Am I Running Or Jogging?

I really needed to lay down a good PB today because my confidence has been low this week and I needed proof that training is actually working and I am improving. I decided that if I could hold 5:10/km pace for a while and push at the end to finish in the mid 25s, I'd be pretty happy with that as it would be comfortably the fastest 5k I'd ever run and show clear improvement.

I was unusually prepared last night, trying to make sure that nothing could possibly stand in my way this morning. I went out and bought some Adidas running shorts, a long sleeve Adidas running t shirt, along with a short sleeve one, some socks and some gloves. So I finally had some gear that would at least make me look like a real runner.

I printed out my barcode, carefully encased it in clingfilm to keep it dry as I knew it would be raining this morning, laid out my gear, and went to bed early. I was asleep before midnight, and up at 7:45 on a Saturday. Both of these things have happened maybe twice in the last decade, so I was taking this super serial and I don't even know who I am anymore.

Breakfast was two slices of toasted soda bread with butter and jam, a cup of coffee and a pint of water. Then off I went to the park.

I had a slow warmup run of a little over 1km at about 7:00/km pace, but I got to the start about ten minutes early and it was raining so I did another little lap of the carpark to keep warm.

The race run:

Having never done anything like this I didn't know where I fit into the pack and I certainly didn't want to be in anyone's way, so I stayed near the back as we crowded behind the start line. The announcer gave a quick introduction and then there was a minute's silence for those who lost their lives in Paris which was a nice touch - it was pretty well observed too.

Kilometer 1:

And we were off. I immediately knew I should have started further forward. There were a couple of hundred people ahead of me and the start was slow. The first km turns right out of the carpark and then leads on to the course's only uphill stretch which is about a 15m rise over, I'd guess, about 600m. I knew that at this pace I'd be ages getting up that hill and my time would suffer badly. I would have to go off road.

Into the mud I went on the left hand side of the path - I chose the left because it meant I was making the course longer rather than shorter for myself and thus no cheating - and I started passing people. Back onto the path for a right turn and then right again onto the uphill stretch. I wasn't going to run on the grass here, but things were starting to spread slightly and I saw a few guys and girls weaving up ahead so I followed them and weaved through a few gaps to get into some space.

Topped the rise, feeling nice and strong, and we were into a gradual downhill for 1km or more which is where I knew I needed to make up a lot of time. A girl ahead of me hit the mud on the right hand side (again, the 'longer' side) in order to get past people and I followed her.

Kilometer 2:

We were on the downhill now and the field had spread out nicely so there was room. I know I do well on the downhills, maybe because I have a killer set of quads from cycling , but more likely because I read advice on here about leaning into the slope and lifting the knees which I've been practising, so it was my intention to win some seconds here so that psychologically I'd know I had headroom later.

There were people puffing a bit already and I was galloping (in my terms anyway) past them. I could see a few people up ahead taking the same approach as me, but I was even gaining on them! I felt really good at this stage and even though I had no idea what pace I was actually going, it felt right.

It was probably around the end of this kilometer as things started to flatten out that I came upon a woman running with her dog, I think it was a labrador or a golden retriever. She was paying a lot of attention to the dog and still looked like she was scarcely making an effort, so I thought if I can stick close to her I probably won't be going far wrong. I passed her, gradually, but she'd be back.

Kilometer 3:

I'd heard a lot about how in a 5k, the third kilometer is hell. I didn't experience it that way, my overriding memory is just that it was long. I remember thinking plenty of times "Shouldn't we be near the 3km sign by now?" but still not even seeing it in the distance.

I was all flat now and I was moving along at what felt like a steady pace. I think I glanced at the watch here and was happy enough with what I saw, but I don't recall what it said.

Retriever lady passed me again somewhere in this kilometer so I just stayed on her shoulder. I was probably starting to pant a bit now and I don't think she was, so I thought I'd use her as a pacer. After a while though, the dog seemed to be struggling. I remember her coaxing it a bit, I don't think he was moving fast enough for her, and then eventually passed her and I don't think I saw her again.

I think I outran a dog guys. This is my biggest athletic achievement ever.

Kilometer 4:

Now shit started to get real.

This kilometer was my own personal little hell. I had no idea where I was with regards to my goal time, but I didn't feel I was doing well enough to be able to back off at this point. But that's all I wanted to do.

I really, really thought I didn't have it in my to keep running for another two kilometers. All of a sudden, everything wanted to stop. Just stop. Not even slow down, or walk, stop.

I focused on my breathing to try and get things under control. "You've let yourself get a little gassed, that's all" I was telling myself. "Deep, controlled breaths, calm down, you've got this."

I looked at the people ahead of me who I had been gaining on gradually and thought "Ease off just a little, stop gaining, keep that gap the same and you'll be okay". I kept telling myself that for a long time, but it seemed to work because eventually I passed the sign for...

Kilometer 5:

It's all a bit of a blur here. I don't think my brain was getting enough oxygen anymore. I didn't care about pace now, I just needed to keep moving. I thought I was going really slowly, but the people in front weren't getting any further away and only one person had passed me - a guy who looked like he was well into his 60s with not a bother on him - so I can't have been going that badly.

"There's a right turn up ahead. I looked at that on Google Maps yesterday and it's almost exactly 500m from the finish. Push!" I had nothing to push with.

We're on a slight downhill now, and I'm really puffing. Really puffing. 500m sounds like 500 miles to me. We're approaching the second to last left turn now and two guys on my shoulder spring into action. How long have they been there? I don't know, but they have good ideas. "Ok, push?" says one to the other. "Push." the other replies.

They move out to my right and pull ahead and all I can think is "Follow them!" The legs groan "Noooo!" but my brain is back in the driving seat. I will never catch them, but in following them I pass a few others.

And now I'm on the home straight. And look there's the finish and push and oh look it's closer and...

I'm done?

I'm totally done and the Garmin says...

24:51

Get out of town.

This is the best day ever.

After:

I go and get scanned and pant my thanks at the volunteers as I pass. Then a 1km jog back to the car at about 6:30/km pace and I can't wipe the grin off my face.

I might still be slow in the grand scheme of things, but I'm faster than I ever was before - faster than a couple of hundred other runners! This training stuff works, actually works. I'm delighted. The bug is back!

Fortunately the foot problem seems to have eased off today but the glute didn't. I'm not sure if it was worse or if I was just more aware of it because I wasn't bricking it about my foot any more. I was walking with a hint of a limp all day though.

Insomnia again last night meant I had to battle with myself to get out for this run - a couch nap seemed so much more appealing - but I managed to trick myself out the door by saying "Well at least do something, even if it's just 30 minutes easy" and then once we were outside revealing that "We're actually doing the planned run, sucker!"

40 Minute Tempo:

Hal reckons that the first and last ten minutes or so should be at easy pace, with the wedge in the middle at a higher effort. I turned off auto-lap on the watch this time for the splits (cheers for that suggestion last time Muppet). I could have planned my route better because the tempo section started on a 1.3km slight uphill directly into the wind. :rolleyes:

10 mins easy: 1.53km @ 6:32/km
20 mins tempo: 3.73km @ 5:23/km
10 mins easy: 1.61km @ 6:06/km

Total: 6.88km @ 5:48/km

One of those runs that I didn't want to do in the first place, suffered a bit during, and was really happy about afterwards. I was running with a limp by the end, but I stretched the glutes and, for now anyway, that seems to have helped.

Popped into the gym on the way home to weigh myself for the first time in ages. 76.5kg, down from 79kg. Happy enough with that, though at 186cm I wouldn't want to be getting much lighter so it's probably time to go order a pizza.

7 Miles Easy:

26°, sore glute, not easy. :eek:

Was smart and brought water this time.

Total: 11.2km @ 6:00/km

I'm not best pleased with today but at least I got something done. It was supposed to be 8x400m and the plan was to use the warmup to find somewhere appropriate to do them around here where most of the streets are packed with tourists.

During the warmup though the glute fired a warning shot and made it pretty clear that anything approaching sprinting today would be met with a swift and devastating response.

Perturbed, but not beaten I morphed this run into some sort of tempo \ progression frankenmonster. Auto lap was off for the 400m repeats but I started at about 6:40/km and finished at about 4:50/km.

Total: 5.03km @ 5:33/km in 27:52

Mixed feelings today. I was supposed to do 5 miles 'fast' yesterday, but with checkout at 11am and not getting back to Dublin until around midnight there just wasn't an opportunity. I was disappointed but I'm not annoyed about it because it couldn't be helped, life will get in the way sometimes, I've decades ahead of me to make up for it. Hopefully.

So I had to decide whether to do yesterday's 'fast' run today and drop the long run, or just carry on according to the plan. Since I keep hearing that miles are the most important thing, I thought I'd stick with the long run and add in a few quicker kilometers somewhere in the middle for the best of both.

7 Miles Easy:

It was a delight to be running in the freezing cold again. I actually mean that - it's so much easier! I genuinely felt like I could run forever today, that is until the last kilometer when my legs suddenly began to tire badly. My heart and lungs seem to be way ahead of my legs and I wasn't breathing heavily at any point during this, which is probably the source of my problems - it leads to me running farther and faster than my legs are able for I think.

1-5km: 6:15 - 5:51 - 5:56 - 6:00 - 6:00
6-10km: 6:00 - 5:27 - 5:35 - 5:47 - 5:21
11-12km: 5:44 - 5:58

Total: 12km @ 5:50/km

Garmin Connect tells me this was both my farthest distance and contained my fastest ever 10k. I really enjoyed this run and was full of the joys of living, everything was going superbly until later in the run when the issue I have been blaming on the glute for the last couple of weeks suddenly flared up. However, I now think I've been diagnosing it incorrectly because it seems like it might actually be my ITB. It's hard to say, especially because I thought that often manifested as knee pain which I'm not experiencing. I probably should just go to a physio, but I worry they'll prescribe rest and I really don't want to rest!

After about 11k, my legs suddenly tired rapidly and my form went to crap. I think this was because I had been compensating for the above issue for a couple of kilometers and I should probably have just stopped but I stupidly kept going. When I did stop, I was limping badly.

So yeah, mixed feelings. A really enjoyable run but I don't think I did myself any favours.

I have to do Jingle Bells next Saturday - it's not optional, so I'll wait until after that when I'll be between plans to deal with it.

On a brighter note, mileage is heading in the right direction:

Week|Km|mi
31 Aug | 4.13 | 2.58
7 Sep | 4.02 | 2.51
14 Sep | 9.89 | 6.18
21 Sep | 12.07 | 7.54
28 Sep | 8.06 | 5.03
Sep Total | 38.17 | 23.86
5 Oct | 20.00 | 12.5
12 Oct | 26.42 | 16.51
19 Oct | 29.09 | 18.18
26 Oct | 23.29 | 14.56
Oct Total | 98.8 | 61.75
2 Nov | 32.65 | 20.4
9 Nov | 16.92 | 10.58
16 Nov | 36.65 | 22.9
23 Nov | 27.06 | 16.91
Nov Total | 113.28 | 70.8
YTD | 250.25 | 156.4


Weird to think that my monthly mileage is still just a week's running for some folks.

I had serious thoughts about dropping this run out of sheer laziness which hasn't happened in a while. Being back in work after a leisurely week away has left my sleep patterns even worse than usual and I just felt knackered, but just as I was about to flop down on the couch some part of my brain put the foot down and out I went.

3 Miles Easy:

My legs felt pretty weird today, I guess Sunday's run was probably pretty tough on them even though I enjoyed it, but I didn't realise how much so until I hit the pavement today. My knees felt a bit tender, which never happens, and I was just generally feeling heavy, but it got easier as I went. Still, I kept it nice and slow because the last thing I want to do is hurt myself in the last week of the plan.

The glute / ITB / whatever it is was pretty quiet throughout which was great. I'll probably tear it to shreds come Saturday, but as long as I get to the finish line I can worry about that later.

Total: 5k @ 6:21/km

Firedance wrote: »

having learned that one the hard way, I'd worry about it now. Jingle bells is one race, of hundreds and it'll be there next year. Don't do anything that will keep you out injured or worse(!). Just be careful

In fairness I know you're probably right, but I just can't drop this race. It was the whole reason I started this plan in the first place, the reason I started taking running more seriously and I've committed with colleagues and we've even formed teams.

As persistent as this problem has been the last couple of weeks it has never prevented me from running, so it's not that severe. It's a worry, but I'm pretty confident that it'll go away if I just stick to short easy runs for a couple of weeks after the race. I hope.

Maybe being stubborn will mean that this is one of those lessons I'll have to learn by experience, but I won't be able to talk myself out of doing Jingle Bells.

Cheers guys, that wasn't intended to sound like a pity party, I just feel drained this week for whatever reason. But sure, I could have a good night's sleep tonight and wake up feeling great tomorrow - you never know!

I hope you all get what you're after tomorrow, even if it looks like the weather is conspiring against us!

Tony, have you thought about starting a log?