Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard

laura_ac3

annapr wrote: »

Lovely to read a log in modern language ....

Would you stop with this corrupting influence......

Chickey - what's the target race(s) coming up for the plan? Sorry if I missed you mentioning it recently

Firedance

laura_ac3 wrote: »

Would you stop with this corrupting influence......

Chickey - what's the target race(s) coming up for the plan? Sorry if I missed you mentioning it recently

DCM dontcha know - all the cool kids are doing it :cool:

chickey2

Ah Laura, I was corrupted before I met Anna!
How are you getting on yourself?

Firedance is right, DCM is the big goal for the year. I'm going to sign up for the race series too. Next race will probably be the Tallaght 5k as last year was my 5k pb so I'd love to beat it.

FD, will you be following the meno plan again for DCM? I think I will so it would be great if someone else was too!

Fri 01 11km with 3x8min @LT, 3min recovery: glad I got out early today looking at the weather out there now! Started with a 15 min warm up and then into the intervals. I ran it purely by HR. I'd programmed the watch so it beeped if I was out of range so didn't need to be looking at it. The average pace for the intervals were 5:09/4:54/5:12. I was so thrilled to see a number starting with a 4! HR was supposed to be 166-186 and the intervals were 178/179/180 so I was really happy. If I can keep that up I should pb in my next 5k (which garmin tells me is 24:18, but that was watch time rather than chip time)
Total 12.2km (as I took a wrong turn :-()

I've given in and joined Strava. I'm not quite sure how it works yet. I'll have to find the boards group.

Firedance

chickey2 wrote: »

FD, will you be following the meno plan again for DCM? I think I will so it would be great if someone else was too!

I've given in and joined Strava. I'm not quite sure how it works yet. I'll have to find the boards group.

Yes I sure wiill! It's a really super plan

I see you found me on strava :you'll be following a whole lot of nothing for a while the boardies will find you....:p

chickey2

Greetings from Valencia! What a great city to run in! There's a park that used to be a river running through the city centre and it's perfect for a run as it's flat and goes under the roads, and it's really scenic. There's a 5km runners lane that even has 100m markers.
Today's session was supposed to be 2 sets of 4x200m with 200m jog recovery. It's the first time I've ever done 200s! I was quite hungover so thought I'd just do 10km easy, but when I saw the flat, uninterrupted running lane with 100m markers it was perfect. Did the first set in 43/43/41/41 seconds. I was dying after the last one though and felt a bit faint. Since I was alone in a foreign city I decided to skip the second set and just run easy. Did a total of just over 9km.

Did 14.3 km on Sunday for my lsr. I headed up to the water works and ignored Murph_D as he ran past! I did think he looked a bit like Murph but didn't think he'd be out that way.

Back home tomorrow and no more flights for a while! Yay!

Murph_D

Don't feel bad - I didn't recognise you either . Friendly bunch of runners around there all the same. Most of them smiled and waved.

Nice 200s. That park sounds nice. But what happened to the river? :eek:

chickey2

Murph_D wrote: »

Don't feel bad - I didn't recognise you either . Friendly bunch of runners around there all the same. Most of them smiled and waved.

Nice 200s. That park sounds nice. But what happened to the river? :eek:

Apparently they diverted the river in the 50s as the city kept getting flooded. Imagine they diverted the liffey and you could just run through the city to phoenix park! It's an amazing facility. I'd definitely recommend Valencia as a city break for runners!

chickey2

So I got back home on Wednesday but was too tired to run so left it til Thursday.

Thurs 7: 13km endurance. I was happy with this, managed a bit of a progression run starting at 6:14 and finishing in 5:20 pace.
Total 13 km @5:50 average HR 159

Fri 8: 13 km with 2x10 mins and 1x8 min at LT. I spent ages the night before programing this in to my watch but it didn't transfer properly so had to do it manually 😞. Did 15 min warm and started at LT pace. Stupidly forgot and ran for 12 mins before I remembered it was supposed to be 10. I just did the other two reps for 8 mins each so the total time at LT was the same. Ave pace per rep was 5:20/5:11/5:12. Could be better.
Total 13km

Sunday: 16 km endurance. I decided to head down the dodder for a change. I forgot to change my watch back to autolap and didn't notice til 8km when I turned to come back. Definitely harder in the way back (uphill!). I felt pretty tired for this run. When I tried to upload my run it said my first lap was 8 km in 50 minutes, which was correct, but my lap moving time was over 276 hours! Must have been a glitch from changing auto lap mid run. Anyway it wouldn't load on to Strava as it knew it was dodgy!
Total 16.1 km @6:17 HR 167 not great

Happy enough with the weekly distance though, over 50km!

chickey2

Now for this week!
I was off Monday and it was a rest day (thankfully with that weather!) but I headed to amphibian king to get some runners. Finally picked a pair of mizunos. I was put off by the fact they are white, but they were the best fit so guess that's more important. I just can't wear them in the rain, or if there's mud 😜. Guess they won't be white for long!

Tues 12: 11km including 6x12 s hills and 6x100m strides. Did this in the evening for a change, and a lovely evening it was too. Hit the hill in dodder Valley Park which takes me exactly 12 seconds to run up. I love short hills! Fast enough to make you feel like you're working but short enough that they're over before you know. After the hills it took a while to get my HR back down despite a very slow jog. Loved my new shoes, they're lovely and light despite giving great support.

chickey2

Turns out the hills weren't so good after all! I headed out last Friday to run home from work but after 2km got a sudden sharp spasm in my calf and had to stop. Managed to limp to the luas and make it home somehow. I was worried I had torn my calf so iced and elevated it and took it very easy over the weekend.

I'm just back from a visit to Miles Splitz who told me it's not torn, but I probably took the hills too fast and damaged it. I should be back running by Friday so could be a lot worse.
So no running this week, but I do have a new appreciation of being able to run.

I've signed up for the Tallaght 5k on may 1st. It's not a goal race but it should give me an idea of where I'm at as I haven't raced since last September.

Thinking about some beer mile training once the race series 5mile is over, anyone got a good plan! :-)

Firedance

chickey2 wrote: »

Thinking about some beer mile training once the race series 5mile is over, anyone got a good plan! :-)

Yipee! I have no plan except to swap wine for beer the next few months!

Glad to hear no major damage - sure you hardly warmed the bench at all

chickey2

I've been told chugging fizzy water during a run is good training (and looks a bit better if you're running in public!)

laura_ac3

Glad to hear you won't be out for long. Good on you being so sensible! A shining beacon to the rest of us

Bungy Girl

Delighted it's not going to be a long lay-off. I hear ya on the appreciation of being able to run. I don't usually take it for granted but sometimes we need a little reminder of how lucky we are to be able to run (most of the time!).

chickey2

Fri 22: did a brief jog to test out the calf. I took it very slow and tried to concentrate on my form. Happy to say although there was a bit of stiffness in my calf it wasn't painful, and eased off as I ran. I kept it short although I felt I could run longer. Think thats a HR low record for me!
Total 3.3 km HR 147

Sun 24: I set out early so I could watch the London marathon. How my life has changed! Decided to do 10 km very easy and see how I felt. Kept close to home in case there was any problems but all was good. Still have stiffness in the calf but no pain. I made sure to stretch properly after but I'm still a bit stiff now a few hours later.
Total 10.6 km HR 157

So I've missed a week from the plan, but it was a recovery week so I think I'll just do the recovery this week and then continue with the plan (all going well). I'm running the 5k in Tallaght next Sunday but the idea of a pb is gone so I'll take it easy and just incorporate it into my long run.

El Caballo

There's probably no need to redo the recovery week if you feel fresh and aren't going to race flat out this weekend. The missed week would've gave you the same effect and should've gave you plenty of time to recover. Mind the calf though if you do ahead with a normal week.

chickey2

El Caballo wrote: »

There's probably no need to redo the recovery week if you feel fresh and aren't going to race flat out this weekend. The missed week would've gave you the same effect and should've gave you plenty of time to recover. Mind the calf though if you do ahead with a normal week.

Great, I wasn't sure if I was being over cautious. Tues has another 6x12s hill sprints but I'll just do strides instead as recommended by Myles as he thinks that's what did the damage.

chickey2

Update for this week so far

Mon 25: rest

Tues 26: 11 km general aerobic with 6*12s hills (I did 12s strides instead). This went quite well. Calf felt fine and the strides went well. Stupid HR monitor played up though and said my HR was 68 during one stride and 207 during the next! Average was 158 for the run which was about right

Wed 27: 14km endurance. I was really happy with this run. Started off slow (6:30) and ended up at 5:45. Average was 6:01 HR 159

Thurs 28: rest. Although with all the talk of pilates I decided to give it a go! Just stuck on a DVD I got ages ago and never watched. It was only 30 mins but it was hard! I'm going to try and do it twice a week if I can as I really need to strengthen my core. I did have a childish chuckle when yer one on the DVD kept saying "you need to really control your box"!

Fri 29: 13 km with 5*1km@5k pace. It started badly so I should have known. Thought it was very cold so wore my long pants and neck warmer. With all the messing about I forgot to go to the toilet before I left. Got out and was too warm and needed the loo before I'd even warmed up! Kept going though as I needed to get to work. The first km was good, nice steady pace. I had checked the calculator last night and was aiming for 4:45. Did the first in 4:51. Next one was on the only slight incline on my route but tried to keep the pace although I was struggling a bit. 4:47, a bit better. Third was going great til I felt an all to familiar cramp in my calf and I had to slow to a jog. Still managed 4:58 although the last few metres were jogged. I decided I couldn't do anymore intervals but I still had to get to work. The calf was cramping but I could still jog slowly so did a jog/walk the rest of the way. I was also dying for the bathroom. Glad I wore my long pants and neck warmer in the end as I was freezing once I slowed down. Got to work late, freezing, needing the toilet and in foul form! Did I mention I ached all over due to the pilates too?! The only positive is I did the full 13km!

The plan has a 5 km recovery tomorrow and the 16 km endurance on Sunday. I'm not sure what to do with the calf. I'll be able to do the 5 km tomorrow and I was going to incorporate the 16 km into the tallaght 5k on Sunday but I'm having second thoughts. I know I'll be tempted to run fast and I really don't want to risk injury.

Firedance

mind that calf.... did you discover what's causing it? sorry I should just have read back a few posts!

chickey2

Firedance wrote: »

mind that calf.... did you discover what's causing it? sorry I should just have read back a few posts!

Not sure. Myles thought it was fatigue caused by hill repeats. It was fine most of last week but only bothers me when I run fast.

Sat 30: 5km recovery. This ended up as a family run with me running, the two kids on bikes and hubbie jog/walking behind us! It included lots of stops and a visit to the playground so it was very relaxed. This is my first week doing 5 days of running so this was the extra day. No bother!
5km@7:12 HR 137

Sun 01: 16 km endurance was the plan. I decided to do the Tallaght 5k but slowly. I did over 7 km before the race so I wouldn't be tempted to take off! To give myself some kind of challenge I aimed to do even splits of 6min km and come in at exactly 30 mins, a pacing exercise I suppose. Did OK, and finished just over 29 minutes on the clock. I felt like I should have had a sign saying "training run" on me, as I felt like telling people, I could run faster if I wanted to! My HR was quite high considering the pace. I don't know if it was because it was a race or if I'm coming down with something. Had a quick coffee and cake and did another 3 km home so total of 15.3km.

Weekly total 58.6km

Very tired now and my calf is stiff so I have my feet up and going to rest properly.

Younganne

If you have compression socks or sleeves they are great for tight calf, i always wear mine after a run if the calf is feeling a bit tight and it works wonders.

Firedance

Younganne wrote: »

If you have compression socks or sleeves they are great for tight calf, i always wear mine after a run if the calf is feeling a bit tight and it works wonders.

+ 1 to this, I wear them walking the dog every morning ) can't wear them running but they def work for post run or recovery.

Well done on not racing today!!

chickey2

Younganne wrote: »

If you have compression socks or sleeves they are great for tight calf, i always wear mine after a run if the calf is feeling a bit tight and it works wonders.

Thanks, I only got some in lidl last week so I'll give them a go.

chickey2

Mon 2: rest but did my pilates again.

Tues 3: session was 2 sets of 5x200m @ 800-1500m pace with 200m recovery and 4 mins between sets. Had no choice but to do this on a commute so I was relying on the unreliable garmin to guesstimate the distance. Warm up went well and the calf felt OK so decided to go ahead with it. I'd no idea what my 800 to 1500m pace was but when I did these before I was doing them in about 43 seconds. Managed the first set in 47/48/47/46/50. Calf started niggling so decided to do the second set a bit slower. Did these in 54/55/55/50/53. Happy enough. I still need practice at these kind of sessions though.
Total 12.5km

Wed 4: 14km endurance. Run itself went great. Nice progression again and felt good. I really like these runs. Calf didn't bother me at all so I was in great form til I went to the bathroom. Sorry if this is tmi but when I peed it was full of blood. Not just a hint of blood, it was like I'd just poured a load of blood down the toilet. I'm well used to blood as I handle it at work but I don't like it when I see my own! I nearly passed out. Got myself together and consulted Dr Google who actually reassured me that if you run a long distance with an empty bladder it can cause bleeding. I made an appointment with GP anyway. I'm just back and he reckons the same as Dr Google but is sending me to have a bladder and kidney scan just in case. He didn't tell me not to run (I didn't ask!). Rest today so will run tomorrow and hope I don't have a repeat. It's typical that this happens just as the calf seems to be better!

I was going to sign up for DCM today but think I better wait.

Bungy Girl

OMG you must have got a fright :eek:. Sounds like it's not uncommon, although I must say I've never heard of it as a side effect of running on empty. Hope all turns out well with the scan.

Nice 200s btw. I did a similar session during the week, it's tough!

Murph_D

Ouch. I thought there would be a punchline involving beetroot juice but no. Good luck with scan.

Firedance

Crikey! best of luck with the tests, likewise have never heard of that - hope it turns out to be nothing.

laura_ac3

Same as the others, hope it turns out to be nothing.

chickey2

Murph_D wrote: »

Ouch. I thought there would be a punchline involving beetroot juice but no. Good luck with scan.

Ha, that would be embarrassing if that was the cause! I do drink it but hadn't had any in a few days. No reoccurrence so far so I'm not too worried.

Calf is totally fine now too. No stiffness or anything. So my body seems to be in good shape, unfortunately my head is not.

I had a very traumatic experience on Thursday evening, I went to check on my dad and found him dead. He'd been there for two days. I missed my Friday run as a result but managed to get out today for a slow 5k. I realised today how much I need to run. I'm still a mess but just doing that run helped a tiny bit. It's going to take a lot of running to get over this but at least I have something that helps.

El Caballo

Sorry to hear the bad news chickey. Look after yourself.

mel.b

Oh gosh chickey, i'm so sorry you had to experience that and i'm sorry for your loss

Firedance

Oh god Cara I'm so sorry to hear that, take care of yourself xx

Ososlo

So sorry for your loss C. Look after yourself x

adrian522

That's horrible, hope you are OK,

annapr

Jesus, C, that's a shocker. You are right that running will help you, but sounds like you are in shock. So sorry to hear that. Mind yourself.

Murph_D

What an awful week for you. Sorry, C. Condolences.

Hannibelle Smeeeth

Oh my god C. I was just reading your first post and thinking you must have got an awful shock and then i saw the second. I am so very sorry to read about your Dad. I cant even imagine how traumatic that was. If I can do anything, even a bit of company on a short trott up to Bohernabreena, let me know.

hillsiderunner

Sorry for your loss, and the shock of finding out. Hope you have some good support for the days ahead.

Bungy Girl

So sorry to hear this sad news, C. I hope that running will help you cope in some small way with your loss. x

RedRunner

So sorry to hear your bad news ! Be well.

chickey2

Thanks so much for all the lovely messages and support. Things are finally starting to get back to normal. I've been so out of my routine and so busy that running had to take a back seat but I managed to get out yesterday and today so I'm going to try and get back to the plan.

Sat 14th: 5.7km easy. Lovely sunny run which did me the world of good. Took it easy as I'd no idea what I was supposed to be doing and I hadn't run in a week. Slow pace of 6:23 but HR was 158 so not great, but I got out!

Sun 15th: Headed up to the reservoir for a "long" run. I eventually found the long lost plan which had me down for 18km but I thought it better to do a bit less. Really busy up at the reservoir as it was such a gorgeous day. Happy with 12.8 km although HR was high again. I guess it's just stress although my resting HR is fine.

Firedance

just take it easy C, enjoy the runs and don't put any extra pressure to do sessions etc for now, mind yourself x

chickey2

Well my return to running was a bit premature and I ended up taking another break. I'm back in work now so the incentive is there to run in so hopefully I'll get back in to the swing of things.

Tues 24: I'm going to have to completely reassess my plan so the goal of today was to get to work keeping my HR in the easy zone. Felt alright although I did get a but of tightness in the left side of my groin which I've never had before. Finished the run OK but it got worse as the day went on. I iced it when I got home and took a neurofen before bed and the pain vanished and hadn't returned. Very strange.
Total 11km @6:24 HR 160

Thurs 26: Another commute. Felt a bit sluggish gong out and then it started raining, but it really picked me up and I ended up doing a progression run https://www.strava.com/activities/588322667
I was delighted with the splits. My average HR was 163 so not much more than yesterday but average pace was 6:09. I felt great after.
Total 11 km

I'll try and get out my plans and calendar and come up with a new strategy. I'm going to miss the race series 5mile unfortunately but will do the 10 mile and the half.

Murph_D

How does that HR translate to HRR, C? Is it within the GA/Easy range? Seems a little high but depends of course on your max/min. Do you carry much with you on your commute?

chickey2

Murph_D wrote: »

How does that HR translate to HRR, C? Is it within the GA/Easy range? Seems a little high but depends of course on your max/min. Do you carry much with you on your commute?

My resting is about 50 and my max is 205 so my HRR is 155. The general aerobic range is 62-75% HRR which for me is 146-166. I usually do end up on the high side of that but I try an aim for about 160. Sometimes my resting HR does drop below 50 but I don't bother recalculating!

I'm lucky I don't need to carry anything with me on my commute as I wear scrubs at work so don't need to bring in clothes. My OH works in the same place as me so he brings in my bag later on. I leave a change of underwear/towel/ snack in my bag to put in my locker for the next day. Who says work romances are a bad idea!

chickey2

PS I'm so excited I've learned to do smilies on the tablet :)

Murph_D

Ah right, so you have a high max HR. As do I - I find those "rule of thumb" calculators useless. Great to be able to commute so lightly!

chickey2

Murph_D wrote: »

Ah right, so you have a high max HR. As do I - I find those "rule of thumb" calculators useless. Great to be able to commute so lightly!

Yeah, if the calculator was right then I must only be 15! I wish.

So I did three runs this week, then I'll do 4 next week and back to 5 the week after.

Third run this week was Sunday. I headed out early and decided to run around tymon. The plan was 14 km. Felt great on the way there and was happy enough for a while. Due to running in circles I managed to pass raycun three times! He probably thinks I'm stalking him. About half way I started feeling rubbish. My HR was very high and pace was decreasing. At just over 12k I started walking as my HR was approaching 180. In hindsight I was probably a bit dehydrated. No niggles though and I felt well enough later to climb the sugarloaf with the kids. In fact I barely broke a sweat while poor OH almost passed out at the top!

chickey2

Tues: commute to work. 11km @6:13 HR 162. I can't remember much about this now!

Wed: another commute but I decided to do 6*3 mins @ 5 k pace. Thought I needed a bit of speed and this was the first workout that showed up on my watch. It went really well, paces for the intervals were 5:03/4:54/4:55/4:57/4:44/4:45. Happy with that. Total 11.8 km

Supposed to run Friday but had other stuff that took precedence. I decided that night I'd do a parkrun on Saturday instead. I normally can't do it as the kids have swimming, but they didn't this week so I took the opportunity to test my fitness. My original plan had targeted the race series 5 miler next week but I can't do it now and training had been rubbish so I thought a 5km would do the job. Also, I have to have a general anaesthetic next week so once again I'll have to take days off

Sat: 2.9 km warm up, 5 km parkrun in 24:50, 2 km cool down. Pretty much what I expected from the intervals on Wednesday. My pb is 24:13 but I knew I wasn't in shape for a pb so I was happy to go sub 25. I decided to take Dubgals advice and run without looking at the watch (I still wore it though!). I was surprised at how even the splits were 5:00/4:57/4:53/5:00/4:59. All the fast women must be saving themselves for the mini marathon on Monday as I was the fourth female finisher! One thing I learnt was I really need to race more (yes I know parkrun isn't a race!) It's the first time I've run with others since the half marathon last September. I really should be able to go sub 24 for a 5 k at this stage.

denis b

Welcome back racing Chickey2 and nice to have a working target.