If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.

Kellygirl

Thanks D. I might try re schedule a few of the runs around week 8 to get some extra sessions in before or after or something. It’s more too that I don’t want to be abandoning my husband too often with the kids while we are away.

Murph_D

Kellygirl wrote: »

Thanks D. I might try re schedule a few of the runs around week 8 to get some extra sessions in before or after or something. It’s more too that I don’t want to be abandoning my husband too often with the kids while we are away.

Ha - we are all amateurs and fit our training around real life. An understanding partner is a godsend. On hols, very early morning is often best time to run anyway and sometimes that can minimize the damage! Either way, one week won’t make much difference.

BrownEyes79

Brilliant running yesterday K, I'm delighted to hear your confidence in your ability is improving (its something I struggle with too!) I've no doubt you've many more PBs to come this year

Baby75

Well done again K, fantastic running I missed all of this yesterday

also some great advice! every day is a school day

ariana`

Well done again K. Brilliant performance and well deserved after a very solid few months. Not even 2 months into the year and you've 2 shiny new PBs, the future is bright

Interesting conversation around paces for sure, lots of food for thought.

Swashbuckler

Feel a little bad we turned what should be a celebration of a great run into something completely different!

skyblue46

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Feel a little bad we turned what should be a celebration of a great run into something completely different!

Ah now you're making me feel guilty.....and I don't do guilt! :pac:

Kellygirl

Thanks for all the nice comments. I’m still delighted and feeling really good today. Itching to get out for a run but mid term has put paid to that!

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Feel a little bad we turned what should be a celebration of a great run into something completely different!

Ah I did ask for advice and it is food for thought. I need to make sure I keep the head and continue with what I set out to do this year - and being conservative is surely the way to go.

eyrie

I'm only getting to read your race report now K, and belated huge congratulations! The accuracy between the prediction and the result is uncanny - and you hit it on a tough course too. Great running!

Kellygirl

Midterm and a relaxed running week

Monday: 4.18miles @ 11:24 min/mile
Recovery run from the previous day’s race. Weather was looking fairly bad for Tuesday so decided to get out Monday night as the sky was clear and there was an amazing full moon. My legs were heavy enough after Sunday so decided even if the opportunity presented itself that I would take Tuesday off. I actually had a babysitter booked so I went and got my nails done instead :-)

Thursday: 5.1 miles @ 11.06 min/mile
Ran with a friend. Legs heavy and don’t know how I ever run faster!

Friday: 4.14 miles @ 10:17 min/mile average - actually each mile got faster
Wasn’t planning to run but midterm had me driven scatty so when my husband came in I ran out the door to join some friends who were running. They told me they were very unfit and running slow but there was still no talking to them that I generally run slower. I just went with it. I knew I;d a long run this morning and figured no harm tiring the legs a bit anyway even if it wasn’t a session.

Saturday: 1:45 easy long run - 10 miles @ 10:38 min/mile
Back on plan - decided I was ready to get going again and the first 3 weeks of the HM plan have 1:45 long runs so off I went. I was tired enough for the last 2 miles but nothing major.

Finally went through the plan just now checking out dates and have decided to start on Monday with week 2. I miscalculated last week and it’s 14 weeks to Cork from tomorrow but I’m planning to do 13 weeks of the plan and spread out week 9 over two weeks so that I’m not under pressure while on holidays to get sessions done or a long run. I’m also going to stick the paces I did the 5-10km plan at. That is saying I should do a HM in 1:53:25. I’ll be over the moon if I went sub 1:55 so no point pushing it.

ariana`

That 5m race was timed very nicely to have a recovery week during midterm break!

Kellygirl wrote: »

Finally went through the plan just now checking out dates and have decided to start on Monday with week 2. I miscalculated last week and it’s 14 weeks to Cork from tomorrow but I’m planning to do 13 weeks of the plan and spread out week 9 over two weeks so that I’m not under pressure while on holidays to get sessions done or a long run. I’m also going to stick the paces I did the 5-10km plan at. That is saying I should do a HM in 1:53:25. I’ll be over the moon if I went sub 1:55 so no point pushing it.

Sounds very sensible K. It's very tempting to change paces but i think you're doing the right thing, your patience will pay off.

Kellygirl

ariana` wrote: »

That 5m race was timed very nicely to have a recovery week during midterm break!

Sounds very sensible K. It's very tempting to change paces but i think you're doing the right thing, your patience will pay off.

It really was perfectly timed - I get stressed when I can’t stick to the plan :-)

I doubted myself for a bit today when I did today’s session which felt easy and was unaware I was getting fast as it went on. However I’m just after an easy couple of weeks really so legs were probably fresh enough - and I’m back at the start of the plan. I’ll stick with these for a few weeks though as the sessions will no doubt feel more difficult as I get further into the plan.

Kellygirl

Seeking stating Feb 25th

Monday WU; 6x3 min CV (8-8:11) with 3 mins off; CD
First session on new plan. I loved it. Seemed easy but legs were fresh. Paces were 8:07; 8:02; 7:37; 7:33; 7:37; 7:47; 6.38 miles in total

Tuesday 1 hour easy; 5.59 miles @ approx 10:56 but had to speed up then to get to sports massage. Mentioned to him that my right calf was slightly niggly but otherwise he thought I was in good shape.

Wednesday 1 hour easy; 5.51 miles @ 10:54
Calf acted up big time and I stopped and stretched and seemed ok after that. Got into the car and drove 2 mins to the shop and could barely walk. Same calf as before DCM but different spot and way more painful.

Rested for the next few days as figured it was a strain again.

Week starting 4th March
Monday 3 mile test run - 3:12 @10:53. All fine
Tuesday tried the same session as last week - gave up after 3.22 miles or 31 mins. I was very conscious of my calf and doing the speed work and for some reason was lacking in energy so just decided to bail after half an hour. I walked back to the car and was fairly disappointed with my lack of motivation. Messaged the physical therapist - he told me come in Thursday morn.
Thursday Physical Therapist. There was a slight bit of trouble with the calf alright but nothing major. My left leg was in worse shape for some reason. I’d been use foam rolling and stretching the right and forgot out the left - duh! He told me all easy running for the weekend and text him then and we could decide whether I could start my plan again or not.

Saturday 6miles @ 10:35 - planned to just run easy and if I made it to 1hr45mins the great. Started with parkrun and found it really easy. My friend picked up a lost dog and we were trying to find it’s owners for a bit and I went on then by myself. The calf got twingey so called it a day.

Sunday 8.38 miles @ 11:06 - again just planned to see how I managed. It was a bit of a plod but no trouble besides lack of motivation in the middle. Was with my friend again so we did 4 laps of the park and finished after 90 mins. Delighted afterwards that all was ok again. Going to jump back into week 4 of the plan this week and hopefully no more hiccups.

Baby75

so happy your run went well today and fx that's the end of calf troubles well done for listening your body as well

eyrie

Hopefully just a minor blip that you'll have forgotten all about in a day or so K!

ariana`

Good to see you getting back on track! Good luck with getting stuck into the new plan.

aquinn

I'm up-to-date!

Delighted to read about your parkrun PB and the 5 mile.

Well done to you.

Now, mind that calf. When you get the all clear go easy and watch the sessions.

Kellygirl

aquinn wrote: »

I'm up-to-date!

Delighted to read about your parkrun PB and the 5 mile.

Well done to you.

Now, mind that calf. When you get the all clear go easy and watch the sessions.

Thanks A. All going well now this week. Have done 2 sessions and no issues luckily. Fingers crossed now it stays that way.

I have a load of catching up to do myself!!!

Kellygirl

Week 4 Grads HM plan

Monday: 1 hour easy 5.6 miles @ 10:43

Tuesday:WU; 6x2 min AP (7:40-50) 3 min recoveries;CD
7:39; 40; 50; 38; 53; 41; 6 miles in total
Went to Coachford Greenway for this one as near by the house, fairly flat and weather was bad so I wouldn’t have too far to travel soaking wet after. The wind was very strong one direction so I tried to do most of the intervals with the wind behind me. Did 2 against the wind I think. My legs were heavy enough and it wasn’t an easy session. Went from being too warm at one stage to getting soaked and freezing.

Wednesday: 1 hour easy: 5.77 miles @ 10:25
This started off easy but cold and I had my watch covered with a jacket so bit faster than I should have been really. Strong winds again.

Thursday: Pilates
Did an online Pilates class - my stomach is still sore!

Friday: WU; 4x6min Threshold (8:22-34) 2 min recoveries; CD
8:05; 18; 16; 21; 6.4 miles in total

I confused myself with the wrong screen on the watch the first interval and ended up going too fast and found it had to slow down enough on the next 3 intervals. Wind and rain yet again!

Saturday: nothing
Should have done 1 hr 45 mins but the wind and rain were really bad so I left it until today. Spent the day feeling guilty!

Sunday: 1:45 easy: 10 miles @ 10:41
Lovely run with a friend. Did the first 7 miles at approx 11 min miles or a bit slower. I picked up the pace for the last 3 and did 10:29; 9:47 and 9:04. I felt a faster finish would be good as I should have done this long run on tired legs the day after a session and I hadn’t done that. Also the plan had 70 mins in it as a step back week but because I missed the last couple of weeks I did the 1:45 instead.

So all well and feeling good. 33.8 miles for the week.

ReeReeG

Was looking at your 5k/10k plan overviews... did you find yourself very tired around week 11? I'm feeling so shattered this week. I know I went a bit hard on my long run Sunday but didn't think it would have this much effect. So I'm hoping the plan just tires you this much with all the sessions and this is normal?!

Kellygirl

ReeReeG wrote: »

Was looking at your 5k/10k plan overviews... did you find yourself very tired around week 11? I'm feeling so shattered this week. I know I went a bit hard on my long run Sunday but didn't think it would have this much effect. So I'm hoping the plan just tires you this much with all the sessions and this is normal?!

I had to go back and look at Strava to see what I did that week. It wasn’t totally normal as we had snow and I missed a run or so. Week 12 though I struggled to hit paces in a session and I think that was the first time in the plan I hadn’t hit paces. I do remember being tired on and off and always welcoming the step back weeks with shorter long runs etc. Definitely normal to have tired days though I think. Are you eating and sleeping well?

ReeReeG

Kellygirl wrote: »

I had to go back and look at Strava to see what I did that week. It wasn’t totally normal as we had snow and I missed a run or so. Week 12 though I struggled to hit paces in a session and I think that was the first time in the plan I hadn’t hit paces. I do remember being tired on and off and always welcoming the step back weeks with shorter long runs etc. Definitely normal to have tired days though I think. Are you eating and sleeping well?

Yeah both the diet and sleep have been pretty good recently. Suppose it's just one of those weeks.. maybe adding back yoga after a month off is adding to it, who knows

Kellygirl

ReeReeG wrote: »

Yeah both the diet and sleep have been pretty good recently. Suppose it's just one of those weeks.. maybe adding back yoga after a month off is adding to it, who knows

Hopefully it’s just a blip. I find I have weeks here and there where I’m lacking energy and others where I feel like I could go on forever.

Kellygirl

Week 5 HM plan

Monday: Easy hour 5.42 miles @ 11:09 min miles

Tuesday: 8x1 min hills with 2-3 min recoveries
20 min warm up as calves were tight and wanted to make sure I was ok before tackling hill repeats.
Gave it my all on the hill repeats whilst concentrating on form and trying to keep the pace steady for the whole minute. Paces were 7:08; 7:10; 7:04; 6:59; 6:54; 6:55; 7:04; 7:07
2 minute recoveries were all I needed. I was delighted later when I checked back on the previous times I did this session on the same hill. There’s a fairly obvious improvement in my paces as they averaged at approx 7:50.
Cool down brought my mileage to 4.6 miles

Wednesday: 4.5 miles @ 10:50 min miles
This was unplanned but had a sports massage which was torture on my Quads and IT Band area and he recommended getting out for an easy run if I could later. The opportunity presented itself so I scarpered out the door.

Thursday: 1 hour easy - 5.51 miles @ 11:05 min miles

Friday: 15 min tempo (8:47-9:00); 4 mins recovery; 10 min Threshold (8:22-34)
I was looking forward to this session. I like the slightly longer ones sometimes for a change. I warmed up for 20 mins until I got to the pitches and did my figure of 8’s around the 2 pitches then. The tempo felt very slow and I kept having to pull myself back and remind myself this wasn’t short intervals. My paces were 8:47 and 8:33 for the tempo and 8:28 and 7:52 for the Threshold. The watch must have gone wonky after the first mile at Threshold and was telling me I was way too slow. I was battling into the wind so just went as fast as I could and then ended up way too fast of course!
Total mileage: 6.37 miles

Saturday: 1:45 easy: 11:01 miles @ 9:40 min miles
Normally I do these runs with a friend but she’s doing Mallow tomorrow and I can’t due to family stuff so I went off on my own. Started with parkrun which was enjoyable. I knew my paces were a bit too fast for easy but was just enjoying it and feeling good so went with it for the parkrun part. My official time there turned out to be 28:28 which is about 3 mins faster than usual these days. I headed off straight after and I kept picking up the pace. Every time I looked at my watch I was after picking up again and back into the parkrun pace. I decided to just go with it then as I was comfortable and to be honest I got curious as to how I would feel at the end at the slightly faster pace. Ended up doing 11 miles instead of the 10 I’d normally do in that time. Kind of happy with the run though. I’ve been wondering how well I’ll pick up the pace or keep up pace for 10 milers or Halves - even though it would want to be a lot faster than today.

Mileage for the week: 37.8 miles
Mileage for the year: 328 miles - passed the 300 mile mark on Monday I think it was.

Kellygirl

Week 6 HM plan and UCC BHAA 10km race report

Monday: 7.51 miles @ 10:45 mile
Wet out for one our easy but the weather was fab and was enjoying that and the book so use kept goin for another 20 mins. I’d have actually loved to have kept going and didn’t really have a reason to stop except maybe it wasn’t a good idea to just keep running.

Tuesday: 5x5 mins CV (8:00-8.11) with 4 min recoveries
Paces: 7:57; 7:59; 7:54; 8:00; 7:59
7.02 miles with warm up and cool down
Lovely run in lovely weather again. Noticed my paces are a bit fast. More on this later ...

Wednesday: 5.6 miles @ 11:04 min mile

Friday: 4.5 miles @ 10:27 min mile
This was supposed to be a session - 3x8mins at Threshold and I did want to do it but I had decided to do a 10km race today so sense prevailed ...... or at least it did after advice from my 2017 Grads buddies. Funnily enough it wasn’t a great run. Was gad to finish after 45 mins. I was bored. A new book didn’t help.

Sunday: BHAA UCC Athletics 10km race

Backround:
I haven’t raced a 10k since 2016 and that was 55.5x I think. I had a 53:47 from a training run last year. I’ve been training off paces from my 24:32 5Km PB and that predicted 51:06:07 (pace 8:13). My recent 5km pb (24:09) and 5mile (39:56) both predicted 50:17:10 (pace 8:05:07).

So my goal today was to get between those times and stick between those paces!
With that in mind off I went and did 7:52; 7:52, 8:30; 8:02; 7:59; 7:59; 7:13 (for 0.24 miles) - 49:56!

I was fairly relaxed before the race and actually very confident for once in my life. It wasn’t chip timed and was back a bit further than I’d have liked. Weather was amazing and clear blue skies but chilly - my kind of running weather - so the crowds were out.

We set off from the Mardyke and I could see 7:xx on my watch constantly it I was really comfortable and I knew there were some drags and a couple of steep hills coming up so I decided to bank time and just go with it. When the drags came they weren’t too bad and I was well able. Both of the first miles were just fine. I pulled back a bit alright for the steepest part knowing I had time banked and allowed myself to recover at the top and then belted down then steep downhill praying I was doing no damage. I let gravity do it’s job and wanted to just let my breath come back some bit. My big fear here was somebody had said at the start there loads of drags and two steep hills and steep downhills after so I though this was just number one - a bit further on I realised the hills were behind me and I started thinking about keeping the pace up and looking at who was around me.

I kept looking at my average pace which was 8:02 at that stage and I knew I’d want to do something very stupid to feck this up now. I knew I’d the sub 51 in the bag but hadn’t started calculating anything else. I was on the straight road and 2 miles to go and wondering when I’d be able to be pick up the pace and keep it up. I was trying to pick people off and pass them and then there was a gap for a while. My watch beeped at 5 miles - 40:13 I think - 17 seconds slower than my 5 mile pb. But it was another few seconds before passing then 5 mile marker. Then I thought, hang on a minute could I go sub 50 here? Seemed possible and I was wondering how much extra I needed to run after 6 miles and how long it would take me. At 5.5 miles I picked up the pace - or so I thought - both miles 5 and 6 clocked in at 7:59.

We can off the straight road onto the path of the Lee Fields and I was thinking I have to be nearly there. I eventually could see the finish line and it took forever to get to. Couldn’t even acknowledge or look at my friends husband cheering me. Then I could see the clock - 49.3x - time to do whatever I could. I gave it my all and over I went cutting it fine at 49:56. WOW! Couldn’t believe it and I’m so so thrilled. Smashed both the above targets I’d planned on.

I’d planned to ask for advice on training paces here but have to get ready to go out for Mother’s Day dinner. I’ve a 10 mile race next Sunday so not changing anything until after then anyway.

ReeReeG

Super racing and race time!! Delighted for you, sounds like you ran it perfectly!
Enjoy your Mother's Day dinner

Dealerz2.0

Brilliant result- well done

OOnegative

Great result and superb PB K, brilliant to see.

Murph_D

Super racing and what a satisfying time! Congrats.

Baby75

I hope your still basking in the afterglow of that race well done again K epic result delighted for you