semper currere

Tues 20th Nov

8.25 km in 48:45, with last 800m at 4:50/km. Back to the dreadmill, which is proving not too dreadful at present. Heart rate was below 75% all the way, apart from the end bit at slightly quicker than PHMP. All good, more distance down. I'm hoping all this slow running will translate into endurance to hold the necessary speed for the half at Clonakilty!

Week (42) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Nov 19th - 25th | 1 | 8.25 km | 131.67 km | 745.76 km

Thurs 22nd Nov

8.18km in 49:30 @ 6:03/km avg. Easy session with heart rate peaking around 75% of max. Nowt else to report, really, except calorie counting and running are combining nicely for steady weight loss over the last 4 weeks (204-199lbs). Must keep this up!

Week (42) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Nov 19th - 25th | 3 | 24.55 km | 147.97 km | 762.06 km

Sun 25th Nov

19.75 km in 1:59:41 (378m climb). The weather down here is cold and very wet, but I was lucky enough to get a relatively clear window to get this done. 3 x 6.5k road laps incorporating a similar hill in ascent and length to the one towards the end of the Clonakilty HM. I'm still not able to run up this hill at anything close to race pace, but I'm getting stronger each week, and more used to it. Visibility wasn't great, so the scenery I enjoy wasn't really there this week, but that's ok. I'm really getting used to running on food intake from the day before, rather than taking anything on in the morning. I felt it occasionally today but managed to shake off any negative thoughts, with the help of another episode of 'Marathon Talk'. Was ravenous when I got back though, and was delighted to raid one of my frozen spagbols from the freezer for lunch. Job!

That concludes week 10 of the Hal Higdon intermediate HM plan, I'm really pleased with how it's going so far, not that I'm anyway confident of doing anything extraordinary at Clon, but that I'm enjoying my running, keeping to the schedule, and feeling progress. Good times!

Week (42) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Nov 19th - 25th | 5 | 53.5 km | 176.92 km | 791.01 km

This has easily been my best month of running since I started in February, and I'll hit 200km for the month, and 806km/500miles for the year before the end of November. It's been an up and down year running wise, so I'm really pleased to achieve this.

Tue 27th Nov

8.1 km in 49:22, at a nice slow pace. 10 x 400m intervals tomorrow.

Week (43) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Nov 26th - Dec 2nd | 1 | 8.1 km | 185.02 km | 799.11 km

Just entered next year's Cork City Marathon. It's going to be a busy year. :eek:

Fri 30th Nov

8.1km in 45:06, 2km warm up to 4.8k @ PHMP (4:52/km), and 1.3km warm down.

This was my fourth day running in a row, along with a game of 5 a side last night, the result being that this was hard work, and I was very glad to finish the prescribed 3 miles at HMP. Even allowing for this, I still think that this pace will be a little too fast to maintain for 21.2km on Saturday week.

Going to be running a fifth day in a row tomorrow with my LSR (which thankfully will be done slowly), as I'm busy most of Sunday. But I'll be able to sneak in a recovery 4-5k then if I'm organised!

Week (43) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Nov 26th - Dec 2nd | 4 | 32.2 km | 209.12 km | 823.21km

It's also the end of the month, and November has me quite quite proud of my progress this last month! Table time:

Month | Days | km
Jan | 0/31 | 0
Feb | 8/29 | 54.89
Mar | 13/31 | 126.29
Apr | 10/30 | 112.53
May | 9/31 | 117.27
Jun | 0/30 | 0
Jul | 2/31 | 13.02
Aug | 2/31 | 12.02
Sep | 8/30 | 61.03
Oct | 16/31 | 117.04
Nov | 21/30 | 209.12
Dec | 0/31 | 0
Totals | 89/335| 823.21

The goals for December are quite modest. I want to clock similar distance and session frequency to November (as part of getting a good base for when I start training for CCM at the start of February). I want to run a couple of 4 mile races also, just because they're there - the Simon Cork one on the 16th down by the Marina, and the Belgooly 4m on Stephen's day - weather pending! I want to lose another 4 lbs this month - a tough ask at xmas, but not impossible by any stretch. And of course, I would really like to beat 1:49:01 for Clonakilty in 8 day's time.

Thanks dna_leri, for taking the time to read and comment. I'm pleased with the progress, overall. I'll keep the head down and plug away.

Tues 4th Dec

8.18 km in 50:02

My body really enjoyed the couple of rest days, and I felt fit, strong and comfortable this morning. No niggles or protesting body parts. Hurrah for slow easy runs!

After all my mental yoyo-ing re: race pace and the effect of hills and the usual self doubt, I'm just going to go out and try hit 8 min miles for as long as I can, and worry about leaving it all out there, rather than chasing numbers. If I've done enough, the finish time will take care of itself.

30 min tempo tomorrow and probably a recovery pace 5k on Thursday.

Week (44) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Dec 3rd - 9th | 1 | 8.18 km | 27.02 km | 850.23 km

Sat 8th Dec

1.49 km warm up and 21.1km (Clonakilty HM)

Where to begin? I drove down nice and early, after a big bowl of porridge around 5:30. Collected my pack and watched the sun rise over Inchydoney beach with a nice hot cup of tea. Did a warm-up slow mile running on the beach, and got my stretching done in plenty of time for the official start time of 9:00am. So far so good.

It was clear from about 8:55 that no-one had a clue what was going on, from organisers down to the runners. They separated the marathon runners from the half-marthoners and 10k runners. The PA seemed loud, but unfortunately it was pointed in the wrong direction from the majority of the crowd of runners corralled before the start line. We were stuck waiting about 30 mins (I stopped looking at the watch) before we finally got going. Luckily it was a fine sunny day, and I was kept warm by the heat of the surrounding runners - the only handy aspect on a cold day. I had planned to follow pacers, but they were at the front by the time I spotted them, and out of sight by the time I crossed the start line. Probably just as well, I'd probably have blown up at some point at that pace, with those hills.

The race itself went as well for me as I expected, the hills slowed me up, but I ran a better half than I did in May. I am carrying more weight than I was then, and got round a tougher course in a similar time. The object of this race was to have something to aim for to get me back running, and contribute to base building for next year. I felt strong enough for 11 miles, and tired for the last two, a good indication of where I am.

My app clocked me at 1:48:12, but my official time texted to me yesterday was 1:50:13 - I'm a little disappointed with it, since it's outside my PB of 1:49:01. I have no idea where the extra couple of minutes came from, but whatever, I know exactly where I'm at for the next one.

edit: chip times in, 1:48:37, which translates into a 24 second PB. :P I'll take it!

So in summation, very delayed start, disorganised, ridiculously narrow first half-mile, but afterwards a very nice race with some sapping ascents, on a gloriously beautiful day. Some of the issues with organisation are outlined on the race thread in the events sub-forum. I'm loath to criticise any event, but I'll be giving this one a skip next year, I think the new location couldn't handle the numbers. But I'll keep an eye on reports, and a good review next year will probably bring me back the following year.

Week (44) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Dec 3rd - 9th | 3 | 39.13 km | 57.97 km | 881.18 km

Next week, it's some easy running to get the legs running again, along with a 3 x 2m at desired 10 mile pace. The preparation for Dungarvan starts here!

Wed 12th Dec

7.74 km easy in 43:45

Moved back to Cork City from the countryside today and celebrated by taking advantage of its night running facilities (ie street lights). Drizzly but not particularly cold, this was short and sweet enough, took the hills with only a slight change in effort compared to the pain they induced not three months ago. Visible signs of progress are always nice!

Week (45) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Dec 10th - 16th| 2 | 15.84km | 73.81 km | 897.02 km

Back to routine tomorrow, which means an early start for an early run. Better build up a calorie deficit for tomorrow's Xmas party!

Post above should read 18th of December.

Monday 7th January 2013

Easy run 8.08km in 48:19

That was the last time I was out. The usual rubbish of time shortage and colds and laziness and weddings conspired to keep me off the roads until now (it almost sounds like it wasn't my fault... which it totally was, barring the illness). So here I am in 2013, with a marathon in June to train for. So out I went in the wind and lashing rain, I tracked the time and distance, but didn't look at it once. The first 5km were 5:30 - 5:45 km splits, while the last three were slower uphill. Didn't feel particularly strong or clever, but I'm back on the roads.

New table, new year!

Week (2) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 7th - 13th | 1 | 8.08 km | 8.08 km | 8.08 km

Goal for the next three weeks is to get myself ready for the Dungarvan 10, I'll try do a 10m session this week and next week, to see where I am (far away, most likely, from where I'd like). But the predominant goal for January is base building, for when I start the marathon block in February.

Sunday 13th January 2013

Easy run 10.81 km in 1:07:09

What a week, after getting drenched on Monday morning, by lunchtime I was sneezing and by the evening I was in bed with aches, pains, fever and all the rest of new year cheer. Misery. It was a relief to get out last night, in the dry cold. Ran with some friends, nice to have some company.

Week (2) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 7th - 13th | 2 | 18.89 km | 18.89 km |18.89 km

Sun 20th January 2013

(Very) Easy run 10.95 km in 1:10:35

Slow, chatty run with a friend. Had to do this at 9:30 at night, due to a hectic week of birthdays and extracurricular activities. This week, it'll be back to 4-5 sessions. It HAS to be.

Week (3) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 14th - 20th | 2 | 21.8 km | 40.69 km | 40.69 km

I think 6-8km this evening of easy running.

Tue 22nd January 2013

Mixed run 10.4 km in 1:03:08

A friend of mine wanted to get out for his first bit of jogging in months, so I agreed to do some slow running with him in the middle of my run this evening. The breakdown was:

2.61km in 12:38 (4:50/km)
4.53km in 33:35 (7:25/km) Scorchio!
2.52km in 12:28 (4:56/km)
0.74km in 4:26 (6:00/km) Quick warmdown.

Weather was nice enough this evening, very cold, but no wind. Surface water is going to freeze soon though. 3 running evenings in a row now, which feels great, the habit is beginning to take root again, in the nick of time! The target is to get to around 120km by the end of January, maybe a little more all going well.

Week (4) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 21st - 27th| 2 | 17.05 km | 57.74 km | 57.74 km

Sat 26th January 2013

Easy/recovery run 10.71 km in 1:06:24

More company, I'm getting used to running and chatting at the same time. No more running loneliness! At least until marathon training starts officially... next week!

Had a couple of beers and glasses of red wine out at a birthday last night, so it was good to get out and run it out of my system. LSR tomorrow, first one of 2013! 14-16k should do nicely.

Week (4) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 21st - 27th| 4 | 39.57 km | 80.26 km | 80.26 km

Decision made, I'm going to give P&D's 18/55 plan a bash. It looks challenging, but I think the benefits will be significant. If the midweek sessions get too much, I'll know about it soon enough, and I'll slide into the concurrent week in Hal Higdon's intermediate marathon programme. The plan is to do the sessions in the mornings before work where possible. My working start times are flexible two weeks out of every four, which gives me a little leeway for the longer runs. I'm pretty excited that the training is starting, it makes the goal of the marathon a little more real and tangible.

So this week's plan is:

MON | TUE | WED | THURS | FRI | SAT | SUN |
Rest/Cross | LT 13km w/ 6.5km 10 mile pace | Rest/Cross | General aerobic 14.5km | Rest/Cross | Recovery 6.5km | Medium LSR 19 km


Now for the rain to feck off, and I'll be mint.

Thurs 31/1/2013

Week 1, Session 2 P&D 14km general aerobic

14.76km in 1:29:18; 6:03/km. Grand easy pace.

Contrary to my predictions on the CCM 2013 thread, the goal is still 3:45 for the marathon.

This was much easier than Sunday's run of a similar distance, despite being some 40 secs/km quicker. Effort was consistent and only became more difficult for the last km. Weather was dark, cold and a little rainy. Nothing really to report. My orange GT 2170s look to be finally finished: holes where my big toe should be covered, and another where my crazy right baby toe pushes against the fabric. But more significantly, the springy goodness is all gone from my upper foot. I got nearly 800km out of them, but it doesn't auger well for the life span of my new pair of blue GT 2170s. It looks like might need to go shopping again sooner rather than later.

Anyway...

Week (6) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 28th - Feb 3rd| 2 | 28.37 km | 122.63 km | 122.63 km

And it's the end of the month, so...

Month | 2012 Days | 2012 km| 2013 Days | 2013 km
Jan | 0/31 | 0 | 11/31 | 122.63
Feb | 8/29 | 54.89 | 0 | 0
Mar | 13/31 | 126.29 | 0 | 0
Apr | 10/30 | 112.53 | 0 | 0
May | 9/31 | 117.27 | 0 | 0
Jun | 0/30 | 0 | 0 | 0
Jul | 2/31 | 13.02 | 0 | 0
Aug | 2/31 | 12.02 | 0 | 0
Sep | 8/30 | 61.03 | 0 | 0
Oct | 16/31 | 117.04 | 0 | 0
Nov | 21/30 | 209.12 | 0 | 0
Dec | 7/31 | 81.67 | 0 | 0
Totals | 96/366| 904.88 | 11/31 | 122.63

Micilin Muc wrote: »

Be careful you don't push any harder than you need to on these General Aerobic runs. None of it should be difficult!

Cheers Micilin Muc! This was grand, but there'll be others where I'll be much more fatigued. I'm still trying out different pace ranges to begin with, but I'm a fan of keeping easy slow in general.

Sun 3/2/2013

Week 1, Session 4 P&D 19km Medium long run

19.53 km in 2:08:53 @ 6:36/km

Wanted to keep this nice and slow today. I'm conscious of the fact that I haven't got the base I should from January coming into this programme, so I took this quite easy. My longest run this year, a dull day in Cork, but running by the harbour and marina was nice enough. There's time enough for MP sessions and quicker general runs later on in the schedule. After all, this is the endurance cycle

Week (6) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 28th - Feb 3rd| 4 | 54.5 km | 26.13 km | 148.76 km

Nice one, week 1 of P&D down. No issues so far. Legs feel a little heavy but I expected that. They'll settle into it over the coming weeks as my fitness catches up. I'm running Ballycotton in 4 weeks, and I might try do some long 'intervals' at projected 10 mile pace during my general aerobic + speed sessions in the next few weeks, just so that it won't be a complete shock. Trying to find the balance between marathon training and tailoring a little bit of it to a 10 mile is tricky. I want to race it, because I want to see where I am, I'm a little at sea at the moment about what my optimal training paces should be. I'll stick with slow sessions slow and hard sessions hard for the time being.

Micilin Muc wrote: »

How about running by your heart-rate monitor? It's a good indicator in the absence of recent race times.

Cheers Micilin Muc, good call, if only I had one. Reading a lot on running by effort recently, and running by heart-rate would seem to be the way to go. It's a slippery slope though, if I start buying things like this, I'll be a cyborg by 2016. But my times will improve... decisions.

Thurs 7/2/2013

Week 2, Session 2 P&D 16km General aerobic run.

16.48 km in 1:40:02 (6:04/km); with some 10km of this done on grass.

This was a boring run which went on forever, mainly because I resolved to do as much of it on grass as I could handle. So up to the local park (Tory Top) and ran 8k of laps around the park, and then onto another field and did a few grass laps around that. I then went back on the road as the sun went down, and ran to the lough for a few laps of that. All rather aimless, but there's some benefit in there somewhere! I just didn't fancy doing one of my traditional 10 mile loops around the city and suburbs today, the thought of all that rush hour traffic made me decidedly unmotivated. I'm going housesitting for a bit next week in the country, and I think a few long runs out there are just what I need.

Other news, at this morning's weigh in, I came in at 192 lbs, which is a loss of 11lbs since October. Weight loss is no longer my main goal for running, but it is a significant factor in helping me achieve some running goals (marathon and then quicker marathons) and life goals (don't die with a heart encased in frytex-like material). Long story short, I'm pleased with that. I've cleaned up my diet over the last few months, making small adjustments, and now I'm getting a lot more water, veg, fish, and have moved away from my 80% sandwich diet (which I miss - I should try gatecrash some 21st's for my fix). The goal is to get down to 182 lbs or under for CCM.



Week (7) P&D 16 | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Feb 4th - Feb 10th| 2 | 29.74 km | 55.87 km | 178.5 km

Sun 10/2/2013

Week 2, Session 4 P&D 21km LSR w/13k @ MP.

21.23 km in 1:57:11 (5:31/km); MP avg pace 5:13/km

Beautiful morning for running. I was a little apprehensive about the MP this morning, as I've only ever run this distance a handful of times. But away I went, picked a route, and plodded merrily along in the sunshine. The aim for the marathon is 3:45, requiring an MP of 5:18/km or so. For this run, I set an arbitrary target of between 5:10 and 5:20 for the MP kms and if they become too tough, slide down to 5:20s to 5:30. I was a bit heavy legged for the warm up 4km, but running at MP was much less tricky than I had feared, and I felt strong until the last 0.5k of it (I've a lazy mind, always looking forward to the finish, even of a 100m stride!) So I'm delighted with that, no niggles or pains to report, and another week down.

Well, one thing to report, runs are definitely straying into bodyglide territory now! :eek:

Splits for the MP kms:

1 5:18
2 5:15
3 5:12
4 5:14
5 5:11
6 5:18
7 5:17
8 5:08
9 5:12
10 5:11
11 5:10
12 5:11
13 5:14

Week (7) P&D 16 | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Feb 4th - Feb 10th| 4 | 59.18 km | 85.31 km | 207.94 km

Tue 12/2/2013

Week 3, Session 1 P&D 16km General aerobic run

16.1 km in 1:36:24 (5:59/km), climb: 296 m

Grand 'soft' day down in Cork to kick off week three, and the first of the five day weeks in the programme. I went down to Belgooly this afternoon after work, and ran a couple of ~7km loops incorporating a spicy 1km long 90m incline, and a few other peaks and troughs. Hadn't done any sort of hilly stuff since before Clon in December, and it was slow enough in parts. But it was manageable, and really good for the legs. I'll try fit some more hills into the general aerobic runs over the course of the programme. Nice to be running out in the green fields again.

It's amazing how quickly the legs adapt to distance. I 'ran' 14k on a flatter route 16 days ago or so, my longest run of the year at the time, and I thought my legs would fall off. This was nice and easy.

Week (8) P&D 15 | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Feb 11th - 17th| 1 | 16.1 km | 101.41 km | 224.04 km

blockic wrote: »

Nice running scriba, P&D is tough going. On week 7 now myself but will be worth the rewards I hope!

Definitely, enjoying the focus it brings. Tough is good.

blockic wrote: »

Belgooly is my local village down home, not too flat at all around those parts!:) What loop did you take? Kinsale direction?

I was going to try explain it, but not knowing the area too well would make that tricky. My mam lives down there. It's easier to insert a wee map. Nice spot for running, sometimes joined by local dogs

blockic wrote: »

Ah I know the one, havnt ran that loop but drive it plenty of times. My old primary school is just off that loop so nice memories of the area! Hefty drags there over the first half, but a nice downhill finish! Just as well you didnt do the loop clockwise!! :eek:

The walkway there on the Belgooly to Kinsale road is a nice spot for a recovery run too!

Yeah, I've seen where it splits off to the primary school! This was my first run of it since the start of December, but I'll be doing it both ways once I get a little fitter :eek: . That walkway is a great amenity for the area, great to see it being used in the early evenings too. I did most of my runs for Clon last year out here, and it really helped with the hilly aspects of the course.

You're really motoring through your training, I foresee impressive results!