Confessions of a never has been.....

Duanington

11.12.2015

Wednesday

AM - runmute into work, had to take the shorter route as opposed to the planned longer route as I was short on time.
freezing cold morning, usual constant horrible wind on the coast too but I still enjoyed the run in

4.1 miles : 8.10ish

PM - mental day at work, had hoped to get out early but that didn't happen and when I did eventually get out the wind had picked up AGAIN ! Luckily I had it at my back for most of the run. Legs felt good, tagged on the extra few miles around St Anne's

7 miles @ 8.10ish

11.1 miles for the day

Thursday

Flight to London, busy day of work and a Christmas do with the crew in our London office to work around today, I knew the only way to get in my planned session was to get up a stupid o'clock
Up and at it far earlier than I want to admit and got started on my warmup ( badly needed, it was ice cold)

Sesssion:
3 x (4x300) in 60-62 100 jog rec, 400 between sets

After the warmup, I got started on the reps - wondering how I would guess the pace and if I would get the distance right.
Wrong on both counts for the first couple but I got most of the others right.

I did however make a balls of the session by running a rep too few on each set ( I ran 3 x (3x300) ) - idiot!! Even though I had the session written on my arm ! - the aul brain doesn't wake up too easily these days

300 times
53 ( 280 metres)
53 ( 280 metres)
55 ( 280 metres(
63
60
60
61
62
60


Ran the warmdown and legged it out to the airport

Good session, great to be back doing a bit of faster work - I felt strong throughout, even if I made a balls of it ! Some people can transition well from marathon training straight into 5k\10k racing but I don't think I'm one of those lucky basitds and definitely feel the need for some shorter faster training to shake things up a bit

6.26 miles

Friday

Late night last night and a ropey enough flight back from London today had be in no mood to run this evening but after a little sulk to myself, I snapped out of it and headed out, knowing full well that I'd feel better for the run and so it proved!
Basically ran the Raheny 5 course, nice run - legs felt good

5 miles @ 8 min\miles

Back in Black

Nice work and good to know I'm not the only one who writes sessions on his arm!

Duanington

Back in Black wrote: »

...good to know I'm not the only one who writes sessions on his arm!

the feeling is mutual !

Duanington

12.12.2015

Planned session today was :

2 miles easy, 3x8 min @ HM, 90 sec recovery, 2 miles easy

Couldn't get out during my usual running window early this morning - which was a blessing in disguise given the rain and wind outside, it had eased off a little by the time I got out this afternoon.

Got the warmup done and then got straight into the first 8 minute section into the wind along the coast. Settled into a good pace pretty quickly and had no issues holding it right through
90 second recovery then into the 2nd rep, up the Kilbarrack road and into a strong wind, working hard but enjoying the session by this stage.
The final rep took me into Raheny, up the couple of drags and alongside St Anne's park.

Finished feeling very good - one of those sessions that works you but allows you to keep complete control. The pace was a tad hot looking at the garmin data but it was probably just one of those days.

pressups and corework afterwards

7.52
7.47
8 min@ 6.20 avg
8 mins@ 6.23 avg
8 mins@ 6.14 avg
7.37
7.34


8.55 miles in total (inc recoveries )

Duanington

13.12.2015

Busy weekend with the kids this weekend so I jumped at the chance to jump on the star wards band wagon this morning, stick on the first one for them and run out the door to get my run in. It was raining but the wind was mild enough, I love this kind of weather for running in.

Took in a few loops around St Anne's and Raheny ( again just to stay off the flat coast), passing a tough enough looking hill session in St Anne's - right on the hill where I used to run mine earlier in the year ( kind of made me feel vindicated for picking that spot actually !).
Felt great on this and was probably my favourite run for quite some time, maybe the new runners have something to do with it.

Got home just in time to stick on the XC

Weights and core later in the day

8:05
7:54
7:46
7:45
7:42
7:39
7:46
7:50
1:36

8.2 in total to finish off the best week's training for a good while

Duanington

14.12.2015

Busy week ahead which means I have to juggle things around a little to fit things in.

First up was a 10 mile steady run and after working a little later than I had hoped to, I got the gear on, loaded the backpack and took off. After an easy mile to warm the legs up, I settled on a steady pace of in and around 7.35 to allow for the additional weight of the backpack and headed off for home.
Ditched the backpack just after mile 4 and carried on up into Clontarf, Raheny to run a few loops there.
Weather was poxy for most of this, I was drenched and freezing getting home but happy enough with a good steady run in the bag.

7.59
7.26
7.26
7.25
7.18
7.13
7.17
7.10
7.14
7.18
7.15
5.57 ( .75 miles)

11.75 miles for the day

Duanington

17.12.2015

Tuesday

Run into work to get the run sorted before a night out later. Legs felt a tad tired which was understandable I suppose, still enjoyed the run.

4.1 miles easy

Wednesday

AM - took it easy the night before and while I was pretty late getting home, I didn't drink a whole lot, knowing full well that I would be writing off the day if I did.
The result was a tiredish run into work in the morning but only tiredish. Legs felt good and I was glad to have it done

4.1 miles

PM - run home from work, windy conditions but still a very enjoyable run. Did my usual craic of tagging on a few miles around St Anne's at the end.

7 miles easy

Thursday - back to session day, the plan was for 8 x 1 min hill reps @ 1500-3k pace....which to me basically means to run each rep hard.

After getting a good warmup done, I got started on the reps ( and regretted not driving around that morning to sweep a path through the mushy leaves on the footpath).
Ran the first a bit too quick but then settled into it for the rest, working very hard over the last 2\3 to stay consistent.

I had it in my head to jog back down the hill in around 1.45-2 mins each time as a recovery when in fact it should have been 2-3 minutes. I had that feeling of dread at the start of the last two and was wiped out at the end but glad that I toughed it out.

Good session

8.12
7.48
0.41 ( @ 8 min pace)

Mr Garmin tells me the average paces for each 1min rep were:
5.04
5.20
5.19
5.20
5.17
5.17
5.17
5.06

8.09
8.04

7.45 for the day

Weights and core work later

Duanington

19.12.2015

Friday

AM - easy run into work, could not believe how mild it was on this run. I was scheduled to run 5+5 today but I knew I would struggle to get that done with a hectic day at work and a Christmas party to follow. Kept the pace down and the legs felt good

4.1 miles

PM - squeezed this in between secret santa and our Christmas do, about 3.5 miles in I was beginning to think that I'd have time for 6 miles but bumped into an old buddy and tempted as I was to wave and keep running ( the look on her face would have been priceless!), the human in me over-ruled the runner and I stopped for a chat. No time to finish the run after catching up so I just settled for the 4 miles

Saturday

Late night last night with plenty of water to limit the damage ( but great craic in fairness). Got out a little later than I had hoped\planned and again, it was actually warm out...what happened to December?!
The plan for today was :
2 miles easy
5 miles @MP
2 miles easy

I was looking forward to this session all week but wasn't feeling the love for it this morning to be honest, during the warmup I felt tired, a little dehydrated and my quads felt a little tight - maybe from Thursday's session?
Anyway, I picked another rolling route for the MP section and got started up the climb from the coast into Raheny ...with a strong WARM wind in my face, running back down to the coast and then up through Donaghmede\Killbarrack again.
Maybe it was the warm weather, maybe it was the wind or maybe I am feeling jaded after a crazy couple of weeks with work and Christmas catchups but this was a lot tougher than maybe it should have been

Got through the MP stuff eventually and ran a warmdown to finish off.

Things should settle down a little next week thankfully.

2.4 miles @ 7.54 to warmup then

6.35
6.42
6.46
6.44
6.37

2 miles @ 8.01 warmdown

Duanington

20.12.2015


Late getting out this evening but get out I did, cold and windy out there but I suspect I have a bit of a headcold coming on and might be feeling the chill more than normal.

Headed off towards Fairview and turned up onto the Howth Road to get that drag in up to Killester, a couple of loops around Clontarf\Raheny and home again to complete the run.

8.55 miles@7.59 min\miles to bring an end to a good week - just over 60 miles for the first time in a while.

Pressups and core afterwards

Duanington

22.12.2015

Monday

Plan had me down for 6 easy miles but I knew I wouldn't get the full 6 in with a busy day ahead, got the usual 4.1 easy miles in on the way to work. Windy as always but a nice run.

4.1 miles @ 8ish min miles

Tuesday

Last of the late nights last night and spent the day in town soaking up the atmosphere so I was fairly tired getting going on this one but picked another rolling\winding route to break the run up.

Actually really enjoyed this one, kept it nice and easy all the way.

8:24
8:07
8:12
7:52
7:57
7:50
7:53
8:07
7:58
8:02
7:51
7:56

12.1 miles in total

Duanington

26.12.2015


Wednesday

AM - Another early morning trot into work, the plan had me down for 5 miles but I knew I'd only get the 4 in ...and so it transpired.

Legs felt good, can't remember the conditions to be honest !

4.1 miles easy

PM - Run home from work, didn't get out as early as I had planned so had to leave the backpack on when tagging on the extra few miles around St Anne's park

Another nice run, 7 miles easy

11.1 for the day

Possibly some core work later - can't remember properly !

Thursday

No matter how much I think to myself that I am all sorted this year and how this Christmas eve should be a chill-fest, it never happens ...a fair bit of running around to do but I squeezed in a 40 minute window in the evening ( between movies at home!) and took in 8 easy miles

8 miles @ 8.03 min\miles

Friday

Christmas Day brings around many different traditions for many different people, for myself and my clan, its a run in the Phoenix Park. Unfortunately my two sisters were busy with other boring ****e so myself and the bro agreed on a route from Liffey Valley down into the park , a loop of the S bends and the Kyber and back to the family HQ. The route was pretty tasty as it turns out with plenty of long climbs and the weather was horrific but to be fair the pace was very easy, maybe a little too easy but it made for an enjoyable chat all the way down and bacl.
Good to see the bro getting back into shape, he got me into running but tends to dip in and out of regular training, he's moving well at the moment though and I sense 2016 could be a big year for him.

Forgot to stop the watch at the end of this but I make the run out to be 8.5 miles at around 8.45 min\miles.

Saturday

The one and only session in the plan for this week was actually due on Christmas eve but I had to push it back to today because I knew I wouldn't get to it then.

Plan was for 2 miles easy, 3 miles @hmp, 2 miles easy.

After a little corework, I got out to get started on the warmup , heading into the wind along the coast, down towards Fairview. At the 2 mile mark I started on the HMP stuff, agreeing with myself to run 4 instead of 3 to keep things honest this week.
It took a little longer than I expected to get the pace down for this but once I did I felt good and always enjoy this pace, working without blowing too hard, pushing your body but knowing you could sustain the pace for a much longer stretch of time.
Up the Howth Road, into Raheny, down to the coast and I was done. Ran the final 2 miles home and for once I got the route bang on

8.04
7.57
6.38
6.26
6.21
6.13
7.57
7.55

8 miles in total

Duanington

27.12.2015

I was actually scheduled to take a rest day towards the end of this week but the week has been pretty easy in terms of effort ( yesterday aside) - even if most runs have been done while a little more tired \ dehydrated than normal ( just read Yabaoya's update today and couldn't agree more, we tend to underestimate the effects of both of these factors).

Anyway, after deciding to ditch the idea of a rest day ( purely because I fancied a run), I did a little core work and headed off out into the windy night to get 5 easy miles in.

Legs felt a little pinch of yesterday's hmp session in there and the conditions were gank but it was still a nice run to finish off a better than expected week.

5 miles@ 8min\miles

Duanington

29.12.2015

Monday

Busy day with family stuff taking up most of my time but I did manage to carve out a window to get an easy run in. Very windy out again as I headed down the coast, the waves were starting to creep up over the sea wall which always makes me like an ant! Up the Howth Road and into St Anne's park to finish off

Nice run but could feel the beginnings of a head cold taking effect which had me feeling a little low on energy

6 miles @ 7.51 min\miles

Tuesday

Plan for today was for a 10 mile steady run but I woke up with a raw throat and feeling distinctly like I had only been asleep for an hour. A bit of food, some lemsips and a couple of hours later and I was feeling a little more human so I ventured out just as the wind was picking up on the coast.

Haven't ran this route for a while - down the coast, into Baldoyle, Donaghmede and St Anne's and while the wind was at my back for the first 2 miles or so, it was in my face towards the end.

The wind messes with my sessions no matter which direction I run so I ignored the watch really and just worked off effort which may explain the varying splits ( some look closer to MP than steady). No real time for a warmup either so I eased myself into the pace

7.27
6.59
6.55
7.00
7.05
6.56
7.12
7.16
7.14
7.11
7.58 (.75 mile)

Duanington

30.12.2015

Another night out last night which finished pretty late and with visitors in the house this morning, I had to scramble a revised version of the 5+7 that the plan had me down for today.

I knew I'd have a bit of time later in the day to head out so I canned the morning run and settled for a single 9 mile instead.

Beautiful evening for running and a complete contrast to yesterday's manky conditions, I headed down to Fairview, up the Malahide road, cut in towards Donaghmede, Kilbarrack ( don't know the road names!) then into Raheny and home.

The only problem I am finding with trying to pick routes with plenty of drags is that you lose the continuity of the path along the coast road, lots of road crossings and up\down footpaths to negotiate.

Nice run though, enjoyed it all

Weights, core and stretching after

9 miles @7.59 min\miles

Duanington

31.12.2015

Last run of the year and the plan had me down for a tricky looking spot of speedwork.

2 miles easy
3x1k ( 3.35, 3.30, 3.25) - 3 min recoveries
4x200 (40-42 sec) - 90 sec recoveries
2 miles easy

I decided against running this on the coast, the usual stretch I would use down there looked too busy during my warmup so I headed up into St Anne's - only to spot that the Avenue was packed with people too - there was only one thing for it, back to the rose garden "track" for the first time on a long time.

The wind had picked up a little by the time I finished my warmup but it was only going to be an issue on one straight of the oval track. Got into the first rep a little too quick straight away ( I knew after 300 metres or so ) so I eased off just a little and focused on keeping a consistent pace for the rest of the rep

3.30 - a little too quick

Started much better on the 2nd rep, building the pace up over the first 200 metres or so but I definitely felt the bite over the 2nd half and had to stay focused into the wind to make sure the pace didn't suffer too much.

3.26 - a teeny bit too quick

the 3 minute recovery felt like 30 seconds but I ran the last one very well, finding the same effort as the previous rep pretty quickly and just working that bit harder over the 2nd half - that probably sounds like the rep was easy, it was anything but, I was working very hard towards the end and the form suffered a little as a result but it was always a case of just upping the effort- finishing strong but hoping for the beep to come !

3.23 - almost spot on !

took another easy 3 minute recovery and got stuck into the 200s; these felt like a walk in the park , the shorter distance was almost a pleasure - working hard but always controlled.

39, 39, 38, 37

Ran a slightly longer than planned warmdown around the park and headed for home.
Tough session, one of those that leaves your stomach a little queasy at times but I'm happy with how it went


Stretching and pressups after

8.84 miles for the day

Happy New Year to everyone all you boardsies, I rave about this place and the posters here to anyone that will listen to me. Its great to have access to people's logs as they journey through their running careers, sharing their experiences, personal victories and failures along the way. There seems to be an influx of new(ish) posters coming to the fore lately which is great to see and long may it continue

I hope you all have an injury free 2016 with loads of PBs thrown in !

Duanington

03.01.2015

Friday

Double day on the plan for the day but I knew there was zero chance at all of me getting out in the PM ( minding a house full of kids) but I did manage to drive to Athlone and back, make breakfast for 4 kids and get out for 5 easy miles all before 11 am - not bad

Stretching and some Glute strength stuff afterwards

5 miles @ 8 min\miles

Saturday

(core work and stretching in the AM)

Session day today and the plan was for :

2 miles easy
3x10 min @ HMP ( 90 sec recovery)
2 miles easy

Busy day at home entertaining the extra kids for the day but I managed to get in a good stretching\weights session between tantrums. I was pretty late getting out for the session and was feeling a little tired on the way out the door - I knew well I'd snap out of it once I got going though.

Got the warmup done along the coast, started on the first 10 min section ( after resigning myself to manually using the lap button on the watch to monitor the 10 minute segments), first section went well but I did regret that glute strengthening stuff from the day before - ouch :eek:

I move off the coast for the 2nd and 3rd sections, taking in the drags around Raheny and losing the wind that was picking up on the seafront.

I messed up the 2nd section by running 9 minutes instead of 10 so I made up for it by running 11 minutes for the 3rd section.

Section 1 ( 10 minutes)
1 mile @ 6.20
.6 @ 6.17

Section 2 ( 9 minutes)
1 mile @ 6.21
.41 @6.27

Section 3 (11 minutes)
1 mile @ 6.23
.72@ 6.10

Ran the warm down miles to finish off - very happy with this one, the last section was tough but I always felt there was plenty in the tank to call upon when required ( and it was required at times)

9.5 miles for the day

Sunday


Another busy day and another day where I was later than planned getting out and stuck for time so rather than get the 8 easy miles in, I had to settle for 7.25.
Legs felt a little tired at the start which shouldn't be a surprise I suppose. I'm away for the next couple of days so will juggle things around a little this week and then my routine will finally be back to normal - ironically when I go back to work !

7.25 miles @7.56

Duanington

06.01.2015

Monday

With a few days R+R planned down the west coast, I had to bring forward Tuesday's session to a ridiculously early time on Monday morning to squeeze it in. Not ideal really because it would mean 4 sessions in 7 days but the alternative was run it on Wednesday which was a bit too close to Waterford for comfort - Tuesday was a no no because I had no real idea where I would be and when I would get to run !

Anyway, the planned session was :

2 mile warm up,
3,2,1 miles w/ 3 min rec (6.50, 6.25, 6.05),
2 miles easy

I got on the road just after 7.30 to start this one, deciding to stick to track along the coast for this given the (relative) lack of wind and knowledge that I'd be be running in traffic any other way.

Warmup, done - I got into the 6.50 section - taking a few minutes to get into the pace but it was pretty straight forward once I got the breathing going;
6.42
6.42
6.47

maybe a little fast but definitely in the right zone

3 minutes easy then it was into the 2x6.25 section, again, I ran this along the coast, turning around at Sutton .
6.16
6.19

This was tough enough - my legs felt heavy throughout and I was definitely working hard to maintain the focus and effort towards the end, a little too hard obviously when I look at the splits but again, I think it was within the right zone.

Another 3 minutes easy and it was time for the last rep - I had been looking forward to this one from the start but was dreading it now given how the legs were starting to feel so heavy. Sucked it up and got on with it, working very hard to keep the pace down.

The watch beeped in 5.53 - and I was wrecked. ( too quick I know but I got into a bit of a mental battle halfway through and refused to be bullied!)

Tough session for sure but maybe that bit tougher because of my crammed schedule, I would normally space things out quite well but was running out of options this week, it worked out pretty well in the end . Read Myles Splitz comments on his log about forgetting how to hurt - this is huge for me and I definitely got a good dose of hurt on this session!

10..05 miles inc warmdown

Tuesday

Travelled west on Monday morning and spent the day catching up with family, heading for Clare on Tuesday morning. After a day of taking in some of the breathtaking sights around Liscannor, Doolin, Lahicn etc, I squeezed in a run on the road from Lahinch out to Ennistymon and back...nice route, no watch but I would guess it was 4.5 miles ( took in a few loops around Lahinch too)

4.5 miles @ easy


Wednesday

Travelled back to Dublin today and it was pretty late when we got back - the wind and rain were in full swing by the time I started to convince myself I could do with a rest day. Common sense prevailed though, I knew I was feeling good and couldn't let the weather dictate training having ran through worse conditions already this winter.

5 miles @ 8.05 min\miles ( had planned 2x5 mile runs but I just had no time)

Back to normal tomorrow

outforarun

Been desperately poor at staying up to date with other peoples logs of late. Just did a big catch-up on yours. Is it too late to say well done on a super DCM race and report?

ThebitterLemon

That's a great session DD, well done

TbL

Duanington

outforarun wrote: »

Been desperately poor at staying up to date with other peoples logs of late. Just did a big catch-up on yours. Is it too late to say well done on a super DCM race and report?

Never too late OFAR - many thanks

Duanington

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

That's a great session DD, well done

TbL

Cheers C - maybe a little too hot at times but happy with it overall

ThebitterLemon

Duanington wrote: »

Cheers C - maybe a little too hot at times but happy with it overall

You were always a bit of a show boater

TbL

tang1

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

You were always a bit of a show boater

TbL

Says your man that will be 10 secs per k at least under the required pace for his session today!!!

Duanington

tang1 wrote: »

Says your man that will be 10 secs per k at least under the required pace for his session today!!!

AT LEAST 10 secs per k

Duanington

01.07.2015

Mini session day today with Waterford coming up on Saturday.

Plan was for 2 miles easy, 4x800 ( @ half mara race pace) with 90 sec recoveries, 2 miles easy

Nipped out at lunchtime for this and headed down to St Anne's to use the Avenue to run the 800m reps. Did some maths before leaving ( ok, ok I used Google) which told me I should be shooting to run these in and around 3.15 or so but I also decided not to focus too much on the pace and rely on effort.

After a warmup I go stuck into the first one, heading off far too fast and reigning it in by the end. In my defence, this was "down" the avenue and there was a bit of a wind behind me - 2.56

2nd one was back up the avenue, again, started too quick and reigned it in, I felt great throughout though - 3.05 better but still a little stupid at the start

3rd and 4th were much closer to the target times with 3.13 and 3.10 respectively and again, I felt good throughout.

Finished off with a warmdown, some stretching and corework.

Total 6.95 for the day ( bet that really hurts some of the OCD runners out there!)

tang1

Best of luck tomorrow D, hope it goes well for you.

Dubgal72

Good luck. Very promising outlook after the comfort levels on the 4x800 session :cool:

Back in Black

Very best of luck tomorrow D. Hope it all goes to plan.

dintbo

Best of luck tomorrow D. No doubt you'll smash it.

Murph_D

All the best! You'll be in the clubhouse long before the blaas run out. :pac: