Things will come to those who wait...

Thursday: 45 mins very easy

Recovery run on the grass in the glorious sunshine, unlike a lot of runners I'm loving this heat. Wouldn't be great for racing in but for training it's just lovely.

Friday: 51 mins steady w/4 strides

Another lovely day and I felt good on this. Like Tuesday's run I started really easy and cranked it up as I went along. Where I run there is loads of shade from the high trees to keep the body cool.

Saturday: 7 miles w/Oldbridge Parkrun in 19:08

Tempo run this morning and I decided to tie it in with another go at the Oldbridge parkrun. I forgot just how tough this race and while the time was right for tempo work, the effort was not. Fell into 2nd place at the start along side my brother. Four of us stayed together until 2.5k when my brother pushed on and has been the case recently, I couldn't go with him. Kept slogging it out but really died on my arse over the last kilometer, really just crawling in and got passed with 200m to go, not that I cared at that stage. So, a good workout but effort levels were much too high for the time I was running, despite the tough course. My brother won the race, and is currently in the shape of his life.

I think I am just in need of a break so with that in mind I think I am going to knock the Carlingford 5k on the head next Friday. No point racing when I'm not feeling good and not in good shape. The only thing is it is doubling as the Louth 5k road champs but the lads will have to cope without me! Looking forward to the mid season break and then getting stuck into cross country training to try and improve my strength and endurance which is clearly lacking at the moment.

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 7+ miles easy on grass

Easy run on grass, felt great on this. Felt effortless from the start and tipping along nicely by the end, love days like this.

Wednesday: 2x1k @ 5k pace, 4x400m @ 3k pace, 4x200m @ 1500m pace

Splits: (3.34, 3.26), (78, 79, 79, 78), (36, 36, 37, 32)

A few dodgy pacing efforts in there, but overall a good session. Most of the guys are racing on Friday so the plan was to do a decent session tonight but to keep the volume relatively low. The aim for the k's was 3.30 which if you average the two we hit bang on! :pac: Felt good during these and the 400's felt controlled and relaxed. Then the 200's were for a little turnover work and again felt very controlled, didn't take much effort to hit 32 at the end so the speed is still there. The 37 was due to having to step out to lane two to make room for a few of the sprinters.

Looking forward to getting stuck into a few longer reps sessions in a few weeks, want to start hitting low 3.20 k's for 5k pace reps, a sub 17 5k is a big goal before the end of the year.

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: 46 mins easy/steady

My last run in Berlin, again like Tuesday I did 30 mins easy then 15 mins at a steady effort, no idea of pace but it felt like about 6.40 pace.

Friday: Off/travelling

Saturday: 52 mins easy

Nice, easy run back in Ireland, glad to be back on the grass and off the concrete. Tipping along nicely by the end of this, cold though and I got used to the 27/28 degree temps in Berlin!

Sunday: 10.X miles in 77 minutes

Met up with a few this morning for a bit of a long run. Started off very slow, 8+ minutes miles but finished down closer to 7.20 pace. Very windy for this but again the legs felt good and I'm feeling fresh. The only slightly issue I have is a tender right quad, it's been sore since my first run last Saturday. Doesn't bother me when I run but is a little tender to the touch afterwards. Hopefully it's just a little delayed DOMS and it will go away.

So preparation for the next season starts tomorrow, it's cross country time! The plan involves building mileage and endurance. I hope to peak at 60-65 mile a week. Hopefully we can get in two good sessions a week, alternating every two weeks with hills/tempo/fartlek and long reps. It going to be event specific so one session a week and the majority of easy and long runs will be done of grass/cross country-esque courses. Will try and build the long run up to 16 miles as I think this stood to me in the more grueling races last year. This is a very similar plan to the one I followed last year which worked well so I'm hoping it will pay off again this year.

The only slight issue it that I think I'm getting sick, have been feeling rotten since this morning but hopefully nothing comes of it. Tomorrow is scheduled as a rest day anyway!

Tuesday: 55 minutes easy

Had to go to my parents house so ran over and took the long way to get a bit more mileage in. Felt good.

Wednesday: 7 miles w/3x8 minutes tempo

First session of the plan and nothing too strenuous. Ran this like a progression tempo, starting at 6.19 pace before speeding up to 6.08 and 5.57 for the last two. Felt really good on this apart from a little bit of a dodgy stomach which often happens when I train in the evening. Got chatting to one of the guys in the club afterwards and he had a few things to say about out training and what he thinks we are doing wrong (and right). To cut a long story short, he offered to coach us for the next few months. This is really great for us, this guy is a two time National Indoor medalist so really knows his stuff and he thinks he can help take us to the next level. Pretty excited about what's coming up.

Recovery run tomorrow if I can squeeze it in, have to start work at seven and it could be 8 or 9pm before I finish so might have to get up really early or get it doen tomorrow evening.

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 7+ miles in 53 minutes

Easy run on grass, never really got into this and was counting down the minutes. Long day at work and the legs were tired.

Wednesday: 7 miles w/session

10x400m: 80, 78, 79, 79, 79, 78, 79, 78, 79, 74

First session from the new coach tonight. The idea was to run these at a good effort, but not flat out. Did 15 mins warm up then 800m jogging the bends, striding the straights. These 400's were done in a two minute cycle, so if you took 80 secs to run the rep, you get 40 seconds recovery, which is not a lot. Conditions were manky, gale winds and pretty heavy showers. Despite that I felt pretty good on these, I hung towards the back of the group as the original plan said 8x400m, but with the option of doing 10 if you felt good, and I had my eye on 10. The recovery went by in a flash but because they weren't run flat out it was just enough. Pushed it a little on the last one with 200m to go. Finished off with a 20 minute cool down.

Nice session, going to do a little strength work tonight to finish of a tough day. Have another light session lined up for Saturday, so the next two days will be very easy.

Sunday: 12 (and a bit) miles in 91 minutes

Believe it or not, this was my longest run of the year so far (not by much). Was pretty damn tough too, more to do with where we ran rather than the distance. Running in Oldbridge is so much harder than the road, you are constantly going uphill or downhill or trying to find good footing on the grass which can leave you pretty tired. I think a 12 mile run here is worth 14 on the road with regards to effort, or 15-20 seconds a mile. Legs were in a jock at the end of this and was glad to be done.

Another week done, 46 miles again. Was hoping to hit 50 but missed out on my planned double run. Not a problem, back to my normal work this week which leaves me with more time so will get it up to 50 this week. Two good sessions though and a decent long run. Legs are tired and have a massage tomorrow which will hopefully loosen them out.

Thursday: 50 mins recovery

Very, easy slow run on the grass. Felt a bit of a niggle in my hip (more on that later) but apart from that this was effortless.

Friday

AM: 50 mins easy
PM: Circuit class

Good easy run today on the grass, cut it a bit short as I was still a little concerned about the hip. In the evening time I went to a circuit class organised by one of the coaches in the club. Usually I wouldn't bother with things like this but the coach focused it for runners with lots of focus on lower leg work so thought I would give it a go. Very tough but a good workout, a mix of strength work, stretching and some plyometrics.

Saturday: 8 miles w/session

3x1min uphill, 10 min tempo, 3x1 min uphill

Similar session to last week with the only difference being a slightly longer tempo section. Felt really good doing this, the first three mins uphill were no problem. During the tempo section I thought we were going way to slow but after one lap (of our 1/3 mile long gravel track) we were at 1.59 so under 6 minute pace. It felt so easy and we averaged under 6 minute pace for the ten minutes. Last 3 minutes were a little tougher but kept it controlled the whole time. The worst part was the 2.5 mile uphill W/D back to my brothers house.

Sunday: 1hr 33 mins easy

Big group for the long run today which really helps, the miles just ticked by. Did 45 mins on the road before switching to the grass which helped break up the monotony. Gorgeous weather by the end and felt good overall on this although the legs were in bits by the end, a combination of circuits on Friday, session on Saturday and long run Sunday.

Good week training wise, a shade over 50 miles with two good sessions and I'm starting to feel good in training (aerobically anyway). The only issue is the niggle I picked up in my hip on Thursday hasn't gone away. It doesn't seem to bad but just a small niggle there the whole time. Have a physio session booked for tomorrow which will hopefully help. I have done three good weeks now so if I need to take a down week this week it's not the end of the world. Would rather cut the mileage this week and still be running in two months rather than making this niggle worse.

Monday: Rest day

Tuesday: 50 mins at the fast end of easy + 2 strides

Tried a slightly longer and faster run (about 7.10/15 pace I think) today to test the leg, no issues at all which was a relief. Did two strides as well to test it at a bit of speed but again no issues.

Wednesday

AM: 25 mins shake out
PM: Session: 3x(1k, 600m, 400m) off 90 secs recovery, 4 mins between sets

Splits: (3.23, 1.57, 75), (3.19, 1.57, 76), (3.20, 1.57, 69)

Felt confident enough to try a full session tonight at the track. Did 15 mins warm up and some strides. The plan is to build this session over the next six weeks so eventually we are doing 5 sets. The plan was for 80 second laps for the 1,000m, 77/78 in the 600m and 75/76 in the 400's. First set was fine and the recovery seemed generous enough. The second set was where the work started, the 3.19 k was pretty tough but once that was out of the way the 600m and 400m seemed manageable. Same story for the last set, the k was tough and it took a lot of concentration to hold the pace. 600m was fine and for the last 400m we were told to keep it controlled for 200m and then push on if possible. Hot 200m in 36 and then 33 for the 200m. Great session and has hopefully set me up well for the weekend. Finding it hard to imagine to do 5 sets though!

Cross country starts this weekend with the county novice, 6k for us. The course is very flat and hopefully should be reasonably dry which will suit me. We have a good team lining up so hopefully we are in with a shout of a team medal. Still can't quite believe it's x-country time again, need to find the spikes!

Sunday: Louth novice x-country 6k

16th overall, 22:04, 2nd team

Good outing for the club today, we got second team in a pretty deep field, lots to build on for next year. Not a great day for myself, bit of a shock to the system and I never really settled in. Got into a group from the start but got dropped after about 5 laps (with three still to go). I'm cursing myself now as I kind of gave up mentally at this point which I'm sometimes prone to do and just ran/suffered the last three laps on autopilot. Should have made a bigger effort to catch the guys in front of me, but the race was over at that stage.

Quite annoyed and disappointed at myself now. I ran about 15 seconds quicker than last year but it should have been more, guys of the same standard from my club and others have made big improvements while I seem to have stagnated. Also, I quit too easily, need to really toughen up in these races. I could have tried harder to stay with the group today and it cost me a couple of places. Made me very determined to run a better race at the intermediate next week. Will try and put it behind me, but this was a big race for me and will take a few days to get over. Haven't run a good race in a good few months now and although I think the training is going well, it's not translating (yet) into good races. Things will come to those who wait.....(hopefully)

ecoli wrote: »

Well done man

The lack of racing most likely made the shock a bit worse but definitely an optimistic season opener fair play

As you said the fitness is there and the races will click into place

Hope so man, great run yourself. Good opener for the season for us both hopefully.