Often becomes easy when the easy is often..

Lazare

ReeReeG wrote: »

That seems extreme! You can just change the settings from km to miles to look at them and then change back?!

Hahaha, I'm so dumb.

Never thought of that.

Cheers V.

ReeReeG

Lazare wrote:

Never thought of that.

Unless you enjoy having an alter ego on Strava. I shouldn't judge

Lazare

He's always the first one with the kudos

Murph_D

Garmin Connect in kms, Strava in miles. Sorted!

Baby75

Murph_D wrote: »

Garmin Connect in kms, Strava in miles. Sorted!

I do that as well except the opposite way round

Murph_D

Baby75 wrote: »

I do that as well except the opposite way round

Endomondo can be useful as well - provides better info on in-race splits, fastest race sections etc. Again, you can auto upload to it via Garmin Connect and set up in miles/kms for a bit of variety.

Baby75

Murph_D wrote: »

Endomondo can be useful as well - provides better info on in-race splits, fastest race sections etc. Again, you can auto upload to it via Garmin Connect and set up in miles/kms for a bit of variety.

Yep use it as well, actually used it well before strava I find it more accurate for PB fastest miles etc rather than the estimations strava give you:D

Lazare

Interesting, I'll check that out.

Lazare

Little bit of glute work done Monday evening.

Tuesday March 12th:
6:50am - 5 mile aerobic with 6x 12 second hill sprints and 6x strides. Average pace 5:40 km.
Wasn't happy with choice of hills last week as found them a little too easy so opted this week for the ramps of the N7 foot bridge at Rathcoole. If anyone knows that bridge can they tell me if it's a suitable spot for these. Found them too easy again. There's a cracking hill in Corkagh that will put me to the test, I might get up a little earlier and drive there the next time they're on the menu.

Wednesday March 13th:
6:30am - 8 mile endurance. Built from 6:00 to 5:07, average 5:33.

Friday March 15th:
6:40am - Warm up, 5x 3min hills at 3-5k effort with jog recoveries, cool down.

5k warm up finishing with some stretches and 6x strides, average pace 5:41 km.

Hills were hellish. Was actually looking forward to this all week, soon changed opinion. Took off on the first one way too fast way too enthusiastic, hit something like 3:03 pace before the hill took the wind out of me. 3 mins felt like 8. Was gassed at the top. Jogged back down really slowly, gave myself about 4 minutes then hit the next one. This and the rest were much better. Still gassed at the top of each one, but the pace and effort was better controlled.
Great workout.
1k jog home to cool down.

Saturday March 16th:

11am - 5k recovery, 6:19 km. Dropped the kids off at the mother in laws and went for a run around Tymon park. Great park, must do parkrun there soon.
Enjoyed this immensely, weather was rotten if it was a picnic you were after, but glorious for a light run.

Sunday March 17th:

1:30pm - 9 mile endurance. Built from 5:51 to 4:57km. Probably slightly aggressive but not majorly so. Trying not to finish too much stronger than 5:15. Felt good though so went with it.
I really love these runs, they're giving me huge confidence. Every time without fail I'm finding that I'm getting stronger and stronger as the run progresses and I'm finding it really easy to go up the gears.

Didn't do enough S&C, but other than that another satisfying week.

Total mileage: 32.9

Lazare

I tell you what, I just cannot wait to race.

A tune up in 6 weeks time, living for that. Haven't looked yet to see if there's anything on that weekend, will probably be parkrun.

skyblue46

Lazare wrote: »

I tell you what, I just cannot wait to race.

A tune up in 6 weeks time, living for that. Haven't looked yet to see if there's anything on that weekend, will probably be parkrun.

MSB 5k tomorrow! Go off plan :-)

Lazare

skyblue46 wrote: »

MSB 5k tomorrow! Go off plan :-)

Ha! Arthur is getting in the way of that tonight.

Might pop down to it though if I can fit it in to spectate.

Lazare

Did manage to get in to MSB to cheer Sean on. Really enjoyed it, watching the routines and the running of the leaders was very interesting.

Tuesday 19th March:
6:50am - Speed work. 2x sets of 3x 300 with jog recoveries including 4 mins between sets. Warm up and cool down. Target for 300s was 65-70 secs. Ran them in 67, 68, 68, 69, 69, 70. Faded a little, these aren't on the menu again but I'd be interested in doing them again after the block and guage then where I'm at. Thanks for the tip re the lap button press for W/U and C/D Swash, it's working out very handy. 5.3m

Wednesday 20th March:
6:25am - 8 mile endurance. Heavy legs starting this one but loosened up after 3 or 4km. Built from 6:10 to 5:11km

Friday 22nd March:
6:35am - LT session. 3x 8min @ LT (4:28 - 4:35), 3 min recovery, warm up and cool down. Pace faded on each, dipped out of the range on the first rep but kept within for the other two. 7.45m

Saturday 23rd March:

Took the buggy to Corkagh parkrun to keep me disciplined. Plan was 3m recovery. Obv got carried away with myself and ran the last km too fast. Also, the buggy had three flat tyres that I only discovered at 9am which meant I was working harder than normal. Silly stuff.

Sunday 24th March:

10am - 10 mile endurance. Drove to the visitors centre carpark in Phoenix Park and decided to run down Chesterfield, down the South Quays to the Point and back up the North Quays. Enjoyable run, bar a couple of traffic issues. Picked up the pace every 4km, the turnaround at 8km was into a strong headwind that lasted all the way back to the park. Managed to pick it up as planned including up Chesterfield. Very satisfying run. Another good confidence booster.

Good week. Next week is a bit of a step back, mostly easy aerobic, recovery.

With a nod to Murph, total mileage for the week: 33.99627 miles.

Lazare

Tuesday 26th March:
Little bit of speed work, 2x sets of 4x 200. Ran up to Citywest hotel to warm up and did 6 of the 8 reps on the 200m straight near the hotel's entrance. Perfect spot for these. Reps were 45,46,46,46,47,46,42 (slight downhill),45. Ran home to cool down. 7 miles.

Wednesday 27th March:
6 miles easy. 5:59 km

Friday 29th March:
6 miles easy. 5:55 km

Saturday 30th March:
Ran Corkagh with the buggy again. 4:42km

Sunday 31st March:
Plan called for 8 miles easy. Just couldn't get it done. Was up at the crack of dawn with the kids, gave my wife some peace from them for the day so she could get some college work done. Also, the hour knocked me for six, had a couple of beers the night before and felt them the next day. Got back from dinner at the mother in laws at about 8pm, half planning to go out but by the time I got kids up to bed I just couldn't do it. TL;DR, life got in the way.

Ran 5 miles off plan this morning as I didn't want two consecutive days off.

Total mileage up until Sun: 22.44. Not great, but nice week coming up. First 5x 1k session on Friday.

Lazare

Monday April 1:
6:55 am. 5 easy miles. As I mentioned above, this was off plan. I was sick about missing the previous day's 8 miler so had to go out. I know the rule about chasing lost miles but thought feck it, my body doesn't know it's a new week. Thought 5 miles was a nice compromise. Plus, I have a sneaking suspicion and a hair brained theory that excessive resting is a high contributor to injury when you've got a bit of consistency built up.

Tuesday April 2:
6:45am. 7 miles aerobic with 6x hills and 6x strides. Said upthread that the next time this popped up I would drive to Corkagh for a decent hill. Did that. Propped my phone in the grass to video the hills for analysis, didn't work out great for that but I did get a couple of really great stills from it.

Wednesday April 3:
6:15am. 8 miles endurance. This was a really cracking run. Built from 5:55km to 5:13 and felt in full control of the pace and effort the whole way. Going up the gears felt effortless.

Friday April 5:
6:25am. V02max session. 5x 1k reps with 2:35 recovery.
Re-read the section on V02max in FRR before this and looked at a bunch of vids. Wanted to get this session right. Was unsure of the correct pace range.
Did the last one of these too hard I think, likely did it anaerobic. Didn't want to waste this one. Set the range at 4:10 - 4:15 which is my latest 5k best, with roughly 60% recovery. Drove to the grand canal at Lyons estate which was spot on for these. Saw an otter.

They went great. Warmed up for 2 miles finishing with some strides. Reps seemed marginally 'easier' towards the end which is weird. Loved this session. About 1.5m cool down.

Saturday April 6:
Buggy parkrun again for a 3 mile recovery. Decided at the last minute to try Tymon for the first time. Was a little more disciplined this time, just a little bit though. I've no problem with this when running solo, just when I have the buggy. Maybe I'm showing off to the bambolito.

Sunday April 7:

12:50pm. 10 mile endurance. I'm getting terribly bored with local running so I always try drive somewhere on a Sunday for these runs. Am very indecisive though about where to go. Had three choices in mind, an out and back on the canal starting at Lyons, three laps of Corkagh parkrun route (longingly missed it yesterday) or St. Catherine's park.

Don't know if any of you have read Luke Rhinehart's 'The Dice Man' or not but it's a novel about a guy who decides to live his life based on the roll of a dice. He'll give it some options, roll it, then run with what it says. It's pretty dark, he's a bit of a risk taker.
My choices were fairly pleasant though, I rolled a 6 and Catherine's it was.
What a park! Fantastic mix of parkland, hills, forest trail and riverside running. I loved it. Ran a hilly narrow trail through the woods twice, was so much fun. Felt so strong throughout. Didn't control the pace as well as Wed but sent it in the right direction and finished strong. Felt so so good afterwards. Feeling invincible right now. Loving this training so much.

Cracking week. Feel so much like I can smash this.

Total mileage: 40.89.

Kellygirl

Love the positivity Conor.

Lazare

Kellygirl wrote: »

Love the positivity Conor.

Thanks K. Really buzzing right now, feeling the best I ever have.

Lazare

Here's those couple of stills I was talking about..

Lazare

Tuesday April 9th:

6:20am - 6 miles with 20 mins @ LT. Ran the LT section a little behind pace but the effort felt right. Warm up and cool down sandwich.

Wednesday April 10th:

6:20am - 8 mile endurance. 5:55 - 5:04km. Good solid run. As I said, I love these runs, they will forever be a part of my week.

Friday 12th April:

6:20am - V02Max. 8x 600s with 60% recovery. Felt I nailed these, got stronger as they went. Reps were 156 secs, 154, 150, 150, 151, 151, 147, 149. 7ish miles total with wu and cd.

Saturday 13th April:

4 and a bit miles recovery. Ran Corkagh without the buggy and found it a lot easier to control the effort

Sunday 14th April:

Family circumstances meant I needed to either bring the bambino with me or not run. 10 miles endurance on the plan. I brought the little one in the buggy to do 3 and a bit laps of Corkagh parkrun route. Was really tough in parts. Felt a bit light headed at one stage but that passed. Tried to up the effort as the run went on and did so mostly. The last km was painful, up a steep hill, into a gale, pushing a buggy. Was the toughest run I've ran in a long time.
With hindsight I think 10 miles was a bit long for the buggy.

36.37 miles for the week.

Don't know whether it was the buggy or not but I felt pain in my ankle afterwards. Was still there Monday, a little worse actually and I began to panic a little.

Decided to sit out Tuesday's 7 mile as it was still uncomfortable. Did a bit of glute work. Decided then to sit out until Friday.

Felt good on Wednesday, pain was gone. Was going to go out and do 4 easy miles to test it but decided against it and thought it prudent to wait until Friday. Did some weights. Upper body work, chest, back and triceps.

Did a V02max session this morning and all is good. So, phew. Bit of a knock back but it looks like I'm ok and good to go. Had a couple of days of dread.

Baby75

Well done Laraze you did right taking a few days rest you nipped it in the bum


Otherwise, great week I am so gald I am not the only one who measures in miles but uses KM for pace

Lazare

Baby75 wrote: »

Well done Laraze you did right taking a few days rest you nipped it in the bum


Otherwise, great week I am so gald I am not the only one who measures in miles but uses KM for pace

Thanks N

Love your typo so much. :pac:

Too many possible jokes.

Baby75

Lazare wrote: »

Thanks N

Love your typo so much. :pac:

Too many possible jokes.

oh god hide me now lol :D:D:D:D

Lazare

Not a great week overall, although it finished well.

Was tough mentally having to skip two runs, all sorts of thoughts running around my head, particularly on Mon/Tue. This was different to the tendon issue, pain was in the outside ankle on the right foot. It felt similar to an injury I had in 2017 that had me laced down for two months. Bricking it tbh.

Was a big relief on Wed when the pain was totally gone. Looked back at my training diary and noted I took 4 days rest the last time I got a scare like this. Decided to do the same this time. That meant off until Friday.

Wanted to run on Wed but stuck to that plan. Paranoid to hell about dropping fitness though.

Friday April 19th:

7:10 am - Vo2max session. 3x 1k, 3x 800 with 60% recovery, wu & cd.

Made a mess of programming this workout, accidentally stuck the lap press cool down on to the 800s repeat section. Made me mess up the 2nd 800 as I didn't cop what was going on until afterwards. Threw me off a little but other than that they went well. Felt great to run again.

Saturday April 20th:

Volunteered at Corkagh parkrun then did a lap of the course afterwards at recovery pace. Beautiful morning, real 'great to be alive' stuff.

Sunday April 21st:

10 mile endurance. Great run, felt really strong. Pace was a touch quicker than normal but it felt the same which made me feel really good. 5:47 built to 5:05km.


Total mileage 21.86. Poor week on paper but I feel good.

Lazare

Been longing for this week since early January. It really is a true test of discipline holding back and holding back for months before you can truly test yourself.

An easy week, a mini taper of sorts.

Tuesday April 23
6:40am - Speed. 2x sets of 3x 150m strides in the middle of the run. Sandwiched with warm up and cool down. Was a little sick afterwards, I read the plan wrong. Was meant to be 4x 150s. Got up a little late and didn't bother double checking the book in a hurry. Still though, they went well, did them kinda like fartlek, in running. 6.5 miles or so.

Wednesday April 24
6:30am - 7 miles easy. 5:53km

Thursday April 25
Evening time, upper body dumbbell workout. 3x sets of 12x Chest press, back and triceps.

Friday April 26
8am - 3 miles at recovery pace. 6:02km

Saturday April 27
What I'd been waiting for. Headed to Griffeen parkrun as they've pacers the last Sat of the month, and they always have a 20 min one.

Couple of miles warm up building the pace, finishing with some strides.

Was fierce windy, but only on sections of the course, was good shelter for the most part. Karl Fitzgerald was my chaperone. I was toe to toe with him up until 2.3k or so, feeling great, chatting for the first 2k. It started to feel like work then so I shut up.
Turned the bend on the first lap, the home straight bit and BOOM. Felt like a hurricane. Felt like my chest was being pushed backwards by a strong kid.
Effort level felt like a 30 degree hill, for 200m.

I lost Karl. Trying to keep with him took a big bite out of me. Faded by about 10 secs a km then. Battled a guy for the last mile or so and left him with a strong kick to finish in 20:55. 44 second parkrun pb, and 2 secs outside a 5k pb.
A lot of positives to take from it. The wind probably took about 25 seconds from me which would have been about what I was expecting from a tune up in the middle of the block. My 5k pb of 20:53 is from Jingle Bells, a fast net downhill, whereas this was a much slower course, even moreso with the conditions.
Have to admit being disappointed straight afterwards, but reflected on it later and am very happy with it. Finished off with a 2.5k cool down.

Sunday April 29
Night Run 10k, Dublin City Centre.

My good friend signed up to this a couple of months ago and I told him I'd run it with him. Pace was really slow which suited me perfectly. Used it as a recovery run.

It's the first race I've ever entered where I wasn't trying to pb. It was one of the most enjoyable runs I've ever had. I'd highly recommend it. Here's why.

Don't know about you guys but I'm always benchmarking myself against people who are faster and stronger than me, and that's healthy, don't get me wrong. But although it makes you work harder, it can sometimes make you feel like you're lacking. Inadequate nearly.

Running amongst a big group of people where everyone around you is pushing hard and giving it everything and at their limits and your effort level is only a touch above walking is some way to give you perspective, and confidence.

Super week, loved it, am on a high.

Jesus I love running.

Total mileage 29.7

Kellygirl

Wow - there’s some amount of positivity there!! Very well done on parkrun. That was brilliant. Shame about the wind but you know there’s more there anyway. Lovely feeling on the night run too.

Lazare

Thanks K.

Am really loving it at the moment.

Baby75

Lazare wrote: »

Thanks K.

Am really loving it at the moment.

Long may that last C

Murph_D

The positive vibes are infectious. Chatting during a ‘raced’ 5k though - very bad idea, in my opinion. Takes away from concentration but also takes it out of you, especially at 4m/k pace, assuming Karl was a 20 min pacer? However, everyone’s different!

Lazare

Murph_D wrote: »

The positive vibes are infectious. Chatting during a ‘raced’ 5k though - very bad idea, in my opinion. Takes away from concentration but also takes it out of you, especially at 4m/k pace, assuming Karl was a 20 min pacer? However, everyone’s different!

You're right. I didn't want to but Karl was asking me all about my upcoming race, giving me advice on it and asking about my training.
It was no chin wagging though, was laboured chat.

Have another in Corkagh Sat after next, maybe I'll say it to the pacer before we start.

Murph_D

When I'm pacing parkrun (or anywhere else) I always tell the pacees NOT to talk back!