Terrible love

Pomplamousse

Thanks guys. The good news is, I'm allowed drop down to the 10km distance this Sunday in Wexford. I won't have any target time, just run it by feel

The Black Oil wrote: »

If it's the season, pick up some Wexford strawberries on the way home?!

No idea if it's the season either but that is an excellent idea, I'll look out for them

nop98

Only catching up to your log now - ouch, ouch, ouch that sounds incredibly sore.

Really sorry to hear all your hard work has not gotten the results it deserves. I do agree with the comments above that the fitness is in there somewhere, once you get some sort of routine back, there's no reason to think you won't quickly get back to close to your old levels.

However.... (and apologies for being a buzz-kill) but I would not consider lining up for the 10k. It would be nice to soak up the atmosphere but you'll only be frustrated running much further back in the field than you would normally. Also, you would risk your recovery by putting too much stress on the knee and the muscles. Clearly they haven't recovered fully (if you can still feel pain) and you'll try running much further and faster than what's currently advisable.

Where to start? I don't think there's any magic other than go back to the start, jog a few easy miles 3-4 times a week. Don't worry about speed or distance. Don't increase mileage by more than 10-15% every week. Be patient, give your body time, and you'll reap the rewards. Pick a decent event in a couple of months (Phoenix Park Half Marathon in September?) and set your sights on that.

Use the downtime to do some parkrun tourism (Sonia O'Sullivan is in Cabinteely this Saturday for her 100th, for example, come jog around the famous hills) and slowly get back into the running buzz. No doubt it's all still in there somewhere, but rushing back will only lead to further injury...

Glad to see you're back... Good luck with rest of the recovery.

Pomplamousse

Thanks for your words of wisdom nop:) Definitely gonna take it easy for a while and just do slow miles. My target race for this year is DCM (even though I think I might have told you never again!) so my priority is to get my leg back to normal.

Re Wexford, I have to go there on Sunday anyway as my bf is running the half marathon. I think I'd be more frustrated being a spectator than not running at all, even slowly:o I honestly have no desire whatsoever to race the 10km, I really wouldn't mind walking bits of it if I feel my leg can't handle it. And sure the longer it takes me, the less time I'll have to kill waiting around for the half to finish, so that'll be another incentive to go slow.

Ran another easy 2.5 miles today and didn't notice any major leg issues other than a small bit of tightness still. More stretching/foam rolling planned for this evening.

Pomplamousse

In good news, my leg seems to be pretty much back to normal.
Ran the Wexford 10km. Started off slowly, picked up pace a little towards the end when I knew my leg was grand and came in in just under 58 mins.
Plan now is building up mileage over the next 6 weeks before marathon training begins. Signed up for DCM last weekend so there's no backing out now.

Wubble Wubble

Great news, congrats!

Steady as she goes next few weeks...and months, says he, as he notes you've signed up for DCM again :D

Pomplamousse

Started following the Myles Splitz 6 week base building plan last week. It's been over a year since I've followed it and vaguely remember enjoying it. Sticking to just 4 days running per week for now though.

Tuesday 8th May: 60mins progesssion (easy to MP).
Mile 1: 10:15
Mile 2: 9:55
Mile 3: 9:43
Mile 4: 9:23
Mile 5: 9:08
Mile 6: 8:58
0.56 mile cooldown

Wednesday 9th: 45 mins very easy, 4.04 miles at 11:09/mile

Thursday 10th: 40 mins easy and 10x100mins strides
Mile 1: 9:51
Mile 2: 9:59

Strides in the middle, roughly averaged about 26sec for each, too lazy to write each one out.

Last 2 easy miles were 9:59 and 9:56. These felt tougher than they should've been.
Total 5.78 miles.

Saturday 12th: 90mins easy. 9.61 miles at 9:22/mile.
My new favourite running route, from Milltown up towards Sandyford/Stepaside and back again. First half is tough as it's uphill but you know that once you get halfway and turn around it's all downhill. Ran this with my bf. Was thinking lately that I might get a heart rate monitor strap for my Garmin, bf uses one and it works well. Well it was as if my Garmin knew I was considering it, as it stole his Garmins connection to his heart rate monitor strap and recorded it as my heart rate :pac::D Very odd as it has never done that before and I hadn't touched any of the settings on my own watch

Total mileage for the week: 25.99 miles

Pomplamousse

Base building week 2

Running schedule was a bit all over the place this week due to real life events.

Monday: nothing

Tuesday: 45 mins moderate. 5.75 miles at 9:23/mile. Total was a bit more but Garmin crapped out and had to reset it so didn't record my warmup.
Went with marathon pace as my moderate pace.

Wednesday: rest

Thursday: 45 mins easy, last 5 mins at threshold pace. 5.20 miles at 9:48/mile.
Covered 0.67 miles in the 5 mins threshold.

Friday: 90mins easy, 9.67 miles at 9:19/mile. Ran this with my bf, probably a bit fast for my easy pace as a couple of miles were at or faster than marathon pace but felt ok. Gonna slow these long runs down a little once marathon training starts.

Saturday: rest

Sunday: 45 mins very easy. Supposed to do this on Wednesday but didn't get a chance
4.07 miles at 11:04/mile.

Was odd having to do my long run on a Friday evening and not rest on a Sunday, but happy to have got all 4 runs done.

Total mileage for week two: 24.69 miles.

Pomplamousse

Base building week 3

Monday: 60 mins progression (easy to MP). 6.75 miles at 9:34/mile.
Mile 1: 10:14
Mile 2: 9:41 (aiming for 10, dunno what happened there)
Mile 3: 9:44
Mile 4: 9:24
Mle 5: 9:02
Mile 6: 8:57
0.35 miles: 3:01
0.40 miles cooldown: 4:35

Tuesday: 60mins very easy. 5.51 miles at 10:54/mile. Tired and sluggish, as I usually am on these very easy runs.

Wednesday: rest. Standing all evening at a gig. Legs and back were in bits by the end. Getting old:o

Thursday: 50 mins mix (9 mins easy and 1 min hard x5), 6.11 miles at 9:35/mile.
1: 0.93 miles, 0.14 miles
2: 0.93 miles, 0.14 miles
3: 0.93 miles, 0.14 miles
4: 0.93 miles, 0.16 miles
5: 0.89 miles, 0.15 miles
0.78 miles cooldown

Was doing so well with consistency and then dunno what happened me in that final stretch.

Friday: rest

Saturday: 1hr45mins easy, 11.00 miles at 9:33/mile. Drove out to Clontarf for this as bf had a swimming class there first. Ran out to bull island, wind was against us for half of it which was tough but enjoyable overall on such a lovely morning.

Sunday: rest

Week 3 total mileage: 29.37 miles

The Black Oil

Pomplamousse wrote: »

In good news, my leg seems to be pretty much back to normal.
Ran the Wexford 10km. Started off slowly, picked up pace a little towards the end when I knew my leg was grand and came in in just under 58 mins.
Plan now is building up mileage over the next 6 weeks before marathon training begins. Signed up for DCM last weekend so there's no backing out now.

Always good to lodge an FOI request.*

*Feck off injury.

:pac:

Pomplamousse

Base building week 4

Monday: rest

Tuesday: 55 mins moderate. 8.02 miles at 9:21/Mile.
0.9 mile warmup
Moderate miles were 8:57, 9:01, 8:45, 8:46, 8:46, 8:42, 2:02 (0.24 miles).
0.88 mile cooldown.
Moderate miles were supposed to be around 9:05-9:22/mile but I felt surprisingly good despite the heat so went with those paces. Usually do this run on a Monday so the extra days rest seemed to do my legs good.


Wednesday: 60mins very easy. 5.56 miles at 10:48/mile.

Thursday: 50 mins easy with last 5 mins at threshold. 6.16 miles at 9:44/mile.
Miles were 9:50, 9:51, 9:45, 10:08, 5:27 (0.55 miles) and the last 5 mins at threshold covered 0.67 miles. 0.94 miles cooldown.
Felt much tireder on this run than the previous 2 days.

Friday: rest

Saturday: 1hr45 easy. 11.15 miles at 9:25/mile.

Sunday: rest

Total week 4 mileage: 30.89 miles

Delighted to finally get above 30 miles again!

Pomplamousse

The Black Oil wrote: »

Always good to lodge an FOI request.*

*Feck off injury.

:pac:

:pac::pac:
Have been very relaxed with the foam roller past couple of weeks so hopefully my FOI request stands.

Pomplamousse

Base building week 5

Monday: 70 mins progression. 9.00 miles.
Mile splits were 10:19, 10:02, 9:49, 9:36, 9:17, 9:01, 8:44, 3:15 (0.4 miles), 1.6 mile cooldown.
A warm bank holiday and stupidly went out around midday, having eaten absolutely nothing. Found it tiring but manageable.

Tuesday: 60mins very easy. 5.56 miles at 10:48/mile.

Wednesday: rest

Thursday: 50 mins easy with 4x200metres at approx 5k pace.
6.45 miles total.
Forgot to press lap for first 200 metres, other three were done in 55sec, 55sec, 55sec.

Friday: rest

Saturday: 2hrs easy. 12.40 miles at 9:41/mile. Longest run I've done in over a year. Another amazingly sunny morning. Lots of people out swimming.

Sunday: rest.

Total week 5 mileage: 33.41 miles.

Only 1 week of base building to go and then marathon training begins. Eek!

Pomplamousse

Base building week 6

Monday: rest from running but hiked the Cuilcagh mountain trail. Really enjoyable.

Tuesday: another day off work. Had a hospital appointment and parking is ridiculous around there so decided to cycle. Turned out to be a tiring 25 mins each way. Followed by, a few hours later, 65mins moderate run. 9.32 miles at 9:07/mile.
10 mins warmup (0.96miles)
Miles were then done in: 8:48, 8:58, 8:36, 8:40, 8:37, 8:41, 8:26, 4:16 (0.5miles)
10 mins cooldown (0.86 miles)

Wednesday: fairly tired after the past few days. Did 60mins very easy. 5.61 miles at 10:42/mile.

Thursday: 50 mins easy, with last 5 mins at tempo pace.10 mins cooldown. 6.06 miles at 9:54/mile. Felt awful. Was aiming for 10 min miles but struggled to maintain this. Felt better during the 5 mins tempo than the 45mins easy:rolleyes: Kinda worrying.

Friday: rest

Saturday: 120mins easy. 12.79 miles at 9:23/Mile. Out Friday night, only had 3 drinks but definitely felt a difference during my run. Got so so thirsty in the second half and stupidly didn't bring any water. But still felt much better with more energy than I had on Thursday's run.

Total week 6 mileage: 33.78 miles

That's the end of the base building plan. Enjoyed it and managed to not miss a single run.

Starting day 1 of the meno plan tomorrow. I'm going to alter it a little bit and do the session runs on Tuesdays rather than Wednesdays and the LSRs on Saturdays rather than Sundays. Going to do 4 miles recovery every Wednesday and then easy miles on Mondays and Thursdays. Might throw in a few recovery miles some Sundays. I'll probably stick to the lower end of the prescribed mileage most weeks.

Going to throw everything I can into getting a sub 4 hour marathon time. I think I'm in a better position now than I was for my first failed attempt in 2016. Doing more cross training as I'm cycling into work Monday-Friday. It's not a long cycle but there's some decent hills. And I'll be running a lot more miles this time round and more faster miles. It's a little daunting but looking forward to the challenge:)

chickey2

Best of luck! I got my sub 4 using that plan so I highly recommend it!

Pomplamousse

chickey2 wrote: »

Best of luck! I got my sub 4 using that plan so I highly recommend it!

Thanks a mill:) Yours was one of a few logs that I read recently that helped me decide on the meno plan. Hopefully I can mirror your success!

Huzzah!

Pomplamousse wrote: »

Thursday: 50 mins easy, with last 5 mins at tempo pace.10 mins cooldown. 6.06 miles at 9:54/mile. Felt awful. Was aiming for 10 min miles but struggled to maintain this. Felt better during the 5 mins tempo than the 45mins easy:rolleyes: Kinda worrying.

This happens me sometimes. I feel better during the faster stuff; I put it down to increased adrenaline when I'm running faster. Probably a load of hogwash!

Pomplamousse wrote: »

Going to throw everything I can into getting a sub 4 hour marathon time. I think I'm in a better position now than I was for my first failed attempt in 2016. Doing more cross training as I'm cycling into work Monday-Friday. It's not a long cycle but there's some decent hills. And I'll be running a lot more miles this time round and more faster miles. It's a little daunting but looking forward to the challenge:)

The very best of luck with it. I'll be following with interest.

ariana`

Best of luck with the meno plan and sub 4 attempt. Have you any tune up races lined up?

Pomplamousse

Huzzah! wrote: »

This happens me sometimes. I feel better during the faster stuff; I put it down to increased adrenaline when I'm running faster. Probably a load of hogwash!


The very best of luck with it. I'll be following with interest.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one. You could be on to something with the adrenaline!

And thanks. Best of luck with yours too, you're off to a great start.

Pomplamousse

ariana` wrote: »

Best of luck with the meno plan and sub 4 attempt. Have you any tune up races lined up?

Thanks a mill. No races planned until the Dublin half in September. Would've liked to do a 10k race but couldn't find one that suits. Might try throw in the odd parkrun if I can fit it in, still trying to chase a 5k PB.
Best of luck with your DCM training and mentoring too, looking forward to hearing how you get on.

Kellygirl

Best of luck following the plan and the training. Will be interested to see how you get on with Meno.

Pomplamousse

Kellygirl wrote: »

Best of luck following the plan and the training. Will be interested to see how you get on with Meno.

Thank you and same to you

Pomplamousse

Meno plan week 1 of 17

Monday: 5 miles easy. 10.02/mile.
Splits 10:22, 9:54, 9:49, 10:03, 9:59.

Tuesday: 10x 0.5 miles. 1.5m warmup, 1.5m cooldown. Total: 10.2 miles at 10:06/mile.
0.5 mile splits: 3:46, 3:33, 3:49, 3:38, 3:42, 3:46, 3:56, 3:38, 3:46, 3:37.
Wasn't sure what way to do recoveries as meno recommends standing for 60sec but another consensus was to jog recoveries of equal time to each rep. I went with the latter as it sounded like the easier of the two. Found it hard to keep track of though so my recoveries weren't very precise. They were a little bit too long for the first couple of reps and then a little short for the rest, oh well.
Christ on a bike this was tough. Toughest run I can remember in a long time. I was probably going too fast. But happy enough as my times for each rep didn't gradually worsen and last rep was second fastest.
I probably approached this wrong as I couldn't find any flat piece of road so some reps had slight uphill parts and some had slight downhill parts. I'll blame this for lack of consistency in the times. Felt horrific towards the end of rep 7 as it finished on an uphill with the wind against me. The weather did me no favours as just as I set out on the run the sun came out. It was quite warm and humid but with a very annoying wind that didn't help at all with keeping me cool. Towards the end I don't think I've ever felt such thirst in my life but had no money with me. Was like a zombie for the rest of the evening.
Overall, tough and delighted to have it over with.

Wednesday: 4 miles recovery. 10:57/mile.
Splits: 11:05, 11:03, 10:48, 10:50.
Tired legs but expected worse.

Thursday: 5 miles easy. 9:55/mile.
Splits: 10:01, 9:50, 10:06, 9:46, 9:54.

Friday: rest from running. At a wedding all day. Knew this would make for an interesting LSR the next day.

Saturday: Felt ok in the morning but tired as didn't get much sleep. Got home and decided to take an hourish nap to let breakfast settle and catch up on some sleep. Very bad idea. Got up around 4pm and felt awful. Absolutely exhausted and felt a bit sick. Really wanted to not run. Forced myself out along with bf and was pleasantly surprised that within about 5mins I felt fine. Weather was lovely but not too hot as the breeze was cooling.
13 miles at 9:51/mile.
Splits: 9:47, 9:47, 9:48, 9:48, 9:47, 9:56, 9:55, 9:40, 10:18, 9:47, 9:46, 9:46, 9:51.
Stopped to buy water during rep 9 so I think that loss of momentum caused the slower mile.
Really happy to have survived that run a lot less painfully than expected.

Sunday: rest. Thought about 2 miles recovery but didn't want to up my mileage by too much this week and feeling quite tired. Need to foam roll.

Total week 1 mileage: 37.2 miles.
Meno's prescribed mileage: 35-40 miles.

The Black Oil

I will hold you accountable re your cycling efforts, if you do the same for me re cardio. :pac:

Thanks for being a meno guinea pig. Not long until I join you. :eek:

Pomplamousse

The Black Oil wrote: »

I will hold you accountable re your cycling efforts, if you do the same for me re cardio. :pac:

Thanks for being a meno guinea pig. Not long until I join you. :eek:

I'm looking forward to July when you and others have caught up and I'm no longer a guinea pig! But hopefully you'll learn a few lessons from my mistakes over the next few weeks:D

The Black Oil

Well, I've learned something already. But for your note above I might have gone straight into the 6-10 x 800m reps without w/u and c/d. Probably not wise. Will try to think of a flat ish area where I normally go, hmm. Roll on Tuesday...

Pomplamousse

The Black Oil wrote: »

Well, I've learned something already. But for your note above I might have gone straight into the 6-10 x 800m reps without w/u and c/d. Probably not wise. Will try to think of a flat ish area where I normally go, hmm. Roll on Tuesday...

Hopefully the weather has cooled a bit by next week. I would definitely bring water (or money for a water stop). I get thirsty just thinking about that session:o

ariana`

Well done on a good first week. The session sounds tough but it sounds like you nailed it all the same and a 13 mile long run at a good pace too. Great week.

Pomplamousse

ariana` wrote: »

Well done on a good first week. The session sounds tough but it sounds like you nailed it all the same and a 13 mile long run at a good pace too. Great week.

Thanks. It's a very tough session for week 1!

Week 2 and I've found that that I'm enjoying following a plan thats in miles. I haven't done that since training for DCM 2016. Since then all plans have been by minutes. The change is good.

Pomplamousse

Meno plan week 2 of 17

Monday: 6 miles easy. 9:53/mile.
Splits 9:50, 9:48, 9:52, 9:54, 9:54, 10:03.

Tuesday: Progression run. 2 miles w/u, 8 mins steady, 8 mins MP, 8 mins HMP, 8 mins 10kP, 2.29 miles c/d.
8.2 miles total at 9:34/mile.
Half day from work and was in a rush to get this done before an appointment. Wasn't as warm as expected when I left work so that was a relief. Actually ended up really enjoying the run, never felt like I wanted to give up unlike the week 1 session.
Warmup miles: 10:46, 10:43.
8 mins steady: 0.86 miles. Pace planned 9:30/mile, pace actual 9:18/mile.
8mins MP: 0.91 miles. Pace planned 9:00/mile, pace actual 8:47/mile.
8 mins HMP: 1.01 miles. Pace planned 8:00/mile, pace actual 7:55/mile.
8 mins 10kP: 1.07 miles. Pace planned 7:30/mile, pace actual 7:28/mile.
Cooldown miles: 10:37, 10:35, 3:09
Really happy with that overall. Tired legs that evening.

Wednesday: 4 miles recovery. 11:03/mile.
Splits 10:56, 11:08, 11:04, 11:03.
So unbelievably warm and sunny, have never run in those kind of temperatures in Ireland so almost felt like I was on holidays. Until I got home and had to cook dinner and go to work the next day:(

Thursday: 6 miles easy. 9:58/mile.
Splits 9:55, 9:52, 9:56, 9:55, 10:17, 9:52.
Another hot one. Temperature was 26 degrees when I got home from the run at 6pm! Didn't struggle too much as I ran to Sandymount so was in the shade for a lot of the route and had the sea breeze once I got to the shoreline.
This route is starting to annoy me though as I constantly seem to get to the Dart line just as the gates go down. Ended up running through the Dart station and over the bridge on the way back as I didn't want to be standing waiting for 5 mins, didn't seem to need a ticket which was good to know for future reference.

Friday: rest.

Saturday: 14 miles easy. 9:42/mile.
Splits 9:40, 9:38, 9:31, 9:38, 9:43, 9:45, 9:44, 9:44, 9:50, 9:43, 9:43, 9:38, 9:35, 9:59.
On my own for this one as bf was off to Athlone for a triathlon. Ran towards Dunlaoghaire and almost made it all the way down the pier until I had to turn back. Another amazingly sunny morning, really enjoyed this run. Didn't bother stopping for water, I must be acclimatising to the heat. Probably could've slowed the pace a bit but it felt good. Will do better next week.

Sunday: rest.

Total week 2 mileage: 38.2 miles.
Meno's prescribed mileage: 36-42 miles.

Murph_D

Excellent first couple of weeks, well done. As you say though, watch that easy/long run pace. 10-20% slower than MP, if I remember correctly. Make sure it’s at LEAST 10% slower if it’s suppised to be an easy LR (don’t worry, there will be plenty of harder LRs in due course!)