Often becomes easy when the easy is often..

Baby75 wrote: »

You are most welcome, sounds like you got a lot out of it as well it is something I have to watch and have learnt the hard way

I hope your feeling much better now I have no doubt you will mind your self and will get back out when you are right.

did you get out on the bike yet

A friend did similar to her calf 6 weeks ago now and she is still not back yet but that is more to do with rushing back out too soon and ending up in a bad way again.

Hey N, thanks again for the link.

I got out on my wife's old mountain bike for a little cycle about, but not much.

I'm going to go out for a light jog tester run later today, I'll do 4 miles or so and check it out. Although, the story of your friend is a little worrying.

Warmed up, ready, in a skin soaked singlet, dripping with June morning rain.

Push the button on the mat and bounce with hope and bluster.

Striding the centre of the road, a camber either side.

Splashing summer puddle water cooling on my calf.

Reeling in and reeling out, confidence and casting doubt.

Bluster broken a mile inside, the distance is in charge.

Rain sheltered scattered applause as the turn is met,
headed now for home.

Eyes not meeting those behind, all focusing on the pain.

The last mile and the hope lifts, the pain dulls and
the brain shifts, into what ifs, into calculations, into permutations, into the last stretch, into the final few, the gantry view, the best is on if I can only push, if I can only squeeze, if I can only get there.

The clock turns, while my heart burns.

If I can only get there.

Cheers B, yeah, was pretty gut wrenching when I read the email, after getting all the congrats on Strava. Felt really embarrassed about the whole thing, even though I knew that was silly.

No hard feelings my end at all for the guys, they're the soundest. An easy mistake.

Wish they had waited until tomorrow to break the news, was enjoying being a 19:37 guy :pac:

Forgive me Father, it's been over two years since my last confession.

Firing things back up here as it's the first time in over two years that I have a goal race and a block ahead of me. Starting a Bob Williams 12 week plan next week for DCM.

Have had a fair few life changes in the last two years that have affected running, we had a baby girl in July 2020 making three little ones in the house. I wasn't prepared for the difference that made to available time. I've kept running consistently though barring a couple of bouts of covid. Pretty much no racing during 2020/2021, pretty much nothing other than aerobic running either.

A real positive thing to happen though, in many ways, was my wife finding a love for running. Three kids in the house motivated her to get to the end of C25K after many attempts 😊

It's great because we both now understand what's involved in terms of time, getting an early night now and then etc, and work together to both fit it in.

I'm excited to begin the BW plan next week. It's six days a week with stuff on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a long run on Saturdays. The stuff is a mix of tempo workouts, some pace runs and intervals. 200m reps at 5k effort and 400 - mile reps at 10k effort.

I'll be tweaking the plan somewhat though, as there's a couple of monster long runs that I'm not going to do.

I've spent the last 10 weeks following a FRR base plan building to 45 mpw, and feel in fairly good shape for the weeks ahead.

Be following yours too. Cheers E.

Haha, yeah, can't wait for McGrattons :)

Cheers D. I'd love to say I did exhaustive research on his method, compared it to various others etc but I simply just liked the look of it.

I was going through a few different plans in Noakes' Lore of Running, I wanted something challenging but simple and this fits the bill. Page 612 if you have the book.

It's his Sub 3 program, which obv I'm not targeting, some parts of it are a little too intense which I plan to tone down a little. He has a 23m and a 25m long run in there which I'm not doing. Also, I'll be tapering a little more than suggested on it I think.

Speed work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, long run Saturdays. Short recovery runs on Sundays. Ranges between 40 - 55 mpw

Next week looks like this,

Mon - 5 mile

Tue - 5x 800 @10k

Wed - 5 mile

Thurs - 5k tempo

Sat - 15 miles

Sun - 4 miles

I don't think that first week could have gone better. I'm really happy with it.

All three workout days went exactly as planned.

Monday - 5 miles easy. This was fun. About three years ago I discovered a route from my house that is bang on 8km by the time I get back to the start point, and it forms a figure 8 on Strava. Thought it quirky and weird at the time. I had the idea of running it on the 8th of Aug, at 8:08am. Last year I only remembered it at 3pm and was gutted lol. So I put it into my calendar so I wouldn't forget it this time. Got up on Mon morn and hung around for a bit then hit the button on the watch at 8:08. So I did 8km, in a figure 8, at 8:08 on the 8th of the 8th. 8km on the plan for that day as the opening run of it just for extra synchronicity.

Tuesday - 5x 800 @ 10k pace These went so well. Warmed up with a 4k run to the canal. Did four of them on the flat canal and the fifth on the road back home. The fifth one was done on a bit of a drag. Wished I'd done it on the flat when I saw the stats on Garmin afterwards. Really happy with the consistency. 3:29.8, 3:29.8, 3:29.8, 3:29.7, 3:33.6. 400m jog recoveries, 2 mile cooldown.

Wednesday - 5 miles easy. 5:56km

Thursday - 5k Tempo - 4k warm up to the canal again, building effort/pace. Target pace for the tempo was 4:32. Splits were 4:35, 4:32, 4:32, 4:33, 4:32. Again real happy with consistency here. 4k cool down.

Friday - Rest

Saturday - Long run - 15 miles. Said I'd see how this felt and decide whether to stick to the slower end of the range we discussed above. Felt really good and the HR was in good shape so ran it average 40 secs slower than target MP. 5:26km. 132 bpm average. Took fuel on at 7.5 miles, an Enervit cola gel from a race goodie bag. Worked well. Felt a noticeable increase in energy after about 3k so will experiment with that again next week.

Sunday - 4 mile recovery. 6:20km

45.25 miles total.

Might be noticeable that I used pace as a reference for the sessions instead of HR. I'm going to do that for the forseeable, a few weeks anyway. I'm not confident of my LT HR. Plan was to test for it but I didn't and I base everything around that. I've a fair idea of what it is but would rather have a precise number. Enjoyed running to pace immensely though so may just stick with that.

I've also ditched my idea of running the race itself guided by HR after taking feedback from here onboard.

I think we may have gotten them at the race series 10k. I think they are aimed a cyclists alright from googling today.

Goes to show the idea of freebies pays off. I'm going to buy a bunch of them.

How did you get on with your one?

Decent week again, am happy with it. Only slight negative is sacrificing the Sat run to pace my wife in the FD10. Negative in the sense of a training log of course.

Mon Aug 15th - 5 mile easy. 5:53km, felt quite leggy for this one.

Tue Aug 16th - 3x 1 mile @ 10k. Decent session, usual 4k warm up to the canal. Reps were 6:59, 7:00, 7:01. 4k cool down.

Wed Aug 17th - 5 mile easy again, 5:50km

Thurs Aug 18th - 10 mile. Was a little confused for a bit about this one the day or two beforehand. Wasn't sure whether I should run it easy or treat it the same as a Saturday long run. Plan clearly states Tue, Thurs and Sat are stuff days, and every other run is to be easy so I ran it like a Saturday one. 5:25km

Saturday Aug 20th - I got a bit of friendly stick off a close friend a few weeks back at a BBQ. He said I was a selfish B for my plans to race off and leave my wife behind at the race series events. He was joking with me of course but it did guilt me into feeling that maybe he had a point. I decided to let go of the 10 mile and run with her instead. I had never run with her before. It was real enjoyable. I did a bit of wind shielding and encouraging. Picked the pace up for the last mile and she finished real strong. Delighted I did it.

Sunday Aug 21st - Ran a little more than prescribed due to the previous day's effort. A little over 10k easy, 6:00km.

46.25 miles for the week.

I'm doing a bit of strength stuff too on the session days. Pull up bar and press ups.

Cheers A, you're right, it was a really fantastic experience. I definitely would have regretted it had I not.

Running with your daughter is very special. My eldest is 8, so it's not too far off for me either, can't wait for that.

Thanks E, yeah, it was real nice.

She didn't appreciate me roaring encouragement down the final stretch though, I got a grunted 'STFU' back at me haha.

She said sorry straight after, said it reminded her of when I was yapping to her during labour, when she gave me similar back 😄

Week 3 summary

Monday Aug 22nd - 5 miles easy - 5:37km 130bpm, lunchtime run in the Abbottstown XC track. Maybe a touch nippy.

Tuesday Aug 23rd - 4k tempo - 3k warm up + 3k cool down. Splits were 4:29, 4:33, 4:26, 4:25. Again on the XC track

Wednesday Aug 24th - 5m easy again - 6:00km 122bpm. (Every Mon & Wed throughout the block are 5 miles easy)

Thursday Aug 25th - 8x 200s @5k effort, 400m jog recs - 4k WU, 4k CD. Enjoyed these. Not used to 200s so found it tricky to get the effort right on a couple of them. Splits were 47,48,48,50,47,47,49,47

Saturday Aug 27th - 28k long run - Really happy with how I felt on this one. Targetted 5:30km pace, and hovered around that for the entire run, average pace 5:28. Took in Castletown parkrun in the middle of it. Tested that gel again at 8 miles and felt the same boost about 15 mins later. Will be going with them I think.

Sunday Aug 28th - 5k recovery jog @ 6:17km

45.2 miles for the week.

Abbottstown XC track is such a dream to run by the way, I'm lucky that I work close by and can get a lunchtime few miles in on it. Would highly recommend a trip to it if you haven't been. Every time I run it I can't get over the fact that it's right in the middle of Blanch.

Oh that sounds fantastic. I sometimes run it with my top off as you pretty much have the whole place to yourself. Even did some press ups between strides haha. Wouldn't dream of it with people around.

Zen is the word alright.

Solid week 5 with everything going to plan.

Monday Sep 5th - 5m easy, 5:36, HR averaging around 128. Having some issues with the HRM, erratic for the first mile or so before settling. Happened Saturday too. Maybe needs a battery change.

Tuesday Sep 6th - 6x 200 @5k, 400m jog recoveries. Usual 4k up and 4k down. Reps were 48, 49, 48, 47, 47, 47. 7.3 miles total.

Wednesday Sep 7th - 5m easy. 5:51, 119 bpm.

Thursday Sep 8th - 5x 1k @10k, 2:30 recoveries. 4k up, 4k down. Reps were 4:23, 4:18, 4:20, 4:20, 4:22. 8.4 miles total.

Saturday Sep 10th - 34k long run. Similar to the 28k from two weeks ago the aim was to hover around 5:30km pace. Managed it really well I feel. Average pace 5:27. Real nice confidence booster this one. My 2018 marathon was a disaster. The wheels came off at 20 miles. It felt really good to be feeling strong at 20 miles running a similar pace to then but at a far lower effort level. Average HR was approx 131 or so (HRM erratic for first two miles).

Sunday Sep 11th - 5k recovery jog. Needed to run 5.06km to get me over the line for a 50 mile week. Delighted with that. Been trying and failing for so long with such a busy family life to run a 50 mile week, so it's a particularly special little achievement for me 😊

Total miles for the week - 50.14 miles.

Lolol, for damn sure 🤣