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Once in a Lifetime....for now
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Laineyfrecks wrote: »I might be a little bit late sometimes;) But you are a lot delusional
Ah sorry I'll rephrase for you...I only look really old...:D0 -
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Swashbuckler wrote: »Hurdles on the cards this year? Or maybe steeplechase?
If the hurdles are 8" high I'm all over it 0 -
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6th-12th January.
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 7.31 miles @ 8:46 min/mile. Mostly on the roads of D9. Very blustery out there which meant I seemed to be working a little harder than usual in places.
Av HR: 143. < Z1: 3%, Z1: 49%, Z2: 47%, Z3: 1%
Wednesday: 9.54 miles @ 9:09 min/mile. I introduced a few strides into this run while doing a few laps of Ellenfield Park in Whitehall. I did 10 x 30 seconds with full recoveries. Strides were in the form of 10 secs pick up, 10 secs at 80/90% effort and 10 secs slowing down. Recovery was based on HR. I didn’t start the next repeat until HR returned to pre strides rate.
Av HR: 131. <Z1: 1%, Z1: 47%, Z2: 42%, Z3: 10%
Thursday: 7.32 miles @ 8:51 min/mile. Pretty much a repeat of Tuesday but without the wind.
Av HR: 132. <Z1: 1%, Z1: 37%, Z2: 59%, Z3: 3%
Friday: 7.58 miles @ 8:57 min/mile. Local roads again and 5 x 30 second strides (same format as Wednesday)
Av HR: 131. Z1: 42%, Z2: 53%, Z3: 5%
Saturday: Where to start?? I suppose it is fair to say that E had been a little bit disenchanted by her run in Jingle Bells even though it was following on from some fairly heavy training aimed at Bohermeen and longer term progress. After a little chat early in the week I suggested that she try a Parkrun at the weekend. She jumped at that idea so the plans were laid. I decided Hartstown might be a good course for a PB try as it is a fairly flat course. Unfortunately the weather Gods stepped in and did their best to scupper the plans with 30mph winds whipping across the park.
I arrived at the car park bang on 8.45 which was the agreed meeting time. I was both stunned and suitably impressed to find E already there. It’s a great feeling to see someone brought to heel!
We got out of our cars and the grim D15 morning was immediately brightened by the solar glow of a shiny new orange pair of Vapourfly shoes adorning the little feet of the aspiring PBer. They were topped by a pair of figure hugging, seconds saving lycra shorts.:eek::eek: This girl meant business! At this point a very, very, very strong gust of wind brought water to my eyes and caused them to pop back in.
We headed out for a 3 mile warm up. E was very clear in her mind. A goal was sub 21, B goal was a PB. I was equally clear in my mind that with the wind as it was neither were likely :pac:. As we did the lap of the course I said to her that I would consider a 21 to be the equal of a 20:30 on a calmer day. Unfortunately the sheltered side of the park was the downwind side and the open and uphill side was wide open to the strongest of the gale. After some more chat E decided to go for it anyway and the required pace of 6:45 agreed on. In all honesty I hoped to pace her the whole way with my priority being to prevent an over exuberant start and to break the wind by getting her to draft me on the uphill windblown section. Warm up completed, time to get to the start.
Sheep of these parts came over to say hello before the start, nice to see him again. Off we went and after the usual parkrun bumping and boring we got a bit of clear path with those ahead being those I expected to be. The first half mile was the easier part of the course and we were on 6:38 pace for this. After a hairpin turn at the end of the park we turned back uphill and into the wind. That was a shock even when expecting it. I beckoned to E to tuck in behind me and set about maintaining the pace. There was a little group, including Sheep about 15 yards ahead of us. Coming up to 1.5 miles I began to feel the lactic, only the beginning, but having gone months without this feeling the brain just said no. It just wasn’t having it. That little group would be enough to drag E along. There was another female runner in it which I knew would focus her mind! I eased off and told her to go for it, I had nothing more to offer. Oddly enough even though I backed off that few percent I wasn’t losing much ground on them. When the watch beeped for mile 2 at 13:29 for me I figured she was probably there at about 13:25 which was just inside target but with an exceedingly tough section to come. At this point I just dropped it right back to about 8 min pace and trotted to the finish. The lack of speed or endurance work over the last 6 months told to a greater degree than I expected.
Got to the finish and met E who was blowing hard. 21:18 was her time. A PB for 5k. I was absolutely thrilled for her. I have to put it on the record that I think it was a seriously impressive run and worth far more than a 30 second improvement on Jingle Bells. That last mile was seriously tough!
We did a 3 mile cooldown, briefly met Sheep again, I listened to E moaning about running in concrete blocks after she had changed back into her Asics again. :rolleyes:
9.69 miles for the morning including 15 mins of good hard effort.
Sunday: 15 miles @ 9:04 min/mile. Boardsie gang of 4 LSR day. I met Lazare at 8.35 and got 3 miles done before Laineyfrecks and Damo arrived bang on time and was really looking forward to the group run. Individually they are three cracking people who I used to like hugely. Unfortunately they used this opportunity to gang up on a defenceless old man. Grumpy they repeatedly called me as they giggled together like schoolkids…..words like awkward, contrary, opinionated and moany were thrown around like snuff at a wake. I’m a broken and wounded man…..That being said it was hugely enjoyable! :pac::pac:
Av HR: 138 <Z1: 2%, Z1: 11%, Z2: 63%, Z3: 24%
So that was the week that was. Averaging 50 miles over the last 4 weeks so I will gradually add in some easy sessions over the next few weeks. I’m in absolutely no hurry.
Weekly miles: 56.4
YTD miles: 106.10 -
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13th-21st January
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 8.40 miles @ 8:56 min/mile. Another pretty vanilla run around the local roads. Legs well recovered from my highest mileage week since early October 2018. Strangely enough it hasn’t felt at all fatiguing. More than likely this is because I have built it up gradually and done little or no pace work or sessions for long periods. The focus over the coming weeks will be to reduce mileage a bit and to increase the quality/intensity.
Av HR:133* <Z1: 1% Z1: 35% Z2: 54% Z3: 7% Z4: 3%*
* Incorrect reading for first mile or so.
Wednesday: An easy enough session to kick this sort of thing off again. I went back to a session L gave me as my first one when trying to begin the search for fitness last year. As it happens it was also on the third Wednesday in January. I think I have a better base this year to build from. Session was 10*90 secs off 45 secs jog recovery. Pace was to be about 6:40 and most reps came in a few seconds faster but nothing seriously out of range. It felt good. Warm-up and cooldown brought it up to 7.3 miles for the day.
Thursday: 8.81 miles @ 9:18 min/mile. After yesterday’s ‘exertions’ I felt that some recovery pace miles were the order of the day. Nothing much of interest as I plodded my way around the locality.
Av HR: 128 <Z1: 1% Z1: 70% Z2: 29%
Friday: 7.20 miles @ 8:28 min/mile. This is the day where my excitement reached a new level! No, it wasn’t because Laineyfrecks had earlier in the day resisted the temptation to join Swashbuckler’s mini army and wear leggings on a chilly morning.:P Nor was it that I had just completed 2 weeks of 7pm-7am nightshifts. Fact was that a shiny new pair of running shoes had arrived with Mr DPD. No, they are not Nikes. A few of you may know but I have found it extremely difficult to find runners in which I am comfortable straight out of the box. I generally get numbness and soreness until I properly break them in. These were different. Absolutely the most comfortable shoe I have yet worn. The bonus is they seem to cover the ground well to. If my long run goes well on Sunday I’ll do a bit of a review here.
Av HR: 131 <Z1: 2% Z1: 38% Z2: 60%
Saturday: I met E for this in the Phoenix Park on a fantastically crisp morning. At 8am temperatures were -2. E further enhanced her reputation as a tough cookie by emerging from her car in shorts!
A real runner she is turning out to be. I was basically tagging along on her run of 4 miles moderate, 3*8 mins @ 7:30ish and 8 mins @ 7:10ish off 2 min jog recoveries and then 4 more moderate pace miles. Pace and distances were ideal for me and another little bit of turnover work into the week. I told E not to set up the run in her watch as I would do it. Best that the punctual one of us looked after timing and paces!! 
The run was brilliant. Bright sunshine, freezing, a few slippy bits underfoot as well as that lovely crunchy sound of frozen grass under your feet when running off the path. The deer were many and always in sight. Runners everywhere...some jogging and some absolutely hammering sessions.
We warmed up from our starting point on Furze Road by doing the 4 easy/moderate miles down the North Road/Lords Walk/Chesterfield loop before going back to the cars to shed a layer or two before the faster miles. We did these on the Furze/OS loop. Paces were 7:30/7:30/7:30 and 7:04. A four mile lap down to the hospital, around the pitches and Magazine Fort and up the Khyber (insert Carry On jokes here) brought us back to Furze where AMK gave a shout as he passed on his long run/session.
There was only one way to finish off a morning like that and that was to go straight to the visitor centre for a steaming hot cuppa and a delicious slice of carrot cake. There was a little added bonus when E produced some Ferrero Rocher from her bag. 13.26 miles for the morning.
Av HR: 137 <Z1: 4% Z1: 22% Z2: 44% Z3: 25% Z4: 5%
Sunday: 16.28 miles @ 8:36 min/mile. Again an absolutely splendid, if ball chilling, morning in the Phoenix Park. Minus temperatures led to me layering up like an onion to combat the arctic conditions. The DCM bobble hat got a rare day out as did my thick woolly gloves. I find those gloves a lot warmer than the running gloves on the market. All this led to some other posters here commenting about the excellent job I did at keeping warm. :cool:
This run was also to be the acid test for my new shoes. I loved them on a short run a few days previously and was really interested to see how they would handle the longer run.
The run took in most of the smaller loops within the park and most of the perimeter. I took it nice and easy with the exception of a faster last mile. There were the usual huge numbers of runners out and about. I saw C and J out on their usual Sunday morning club runs. As for the shoes....I can honestly say they are by some distance the most comfortable shoe I have yet worn. They are the Asics Glideride and I think they may well be the best kept secret when it comes to an easy miles/ long run training shoe. They really are incredible. They are not sold as a 'fast' shoe but in my opinion they do roll through more easily at anything faster than very easy running. They are sold more as a shoe that reduces fatigue on long runs. Who can quantify this but on this sample run I noticed a marked reduction in post run stiffness. They are a wide fitting shoe so won't be for everyone. It would seem that due to the decrease in market share suffered by Asics recently that there has been very little effort to market them here. A quick call to Asics Europe and I was able to find out that Run Hub was the only shop in the country to stock them but they hadn't ordered the colour I wanted. I therefore ordered them direct from Asics and they come in at €160. Hopefully, for me, they will soon begin to appear on some of the discount sites. :pac:
There was a match in the afternoon. My year of humiliations in relation to the Premier League got worse but at least it was expected.
Av HR:133 Z1: 44% Z2: 46% Z3: 7% Z4: 3%
Weekly miles: 61.1
YTD miles: 166
Monday: 3.39 miles @ 10:47 min/mile. J and I headed down to Kilkenny for a couple of nights R&R and a great time was had once the bar cleared of celebrating low-life fc supporters on the Sunday evening. I may have had a lot of beer. A little shuffle around the hotel estate was useful in clearing the head somewhat. No worries as it is a step back week for me after 3 weeks of increasing mileage.
Av HR:113 <Z1: 71% Z1: 20% Z2: 9%
Tuesday: 4.12 miles @ 9:35 min/mile. I may have had even more beer than the day before. I think J might have had to put me to bed!! We went out hoping to do an hour but that was never going to happen!! A few plodding, self pitying miles before a bit of a half hearted sprint up the half mile hill to the hotel just to feel like I did something of benefit.
Av HR:124 <Z1: 22% Z1: 61% Z2: 11% Z3: 4% Z4: 2%0 -
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If you find any of those shoes to try you'll be doing well! I'm an Asics size 45 if you fancy trying them.
No I won't be at the Winter League or the Road Relays. The experiment of club running just doesn't fit with work shifts etc etc. I'm back to (or will be when I eventually race) running under the unattached banner!
Ah, that's a loss to Raheny so. (Make sure you return that trophy all the same!) 0 -
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