Barca bound...

BOB81

Week 16 Marathon plan 18/02/24

Mon – 45 mins recovery (4.54m/HR128/9:55p/m) So after my long run on Saturday my only new ache or pain was an ache in my left leg (right side of my shin), not sore to the touch, not sore to weight bear – just a new minor niggle, but one that I’ve never had before. Maybe a tendon/muscle issue, only really noticed it when there was a twinge in my leg when changing gears driving on Sunday, then it was a bit of a dull ache after that. So I was down to do a tempo run (with 30 mins in zone 3) originally, but decided better safe than sorry and put this off till later in the week and did a 45 min recovery run instead. The run went fine and there was no discomfort during the run, and it didn’t feel any worse after it either. So I am being over-cautious I know but I’ve never had this specific issue ever so will just keep an eye on it, iced it that evening also.  

Tues 50 mins easy (5.7m/HR139/8:45p/m) No residual discomfort on this run, leg felt good and overall I felt surprisingly fresh, felt I had to slow down my pace a bit at times. I was waiting for DOMs to hit after the long run on Sat but didn’t feel too bad overall, certainly I've had worse.

Wed 55 mins easy (6.1m/HR141/8:59p/m). Did a loop up around sandymount and back to docklands for this, leg felt good again so hopefully that is the end of that. Also HRV is back in normal range after dropping a good bit last Thursday & Friday.

Thurs – 50 mins tempo, (10 min warm up, 30 mins zone 3, 10min cool down) (6.1m/HR151/8:10p/m) Plan had originally had an interval session here (mix of short efforts in zone 3/4/5), but I did this postponed tempo session from Monday instead. Not sorry I missed the mixed interval run as I remember it being particularly challenging from a half marathon block in the past! Tempo went fine, HR in the middle of zone 3 and paces consistent with what I would normally see, averaged 7:19min per mile for the 30 min segment, last mile in this segment was a bit slower than the first 3 though.

Fri – 45 mins recovery (4.65m/HR127/9:40p/m). Nice easy recovery run and nice crisp morning for it. Did some light resistance band work later in the day.

Sat – 16 miles with short zone 3 intervals. (1.5m warm up, then 14 x(.25 mile Zone 3/.75 mile zone 2) (2hrs 19 mins/HR147/8:42p/m) Same run as I did a few weeks ago, did the same loop through a few local villages also. Paced the zone 3 segments a bit quicker than last time but similar HR, and enjoyed the run overall. Kind of surreal that this is my last long run and race day is in two weeks! Dropping mileage a good bit this week, down to about 32 miles.

Weekly mileage 43.1 (6hrs 25 mins, 1hr 10min (18%) above zone 2) 

marathon2022

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121814650#Comment_121814650

Always a relief to get to taper in good shape, best of luck.

BOB81

Week 17 Marathon plan 26/02/24

Mon – 60 mins with zone 3 intervals (5mins Z1, 21 mins Z2, 3x(5min Z3/3min Z1), 5 mins Z2, 5 mins z1)(7.1miles/HR144/8:28p/m) Felt really good on this run, paced the zone 3 segments very consistently (7.10p/m) and HR in the right spot. However I did an out and back route for this and misjudged the turn so did an extra three quarters of a mile cool down to get home, on top of the planned 60 mins.

Tues - 35 mins easy (3.9m/HR136/8:55p/m). Ran this up in docklands, forgot HR strap for once so used watch heart rate, seemed to be in the right range for an easy run. In my triumph 21s for this, about 40 miles on them so far and they are wearing in nicely, already think I’ll get another pair, triumph 22s are out in May so may be some deals going on the 21s before then.

Wed - 35 mins easy (3.95m/HR138/8:52p/m). At home for this, bit of rain about but nothing too heavy. Definitely conscious of not going too fast on these short runs, just about keeping running frequency consistent at this stage.

Thurs – 36 mins mixed intervals.(10 min warm up, then 1minZ5/2minZ1, 3minZ4/2minZ1, 5minZ3/2minZ1, 3minZ4/2minZ1, 1minZ5/5min warm down). (4.3 miles/HR149/8:23 p/m). Paced the intervals fairly well overall I think, good to get the legs moving a bit faster. Kind of a finicky session but something different at least.

Fri – 35 mins recovery (3.6m/HR129/9:48p/m). First run I’ve done in the snow, and hopefully the last! Plodded around the local village, and was absolutely soaked by slush by a passing car at one point also, which was delightful.

Sat – 10 miles, with last mile in zone 3, (1hr26/HR143/8:36p/m). Perhaps ran bits of this a bit too quick but effort felt fine, 7.07 p/m for the last mile. Haven’t felt any negative taper side effects so far, perhaps that is more likely this week when the mileage really drops – just 5 runs left before the race next Sunday, all short.

 Weekly mileage 33.6 (4hrs 54 mins, 41min (14%) above zone 2) 

BOB81

Week 18 Marathon plan 3/03/24

Mon – 40 mins fast finish, last 10 mins zone 3 (4.82m/HR141/8:18p/m) Perhaps went a bit quick for the easy pace segment, but really felt good on this run overall. 7:09 p/m for zone 3 bit.

Tues – 30 mins easy (3.36m/HR135/8:56p/m). Loop around docklands, windy and wet.

Wed – 30 mins easy (3.4m/HR134/8:48p/m) Reverse of the same docklands loop as the previous day, dry and crisp.

Thurs – 31 mins, short zone 4 intervals (10 min warm up, 4 x (2min Z4/2min Z1), 5 min cool down). (3.6m/HR145/8:43p/m) Last run in the plan! Usual pacing of the zone 4 segments – just around 5k pace, but didn’t overdo it.

Overall legs feeling ok, sleep going ok so far as well and not noticing any change in resting HR or HRV (compared to the mini taper I did a few weeks back for my last 20 miler where they jumped up a bit).  I’m travelling tomorrow and doing a 20 min run on Sat as my last bit of race prep – will get stuck into some carbs in the meantime. Reflecting on the block I’m happy that I kept the consistency up, I moved some sessions around but managed to run 6 days a week the whole way through. Having a long lead in to the actual plan starting in Nov (running 6 days per week since last August) definitely worked for me to get my legs ready for running higher mileage than I’ve ever done. So we’ll see where it takes me on Sunday – will try and do a repeat of the simulation run I did a few weeks back, see how I’m fixed after 16 miles and take it from there. Best of luck to anyone else on here running it!

Weekly mileage 15.2 (2hrs 31 mins, 19min (13%) above zone 2) 

Murph_D

Best of luck!

Laineyfrecks

Best of luck, hope it all goes to plan!

Have a great race, you've put in solid work and deserve the result you want. Looking forward to reading your report!!

marathon2022

Give it your all and best of luck.

BOB81

Thanks for the messages! Got round in chip time of 3:36:33 in the end, so a bit off what i was hoping for. But some buzz running this I have to say, good crowds, flat course (although it got fairly warm by the end) and a great experience all round. Will put up a race report when I'm back home

BOB81

Barcelona Race weekend

So myself and my family flew over Friday night, I’d booked an airbnb last year just off passeig de gracia, which was less than 10 mins walk to the start line at placa catalunya, it made for a very hassle free race morning. Slept terrible on the Friday night (only 4.5 hrs), but managed to keep Saturday a relaxing day, I went to the expo and then went home to get some power naps in, I left my wife and my two girls to go off to the montjuc cable car and they got in a bit of shopping after on the way home. I’d seen Barcelona a good bit before and it rained the entire day on Saturday so I didn’t feel like I was missing much! Pre-race meal was mid-afternoon pizza (sartoria panatieri which I can recommend) which did the job with some tasty carbs. Anyway thankfully I got a decent kip Saturday night and woke up very positive on Sun morning, got the toilet situation sorted early (oddly obsessed by this) and was just a bundle of nervous energy from that point on. Left the apartment at 7:45am and were down at the start before 8, bit of a warm up run and dynamic stretches and into the coral about 8.20, for start time of 8:35. I had booked into the 3.45-4hr wave when I originally signed up last August, and I’d since sent an email to change my wave to 3.15-3.30 but they had no record of me making the change request when I collected my bib, but the very helpful admin staff sorted that out at the expo without any problem. As it happened they weren’t checking bibs too closely at the wave entrance anyway.

Miles 1-5 (8:22,8:22,8:07,8:05,8:01 – total 40:57) HR avg 155

So with my only big scale race prior to this being Dublin in 2011 it had been a long time since I’d had any experience like this, really great atmosphere at the start, a few singers belting out Barcelona before each wave started off, just a great buzz around the place. Set myself at the back of the wave and away we went, perfect blue skies and temp about 9 degrees. I mentioned my intention to follow the pacers in my last update – they weren’t in this wave as it turned out, they were at the top of the 3.30-3.45 one so I didn’t see them until they passed me later (but not that much later!) in the race. Anyway my first couple of miles were a bit ropey to say the least – my legs just felt heavy and thinking back to the simulator run I’d done a few weeks ago (which I did fair bit!), while that session felt Iike I was cruising through the miles, this did not! So took the first couple of miles handy and then got closer to what I’d hoped would be race pace by the end of the first 5 miles. Small bit of a long slow hill after the first mile in there also, about 50 feet of elevation gain.

Mile 6-10 (7:57,8:18,7:54,7:56,7:55 – total 40:00) HR avg 159

It was during this stretch that the 3.30 pacers caught up with me, around mile 7. Their arrival coincided with a some very gradual uphill bits, but in the race I didn’t really notice any incline, just tried to lock in with the back of the pace group and see how I went. Again looking back at it after the fact, my HR at this point in the race was already higher than my average for the entire 16 miles in the simulator run (155)…mmm, not too promising. My watch was giving me an estimated finish time of 3hrs 33 or something at this stage I think. But I was really enjoying it – saw my wife and kids twice during the first 10 miles which was great, and the crowds in general were really good on some of the narrower roads in particular. But there weren’t many barriers so pedestrians were regularly just crossing the road at times during the race – saw some near misses with runners on a good few occasions in this section.  

Mile 11-15 (7:41,7:55, 7:54, 7:52, 7:59 – total 39:21) avg HR 161

This stretch went back down past the start line, all on a slight downhill so paces reflected that (100 feet of elevation drop in this section). This course is is really flat once you hit mile 15, and from then to mile 25 its almost completely flat. Some good crowds in this part too. I’m feeling ok at this point, but by the end of this stretch I’m a good bit behind the 3.30 pacers and I’m not really sure if catching them is feasible.

Mile 16-20 (8:12, 8:10, 8:20, 8:13, 8:17 – total 41:13) avg HR 166

Here’s where the sun started to make its presence felt, this bit of the course skirts the bottom of la ramblas, goes past parc de la ciutadella and then out towards the massive convention centre and diagonal mar. So the sun was properly up and there was no shade whatsoever for this bit – I think the forecast had it for about 16 degrees but it felt hotter to me. Here’s where in my pre-race wisdom I’d said – I’ll do 16 miles and see where I’m at, thinking about perhaps pushing on at this point if things went well. So while looking back on it, I actually covered the first 16 miles of the marathon in a very similar time (only 30 seconds in the difference) to the simulator run 3 weeks ago, the effort levels did not feel any way similar and I’d had to work a lot harder. My breathing was fine but my legs were getting heavier, and I was consciously slowing the pace a bit to reflect that. At this stage I was just thinking could I sneak 3.35 perhaps.

Mile 21-25 (8:29, 8:22, 8:35, 8:35, 8:44 – total 42:45) avg HR 165

I had made a conscious effort to run the race with a smile on my face (clichéd as that sounds), and I’d managed this fairly well I think up till mile 20, but from then but from here on the smile became a grimace. Here’s also where the devil on my shoulder was saying “what harm would walking do, give yourself a break”. Whatever else I was thinking about goals etc. I really, really, really wanted to just run the whole thing this time around, so I kept plodding on and ignoring this inner voice as best I could. I had walked/hobbled a good 8 miles of the Dublin 2011 marathon with a dodgy knee (caused in part by dodgy pacing!) so I really didn’t want to go down that road. Plus the way my right hip had tightened up by this point I wasn’t so sure I would get going again easily! So this bit really felt like me just putting one leg in front of the other – there was a long straight around the 22 mile mark that felt like it would never end. I’d been taking precision fuel gels all the way around, along with their electrolyte tablets (planning for 6 gels during the race). But I’d got through them all at this point and so I tried one of the race gels (finisher it was called, wouldn’t be rushing back for another but no ill effects from it thankfully). I also missed seeing my family at the 25 mile mark – we’d planned a few points to meet but this wasn’t one of them so I wasn’t watching out for them – they had tracked me on the app but only saw the back of me as I shuffled past. I wish my wife had a pedometer on the kids for the day, they were fairly marched around the city trying to see me!

Mile 26 + the finish (8:34, 3:51 for the “bit” which turned out to be .52 miles!) avg HR 170

The support was fantastic the last couple of miles but the crowd were really encroaching on the road at times – I think at one point there was so many people that there was only room for 3-4 runners to run abreast and with some of the runners stopping to walk etc there was a little bit of dodging to do at times. This got bad at one particular patch with a mile to go, but there were barriers up from then on. Anyway once I hit 26 miles on the watch I tried to get the legs moving a bit faster – think I clocked 7:10 per mile pace for the last half mile. And close to the end I looked at my watch and it had my estimated finish time at 3.37 so I just said lets try and beat that and put it a bit of a spurt on for the last 200 metres, under the arc de triomf and over the line for a chip time of 3:36:33 (3:36:41 on my garmin). So got my medal, had a very sweaty hug with the family and walked around a bit to get my hips to start working again, which they did eventually.

 Total distance (garmin) 26.52/HR162/8.10p/m

So that is my second marathon done, over 12 years after the first one. A lot of positives to take from it despite feeling flat on race day, still curious about that thinking back on it but I was happy that I kept plugging away in the circumstances. The other side of it is I’ve probably never been fitter, I got through the block and race injury free and I’ve got a stronger running base to build on for whatever’s ahead.

Anyway thanks to anyone who’s taken the time to read this, really good and positive running community on here which is part of the reason why I started logging. We’ll see what is next, no running for a couple of weeks and then over the next year or so I think a 5k and a half marathon will be put in the diary.

BKWDR

Great report. I ran it myself on Sunday and can relate to it. The part where the crowd encroached was unreal. I was buzzing off it until someone with a scooter tried to cross on front of me.

Thank god we didnt travel all that way to run in the rain!!

Well done on your result and your training block

BOB81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121882585#Comment_121882585

Thanks very much, and agree on the rain - I couldn't help but watch the weather forecast all week in the build up but thankfully the rain on Sat didn't follow us till Sunday! Hope you had a good race yourself!

I really enjoyed your report, thats a great improvement on your time.

So many other things could've gone wrong like the weather, not getting any sleep on Saturday night, bad reaction to the gel, cramps etc.

It sounds like you had a good experience which can be more rewarding than the digits on the clock.

I remember on the old Dublin marathon route the crowds full of strangers coming in on you towards town and being resolved to running single file for a stretch.

I actually found that very intimidating, all it takes is some nut in the crowd to whack you in the face or something.

Anyway, hope you're enoying the break now and putting the feet up.

BOB81

Thanks @[Deleted User], on the timing/targets side I suppose the first few miles of a marathon should ideally feel like you are holding yourself back a bit, when I didn't have that feeling on the day I just kind of mentally parked my goal and got over it. I still tried to run my paces because you never know unless you try (looking at it objectively this was perhaps to my detriment in the second half of the race). And on the many things that could go really wrong, I agree, getting through without any disasters makes me reflect well on the whole thing and I'm proud of the run overall.

Anyway the feet are up for now, as of today I can climb a stairs without looking like a 90 year old, so onwards and upwards!

BOB81

So I’ve gotten through the worst of the post marathon limbo since my last entry. DOMS persisted until about 3 days after the race but eased off after that thankfully. Caught the obligatory head-cold also in the first week after the marathon, first time having so much as a sniffle in the last 6 months but body obviously dealing with the stresses of the marathon. Golf is my other addiction/hobby and as I pretty much took this winter off golf completely for the marathon block (two very time intensive pursuits + family do not mix well), I’ve since returned to the golf course with predictably terrible results.

Legs were feeling back to normal again, so this week just gone I ran twice as test runs – 2 easy runs of 40 and 60 mins and all seems fine, very happy to be back running! Easy runs for the next little while before considering anything speed related. Plan is to build back up to a new baseline weekly mileage of around 30 miles over 4/5 runs, with a 90 min long run to be part of this also – just feel like keeping a longer run in the regular rotation is no harm.

In my post-marathon week of despair/no running I bought the hansons half marathon book (will be reading the hansons thread on here with interest) and also downloaded a 9 week 5k plan from trainingpeaks (its an 80/20 plan again, but some of the workouts seem to be updated from the 80/20 book I already have so there will be something new in this at least). So will aim to do the 5k plan over May/June (might just do a local parkrun or see if there is a 5k race that lines up), and then probably a half marathon early next year. I think there may be another marathon in my future but for now I’m happy to focus on shorter stuff. Having also been through regular 40+ mile weeks of running for the first I’m hopeful that if I applied that kind of mileage to a half marathon block I could take my half time down a bit (current 1.43 from 2020). Will post up a bit more when I get into my 5k block, never specifically trained for this distance before so will be interesting to see how it goes. 

BOB81

Week 1 - 5k plan

So its been a while since I posted here but I’ve just done week 1 of a 5k plan so I thought it would be good to start logging again. The plan I’m doing is the 80/20 intermediate level plan(bought it off trainingpeaks) – weekly mileage of 30-40 miles and I’ll mostly be running 6 days per week with speedwork on Mondays and Thursdays and most of the other days easy running. The plan has a load of speed sessions that I’ve not done before - Lactate intervals, MAS intervals, Tempo intervals in a long run and 5 and 10k paced intervals towards the end, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes.

In terms of recent running, I’m back doing 5 days a week since early April and for the month in total I ran 128 miles (mostly easy) and as of today in May I’ve done 99 miles. I did a bit of speedwork here and there but it was a good 4/5 weeks after the marathon in March before I really felt the legs were up to it. But I think in terms of holding on to marathon fitness I’ve done ok – Vo2 max is trending back up and my easy run pace (at a similar heart rate) is now around a minute per mile quicker than it was last summer, so definite progress has been made. Most enjoyable (scenery wise) but challenging running I’ve done in the last while was a trip over to the UK a couple of weeks back where we went camping in the costwolds for a few nights, every run there involved long hills and plenty of them. Runalyse has a “Percentage hilly” score for a run in their metrics – so every cotswolds run was 40%-50% hills when at home on my regular running routes its at worst 5-7% so it was a bit of a shock to the system. Would be very interesting to see how you’d go doing an entire marathon training block with hills like that!

Anyway for the week just gone I did:

Mon - 46 mins Fartlek – 15 mins warm up, then 8x (20 sec zone 5/1:40 zone 1), 15 min cool down. (4.87 miles/HR140/9:27p/m). Maybe went a little quick on the zone 5 segments, not meant to be all out sprints but I kind of treated them like it, but overall session itself was fine.

Tues - 40 mins easy (4.3 miles/HR 138/9:16 p/m) legs a little stiff from the previous day so kept this on the slower side.

Wed – 60 mins easy (6.9miles/HR140/8:44p/m) – nice early morning run down home before heading to Dublin, always like running early but the early morning sunshine (when its there!) makes it even better.

Thurs - 45 mins fast finish, last 5 mins at CV pace (low zone 4 is what was prescribed, in between 5k/10k pace). (5.25 miles/HR139/8:33p/m). So guesstimating a little at paces ran the last segment at 6.40 p/m, felt pretty good. Wore brooks hyperion max for this, a shoe which I’m enjoying for this kind of session. My speedwork shoe for my last block was the reebok floatride 5 (now relegated to daily use) but I’ve since upgraded to the brooks and a pair Adidas adizero adios 8 as my speedwork rotation. Probably Certainly unnecessary to have both but I find it very difficult to pass up a running shoe bargain, they were both around €100 and are nice and light.

Fri – 70 mins easy (7.8 miles/HR139/8:59 p/m) Switched this run to Friday instead of Saturday as out for drinks that night and wanted to have this out of the way. Light drizzle but nothing too serious

Sat – 40 mins easy (4.4miles/HR140/9:01pm) got out to do this reasonably early while I still had the energy, had a terrible sleep even though I only had a couple of drinks. Good to have the first week done, will be similar mileage for the next 6 weeks or so and the plan is 9 weeks long.

Miles for the week: 33.5, ytd 684

BOB81

Week 2, 5k plan

Mon - 54 mins, zone 4 Fartlek – 15 mins warm up, then 8x (1min zone 4/2 min zone 2), 15 min cool down. (6.2 miles/HR144/8:45p/m). Zone 4 pace was suggested as 15 min race pace, so just went a bit quicker than 5k pace for the short reps.

Tues - 40 mins easy (4.4miles/HR145/9:05p/m). Up in docklands for this, it felt a bit harder work than it should have been, legs felt fine but was (to me at least) very humid out, and HR was up a good bit compared to recent efforts at this pace.

Wed - - 60 mins easy (6.7 miles/HR141/9:01p/m). Came in the navan road for this, felt easier than the previous day thankfully.

Thurs 45 mins – zone 3 fast finish (35 mins Z2 – 10 mins zone 3) 5.4miles/HR144/8:30p/m) Felt better (at least the zone 2 segment) than the previous two days easy runs, a bit of a breeze out and nice weather to run in. Did the zone 3 bit probably towards the top end of the HR zone but felt fine.

Fri – 40 mins easy (4.5miles/HR135/8:50p/m). Really nice morning for this down at home, listening to the end of a “films to be buried with” podcast from Brett Goldstein, only fairly recently discovered this pod, and am enjoying going through the back catalogue of episodes.

Sat 60 mins with steady pace interval - (15 mins zone 1&2, 30 mins zone x, 15 mins zone 1). (7.1miles/HR145/8:26p/m) Zone x pace described at between half marathon and marathon pace, so estimating 7:40p/m and went just a bit quicker than that. HR avg was 158 for the zone x bit and avg pace was 7:34 per mile, and I was happy with that overall.

Weekly mileage 34.3 (5hrs, 52min (17%) above zone 2)

BOB81

Week 2

Mon, no running, the plan had short hill sprints but I played golf instead. Was thinking of trying to get this run in later in the day but ended up cutting up most of a tree that had been taken down at home, so did not have the energy for it after that! I’d normally try and rejig the week and get the speedwork done somewhere else but as I was travelling for work I just let it go, I got in every other session so not I’m ok with that.

Tues - 50 mins easy (5.6miles/HR138/8:54p/m). Down home for this, nothing much to report.

Wed - 60 mins easy (6.7 miles/HR140/8:57p/m). Over in Frankfurt for work, nice run along the river.

Thurs 49 mins – progression (30 mins Z1/Z2 then (8 mins SSP/4 mins Threshold/2 mins CV) 5 mins Z1) (5.7miles/HR142/8:24p/m). Nice morning in Frankfurt for this again, a little on the warm side though. Paces for the progression are guided at 2hr pace/1hr race pace/30 min race pace. Went ok I think, had done this once before and got similar enough paces this time around.

Fri – 40 mins easy (4.5miles/HR138/8:50p/m). Had limited sleep after a combination of a flight delay and returning to the airport carpark to a car with a dead battery (completely my fault), exactly the end to a work trip that you do not want! Got a jump start thanks to airport parking support but was only home at 2am. Run did not seem affected by this thankfully, lack of sleep caught up with me later in the day though.

Sat 1hr 20 mins easy - (9.1miles/HR141/8:47p/m). Longest run I’ve done in a while, did a nice loop along some very quiet country roads, very enjoyable. Next week has some runs I’ve not done (MAS intervals), some more CV pace intervals and some tempo segments in the long run so will see how that goes..

Weekly mileage 31.7 (4hrs 39min with 15mins (5%) above zone 2)

BOB81

Week 3

Mon, Descending intervals run – 45 mins (5 miles/HR146/9:02/mile)

5:00 in Z1/10:00 Z2

3:00 @ MAS/2:00 in Z1 ,2:00 @ MAS/1:20 in Z1

1:00 @ MAS/0:45 in Z1, 0:45 @ MAS/0:30 in Z1

0:30 @ MAS/0:20 in Z1, 0:45 @ MAS/0:30 in Z1

0:30 @ MAS/0:20 in Z1, 16:00 in Z1

Maximal Aerobic Speed (MAS) intervals are new to me, but its basically a VO2 max session with the aim of getting the HR up into the top end of zone 4 for the intervals. MAS pacing suggested as fastest pace you can sustain for 6 mins. So tried to maintain around 6:00/6:05 mile pace for the intervals, guesstimating what mile effort could be off previous 5k splits. First interval was dead into the wind so not a fantastic start (I guess these would be done better on a track) but with the shorter intervals it got a bit easier as it went on. Guidance is to keep pace consistent across all intervals, but I sped up a little bit in the last few, wasn’t paying enough attention to paces. Interesting session nonetheless.

Tues - 45 mins easy (5.15miles/HR138/8:45p/m). Nothing much to report on this, 2nd run in novablast 3 which I picked up to replace my brooks glycerins, early impressions are good.

Wed - 60 mins easy (6.7 miles/HR140/8:56p/m)

Thurs 60 mins – Critical Velocity Run (7.15 miles/HR150/8:24p/m)

5:00 in Z1/10:00 in Z2, 5 x (4:00 @ CV/2:00 in Z1), 15:00 in Z1

Another session I’ve not done before - CV pace suggested between 5k and 10k effort. This was the first session I found hard so far, and the last rep was definitely was tough. Maintained a consistent pace of 6:40 per mile for the intervals, so happy enough with that, somewhere between 6.40 and 6.50 per mile felt like the right target. Nearly 70 miles into my brooks hyperion max and they are finally starting to feel a bit softer!

Fri – 45 mins easy (5 miles/HR133/8:58p/m). Wanted to keep the HR nice and low with the tempo run the next day.

sat 1hr 4 mins – Tempo intervals - (7.7 miles/HR144/8:21p/m).

5:00 Z1/10:00 Z2, then 8:00 Z3/5:00 Z1,8:00 Z3/5:00 Z1, 8:00 Z3/15:00 Z1

Another new one for me, tempo segments in a longer run, have only done 20-30 min blocks of tempo effort previously so this was a bit easier, did around 7:05/7:10 per mile for the zone 3 sections. Enjoyed this despite a bit of rain in the second half, favourite run of the week for sure. Longest mileage week for a good while, since Feb probably.

Weekly mileage 36.7 (5hrs 15min with 58mins (18%) above zone 2)

BOB81

Week 4

Mon - Lactate intervals (6.2 miles/HR147/8:42 p/m)

5:00 in Zone 1/10:00 in Zone 2
8 x 0:30 in Zone 4/0:15 in Zone 1, 3:00 in Zone 1
8 x 0:30 in Zone 4/0:15 in Zone 1, 3:00 in Zone 1
8 x 0:30 in Zone 4/0:15 in Zone 1. 15:00 in Zone 1

Another session I’ve not done before – short zone 4 efforts and v short recoveries. Wanted to get HR up over 170 which I did by the 2nd and 3rd set of reps.

Tues - 60 mins easy (6.9 miles/HR139/8:40p/m) – nice run up around docklands/sandymount

Wed no running, skipped a 45 min easy run in favour of starting and finishing work early and golfing in the afternoon, slight bit of guilt to miss a planned run but once I’m not missing the speedwork I’m ok with it.

Thurs - 57mins (Over/under intervals) (6.9 miles/HR145/8:17p/m)

15 min warm up (Z1/2), 3 x (3:00 in Zone 3/4:00 in Zone Y/2:00 in Z1), 15:00 in Z1

Another new one for me. Zone Y classified as between Z3 and Z4, so picked up the pace a small bit for these, probably around 10k pace. Did this very early before going to Dublin but felt pretty good overall during this.

Fri - 45 mins easy (5 miles/HR138/9:01p/m)

Sat - 65 mins Steady run (7.8 miles/HR146/8:18p/m)5:00 in Zone 1/10:00 in Zone 2, 35:00 in Zone X, 15:00 in Zone 1.Slightly longer zone x (between half and marathon pace) segment than I did a few weeks back, did this down in portlaoise. Went fairly well I think, avg pace was 7:37 per mile for the steady segment.

I’ve been looking around for a suitable 5k race to finish off the block with, I was just going to do a park run in Mullingar if nothing came up but I spotted (on www.popupraces.ie) the “streets of athboy 5k” on the Friday 2nd August. Its less than 10 mins from home so will give it a go, will have an extra week’s training to come up with to stretch out the 9 week block a bit but can repeat a session or two.

Weekly mileage 32.8 (4hrs 44min with 1hr6mins (23%) above zone 2)

BOB81

Week 5

Mon – 50 mins, zone 5 intervals (5.3 miles/HR 141/9:25p/m)

15 min w/u, 8 x (45 sec Z5/1:45 zone 1), 15 mins cool down.Kept the pacing fairly consistent for each rep apart from the 5th rep where I had to slow down a bit, definitely a consequence of running the first reps too hard. Got back on track for the last 3.

Tues – 40 mins easy (4.5 miles/HR137/8:51p/m)& Wed – 60 mins easy (6.9 miles/HR 139/8:45p/m)

Thurs – 51 mins progression run (6.24 miles/HR146/8:11p/m)

5 mins Z1/20 mins Z2, then 12mins steady/6mins LT pace /3mins CV pace, 5:00 in Zone 1. Slightly longer version of a run I had done a few weeks back, was not expecting the strong winds I came across during this! But parts of the first 30 mins of the run were downhill so it probably evened out. Wasn’t paying attention to my watch and so I missed the prompt to switch up the pace for the last quick segment, so just ended up doing 12 mins steady and 9 mins LT.

Fri – 40 mins easy (4.6 miles/HR134/8:37p/m)

Sat – 90 mins easy (10.1 miles/HR 141/8:54p/m). Misty rain during this early morning run but not too wet by the end thankfully, longest run I’ve done since Feb during the marathon block.

Weekly mileage 37.7 (5hrs 31min with 29mins (9%) above zone 2)

Week 6

Mon – Variable intensity intervals (6.7 miles/HR148/8:35p/m)

5min in Z1/10min Z5, 4 x (4 x 0:30 @ MAS/0:45 @ LTP)/2:30 in Zone 1,15min Z1. Another new session for me, tough enough way to start the week I must say. Ran the quicker segments of this by pace, around 5.50 p/m for the MAS segments and then 7:15 p/m or so for the LTP (high zone 3) bits. Maintained the pacing well for the most part, a few of the later Zone 3 segments I slowed a little but the consistency of the pacing for the MAS segments was good.

Tues - 40 mins easy (4.5 miles/HR137/8:50p/m). Last run for a few days, taking the next few days off running as I’m away, so just postponing this weeks plan until next week. While I am enjoying the variety of sessions in this 5k plan a few days off running isn’t a bad idea I think.

BOB81

Week 7

Sat – 65mins with 35 mins steady pace segment. (8 miles/HR 145/8:06p/m).

Same run I did in portlaoise a couple of weeks ago, did an out and back route at home this time.

Really enjoyed this and felt very fresh after a couple of days off.

Mon Variable intensity intervals (6.9 miles/HR149/8:20p/m)

15 min warm up, 4 x (4 x 0:30 @ MAS/0:45 @ LTP/zone 3)/2:30 in Zone 1,15min cool down

Same session as last monday, again found this tough but this was of my own makings this time. Wasn’t looking at my watch so unintentionally paced the quickest segments a bit too fast (around 5:30p/m), this caught up with me in the zone 3 “recovery” segments where my pace dropped a good bit towards the end of the session. But kept the fast bits consistent at least, perhaps more by accident than by design but pacing was in the same range for all of them.

Tues 40 mins easy (4.2 miles/HR133/9:39p/m)kept this as a shorter recovery effort (nothing to do with the lashing rain!), but had a bit of a groin twinge after it, not something that I’ve gotten before.

Wed – planned 60 mins easy but skipped it just to be on the safe side, postponed planned tempo run from Thurs to Sat to see how I got on with some easy runs first.

Thurs 50 mins easy (5.7 miles/HR140/8:44p/m), Fri 60 mins easy (6.7 miles/HR137/8:57p/m)

Both these runs went fine, no groin flare up so all good hopefully

Sat – 1hr 7mins, Tempo intervals (8.1 miles/HR149/8:17p/m)

15min warm up, 16 mins Zone 3/5 mins Z1/16 mins Zone 3, 15min cool down. Another new run for me, nice change of pace and it went quite well. Avg pace of 7:12 p/m for both the zone 3 segments, HR low 160s for the first rep, up to avg of 167 for the second 16 min block.

Weekly mileage 31.6 (4hrs 34min with 53mins (19%) above zone 2)

BOB81

Week 8

I’m not strictly following the original plan running order for the final two weeks, I’m covering all the sessions but have just have moved them around a little bit.

Mon 5k pace intervals - 3k warm up, 6 x (800m @ 5k pace /0.1 km in Zone 1), 3 km cool down

1 hr 3 mins (7.1 miles/HR143/8:53p/m).This forced me to consider what a credible 5k race pace will be (race on 2 August), my aim is to go sub 20 mins, runalyze has my estimate as closer to 19mins, somewhere around 19:30 is what I’d hope for. So paced the 800s between 6:10-6:20 per mile/3:50-3:55 per km, and splits were 3:11,3:10,3:09,3:11,3:06,3:08. Recoveries were suggested as 100m walking recoveries so took 70-90 seconds between each rep, not sure if this was too long but main thing I felt was to try and keep the 5k pace segments as consistent as possible.

Tues 50 mins easy (5.6 miles/HR136/8:53p/m), Wed 60 mins easy (6.9 miles/HR139/8:41p/m)

Thurs – Critical value reps x 6, 1hr 6 mins15min warm up, 6 x (4min @ CV pace/2min in Z1), 15 min cool down. (8 miles/HR153/8:17p/m). An extra 4 min CV rep for this run compared to when I did this last month, and I definitely felt this when it came to the last rep. Pacing slightly quicker than last time avg 6:34 pace for the CV pace segments, pacing supposed to be in between 5k and 10k pace so a bit of guesswork. But this basically was a 6 x 1km off 2 mins recovery, or very close to it.

Fri – 45mins easy (5 miles/HR134/8:55p/m).

Sun – 10k pace intervals - 3k warm up, then 10 x (1 km @ 10KP/0.1 km in Zone 1), 3k warm down. (10.6 miles/HR147/8:40p/m) Pace wise just added 25 seconds onto planned 5k pace and aimed for 6:40 p/m pace (4:10 p/km). This went better than expected, having found the end of the CV reps on Thursday tough I wasn’t sure how doing 4 more reps at a similar pace would go. But maybe with the walking recoveries it was a bit easier. So first rep was a bit slow (4:20p/km) and legs felt a bit sluggish, wasn’t loving the idea of 9 more of them at that stage! But I loosened up after that and averaged 4:07 p/km (6:38 p/m) for the remaining 9 reps. Around 90-100 seconds walking recovery between reps which seemed about right. Wore my saucony endorphin pro 3s for this, while the foam still feels fine (117 miles in them), I can see a hole in the upper starting where my right big toe is, so just put some tape over it which will hopefully last me through the 5k race. Unfortunate as I really like the shoes and not sure I’m going to rush out and get another carbon racing shoe – everything seems to cost €250+ now so will bide my time and see if there is a bargain to be had. Highest mileage week of the plan done, last major workout is 5 x 1km this week which should be a good benchmark for where I’m at.

Weekly mileage 43.3 miles (6hrs 15min with 1hr 31mns (24%) above zone 2)

BOB81

Week 9

Mon 40 mins easy (4.3 miles/HR126/9:14p/m) Tues 50 mins easy (5.8 miles/HR140/8:41p/m)

Mon run more of a recovery effort after 10k reps previous day, picked up the pace a bit on Tues.

Wed 5k repeats 15 min warm up, 5 x (1km @ 5k race pace/2 min rec), 15 min cool down.

This was hard, but I guess that was the point! So I paced the 1k reps towards the top end of what runalyze estimates my potential 5k pace at (just under 19 mins – 3:46 per/km). and it felt like this pace was a bit on the aggressive side. First two reps I felt heavy legged, 3rd rep felt ok, 4th was slightly worse and for the last rep I was just hanging on. 1km splits were 3:50,3:48,3:51,3:50,3:50 so consistent at least. Recoveries reps were down as jogging – but I did a mix of walking and jogging, 30 seconds walking – 90 seconds light jogging for the last 2 recoveries anyway. So not entirely sure what to take from this, 5k effort should of course be hard but don’t know how or if these session paces will translate to a race. Anyway last significant speed session of the plan done, will have another think about race pacing but leaning towards 19:30 perhaps as a more realistic target now after this.

Thurs 40 mins easy (4.4miles/HR132/9:00 p/m) Fri 50 mins easy (5.9miles/HR139/8:30 p/m)

Sat – zone 3 fast finish run (65 mins with last 10 mins zone 3) (7.9 miles/HR140/8:13p/m)

Wet morning for this, thank you Irish “summer”, but enjoyed the run nonetheless, 7 mins per mile for the last 10 mins, HR avg 163 for this bit. Unfortunately covid has arrived back in the house also, not too bad a dose but my wife and older daughter have it while my younger daughter and I are waiting to get it – would very much like it if it could pass me by this time somehow with the race coming up but we’ll see!

Weekly mileage 35.2 miles (5hrs 06min with 33mns (11%) above zone 2)

BOB81

Week 10

Mon – 50 mins - speed intervals x10, 15 min w/u, 10 x (30 sec Z5/1:30 zone 1), 15 mins cool down.

(5.6 miles/HR 144/8:57p/m).First couple of reps felt a bit sluggish but settled into a quicker pace after that.

Tues 45 mins easy (5.2 miles/HR137/8:38p/m)

Wed – planned 30 mins, last 5 mins zone 4 – didn’t run, was WFH with kids all day and only window to run ended up being 8.30 pm so decided against it in the end. Still managed to stay covid free however!

Thurs – 25 mins easy with race pace strides x 4. Just got out to get the legs moving, did 4x30 seconds of race pace towards the end of the run.

Fri – RACE - Streets of athboy 5k – chip time 20:09

Frustratingly fell short of what I thought was a realistic sub-20 target but got a lesson in racing nonetheless. Didn’t have watch set up for 5k splits so mile splits from my watch were: 6:21/6:24/6:27 (3:57-4:01 per km) and I got up to 5 min mile pace for the last bit. On the race itself, it was a very flat course as advertised – starts off about 1km out of Athboy on the Navan road with a nice downhill start, then goes through the town and onto a loop on some country roads for kms 1-5 and finishes back close to the main street. So my main mistake was at the start - I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was lining up and with just over 400 people running it (407 finishers) I found I had a lot of slower traffic to get around in the first 500+ metres, so I wasted time and effort unnecessarily in this bit – didn’t get the full advantage of the downhill start really I don’t think and this came back to haunt me later on. Settled into it for the second mile and just about hung on for the last one.

Still this was an improvement from my previous pb (20:52 from Dec 2023) but the watch metrics do give me hope that an official sub-20 run is there in future. My garmin showed a distance run of 3.13 miles in 19:50 and HR avg was 178. I think a bit more race practice at this distance would be beneficial for me probably, might try some park-runs in the next while. Looking back on the training plan itself – I enjoyed the variety of sessions and definitely there are some workouts that I’ll carry forward for more regular use, the CV paced runs and including some steady efforts in longer runs also to name a couple.

So the race also marks a year of solid running for me, since the start of August 2023 I’ve run 5/6 days a week fairly consistently, and this is the most mileage I’ve ever covered in a 12 month period for sure (over 1600 miles). No immediate plans for the next couple of months, will aim to keep running 5 days a week as much as I can, and I hope then to start the hansons half marathon plan in early November as a winter block (to line up with the Mullingar half marathon next March).