Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard

Dubgal72

Haha deadly report Your five year old rocks!
Great work on the intervals too. I was talking to my coach and he agrees that there is real value in the 'able to a few more reps' approach, but now and then if you risk 'emptying the tank', during a session, you will reap the reward too. And you did have a good recovery day after

annapr

Just catching up here, good session! and your 5-year-old clearly was helping with recovery pace

chickey2

I forgot to add on my long run from Sunday to finish off last week. Did the full 19km as planned and ended up walking one more at the end as my route planning skills leave a lot to be desired. In fairness I was running to and from my Dad's so it was an area I don't normally run. It was great to have a change of scenery. Even managed a bit of the DMC route for old times sake! Stupidly misread the plan again and thought the last 5 was at LT but that was last weeks long run and this weeks was supposed to be all at easy pace
Total 19km @6:07 HR162

Total for week: 78.7km :eek: Just to clarify I did my long run on the bank holiday Monday so this week included two long runs. Over the two weeks I did 117.8km in total which is more like it.

So this week I start week 7 of the plan which is about half way. I've missed a few runs but no more than one a week and certainly not one every week. I've another increase this week to bring me up to 72km and my longest LSR so far (21km) I'm going to treat it as a trial run for the half and try and get out at the same time as the race and use the gear I'm going to use on the day. I'll try a gel too. I've been bringing them but not using them for my long runs so far. I'm way above the distance i was covering this time last year so I really hope I can take a chunk off my 10 mile (1:33) and especially the half time (1:57). I even had a look at my stats for the 10mile last year. i managed pretty even splits, I just need to do them faster this year!

Mon 11: 14km with 38min@tempo: Did just that, although the total distance was a bit short. As always started out hard and was sure I'd never get to 38 mins but got in to it and was really happy with the pace. Did 7.6km in the 38mins and the splits were 5:10/5:04/4:58/5:03/4:56/4:56/4:55/(4:49)
Total 13.3km@5:36 HR162

annapr

Good going, C. I'll be very surprised if you don't smash that frank duffy time.

chickey2

Wed 12: 16km endurance. Another commute. I can't really remember much if this run! Garmin tells me I did 16.3 km @6:32 pace HR 159

Thurs 13: rest

Fri 14: 13km general aerobic with 10*100m strides. I remember this one for all the wrong reasons! It was another commute so headed off at 6am on an empty stomach as usual. About 5km in I was starting to feel my bowels cramping. It was the same as happened a couple of weeks ago. Long story short I managed to make it to work but did the opposite of strides as I had to stop a few times and walk so as not to have an accident :-( I've stopped taking the iron supplement to see if that's the culprit. I've been fine since. Might start it again next week but only every second day but if I have another bad run I'll ditch the supplement
Total 12.7km @6:12 HR 151

Sat 15: plan said 8km recovery but since it was the first week I actually managed a proper recovery (ie without kids!) I decided to just run slow for 40 mins.
Total 6.2km @6:27 HR 151

Sun 16: 21 km progression run. Decided to do this as a dress rehearsal for the half. Had my smoothie before and took a gel just before I left. It was the first gel I've had since DCM 2014! I started off nice and slow and progressed as planned. I just watched my HR rather than pace as its a quite hilly route. I was aiming for 7km@150, 7km@160 and 7km@170. I cant get the splits right now as Garmin is acting up for me but it worked out well and I did the 21km in 2:09:40 which is 6:11 pace and my average HR was 163. I feel grand now as it didn't take too much out of me. I didn't take another gel as I didn't feel I needed one. Think I'll just stick to one just before the start for the big day but will bring one in reserve.

Weekly total: 69.5km. Should have done another 500m on that recovery run!

Murph_D

Nice week (apart from the cramps). Can't imagine running strides on a commute anyway, can't be easy! You're doing very nicely with the plan.

annapr

Good week for you C... I laughed at your 'opposite of strides'... I know that feeling :eek:

chickey2

I've been bad with updates this week. Too busy! And not necessarily running!
The week started off badly as I had a rest day on Monday and then didn't make it out on Tuesday as I had an 8am meeting so couldn't fit a run in before work. I had hoped to get to Morton Stadium that evening for the paced miles but OH was late home from work so by the time I got to the M50 it was 6.30 and the traffic was awful so I came off at Ballymount and went home Was in bad form then so opted for a some wine and TV with OH rather than going out for a run.

Wed 19: Plan was 11km endurance but as I missed yesterdays run I did 12.3km and a few strides. Felt a lot better after this
12.3km@6:28 HR 158

Thurs 20: Rest

Fri 21: 5K with 4x100m strides. This was mini taper for the 10 miler on Saturday. It's been a while since I've done a short run during the week so I had to figure out how to get to work (12K away) while getting in a 5K run.
Total: 5k@6:05 HR 159

Sat 22: Frank Duffy 10 mile. The plan for this was to do the first 6km easy and then speed up and race the last 10k. As I was going to start slow I headed to the back of the pack. Lots of headphones there :rolleyes:. Started out slow enough but a bit faster than I had planned. It's so hard to run slow in a race. Hit the first 1km in 6:02 so slowed down a bit. It was nice and easy so had lots of time to look around. One of the downsides of being at the back of the pack is they had run out of cups at the water station! They had water alright, but it was in 2L bottles so they were just handing them out! I didn't bother taking one as I had barely broken a sweat so didn't need it, just as well! Once I hit 6km I started really moving. It felt so much better to be going fast. Problem I had to keep overtaking. i was expecting to see I'd run 11 miles in the end with all the weaving I did! I was nice at first to overtake, but got to be a real pain on the narrow paths. I was so glad to get back on to Chesterfield avenue. I hit the half way mark at 46:52 in place 2870.
The rest of the race was pretty uneventful, I just kept going, trying to keep as close to 5min/km as I could. The hill towards the end didn't seem half as bad as last year! I had to walk it then, but managed to keep running this year (despite slowing quite a bit). I purposely didn't look at my watch as I knew I'd be way off my ideal pace. Once I hit the last km I emptied the tank and went for it. Sprint to the finish and got in at 1:28:50 in place 2257. So I had a lovely negative split (5 minutes) and over took 615 people in the second half! :cool: Last year I did it in 1:33 and that was flat out, so I was delighted.
Had a quick chat with a few boardsies after, sounds like PBs all around.
So celebratory drinks tonight, and then I get to do another 10 miler tomorrow:eek: It'll be a lot slower though.

Split Avg Pace
1 6:02
2 6:04
3 6:12
4 6:13
5 6:13
6 6:03
7 5:03
8 5:09
9 5:02
10 5:02
11 5:05
12 5:08
13 5:14
14 5:29
15 5:36
16 4:58
17 3:17
Summary 1:28:49.4 5:31

Edit: Just had another look at the position thing, it gives a stage position which I took as my position at half way, then there's an overall position and a chip position, what's the difference? My overall position was 2662 so maybe I didn't overtake as many as I thought

laura_ac3

Nice pb chickey, well done. Good to see you too. Sorry if you mentioned it in a pre race build up post but why plan for the easy start and race the 10k and not all of it?

chickey2

Thanks Laura. The plan called for a 8-10k tune up race or a 16k easy run. I decided to combine the two. Tomorrows lsr will be a bit shorter than usual but I still wanted to do it so didn't want to kill myself today.

Firedance

well done today! especially as you didn't race the whole thing, nice work

Bungy Girl

Well done Chickey, such discipline ! And a huge improvement compared to last year, you'll rock the Half

Murph_D

Nice going - you probably could have started a bit farther up but it was very considerate of you all the same!

Not sure how useful the stage position is, depends if it's based on chip time or gun time. Hopefully someone knows!

nop98

chickey2 wrote: »

Just had another look at the position thing, it gives a stage position which I took as my position at half way, then there's an overall position and a chip position, what's the difference? My overall position was 2662 so maybe I didn't overtake as many as I thought

Hi chickey2, well done on the PB, pity never got to say hello.

I am guessing, but I think you are correct that the stage position is your half-way "absolute" position (e.g. yours was the 2257th chip to pass the half-way timing mat regardless of start-wave). The overall position must be the same, but then for the finishing-mat, and the chip-position takes your start-time into account.

That said, overtaking >200 people in an 8km stretch (especially with these narrow paths down the bottom of Chesterfield) is phenomenal! For a 5 min/km pace, that's one every 10-12 seconds (if my arithmetic doesn't fail me) - probably more as you'll invariably get overtaken a couple of times yourself!

Well done again!

laura_ac3

chickey2 wrote: »

Thanks Laura. The plan called for a 8-10k tune up race or a 16k easy run. I decided to combine the two. Tomorrows lsr will be a bit shorter than usual but I still wanted to do it so didn't want to kill myself today.

Ah I see, a good compromise so. More to come so next time out all going well presume the Dublin half is the goal race at the end of this plan?

chickey2

Thanks for all the congratulations.

I headed out on Saturday, drank a bottle of wine but was in bed by midnight and slept like a log til 11am! Did a bit of hanging around on Sunday morning hoping for the rain to lift, but by 3pm I realised it wasn't going to happen so I needed to just get out. Went out thinking I'd be wrecked but my legs were surprisingly light and I felt great! The rain was invigorating and i just felt like I could have run all day. Did 16km as per the plan and was thrilled with myself. The plan really is working as last year I could barely get off the sofa the day after the Frank Duffy.
Sun 16km @ 5:57 I didn't have my HR monitor as I left it in work.
Total for the week 49.8km, not great as I missed a 13km run

Mon 24: rest. Needed it!

Tues 25: Got up at 5:30 :eek: and managed 18km before getting to work at 7:45. Not only did I not have my HR monitor but my watch lost GPS signal after 150m and refused to reconnect at all. So basically it was an expensive stop watch. Luckily I was doing a route i did recently and i know its exactly 18km. Did it in 1:53 so happy with that.
Wrecked now and need to go to bed, another early start tomorrow

annapr

Good to see you on Saturday, C... you're doing really well with that plan, putting some of us to shame!!

Bungy Girl

chickey2 wrote: »

Tues 25: Got up at 5:30 :eek: and managed 18km

That's the middle of the night :eek: Respect!

chickey2

Bungy Girl wrote: »

That's the middle of the night :eek: Respect!

Yeah, it was still dark! It hadn't occurred to me the night before so there was a mad search for a high vis jacket. It was nice to see the sunrise though.

chickey2

Stupid lap top is broken so I'm doing my updates in the phone, apologies for spelling and grammar!

Wed 25: 13km general aerobic. Had planned to get up early but it was pouring rain and I was tired so got the luas in to work and ran home. Much better idea as it was a lovely evening. Did a loop of tymon to make up the distance. Loads out running.
Total 13.3km @6:22 HR 156

Thurs 26: rest

Fri 27: Today I learnt the lesson that you need to stick to the plan! It was a bit if a disaster really. The plan said 16km, 2 sets of 2x1,200m, 1x800m @3-5k race pace. I knew this would be best done on a track and had considered heading to kilbogart but chicklet 2 has just started school so I only had a 2 hour window and I couldn't be late to collect her. I decided to do long hill repeats instead so headed out with this in mind. After a warm up I found myself close to the local gaa pitch and suddenly had the idea to do ecoli's diagonals instead. I've not done them before and I'd only read about them here ages ago. I started off way too fast. Slowed down but then wasn't sure was I doing them right. Then the doubt set in and I had a major wobble. I ended up sitting on the grass wondering what I was doing as I'm obviously crap at running and I should just go home. I was looking out at the mountains and thought I should have gone there instead so jumped up and headed uphill. Not long later I realised I needed to watch the time, which annoyed me again so ended up sitting on a rock taking deep breaths. I don't know what was wrong with me. Ended up heading back to pick up chicklet. Felt crap for the rest of the day and even had a bit if a temperature so had a dose of sambucol and went to bed at 9pm.
Total 12.9km @6:35 HR 158

Sat 28: 6km recovery. Felt great when I woke up! Weird. Anyway, recovery run went well, took it easy and felt good.
Total 6km don't have stats but it was almost exactly 40 mins.

Sun 29: 23km endurance. Was in Clare for this so didn't really have a route. Headed out of ennis on the old Limerick Road until I hit the motorway at the Clare Inn, then back the way I came but took the N85 ring road around Ennis. It was grand, slow enough but didn't get the horrible negative thoughts I had on Thursday. I felt right at home when some lads in a car beeped me and shouted "nice arse". I thought that only happened in Tallaght!
Total 23km in 1hr 20

Weekly total 73.3km

Highest distance week ever and highest of the plan. It starts decreasing next week. Can't believe it's only 3 weeks til the half!

Firedance

Great work going on here chickey, bit early maybe but good luck for Saturday

Murph_D

Sorry to hear about your difficulties on Fri, C - I find that kind of session (not that I do too many of them outside of a club setting) really needs plenty of mental/logistical preparation - might have been a better idea to postpone it till the next day when you might have had more time to get to the track or other suitable (hopefully flat) location! But hey, we've all those "sitting on the grass wondering what I was doing" moments (or at least I have anyway!) Sounds like you bounced back nicely.

chickey2

Firedance wrote: »

Great work going on here chickey, bit early maybe but good luck for Saturday

Thanks! It's never too early. Hope to see you there.

Murph_D wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your difficulties on Fri, C - I find that kind of session (not that I do too many of them outside of a club setting) really needs plenty of mental/logistical preparation - might have been a better idea to postpone it till the next day when you might have had more time to get to the track or other suitable (hopefully flat) location! But hey, we've all those "sitting on the grass wondering what I was doing" moments (or at least I have anyway!) Sounds like you bounced back nicely.

Thanks, I think that was it, I just wasn't mentally prepared and then I just kept chopping and changing the plan so I was all over the place. Lesson learnt!

Thought I'd update my lovely table. Another record this month! And, I've already done more distance than the whole of lsat year (despite doing a marathon In hindsight it was madness but I didn't know any better not having the fantasic source of all knowlege that is Boards! I'm not sure how September will be since the plan started to reduce distance over trhe next few weeks.

Month|2014(km)|2015(km)
January|23.4|112.6
February|19.1|124.1
March|64.4|83.1
April|112.7|97.5
May|105|142.3
June|120|146.6
July|68.7|217.4
August|128.6|241.9
September|134.3
October|181.9
November|78.4
December|83.5
Total|1120|1165.5


I'm undecided what to do after the half. I've entered the ballot for London so I should know by October 7th whether I'm in or not. It's unlikely I'll get it though. If I do I'll definitely go for it, but if I don't I'm not sure. I was going to do Limerick instead if I didn't get London but now I'm wondering do I want to do a marathon at all. I'm always so short of time and it's going to get worse with the shorter days. I might just concentrate on the 5-10Ks for a bit.

Just edited my post as I realised I never included the 18km run where my GPS went mad and told me I'd done 150m!

annapr

ha, I had exactly the same reaction when i looked at my mileage for last year leading up to the marathon... what were we thinking!?!

How are you feeling about Saturday now? We will be looking out for you on the course!

chickey2

annapr wrote: »

ha, I had exactly the same reaction when i looked at my mileage for last year leading up to the marathon... what were we thinking!?!

How are you feeling about Saturday now? We will be looking out for you on the course!

I'm not sure I was thinking at all! Although I was very relaxed about the whole thing and so wasn't really stressed and ran the marathon like an lsr and finished with a smile on my face so it wasn't too bad.

Looking forward to Saturday (especially the muffins!) I'd said I was going to try sub 50 but was reading up on tune up races and think I'll just take it at slightly faster than HM race pace which would give me 51-52 minutes so I'd be happy with that.

annapr

Best of luck tomorrow C! we will be looking out for you...

Tom Joad

Best of luck tomorrow - you've been doing great work lately and it will stand to you tomorrow.

aquinn

All the very best. See you at the finish.

Murph_D

Best of luck C.

laura_ac3

Good luck today C.

annapr

Well done today, C!!! You looked very strong on that last hill

chickey2

Thanks! And thanks for the support, it really gave me a boost. Will write up a report later when I don't have my nephew on my knee.

aquinn

You looked great. Strong and happy with 500m to go. Well done.

chickey2

Tues 1: 13km with strides. Easy enough run and no niggles from the lsr in Sunday which was good. HR was nice and low too. It's getting dark these mornings though. My route through tymon in the mornings might have to change if I can't see where I'm going!
Total :13.3km @6:02 HR 150

Wed 2: 11km general aerobic. My first thought when I looked the plan was I "only" had to do 11km. This time last year I wouldn't have thought that! Nothing of note.
Total: 11.3 km @5:58 HR 152

Thurs 3: rest

Fri 4: 5km with 4x100m strides. Hopped off the luas and ran along the canal for this. Seemed to fly by. HR a bit higher than Wednesday despite running slower and shorter.
Total: 5.3 km @6:21 HR 153

chickey2

Saturday 5: Lakes 10k
This was in the plan as a tune up race. I was supposed to run it at "slightly less" than planned half marathon pace. I wasn't sure what to aim for so decided to see how I felt on the day. I was secretly hoping for sub 50!
Got down quicker than I thought and had loads of time to park and pick up my number. Took my pace just between the sub 50 and sub 55 group where I bumped into Firedance. Had a quick chat before the gun sounded and of we went. Started off easy enough and first km was in 5:08. This is slightly faster than my planned half marathon pace, but it felt easy enough so i decided to slightly speed up. Glanced at my watch at the 5km marker and it was just over 25 minutes so wasn't sure if I'd make 50 minutes but it was still possible.
Hit the hill at 6km and decided to go for it! It was tough but tried to keep the pace. Once I reached the top (phew!) I tried to keep the momentum going. The downhill was great and I felt really good.
At 500m to go I got an extra boost from the cheer leaders and got a good giggle from aquinns roar of "nice arse!". As I approached the finish I could see the timer at 49:05. All I wanted was sub 50 so I just ran as fast as I could. Final garmin time 49:12 but my chip time (or was it gun time?) was 49:29. Either way it's sub 50 so I'm happy! :-) It was a really well organised race, everything went so smoothly from the parking to the number collection, start and finish. Would have liked to stay longer and chat after but had to dash home to visitors.


Total: 10k @4:55 (49:12) garmin
Splits
5:08
4:56
5:04
5:07
4:57
4:49
5:15
4:36
4:45
4:31

Bungy Girl

Lol, she never told me I'd a nice arse :rolleyes:

Well done today, there was no chip timing due to 'technical issues' so I'd go the watch time for sure.

See you in two weeks for the half!

Firedance

Well done again! You looked like you were out for a jog look forward to seeing you smash the half

Dubgal72

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Lol, she never told me I'd a nice arse :rolleyes:

I know, me neither.... / :mad: / ??? Feel like going back for a replay in case I missed something??

Seriously, chickey, well done! You must be buzzing after breaking smashing that barrier!

annapr

Dubgal72 wrote: »

I know, me neither.... / :mad: / ??? Feel like going back for a replay in case I missed something??

Seriously, chickey, well done! You must be buzzing after breaking smashing that barrier!

It was an inside joke, you have to read Chickey's log to understand

Dubgal72

Ah....my log backlog has come back to bite me


but still wouldn't have bloody hurt...two.bloody.words.....

Bungy Girl

annapr wrote: »

It was an inside joke, you have to read Chickey's log to understand

I know, and I do so it was an inside joke within an inside joke

Dubgal72

*diverts to you tube for a Father Ted fest*

chickey2

Double post

chickey2

Only just getting a chance to update this week. The day after the lakes 10 k I was feeling grand and should have done a 16 k run but due to visitors didn't make it. Headed out on Monday which should have been a rest day but it worked out well as I have to adjust the plan to take in to account the hm is on a Saturday not a Sunday.
Anyway, Monday 7: 16 km endurance. Did this straight after the school drop off to was a slightly different route. Felt good but was approaching the house at 15 k so gave in.
Total: 15.2 km @6:03 HR 157

Tues 8: 6 km recovery: ran part of the way home from work. I was all dressed for a cold wet run but it turned out to be a gorgeous warm afternoon. Went a bit fast for a recovery but i was feeling good and the hr was ok.
Total: 5.8 km @6:03 HR 152

Wed 9: rest

Thurs 10: plan was for a V02max session. Due to bad experience I really dread these. I slept terribly the night before, partly due to worrying and partly due to poor oh getting several phone calls from work between 2 and 4am 😣 . I ended up with only about 3 hours sleep so decided to can the session. I started running home from work hoping to do the prescribed 14 km as an easy run but after a 10 hour shift after 3 hours sleep I just couldn't do it so rang oh to come get me. I was really annoyed but my body just needed sleep. Was in bed by 9 and slept like the dead til 6am.
Total: 6.6km@6:19 HR 153

Fri 11: 5km recovery. Since I didn't have too much to recover from I did slightly more, but after reading the novice's thread about not trying to make up for missed sessions, I was sensible. I got lots of advice about dealing with bad runs too so didn't feel as bad about my rubbish week.
Total: 6.6 km @6:03 HR 160

Sat 12: 16 km endurance: headed up to the reservoir for this one, my favourite place to run. It's handy for a progression run as its uphill for the first half and downhill for the second. Is that cheating? Anyway started off slow and ended up at Lt pace and felt great. Stupidly thought I was supposed to do 15 km so was really annoyed when I got home and saw it was supposed to be 16. Could have easily done it but wasn't going out again once I was in.
Total: 15km @6:07 HR 161

Sun 13: rest

So on the taper now! I'm starting to get a bit nervous now. After the sub 50 10 k last week I've decided to aim for 1:50 in the half. I think I'll start out with the 1:50 pacers and depending on how I feel I might try and break away. I'll be delighted with 1:50 though.

Murph_D

It's a better week than you think - you got some work done every day you were supposed to, that's the most important thing.

chickey2

Murph_D wrote: »

It's a better week than you think - you got some work done every day you were supposed to, that's the most important thing.

Ah thanks D. I was just reading your good advice to Anna too. I always feel bad if I go off plan but it probably won't make any difference at this stage.

Managed to stick to the plan today though (almost!) It read "11km, 4x 100m strides, 2 miles (3km)@HM race pace. So off I went to tymon park and picked a route where I'd have a hill during the race pace section to make sure I could stick to the pace on a hill. Thought it might be mental preparation for the hill near the end of the half. I usually run by a mixture of HR and effort, rarely pace, but decided for the three km I'd stick to pace. I picked 5:11 min per km as that's what McMillan says I should be able to do a half in going on my 10km time last week. Did a good progressive 5km warm up then did the race pace 3 km in 5:04/5:12/5:12. First was a bit fast, second was going up a hill, and third was going downhill. It was only during my cool down I remembered the strides doh! Threw them in at the end and felt surprisingly good. Overall I was happy, good to know I could hold the pace on a hill, although its shorter than the one in phoenix park (but steeper!) and obviously it'll be harder after 16 or 17 km.
Just a few short runs now for the week and thats it.

Did I hear rumour of points in Ryan's on Saturday? A pint of bulmers would be a great incentive to the finish line!

Bungy Girl

That's great prep for Saturday, Chickey! I saw that session on Murph_D's training plan and I'm hoping to give it a shot on Wednesday. It's a bit closer to race day than ideal but I succumbed to BG Jr's bug yesterday and have a lot of eating to catch up on before I attempt a decent run!

See you on race day!

aquinn

Fair play to you, for remembering this - 11km, 4x 100m strides, 2 miles (3km)@HM race pace, and getting paces.

You are going to have a great race.

Murph_D

You nailed it, nice going. Threw in a hill too - classy!

Bungy Girl

Best of luck tomorrow, Chickey, and see you afterwards. It seems like your training has gone really well so go smash your target.