Turning a mule into a race horse.

Pacing Mule

Plan this week was to try and get it up to 4 runs needing 2 days back to back. At this stage the left knee is problem free but the right knee is still a bit of a lottery as to when the pain might kick in. Trying to be conservative around it.

5th
5 miles easy @ 9:24 avg pace

7th
3 miles @ 8:57 avg pace

Kept this short as it would be the first of two days running back to back. Wanted to can it before the knee started hurting etc. Slightly fast for easy pace but shouldn't have been very taxing.

8th
4 miles @ 9:59 avg pace

A shambles of a run. Set off to do 5 miles easy. Didn't feel good right from the start. Easy pace felt hard. Slowed it down. Slowed it down some more. Then it just seemed to be getting harder and harder to run. 3 miles in and heading for 10:00 min miles my legs went to jelly, head went spinning and I had to stop and rest for a few minutes. Got back to my senses (so I thought) took off towards home but very very gently - 10:30 pace. Hit 4 miles and had to walk the rest of the way. Wasn't too far off my estate at that stage and elected to walk back home. Felt totally drained and not 100% there at all. Funnily (or not depending on your perspective) I absentmindedly walked back towards the house we moved out of 8 years ago. Thankfully it's only 5 min from the current house :pac:

Writing that one off completely but still a little apprehensive about running tomorrow. Will get it done though !

Firedance

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Writing that one off completely but still a little apprehensive about running tomorrow. Will get it done though !

presumably after you see how you feel first? could be coming down with something? either way, don't be pushing what's not there & easy does it..

Neady83

Pacing Mule wrote: »

A shambles of a run. Set off to do 5 miles easy. Didn't feel good right from the start. Easy pace felt hard. Slowed it down. Slowed it down some more. Then it just seemed to be getting harder and harder to run. 3 miles in and heading for 10:00 min miles my legs went to jelly, head went spinning and I had to stop and rest for a few minutes. Got back to my senses (so I thought) took off towards home but very very gently - 10:30 pace. Hit 4 miles and had to walk the rest of the way. Wasn't too far off my estate at that stage and elected to walk back home. Felt totally drained and not 100% there at all. Funnily (or not depending on your perspective) I absentmindedly walked back towards the house we moved out of 8 years ago. Thankfully it's only 5 min from the current house :pac:

Writing that one off completely but still a little apprehensive about running tomorrow. Will get it done though !

Could it be your sugar levels? What you've described sounds like what happens to me occasionally if I've been eating sh**e sugary foods for a few days (or weeks) and then get back eating proper food. I think it's my sugar levels rebalancing. I always carry two or three dextrose tables in my running shorts in case this happens, they usually give me enough energy to get me home to eat something proper.

Take it easy tomorrow if you head out, maybe stay close to home just in case.

Pacing Mule

Neady83 wrote: »

Could it be your sugar levels? What you've described sounds like what happens to me occasionally if I've been eating sh**e sugary foods for a few days (or weeks) and then get back eating proper food. I think it's my sugar levels rebalancing. I always carry two or three dextrose tables in my running shorts in case this happens, they usually give me enough energy to get me home to eat something proper.

Take it easy tomorrow if you head out, maybe stay close to home just in case.

It's quite possible to be fair. Was on a mad one over Christmas and New Year. And this week is first week back eating healthy.

MKDTH

I've only dipped into the last two pages, what's wrong with your knee or knee's? Have you had it looked at?

Pacing Mule

10th

7 miles @ 9:05 pace

Normal service resumed. Left car in Blanch centre and took a run down the canal as far as Ashtown, across into and through the park coming back up through Carpenterstown and back to Blanch.

Aerobic and energy wise not a bother at all. This was easy to slight effort even though it was under MP. Could easily have gone on but had set out to do 7 and no more due to the knee issues.

Thursdays blip long forgotten.

Pacing Mule

MKDTH wrote: »

I've only dipped into the last two pages, what's wrong with your knee or knee's? Have you had it looked at?

Haven't been 100% since DCM.

Left knee is now ok but right knee still giving trouble. Have a few excercises to do from Myles Splitz which hopefully will be freeing up the legs in general and take strain off the knee.

yaboya1

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Haven't been 100% since DCM.

Left knee is now ok but right knee still giving trouble. Have a few excercises to do from Myles Splitz which hopefully will be freeing up the legs in general and take strain off the knee.

Plenty of knees up's over Xmas?

tang1

Great stuff, delighted it went well for you P.

MKDTH

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Haven't been 100% since DCM.

Left knee is now ok but right knee still giving trouble. Have a few excercises to do from Myles Splitz which hopefully will be freeing up the legs in general and take strain off the knee.

Hopefully the exercises will do the trick then.

Pacing Mule

12th

Lick your finger - stick it in the air and see what way the wind blows run. Maybe not the direction I'd like. :pac:

So I'm considering having a go at the Raheny 5 mile at the end of the month. Issue 1 - knee pain - is it feasible or smart to be racing 5 miles ? Issue 2 - not at race fitness. But how far off is the question ? Solution - test the water with a bit of pace and see what happened. 4 mile run - with the plan to do 2 miles @ 5 mile race pace. Optimistically attempted at the 2016 target PB pace of 7:18.

As a marker last year at the same race and were my official PB of 38:31 was set was at 7:43 pace. (PB mentioned above is actually an unofficial one mid 10k race) Granted this was early in the year too and by the end I was a good bit faster / fitter but it perhaps may have been wiser to have a go at that pace rather than the target given the current fitness levels.

1 mile warmup at 9:04 pace - grand. Into 1st race pace mile - ok but not overly comfortable. Second mile and effort level rising way too much. Half a mile later turned a corner into a headwind and pace was dropping rapidly. Wussed out a bit and went back to easy for half a mile before picking it up again for another half. 1/2 mile easy to finish.

9:04, 7:19, 7:32 (half), 9:40 (half), 7:09 (half) 9:36 (half)

Knee held up grand which is good but pace wise I'm a fair bit off a PB attempt never mind a yearly target. Terenure 5 in May a more realistic option I think so Raheny will be ran with no self pressure for a time.

Pacing Mule

14th

7 miles @ 9:37 avg pace

Set off for an easy easy run. Threw on the heart rate monitor for the first time in a long while too. As normal my heart rate showed very high for the first mile (jury out on if this is my body that goes mad and then settles down or the heart rate monitor itself) but after that settled down. My max HR is 206 which I gather is quite high. First mile came in at 170 then started dropping. Was down into the 140s for mile 3 and 4 which would suggest I was at a true easy pace. But then the sleet and snow started and I subconciously sped up a bit to get home sooner. Heart rate up to 155/160 for the rest of the run. Reckon I swallowed enough sleet to make an ice pop out of

9:48, 172(bpm)
9:49, 150
9:41, 141
9:41, 144
9:33, 155
9:18, 162
9:32, 156

Haven't looked back yet but will be interesting to see how those heart rates / paces compare to last time around.

Murph_D

I have the same issue with HR in first mile - asked cardiologist about it, assured me it's nothing to worry about. High MHR here too (c.197) so your numbers look good to me!

Pacing Mule

My heart rate chart for the run.

This is typical enough for me. The instant I start running the heart rate jumps up from a resting of around 70/80 into the 170s and then about a mile / mile and a half in it suddenly starts dropping back down.

Glad to hear it's not that unusual

Murph_D

Yes, that looks familiar. The important thing is that it corrects itself pretty quickly (at least that's what I was told!)

Myles Splitz

As Murph said I wouldn't worry too much there are a number of reasons why this can occur

- When you start any run no matter how easy it is you actually start in an anaerobic stage (normally associated with balls out running) this is because there is a sudden demand for additional oxygen within the body. Put simply its your body playing catchup to your decision to go for a run

- Weather. It's quite cold these days so your body is going from a relatively warm environment to cold suddenly it is having to work harder to maintain core temperature

This is why it levels off as your body catches up and meets the demands.

Gavlor

Myles Splitz wrote: »

As Murph said I wouldn't worry too much there are a number of reasons why this can occur

- When you start any run no matter how easy it is you actually start in an anaerobic stage (normally associated with balls out running) this is because there is a sudden demand for additional oxygen within the body. Put simply its your body playing catchup to your decision to go for a run

- Weather. It's quite cold these days so your body is going from a relatively warm environment to cold suddenly it is having to work harder to maintain core temperature

This is why it levels off as your body catches up and meets the demands.

Would a proper warm up help regulate the early oxygen levels to a more stable level??

Myles Splitz

Gavlor wrote: »

Would a proper warm up help regulate the early oxygen levels to a more stable level??

It's one of the primary functions of a warm up. However you will more than likely see the same level spike in the warm up (maybe to a lesser extent due to less oxygen demand but still enough to be noticeable)

yaboya1

When it's warm out, the HR can be higher than expected due to the body working harder to move at the same pace.
Is the opposite therefore not true? i.e. that it's slower to rise when it's really cold out.
That's what I'm finding myself lately anyway.

Myles Splitz

yaboya1 wrote: »

When it's warm out, the HR can be higher than expected due to the body working harder to move at the same pace.
Is the opposite therefore not true? i.e. that it's slower to rise when it's really cold out.
That's what I'm finding myself lately anyway.

It's a bit like goldilocks.

Too high temp's and the body is working hard to not overheat (sweat glands open trying to act as a coolant, dialtion of blood vessels due to subsquent dehydration)

Too low and the body is working hard to stay warm (increased circulation to extremities, hairs standing up on arms to act as extra insulation, shivering and increase overall calorie expenditure)

While the reasons may differ the outcome is similar. Depending on personal background (blood pressure and circulation among other factors) different people can react in different ways to this though.

Pacing Mule

Jan 16th

7 miles with 3@5 mile race pace

Same route as Thursday but tonight I threw in 3 at 5 mile pace mid run. A slightly slower 5 mile pace was aimed for (7:30 for a 5 mile of 37:30) I figured if I aimed a little bit more conservatively I would have more of a chance. This was still tough going though to be fair and I wasn't in good shape after. Took a 2 minute time out after the 3 miles to ahem clear the stomach. :pac: Splits slightly faster for mile 4 as it was net downhill.

9:12, 9:02, 7:25, 7:12, 7:22, 9:20, 9:07

Knee seems to be improving in that it's now generally only sore after the run rather than during it.

Pacing Mule

17th Jan

3 mile recovery run @ 9:48 ag

Nothing remarkable other than it took me over 20 miles for a week for the first time since October.

Since I'm up to 20+ miles and managed 3 at decent race pace midweek I've gone ahead and signed up for the Raheny 5 mile.

Pacing Mule

/runs in to make sure the log wasn't looted whilst nobody was home.

Nope

**** all worth robbing anyway.

Back out for a proper run ....

Pacing Mule

18th Jan

5 Easy with 1 long hill sprint.

Bearing in mind the hill towards the end of the Raheny 5 (up in the air if it will be there this year but if original course is used it will be) I wanted to get one steep hill in at speed. 3% avg grade 2:19 @ 6:45 pace.

20th Jan

6 miles - 9:20 avg pace

5 easy with 1 at slightly faster than 5 mile race pace.

Just getting some more time into the legs at a bit of pace to get used to and hopefully a bit more comfortable than I would have been for Raheny.


Happy enough overall where I am. I might not be in 100% shape but my 90% shape now has a chance of beating my 100% shape from last year.

tang1

Think the Watermill hill is gone P, seen it on Mr Draks log few weeks back.

Murph_D

Yep, through the park instead of hill this year.

Pacing Mule

Murph_D wrote: »

Yep, through the park instead of hill this year.

Is that confirmed now ? Last I'd heard was they were waiting until closer to the day to see how the roadworks on the coast road were progressing. (Wouldn't miss that hill too much )

Pacing Mule

Pacing Mule wrote: »

Is that confirmed now ? Last I'd heard was they were waiting until closer to the day to see how the roadworks on the coast road were progressing. (Wouldn't miss that hill too much )

Will answer myself

Route change just confirmed. The hill is taken out.

Pacing Mule

Pacing Mule

So yeah the rest of last week was a running right off with epic man flu.

But today was a new week and a new start and a first for my running.

I got PAID to run today.

Not exactly a turning pro situation unfortunately :pac: Logistically in work today we ended up with one of our vans marooned in the garage after a service and it would have required 2 people to go and get it. I volunteered to run up and get it. This was met with absolute incredulity ! - "but it's miles away", "are you nuts?", "why would you want to" etc except for one of the bosses who does a bit of running himself. He understood perfectly why I was happy to be running during working hours - called me a crafty fecker but also agreed it was more efficient.

So I got to go for an early morning run out from the city centre to the M50 up at Finglas and get paid for it

5 miles of climbing about 200ft in total at approx 9:10 avg pace (strava shows a bit quicker but there's a GPS wobble in there skewing the results)

Looking forward to Raheny on Sunday. Will spend the rest of the week with relatively easy pacing but will throw in a couple of miles at race pace to keep in tune with it.