail over that direction.
I toyed with the idea of running through the woodland but I got a bad case of "lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" and turned back for home.
Coming back down from the hills was just as impressive, I ran into a couple of walkers and runners who were on their way up - no "hellos" out of them, Yaboya would NOT be happy, I didn't mind though, I was in top form at this stage and was ignoring the fact that I was most likely shredding my thighs on the way down the hills and with yesterday's session in there already, tomorrow could be a stiff affair.
Made my way back down into the Palo Alto business district, back through the park, more runners - dozens of them. The track from yesterday was PACKED with people out doing drills.
Got back to the hotel to bring the total to 12.9 miles in 1:46...so much for 6 easy miles !

After lunch, watching a hilariously dubbed version of Rambo ( language not safe enough for US kids before the watershed, no problem with the blood and guts though!) and a bit of reading, I went to the gym for some weights and core work, then headed off for 3.1 verrry easy miles - well into the recovery zone to try and wash out the legs a bit.
I still think I'm gonna pay for this tomorrow!

Total miles for the day: 16

cianc

Any chance of a garmin route or similar? Gonna be in that part of the world in a few weeks and my runs there have always been rather dull.

Duanington

cianc wrote: »

Any chance of a garmin route or similar? Gonna be in that part of the world in a few weeks and my runs there have always been rather dull.

Here you go Cian , lots of other nice looking trails around that area too

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/682515045/0?lang=en

cianc

Cheers for that. I'm staying at the north end of Castro, so only a few clicks away from your starting point.

Duanington

cianc wrote: »

Cheers for that. I'm staying at the north end of Castro, so only a few clicks away from your starting point.

Looks like there's another nice trail not too far from where you're staying

( Stephens creek trail)

cianc

Duanington wrote: »

Looks like there's another nice trail not too far from where you're staying

( Stephens creek trail)

Yeah, I've run that a bit, but it doesn't have horses, hills, or eagles, just a bit of swamp at the end

Duanington

cianc wrote: »

Yeah, I've run that a bit, but it doesn't have horses, hills, or eagles, just a bit of swamp at the end

ha ha ha - maps can be deceptive I suppose!

Duanington

01.02.2015

Busy week all round with travelling, getting back to work\the real world and trying to get my head around this jet lag business - lying awake until stupid o'clock and craving a nap in the afternoon. Although I did use those seemingly endless sleepless hours catching up on a lot of the training logs on boards, a lot of good work happening out there at the moment all over the shop!

So to the running

Monday

Last day in the US office and it so happened that one of the new girls that had arrived for training was staying near my hotel, we had arranged to meet for dinner that evening and I mentioned that I just needed to go for a quick run before eating - she asked if she could tag along which suited me just fine. 6 easy miles flew by with chit chat about cars, guns, horses and ranches ( all hers!), the pace was a little slower than I would normally tip along at but after leaving my running buddy after 4 miles, I got 2.5 more in at a slightly quicker pace

Total miles: 6.5

Tuesday

I had to travel via train to San Francisco Airport ( roughly 1 hour from my hotel) which left me a little tight for time so I squeezed in 4 easy miles just after my last Stateside buffet breakfast ( I miss them already, not sure the staff miss me though). Legs were strangely tired and lacking any real energy on this one, I had a couple of glasses of wine the previous night ( nothing to write home about though) and I don't sleep very well with alcohol taken so maybe this was the cause, either way - the net result was a lazy 4 easy miles

Wednesday - no running, had myself down for a rest day anyway which was just as well. No sleep on the plane meant I was in the twilight zone all day ( flew out at 3 PM the previous day, landed at 1:30 PM)

Thursday - fell asleep at 10 pm the previous night and woke at 3 pm - having to drag myself out of bed. Session cancelled, I know my body well at this stage and I just needed a day to relax, I could easily have turned around and slept another few hours but I got up and went about rescuing the second half of my day

Friday -

AM - zero sleep the night before, zero...none, not a minute! I read Mo Farah's book which was interesting but by 06:30 I knew the game was up so I got ready and ran into the office for breakfast - 4 miles

PM - I held it together quite well throughout the day so said I'd chance the run home which was actually quite pleasant , my legs felt very fresh on both morning and evening runs. - 4 miles


Total for the day: 8 miles

Saturday

AM - A very nice night's sleep meant that I woke feeling much fresher than I had all week, headed out before breakfast for some easy miles. I usually head through St Anne's on a Saturday morning to take in a little bit of the park run course, there's always a nice buzz down there and as usual, there was a very sizeable crowd taking part. Finished off with a few more miles on the coast to take the total to 7.5
Good core session in the evening to end the day

Sunday

Not a great night's sleep last night but not the worst either so I think I'm back to a somewhat normal pattern.
The plan for tonight was to run 4x1 mile reps @ 5k pace ( 5 minutes jogged recovery).

I like these sessions, I think they give a good indication as to where you are fitness wise, I often run these at 10k pace too just to get an idea of how I feel over the last mile and to see if I can keep the reps consistent .

I know my 5k pace is somewhere around 5:55\6:00 at the moment but I didn't want to be a slave to the watch tonight, I wanted to run each rep at an effort that I could potentially run a 5k race at ( rather than checking the watch every few hundred yards)
Perfect night for this session out on the coast, the bicycle lane is a gift when the conditions are right, all nice and flat and straight for the majority of each mile rep.

Reps worked out as:
5:46
5:46
5:40
5:40

I have to say, I was surprised at the end of the first rep, it looked a little quick to me but the effort felt right, it was tough going but it did feel like I could hold on and complete a 5k at that effort, the cold air was very refreshing too though and that certainly helped.
I had a puff of headwind for the 2nd and 4th rep - and to be honest, the 4th rep was very tough over the first half...strangely I felt more relaxed over the second half and finished blowing hard but feeling strong.

Ran 1.5 miles warmup and cool down to bring the total to 8.5 miles - would have liked a few more easy miles either side but I was a little stuck for time.

Total for the day: 8.5

Good finish to a messy week, that was a tough session but one which gives a little confidence for the months ahead.

ThebitterLemon

Wondered where you'd gotten to, thought the buffet police might have deported you

Savage mile reps, I'd like to think I'll get there some day.

You're flying

TbL

Duanington

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Wondered where you'd gotten to, thought the buffet police might have deported you

Savage mile reps, I'd like to think I'll get there some day.

You're flying

TbL

Sure they'd never catch me C

I think the lower mileage this week certainly contributed to the pace tonight, I doubt I'd get near that with the miles you put in this week - tis starting to shape up nicely for you