My Log on the Run

jake1970

I have been thinking about starting a training log here for a while now, so here goes.

About me
Im 45, male and Im one of Dubgals DCM 2015 Graduates.
I started running in August 2012 and really enjoyed it from the off. There has been a steady improvement in my running year on year with 2015 been quite a good year, the highlights were a sub 01:30 Half marathon and I ran my first marathon which was an amazing experience.

Current PBs
5k 19:06
10k 40:35
5 mile 33:35
Half Marathon 1:28:56
Marathon 3:18:30

What next
After DCM I picked up an injury and I didnt run at all for the last 5 weeks of the year. I started back running in January and soon realized that the amount of speed and fitness I have lost since DCM is frightening. I done a park run at the start of February in 21:20, its not were I thought I would be after all the marathon training but it is what it is.
Im currently doing Myles's graduate training plan and I do feel that I am starting to regain fitness and speed. Im currently averaging 30+ miles a week.

The goal races for the year will be Dunshauglin 10k, Athlone Half and maybe DCM.

Comments and feedback on any aspect of my training are welcome.

Firedance

Welcome to the logs Jake best of luck with your goals, plenty of good advice to be had in here.

denis b

Great to see you on board Jake. I have certainly found the Log to be a great support in challenging myself. Nothing like seeing your work right out there in front of you. Enjoy the benefits.

tang1

Best of luck with the log, similar enough PB's to myself. Will be keeping an eye on you!!

Kennyg71

Good to see your starting log Jake, has really helped me, looking forward to great things, I'm sure you'll be back flying
in no time.

jake1970

Firedance wrote: »

Welcome to the logs Jake best of luck with your goals, plenty of good advice to be had in here.

denis b wrote: »

Great to see you on board Jake. I have certainly found the Log to be a great support in challenging myself. Nothing like seeing your work right out there in front of you. Enjoy the benefits.

tang1 wrote: »

Best of luck with the log, similar enough PB's to myself. Will be keeping an eye on you!!

Kennyg71 wrote: »

Good to see your starting log Jake, has really helped me, looking forward to great things, I'm sure you'll be back flying
in no time.

Thanks for the welcome folks.

Firedance & Tang best of luck in Rotterdam.

Denis & Kennyg see you both at the K-club 10k.

jake1970

The week so far

Mon
5.6 miles easy @ 9:01m/m

Tues
10 mins warm up
8 x 2 mins @ 5k pace/ 90 sec recovery
10 mins cooldown
splits
7:06
6:22
6:18
6:27
6:49
6:43
6:50
6:45
2 weeks ago I ran a parkrun @ 6:45 pace, so the plan was to run the splits at what felt like 5k effort and not look at the watch until each rep had finished. As can be seen from the from the splits it took a while to get the effort right.

Thurs
7 miles general aerobic @ 8:14m/m
with 2 sets of 6 x 100m with 3mins recovery between sets.

I said in my op that I was currently following the Graduates plan but where I am at now in plan coincides with the 2 weeks before Raheny so for this week and next week I have to tweak the plan a bit to suit where im currently at so this is a session i took from Pete Pfitzingers book Faster Road Racing.

Ososlo

Jake, delighted to see you finally succumbed!!
Will be following avidly!
Best of luck !

jake1970

Ososlo wrote: »

Jake, delighted to see you finally succumbed!!
Will be following avidly!
Best of luck !

Thanks O.
Succumbed meaning "fail to resist pressure"

jake1970

Saturday
5.6miles easy @8:58m/m

Sunday
12.1 miles @ 9:02 m/m
Lovely morning for a nice leisurely run. Over the last few weeks I have been adding a mile to my Sunday morning runs, today I hit 12 miles and I could of run further. No niggles to report.
36.2 miles for the week.

Dubgal72

Yep, great to see this, what took you so long?! That 5mi PB has to go, any plans for that?

jake1970

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Yep, great to see this, what took you so long?! That 5mi PB has to go, any plans for that?

Hi Dg I didnt think anyone would be interest in a non running log .
As for the 5mile PB, after I missed out on Raheny I never gave it another thought but now you have thinking about it. Terenure would be a good tune up race before Dunshauglin.

jake1970

Mon
5.5 miles easy @ 9:08m/m

Tues
5.4 miles/1,2,3,2,1 minutes @ 5k effort w/ equal time recovery
splits for reps
6:38
6:32
6:40
6:19
6:22
My last 5k was @ 6:45m/m. I ran these reps at what I felt was 5k effort so I am happy enough with this workout and the first 3 reps were into a strong head wind:).

jake1970

Thursday
5.6miles easy @ 8:54m/m
Not much to report about this run only that it lashed rain and I got absolutely soaked.

Friday
7 miles @ 7:49m/m
This run was to be a bit quicker than General aerobic, something like comfortably hard.
The splits were 7:55, 7:53, 7:38, 7:53, 7:46, 7:47. I would it hard to hit any sort of rhythm on this run until the last 2 miles.

Sunday
13.2 miles @ 8:58 m/m
Another lovely Sunday morning for a run. Im really enjoying my long runs at the moment and it was nice to hit the half marathon distance. 34.7 miles for the week.

Singer

Only came across your log now! Welcome to the darkside. Looking forward to tracking your progress this year... though I advise against trying to get rid of that 5 mile PB as it's the only one that I beat you on

jake1970

Singer wrote: »

Only came across your log now! Welcome to the darkside. Looking forward to tracking your progress this year... though I advise against trying to get rid of that 5 mile PB as it's the only one that I beat you on

With the way your training is going lately I expect you to be knocking my PBs out of the park(no pressure now:)). MSB 5k is first up isn't it? I will be keeping a close eye on the results.

mbarr

Just coming across this too, best of luck with your goals

jake1970

mbarr wrote: »

Just coming across this too, best of luck with your goals

Thanks mbarr. Well done on your HM PB at the weekend, your training looks to be going well.

jake1970

Tuesday
5.9 miles easy @9:01m/m
Legs were a bit stiff after Sundays run(longest run this year) but they loosened out after a few miles.

Wednesday
6.5 miles @7:31m/m the pace for this was to be comfortably hard.
This run was supposed to be similar to last Fridays run but when I looked back on that run I realized that Fridays run was more comfortable and not really hard:(. Todays run was more like how it should be.
It got me thinking about how much effort I have been putting in to the session runs since I have come back from injury. Looking back over my training and its fairly obvious that I have been just going through the motions. So its time to HTFU and take this running lark serious again.

jake1970

Thursday
5.4 miles easy @ 9:15m/m

Friday
6.2 miles with 5,4,3,2,1 minutes @ 10k+ effort with 3 min rec between each rep.
The 5 min segment is 10k effort with each rep getting slightly faster as you go on. I am unsure as to what my current 10k effort but I think it might be around 7:00m/m.
the paces for each rep were
7:04
6:48
6:48
6:46
6:29
While the last rep was tough the rest of the reps were comfortable hard, so I dont know what to take from this session. Is my 10k pace quicker than I think it is? Are the 3mins recovery to long ? It is done now and I am sure it will stand to me in the future. I have a 5k race Sunday week and maybe after that I will have a better idea on what sort of paces I should be running my key sessions at.

jake1970

Sunday
14.0 miles @8:54m/m
Ideal conditions again today for running but 2 hours spent digging my vegetable garden yesterday made this run more of a slog than it should of been.

This brings an end to the Graduate plan for me, thanks Myles.
Next weekend I have the Clongowes 5k race in Clane, its not a goal race but hopefully it will give some sort of idea where I am with regards my fitness and speed. After that I am starting a 10k training plan from Pete Pfitzinger which will hopefully lead to a PB in Dunshaughlin.

denis b

Sunday
14.0 miles @8:54m/m

Next weekend I have the Clongowes 5k race in Clane, its not a goal race but hopefully it will give some sort of idea where I am with regards my fitness and speed.

Best of luck with the race Jake. Should be interesting as part of your comeback. Really interested in this as I have had a parallel experience, in terms of times, post marathon.


After that I am starting a 10k training plan from Pete Pfitzinger which will hopefully lead to a PB in Dunshaughlin.


Mind me asking which plan?

jake1970

denis b wrote: »

Mind me asking which plan?

Its the 10k Schedule 1 plan from Faster Road Racing, its actually quiet similar to your own plan. I used this plan last year with great success(2 5k PBs and a 10k PB) but last year I was further ahead fitness wise than I am this year. I had considered the Schedule 2 plan but I think the increase in mileage might be too much for me and also there is no way I could commit to training 6 days a week at the moment.

jake1970

Monday
5.1 miles recovery @9:22 m/m
My legs were feeling a bit sluggish after Sundays long run so some recovery paced miles were called for.

Tuesday
5.0 miles @8:41 m/m
If ever there was a run that I should of abandoned after a mile well this was the one. The plan here was for 5 miles General Aerobic with strides but straight away I was under pressure, I just seemed to have no energy. Instead of stopping I decided to continue on, sure maybe I will perk up after a mile or 2. Well that didnt happen and the rest of the run was just a pure hard slog. The lack of energy I am putting down to tiredness as I haven't been getting much sleep lately.

Kennyg71

Best luck in Clane, fingers crossed all goes to plan:)

tang1

Best of luck tomorrow, hope it goes well.

jake1970

Thursday
4.0 miles with strides @8:31 m/m

Friday
4.2 miles easy @9:01 m/m

It has been a quite week

tang1 wrote: »

Best of luck tomorrow, hope it goes well.

Kennyg71 wrote: »

Best luck in Clane, fingers crossed all goes to plan:)

Thanks lads.
I ran a parkrun 6 weeks ago in a time of 21:20, I feel I am a bit quicker now and I hope that tomorrow I would be nearer 20 mins than 21 mins. So the plan is to go out hard and hang on for dear life.

Murph_D

All the best tomorrow jake.

denis b

Best of luck Jake. Go for it!

Singer

Hope it goes well tomorrow J!

jake1970

19:44 chip time
Happy enough with that, short race report to follow(tomorrow)

tang1

Ah for feck sake I was looking for first name by your log, it's 19.43 to by the way. Very well done.

jake1970

tang1 wrote: »

Ah for feck sake I was looking for first name by your log, it's 19.43 to by the way. Very well done.

haha, thanks tang you still found me though. I rounded up the time to 19:44 but if you say to take 19:43 who am I to argue.:)

denis b

Nice run Jake. you sure are getting back in the zone. Be interested in your account of the race.

jake1970

Sunday 20th of march: Clongowes 5k

The plan for this race was to go out hard and hang on for dear life. The target was to get as close to 20 mins as was possible. I met my friend M at the start and she said that she was also targeting 20 mins so we decided to run together even though there was a 20 min pacer. After a 10 min delay we were off, we quickly settled into a nice hard pace that was a bit faster than target pace which left me wondering would I be able to stick this till the end. The first mile ticked off at 6:15, happy with that 10 secs up on target. We turned off the main road and down a side road and M said that the next mile was the flattest part of the course so the plan was to try and keep the pace consistent and try and stay ahead of target pace and we did, second mile was 6:21. At the start of mile 3 things took a turn, all of a sudden I started to feel unwell, I got very hot, my head was pounding and I felt like puking. Thankfully this feeling passed quickly, I had a quick look at the watch and I was happy to see that we were still ahead of target pace. At this stage we were now coming back on to the main road and up to the main gates of Clongowes College, there was a bit of a incline here and the legs were really hurting, M pulled ahead by a few meters and it was a gap that remained till the finish. Once we reached the main gates there was approx 500 meters to go and its a dead straight run to the finish line. M was still the few meters ahead of me and I tried in vain to catch her but the effort I put in to try and catch her kept me honest till the end. The last mile and a bit was 6:18(50 secs).
I was quiet happy with this result, its not exactly were I thought I would be after DCM but it does show that I am slowly getting back to my previous fitness levels.

jake1970

Wednesday
6.2 miles with 6X12 secs hills followed by 6x100m strides.

Thursday
8.0 miles @ 7:59m/m endurance run
pace for endurance runs is from 7:40-8:30m/m

Saturday
7.0 miles with 3x8 mins @ LT pace/ 3 mins recovery
LT pace is 6:40-6:50m/m
pace for splits
6:40
6:35
7:04:(

Sunday
9 miles @ 8:11m/m endurance run

30.2 miles for the week

This week is the first week of 10k training with the target race being Dunshaughlin in June. I am using a plan taken from Pete Pfitzingers book Faster Road Racing. I have used this plan before and I have PB'd from it, same again please:D
Just to give a summary of last weeks training.
The week started very badly, on Sunday evening Mrs jake had an altercation with a flight of stairs and she broke her collarbone:eek:. Unfortunately for her and me:) she is going to be laid up for the foreseeable future which is really going to test my time management skills.
So getting back to the training, I have to say that apart from Wednesdays run it which was grand I found the rest of the runs quite tough. Maybe Sundays 5k race was still in the legs but the training was tougher than I thought it should have been. As for the LT intervals on Saturday, it didnt really go to well. While the first 2 intervals were on target I was really struggling on the 2nd one(it was a bit faster) and that carried on to the 3rd interval where I had nothing left in the legs and I was going to abandon it but I decided to keep going and I was glad I did because if I had given up completely I would have been very disappointed with myself. I am probably running the LT intervals to fast for my current fitness and I will aim for the slower end of the LT pace(6:50) this week and see how that goes.

Neady83

:eek: poor Mrs. Jake, hope she makes a speedy recovery.

Nice training by the way, I'm jealous of the work you're putting into those sessions.

jake1970

Neady83 wrote: »

:eek: poor Mrs. Jake, hope she makes a speedy recovery.

Nice training by the way, I'm jealous of the work you're putting into those sessions.

I hope Mrs jake makes a very speedy recovery too:).

There is some serious training going on in your log Neady, fair play to you. Best of luck with your adventures in the coming year.

jake1970

Tuesday
6.0 miles with 2 sets of 4 x 200m@ 800m - 1 mile pace, 4 mins recovery between sets.
1st set: 44, 46, 42, 43 secs
2nd set:43, 43, 44, 47 secs
By the end of this run both my calves for feeling a bit tight. Even though I have been foam rolling regularly I think its time to reacquaint the calves to the rolling pin again:eek:

Thursday
8.0 miles @ 8:02 m/m endurance run.
splits: 8:11, 8:15, 8:09, 8:05, 8:08, 8:08, 7:41, 7:40
Not much to say about this only that it was a nice enjoyable run on what was a lovely evening for running.

jake1970

Saturday
8 miles with 2x10 mins and 1x8 mins @ LT pace/ 3 mins recovery
pace for splits
6:43
6:44
6:42
I am a lot happier with this LT session when compared to last weeks. While the reps were tough I managed to keep the pace fairly even throughout but I was very grateful of the 3 min recoveries.

Sunday
10 miles @ 8:19 m/m endurance run.
Ideally I would take a rest day after a session day but at the moment I am finding it very hard to get the time to get my runs in so I had no choice but to do this today. The legs were tired after yesterdays session and this run was a bit of a slog. A few little niggles are starting to appear which is probably down to the greater intensity in my training.

Next week I have the K-club 10k so I will probably drop this weeks VO2 max session and run the 10k at LT pace and continue with the plan as normal.

32 miles for the week

spaceylou

Just caught up on this log - best of luck in the 10 k next week

tang1

spaceylou wrote: »

Just caught up on this log - best of luck in the 10 k next week

+1 to that, run well man.

jake1970

Tuesday
9 miles @ 8:08m/m endurance run
After a rest day Monday I am happy to report less niggles today.

Wednesday
7 miles with 6X12 secs hills followed by 6x100m strides.
Really enjoying these type of workouts.

I hope to sneak in a short recovery run on Friday before the 10k on Saturday and its then that I will decide on a plan for the 10k. Initially I was going to run it as at Lt pace but now I think I might race it.

Singer

jake1970 wrote: »

I hope to sneak in a short recovery run on Friday before the 10k on Saturday and its then that I will decide on a plan for the 10k. Initially I was going to run it as at Lt pace but now I think I might race it.

Go for it!

Dubgal72

Best of luck. What sort of shape do you think you're in?

jake1970

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Best of luck. What sort of shape do you think you're in?

After my recent 5k result(19:44) I am actually in better shape than I thought I was and if I race the 10k, which I probably will do, I would be happy with a sub 42.

denis b

Best of luck Jake. The comeback continues.

Kennyg71

Best Luck Saturday Jake, I think you are a racer, so not much chance
of a Tempo:)

The Muppet

Have a great run on Saturday Jake, Enjoy.

Neady83

Wishing you a great race tomorrow Jake, hope it's enjoyable and PB friendly

mbarr

Good luck Jake