Confessions of a never has been.....

paddybarry

Great report, you are making huge progress. Well done.

skeleton_boy

Great work, smashing time. Well done

FBOT01

Excellent report and performance, D. What's next on the agenda?

AuldManKing

great work - super performance and you're right - its no fluke.

Duanington

FBOT01 wrote: »

Excellent report and performance, D. What's next on the agenda?

Thanks M - 5k up next, haven't picked one yet so it could well be St Anne's in a couple of weeks :-)

walshb

Superb 10 k time, D! A lot of improvement in 16 months.

Duanington

10.03.2015

Monday

AM - a very slow and easy run into work, my legs were tired but not sore on this one thankfully. Got into work nice and early and got some stretching in.

PM - Heading out to the southside for dinner so I had to get a little creative on this one. To run the full distance would have been 9 miles and 9 fairly hilly miles at that, which would have been too much for the day given that I have a fairly tough week ahead...in the end, I compromised and ran 5.5 miles to a DART station ( somewhere out past Blackrock) and commuted the rest of the way :-)

Total miles for the day : 9.5


Tuesday

No run this morning as today is usually long(ish) run day , I had myself down for 17 miles for some reason on the plan. I suspect this was an oversight on my behalf though, I changed this week around about a month ago when I decided on race schedules and possibly neglected to shorten the long run this week accordingly.
No matter, I reduced the distance to 13 miles which seemed like a distance that would still give me that long run stimulus without draining the legs too much given that they are probably already a little drained from Sunday ( and I have 2 tough quicker sessions later in the week)

Enjoyed this one, ran from work to home, dropped the backpack ( and grabbed my gloves!) then ran to Baldoyle along the coast, up into Donaghmede, down into Raheny then home. The legs are still a little tired so I just dropped the pace a tad and ran nice and relaxed.

Finished off with some stretching and press-ups at home.

13 miles @ 8.21 min\mile

RedRunner

Great performance at the weekend D.

FBOT01

Duanington wrote: »

Thanks M - 5k up next, haven't picked one yet so it could well be St Anne's in a couple of weeks :-)

Excellent. I'll keep me eye out for you so.

Duanington

12.03.2015


Wednesday


AM - a very slow run into work, the conditions were dreadful for this - p*xy wind couldn't make its mind up which way it was blowing.
Energy levels were a little low and the temptation was there to get the bus but sure I would have had to walk from the bus stop anyway ( and get drenched in the process) so I threw the gear on and got going.

4 miles @ 8.32 min\mile


PM - Conditions were slightly better for this one, although the wind was still acting the maggot. Ran home from work along my usual route, dropped off the rucksack and tagged on 2 more miles. Legs felt a lot better on this one than they did earlier in the day

6 miles@ 8.12 min\mile

Total for the day: 10


Thursday

Session day today, plan called for 6x800 metres with 60 second recovery.

To be honest, I had no idea how this would go - I haven't done 800m reps in a long time but need to get some in over the next few weeks.

I started off with some corework and weightless weights ( what?!) at home - which is basically a concept where you go through all the motions of lifting weights but without the actual weights, activate the muscle, do the lifting\dropping motion ...all without weights. I've no choice but to do it, I hurt my wrist lifting a TV off a wall a few weeks back and have to rest it for a couple of more weeks. A boxer friend of mine showed me some drills to try a few weeks back and I have to say, its not as easy as it sounds!

Anyway, got started with a warmup along the coast at lunchtime, headed into St Anne's just in time for the heavens to open

Got started on the reps with the aim to hit somewhere between 2.55-3.00 for each one and maybe go a little quicker over the last if I felt good.

Reps worked out as:

2.57
2.57
2.58
2.57
2.52
2.45

I found the first 2 quite tough, felt quite strong on the middle 2 then started to hurt a little on the last 2. Still - very happy with the pace\times for each one.

Finished with a shorter than planned warm down to bring the total to 6 miles.

Good session.

I had planned to head out tonight but ran out of time so canned the idea and I'll get some sleep instead

Duanington

15.03.2015


Friday


AM - first morning in a while where I've really thought it was the perfect morning for running, glad to be up early and out in the fresh morning. I took my time on this one, even if the legs felt fine - I always have the temptation to run too quick with the backpack on so consciously slowed down a few times and cruised by the traffic on the way to the office :-)

PM - Again, perfect conditions but this time I had to put the skates on a bit as I was running well behind by the time I got out of the office. I suspect I ran this a little quicker than I really should have but again, the legs felt fine all the way.
Kept both runs to the grass where possible

8 miles for the day ( no watch)


Saturday

Up early again to get this one in, the plan for today was a tempo\progression run.

3 steady
2-hp
1-tempo

With some easy miles either side

Got started with an easy mile on the coast with the wind at my back...all nice and pleasant - as soon as I turned around to get started on the steady section I knew I was in for a rough ride, the wind was quite strong and just about slapping me straight in the mush.

I toyed with the idea of changing the route to get some kind of level playing field but decided that changing it would only result in me getting some quicker than expected paces with the wind and slower than expected paces against it.

Feeling slightly sorry for myself, I got on with things and trudged my way up along the coast with no relief from the wind until just before the end of the 1st mile on the hmp section when I turned in at Baldoyle.
Made my way through Baldoyle almost clicking my heels with joy with the shelter I was getting from the wind and then kicked on into the tempo paced section.
I realised as I came to the end of the last mile that I wouldn't have time to run a couple of easy miles home, I was still 3 miles away and was running out of time to get back ( Old man Duanington was watching the childer for me) so rather than drop back down to easy pace, I dropped to steady effort all the way until home, bringing the total to 10 miles for the day.

This was a really tough workout - the wind sapped a lot of energy over the first 4 miles or so and by the time I got onto a part of the route with shelter, I was having to dig deep to keep things on track. Happy with the sustained effort though

Splits
7.44
7.05
7.09
7.15
6.43
6.26
6.15
7.20
7.00
7.10


Sunday

Out for the only chance I had to run today at around lunchtime - I had hoped to get a but more time in to run an hour's recovery today but you gotta take what you get I suppose.

Legs felt fine, nice day for it - kept everything down in the recovery zone and stuck to the grass again where I could. Lots of people out getting their run on which is good to see.

4 miles@ recovery pace

Stretching\core work in the PM.

Another solid week , maybe just shy of my intended mileage but still hovering around the 60 mile mark with some good quality

Duanington

16.03.2015


AM - slightly longer route into work this morning, I packed the backpack a little lighter ( lighter pair of shoes!) which gave me a bit of a spring in the step. As always, kept to the grass as much as I could. Legs felt good and I enjoyed this one

PM - again, slightly longer route home but still a very enjoyable trot. Bumped into Laura_ac3 who kindly slowed down for a chat for a mile or so ( well done again on the half Laura!).
Dropped odd the backpack at home and tagged on 2 extra miles, running 6x60m strides along the way.

10.5 miles for the day

laura_ac3

Duanington wrote: »

16.03.2015


PM - again, slightly longer route home but still a very enjoyable trot. Bumped into Laura_ac3 who kindly slowed down for a chat for a mile or so ( well done again on the half Laura!).
Dropped odd the backpack at home and tagged on 2 extra miles, running 6x60m strides along the way.

I'm just going to highlight that I was on two wheels and not two feet - the only scenario where I'm the one slowing down! same to you on the 10k, you looked very comfortable this evening.

Duanington

17.03.2015

Ah Paddy's Day


Try as I might, I couldn't sleep in this morning, I had a heap of things to do around the house\garden and knew I had to get my long run in at some stage too, got up nice and early and got started on the garden - hacking my way through the grass with my old school push lawnmower over the course of 45 minutes or so ( the lawn is tiny !)

After getting through the other bits and pieces throughout the course of the day, I settled down to get a good core session in ( Jurassic 5 providing the musical backdrop :cool:)

Once the core stuff was done and dusted, I headed out the door to make my way over to the O2 to meet Yaboya01 who was out for a few easy miles this evening. I had just under 4 miles in the bag by the time I reached the O2 and we made our way back towards Fairview through East Wall, passing a group of Yaboya01's cheerleaders who proceeded to shout all kinds of requests\messages of support his way !

Made our way up the coast road, the miles ticking off nicely with the chit chat and after turning back at the causeway, running back towards East Point, I headed off to finish my long run and make up the 15 miles - I did a 4th stretch of the coast road and turned up Mt Prospect for home .

Really enjoyable run, a little chilly out but sure that's what the gloves are for.

15 [EMAIL="miles@8.14"]miles@8.14[/EMAIL] min\miles

career move

It's one great run after another on here!

Duanington

career move wrote: »

It's one great run after another on here!

ha ha thanks CM - no cool swimming though !

FBOT01

Nice run there, D. Think you ladies passed Ferris and I around the old baths but you where too far away for me auld eyes to be sure. Just saw a bouncy fecker on the inside path and said to Ferris that it looked like you:)

Duanington

FBOT01 wrote: »

Nice run there, D. Think you ladies passed Ferris and I around the old baths but you where too far away for me auld eyes to be sure. Just saw a bouncy fecker on the inside path and said to Ferris that it looked like you:)

ha ha - it was probably us alright, we went that route and I did have a bit of extra bounce in the step with the day off work etc !

Duanington

19.03.2015


Wednesday

AM - Recovery paced run into work, no watch with me as usual but I kept the effort levels very low for this. Nice morning for it, legs felt fairly co-operative all the way through.

PM - Run home from work, slightly quicker pace than the morning run but still all nice and easy. Nice feeling running home in the brighter evenings, the grass on the coast road was busy with all sorts of people out and about.
I dropped off the backpack and added on 2.5 additional miles to bring the total to 6.5

Total for the day: 10.5


Thursday

Back to the faster stuff today, the plan was for the same session as last week but with 1 additional rep:

7x800s with 60 sec recovery

I started off with some corework\press-ups at home and nipped out between meetings to St Anne's to get this one done. Cracking day out there, bright and sunny but still cool enough to make running a real pleasure.
Got in 1.5 miles warmup before getting started on the reps, the aim was to target in and around 2.55 for each one and again, maybe run the last one harder if I felt ok.

Reps:

2.57
2.55
2.51
2.51
2.50
2.49
2.44

I may well have paced these a little too quickly today but the conditions were spot on compared to last week ( very little wind and no rain). The going was tough enough over the last 3 and I did lose focus a few times - snapped out of it, relaxed and focused on the mechanics to get things back on track.
Kicked hard for the last 200 or so on the last rep, finished in a heap but overall I have to say I'm happy with that session.


Ran a warm down to bring the total to 6.5 miles.

Once again I scratched the idea of a recovery run tonight in favour of a bit of rest. I've a very tough session at the weekend and I'm well on target mileage wise for the week :-)

Duanington

22.03.2015


Saturday

Decided to swap things around a little this weekend, I had originally planned a tempo for Saturday morning but while my legs weren't sore, I did feel that they could do with another day of easy running before taking on a session that I had actually been dreading all week.

Enjoyed this one, out on the coast road nice and early in glorious sunshine. A perfect morning for running really, stayed on the grass as much as I could and took in a lap of Fairview park.

Home for one of the most amazing sporting spectacles I've ever seen. Those French lads had me cursing at the tele towards the end !

( chin ups in the PM)

7 [EMAIL="miles@7.48"]miles@7.48[/EMAIL] min\miles


Sunday

Planned session :

2 miles @ hmp ( target 6.30ish)
2miles@ tempo (target 6.15-6.20)
2miles@ 5k pace ( 5.50-5.55)

5 minutes easy between sets


Got out a lot later than I had hoped to tonight, busy day today with the kids, sunshine etc.

I took in a warmup on the coast before getting started on the first set of 2, deciding to use the cycling lane as my track for the evening - the plus side of getting out late was that the cycling lane would be nice and quiet.
I like running at HMP - at least I do when there are only 2 miles to run, so the first set was actually enjoyable. I didn't worry too much about pace for this one, choosing to run at an effort that felt slightly easier than tempo instead.
Got my 5 minutes easy done then turned around into the wind and got started on the second set.

I found myself settling into a very nice stride very quickly on this set, I developed a slight stitch for a little bit over the first mile but noticed that I was actually running slightly hunched ( into the wind) so I straightened up, controlled the breathing a bit more and the stitch disappeared ( phew).
The wind was noticeable towards the end of the last mile which made things tough enough.
The effort was possibly too strong on this, given that I was running into the wind ( I'm still not sure it was that strong though, it always feels worse when running against it !)

Another 5 minutes easy then turned around for the last set. I got into my stride very quickly again and really enjoyed the pace of the first mile, bombing it along the smooth cycle track. Into the second mile, I knew the pace was good but the effort was starting to feel a little too hot, thought about easing up a little ( because I knew I was going a little quicker than planned) but I didn't - these last 2 miles were always meant to be very tough, I hate these sessions - the recovery between sets is nice but I usually find it tough to move up a gear each time afterwards so I decided to keep this last set good and hard on the legs and kicked on, upping the effort a little and hanging on ( literally) to the end.

Finished up with a short warm down, came home to do a bit of stretching.

A really tough session to finish off a tough but very good week.

Mile splits:
HMP - 6.28, 6.31
Tempo - 6.08, 6.08
5k - 5.43, 5.41


Total miles : 9.5

pconn062

That's some session, I would struggle to do 2 miles @ 5k pace in training on its own, never mind with the stuff before it! I'm glad you hit the low 5.40's, not a hope 5:50-55 is your true 5k pace.

overpronator

Savage session!

FBOT01

Nice going, D. 2 miles at low 5:40's with that kind of "warm-up" is great running. Look forward to seeing what you can do in parkrun St Anne's in April.

Duanington

pconn062 wrote: »

That's some session, I would struggle to do 2 miles @ 5k pace in training on its own, never mind with the stuff before it! I'm glad you hit the low 5.40's, not a hope 5:50-55 is your true 5k pace.

Thanks P - you're probably right but until I race the distance this year, I won't know for sure what that my true pace is.

Duanington

overpronator wrote: »

Savage session!

Thanks OP - the legs took a fairly savage beating alright !

Duanington

FBOT01 wrote: »

Nice going, D. 2 miles at low 5:40's with that kind of "warm-up" is great running. Look forward to seeing what you can do in parkrun St Anne's in April.

Thanks M - to be honest, the sustained effort was more satisfying that the actual splits. I'll be there for sure over the next couple of weeks

Duanington

24.03.2015

Monday


A day off work meant a day spent doing bits and bobs around the gaff and garden....nothing too straining though, just half ar$ed attempts at spring cleaning really!

By the time I got around to heading out for a recovery run, I was gunning to get going. Headed out along the coast road, my now traditional lap of Fairview Park, back along East Point and home. Kept the pace all nice and easy...the legs were feeling the previous night's session but not quite as bad as I feared.

Total miles : 6 @ 8.48 min\miles

Tuesday

Long run night tonight, brought the gear into work with me on the bus this morning. Today was one of those days when I regretted taking a day off yesterday - so many things waiting for me when I got in this morning ! When I did eventually get through everything it was well after 6:30 so I got the gear on, packed the bag and hit the road.

Made my way home, ditched the backpack and headed off towards Sutton on the bike track. Turned in at Baldoyle away from the f-f-freezing wind and headed off towards Donaghmede, into Raheny, back onto the coast road and home.

Lots of people out running this evening, lots of friendly hellos from fellow foot soldiers - including one from the ever cheery Laura_ac3 who was heading off in the opposite direction on her run.

All said, a very enjoyable run - that's a few 13+ mile runs under the belt during this cycle and I always feel better for it.

Splits:
7.55
8.07
7.56
8.12
8.07
8.06
8.11
8.09
8.12
8.07
8.04
7.55
7.51

( stretching and stability stuff when I got home)

laura_ac3

Lots of people out alright. Wasn't entirely sure it was you at first (no glasses, dark - my usual recipe for disaster) but thought I'd take a chance!

Duanington

26.03.2015

Wednesday

AM - run into work, kept it all very easy. Baltic conditions along the coast on the way into the city centre, one of the very few mornings when I've been jealous of the folks sitting in their cars in traffic.

PM - Same deal as always, run home ( into the horrific wind) all nice and easy. Thought about leaving it at the 4 miles instead of adding on the extra 2, passed Raheny doing their session on the coast and manned up a bit, taking in the extra 2 miles. ( I took in an extra 2.5 by mistake!)

10.5 miles for the day


Thursday

AM - Back to quick stuff today so after doing some core\stability stuff at home, I headed off to St Anne's to take in a good warmup before getting stuck into it.

Plan was for 12x200m with 100m easy ( very easy!)between reps

I was looking forward to this with the shorter than normal rep distance and had promised myself to work hard on holding good form and turnover throughout each rep ( a little like longer hill sprints I guess)

The target was to run each rep in and around 42 seconds, with a strong breeze at play though, I wasn't going to beat myself up over a second either side.

Reps worked out as:
42
43
42
41
41
42
41
42
41
42
42
41

On paper, this session doesn't look too tough and while the shorter reps are a breath of fresh air, the shorter recoveries keep things honest for sure.

Happy with how it went though, I felt strong throughout and worked to hold good form all the way.

Warm down to bring the total to 6 miles


PM - out this evening for 3 recovery miles on the grass. A little tired running this one, busy day at work and a busy evening with the kids have the energy levels a little low. Legs felt good afterwards

9 miles for the day

outforarun

Been crazy busy over the last few weeks and I'm only now starting to catch-up on the logs. Turn my back for a few weeks and you only go and post a 37:45 10K!! I'm impressed and envious. With the training that you've been putting in and your very tasty tempo pace I wouldn't have been surprised to see you go sub 39:00, but sub 38:00 is a fantastic result. You're really raising the bar. Out of curiosity how often would you be watching the Garmin during a 10K?