Dream big, work hard, achieve your goals - My DCM '19 Journey

Laineyfrecks

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Back to the sleep issue! Another active mind here, I find sleep meditation apps really helpful, it focus's the mind while slowing the breath and I often find I've fallen asleep before they're finished. Must get back to them myself!! Reading before bed can go either way depending on the book...I alsu rub lavender oil on my feet before bed .

AMK can slag all he wants but people who wear clashing shoes and socks should not throw stones

Thanks a mill for the tips, will try the app & see how it goes!

Hahaha loving the reference to the stones there

Murph_D

Laineyfrecks wrote: »

One slight problem with that...I still haven't run sub 20 myself:eek:

Sub-6 mile though, so you're ready.

Laineyfrecks

Murph_D wrote: »

Sub-6 mile though, so you're ready.

Ah sure who knows...we'll see some day;) Again thanks for the vote of confidence:D

Laineyfrecks

Mon Jan 11th - Easy miles
56:04 - 6.01mi - 9:20min/mi

Went out before work. Needed to get in the right headspace for our 1st day of home schooling:eek:

Tues Jan 12th - Easy
1hr 5min - 7.02mi - 9:22min/mi

Another early run hoping today would be more of a success with the home schooling as yesterday was a complete flop.

Weds Jan 13th - Easy miles w strides
1hr - 6.36mi - 9:24min/mi

Was feeling a little meh for this run, think the week was already taking its toll on me, more to do with the school stuff & sleep again, so I literally let my legs dictate the pace. Got to the strides & thought ugh not in the mood of these but once I got into the 1st one I loved them, that feeling of speed was great.

Thurs Jan 14th - My new rest day

Fri Jan 15th - Easy miles
1hr 15min - 7.03mi - 9:15min/mi

Another early run & it felt a lot colder than the last few mornings but I really enjoyed it & the colours of the sunrise were so beautiful.

Sat Jan 16th - Easy miles
55:55 - 6.01mi - 9:18min/mi

Got out for this run just after 11. Not a bad day at all for running. Have downloaded a few of the Runner Bean podcasts to catch up on, really enjoying them, this one they had Tommy Hughes, what a man! Really enjoyed listening to it.

Sun Jan 17th - Steady 9m run
1hr 14m - 9.07mi - 8:14min/mi

Headed out for this run just after 10, a bit later than planned but felt the extra hour in bed was needed! As it was dry out & not a bad day at all I decided to try my new Endorphin speeds. They fit really nicely, a bit like my 4%. Running in them felt really good. I had stupidly worried about trying to hit a pace for 9 miles after only running easy for what feels like forever, thankfully it was all in my head & S told me I had nothing to worry about! Enjoyed this run a lot. Looking forward to another weeks training:D


41.5 miles for the week

Laineyfrecks

Mon Jan 18th - Easy miles
57:24 - 6.15mi - 9:20min/mi

Easy 6 miles before work. Cold but an enjoyable run.

Tues Jan 19th - Easy
1hr 5min - 7.00mi - 9:19min/mi

A wet & windy morning. I pretty much run the same route for these early morning runs as I feel it is the safest option for me, mostly on main roads.
Came home to do a couple of sets of core work which I started a few weeks ago. Also made protein pancakes for brekkie as I find I'm eating bread every day then something sweet after with my cuppa. The protein pancakes are filling & a bit sweet so tick all the boxes whilst being the healthier option.

Weds Jan 20th - Max HR field test
43:50 - 5.24mi - 8:22min/mi

People that read my log regularly know I do like to waffle a bit & well I haven't really had a lot to waffle about on easy runs! Today's run is different so be warned this will be long...it's the most excitement I've had in aaagggeeesss
So the plan here was for me to try determine what my max hr is. I would like to do my easy runs by hr but for some reason it works sometimes & not other times. I had been tracking my resting hr so the plan for this was to run 15mins easy, 1 mile@7mins, then take 20 secs off the pace each min after. I programmed this into my watch & went as far as 1min@6mins then S said if I still had it in me to just keep pushing till I literally couldn't. Well his exact words were keep running till you feel like you want to puke or die:eek: I have been listening to a lot of podcasts lately so I decided to make a new playlist for this & I named it Run Forest Run, why call it this you may ask(or have lost interest at this stage;) ) As Forest Gump said Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get...well that sums up my playlists perfectly! They start out with a clear theme then anything ends up in them
Back to my run, was a bit nervous setting off for this but excited too at the thoughts of running fast! It was bitterly cold & a huge rookie mistake was forgetting my gloves but I wasn't going back for them! It was raining when I set off so I wore my cap. Warm up felt grand but jaysus my hands were like blocks of ice! As I got to the 7min mile Eminem - Lose yourself came on & I thought right you can do this! At this stage sleet was falling quite heavily but I was well in the zone:D Then Eye of the Tiger came on, I felt like Rocky running up those steps, pushing for each of the mins, getting faster, the buzz felt amazing! I felt like a proper hardcore biatch running in the sleet at such speed, the last min beeped & I still felt I could push on, so I did into the cooldown, I picked a lamppost ahead & ran to it, that was all I had in me so I slowed back down & jogged home. Thinking about it after, I think if I'd had another min programmed in I possibly could have done that, I can be very stubborn when I have something I have to do as opposed to just keep going if you feel you can... My own fault really, it's the way my brain works, just like if someone was beside me telling me to push on i'm sure I would last longer. Obviously at the time I thought I had nothing left in me but it's just way easier to say ah that's all I can do when you are on your own...
Either way I was very, very happy to get this bit of speed done:D

Thurs Jan 21st - Rest day

Fri Jan 22nd - Easy miles
1hr 20min - 6.88mi - 11:45min/mi

Tried to run this by hr only. What I didn't realize was that the hr wasn't working properly & being as stubborn as I am, no matter how slow I felt I wouldn't check the pace:rolleyes: I was absolutely freezing, the only bead of sweat that fell was when I got home & seen the paces:eek:
I guess experience should have told me something wasn't right but sure I'll know next time!

Sat Jan 23rd - Easy miles
58:38 - 6.29mi - 9:19min/mi

Gorgeous sunny but cold morning for this. Had my new playlist on so really enjoyed it.

Sun Jan 24th - 11 Miles at 9:10
1hr 40m - 11mi - 9:10min/mi

Was afraid I was going to wake to a blanket of snow, but nope it wasn't too bad at all. Got my gear on & headed out the door! Baltic but luckily a lot of the paths were clear. Passed a lot of runners this morning. Was catching up on some episodes of Runner beans & they were discussing men wearing running tights, some very funny replies on twitter:pac: This was also the episode were AMK won his free beanie hat:D
This is my longest run in a while & I really enjoyed it. Happy with another consistent weeks training:)


42.6 miles for the week

scotindublin

Wednesday sounds epic but did ya want to puke or die by the end???

Brilliant week and those protein pancakes sound great; my diet went to crap over Christmas and I am finding it hard to break that cycle.

Laineyfrecks

scotindublin wrote: »

Wednesday sounds epic but did ya want to puke or die by the end???

Brilliant week and those protein pancakes sound great; my diet went to crap over Christmas and I am finding it hard to break that cycle.

Being honest no to either, I felt I pushed myself but was it as hard as I could? I honestly don't believe I can do this on my own, others may be different...I think I need that extra person or a race to really really push on...

Yeah because of lockdown etc, Jan just seems to have been an extended Christmas for me food wise! The pancakes are so easy to make & each portion makes a good few depending on the size & the Calories aren't mad either. I add greek yogurt, flax seeds, blueberries & strawberries to mine!

3 medium eggs
30g protein powder
60g banana

blend them together,fry them on the pan & enjoy

scotindublin

Oh thanks will give those a bash.

That was a difficult on to do on your own on Wednesday but you gave it a right good rattle which is the most important thing. Could we really push ourselves in that situation? Races are different.

Maybe the only time I thought I was gonna puke was after the Road Relays in 2019 a mile of pain.

Laineyfrecks

scotindublin wrote: »

Oh thanks will give those a bash.

That was a difficult on to do on your own on Wednesday but you gave it a right good rattle which is the most important thing. Could we really push ourselves in that situation? Races are different.

Maybe the only time I thought I was gonna puke was after the Road Relays in 2019 a mile of pain.

Yeah I don't think there's too many times I wanted to puke or collapse at the end... The mile TT was close. Sure all I can do is try!

Swashbuckler

Was actually about to ask, would the mile TT not be a better marker for your max HR?

skyblue46

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Was actually about to ask, would the mile TT not be a better marker for your max HR?

E has had ongoing problems with getting reliable HR readings both with the wrist monitor and the chest strap. Her two mile attempts and a couple of 5k efforts were all way off the mark...

scotindublin

I never used the Chest Strap HR monitor with the old watch. Since I got the 245 you can see who flaky the wrist based monitors are.

skyblue46

scotindublin wrote: »

I never used the Chest Strap HR monitor with the old watch. Since I got the 245 you can see who flaky the wrist based monitors are.

They're not worth a fook. It should almost be against the Trade Descriptions Act :pac:

scotindublin

Haha and mine is probably not helped by my little girly wrists; have stopped paying attention to it already!

skyblue46 wrote: »

They're not worth a fook. It should almost be against the Trade Descriptions Act :pac:

Laineyfrecks

scotindublin wrote: »

Haha and mine is probably not helped by my little girly wrists; have stopped paying attention to it already!

So do you use the hr strap now? Or do you not bother with hr at all?

scotindublin

To be honest I don't tend to bother with it too much; I haven't felt like my heart has wanted to burst through my chest yet; will take that as an indicator.

With the flaky readings from the watch it is more of a general indicator; probably not helped by the fact I also don't like to wear the watch too tight either.

Laineyfrecks wrote: »

So do you use the hr strap now? Or do you not bother with hr at all?

Laineyfrecks

scotindublin wrote: »

To be honest I don't tend to bother with it too much; I haven't felt like my heart has wanted to burst through my chest yet; will take that as an indicator.

With the flaky readings from the watch it is more of a general indicator; probably not helped by the fact I also don't like to wear the watch too tight either.

Yeah it is sh!t that they are not reliable!!

Annie get your Run

That's mad, I'm on my second garmin wrist HR watch and in 5 years, I've never had any issues. The chest strap i had before drove me round the bend though!

shotgunmcos

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Was actually about to ask, would the mile TT not be a better marker for your max HR?

No. In a lab the standard is a graded test. Each step gives your HR a chance to level briefly before you go up again. You can't maintain max hr for very long so you actually need to see the top of the hill and when it starts to fall.

You need to actually fail! A mile is often too short a time to judge as you would need to max out and fail.

Its still not a bad way to go though.

There is another school of thought that intervals may yield max hr. Say 800s. Do a couple of reps increasingly hard with a min recovery with the penultimate close to max and on the final one give it everything to the end. You should start that rep not wanting to start that rep!

Laineyfrecks

Yeah it is mad alright! Cheers I'm sure I might just revisit it...

My hearts not great at the moment with this match:eek:

scotindublin

Hard to believe these United jokers are where they are. Come on the Pool!!

Murph_D

Great session. But you didn’t mention whether you got good data - run the following day suggests you didn’t?

OOnegative

scotindublin wrote: »

Hard to believe these United jokers are where they are. Come on the Pool!!

Think the joke is on you......... United, United, United!!!!!!

skyblue46

scotindublin wrote: »

Hard to believe these United jokers are where they are. Come on the Pool!!

The width of the post from what should have been a 4-2 win but I'll take it

Laineyfrecks

Murph_D wrote: »

Great session. But you didn’t mention whether you got good data - run the following day suggests you didn’t?

I did get good data from it but unfortunately as you could clearly see from the next day it was completely wrong & the day after that too.

scotindublin

Commentators curse!! United deserved the win; not a good season to be a Celtic (don't mention the war) and Pool fan.

OOnegative wrote: »

Think the joke is on you......... United, United, United!!!!!!

Swashbuckler

Stupid question then - if your HR monitor readings are so unreliable, why the interest in finding max HR?

skyblue46

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Stupid question then - if your HR monitor readings are so unreliable, why the interest in finding max HR?

That's probably a question for me....and simply put I don't think you can ever have too much information.

Laineyfrecks

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Stupid question then - if your HR monitor readings are so unreliable, why the interest in finding max HR?

As S answered for more information. I have been using the hr strap & most of the readings seemed good so I did the test then the next day it was completely wrong...

Murph_D

So you think you got good data for the test, that's the main thing. Is the strap in good nick with good batteries? I replaced an older one with one of the newer types (with the rubber waterproofer thing around the unit) and have gotten much more reliable results since.