Confessions of a never has been.....

Duanington

23.03.2014


Tempo night again ( seems to roll around quicker and quicker each week !).

The plan tonight was to run 6 miles@ tempo with the last mile ran hard. I started off with a little core work and made use of the excellent chin up bar I acquired some time ago then set off into the lovely chilled evening.

1.5 miles easy down the coast, speeding up a little towards the end to warm up my legs and then I started off on the tempo section.

I felt very, very good all throughout this section, working on form, stride pattern, foot stike etc....maybe it was the night that was in it with the stars twinkling down from the black sky and the cold, still air rushing across my face as I ran or maybe it was the new runners but I felt like I could run forever tonight.
Kept the effort steady all the way through miles 1, 2 and 3 ( uphill) then upped the effort just a little on mile 4 ( downhill)...got through mile 5 and put the boot down for mile 6.
I worked very hard over the latter stages of the last mile, climbing back into Raheny from the coast road - really digging deep and pushing my legs\lungs to the max. When I stopped, I was gasping for a minute or so but felt fantastic having definitely pushed through a pain threshold.

Splits looked like this
6.43
6.43
6.38
6.34
6.41
6.08

Ran the 1 mile home nice and easy and got stuck into a bit of recovery food :-)

50+ miles this week for the first time in ages, very happy with that. I'll be adding another double this week though so it may take a little while for the body to adjust.

career_move

Nice work

outforarun

Duanington wrote: »

Splits looked like this
6.43
6.43
6.38
6.34
6.41
6.08

Great session, I like that last mile. What's your 10K PB again? That tempo pace would have you completing a neat 10K in 40:43. Race environment and race pace off a week of easier running you'd be a decent chunk under 40:00.

Duanington

career_move wrote: »

Nice work

Thanks CM - happy enough with the effort alright

Duanington

outforarun wrote: »

Great session, I like that last mile. What's your 10K PB again? That tempo pace would have you completing a neat 10K in 40:43. Race environment and race pace off a week of easier running you'd be a decent chunk under 40:00.

Thank outforarun - My 10k PB is 41:33 but I would have to point out that mile 4 on my tempo route is very quick ( second half of that mile is on a substantial downhill slope) so I wouldn't be reading into it too much. Happy with the how the session felt\went though and how I was able to increase the effort over the last mile. I'm not too concerned with split times ...just yet

Tom Joad

Cleanman wrote: »

You have a day job...what a loser!! That must be why you don't do the myrtl routine:P A wee bit of plyometrics is very useful too...

So all this core stuff , Merthyl and AIS is the real reason you only do about 11 miles a week

Tom Joad

career_move wrote: »

Nice work

+ 1 great session

Duanington

24.03.2014

AM - 4 miles recovery before work. A basic loop around Citywest, the gravel paths and cycling track providing some welcome relief from the concrete jungle. Lovely morning for it actually, I got out just before the skies darkened
4 miles @ 8:45 min\miles

PM - 5 miles easy
Got home reasonably early for a Monday ( for a change) so I had the chance to do some core\pressup work before heading out into the wind and rain.
Straightforward loop down the coast, up into Raheny and back into Clontarf..
5 miles@ 8:15 min\miles
Legs felt a little tired today but feel a lot better now


Total miles for the day: 9

Duanington

25.03.2014


LSR night tonight and back up to Howth to give the legs a decent workout. I made it home at a reasonable hour yet again tonight ( 2 nights in a row!) so stuck to the original plan, took in a couple of easy miles on the coast before heading off up towards Howth.

The plan was to run 15 miles, work reasonably hard up the hills , up the pace at Mile 10 for 4 miles and keep the rest all nice and easy....simples

My legs were either still feeling Sunday nights session a little or else the were feeling yesterday's double - nothing that concerned me mind you, more of an awareness that they had seen a bit of hard work recently. Anyway, as planned, I kept the pace around 8:40 on the way up to Howth, on the way up the hills to the summit, I worked to keep the pace from slipping too much , not hard enough to maintain the pace, just hard enough that made a change in effort noticeable.

Felt great once I got to the summit and I took a few seconds to turn around and take in the view of Dublin bay - it looked as great as ever.
Made my way back down into Howth handily enough and once I got to Mile 10 I upped the pace to a steady effort ( somewhere around 7:45 pace).

Held this pace until the end of mile 14 ( with a little discomfort towards the end it has to be said) then eased back into LSR mode for the last 1.3 miles

A tough run but another one I'm glad to have done, I plan to keep throwing in some pace into my LSRs every couple of weeks.

Total miles 15.4 @ 8:27 min/miles

Duanington

27.03.2014

Wednesday - rest

Thursday

AM - Nice and easy trot around Citywest in the strangely refreshing cold rain - over to the office nice and early, no wind to speak of, just the cool drizzly rain and a chance to wear my new running jacket that Mammy D bought for me recently
Total: 3.8 miles @ 8:37

PM - Back to getting home late again but still squeezed in a small weight\core session before heading out for tonight's planned session:
2 miles warmup and then into 2x(6x30 second hill sprints - jog back recovery )
Made my way to my chosen hill and got stuck in from the off, splits worked out like this ( although I'm not sure how accurate the pace is after Stazza's revelations today ):

Rep - avg pace
1 5:11
2 4:55
3 4:51
4 4:43
5 4:57
6 4:52
3 minute recovery then
7 4:58
8 5:08
9 4:53
10 4:53
11 5:05
12 4:49


Ran the 1.4 miles home very easily and ate myself stupid. Happy with this, the 3 minute recovery between sets allowed me to recover just enough to hit the pace again on the second set. I'll try these again in 3 weeks as I'm rotating 400s\1k\Hill repeats weekly at the moment.
Total: 5.9 miles

Total for the day: 9.7

Stazza

I like how you are rotating the 400s/1k/Hill - you're hitting different systems each time and they are all supporting each other. I wouldn't worry too much about the watch - I'm sure the pace thingy is correct.

Duanington

Stazza wrote: »

I like how you are rotating the 400s/1k/Hill - you're hitting different systems each time and they are all supporting each other. I wouldn't worry too much about the watch - I'm sure the pace thingy is correct.

To be honest, I had guessed that they would work different systems but didn't know for sure - good to know, thanks . I'm actually not too bothered with the pace on these reps at the moment because I just run them hard and try to push myself to match the effort on each one but it might be interesting to compare numbers every couple of months as I ( hopefully) progress

Duanington

28.03.2014

AM - The now usual run before work around Citywest, taking in the handy 4 mile loop I've discovered. Nice morning for it too - fresh and crisp and just a drizzle of rain too. Took it very handy on this one, my legs were tight enough from last night's session. At my desk with the second half of my breakfast ( peanut butter sambo and a cup of tea) by 8:30
Total: 4 miles @8:45 min\miles

PM - back to back movies with the kids then off out for another 4 miles, down along the coast with the breeze at my back for the first half then into the breeze on the way home. Legs were still a little tender but felt much better towards the end.
Total : 4 miles @ 8:28 min\miles

Starting to get into a decent routine with the double days, getting the morning run in takes a little bit of pressure of in the evenings

Total for the day: 8

ThebitterLemon

Well D,

What did you see at the movies Muppets or Lego movie, or the pirate fairy!

I've slept through all 3

TbL

Duanington

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Well D,

What did you see at the movies Muppets or Lego movie, or the pirate fairy!

I've slept through all 3

TbL

Ha - neither, I downloaded Frozen ( not great) and the Croods ( much better). You slept through the lego movie? It looks deadly though!

AuldManKing

He was probably Sleeping whil watching them en route to meeting Ms MoneyPenny or something.

Duanington

29.03.2014

AM - up nice and early for the usual pre-breakfast run on a Saturday. 4 miles easy on the grass at the coast road...body and mind were a little tired at first but I settled after the first mile. Threw in 8x strides on mile 3, as always...not really pushing the pace, just getting form and footstrike right.
4 moles @ 8:22 min\mile

PM - 30 minute core\pressup work ( all to the blessed beats of Metronomy), a quality game of chasing in St Anne's park followed by a failed squirrel hunt then another 3 easy miles on the coast tonight. No company tonight for the first time in a while which was a little odd. Legs felt great and I could have done a good bit more but it was late and I'm already on target mileage wise this week so no point in doing anything silly at this stage.

Total miles : 3 @ 8:17 min\miles

Total miles for the day: 7

outforarun

Duanington wrote: »

followed by a failed squirrel hunt

I'd say the moles tipped them off, didn't know they could go that fast.

SamforMayo

outforarun wrote: »

I'd say the moles tipped them off, didn't know they could go that fast.

If they did Alan Shatter probably has it on tape some place;)

Duanington

30.03.2014

Tempo night - 2x2 miles @ race pace
Ah, the long evenings are upon us...what a lovely feeling to still see daylight in the late evening, given the winter of $hite we've had - surely we're due a few nice evenings to run in over the next few months.
Late enough getting the running gear on this evening but I still managed to get in a half decent session on the chin up bar before heading out. The plan for tonight was a bit of a shake up to the normal tempo sessions that I do.
I figured that I could do with tiring out my legs a bit and running hard to simulate that middle\end of race feeling and try to improve some speed stamina.

The idea was to run 2 miles hard - recover for 5 minutes then do the same thing all over again...but with legs that should be "nice" and tired.

I started off with a 1.5 mile warmup on the grass then took off for the first tempo section, splits looked like this:

6:06
6:13

I wasn't actually watching the watch during this section but knew I had gone a little quick over the first part because I was blowing hard towards the end and had to dig deep to keep kicking well. I could also feel a little fatigue in the legs towards the end which I guess is a good thing.

Walked for 5 minutes as soon as I stopped and I noticed after almost exactly 60 seconds the "recovery" heavy breathing stopped - i.e. I caught my breath properly. I'm not sure of the significance of this but its one fo the things that I'll keep an eye on.

Took off for the second part after the 5 minutes and despite everything feeling good to go, I could feel the effort from the first 2 miles in my legs as soon as I got going. It took me a good .5 mile to settle into a rhythm and after that I don't think it was comfortable at all....it was hard work all the way through to the end of the 2 mile section. Legs tired a lot towards the end and my lungs were far from happy with the effort required but I was able to keep the pace going which I was very happy with, running at pace on tired legs was what I wanted from tonight's session

Splits looked like this:

6:21
6:11


While the 1st mile of the 2nd section looks like a wobble, I'm happy with this session, for me, a lot of the battle of racing is getting used to the hurt...learning to push on through it and trust the training I've done to allow me to do just that. This one was a bit more intense that my normal tempo sessions and another one I'll revisit every few weeks - glad to have discovered it.
2 miles easy to finish

Total miles 7.5

ThebitterLemon

Nice session D

TbL

Tom Joad

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Nice session D

TbL

+ 1 Good stuff

Duanington

01.04.2014


Monday

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

Total miles: 7 @ 8:37 min miles


Tuesday

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

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

Total : 12 miles @ 8:31 min\miles

Total for the day - 16

Cleanman

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

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

Duanington

Cleanman wrote: »

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

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

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

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

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

Cleanman

Duanington wrote: »

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

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

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

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

Duanington

03.04.2014

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

Thursday -

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

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

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

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

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

Total miles for the day - 10

AuldManKing

Nice work! Good session that.

Duanington

AuldManKing wrote: »

Nice work! Good session that.

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

Duanington

05.04.2014


Friday

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

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

Total miles: 8

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

Total miles: 3@ 8:27 min\miles

SamforMayo

Best of luck tomorrow. What s the target?

Duanington

SamforMayo wrote: »

Best of luck tomorrow. What s the target?

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

SamforMayo

Duanington wrote: »

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

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

ThebitterLemon

Duanington wrote: »

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

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

TbL

Duanington

SamforMayo wrote: »

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

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

Duanington

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

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

TbL

ha ha - we'll see TbL

SamforMayo

Very good, will look forward to the up dates.

Duanington

06.04.2014


Great Ireland mini run + great Ireland run

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

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

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

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

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

KM splits looked like:

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

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

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

ThebitterLemon

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

TbL

Duanington

07.04.2014


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

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

7 easy miles @ 8:47 min\miles

Duanington

08.04.2014


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

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

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

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

Splits worked out like this

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

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

Finished off with another 1.5 miles very easy

Total miles 11.5@ 8:01 min/miles

Duanington

10.04.2014

Wednesday

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

Thursday

AM - As above, 4 miles easy, Citywest


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

25 minutes light weights and core work to finish

6 miles@ 8:15 min\mile

Total for the day: 10 miles

Duanington

12.04.2014

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

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

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

Total for the day: 9.2

Duanington

14.04.2014

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

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

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

Total for the day 11 miles

Duanington

15.04.2014


LSR night tonight

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

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

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

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

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

Total 16 miles@ 8:17 min\miles

ThebitterLemon

Well FFS it's not 7.26

TbL

Duanington

17.04.2014

Wednesday - rest

Thursday

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

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

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

Total for the day: 9

Duanington

18.04.2014

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

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

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

Reps turned out like this:

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

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

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

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

Total miles for the day: 12.1

ThebitterLemon

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

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

TbL

Duanington

cheers TBL, felt the burn today to be honest!

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