PB or not PB...that is the question

Cartman78

05/01/2018

9K - Road – 40:52 – AF

A mid-paced mid-range run to round the week off.

Loosely aimed to run at 4:30 pace and bar a couple of outliers I stuck to it pretty well.

Happy to be in a place now where a run of this distance and this pace seems short and slow.

Splashed out on yet another pair of trainers yesterday so should have them early next week – gone with New Balance 880’s. Have tried them on a couple of times but the price was putting me off tbh….the cheapest I could get them locally was €115. Found them online yesterday (on an Irish website) for €87 so glad I waited.

The Asics Flux shoes are ok for short distances I think but haven’t been happy with them on the longer runs I’ve been doing lately. They were only around 50 quid so no surprises there I guess…will keep them for lunchtime runs anyway.

Probably need to bin a couple of other pairs I have hoarded away in the shed – will keep the Asics DS for 5K/8K/10K races and intervals & the Kinvaras are handy for the treadmill. The plan would be to wear the New Balance 880’s for Dungarvan assuming I can break them in ok.

Cartman78

08/01/2018

5.92K - Treadmill – 25:00 – SK

So only a few days into the year and I’ve already missed my first session – had an upset tummy/bug all weekend so missed out on a probable long run yesterday – spent the day alternating between bed, couch and bathroom.

Not sure if going out in those freezing temperatures would have done me any good so maybe I dodged a bullet.

Still wasn’t feeling great today tbh but hopped on the treadmill to break the day up a bit.

Felt ok but didn’t want to push my luck so stopped at 25 mins.

Turns out my fantastic deal on the New Balance was too good to be true after all – mailed them today for an update and got a lame excuse of a reply about a technical glitch and admitting the shoes weren’t in stock. And they were “just about” to contact me when my mail arrived…:mad::mad::mad:

Doesn’t seem to be a lot of other options online so might have to suck it up and pay top dollar in an actual shop.

Tried all the usual haunts (Amazon, Wiggle, Sweatshop)…..any other good deal sites out there??

Cartman78

09/01/2018

Intervals 8 x 3 minutes - Road – AT

Lashing rain, wind, nobody else out in the Industrial Estate….really enjoyed this one :-)

Gave these a good lash – was slightly disappointed at the distances I covered though (range was from low of 680m to high of 760m….with most around the 720m mark)…felt like I was going faster tbh but maybe the wind and the legacy of the tummy bug was hampering me a bit.

Still, feeling good and strong….seems like I’ve bounced back relatively quickly from the weekend ‘break’…must try to figure out how to get some mileage in one of the evenings.

Cartman78

11/01/2018

6K – Road – 25:52 – AT

Had initially planned a longer slower run (assuming the fog would clear), then pivoted the fog didn’t clear and was set to go on the treadmill, then pivoted again as the gym and treadmills were clogged with January gym enthusiasts.

Still not feeling 100% with the gastro-flu or whatever the hell I have – appetite not great but feeling a good bit better than I was yesterday.

Anyway, went out in the fog for a jog – hadn’t realised how cold it was tbh so just stuck to a comfortable 6K.

Cartman78

12/01/2018

8K – Treadmill – 33:29 – SK

Head absolutely addled – my work situation is turning borderline toxic now….will hopefully have some positive news to post soon though….don’t want to jinx anything by writing about it.

As ever, running is my refuge…..this was actually a really solid workout. Feeling strong despite still not feeling right following gastro flu.

Also, finally (hopefully) nailed my New Balance 880’s fiasco – found them for £75 on Sweatshop which is the best price I’ve seen. Rang my local running shop first and they didn’t have my size in stock and didn’t know when they’d be getting them in.

Cartman78

14/01/2018

18K - Road - 1:26:03 - AF

Happy with this one...easily my most solid long run in recent memory.

Kept the pace nice & consistent and managed a few surges from around 10K onwards.

No major aches or pains to report so all good in the hood.


15/01/2018

6K - Road - 28:28 - AC

A quick stretch of the legs after yesterday's longer effort.

Nothing major to report really...glad to get some fresh air and a few miles in the legs

Cartman78

17/01/2018

5K – Treadmill – 19:17 – SK

Had planned a longer, more evenly paced indoor run but once again, I found myself with limited time and a partially melted head so gave it full socks for 5K instead.

I know this probably isn’t the optimum workout right now vis-à-vis my goals but it certainly felt good.

Expecting delivery of my New Balance 880’s today – I’m like a child at Christmas looking out the window at work for the arrival of the Fastway transit van

Cartman78

18/01/2018

8K – Road – 36:21 – AF

A pretty much on target tempo run (4:30) in slightly wintery conditions in Shannon – miraculously missed the Armageddon like showers.

Again a solid run – have noticed a slight tightness in my left knee over the last day or so…..will be hitting the foam roller tonight

Cartman78

20/01/2018

10K – Road – 43:08 – AF

Another 10K time-trial....no real shift in time from a few weeks ago but that was on the sheltered flat environs of Shannon Industrial Estate whereas this was on my rather more gruelling and hilly local route. I must check the archives later but I don’t think I’ve ever broken 42:30 for this route.

Anyway, overall a decent workout…all the vital signs still looking good.


22/01/2018

Intervals 8 x 3 mins – Road – NB

The sun actually came out for this one! Felt weird not to be battling against the p1ssing rain and wind.

The keener eyed amongst you may have noticed a new addition on my shoe identifier code – first spin today in the New Balance 880’s…..is there any better feeling that running in brand new shoes??

Not sure if it was the weather or the new shoes but this session felt a lot better than when I did it a couple of weeks ago…had 2 intervals of 750m and all the others were up around 780m-790m

Cartman78

23/01/2018

4K – Treadmill – 15:49 – SK

Yet another workout with no obvious logical or strategic training reason to have been undertaken, other than to provide a quick cardio blast and give me a bit of headspace.

Had planned to do some non-running activities but wasn’t in the humour for sitting on a bike and/or a rower machine

Cartman78

24/01/2018

6K – Road – 29:05 – AF

A bit of a meandering plod around the estate to stretch the legs and get some fresh air – took it handy enough…the high winds and hailstones were not conducive to fast running anyway so I was glad just to get off my arse for half an hour

Cartman78

26/01/2018

6K – Treadmill – 25:59 – SK

Move along…nothing to see here :pac:

Struggling a tiny bit with a possible cough/cold so took the conservative option of staying indoors. Had planned 8K but got bored so did some core work instead.


28/01/2018

10K – Road – 44:51 – NB

Not one of my better runs it has to be said – had a frenetic couple of days wrangling the kids so only got a fleeting opportunity to get out for a run.

Ideally would have done something longer but wasn’t in the form for it anyway and generally felt a bit knackered.

Not in great form running wise – one week out now from the Dungarvan 10 and not in the condition I had hoped for tbh….missed a couple of long runs lately,would be more than happy now with a solid sub 70 mins next Sunday.

Still in better shape than I was this time last year though….was lying in a hospital bed with a stent in my kidney and off my head on morphine! :D:D

Cartman78

29/01/2018

9K – Road – 39:15 – NB

Much happier with this session, felt a lot fresher and tried to keep it my adjusted target race pace (~4:20 per km).

The only cloud on the horizon is the niggle in my hip/glute/side – in hindsight I should have gone for physio last week but had too many balls in the air so it fell by the wayside. I’ll try to blast it again with foam rolling, stretching etc….that seemed to sort it out during the last flare up

Cartman78

31/01/2018

8K – Treadmill – 32:31 – SK

A hard enough session that went well and hopefully a good confidence booster ahead of Dungarvan.

Have a couple of potential niggles but have a history of tightening up in the week of big races so I’m hoping that my issues are more psychological than physical

Cartman78

02/02/2018

8K – Road - 38:48 – NB

Did some cross training on Thursday and loads of stretching, and followed it up with a very gentle 5 miler.

No niggles or issues to report so all set for Dungarvan...going to aim for ~42 mins 10K and take it from there.

OOnegative

Best of luck in Dungarvan.

Cartman78

OOnegative wrote: »

Best of luck in Dungarvan.

Cheers....after looking at the course video on Facebook, can't remember any of it from 2012 :-)

Cartman78

04/02/2018

JOHN TREACY 10 MILE 2018

16K – Road – 65:42 – NB

Really happy with my performance yesterday – can I run faster for 10 miles? Of course. Could I have run faster yesterday? I don’t think so…have zero regrets and felt that I really maximised my effort without going into the red zone and may be finally, finally getting some sense around race management and strategy.

Given the last few weeks of stress and fairly hit and miss training (esp. missing long runs) I had re-calibrated my target from sub 65 mins to a probably more realistic 67-68 mins, while desperately wanting to avoid a blowout and ending up around 70 mins.

It was pretty much the perfect conditions for running – light wind & cool. Did a decent warm up down along the docks and positioned myself in the vicinity of the 65 mins pacer at the start….didn’t intend running with them but knew the group would be a handy visual aid potentially.

Settled into a comfortable pace very quickly, although it was a tad faster than I had planned.

The first 5K flew by – was about 30 or 40 yards behind the 65 min group….it crossed my mind a couple of times to put on a bit of a spurt and join them but I resisted the temptation.

Splits:
1 – 4.02
2 – 3.56
3 – 4.08
4 – 4.00
5 – 4.01 Cumulative Time - 20.08

Was pleasantly surprised at how easy everything felt so just kept churning along at that pace without too much hassle. Hit a bit of a wall around 7K all of a sudden…..a wave of fatigue came out of nowhere. I’d brought a gel to have around halfway so whipped it out and had about half of it. I’ve always been sceptical about the efficacy of gels to be honest and suspect that the upside may be more of a placebo effect than anything else. Either way...I survived this mini-crisis and settled back into my pace.

Interestingly, the pace group hadn’t really pulled away at all and if anything the gap was closing and I was starting to pass a few fellas that had fallen off the back of it so that gave me a nice boost going into the final stages

Splits:
6 – 4.02
7 – 4.08
8 – 4.00
9 – 4.02
10 – 4.11 Cumulative Time - 40.34


A couple of fast downhill stretches and the rest of my gel helped to stave off the tiredness I could feel. I was now with 20 yards of the pace group but deep down I knew it might as well have been 20 miles in terms of me making contact and hanging on.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve ran this kind of distance at this pace and I knew the last 3K was going to be a battle for survival more than anything else, had even started thinking that if I had to walk a bit I’d still have a decent time.

The last mini drag/hill around the 9 Mile marker nearly broke me but a couple of “Keep it going…nearly there” shouts from the side of the road pushed me on. And then, amazingly, as I got nearer the town there was huge amounts of people everywhere it seemed making noise that I haven’t experienced outside of the London and Dublin Marathons.

Got my sh1t together a bit after that and finished the last km relatively strongly.

Splits:
11 – 3.57
12 – 3.58
13 – 4.06
14 – 4.13
15 – 4.22
16 – 4.04

As I said, delighted with the run…..deffo felt like I made the right decisions during the race and it’s given me a great confidence looking ahead to upcoming races.

Doing the Adare 10K at the end of this month and would think that a PB may be within scope (<39:03) and then it’s on to Mallow in late March where a sub-65 and possible PB (<63:30) may possibly be on the cards if all goes well.

Cartman78

05/02/2018

5K – Treadmill – 21:45 – AT

Hopped on the treadmill for a gentle recovery run – did 3K at 13.5kmph and inevitably got bored so upped it a bit for the final 2K.

Absolutely no aches or pains from my exertions in Dungarvan yesterday – tomorrow might be a rest day so it should be back to normal after that.

Cartman78

07/02/2018

8.65K – Road – 39:48 – AF

Took yesterday off to look after my young fella who’s a bit under the weather these days – enjoyed the break from the norm…watching Octonauts and Hey Duggee all day really takes the edge off :D

Managed to sneak in a ninja physio session as well, primarily to loosen out my neck/shoulders which have been problematic of late. Got her to have a poke around my hip/glute….doesn’t seem to be anything too serious going on….some obscure component has tightened a bit it seems and is leading to tightness in my ITB, groin & glute from time to time.

Anyway, today’s outing was fairly standard…the weather is totally miserable but got a few miles in the legs.

Cartman78

08/02/2018

5.17K – Treadmill – 20:00 – SK

A 20 minute time trial on my beloved treadmill (:rolleyes:) – did 5 mins at 15kmph, 5 at 15.5, 5 at 16 and the final 5 at 16.5.

Found it relatively easy actually – there might have been an indoor 5K PB in there somewhere as well I’d say.

Cartman78

09/02/2018

8.20K – Road – 39:01 – AF

Not the most enjoyable run I’ve ever done….definitely falls into the ‘Friday Afternoon Junk Miles’ category.

Felt a bit leggy after recent exertions, the weather was brutal and was generally feeling meh as I’d been up since 5am with the young fella who has been acting the maggot all week.

Had mentally penciled in a long run this weekend – will see how I’m feeling…might give the body a break I reckon

Cartman78

12/02/2018

8.32K – Road – 39:57 – NB

The combination of lethargy and snow meant no run over the weekend.

Did some stretching and core bits and bobs alright to keep things ticking over, along with some intensive toddler wrestling.

Handy enough run again today at lunchtime – less than 2 weeks now til the Adare 10K so will be aiming for a couple of speed sessions this week to tune up a bit.

Cartman78

13/02/2018

6 x 1K Intervals – Road – AT

One of those special climatic days in Shannon where the wind seems to be blowing into your face no matter what direction you’re running in :mad:

Had planned to run them all at 3:50 pace but frankly ran out of puff at halfway -

1) 3:54
2) 3:37
3) 3:53
4) 4:01
5) 4:03
6) 4:03

For the first time in ages the wind caught me out a bit with my breathing (despite my trusty running scarf), and I think my lack of sleep for the last few weeks (due to varying factors…the latest being the young fella waking up spluttering at 4:30am every day for the past week) is starting to catch up with me a bit.

Anyway, might take a break tomorrow (to pop down to the shop to get emergency Valentine’s card) and see how I’m fixed on Thursday

Cartman78

15/02/2018

6K - Treadmill – 23:40 – SK

Head addled as usual – the young fella had a major meltdown enroute to crèche this morning, then I got a puncture on the way to work, managed to limp as far as a garage, was told I needed to get 2 new tyres which I had been planning on getting soon anyway, but then as they were changing that they pointed out that my brake pads were shagged as well so I said they might as well do a full service altogehter….long story short, I ended up putting the guts of 500 quid into my car today :mad::mad::mad:

So basically I wasn’t in the mood for a gentle slow run this afternoon.

Started off with 5 mins at 14.5kmph and then worked my way up in 5 minute increments.

Felt grand actually so might try a proper run tomorrow

Cartman78

16/02/2018

10.6K - Road – 50:32 – AF

This turned into a really challenging but rewarding workout….I haven’t been out in wind like this in a couple of years but stuck with it and feel refreshed and awake for the first time all week.

Legs feeling good and no other problems to report on – my hip/glute issue seems to be settling down as well…must give it another lash on the foam roller tonight

Cartman78

18/02/2018

19.3K - Road – 1:31:35 – AF

When I pressed the stop button at the end of this run, my relatively new-ish Garmin buzzed and beeped excitedly to Congratulate me on my longest run ever – it actually brought an ironic smile to my face :rolleyes:

I’m glad that I’m finally in a position to be able to comfortably run this type of distance but know I have a long way to go if I want to achieve my goals.

Not for the first time on a long run, I actually got very fatigued after about 7 or 8K – took a micro break and half a gel and felt grand after that. Not sure what’s going on with that tbh…could be a mind over matter thing maybe.

Anyway, felt pretty good throughout after that….tried to up the pace again for the last 5K or so and was pleased to see that the legs felt strong and full of running.

I could probably have pushed on and broke through the magical 20K barrier but we had visitors so I had to settle for 19.3K.

Adare 10K on next weekend – will take a rest today and do some core/stretching

Cartman78

20/02/2018

Intervals – 8 x 1K - Road - NB

Things I Never Thought I’d Write #789: Perfect weather for running in Shannon today :pac::pac::pac::pac:

It’s around 8 degrees or so I’d say, bright, sunny, dry and only a light breeze.

Was humming and haahhing all morning about whether to go out and do a flat out 8K or intervals – plumped for the intervals in the end for reasons unknown.

Aimed to run them at my dream target 10K pace (~3:50 per km) and was pretty satisfied with the results. Worth noting that the first and last intervals were down/up the hill in Westpark, also noticed a slight lag after halfway….dunno why this happened…possible lack of concentration I think as I felt a-ok throughout.

1) 3:47
2) 3:53
3) 3:48
4) 3:49
5) 3:57
6) 3:53
7) 3:46
8) 3:58

As I said, felt great all the way – a big improvement on the 6 x 1K session from last week.

Won’t be doing anything else hard before Adare 10K on Sunday – might hop on the treadmill tomorrow/Thursday and maybe a few easy miles on Friday.

Target for Sunday??? Not 100% sure what my ceiling is at the moment tbh….right now I’d be happy with a solid sub-40…anything beyond that would be a bonus

Cartman78

Dammit....have the flu :-(

Was fighting the symptoms for a few days and thought I might escape it (the missus and eldest fella have had it all week)...but woke up with a high temperature and achey bones this morning and now feel like total shyte altogether.

So no Adare 10K yet again...not the first time I've missed it due to illness

Cartman78

So the flu turned out to be the actual full on weapons grade Aussie flu as opposed to some variation of Man flu.

Was totally schnattocksed for 3 or 4 days (in bed, aches, fever etc)...only starting to feel half right today really tbh. Had a course of antibiotics as well and the absolutely disgusting Tamiflu to top it off.....felt like I'd been poisoned but it apparently shortens the length of the virus.

Anyway, short and mid term running plans now in a mess....County 4 Mile championship next weekend would be pointless now and any hopes of a decent time in Mallow are probably out the window too.

Annoying, frustrating etc. after avoiding illness all winter...will hopefully hop on the treadmill on Tuesday or Wednesday and take it from there