The breaks even out in the long run

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Sunday 15th October- County Senior 10k XC

Now that the mud has been well and truly polished off and I've managed to peel my head out from under the covers, it's probably time to reflect on the race.

Today was the big un!:) marked up on the calendar encircled with a big red sharpie was County Senior 10k. My sights had been firmly set on this date since the last days of June when I finished off my track season so the antipication had been building for some time and to say I was looking forward to it would be a mahoosive understatement, I couldn't wait to get out there on home turf(a bog anna;)) and let loose as I felt I had a lot to prove after last year's DNF in this race.

Hard specific training started all the way back in August so it's been a long and tough season but I wasn't expecting it to be another way. As coach said, XC has a way of finding out the people who haven't prepared so as relative newbie to XC running, I was determined to gain as much experience as possible this year in the lead up to today and committed to running every County and Provincial race I could. I learned a ton over the last few months and picked up a load of confidence in my racing along the way especially over the last few weeks in Munster Novice and Munster Senior. Munster Novice showed me that I maybe, just maybe in the form to take some scalps and Munster Senior showed me that I could tough it out if I done anything stupid:pac: just kidding...It took a lot out of me physically but I feel it benifited me mentally to no end. This might come accross as arrogant but heading into the race today, I was 100% confident that there was no one out there at my fitness level who was as well prepared for challenges we were going to face.

I arrived back to the field at about 11:15 as there wasn't going to be much hanging around today with the Juveniles already having their even and uneven age championships wrapped up earlier in the Autumn, today was just senior women and men. We were underpowered at the pointy end this year with two of our best runners out through injury so It was always going to be a uphill battle to take home the trophy, one thing that has been noticeable this year is that depth in Limerick athletics has started to get stronger again and we were going to face stiff competition from 3 other clubs in what has traditionally been a monopoly between ourselves and LAC.

The field was something else, the cows had probably only left an hour before and it was in the wetlands and completly flooded after the weather we had all week...we were holding it of course;). It was going to be a mudbath of epic proportions which was strangely assuring, a lot of guys were going to get it wrong. Gave the lads a quick hand with lining the course and then got down to the business at hand.

The Race-

Stripped off and made our to the start in an absolutely freezing wind which wasn't helped by the two favourites holding the whole show doing strides halfway down the field

Finally.... the gun goes off and as expected, the whole field takes off in a sprint and a clubmate and I are left trailing in their mud somewhere near the very back. Just repeating to myself not to do anything stupid, it's going to be carnage. We gradually worked our way up the field and tucked in along with two more clubmates behind a group of now familiar runners who were willing to break the wind, one of whom was An Bru's 5th man and two LAC runners. Early stages but I was feeling really strong

The laps were ticking by fairly quickly and by the we hit halfway in the second big lap, the gaps were starting to open all over the place and most worryingly for me, the group up ahead with two runners in scoring positions for Dooneen an An Bru had stretched their gap on us to over 200m, If I was to have any chance of reeling them in, I had to take the risk and embrace whatever pain it threw at me because I wasn't going to make any real impact on the team results where I was, it was a no lose situation so time to suck it up.

I launched an attack on the downhill and took a quick glance over the side to see my clubmate had exact same idea and was the only one to go with me. We opened up a gap fairly quickly and I headed off my own to try and chase the lads down. I was fairly shifting through the gears as I hit halfway and picking off a few runners who I have never been close to in a race before and closing the gap rapidly as a lot of guys were starting to falter.

As we hit the second lap, I'd closed to within 15m of the two scorers but it had taken a huge bite out of me to get there and the hurt was well and truly on, the legs were starting to wobble and I couldn't quite close it any further. The pressure was now on from behind in the form of An Bru runner as we made our way out on the loop for the last time. I managed to pick it up but it wasn't to be and got passed with 700m to go and the legs just didn't have it in them to tag on. Crossed the line in 29th overall, 8th man home for the club and 2nd in the team event.

Thoughts-

It was by far the best race I've run this year, I was mixing it up with guys who finished more than 10 places above me in the County intermediate so I've come a long way again in the last 6 weeks. It would've been nice to be able to make a bigger impact on the team event but that would've been greedy to be honest, I couldn't ask anything more from the legs today and If I want to make that impact, I've a full year to get my ass in shape to make a better attempt at it. I have the ability, it's just going to come down to how much I'm willing to put in.

In the now, I think it's safe to say I'm in the best shape I've ever been.:) And only one leg is buckled this week so that's progress:pac:

Firedance

Brilliant great report and super race, well done, all your hard work paid off and it doesn't get any better than that.

Bahanaman

Great stuff NE! Can't say I'm in the same shape xc wise as yourself!

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Bahanaman wrote: »

Great stuff NE! Can't say I'm in the same shape xc wise as yourself!

how'd you get on at the weekend?

Edit: just to add, you're only a few weeks after a marathon, The body is going to be tired and it will take time to recover fully. You don't lose the kind of fitness you built up to run that marathon time that quickly, it's still there but the tiredness is just covering it up for the minute, it'll come back as soon as you recover.

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Wednesday 18th November- 8 Miles Steady

The plan was to take a week of this week and start building again with Summer of Malmo but I was talking to one of the lads earlier who said he was heading out for 8 tonight with a mate of his so I said I'd jump in with them for it as all my runs outside of a Tuesday speed session have been on my own since February....no one around here runs so I was looking forward to getting out for a bit of craic and made my way back to meet up with them.

Big mistake...there wasn't much chatting going on:pac: as D's mate was driving on the pace into a killer wind and I could still feel a lot of fatigue hanging around in my legs from Sunday so the effort felt high just to hang onto the back, far from easy anyway. Managed to hold on but this was much more of a steady effort. I really feel I need that break at the moment so I think the best option right now is to pack it in for a week or so before I fry myself completely so that's what I'm going to do. Hopefully, it'll refresh me and I'll be able to build on top of the gains I've made over the last few months.

dintbo

Excellent racing and reporting NE nice one.

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Right.....I've been stewing over what to do for the coming year over the last few weeks and even when I committed to the marathon here, I still had some doubt over whether or not it was the right path to follow but I'm definitely in now:). I'm looking at this as a stepping stone onto the track and XC season next year as a means to get me motivated in building the miles, you can't hide from the marathon and it always brings the best out of me. Want to have a good ol crack off it too and get it right for once:). I'm setting my stall out as a 2:55 attempt, it's an ambitious target but I do believe it's in me to get there when I put the work in.

It will be a step into the unknown(not really but I made a balls of the last 2 I coached myself to:pac:) for me as I will be selfcoached so I would hugely appreciate any help or comments about my training over the next few months. So....no time like the present to get cracking on the plan. The plan going forward is to build a solid base over 7-8 weeks using Summer of Malmo base building principles and then jumping into a 12 week specific plan. For anyone who hasn't heard of this, here is a link to his approach.

http://pih.bc.ca/summerofmalmo.html

It's not a strictly structured plan because Malmo stresses not overthinking the base phase and running by feel in a sort of quasi zen mode. He offers flexibility because you never know how you will feel tomorrow. I on the other hand need some structure so have to lay some sort of foundation in a plan to keep me from falling off the wagon, I'd be shot if he ever saw the plan below:pac: but I won't be forcing any planned runs if my body isn't feeling it.

For anyone interested, Malmo also likes to work some fartlek sessions into his schedules. Workouts like 5 minute hard/ 5 minute easy, 15-20 1minute on/off and some pyramid sessions(e.g 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 with equal slow rec). I may throw in a session or two of these if the feeling takes me there. He also has his staple "run to the barn" session where an easy run progresses for the last 1-2miles, This is not a scheduled run but more of a feeling good, pick it up kind of effort done every so often.

My Tuesday repeats will vary depending on the distance of the repeat. 400m+ intervals will be a lot easier than typical interval sessions. Everything below 400m will be neuromuscular training(speed+mechanics based)e.g 150m repeats will be 50m accel, 50m sprint, 50m stride out and will also have a full untimed recovery. None of these repeats should feel really difficult. Here's a quick draft, 6 weeks I put together which is open to criticism.

Week|Monday|Tuesday|Wednesday|Thursday|Friday |Saturday|Sunday|
1|AM 3m PM 6m|6m Inc. 16x150m|8m|AM 3m rec. PM 5m|7m inc. 3m tempo|Rest|14m|
2|AM 4m Rec PM 6m|7m inc. 12x400|10m|AM 4m rec. PM 5m|8m Inc. 40min steady|Rest|16m|
3|AM 3m PM 5m|7m inc. 12x300m|8m|AM 3m PM 5m|7m inc. 3m Tempo|Rest|14m|
4|AM 3m PM 7m |7m inc. 8x600m|10m|AM 4m rec. PM 7m |8m Inc.45min Steady|Rest|16m|
5|AM 4m ez. PM 7m|8m inc. 12x200m|12m|AM 3m rec. PM 7m|8m Inc 4m tempo|Rest|18m|
6|AM 3m PM 8m |8m inc. 5x1000m|12m|AM 4m rec. PM 8m |9m Inc. 50min Steady|Rest|20m|

All comments and thoughts are welcome and would be highly appreciated:)

Murph_D

Surely that should be "winter of Malmo"

Look forward to seeing your progress. I'll be sticking to 17-18 week plan myself with built-in base phase, but I like the idea of keeping that cycle separate. The Malmo link doesn't work but those Tues sessions look good. How different would they be to what's going on at your club though? I'll be trying to integrate club stuff into my own plan because I find those kind of sessions much harder to do on my own. Best of luck with it.

Bahanaman

Deadly stuff NE! Judging by the way things have gone lately I think 2:55 won't be a problem!

dublin runner

What's your 10k PB?

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Murph_D wrote: »

Surely that should be "winter of Malmo"

Look forward to seeing your progress. I'll be sticking to 17-18 week plan myself with built-in base phase, but I like the idea of keeping that cycle separate. The Malmo link doesn't work but those Tues sessions look good. How different would they be to what's going on at your club though? I'll be trying to integrate club stuff into my own plan because I find those kind of sessions much harder to do on my own. Best of luck with it.

Cheers Murph!

http://www.bunnhill.com/BobHodge/rtp3.htm

There's a working link. It's probably notable that I won't be sticking strictly to Malmo's code but I will be borrowing a lot of his principles like workouts and intensity. The big difference in the workouts compared to the club sessions is intensity. These workouts won't be anywhere near as difficult as a typical interval workout. They are based more around working at certain speeds without having to put a huge amount of effort like you would need during specific training. It's really about preparing the body for faster running down the road. I'll definitely be jumping into the club sessions when I hit the last 12 weeks but for now, I'd prefer to keep these workouts to my own intensity.

Bahanaman wrote: »

Deadly stuff NE! Judging by the way things have gone lately I think 2:55 won't be a problem!

Cheers man! We'll see how it pans out, the marathon is a different ball game so I'll reassess as I go along.

dublin runner wrote: »

What's your 10k PB?

39:46

I know what your going to say and it is an ambitious target but is more of something to aim at than a complete dead cert goal that I'm shooting at, I'll assess my fitness as the plan progresses. I haven't run a 10k since February and have never had a chance to run one when I'm in my best shape which was last autumn and this autumn. I wasn't anywhere near as good shape going into last year's marathon cycle as I am now but managed to run 30k @ 2:57 pace fairly comfortably but the big mistake was running that workout as it took a big bite out of me, sprained my ankle 3 weeks out from the race and poor raceday judgement. Even in perfect conditions, I don't believe I would've run sub-3 but there was signals that I wasn't a mile off it and why I think it's a possible yet ambitious target of 2:55 for Rotterdam. I will be significantly raising the training load compared to last year's training and will be starting the plan in much better condition after a good XC season. Last year, I also approached the last 12 week marathon plan with 10k training whereas this year, I will be coming in from a much more strength orientated plan.

I will assess my fitness as I go forward and if I don't feel it's there for the attempt, I'll knock the target on the head. This will be a steep learning curve for me so feel free to jump in with some thoughts or critism anytime you want.

pconn062

Good luck with the plan NE. The only small part that stands out to me is "I'm using this as a stepping stone to next years track and XC season". So I suppose the question is the marathon the big goal for the first half year, or is it a means of improving your track times in the summer? If the marathon is something you really want to do then that's great, and I think 2.55 is possible. But if it's to aid you track and XC times then there are easier ways to do this than run a marathon! You could do a specific track winter season, lots of miles, tempo runs while keeping in touch with speed (maybe some indoor races).

Either way, will follow with interest.

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pconn062 wrote: »

Good luck with the plan NE. The only small part that stands out to me is "I'm using this as a stepping stone to next years track and XC season". So I suppose the question is the marathon the big goal for the first half year, or is it a means of improving your track times in the summer? If the marathon is something you really want to do then that's great, and I think 2.55 is possible. But if it's to aid you track and XC times then there are easier ways to do this than run a marathon! You could do a specific track winter season, lots of miles, tempo runs while keeping in touch with speed (maybe some indoor races).

Either way, will follow with interest.

Cheers P. The marathon is definitely the big goal in the early part of the year, I really want to run a good one as it's a race that has bugged me to no end over the last few years and I want to have to have a proper crack at it as I don't think I've done myself justice at the distance. I do also see it as a stepping stone though as I think it will stand to come track season although that's not the main goal in doing it, the main thing is running the fastest marathon I can.

KielyUnusual

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Cheers P. The marathon is definitely the big goal in the early part of the year, I really want to run a good one as it's a race that has bugged me to no end over the last few years and I want to have to have a proper crack at it as I don't think I've done myself justice at the distance. I do also see it as a stepping stone though as I think it will stand to come track season although that's not the main goal in doing it, the main thing is running the fastest marathon I can.

Yea, I was going to come in with the same comment as PConn. Difficult to run a good track season off the back of a Spring marathon. I have sort of tried this but I was more running a few track races for the craic off the back of 5/10k type training after the London Marathon. Hard to get the speed back up. I ran a good 5k at the end of that summer and I think that might be the best you can expect, so if I were you, I would aim to target some goal track races towards the end of the summer (July/August).

Anyway you've clarified above and that's fair enough. Smash the marathon, get that out of your system and then get down to some real running .

dublin runner

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39:46

I know what your going to say and it is an ambitious target but is more of something to aim at than a complete dead cert goal that I'm shooting at, I'll assess my fitness as the plan progresses.

No, not at all.

Maybe try and set a benchmark before the year is out. That will help give you a sense of the progress being made during the marathon training cycle. The XC stuff is great for strength but it may be an idea to 'lay down' a time to see exactly where you area at.

Having a marathon goal time is a great idea. Obviously it has to be flexible and semi-realistic. 2.55 is achievable for sure. The key is consistency.

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dublin runner wrote: »

No, not at all.

Maybe try and set a benchmark before the year is out. That will help give you a sense of the progress being made during the marathon training cycle. The XC stuff is great for strength but it may be an idea to 'lay down' a time to see exactly where you area at.

Having a marathon goal time is a great idea. Obviously it has to be flexible and semi-realistic. 2.55 is achievable for sure. The key is consistency.

Cheers DR, consistency is definitely what I'm after.:)

I've been itching to get a race in on the road for a while now but with the intensity of training and racing through the track and XC season and from some nudging here, I thought better of it. I was wrecked coming into my last race of the season last week and could feel the load starting to catch up on me which is why I took the last week off just to leave the body recover. I'd be hesitant enough to jump into another race right now just from a recovery perspective and from my vast experience of overcooking it on the racing side and I felt I was closing in on that point the week of County senior.

I'd love to get out and race now (I'd race everyweek if I could:)) but I feel for right now after over 3 months of heavy specific training, I need to refresh and reset the balance towards base training and building towards the marathon and I think a goal race might set me back from the main target, I want to try and get the base training right this time around to set me up for the tough stuff in the last 12 weeks.

My first race this way would be a mid-January rust buster to see where I am which isn't far away really. I feel I got a good feel for where I am over the XC season just from running with people I know really well and clubmates in training and racing, I know it's not a time but it was as good as for me. That's my thoughts anyway.

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Wednesday 25th November- 6m Easy (8:39)

A nice run out in lovely warm tights;). The first run I've knocked out in almost a week and the body felt much fresher for it although my high calf on the left leg felt pretty strained, thought it was just DOM's when it popped up after the races but it has hung around and feels grainy to touch so it's something to keep an eye on and take care of over the next while.

The plan will start on Monday so I'm just going to throw in a few easy runs for the rest of this week before kicking it off. The plan is to commit to running my easy runs at the same effort as tonight and the pace should come down as I get fitter....hopefully it does anyway:).

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Thursday 27th November- 5m Easy

Woke up this morning as stiff as a board in my left calf/hamstring tendons again and couldn't fully extend my leg without pain, the sensation was like having a tennis ball size lump high in my calf. I've been trying to fix a major form flaw I have in my right leg lately, my lower leg is externally rotated out and causes me to run like a duck with some ugly ass knee tracking. I've made some some fairly good progress in getting the alignment back somewhat decent with S&C and resistence band mobility work, I'm no physio but I think that correction is causing the issue on the other leg now as I've never had so much as a niggle on this side before. I'll have to keep chipping away it and try and get all the imbalances in check, these niggles were always going to pop up.

Took a roasting hot bath yesterday before the run followed by some rolling on a tennis ball to release it which seemed to do the trick. The run went fine and I took it fairly handy just in case it seized up again, it did feel a little stiff but a big improvement on earlier this morning.

Friday 27th November- 5m Easy

Alot better today. Nice to get an early morning run in again to get out into the countryside for the first time in a couple of weeks. Legs felt pretty good all round.

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Time to get cracking!:)

Rotterdam T-19 weeks

Monday 30th November- AM: 3m Easy (8:41)

Let's just say the plan didn't get off to the best of starts, smashed my headlamp putting it on this morning which meant I'd to run this almost blind through puddles and at times, lakes. Rough morning but a grand little short un to kick off the plan.

Evening- 6m Easy

Picked the stomping ground where most of my training will be during the winter, lovely little short 3m loop around the town that starts and finishes outside my house, perfect as the aid stations will be every 5k on raceday and it saves me from the hassle of having to go out and stash drinks in the bushes all over the shop. A little bit tired this evening more from a long day than anything else, Going to have to get back into the groove of running doubles again which will take some time and more grub to settle in fully. Overall, a grand start.:)

Firedance

I'm not sure whether to be super impressed at your advanced planning or super worried at my lack thereof!!!!

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Firedance wrote: »

I'm not sure whether to be super impressed at your advanced planning or super worried at my lack thereof!!!!

Haha, pure OCD! Just something I've found to work in the past, never too early to start practicing for raceday.

Bahanaman

If this is the official start of the Rotterdam plan then the very best of luck with it. It might seem so far away but you won't be saying that come next spring! You'll be looking back at a hape of top class miles!

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Tuesday 1st December- 7m Inc. 16x150m w/full Rec

Weather has finally calmed down. Made tracks to the soccer field to run laps just to be on the safe side until I get my headlamp sorted, handy out as well as there's a long dirt road down the side where I usually do these kind of workouts. The body felt pretty good on the easy run and I knocked out 20 laps before getting stuck into the workout.

The session was all about neuromuscular development so and each 150m repeat was broke into 50m gentle accel, 50m at close to top end speed and stride out the last 50m and a slow walk back to the start each time. Felt pure weird hitting that kinda speed as the body isn't used to it but I guess that's the idea. The focus was on keeping good form, definitely not an easy session but not a balls to wall effort either. Happy enough with how it went.

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Wednesday 2nd December- 10m Easy

Hit the road at about 5:45 this morning with phone in hand to light the way. Could feel last night's workout still in the legs as I took my first few steps, nothing major but a little in the tired side so the first loop wasn't the most enjoyable I've ever put down, it must have lashed rain last night as the roads were flooded up to my ankles in parts. The turnover started to pickup eventually as the legs started to free out and not feel so clunky on the long downhill through town to start and I got some welcome pop back into the stride as I headed out on the last loop.

The plan only called for 8 miles but I pushed on to finish the loop and kept on going to the shop, shouldn't have done that really as it's going to be long road ahead but I couldn't resist thoughts of a nice hot chocolate and bagel, won't be making a habit of running farther than I should especially this early in the plan but feeling pretty good now.:)

hillsiderunner

Time to invest in a head torch.

That 5:45 start is very impressive, hot chocolate well deserved ...

KielyUnusual

hillsiderunner wrote: »

Time to invest in a head torch.

That 5:45 start is very impressive, hot chocolate well deserved ...

Or a normal torch at least. Ye young lads these days think the telephone is the solution to all lives little problems.

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Thursday 3rd December

Morning: 4 Miles Rec

Soaked...I think, can't really remember:pac:

Evening: 5m Easy w/6x8sec Alactic Hill Sprints

Hit the mudbath that is the soccer field at the minute for this, didn't really bother that it was set as I feel I've grown some odd sort of kinship with the mud over the XC season plus I'm going to try and do a few runs every week on grass just to give the tendons an ol break while I'm building the miles. The legs were feeling good throughout and I decided to throw in some hill sprints at the end just to keep tabs on my form and speed.

Friday 4th December: 8m Inc. 3 Mile Tempo

Got a headtorch sorted so I made tracks out onto the road early this morning and got this run in the eye of the storm. Used my hilly 3 mile Rotterdam loop for this, the warm-up felt pretty good but I did feel I struggled to get up to pace when starting out on the tempo section, I think that was more down to the perceived slow pace on the hill than having a problem actually getting the effort right because I only really felt I got going on the downhill a mile in. Malmo preaches slow tempo runs in his bible because he says everyone does them too fast so I wasn't eating up road on this.

Tempo Splits:

6:54
6:31
6:39

Those splits are a pretty useless marker to be honest because of the nature of the route and would only be useful if I stick to this route throughout the cycle which I won't be after taking on KU's advice about finding a nice little flatish section to do these workouts. Still, the session went pretty well all in all so I'll take it.

Saturday 5th December- 3.5 Mile Rec

I've got myself into a pissing contest with the darksiders in which I pledged to try run everyday this month, more to give me extra motivation than anything else as I can (and usually do) end up on some epic benders at this time of year. Today was supposed to be an off day originally but I had to poke out the door for 30 minutes to keep the streak going, tipped along in some awful weather, didn't want to be out there at all!

Sunday 6th December: 14 Miles Run To The Barn

Hit the road at 8 this morning for this, I don't have many long runs under my belt in the last while because of racing/break so I wasn't expecting this to be easy and it delivered on that promise for the first 6 miles, felt the calf tightening up again but it wasn't painful and I was a little sluggish through the first two loops so I took it handy enough just to make sure I got through it without busting a guy. Legs really started to free up after that and felt like I was starting to motor and feel good so I decided to pick it up over the last 3 miles which was nice, body feels good now which I wasn't expecting.

Really solid week overall for me!:)

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Rotterdam T-18 Weeks

Monday 7th December-

Morning: 4 Miles Recovery

Didn't get away it scott free! Yesterday's long run caught up with this morning and the legs had a twinge of a hangover when I woke up. This was slow into some fairly strong gusts.

Evening: 6 Miles Easy

Felt better this evening, quick foam roll of the hamstrings and calves before I hit the road for two laps of the Rotterdam loop. This run absolutely flew by and was something I had in mind when I picked the loop, The 3 miles just doesn't feel that long so it feels easy to get motivated throughout the run. Hopefully, this will stand to me come raceday when the going gets tough and I can visualise running this route.

Tuesday 8th December- 7.5 Miles Inc. 12x400m w/90sec Jog Rec

First real interval session of of base training was on the cards today, I got a little caught up in trying to overthink the pace of the workout when it's pretty straightforward (Run fast, don't kill myself). The general goal in mind heading into it was to keep it a little slower than 5k pace or thereabouts and just make sure I was comfortable. For a quick few laps in around the soccer field as a warm-up and made tracks down the passage to kick this off.

Reps:

91
93
93
93
92
94
92
93
92
94
91
93

Pretty handy session when all was said and done, The legs felt good starting out and I never was under any real pressure at any point. Cracking buzz after it and I got some relatively fast running in:).

Had a physio appointment this evening for a deep tissue massage, I've got a tight gastronemius(not what you're thinking:pac:) in my calf caused by an adhesion, that's what's causing that strange sensation, broke it up and had a round of ultrasound therapy on it.

Wednesday 9th December- 10 Miles Easy

Felt like I got hit by a bus when I woke up this morning after last night's massage, found it really tough to get going on this run and even though I did feel better towards the end, this was a slog from start to finish.

Thursday 10th December-

Morning: 4 Mile Recovery

All good, felt nice and handy!:)

Evening: 6 Miles Easy (8:33)

Felt good, got this in before dinner so I had a chance to get out and explore the countryside while it was still brightish out, nice for a change of scenery.:)

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Friday 11th December- 8 Miles Inc. 40 Min Steady

Late evening excursion into the darkness for this run. The plan for today was just to get in some moderate effort running in the form of a steady run, the legs were playing ball so this felt really good and was a nice blowout for the legs, one of the big changes I've made to my base schedule compared to last year is having two easy days in between sessions, I'm only 2 weeks in now but I feel it's making a big difference as I'm not so fooked midweek.

Saturday 12th December- 16 Mile Long Run

I had to move this to today as the Christmas party was tonight and I knew I'd be completely useless tomorrow. It wasn't ideal but at least I was sure that I would get it done this way. The body was a little tired this morning, no doubt that was down to a shorter recovery time between last night's session and an early rise this morning. The pace was a little slower than usual but the effort felt right. Mentally, this was a tough enough challenge as I haven't run this far in almost 14 months but that's something I'm going to have to suck it up and just get on with it, they should get easier the more I do them. Haven't had any calf problems since Tuesday's treatment so that's a nice bonus.


Probably of note here as well is that I've got a new coach who will be helping me out from the new year on, he was a class act in his day with a 28 minute road 10k PB so I can't wait to see what he has in store for me, it took a year of pestering to get him to do it and I'd to make some commitments. As much as I enjoy the challenge of coaching myself, it's a pain in the ass as I'm constantly second guessing myself so to have a guy of his calibre coaching me should be interesting and a bit less stressful.

Myles Splitz

Notwork Error wrote: »

Friday 11th December- 8 Miles Inc. 40 Min Steady

Late evening excursion into the darkness for this run. The plan for today was just to get in some moderate effort running in the form of a steady run, the legs were playing ball so this felt really good and was a nice blowout for the legs, one of the big changes I've made to my base schedule compared to last year is having two easy days in between sessions, I'm only 2 weeks in now but I feel it's making a big difference as I'm not so fooked midweek.

Saturday 12th December- 16 Mile Long Run

I had to move this to today as the Christmas party was tonight and I knew I'd be completely useless tomorrow. It wasn't ideal but at least I was sure that I would get it done this way. The body was a little tired this morning, no doubt that was down to a shorter recovery time between last night's session and an early rise this morning. The pace was a little slower than usual but the effort felt right. Mentally, this was a tough enough challenge as I haven't run this far in almost 14 months but that's something I'm going to have to suck it up and just get on with it, they should get easier the more I do them. Haven't had any calf problems since Tuesday's treatment so that's a nice bonus.


Probably of note here as well is that I've got a new coach who will be helping me out from the new year on, he was a class act in his day with a 28 minute road 10k PB so I can't wait to see what he has in store for me, it took a year of pestering to get him to do it and I'd to make some commitments. As much as I enjoy the challenge of coaching myself, it's a pain in the ass as I'm constantly second guessing myself so to have a guy of his calibre coaching me should be interesting and a bit less stressful.

Best of luck with it NE.

Having someone to be accountable to can be a great benefit at times and I think will be something that will really suit you. Also like the fact that you know where you stand with each other given the commitments you have had to make gives it a two way street feel which is exactly the way coaching should be.