Lurker's Log

Firedance

'running buddy' eh?

Murph_D

The first club session is always the head wreckiest. It's natural to want to give a good account of yourself and overdo it. I was looking at your 'up the kyber' and my eyes were watering at how much faster it was than mine, and I'd done mine during a hill 'sprint'. Even allowing for the old man handicap this seemed excessive. . Well done on joining the club, I'm sure it will be a huge benefit.

mbarr

8 miles quickish last night around the trails on the circumference of the park, very enjoyable. Tonight, the club ran the same two laps with tempo up the Kyber and the S bends, it was suggested that I was a bit fast for the group I ran with last week but a bit slow for the faster group, an attempt was made to pull me out and put me with the faster group but I asked to stay where I was for the moment.

I feel that was a good decision for this week, at the end I felt I had plenty left and could have done another lap, but I couldn't have gone any faster. Don't know how I'm going to keep up with the faster group next week, just have to tuck in behind and endure I suppose. And possibly pray for a different session!
Felt slower this week but apparently I shaved a few seconds off my up the kyber time so it is getting easier! Added a mile or two to either end to bring it up to 11 miles, as I suck at getting out at the weekend this is doubling up as my weekly long run at the moment.

Well done to all racing last weekend, some great performances in the half, bodes very well for DCM

mbarr

Fun weekend, went and cheered the Liffey Valley team on in the Dublin Novice Cross Country in the park, cross country looks seriously brutal. I'm not quite there fitness-wise this year but would love to have a crack at it next year.

Got a ten mile LSR in Sunday morning. I've been running longer than that regularly midweek with the club but not continuously, so it was nice to feel the LSR fatigue of being on my feet and moving for 1:30 mins.

The club session tonight was a brutal 1100x4 up and down Lord's Walk. my first interval session with the club, I went out with the fastest of the middle group (proper fast lads went off and did their own thing) and knew instantly this was going to be painful. Had to dig deep to stick with the group for the first interval but managed to hang on. The coach was calling times as we ended the first 1100 meters, 3:45?! My fastest kilometer to date was 3:57.5 and I had just ran 1.1 in 3:45, bonkers. Strava is telling me my km time was 3:37, over 20 seconds faster than my previous best over 1000m so that's insane. There's definitely something to this club training!

Second interval was a little slower but I still came in in 3:50 something and again beat my previous km best. Third interval i started to fall away from the group and was almost completely dead at the end of it, I had every intention of falling back to a slower group but I staggered around on the spot for a bit while everyone jogged their recovery and when they got back to me I thought I should at least try to finish out with them so off I went again. I fell way back on the final interval and ended up about 100 meters behind the tail of the group, but I was rather proud to have done the 4 reps.

Apologies for turning a simple club session into something akin to a race report but I'm fairly buzzed about it!

mbarr

Was having serious FOMO yesterday in relation to the club session I needed to skip due to a birthday party. Got out for lunch instead and did 10x400m off one minute recovery, headed out a bit too fast on the first few and needed to stop the clock after 5 to take a few minutes break, and fell off the pace on the last few, but got a fairly decent workout. Shower at work is the best development ever.
Splits:
89, 87, 89, 92, 93, 92, 91, 96, 98, 101

Younganne

mbarr wrote: »

Was having serious FOMO yesterday in relation to the club session I needed to skip due to a birthday party. Got out for lunch instead and did 10x400m off one minute recovery, headed out a bit too fast on the first few and needed to stop the clock after 5 to take a few minutes break, and fell off the pace on the last few, but got a fairly decent workout. Shower at work is the best development ever.
Splits:
89, 87, 89, 92, 93, 92, 91, 96, 98, 101

If there was no shower at my work i wouldn't be running during the spring / autumn / winter :eek:

mbarr

Another club session involving laps of fast running up the Kyber, steady down acres then fast up the S-bends, two laps of that. Getting stronger at this, went with the quicker group and didn't get left behind too much. Wasn't nearly as much of a mess as I thought I would be. Finally feel like I'm getting back to consistency in terms of mileage, sessions, and even the beginnings of a few longer runs. Managed to fall tonight on the way home, luckily I had a buff wrapped around the hand that took the brunt of the fall so just a few minor scrapes.

I'm thinking of doing the Autumn Open Cross Country festival this Sunday, I've never ran cross country before and this might be a good way to get one under my belt while not letting down team mates!

Firedance

mbarr wrote: »

I'm thinking of doing the Autumn Open Cross Country festival this Sunday, I've never ran cross country before and this might be a good way to get one under my belt while not letting down team mates!

Am tempted by this myself but there's the small matter of a big wedding on Saturday - if I make it home by 4am I might still consider it There's rain forecast on Saturday too so you might experience some mud! You'll love it

mbarr

Signed up to the cross country, went to Run Logic and bought XC shoes (Adidas XCS) and decided while I was at it to get my gait looked at again. Looks like I've changed a bit since initially getting it done and now need a more neutral runner, which makes shopping for them a bit easier. Picked up a pair of Brooks Ghost 9s which I'm now wearing around the office, they feel lovely

Club run last night was a relaxed pace with 5x200 meter strides between the lampposts on Chesterfield. This feels like it's getting easier; my battery has been flat on my HRM for ages but going to try to replace it this weekend. Looking forward to seeing if my heart rate is correspondingly slower for these sorts of runs.

Plan for the weekend; run Waterstown parkrun tomorrow with my missus (~35 min pace) and the cross country on Sunday

tang1

You sign up for Barcelona yet........

mbarr

tang1 wrote: »

You sign up for Barcelona yet........

Hi B, I'm in two minds about Barcelona. Part of me wants to get stuck into another block of marathon training, and another part of me wants to run with the club, run every race I can think of to enter in, try cross country, try mountains, try shorter distances, etc and not enter another marathon until I can look at seriously improving my time (like sub 3:15) rather than knock a few minutes off.

I'll decide in the next month or so. You definitely on for it?

tang1

mbarr wrote: »

Hi B, I'm in two minds about Barcelona. Part of me wants to get stuck into another block of marathon training, and another part of me wants to run with the club, run every race I can think of to enter in, try cross country, try mountains, try shorter distances, etc and not enter another marathon until I can look at seriously improving my time (like sub 3:15) rather than knock a few minutes off.

I'll decide in the next month or so. You definitely on for it?

Entered Wednesday and booked the accommodation!!

mbarr

AAI Autumn Open Cross Country 8000m: 169th out of 175 finishers!

Nothing brings you back down to earth like cross country. Decent tshirt slogan and also the tagline for my Sunday afternoon efforts in Abbotstown. Got there late, lined up at the back, watched 168 guys rapidly accelerate away from me, mud, mud, hills, more mud, oh god I'm still on lap 1 of 4, more hills, mud, sand, mud, pain, more pain, self doubt, thoughts of quitting, lapped by most of the field, watch most of the field finishing knowing that I have another lap to go, focus on the guy on front of me, he's tiring, I can catch him, got him on the last hill! Check the results later and he's M60, as are most of the folk finishing in the bottom half of the field.

Seriously competitive, seriously tough, glad I did it though. First one under the belt!

Felt a bit frustrated and fresh later in the day so got out for another 4 miles to bring my weekly total over 40 and to try out my new brooks.

mbarr

Monday: 6 miles @9:21 AHR: 133

Tuesday: 10 miles with club session 4x1100m
This session killed me two weeks ago, I tried to go out with the faster group again last night but was quickly dropped and caught by the second group. This was a blessing, as I was able to run the intervals consistently and finish strongly.
Splits: 4:10, 4:15, 4:17, 4:05

Made my mind up on Barcelona this morning, just went to try to book everything and realise I've left my wallet at home! I'm going to take this as a sign, that I should book as soon as possible when I get home this evening

With regards to base training, since early September (after the Warriors Run) my weekly mileage has been as follows:
28, 34, 34, 45, 38, 41.
Decent base mileage there I think, another two weeks of that and pushing the long run out from 11 miles to 14 and I should be in good nick to start the 18 week meno plan from the beginning of November.

I'm going to try to be a bit flexible with it, still get the club session in on a Tuesday, try to run some cross country races (need to get some ROI on those spikes) and do a lot more hills/trails than last block of training.

Chartsengrafs

Well done for attempting the Autumn Open XC. I was away for it (luckily) but could see the strength of the field checking the results - serious depth. Good choice with joining LV - Jim will certainly knock you into shape

mbarr

Longest run since Rotterdam today, 12 very hungover miles to collect my da's car in Sligo. It felt fantastic, beautiful day and perfect running conditions, again the long run fatigue kicked in after about 1 hour 20 mins, and for the last 25 mins I was blissfully fooked. Want to get one 13 mile run done in the next 2 weeks and I'll feel in great shape for starting training for Barcelona.

39.4 miles for the week, somewhat annoyingly.

mbarr

Last night's session was the hills again, two laps of hill tempo up the Kyber and S-bends. New surface on the Kyber, nice running. I usually run to and from the club session making it up to around 11 miles, yesterday I threw in an extra run up Chesterfield to make it up to half marathon distance. Too many miles in just a few days but wanted the confidence of having gone that distance prior to beginning marathon training and this weekend is going to be about Halloween parties and marathon spectating, next weekend I'm on hols and likely to not be running much.

Getting wildly excited about training for Barcelona, currently amending Firedance's amended Meno plan for my purposes. Gonna bump up the mileage a bit (not to Singer levels though!) and try to at least get the club Thursday run in (at the moment that tends to be a longish steady run with 200m strides). That's going to mean running my session on Tuesday, long run Saturday and recovery Wednesday.

adrian522

I'd be careful about adding sessions to that plan (insert your own pot/kettle joke here). Some of those Wednesday sessions are seriously tough and then you essentially have another session as part of your long run a lot of the time.

Just be very aware of how you are feeling and if not properly recovered just run easy on Thursday. A lot of the time you will be running 12+ miles on Tuesday so I wouldn't be in too much of a rush to add another session on the Thursday.

mbarr

Thanks Adrian, yeah definitely take your point. Thursdays will be the first thing I dial back on once the going gets tougher.

Felt like running some proper distance tempo stuff yesterday, so did 3x1mile with a mile recovery at what is close enough to 5k pace. 6:46, 6:58, 6:39, still miles off a sub 20 5k but I suppose I haven't been training specifically for it, haven't been racing them, etc.

Looking forward to the plan starting as I'm making it up as I go along at the minute and am probably overdoing it.

mbarr

A week off for holidays, a week with a cold and suddenly it's half way through November and I've only been out for 3 runs! Anyhow, just the kick up the hole I need heading into this block of training; I need to take better care of myself. Emphasis on sleep, reduced alcohol consumption and not eating complete rubbish at the weekends.

Week one of training for Barcelona is over, I managed the first easy run before the cold went to my chest. Missed the rest of the week but got out for the 12 mile run yesterday. Not the best first week of training, but to extract some positives, I got the long run done and I'm over the cold.

Plan for this week is a tricky progression run tomorrow and a 14 mile long run on Saturday.

mbarr

Went for 4 miles easy last night and my knee was feeling strangely stiff. Hobbled up the shops afterwards cursing myself for running 12 miles after basically 2 weeks of no running but it seemed to work itself out somewhat. Slight stiffness today but not bad. Gonna take this as a shot across the bows and dial it back to easy running only for the week, hopefully be fit for the long run this weekend. If not then I need to start looking into shorter plans and just focus on building things back up for the next few weeks

mbarr

No reoccurrence of the knee pain, I put it down to a worn out pair of runners mostly. 40 miles for the week, mostly slow (couldn't resist the urge to session it up a bit on Wednesday, did a mile steady, mile MP and a mile faster than HMP.

15 mile long run around phoenix park yesterday, hands were a bit cold but no issues with pace, body behaved itself, HR hovered around 140 which is around right. Steered clear of drink on Saturday night which did wonders, gonna have to remember this secret for the future.

mbarr

Tuesday: 3x2 mile between HMP and 10 mile pace. 12 miles total, lap of the park.

Last year I completed this session comfortably at about 7:15 pace for the 3x2 miles, but I was coming off the back of a successful half marathon training block which included lots of tempo running; this year not so much. Struggled to complete the session and was walking the recovery from the second one.

Splits in mile pace for the two mile sections: 7:04, 7:08, 7:13. Last one was hill assisted, I was pretty banjaxed. Big session to be starting into tempo miles again though so glad to have it under my belt all things considered. First longer run out under headtorch, it was wonderful. forgot how much I love sessions in the cold and dark!

mbarr

Had to postpone the long run to Monday evening due to some chafing in an area I've never gotten chafed in before. I wasn't looking forward to 16 miles in the dark but once I got out it was grand. Forgot my gloves, the hands were frozen off me for the last 5 miles.

Realised last night that I'm almost a stone heavier than this time last cycle, hopefully the increased mileage and long runs will start to move that needle in the right direction.

This week I should be racing a 5k at the weekend but due to a big family party in Naas I'm going to skip it. Going to throw in a session I missed the week before last instead, 10 mile run Sunday, then back on plan from next week.

mbarr

Session last night, 2 miles w/u, 8 mins steady (8:12), 8 mins MP (7:52), 8 mins HMP (7:10) and 8 mins as fast as possible (6:50). Again, found this tougher than last year but went faster. Just too fat at the moment, need to lay off the curry and beer.

Focused on the December long slow runs now to set me up well for January's ramp up of MP miles.

Nicked this table from tailgunner, closing in on my year mileage goal of 1500 miles.

Month|2015|2016
Jan|x|193
Feb|x|182
Mar|x|199
Apr|x|77
May|x|154
Jun|86|18
Jul|124|43
Aug|30|58
Sep|115|127
Oct|130|177
Nov|174|124
Dec|162
Total|750|1,352

mbarr

Tipping away happily enough, nothing really to report. 11 miles on Sunday @ 9:02min/mile, 6.4 yesterday.

Plan is to move my session to tomorrow morning as we've a weigh in for a biggest loser competition at work and I want to be as dehydrated as possible.

mbarr

90 minute progression session was tough this morning, really tough. Held marathon pace for 20 mins no problem but knew to kick it up to HMP, even for 10 minutes, was going to be tricky. Ended up picking up the pace on Acres road with a stiff wind in my face, and gave up then on nailing the session, just tried to hang on and survive the 10 minutes somewhere between MP and HMP.
Splits were
20 mins W/U - 9:16 m/m
20 mins steady - 8:16 m/m
20 mins MP - 7:53 m/m
10 mins MP - HMP - 7:42 m/m
20 mins C/D - 9:24 m/m

Ended up walking a bit of the cool down. Not a great session but I got through it. Doesn't compare well to January when I last ran this session. I'm hoping that means I'm just going to peak later this training cycle!

tang1

It's early doors still M, plenty of time to improve.

mbarr

tang1 wrote: »

It's early doors still M, plenty of time to improve.

Cheers B, yeah looking at it in context as well, I ran 6.5 miles Monday, 6.5 miles last night and went out at 6:30 this morning for a session, not too surprising I'm finding it tough to hit the paces. On another positive note I came second place in the work weight competition, 1.5 kg lighter thanks to this morning's session.

mbarr

Hard to describe my last week of running. I've swung wildly from feeling very meh about the whole endeavour to really loving it. The toughness of the session last week knocked me for the rest of the week, the 18 mile long run Sunday was a total slog; there were about 10 things I'd have rather been doing with 3 hours of my weekend. I think while training for Rotterdam runs like this were fresh and exciting because I'd never run that far before, each long run was pushing the boundries of what was possible for me. Now I know I can do it, I know how long it will take and there's just no challenge or mystery, just a long time on my feet ahead of me.

Anyhow, new week, new runners, new found love of running. Not sure if it's a response to the training or what but each run this week I've felt like I've been gliding along effortlessly. Session tonight was 2x4 mile @MP. Ran a few extra miles cool down to bring it to 13.6 miles. Very similar to last year's effort at the same session (ran 10 seconds per mile faster this time but faster heart rate), felt great all the way through. The new runners (Adidas supernova glide boost) are for me the best I've ever had, feel like I've found my shoe and will be ordering another few from wiggle if they are still €55.