Berlin Q or Bust: Road to sub 2:45

Wubble Wubble

Nice way to mark your birthday :pac: (he says, while thumbing through the Rascals page) beer all the way from NZ.. Kia Ora!

AuldManKing

Happy Birthday AMH,

so I've 8+ years on you, that's got to be worth 10 seconds a year in a 5k??


Great weeks training - savage.

shotgunmcos

We share the same birthday Happy birthday J!

It fell on a long run day too, although you probably burned enough kcals in yours to warrant the amount of cake I ate afterwards :pac:

healy1835

shotgunmcos wrote: »

We share the same birthday Happy birthday J!

It fell on a long run day too, although you probably burned enough kcals in yours to warrant the amount of cake I ate afterwards :pac:

Ha, nice one Mike. Happy Birthday to you too. Calories getting a good bashing today too....might need to get out for another 20 miler tonight

Treviso

Happy birthday J, some unreal training that I'm keeping a close eye on. Some of the longer stuff you're doing is unreal

Maybe for your 4th decade though, you can learn how to tie your shoe laces and use your watch properly - it's never too late ;-)

Murph_D

Happy birthday - I'm not the only one going up an age category then!

Unlike your age, 14 cans of beer is hardly a round number. Is there a story there?

Nice running too.

healy1835

Treviso wrote: »

Happy birthday J, some unreal training that I'm keeping a close eye on. Some of the longer stuff you're doing is unreal

Maybe for your 4th decade though, you can learn how to tie your shoe laces and use your watch properly - it's never too late ;-)

Well...the watch issue is down to pure fuzziness on my part. I used to have two chargers but then I changed watches to the 645 and never got another cradle. I listen to podcasts and music a lot, but basically I'm a liability when it comes to charging it. Even now, looking at the watch battery, I'll be doing well to get today's run out of it :rolleyes:

The laces have come full circle; from opening during races to being too tight during runs! I think I can solve that one though

Breaking 80mins for the HM by 1 second a couple of years back when my lace opened 3 times is still my finest achievement...

healy1835

Murph_D wrote: »

Happy birthday - I'm not the only one going up an age category then!

Unlike your age, 14 cans of beer is hardly a round number. Is there a story there?

Nice running too.

My wife ordered me a case of the new Rascals beers (12 cans) and was meant to collect them with the Pizza on Friday...but they got posted out instead by mistake so she got 1 can of each from the Off Licence when picking up the Pizzas. By which stage the 12 cans had already been delivered. Win Win

healy1835

A very meh week of running going on here. Not feeling particularly amazing. Life in my 40's eh?

Mon: 12k: 1:02:54 @5:14/km

Birthday shuffle around the plains. Very gentle. Had a great day despite the obstacles in place to prevent any proper celebration.

Tue: 10 Miles Easy: 78mins-ish @4:51/km

Plains again, no watch.

Wed: 10 Mile Progression Challenge: 1:10:00 @4:21/km

Wasn't feeling amazing and had a bit of a headache. Time was beginning to work against me so I scrapped a 6x1 mile session in favour of an easy run, and then whilst lumbering through the first mile, decided to do a session-of-sorts in the form of the March progression challenge.

I'd eaten spicy cous-cous for lunch. I don't know why exactly, but I won't be making the same the same choice for a while. Said cous-cous was just sitting in my digestive system and adding to my not-quite-right sort of feeling.

On the fly, I figured if I start at 8:15, 9 fifteen second drops would negate the need to go under 6 min miles which I really didn't feel like doing. Didn't really pan out that easily. It's really tough to hit a consistent split and when you're in and around the correct pace at the end of a split, it really boils down to a bit of GPS-related luck as to whether you hit it. I say this because I was frustratingly close on a number of occasions.

The constant watch monitoring at least kept my mind off how ropey the stomach was feeling. Ended up with the first stitch I've have had in a few years for the last couple of miles but finished it out. Was working way harder than I should have been by the end, but I'll put it down to the day that was in it.

8:10
7:54 (-16)
7:38 (-16)
7:23 (-15)
7:07 (-16)
6:51 (-16)
6:35 (-16)
6:18 (-17)
6:07 (-11)
5:56 (-11)

Might give it another rattle before the end of the month.

Thu: 10 Miles: 1:17:53 @4:49/km

A couple of horrendous hail showers punctuated an enjoyable enough run with a mate. A bit leggy still.

Had an Epsom bath last night, feeling a lot better today I think.

After a few hard weeks, I feel like I've done nothing this week after scrapping the mile repeats and not having a MLR on the plan. Big enough session on Sunday so will keep tabs on how I'm feeling.

browne_rob5

Belated happy birthday J! Great progress over the last few months also.

Swashbuckler

The bones of 4hrs 45mins running in four days including a ten mile progression and feels like he's done nothing.......

Way to make the rest of us feel sh1t about our training :pac::pac::pac:

healy1835

Fri: 15.4k: 1:14:25 @4:50/km

Spent the run trying to zone out and focus on easy effort, hoping that the legs would be feeling somewhat back on track by the end.... Which they were.

Sat: 13k: 1:02:10 @4:47/km

Threw on the wooly hat for this one. Mate was doing an easy LR so got a few miles in with him. Feeling a lot better by the end.

Sun: 20 Miles inc 16@MP: 1:40:25 @3:54/km

Up early to do a few Mothers Day related tasks headed up to the Camp whilst the rest of the family were visiting the in laws. Wasn't feeling it on the drive over. Horrible morning; cold, wet and windy.

Armed with a few new tunes courtesy of the Playlist thread (actual Spotify playlist is almost finished for that one, just need to add a couple more tunes), I set out after a couple of miles of a warm up.

It was a morning for just getting it done to be honest. Feeling okay for the most part early on. Headphones stopped working at 5k .... Dropped them into their case in the car and headed on without them. Stopped for a drink and gel about 10 miles and threw them in again and they were back working. It really was a morning that the tunes were welcome, and i found myself feeling great over the last 10k despite some chafing issues new shorts and Body Glide arriving this week thank God...

Whilst I've gotten in a few good LRs lately, and felt better on them then I did this morning I might add, this was maybe the first one where I felt like the pace was something I could hold for a marathon.

Mile splits (ht to Testosterscone/KSU ) were nice and consistent, ranging from 6:14 to 6:19 with one 6:10 outlier.

Tipping nicely.

121k for the week

shotgunmcos

Thanks to you I'm assuming lots of us were enjoying some fresh tunes this weekend

Another belter of a Long Run, you are humming along nicely!

What kind of shorts if you don't mind me asking? I'm on the lookout.

Comic Book Guy

Serious session this morning!

Would that be max mileage you plan to do for that type of MP session?

healy1835

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Thanks to you I'm assuming lots of us were enjoying some fresh tunes this weekend

Another belter of a Long Run, you are humming along nicely!

What kind of shorts if you don't mind me asking? I'm on the lookout.

Thanks Shotgun This belter came on as the last mile started.....

The chafing was purely down to the lack of body glide. I was wearing my trusty Ronhill Cargo Split shorts...my go-to shorts for longer races.

I picked up a pair of these bad guys. Had a decent discount from a Revolut discount code so the final price was under 50 quid.

https://adidas.onelink.me/ihha?pid=AppSharePDP&af_dp=adidas://product/GL1208&af_web_dp=https://www.adidas.ie/GL1208.html

healy1835

Comic Book Guy wrote: »

Serious session this morning!

Would that be max mileage you plan to do for that type of MP session?

Honestly, I don't know. I'll be surprised if a 16 mile MP run popped up in my next marathon block. Maybe it will, but at the moment I've no real other priorities apart from getting stronger and more comfortable at that MP.

AuldManKing

healy1835 wrote: »

Sun: 20 Miles in 16@MP: 1:40:25 @3:54/km

Horrible morning; cold, wet and windy.


Mile splits (ht to Testosterscone/KSU ) were nice and consistent, ranging from 6:14 to 6:19 with one 6:10 outlier.

Tipping nicely.

121k for the week

"Tipping Nicely" - understatement of the year.

You do realise what kinda shape you are in, don't you?
You could 'easily' do a 2.49 in the next couple of weeks if you wanted as a solo effort.
I'm curious to see next weeks long run!!

btw - you've $h!te taste in music.

healy1835

AuldManKing wrote: »

"Tipping Nicely" - understatement of the year.

You do realise what kinda shape you are in, don't you?
You could 'easily' do a 2.49 in the next couple of weeks if you wanted as a solo effort.
I'm curious to see next weeks long run!!

btw - you've $h!te taste in music.

Cheers AMK...no more marathons for me unless I'm toeing the line somewhere!

A couple of lower mileage weeks up now with a couple of TT's thrown in to sharpen me up, before 6 more weeks and then a HM.

Did you not read my OP on the other thread. Boards A&R needs to be a safe place for musical tastes...;)

AuldManKing

healy1835 wrote: »

Did you not read my OP on the other thread. Boards A&R needs to be a safe place for musical tastes...;)

just seen that now - my God - thats my evening sorted.

healy1835

Mon: 11k Recovery: 57:42 @5:14/km

Regular Monday shuffle. Thought I'd feel worse actually as I'd had a few beers the evening before whilst watching the football.

Tue: 7 Miles Easy: 54:47 @4:43/km

A couple of down weeks mileage-wise on the cards, so went for 7 glorious miles in the Sunshine after work.

Wed: Session 8x1k off 2mins recovery

This was the only session on the cards today unfortunately. 'hard enough' was the advice on how to run them . Recoveries were generous and again, like last week, there was probably a couple of GPS seconds bonus, but I made sure to start each rep about 3 seconds early to make sure I got full bang for my buck.

Session went well and on the 2nd last rep I decided to hit it a bit harder and not sneak any glances at the watch until about 800m, at which point my form came apart pretty quickly. There's something in that I think.

Splits were; 3:21, 3:19, 3:20, 3:19, 3:19, 3:19, 3:10, 3:19

Just over 15k for the day.

Dubh Geannain

That was a fantastic pace on the 7th. Unusual to do on the second to last as opposed to the last I would have thought.

healy1835

Dubh Geannain wrote: »

That was a fantastic pace on the 7th. Unusual to do on the second to last as opposed to the last I would have thought.

I rarely, if ever, do anything like that in a session....but I just felt like throwing in a harder one this morning. I remember Nick Symonds saying that it's easy to finish with a hard rep, that anyone can do that! It's the 2nd last one you give it socks on as you'll always finish the last rep with a decent effort.....that came back to me today

AuldManKing

Dubh Geannain wrote: »

That was a fantastic pace on the 7th. Unusual to do on the second to last as opposed to the last I would have thought.

My old coach in MSB (about 146 coaches ago) used to encourage to really push the 2nd or 3rd last rep - then hold the pace on the last one.

Or in a set of 8 push - 3&7 hard - holding pace on the rest.

healy1835

healy1835 wrote: »

I picked up a pair of these bad guys. Had a decent discount from a Revolut discount code so the final price was under 50 quid.

https://adidas.onelink.me/ihha?pid=AppSharePDP&af_dp=adidas://product/GL1208&af_web_dp=https://www.adidas.ie/GL1208.html

Shorts came last week. They're quite the short! Storage wise they'll be of huge benefit for my next marathon. There's a mesh that surrounds the waist which is split into various compartments. This isn't really highlighted by the pictures on the site and it's the probably the best thing about the shorts. I threw 3 gels into it on a short run last week and I barely felt they were there.

Whilst not quite as short as a regular split short, which I usually race in, the fabric is really light so you're not really bothered by the extra length.

healy1835

Thu: 7 Miles Easy: 1:02:05 @5:01/km

Fri: 4 Miles Easy: 31:59 @4:58/km

A couple of down weeks mileage wise on the plan now, and these will incorporate a couple of TT's.....

Sat: 5 Mile TT: 28:17 @3:31/km

So the plan is basically to take a fortnight off higher mileage, still hitting midweek sessions hard, and have a couple of free hits at TT's with a view to sharpening up and staying in touch with that race-type effort.

5 Miler was first up, followed next weekend by a 10 Miler. No times or targets were discussed, only the direction to '... blow out the cobwebs and help you taste the feeling of hurting somewhat'

With that in mind I headed up to the Camp Loop. This is a decision I was regretting after about a mile, as I realised that after my 16 Mile MP run on it last week I had reached my quota for a while!

The morning had been spent trying unsuccessfully not to descend into a rant whilst on with a Nike 'Athlete' on their customer service chat function regarding an order they cancelled on me because of a problem with my address!!? I'll stop now as I'm getting flustered again.

The TT was pretty straight forward as it happened. Hadn't done a harder effort like this since my 5k TT about 4 months ago, so I had to figure out how I was going to attack it. To be honest, I looked on yesterday as a blow out that would get me ready for the 10 Miler next weekend. So with that in mind I took it out hard to see if I could hold on. Turned out I couldn't, but I did manage to limit the losses after a ropey 7th km during which I sort of tuned out a bit/threw in the towel.

Final time was 5 seconds outside my PB, and I was a bit wistful in thinking that if I went out with any iota of 'race' management I probably would have came away with a sub 28 and decent PB.......but it's a TT where PB's don't count and I had my instructions

Splits were 5:32, 5:38, 5:41, 5:43, 5:40

Warm up and a decent cool down brought the day up to almost 20k. Happy with the day's exploits.

Sun: LR: 26.3k: 1:54:32 @4:21/km inc 4/3/2/1 miles off 4/3/2/1 mins recovery.

Mate who I paced in the HM a couple of weeks back wanted to do a MP session so I said I'd tag along and help him out.

It's probably an indication of where I am and how much yesterday actually took out of me that I did it with him. I had a vanilla 15 miles on the plan, but I felt decent and in a position to head out with my mate. I mean, after my last couple of Raheny's I've thought bad of walking the next day!

Average splits were; 6:49, 6:47, 6:44 & 6:41 for the 4/3/2/1 mile efforts respectively.

101k for the week.

healy1835

healy1835 wrote: »

Final time was 5 seconds outside my PB, and I was a bit wistful in thinking that if I went out with any iota of 'race' management I probably would have came away with a sub 28 and decent PB.......but it's a TT where PB's don't count and I had my instructions

Looking at this, I wouldn't want it to be taken out of context. I'm not counting any PB's that I've ran in TT's but that's just a personal thing. I can see both sides of the spectrum, but whilst I may not be winning any of the races I run in, I still build up to them and put pressure on myself to perform not just against the clock, but also against runners of my own standard.

The measured course and varying route profiles are also factors as to why, but neither of those things are guarantees in real races either as we all know, so they're not that important.

Basically I don't want anyone who is counting them to think I'm throwing shade

healy1835

Have hit a bit of a pinch point between work and home this week. Missed session yesterday due to time constraints and have been generally pretty wiped out too feeling a lot better today. Debating scrapping/postponing 10 Mile....but it's just another session at the end of the day so if I feel decent on an easy run later I'll probably do it Saturday.

OOnegative

Look after yourself J, some serious training under the belt, don’t push it to far.

healy1835

Not a lot happening here. 1 recovery run and 3 easy runs totalling a paltry 42km will give the 10 Mile a rattle tomorrow. Will head out at a decent clip, see how that feels. If it's not there I'll try and get in a sub 60min tempo effort. I realise that giving myself an out like that looks like I'm accepting the inevitable....but if I'm feeling good in the morning then there's a pretty decent time there for me, solo TT or not. If not, then nothing ventured, nothing gained

Comic Book Guy

healy1835 wrote: »

If it's not there I'll try and get in a sub 60min tempo effort.

:eek: