Faster

tailgunner

Friday, 5th February 2016 - 4 miles @ race pace

4 miles
33:26
8:21/mi

This was much more successful than the previous effort at HM pace. Took a while to settle into it, but I finished strong and had plenty left in the tank at the end. Very happy with this.

Saturday, 6th February 2016 - 12 miles easy

12 miles
1:55:41
9:38/mi

I got up a bit late for this, and while I wasn't hungover as such, I was definitely regretting the few tasty ales I'd had the night before. A hurricane greeted me as soon as I stepped outside the door, so I decided I'd do a short recovery run instead and put the long run off for another day.

I'd be lying if I said it was grand once I got going, but after couple of wet and windy miles I figured it wasn't going to get any worse, and I'd be much happier to have the long run out of the way for the weekend. Into the heart of the storm I plodded. I kept telling myself it was "character building", whatever that means, but I didn't believe me.

Had some problems with my watch early on, so I'm not sure the time/pace is right. I took the exact same route as last week though, so the distance is accurate.

All things considered, the actual running wasn't too bad. The last couple of miles were tough, as I was very dehydrated by that stage. I'll stick to pints of water instead of ale on the eve of a long run in future.

A pretty solid week for me. I don't think I've run 28 miles in a week since September, so things are going well. The plan this week has an extra rest day and a 5k race instead of a long run on Saturday. I'm hoping to do a proper road race, but I'll do a parkrun if I can't find anything suitable.

Firedance

it's definitely character building!! I've run so many long runs in the wind and the rain at this point, it just means when those conditions occur in a race you're more than prepared well done on the 4 miles @ hmp and the nice mileage increase.

tailgunner

Monday, 8th February 2016 - 4.5 miles easy

4.52 miles
46:19
10:15/mi

Another storm, and another opportunity to build me some character! Imogen had absolutely wrecked the place - I was climbing over felled trees and everything.

Tuesday, 9th February 2016 - 7 x 400 @ 5k pace

4.73 miles
42:22
8:57/mi

The worst of the storm was over, but it was still pretty windy. Really struggled with the pacing for this - the splits are all over the place:

1:57.7
2:00.3
1:56.3
1:55.0
1:57.4
1:55.4
1:54.2

Wednesday, 10th February 2016 - 4 miles easy

4.02 miles
40:41
10:07/mi

Got out before work this morning, for no other reason than that I wanted to have the evening off. Found it quite tough for some reason - the pace was easy but my breathing was very shallow. It's not the first time I've noticed this if I'm running early in the morning (6am-ish), so hopefully nothing to worry about.

I've been reading P&D's Advanced Marathoning, and while it'll probably be a couple of years before I consider using one of the marathon plans, there's some very good info about flexibility and strength training. I think I need to start taking this stuff seriously so I'll have a go at some of that this evening.

tailgunner

Friday, 12th February 2016 - 5k TT

3.11 miles
23:35
7:35/mi

The plan was for a 5k race this weekend, but I couldn't find any road races happening, and the parkrun I was going to do instead was cancelled on Friday afternoon due to flooding - a common occurrence around here unfortunately. So I took off for a time trial by myself on Friday evening.

I've done a few of these before over the same route, including one effort about eight weeks out from my last half marathon, and the actual time I ran on the day was within a second of McMillan's prediction. So if nothing else, I think I'm at least safe enough to adjust my training paces a bit.

The splits were 7:43, 7:38, 7:28, 0:46. It's obviously a lot easier to run fast on flat, tarmac roads than around the hilly, mucky fields of my local parkrun.

Saturday, 13th February 2016 - 3 miles easy

3.11 miles
33:20
10:42/mi

After a year of listening to me drone on about running, my girlfriend is finally succumbing to the inevitable, and has started getting out herself a few times a week. She was planning to do about thirty minutes, so I said I'd tag along for a short recovery run.

She set the pace, and I was surprised to find that it wasn't far off my usual recovery pace. We carried on for a bit to round it up to 5k, and it certainly wasn't at my insistence. The effort was nice and relaxed for both of us - I'm starting to think one of us might actually have some latent talent for this running business, and it definitely isn't me!

mbarr

Had the missus out this weekend too, must have been the romance in the air that made them so amenable

Ososlo

Well done on the TT! Not easy on your own so fairplay!

tailgunner

Monday, 15th February 2016 - 5 miles easy

5.03 miles
48:26
9:38/mi

The last few weeks of running have been going well, but I often feel like my body is only barely recovered enough from the previous run to hit whatever distance/pace is required for the next one. Not in terms of aches or pains mind, it's more that "slight fatigue" is becoming the norm. Anyway, with no long run this weekend, this was the first time in a while that I felt fully rested and refreshed before heading out - and this was definitely reflected in the pace. All in all, it was the most enjoyable run in a while. Did a few strides after for good measure.

Despite feeling good in general though, I have a bit of a niggle in my right shin. No pain as such, just some discomfort for the first couple of miles. I remember being vaguely aware of it last week, and think the time trial might have aggravated it a bit. Dr Google suggests a stress fracture, which wouldn't be far off an amputation in terms of how it would affect my race in April, so hopefully it's more to do with having tight calf muscles. Time to step up the stretching and foam rolling.

Maximus Alexander

I had a bad headache and felt a bit nauseous one day and Dr. Google suggested it might be a brain tumour. I find a baseball or a tennis ball is good at getting in at those muscles around the shins.

tailgunner

Tuesday, 16th February 2016 - 40 minute tempo

4.56 miles
40:00
8:47/mi

Very pleased with this. Nowhere near as tough as I was expecting despite the slight increase in distance and pace. I think that's more to do with some residual freshness since the step-back week, rather than a giant leap forward in fitness though.

The 25-minute tempo part was 3.13 miles at 8:00/mi, and the pace was very consistent. My shin was absolutely fine throughout too. It's not the first time that a lingering niggle has mysteriously disappeared as soon as I mention it on the log...

tailgunner

Wednesday, 17th February 2016 - 4 miles easy

4 miles
39:47
9:56/mi

A very forgettable run, in a good way. I totally zoned out and was actually a bit confused as to what my watch was buzzing about when it was over. The fact I was back at my house should have been a hint really.

Can't remember my shin complaining much, if at all, but my calves are a bit sore today. Putting that down to going a bit mad with the foam roller last night rather than the running.

tailgunner

Friday, 19th February 2016 - 5 miles @ race pace

5 miles
41:27
8:17/mi

I was in no mood for this, but it went fine. Nearly scared a woman to death when I overtook her on a dark path - it turned out to be my girlfriend out on her own run, convinced that my heavy breathing was that of an approaching murderer. Her relief on realising it was only me soon turned to rage, but I got away before she could catch me.

Saturday, 20th February 2016 - 12 miles steady

12.01 miles
1:53:31
9:27/mi

I was feeling a little more motivated for this, and since it was going to be my third time covering the distance in recent weeks, I decided I'd run it at steady pace.

I figured it was about time I experimented with nutrition too, so I took a gel halfway through the run (High5, orange-flavoured, really manky). I've never used one before, and was a bit worried about taking it on an empty stomach (it was REALLY manky), but there were no adverse effects. I'm not sure if it had much of a positive effect either mind, but at least I know the option is there if I need it in future.

A little over 30 miles for the week.

tailgunner

Monday, 22nd February 2016 - 5 miles easy

5.09 miles
50:00
9:50/mi

Lovely evening for a run - even had some daylight for the first couple of miles. Fairly uneventful, but at the end I managed to hit stop on my watch at exactly 50:00.0. Delighted with myself.

My legs were feeling a bit tired, so I wussed out of doing the planned strides after. Will do them tomorrow instead.

tailgunner

Tuesday, 23rd February 2016 - 8 x 400 @ 5k pace

5.23 miles
49:20
9:26/mi

Based on my time trial the other week, I set a new pace range between 7:35/mi and 7:40/mi for these. Was delighted with how the session was going while I was doing it - I was hitting the pace easily, and holding it comfortably. Ended up with lovely even splits as a result, and the last rep didn't feel much harder than the first.

Afterwards though, I noticed that the recoveries were a bit slower than usual for whatever reason. Normally I don't worry about these too much - I just jog 400m back down the road and go again.

But from a bit of research this morning, it looks like the recoveries should only take 75%-100% of the time it takes to run a 400m rep at 5k pace. This would roughly be between 1:25 and 1:55 for me, not the leisurely 2:3x it was taking me yesterday. So it looks like I should only be jogging for 200m or so between reps. Oops.

It's hardly going to make or break things at this stage anyway, and with only two more of these sessions left on the plan, there's probably not much point in changing things up now. And given how crocked my legs are feeling today, I'm obviously still getting a decent workout from what I'm doing anyway.

Splits:

1:53.9
1:53.4
1:53.7
1:53.9
1:53.6
1:53.3
1:54.5
1:54.1

tailgunner

Wednesday, 24th February 2016 - 4 miles easy

4.11 miles
41:37
10:08/mi

My legs were feeling very creaky yesterday, so I thought it might be a good idea to do the planned recovery run on grass in the local park. Ended up with 12 or 13 slow, boring laps (I lost count). Finished off with a few strides on the road, which probably wasn't as good an idea, as I still had a niggle in the right hip/groin area.

Stretching and foam rolling afterwards didn't help much, but a couple of hours later, I twisted a bit awkwardly when I was taking off a sock, and there was an almighty crack from the hip. Fortunately it was the sound of something slotting back into place, rather than snapping in half, and it immediately felt much better. Hopefully it stays put.

Rest day today.

tailgunner

Friday, 26th February 2016 - 5 miles easy

5.01 miles
47:57
9:35/mi

My hip/groin was in a bad way all day Thursday - don't know what I did to it, but it felt like I'd properly strained something. It was a bit better on Friday, so I decided I'd see how it felt after a slow warm-up jog. I could definitely feel some improvement after a mile, but I still wasn't 100% happy with it, so I scrapped the planned 5 miles at HM pace, and kept it fairly easy.

By the end it was feeling much better, and I was wondering if I'd been too cautious, but I've ignored niggles before and ended up regretting it so I think I made the right decision.

Saturday, 27th February 2016 - 13 miles easy

13.2 miles
2:08:31
9:44/mi

The plan was to keep this very easy, and though it was a struggle to keep the pace in check for the first few miles, I eventually settled into a nice rhythm.

After experimenting with nutrition and hydration last week, I went back to running on empty for this. I'm well used to it at this stage - I find that once I eat properly and take on plenty of water the night before, I'm good to go for a long run the next morning and don't need to worry about having breakfast or bringing water with me.

Not a peep from the hip either so hopefully I've averted any potential major crisis that might have been brewing.

32 miles or so for the week.

mbarr

tailgunner wrote: »

After experimenting with nutrition and hydration last week, I went back to running on empty for this. I'm well used to it at this stage - I find that once I eat properly and take on plenty of water the night before, I'm good to go for a long run the next morning and don't need to worry about having breakfast or bringing water with me.

Same as that, I did my 22 mile yesterday on two slices of toast and a glass of water before leaving the house. I feel like people overthink the nutrition and hydration aspect, it's not like you're sweating much at long run pace anyway.

tailgunner

Monday, 29th February 2016 - 5.5 miles easy

5.5 miles
53:01
9:38/mi

Ended up heading out a bit later than usual for this and missed all the usual pedestrians and cyclists, apart from a guy with two little dogs on retractable leads who is going to be the death of me one of these days.

Legs felt good - it was like last week's niggle never existed. Starting to think it wasn't even running related, and maybe I strained a muscle doing gymnastics in my sleep or something.

Another decent month - no races, but some good sessions and plenty of miles banked.

Month|2015|2016
Jan|7.86|103.61
Feb|14.7|116.6
Mar|23.53
Apr|32.91
May|45.88
Jun|42.65
Jul|23.26
Aug|84.29
Sep|106.61
Oct|56.17
Nov|81.45
Dec|55.33
Total|574.64|220.21

tailgunner

Tuesday, 1st March 2016 - 40 minute tempo

4.69 miles
40:00
8:31/mi

I have a 10k race on Saturday, so had been planning on taking this session fairly handy, but it was very windy and I had trouble with the pacing. Ended up with 3.14 miles at 7:57/mi pace for the tempo part, which is a little quicker than I was aiming for. I probably should have just run it by effort and not worried about the pace as much. My legs feel grand today though, so no harm done.

Anyway, it was a good opportunity to try out my new racing shoes - a pair of Brooks Racer ST 5 in garish yellow. I bought these with the intention of using them all the way up to the marathon, but on first impressions, I think I might need shoes with a bit more support for that.

Still, they seem perfect for shorter distances - very light, and very "responsive" if that's the right word - it felt like I was almost running barefoot for the first while. The only real issue I had is that my feet seemed to move around inside the shoes a bit - might look into this lace-locking business I've heard so much about.

tailgunner

Wednesday, 2nd March 2016 - 3 miles easy

3.11 miles
29:27
9:29/mi

This was one of those rare times I actually regretted going for a run. It was ridiculously windy yet again, my pacing was all over the place, and the effort was way too high. Really wasn't happy with it at all, but I suppose I was due a bad run. At least it was short.

A mini-taper now ahead of the 10k on Saturday - I feel a little uneasy about taking two rest days in a row, but I'll stick to the plan.

Target for the race is 49:30.

Firedance

best of luck on Saturday TG!

tang1

Firedance wrote: »

best of luck on Saturday TG!

+1 to that, have a good one TG.

tailgunner

Thanks, best of luck in Kinvara!

tailgunner

Pre-race

I've never done a 10k before, so while this wasn't a goal race, I was really looking forward to it. The two-lap course is nice and flat, but very exposed in parts, so given the windy day that was in it, I opted for a conservative target. McMillan predicted 48:59, so I figured 49:30 would be a safe bet. The plan was to go off at that pace for a couple of miles, and then see how I felt.

The race wasn't starting till 1:30pm, which suited me as I had a few bits to do for the morning. I still ended up reaching the venue (Dorney Lake) with an hour to spare. Now, I hate being early for races - I just stand around making myself nervous - so I decided to head off and get petrol to kill some time. This wasn't my finest idea...

I went to a service station in nearby Slough, filled the tank, used the facilities, and hopped back in the car, where I promptly took the wrong exit at a roundabout, and found myself back on the motorway heading the wrong way. After a good half an hour of panic, I eventually found my way back to the lake, and parked the car about half a mile from the starting area - four minutes before the race was due to start.

After a "gentle warm-up" (i.e. Forrest Gump-ing it in the general direction of the crowd of people who looked like they might be about to begin a race), I got to the starting area as the wheelchair racers went off. A few seconds later, a klaxon sounded, and the runners followed them. I was still several feet away, trying to spell my name for the remarkably patient race organisers who handed me a race number, some safety pins and a timing chip. It took a couple of minutes to attach these items to my person, before I jogged to the start line, and set off. What a pro.

Miles 1 - 2

I took a couple of minutes to try and digest the absolute disaster that was my race preparation, then let it go and concentrated on putting things right. I was all alone, but there were trees providing plenty of shelter from the wind, and I managed to reel in the first few stragglers after half a mile. Spent the rest of this mile overtaking people, but there was plenty of room and I had hit a nice rhythm. The watched beeped at 7:56 - happy enough.

I was tipping away nicely now, and feeling good. Spotted a water station and realised I hadn't drank anything for several hours. Grabbed a cup and sent most of the water down my windpipe, and the rest down my leg. Ah well. I wasn't thirsty anyway. Turned a corner, and suddenly met my good old friend, the wind. Mile 2 beeped at 7:59.

Miles 3 - 4

This was where I was planning to pick up the pace if I felt good, which I did. But I didn't realise that this was where the wind would make its appearance, so I figured I'd maintain the same effort for now, and try to make up whatever time I lost later.

I had caught up with the main pack of runners at this stage, and was able to employ a tactic of tucking in behind a group for a few seconds, then leapfrogging to the next and repeating. The wind was brutal here, and the pace was slipping. I glanced at the watch after half a mile and saw the current lap pace had drifted out to 8:05/mi. That was going to be too much time to make back if I left it much longer, so I had to push on. Managed to pull it back to 8:00 for Mile 3.

I reached halfway shortly after this and was back in the shelter of the trees. At this point, I knew I was well on track for 49:30, and was still feeling pretty good. I had a good mile and a half of shelter ahead of me, so I knew that now was the time to kick on if I wanted to give sub-49 a good rattle. I picked up the pace again and carried on. Mile 4 came in at 7:49.

Miles 5 - 6

With a little over two miles to go, I was feeling less good physically, but I was growing confident. I skipped the water station this time, turned into the wind, and pushed on again. I don't know if the wind had died down a bit, or if it was just my perception of it, but it didn't seem nearly as much of a hindrance this time around.

I had stopped looking at the watch at this stage. It buzzed at Mile 5 but I didn't dare look - I don't think I could have come up with a good enough reason to keep pushing if I'd seen a split that was too slow. Not that it would have been a much better scenario if it was too fast either... Ultimately it was 7:42.

I was really feeling it now. Wind or no wind, my breathing was heavy, and my legs were sore. The field had spread out a good bit now, and it was taking all my concentration to keep reeling people in. I was still pushing the pace - and expecting to blow up at any moment.

I passed the last person I could see between me and the finish (still a long way off) - it speaks volumes about my mental capacities at this point in the race that I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. Or a giraffe. The watch buzzed at 7:31 for Mile 6, not that I had the nerve to look.

At this stage, I'd had quite enough of running, thank you very much, and wanted to bring the afternoon's activities to an end forthwith. I kicked hard and covered the last bit in 1:25.

After a minute or two of trying to decide if I was going to puke or not, and eventually opting against it, I went to check the results which were being posted in real-time. Found my name, with a time of 50:19 next to it.

What?

This was nearly two minutes off the 48:22 that my watch was giving me. I couldn't believe it. I was absolutely gutted.

It was only after I jogged back to the car that I checked the website on my phone and realised that it was showing gun time. Clicking on my name brought me to another page, showing my 10k split, and official chip time of 48:20.

The relief!

mbarr

Great work, excellent first 10k time! hilarious race prep being early and punting around a bit within sight of the start is boring but safe!

nop98

Splendid running Tailgunner - and a great report, too. Congrats on the PB.

Maximus Alexander

Well done. Enjoyed the report

tang1

Well done TG, enjoyed the report. Lucky you weren't running with us Saturday, we were there 2 hrs early just to play it safe!!

Ososlo

Really enjoyed that report and what a super result! Great things ahead for you this year.
Well done!

The Muppet

Great report well done with the PB.

jake1970

Well done, great report but you really have to work on your race prep:).