Am I Running Or Jogging?

Maximus Alexander

Just a little one today to get a some consecutiveness going again.

Plan - 2 Miles Easy

I was a bit dead on my feet today and that hip problem I had back in November / early December has flared up again. I'm getting pretty enraged about all these injuries and things that keep piling up - I JUST WANT TO RUN! :mad:

Total: 3.2km in 18:30

Did some strength work afterwards. Time to foam roll and stuff and hope for the best I guess.

Maximus Alexander

Today, finally, I was back on the street and it was glorious.

Plan - 4.5 Miles Easy:

Interesting day to choose to get back out into the elements, because the elements were out in force to greet me. The horizontal rain could do nothing to hurt my mood though because I was just so happy to be out there again. I had planned to go super easy, 6:15+ per kilometer, but it didn't happen. I got into a rhythm and wasn't going to ruin it by ogling the watch, so what can you do.

Knee seemed to hold up fine (hopefully it's still like that tomorrow...) and despite the hip giving me hell the other day it played ball today. Lovely stuff.

Total: 7.21km @ 5:48/km

Despite the fractured and awful two or three weeks I've just had, my aerobic fitness doesn't seem to have suffered too much. In that respect I felt like I could have comfortably kept up the pace for double the distance. The legs were a different story though, and it's becoming more and more clear to me that the problems I've been having are probably down to my legs (or some part of them) just not being strong enough.

Up to now I always just thought they'd naturally keep up and get as strong as they needed to be by... just running. I think I was probably wrong about that.

Maximus Alexander

Plan - 3 Miles Easy:

Happy enough with today. Hip is still an issue, but in a background noise sense that I've become used to over the last couple of months. Felt better and stronger than I have in a while now. Won't get too excited until I can say that after a few weeks of uninterrupted running.

Total: 5km @ 5:40/km

10 mins on the bike after which seems to have a positive effect, and a little upper body strength stuff - I've been neglecting that something awful.

Maximus Alexander

Run Commute:

With the LUAS out of action today I decided to finally get around to running home from work, something I've been planning to do for ages. I always put it off because the return trip is entirely up hill, some of it very much so, bar the first kilometer and a short stretch of maybe 500m near the end.

Today I went for it though and was pretty pleased to be doing so. Since it only takes about the same amount of time as walking to and getting the LUAS anyway, it's actually a great time saver.

It was tough in parts, despite the slow pace, because of the aforementioned hilliness and a rather heavy bag on my back, but I enjoyed it. Hip flared up a little, but not as badly as this time last week and on a much tougher run, so that's possibly progress.

Total: 9.02km @ 6:09/km

Because of the weird combination of sweating in parts, but then cooling off rapidly because it was so cold, I found I was covered in salt when I got home. There were little white patches on my face and crystals in my hair. That was weird and kinda cool at the same time.

Plan is to run back in tomorrow and cycle home. Hopefully the legs are all right in the morning!

Maximus Alexander

Run Commute 2:

Running in to work. Bad idea, I'm not a morning person so I didn't like this. :P Pace was slow and made slower by crowded footpaths and busy roads. I had to stop and walk a bit later on because my leg was sore (something didn't like so much downhill), but then was able to continue.

Total: 8.49km @ 6:09/km

Average pace came out exactly the same as last night, spooky! Doing these so close together was not a smart move - I will pay for this, I know it.

Firedance

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Run Commute 2:
Running in to work. Bad idea, I'm not a morning person so I didn't like this. :P

awww running in the morning is just the best thing ever! although clearly I am a morning person

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Doing these so close together was not a smart move - I will pay for this, I know it.

I hope not, mind those niggles...

Maximus Alexander

Firedance wrote: »

awww running in the morning is just the best thing ever! although clearly I am a morning person

I hope not, mind those niggles...

Hah, I envy people who are full of the joys in the morning but I'm just not and I doubt if I ever will be.

Niggles - it seems like I'm doomed to repeat the same mistakes forever!

tailgunner

A bit of foam rolling mightn't go astray!

I can't cope with early mornings either. Running before sunrise is strange and frightening.

Maximus Alexander

I'll be cycling home followed by foam rolling for sure. I did foam roll last night but it was extremely half arsed if I'm honest!

The Muppet

Did all my couch 2 5k runs very early 5 am some mornings when I started running and really enjoyed them.

Too lazy now to get up at that hour of the morning

The Muppet

Did all my couch 2 5k runs very early 5 am some mornings when I started running and really enjoyed them.

Too lazy now to get up at that hour of the morning

Singer

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Hah, I envy people who are full of the joys in the morning but I'm just not and I doubt if I ever will be. !

I used to despise morning running, but now I just despise the first 3 miles. Practice makes perfect

Maximus Alexander

A pretty dismal week of low mileage and easy paces. It's a balancing act between allowing my knee an opportunity to heal without losing all of my fitness.

Mon 15th: 3.2km @ 5:53

Wed 17th: 5.1km @ 5:49

Thu 18th: 60 minutes cycling

Sat 20th: 5km @ 6:00

Sun 21st: 4.5km @ 5:42

Surprisingly I felt very strong and fit today and it was a crying shame I couldn't keep going for another couple of miles. Next week will probably look a lot like this one. I might go wild and push it past 20km though.

Maximus Alexander

The second week of exercising a bit of self restraint was a success. My knee situation seems to be gradually improving and I don't think my fitness is suffering too badly.

Tue 23rd: 5.2km @ 5:46. Nice and easy.

Thu 25th: 5.62km @ 5:32. Couple of km at tempo pace in the middle here.

Sat 27th: 5.35km @ 5:37. Whole run was a little quicker than easy.

Sun 28th: 6.31km @ 5:47. Based on recent weeks, pretty much an LSR. Wanted to keep going but stopped myself.

Knee still bugging me, but I'm managing it and it's definitely getting better. Mileage for this month is up on January despite the shorter month, though still way down on November and December.

Maximus Alexander

Tue 1st: 5.2km @ 5:46

Fri 4th: 5.7km @ 5:44

Sat 5th: 7.02km @ 5:45

Sun 6th: 5.2km @ 5:48

A very extremely mono-paced week, also squashed most of the running into the weekend. Need to do better next week. Knee remains an issue. :mad:

DubOnHoliday

I see you regularly mention issues with your knee. I had problems going back to last June, but I've also just in recent weeks experienced a big improvement. I went to a physio, wasn't convinced by him and I saw another physio in January who gave me a program to get me back to running. It takes me 25 mins 5 or 6 times a week, and its all core work. I've really started to feel the benefit of it when I run now. Last night I played 90 mins of indoor football after a run with my work group at lunch, no knee or ITB issues to report today. Don't get me wrong, doing planks etc every night of the week isn't fun, but it seems to have worked for me. Touch wood I'll be back running hills very soon. Hope this is of help.

Maximus Alexander

Hey, thanks for the input Dub. I think it is caused by strength problems all right, but the problem is I don't know what to be doing about it. I have been trying to work more and more strength into my week, but it's a bit ad hoc and would probably benefit from a defined plan. It's so easy to find running plans online, but I've had much less success when it comes to finding info about a complete complementary strength program!

tailgunner

Did you ever end up seeing a physio about the knee? I remember you were planning on it a while back.

I'd really recommend it if you haven't already seen someone. Honestly, it was the best money I ever spent when I was having similar issues last year. I still do the exercises that my physio prescribed, and I haven't had knee problems in a long time.

Maximus Alexander

I had intended to see one about my hip, but that has finally resolved itself, thank god! My injuries tend to be very considerate, in that they usually take turns and don't hog the limelight from one another! :pac:

I think I'm subconsciously avoiding it because I'm worried they'll tell me not to run for a while, and then I'll just ignore them anyway but feel guilty about it. I'm not a very responsible person.

tailgunner

Yeah I'm always impressed at my legs' collective ability to come up with new and interesting aches, pains and niggles. Keeps things interesting.

I admire your commitment to keeping the training up despite your struggles with the knee. But if I were a betting man, I'd wager that you'd be back to full fitness sooner if you went to a physio - even if they did tell you to take a few days off running!

Maximus Alexander

Aye, thinking about it, you are of course correct. Putting it off hasn't done me any good because I've made no progress in the last two months and am just standing still (at best). If I'd gone a month ago I'd probably be back at full tilt by now...

DubOnHoliday

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Aye, thinking about it, you are of course correct. Putting it off hasn't done me any good because I've made no progress in the last two months and am just standing still (at best). If I'd gone a month ago I'd probably be back at full tilt by now...

I would see one right away, I delayed my recovery by months by not seeing one and trying to 'run through' the injury. As a result I haven't raced since October.

My physio told me I could still run during the rehab, but no racing, no football, no hillrunning either so not to aggravate the hip/ITB/knee. Core work will have to become part of life and something that will have to stay when you've recovered anyways.

Maximus Alexander

Can anyone recommend a good physio?

DubOnHoliday

Where are you based?

Maximus Alexander

South Dublin. Bit dubious about going to a random one because there's no guarantee they know what they're doing.

DubOnHoliday

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

South Dublin. Bit dubious about going to a random one because there's no guarantee they know what they're doing.

This is my physio, she has always fixed my various injuries. http://www.ifscphysio.com/

Maximus Alexander

Not far from where I work, much obliged!

DubOnHoliday

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Not far from where I work, much obliged!

Great, good luck with it!

Maximus Alexander

This week's running doesn't look all that much different from last week's but it felt much more productive. I still squashed most of the running into the weekend (it suited me), but I managed the paces a little better and enjoyed myself more.

Tue 8th:

After being Mr Mono McPacerson last week, I wanted to focus on slowing the easy runs down so that I could do some faster stuff on another day and actually have some variation again. Partial success. 5.17km @ 5:54

Fri 11th:

This was to be my LSR (The 'L' part is pretty liberal at the moment but I'm very gradually building things back up on purpose). I didn't look at the watch at all from the moment I started it to when I stopped it again. I tried to slow down, but somehow just went at the same pace I always end up doing my easy runs at. Again. 8.1km @ 5:47

Sat 12th:

Determined to learn how to slow down, I told myself to pretend this was a recovery run. Go slow. Go really really slow. Every time I took a step I told myself "Not racing, slow down". It sort of worked, a bit. 5.4km @ 6:03

Sun 13th:

We were invited for 'Sunday lunch' at my mam's today. It turned out that Sunday lunch meant a starter of mussels, followed by a massive roast turkey with all the trimmings. Over two hours later, I could still feel it.

I went out for a 5k tempo run, excited to finally be injecting back in some pace (by my standards at least). It was going well for about 3.5km until the lunch decided that it had strong objections to the events that were unfolding and I had to ease off a little if I wanted to avoid being reacquainted with it! I still really, really enjoyed this run.

Splits: 5:15; 5:00; 4:54; 5:15; 5:20; (31)

5.1km @ 5:09 (26:18)

Garmin has informed me that it thinks today's 25:43 is my 5k PB. That, of course, is because it measured the distance 10 or 20 meters short during my actual PBs. :pac:

Maximus Alexander

Tue 15th: Tried to keep it slow. Success. 6km @ 6:00

Fri 18th: 'Long' run, sped up a bit in parts by accident, was trying to keep it slower than 6:00. 9.03km @ 5:51

Sat 19th: Regular easy run. 5.29km @ 5:42

Sun 20th: I had planned some speed work today but I felt very oddly sleepy and tired today and wasn't up to it, so more easy running instead. 5.36km @ 5:58

Mileage is still creeping back up. So far so good!

Maximus Alexander

A bit of a weird one this week. I was really disorganised and only managed to fit in three runs, but I still made up the mileage. Probably not the best way to do things, but sure feck it.

Thu 24th: Longest run in a while, took it nice and slow. 10.13km @ 6:09/km

Sat 26th: I did a few tempo kilometers in here. Felt good, really enjoyed it. 9.04km @ 5:31/km

Sun 27th: My better half decided to try C25K again today. She's done it a couple of times before but always sort of peters out at some point. I decided to tag along for moral support. The running parts added up to 1.36km @ 5:55/km

When she started her cooldown walk I headed off for my own run. I was a bit dehydrated and with the wind and the legs feeling a little heavy after yesterday there was a bit more effort involved than expected. Still quite fresh and pleasant. 6.03km @ 5:33/km

Maximus Alexander

Wed 30th: I was feeling very heavy and tired from the outset here. I was surprised to see the pace at the end because it felt much, much slower and more laboured. 5.42km @ 5:29

Thu 31st: A nice easy run this evening, the sun was out and it was very pleasant. Made me really glad that I didn't fail and give up running this winter like with all my previous attempts. 6.27km @ 5:54

I'm ending March on a high. This was my highest mileage month since November at 111km. While still very modest in the grand scheme of things, it's only 2km less than my highest mileage month ever and given how poorly the year started, it's great to have things moving in the right direction again. Onwards and upwards!

The Muppet

Good to see your going well again . Are the niggles sorted?

Maximus Alexander

I wouldn't say I'm niggle free, but I'm not injured which is nice. Easing into things seems to be a sensible approach, I was trying to outrun my abilities before I think.

Singer

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

I wouldn't say I'm niggle free, but I'm not injured which is nice. Easing into things seems to be a sensible approach, I was trying to outrun my abilities before I think.

Nice! Any racing plans?

Maximus Alexander

I signed up for the Dublin Race Series a while back, so I've those four, but I've nothing planned between now and then. I think I'll dip my toes back in with a parkrun or two and go from there.

I might be doing the Bray Cliff Run on Saturday but it's very up-in-the-air at the moment.

Hannibelle Smeeeth

Ive just realised that 'last edited' part of all your posts is your feckin sig :pac:

Do you have any time targets for the race series? Or plans you'll be following?

Maximus Alexander

It might be time to change that sig, it must make me look like a proper weirdo.

To be honest I haven't thought about target times yet because the first race is still a good way off and I've never raced any of the distances before. I'll be doing a couple of parkruns soon to see where I'm at which should give me an idea what to aim for.

As for plans, I had started the HH 10 mile plan when I hurt my knee so I may go back to that. I'm a bit dubious about going back to running 5 days a week though because it always seems to lead to injuries for me! I'll need to sit down with a calendar and have a good think about it.

Hannibelle Smeeeth

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

It might be time to change that sig, it must make me look like a proper weirdo.

To be honest I haven't thought about target times yet because the first race is still a good way off and I've never raced any of the distances before. I'll be doing a couple of parkruns soon to see where I'm at which should give me an idea what to aim for.

As for plans, I had started the HH 10 mile plan when I hurt my knee so I may go back to that. I'm a bit dubious about going back to running 5 days a week though because it always seems to lead to injuries for me! I'll need to sit down with a calendar and have a good think about it.

Hah! Not at all. I was just wondering what you'd typed to warrant a midnight edit across the board

Best of luck with it. Hope you avoid injuries this time round!

Maximus Alexander

LSR:

The Bray plan fell through, so I headed out for my LSR today and inadvertently ran the farthest run of my life to date. :rolleyes:

I had planned on following a rough 10% increase per week, so today was to be around 7 miles / 11.5km. I headed down towards Marlay Park and roughly took in the parkrun route in reverse before taking a different route home.

I had a couple of my favourite albums on and was running by feel, so I never looked at the watch and was really enjoying myself but... I lost count of the beeps and:

13.36km @ 5:54/km

My form got pretty poor towards the end and now that makes sense. I suppose I better go get the foam roller...

Maximus Alexander

5k Easy:

An uneventful run which didn't reveal any issues resulting from yesterday's shenanigans, apart from a generous dose of fatigue.

Total: 5km @ 5:56/km

Weekly total of 30.07km, which is the most in a long time.

Maximus Alexander

5k Easy:

I was ill the last couple of days and still not 100% today, but recovered enough that I thought I should get out and have a crack at this. I took it very easy, but I didn't have a whole lot of surplus energy anyway. After about 4k I felt like I'd done 10 already and I realised it was probably the drugs that had made me think I was up to it. :pac:

Total: 5.3km @ 5:59

Maximus Alexander

Since Wednesday's run I've been experiencing Sickness Part 2: The Illenning. I feel worse today than I did on Tuesday! It doesn't make sense that I felt well enough to run and then took a nose dive and got worse. :mad: Another setback is annoying, I was looking forward to hitting 15k on Saturday.

It looks like this week's grand total is going to be 5km. :pac:

Maximus Alexander

In the end I lost a whole week to illness. But on the bright side I was back in the game this evening.

5k Easy:

The above was the plan, but once I was out there I felt I needed to blow the cobwebs off. It was tough right from the off and it was pretty startling how much you can lose to a week of illness and no running. For the first km or so I felt like I'd gone back in time a few months, but I gradually picked up the pace throughout the run. My lungs were still pretty gunked up which probably made it more difficult to get air in, but then there's nothing like a run to help clear them out (TMI? ).

Total: 6.1km @ 5:31

It was a lovely evening for it. I have to try and avoid falling into the trap of trying to make up the lost miles now.

Maximus Alexander

6k Easy:

Easy run didn't feel too easy, but my average HR was still roughly what it would usually be for a run like this, so that's odd. I'm going to assume it's still a hangover of sorts from having been ill. No problems to report otherwise, it's good to be running.

Total: 6.5km @ 5:53

Maximus Alexander

LSR:

Conditions were perfect today for a long run; cool but not cold; a light breeze without strong gusts; light cloud with a bit of sun every now and then. I felt good too, back to my pre-illness self. Perhaps even better. And so it was that I went out and ran my longest run to date, both in terms of distance and duration. And I really enjoyed it.

Total: 15.23km @ 5:51 (1hr 29min)

Maximus Alexander

30 Min Recovery:

This was intended to be very slow but I took it too fast. Tomorrow is a rest day anyway, so it'll be grand. Legs were very tired, but they did the job without fuss. I think I'm fitter now than I've ever been in my life which is a great feeling.

Total: 5.2km @ 5:46

That's 33km for the week.

Maximus Alexander

5k Easy:

My legs felt heavy and I was a bit lethargic today so I kept it short. I suppose that was a lot of mileage for me over the weekend, and I've learned from past mistakes not to overdo it. 7k was what I had intended for tonight but it's better to be sensible.

Total: 5.35km @ 5:52

Maximus Alexander

I was unexpectedly busy on both Thursday and Friday evenings and ended up missing a run, there was just nowhere I could fit it in. I felt pretty guilty about it until today.

LSR:

The plan was 10 miles and to break my longest distance / duration record from last week. I headed out in the evening around 730 and went to Marlay Park for a couple of laps. It was glorious out. Mild, calm and with the sun beginning to set. I really, really enjoyed this run. Because I couldn't fit this in until evening, I had to cancel other plans to do it. So while I was out running all my friends were in the pub, and I didn't even care. Something is broken inside me.

My legs were fierce tired for the last couple of kilometers, once I was out of the park and heading home. I was walking a bit funny afterwards, but the foam roller and a baseball seem to have put things right.

Total: 16.1km @ 5:48 (1hr 33min)

Maximus Alexander

Despite doing my longest run yet, last week was actually a terrible week for mileage because I missed two runs through poor planning. This week, normal service resumes.

6k Easy:

I still had a lot of tiredness in the legs and a bit of DOMS today, which suggests that I was going too fast for my long run. That's definitely something I need to work on, so I started today. I find it very mechanically awkward to run slower than about 6:00/km, but I've been told by others on here that, like anything, it's just because I'm not used to it and need practise. In that sense this run was a huge success.

Total: 6.12km @ 6:12
(How satisfying are those numbers)