My Log on the Run

jake1970

Monday
5 mile @ 8:57m/m recovery.

Tuesday
6.4 miles @ 7:36m/m
A bit of a progression run for the first 5 miles along the Staplestown route and then I eased back on the pace for the last 1.4 miles. The splits were 8:12, 7:41, 7:24, 7:08, 7:05, 7:54(8:06). Happy enough at how this went considering that there are a few long drags on this route.

jake1970

Thursday
6.7 miles @ 7:57m/m with 8 X 100m strides
I had to bring Little miss jake to athletics training so this meant that I had to run around the streets of Newbridge to get this done. My Achilles had a bit of a moan but I think that was due to running on concrete footpaths and having to hop off and on footpaths due to inconsiderate walkers and cyclists:mad:, give me running on country roads over urban running any day of the week. On a positive note I passed the 1000 mile mark for the year on this run, 2 months later than last year.

Saturday
11.2 miles @ 8:13m/m
Back to Newbridge for this run as jake jr had GAA training with the Kildare academy. I planned the route in advance for this, more country roads than concrete paths:). This was a nice comfortable run and I am happy to have another long run under my belt.

Sunday
5 miles @ 9:01m/m
An out and back recovery run on a damp Sunday morning.

34.3 miles for the week

jake1970

Monday
5.1 miles @ 8:58m/m
Out and back recovery run.

Tuesday
7 miles @ 7:48m/m
Time for another few faster miles. I alternated between a slow mile and then a faster one. The splits for the 3 faster miles were 7:06, 6:51 and 6:52m/m. The target was sub 7 min miles, I went out way too fast on the 1st mile and suffered but I had a more controlled effort on the next 2 reps and hit my target. The recovery of a mile inbetween reps is probably too long but its a work in progress as I am still base building and just looking to add a bit of variety into the training.

jake1970

Thursday
7 miles @ 8:03m/m with 6 x 12secs hills
I was a little nervous about this as I thought that the hill reps would be a good test for the Achilles, happy to say that the Achilles came through unscathed.

Saturday
5 miles @ 8:54m/m recovery

Sunday
12 miles @ 8:18m/m
Quite a breezy and damp morning which made it tough going at times.

36.1 miles for the week.

jake1970

Tuesday
6.7 miles @ 8:03m/m with 8 x 100m strides
Lovely sunny evening for a run, some difference in the weather in just 24 hours. I had planned on running 7 miles but when I got to 3.35 miles the path along the canal bank was blocked by a fallen tree. I could have added the extra .3 of a mile at the end of the run but by the time I got back to my house it was too dark to continue on. Strides were controlled and I think I managed to maintain good form.

Wednesday
5.1 miles @ 8:58m/m recovery
The usual out and back recovery run after work.

Younganne

are you going to risk the trip to Longwood on Sunday? You could put the previous "hills" argument to rest:D

jake1970

Younganne wrote: »

are you going to risk the trip to Longwood on Sunday? You could put the previous "hills" argument to rest:D

Don't mention the war but that argument will have to stay unresolved because I wont make Longwood this Sunday, I have signed up for Clane 10k on the 4th of November.

Annie get your Run

Younganne wrote: »

are you going to risk the trip to Longwood on Sunday? You could put the previous "hills" argument to rest:D

You could just pay attention to the course this time and come back and tell us who was right

Younganne

Annie get your Run wrote: »

You could just pay attention to the course this time and come back and tell us who was right

I'll be too busy concentrating on breathing to pay attention to the course but I'll see what I can :D...I know in the 3/4 I was thinking phew!! these are not hills but when trying to run 3 min per mile faster I'll probably have a different view!!!!:o:o:o

jake1970

Saturday
5.3 miles @ 8:51m/m recovery
I didnt get out for a run Friday mainly due to laziness so I was determined to get this run done even though storm Brian was still around. Very wet and windy but glad I got the run in.

Sunday
13.1 miles @ 8:16m/m
This was my second longest run of the year:eek: and I could feel it in the legs as I struggled to maintain pace for the last few miles.

30.2 miles for the week.

jake1970

Monday
5 miles @ 9:00m/m recovery

Tuesday
7 miles @ 8:13m/m with 6x12 secs hills followed by 6x100m strides
Nice little workout taken from P&L Faster Road Racing

jake1970

Thursday
7 miles @ 7:49m/m with 5 x 1/2 mile @ current 5k pace and 1/2 mile recovery between reps.
I am guessing that my current 5k pace is approx 6:40m/m so that is the target I set for theses reps. The splits were 6:44, 6:36, 6:38, 6:38 and 6:38m/m. Happy with that but once again the recoveries were probably too long but its just about adding variety to this base building phase.

Friday
5 miles @ 8:57m/m recovery

Saturday
14.2 miles @ 8:11m/m
Even though this was my longest run of the year it felt effortless and I felt like I could of continued on for a few more miles.

38.2 miles for the week

jake1970

Time for an update.

November
I kicked off November with my first race in 4 months which was the Clane 10k. I wasnt expecing much from this as I was in a base building phase training wise and I had little to no speed work done. I finished the race in a time of 42:18 which I was happy with and I was happier again to have finished injury free.
For the next 2 weeks I plodded along, I even managed to get in my longest run of the year(15 miles) and then out of the blue I had a terrible slog of a long run and it knocked me for six and I just lost all interest in running. I managed to get 3 more runs in by the end of the month but I had to force myself out the door.
114 miles for the month.

December
My running malaise continued into the start of December but it improved week by week as the month went on. On St Stephens I ran a local 5 mile fun run and finished in a time of 34:08, I enjoyed the run and I took that as a sign that my running mojo was back:)
122 miles for the month.

OOnegative

Welcome back L, keep it going.

jake1970

January
January sees the start of Half marathon training, I have signed up for the Mullingar Half which is on St Patricks day. I am following a plan from Faster Road Racing so there are a lot of endurance runs, progression runs, genearal aerobic runs some lactate threshold runs and some strides throwing in there also. A sub 1:35 for the half would be nice but to be honest I am just happy to be back training and following a plan as it is a long time since I actually trained for a race(K club 10k last year).
145 miles for the month.

jake1970

February
Half marathon training continues.
I kicked off the month with a 10k Race in Rathcoffey in which I finished in a time of 42:26 which was 8 seconds slower than my last 10k back in November. So no progress there but its hardly surprising with the lack of speedwork in training.
2 weeks later I ran my first 5k of the year at Naas parkrun and I finished with a time of 20:22. I was happy enough with that result as apart from the first km I was running on my own for the rest of it.
The following week I ran the Bog of Allen 10k/5k, it was a race that I was involved in organising for my local GAA club. It was a mixture of road, grass, forest trail and bog. Considering that this wasnt a road race we still got 154 runners over the 2 races, with the majority of them running the 5k.
I finished in third place in the 10k in a time of 42:55 which I was quite surprised with given the rough terrain we had to run over.
So that was some of the highs for the month, the lows were a very poor attempt at a vo2max session and missing a long run.
With regards to the Half marathon training I would normally stick ridgidly to the plan and if I didnt hit the prescribed pace for a specific run it would stress me out and thats what was happening again in the month of January.
So for February I took a more relaxed approach which included the 3 races I ran this month, I am still hitting the required weekly mileage but I am enjoying running once again which I wasnt doing for the last 3 months. The Half in 2 weeks time should interesting though:)
154 miles for the month.

diego_b

Good stuff there L, great stuff you're happy on the roads again as it's very hard to stick with a plan if not enjoying it. Well done on good performances there in the 10Ks, that second one sounds very interesting so well done on a podium finish!

Younganne

well done L on the races, the relaxed approach seems to suit you.

Its great to be enjoying the running again too as after all isn't that why we do it!!:D

Best of Luck in the Mullingar Half

OOnegative

Good man L, good to see the progress and great to see you have the grá back for the training. Se they have swictched the Mullingar Half back again to the original route which i think is faster than past few years. It was the same route ultrapercy won in sub 70 minutes :eek::eek::eek:.

denis b

Good to see the training and fun L. Have you any other HM or 10 mile races lined up after Mullingar?

jake1970

diego_b wrote: »

Good stuff there L, great stuff you're happy on the roads again as it's very hard to stick with a plan if not enjoying it. Well done on good performances there in the 10Ks, that second one sounds very interesting so well done on a podium finish!

We were delighted with how the trail race went and we got very positive feedback from everyone after even though we had to change the 5k route at the last minute which made it closer to 6k We took a big risk on running a trail race at this time of year but we wanted to offer something different because at the moment there are at least 2 road races every weekend locally.
As for the podium finish prior knowledge of the route helped, especially through the 1.5k section of bog.

Younganne wrote: »

well done L on the races, the relaxed approach seems to suit you.

Its great to be enjoying the running again too as after all isn't that why we do it!!:D

Best of Luck in the Mullingar Half

You are right it should be enjoyable but we sometimes lose that enjoyment while chasing PBs. I am looking forward to the Half hopefully it will a great day out.

OOnegative wrote: »

Good man L, good to see the progress and great to see you have the grack for the training. Se they have swictched the Mullingar Half back again to the original route which i think is faster than past few years. It was the same route ultrapercy won in sub 70 minutes :eek::eek::eek:.

Thanks for the heads up on the route B. I remember ultrapercy winning and I think Dublin runner was second last year so watch this space

denis b wrote: »

Good to see the training and fun L. Have you any other HM or 10 mile races lined up after Mullingar?

I dont have any definite plans as regards whats next Denis. I am leaning towards a 10k training cycle with maybe Dunshaughlin as the target race, I would like to knock those 4 seconds of my current 10k PB.
I know that I wont be running DCM this year as I have a wedding in Sligo that weekend, so that would give me a clear run at Donadea 50k next year.

jake1970

Tuesday
6 miles @ 7:59m/m. 2 sets of 5 X 150m strides

Wednesday
4.6 miles @ 8:51m/m recovery

Thursday
9 miles @ 7:43m/m Endurance run
This was meant to be a repeat of a VO2 max session(2 sets of 2 x 1200m and 1x 800m @ 5k pace) that I executed quite poorly 2 weeks ago. Well this was a total disaster as I gave up during the second rep as I just wasnt up for it physically or mentally so I decided to just run it as an endurance run which went grand. 3 weeks ago I ran a parkrun @ 6:22m/m pace and now I cant hold that pace for 1200m. At the moment I am not too concerned about it but my next training cycle will be for shorter distances and I am going to have to learn to embrace the pain of 5/10k training once again.

jake1970

Saturday
10 miles @ 7:54m/m endurance
I ran this on an out and back route from the house and for the last 3 miles I was running directly into a nice little breeze so I was happy to maintain pace all the way home.

Sunday
4.1 miles @ 8:41m/m recovery.
I woke up Sunday morning and my calves were a bit tight after yesterdays run but they loosened up a bit during this run, stretched and foam rolled after. I think the reason for the tight calves was because of the relatively new runners I was wearing, this was my longest run in them. I was going to wear them next weekend for the Half but I think now I will wear an older pair.

33.7 miles for the week.

jake1970

Tuesday
7 miles @ 7:53m/m with 4 x 100m strides, 2 miles @ HMP(7:15m/m)
I headed over to Naas straight after work to get this done, out and back route along the millennium road. I ran the last 2 miles at HMP but I didnt really get into the groove on the paced miles which was probably due to running them too fast(7:07, 7:07)

Thursday
4.5 miles @ 8:28m/m easy
I got a few easy miles in while Jake jr was at GAA training.

jake1970

Friday
4.3 miles @ 8.20m/m
A few more easy miles before tomorrows Half marathon.

Saturday
Mullingar Half marathon
I signed up for this as a way to get back into more structured training. After last years injury woes this is the first target race since last years K Club 10k. I had spent the second half of last year slowly building back up the mileage and then I went through a base building phase. My only concern going into the Half training cycle was the lack of speed work.
The training went ok I was hitting the prescribed mileage every week but I missed a few sessions.

I arrived in Mullingar nice and early, it was very cold and windy. I collected my number and headed back to the car to shelter from the weather. At around 10 o clock I decided it was time to brave the weather conditions and I headed down to the start area and I done a 1.2 mile warm threw in some strides and stretched whatever muscles needed to be stretched.
The target for this race was 1:35 or thereabouts so nothing slower than 7:15m/m pace was the plan.

Miles 1-4: 7:16, 7:11, 7:09, 7:09
I lined up at the start about midway between the 1:30 and the 1:45 pacers. There was a great atmosphere, everyone seemed to be in good spirits despite it being bitter cold hanging around waiting for the start.
And we are off, despite there being a large crowd of runners the start wasnt too congested and I was quickly up too pace. The first thing I notice is that the we are running into a very strong headwind and someone said that we can expect this for the first half of the race but that it would be on our backs for the second half. After about a mile little groups started forming and I as usual found myself in no mans land running on my own. There is a group of about 7 runners up ahead of me and I catch up with them by the end of mile 2. Running in the group is working well for me even though my pace is a bit faster now than when I started I am feeling comfortable.

Miles 5-8: 7:13, 7:19, 7:10, 7:03
In miles 5 and 6 we are now running into the worst of the wind and people are starting to struggle and our little group starts to break up. I up the effort to try and maintain pace and I am followed by 2 other runners and we are working together well. Around the start of mile 7 we take a right turn and we now get some respite from the wind, it is now to the side of us. By now I am back on pace but up ahead is the motorway flyover and I decide that I am going to try and remain on pace so I push hard over the long drag of the flyover and I pass a few runners on the way but I also drop my 2 running buddies. At the top of flyover we turn right again and now the wind is on our backs. As I am coming down the flyover a runner in a Dundrum singlet passes me and I decide to go with him even though the pace is a bit quick but I am feeling comfortable now.

Miles 9-12: 7:00, 7:02, 7:07, 7:04
By now we are running along side the canal and its completely flat and the wind is on our backs:). The field is strung out now but both myself and Dundrum guy are in step together and we are cruising along picking off a few runners here and there and we continue like this for the next 4 miles.

Last mile and a bit: 7:10(48 secs)
Into the last mile and I am starting to tire. Dundrum guy starts to pull away from me, I try to stay with him but I cant. The objective now is try and stay under the planned pace of 7:15. We turn away from the canal and back again onto the road, there is less than half a mile to go and my legs start to respond again and I manage to pick up the pace and I finish strong for a time of 1:33:40.

Singer

Very well executed and well done on getting well under target! A good sign of things to come.

healy1835

Nice one L. Hopefully this is a nice stepping stone and you'll be back to chasing PBs soon....

OOnegative

Great stuff L, nicely done sir.

diego_b

Nicely done, excellent time!

denis b

Excellent work there L. A strong performance.