The breaks even out in the long run

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Thursday 8th October- 6m Easy

Perfect evening for this. The body has come around a lot since yesterday but still somewhat tired. Decided to take a trek down memory lane and take in my old magneto loop today which I haven't used in nearly a year and came across my jacket and one glove, ahhh ...that's where they were:pac: no good anymore as they're covered in mildew but I picked them up anyway. Nice little trot out and a few strides to cap off the day.


Was talking to one of the lads who ran the XC at the weekend and placed behind me, said there was no way I finished in the time I was told, he was about 30 seconds back and reckoned I was around 33 flat and not 31:41 like I was told:o. No big deal in the grand scheme of the race but finding that out now leaves a slight taste of dissapointment after thinking I ran that fast over grass. Still though, I ran the race in good company which is the main thing.:)

Myles Splitz

Notwork Error wrote: »

Was talking to one of the lads who ran the XC at the weekend and placed behind me, said there was no way I finished in the time I was told, he was about 30 seconds back and reckoned I was around 33 flat and not 31:41 like I was told:o. No big deal in the grand scheme of the race but finding that out now leaves a slight taste of dissapointment after thinking I ran that fast over grass. Still though, I ran the race in good company which is the main thing.:)

Don't worry about time - Difference in courses, weather and underfooting making them fairly irrelevant in comparison to say the US style golf courses seen on letsrun)

As you said the people in around you in the race is a much better indicator of how you performed.

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Friday 9th October- 8m Easy (8:12)

Fair bit of zippiness back in the legs today which made this a nice pleasant trip:). Dossing out on yesterdays workout was definitely a good move and paid me back in spades today and moving into the weekend. Feeling fresh!:)

tang1

Best of luck tomorrow E.

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tang1 wrote: »

Best of luck tomorrow E.

Cheers B! Hope it goes well too but I don't have a race:). Schedule was changed so next one up is Munster novice in 2 weeks time.

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Sunday 11th October-14m Inc. 4@MP

Hit the road at dawn this morning and knocked out a few laps around town while waiting for it to brighten up enough to hit the country roads. Feels like ages ago since I was last out on a long run for some reason.

Carried a carb drink with me today because I was going doing the big loop and couldn't drop it off anywhere and this caused a slight problem because I was constantly sipping on it and got a stitch at about 5 miles. Had to make a stop for 2-3 minutes at 9 miles, a farmer was roaring at me to stay back as cows were crossing the road, they're afraid of luminous orange apparently:pac:. Picked it up to MPish pace for the last four miles home which felt good, nice to stretch out the legs.

MPish Miles:

6:56
7:03
7:05
6:58

Feel awesome, there's something a bit special an early morning Autumn long run in the fog:). Now, to plonk myself on the couch for an unreal day of sport.

tang1

Notwork Error wrote: »

Cheers B! Hope it goes well too but I don't have a race:). Schedule was changed so next one up is Munster novice in 2 weeks time.

Oops my bad, had in my head you were running XC again today.

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Monday 12th October- 8m Easy

This one was a struggle to get out for, felt absolutely glued to the bed this morning, not so much tired as I kept the eyes open but just too comfortable. Eventually mustered up the courage to pick myself up and out the door but it was a much later start than usual.

Legs were alright, not fantastic but not bad either, the long run more than likely caught up with me after having a few weeks without it due to the races so the pace felt a little slower than usual, that's alright though. Had a strange sensation after thr run yesterday evening in my Achilles, a kind of small pop every so often when I flexed my foot, no pain at all but felt a bit odd. Felt grand today but just something to keep an eye on.

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Tuesday 13th October-Rest

A lot of rest. Was chalked down for a club session but when I got home yesterday, I was wrecked and passed out in the leaba by accident and missed the session.

Wednesday 14th October- 7m Easy

Early rise and the first morning with a real cold bite in the air. The legs felt good and were fairly poppy but the lungs are already starting to feel the effects of the cold air, They were hurting and irritated with every breath even though I was under under any strain. I really hope this holds off for a little longer, I'm just starting to get into really good form, workouts become nearly impossible for me when the real cold hits.

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Just an update on the above. Sucked it up and went to the doctor about my breathing after about 2 years of putting it off and had a health check. Had a lung function test which came back pretty poor as I've got a lot of airway obstruction so It's not just a cold weather or exercise induced thing and is just poor in general. The good news is that I can get back to normal and have been prescribed a long course of inhalers (The difference after two puffs is insane, didn't know my lungs were that big)and the doc finally gave me my wish to get on champix starting today:). She also assured me the inhalers weren't performance enhancing unless you have asthma before anyone calls me a doper:p

Everything else is in pretty good nick:).

tipping

Sounds good. Was reading this morning and wondering how the cold air was affecting you so much. I find it great for the lungs and feel much clearer on these nice cool wintery mornings. Did the doc actually diagnose you with asthma and is this a new thing for you??

I had pretty bad asthma as a kid but now it's almost completely under control. I know all my triggers and am good at avoiding them so only have to use the inhaler a few times a year.

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tipping wrote: »

Sounds good. Was reading this morning and wondering how the cold air was affecting you so much. I find it great for the lungs and feel much clearer on these nice cool wintery mornings. Did the doc actually diagnose you with asthma and is this a new thing for you??

I had pretty bad asthma as a kid but now it's almost completely under control. I know all my triggers and am good at avoiding them so only have to use the inhaler a few times a year.

Not a new thing, was a mild asthmatic as a kid. She thinks it's just general asthma so I was put on a ventolin for running and cortico in general twice a day for the next 3 months. I had a fairly good idea for the last two years that asthma was causing the winter woes but just thought it was a cold thing and not a year round thing.

The cold seems to hit me hardest though, during workouts, I could slow down 20-30seconds a mile once the temps drop and often had to drop out of sessions because I couldn't catch a breath. Hopefully, that's all sorted now and I can look forward to getting a good winter of training in for the first time.

tipping

Might be as simple as the cold air is one of your triggers..

Mine are damp/musty houses and things like walking through the front of a department store I can feel my windpipe start to tighten instantly. One particular house I visit I pre-load on antihistamines and the brown inhaler to get me through.

Anyway will be interesting to see what benefit you feel from it over a few weeks. Did you get a reading for the lung capacity test, be nice to have a before and after. I have one of the meters at home so must try it out before and after an inhaler some day to see what effect it has on me.

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tipping wrote: »

Might be as simple as the cold air is one of your triggers..

Mine are damp/musty houses and things like walking through the front of a department store I can feel my windpipe start to tighten instantly. One particular house I visit I pre-load on antihistamines and the brown inhaler to get me through.

Anyway will be interesting to see what benefit you feel from it over a few weeks. Did you get a reading for the lung capacity test, be nice to have a before and after. I have one of the meters at home so must try it out before and after an inhaler some day to see what effect it has on me.

Yep, she didn't give me one to take home though. I blew 558 relaxed which is probably a lot lower when I'm struggling, she said someone of my size and age should be able to knock out 650+. Would be interesting to see what kind of effect it has alright.

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Thursday 15th October- (6x1k @5k w/60s Rec)3min Rest (4x400m w/60s Rec)

In all honesty, This workout had me nervous, One of those that hurts just to read especially when you know it's a solo run, pain written all over it! feeling sluggish getting out of bed probably added to it. Way too early to make a trip to the park or track so I went with hitting the road on the local 10k loop which has a fairly flatish section of a mile or thereabouts. Had to setup a Garmin workout for this or I would've been lost otherwise.

Splits:

km:

3:37
3:43
3:45
3:42
3:46
3:45

3min Rest

400m:

87
90
89
90

This was really tough and made all the more difficult by losing the plot on the first one, should know better! Saying that, the first 3 and half Km reps felt good but the short recovery was flying, felt like I was only stopping when the countdown beeps were kicking off again. Legs and breathing were heavy by the time I'd polished off the first set so I was glad of the extended recovery before tackling the 400's which felt a lot easier than I had imagined.

Really happy with the effort and glad to have that session under my belt, not in a rush to do it again though!:pac:

Bahanaman

Great session NE and you're right, it does hurt just reading it!!

career move

Nice work. That's a savage session

Ososlo

Japers!!! Respect!

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Friday 16th October- 7m Easy(8:03)

Felt alright, fairly crisp outside today so I'd to pull the jacket out from the back of the wardrobe. Strangely enough, legs showed zero symptoms from yesterdays workout and I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing but I wasn't going to argue with that today although missing Tuesday workout may have had some sway on it.

Slight niggle in my back for the last mile, sharp nerve pain from my just below the scapula to my hip. Not the first time I've had it, shows up every now and again for the last few miles of a run especially if it's downhill only to disappear again for months. Other than that, pretty good!

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Sunday 18th October- 12miles(8:51)

This seems a lot slower than normal for my long run but for good reason. Reading over the novice thread over the last few months really got me thinking about my training and the basics of what I've been doing myself currently and in the past. A question I've been asking myself lately and probably should've been for a lot longer is why do I only run well for 3-5 months a year and be in a funk for the rest.

Although I'm hitting some good form, I'd like it to keep going that way and gain some long-term consistency obviously and I believe the only way to do that is to go back to the start and question my preconceptions of what is an easy effort so today, I decided to go out and run this by HR just to see how it went.

To be honest, I was shocked with just how aerobically underdeveloped I am, The pace just felt so slow compared to "normal" with a few miles above 9 minutes but everthing felt loose, relaxed and I was loving this run. I'm a 100% positive now that I've been hammering my easy runs in a big way and that could be the culprit for my inconsistency and training woes.

pconn062

What are you basing the HR zones off? Have you done a lactate or Max HR test? Seem slow compared to you race times.

Firedance

I came to the same conclusion from the advice on the novices thread too, it seems the evidence really does fall in favour of the slower 'easy' pace and HR training.

Dubgal72

Myles Splitz is approaching the easy runs in a similar way and still lashing out crazy times for sessions. I was chatting to Lizzy Lee's sister today (a really strong athlete in her own right, ran a blinder today in the Open 5k) and she said Lizzie slows her recovery and easy runs right down. Like riiiiiight down. Good enough for Lizzie....gotta be good enough for us
From my own observations of slowing down, there's very possibly a 'too slow' zone when your form is compromised but I suppose that requires extra focus and also retraining your body to find a happy medium.
I think I'm a bit guilty too lately. A lot of my easy and recovery runs seem to end up in the upper/faster end of easy, but I try to balance that with an 'effort assessment'.

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pconn062 wrote: »

What are you basing the HR zones off? Have you done a lactate or Max HR test? Seem slow compared to you race times.

Haven't had a Lactate test or MaxHR test but I have hit 198bpm in hit the deck sprint finish effort to a 5k. HR today was based off the HADD approach. I thought it was slow too but have had a full read through of the Megathread where he posted on letsrun and there's guys quicker than me running at the same pace easy at first. I averaged 149bpm out there today which is pretty slow for the that high of a HR compared to what I was expecting, the route was pretty hilly but not that much.

pconn062

It's interesting, all my training is based off HR and my easy runs got slower after I did the initial lactate test. However I am still running 7.40-8 minute pace on my easy days (much slower on recovery days). I think slowing down your easy days will do no harm but I think if you are running along at 8.50-9 min pace and it feels ridiculously slow, you could afford to push it a little. HR training is great, but an element of feel is still required IMO.

Wild Garlic

Notwork Error wrote: »

Sunday 18th October- 12miles(8:51)

This seems a lot slower than normal for my long run but for good reason. Reading over the novice thread over the last few months really got me thinking about my training and the basics of what I've been doing myself currently and in the past. A question I've been asking myself lately and probably should've been for a lot longer is why do I only run well for 3-5 months a year and be in a funk for the rest.

Although I'm hitting some good form, I'd like it to keep going that way and gain some long-term consistency obviously and I believe the only way to do that is to go back to the start and question my preconceptions of what is an easy effort so today, I decided to go out and run this by HR just to see how it went.

To be honest, I was shocked with just how aerobically underdeveloped I am, The pace just felt so slow compared to "normal" with a few miles above 9 minutes but everthing felt loose, relaxed and I was loving this run. I'm a 100% positive now that I've been hammering my easy runs in a big way and that could be the culprit for my inconsistency and training woes.

Good call dude

annapr

Hi NE, just wondering, if your lung function is not what it should be, then maybe the higher HR is not that surprising?

Think what it'll do for your running if you get your lung capacity* up to athlete level!

*is champix an asthma drug? *cough*

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annapr wrote: »

Hi NE, just wondering, if your lung function is not what it should be, then maybe the higher HR is not that surprising?

Think what it'll do for your running if you get your lung capacity* up to athlete level!

*is champix an asthma drug? *cough*

Quite possibly, I can't answer that question for sure but it definetly has an effect, my lung function would be better and I'd be fitter if I got it up to par but I don't know how much so I can only guess from my limited knowledge.

I guess the only real answer I can give and know for certain is that I'm nowhere near maxing out aerobic ability yet, I haven't being running that long or consistently to do so. I also don't believe I'm too unusual in the sense of running that much slower at an easy HR at first. Most newer runners will have the vast majority of their focus on running speedwork and neglecting base training which is really the engine in distance running and I've been pretty much the same so really, I shouldn't be too shocked to see the pace where it is because I'm so underveloped in that area but I wasn't expecting to be that much under par there.

I'd definitely be stronger if my lungs were in better nick but I think the major factor is my lack of focus on true aerobic training so far in my running life. Champix isn't a asthma drug, it's a different kind of lung cleaner;)

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Monday 19th October- 7 Mile Easy

Had another slight niggle today, they seem to be coming thick and fast for the last few weeks after a fairly long spell of nothing, today was the peroneal with some slight swelling appearing this morning when I woke up. Seemed alright to run on so I ploughed ahead with this one around the magneto loop and polished it off with a mile to the shop. Slept like a log last night but some residual tiredness was still hanging around today especially around the quads and the shoulders but everything else felt pretty good and the pace picked up a bit once the cobwebs were blown off.

8:18
8:53
8:40
8:49
8:46
8:22
8:25

Legs feel good now and the ankle held up without any complaints.

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Tuesday 20th October- 8m Inc. 8×75's @ Mile pace w/60 rec

Group session tonight and we've moved back onto the astroturf for the winter, funny sensation when running on it. Legs were calling out for some speed all day, could feel the pop even before the session started so I was looking forward to knocking out a few 400's, I've changed big time:pac:

The mantra lately for my workouts has been "relaxed speed" and that's what I was looking for tonight. Set myself up slightly behind the 4.50 milers and hung slightly off the back for the first four reps and didn't feel any strain or heavy breathing so I picked it up a little over the next few reps while the lads were falling off the pace slightly.

Don't have splits as I don't know the distance around the pitches but it's fair to say this was fast for me and I felt as good as you can running this workout, not sure where it came from to be honest.