Plodder's progress

plodder · 21-12-2009 3:44pm #1

Ok, decided to take the plunge and record my running here.

Having run 4 DCMs since 2004, all around the 4:00 mark, this year's (probably ambitious) goal was to try and hit 3:30. The quick buildup in mileage and a general lack of care towards flexibility definitely contributed to the plantar fasciitis that has plagued me since the Summer, and which scuppered the marathon plan. Over the last month seems like I've built up again to a 4 or 5 mile run every second day. So finally, there seems to be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, injury-wise.

So, the immediate goal is to gradually increase the mileage a bit, lose some weight (95 kg - 5 kg hopefully) and try to build up the pace again for one or two weekly runs. In the Spring then, we'll see about a program for next years DCM. Finger's crossed .....:pac:

kennyb3 · 21-12-2009 4:23pm

best of luck with the goals. had a touch of plantar fasciitis myself its a bit of a b'itch

plodder · 22-12-2009 12:02am

Week 14 December
==============
Tue: 4.5 miles @ 8:17
Thu: 4.7 miles @ 8:07
Sat: 4.5 miles @ 8:15

2 x gym sessions: 20 min & 360 kcal on rowing machine, plus some weights

plodder · 27-12-2009 5:17pm

Week of 21 Dec
============
Mon 4.5 mile @ 8:40
Wed 5.3 mile @ 8:00
Sun 6 mile @ 8:14 (tough, quite hilly, 95m up and down)

Calories for week: 2600

plodder · 03-01-2010 11:00pm

Week of Dec 28
============
Tue: 5.7 mile @ 9:00 (hilly course)
Wed: usual 20 min rowing erg.
Thu: 5.7 mile @ 9:00 (same course)
Sun: 6 miles @ 7:57 (happy with that. Cold definitely makes you run faster)

Had bit of a cold/throat infection on Fri/Sat. Seems to be gone now.

The PF seems to be holding off well at this stage, so I'm going to add about 10% miles every week now, probably to the weekend run for a few weeks.

Total kCal: 2800 running + 360 rowing
Mileage: 17.4

plodder · 10-01-2010 9:58pm

Week 4 Jan
========
Tue: 6.5 mile @ 8:40 (on road, icy)
Fri: 4.83 mile @ 8:14 (Malahide castle, through crunchy snow)
Sat: 4.5 mile @ 9:00 (Alsaa, lovely powder snow and sunshine

)
Sun: 4.8 mile @ 9:00 (Malahide castle again, snow nearly gone, but ground rock hard)

Total: 20 mile

had hoped to start adding mileage to one weekend run, but with the weather, was glad to get out four times, in the end.

plodder · 17-01-2010 8:44pm

Week of Jan 11
============

shamelessly copying table used by shels4ever ... :pac:

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Monday|-|-|Gym
Tuesday|4.5 mile|7:56|
Wed|4.1 mile|7:45|Malahide/Portmarnock coast rd.
Fri|4.5 mile|9:12|nice and easy
Sat|4.2|7:53|SDCC XC, serious mud and very tough, but really enjoyed it.
Sun|4.5|9:09|PF starting to creak again, need to work on it.|

Total for week: 21.8 miles

Happy enough with progress so far. Am slightly worried though that the PF will cause problems as I build it up more. Have felt a slight tinge in the right glute as well all this week (same side as the PF).

plodder · 24-01-2010 10:56pm

Week of Jan 18
============

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Monday|4.5 mile|8:00|
Wed|5.3 mile|8:16|
Fri|4 mile|8:30
Sat|5|7:06|Eircom XC. Great race, really enjoyed it.
Sun|6.5|9:00|Nice recovery run, but feet are needing a rest.

Total for week: 25.3 miles

Whole week was run in the dark except for race on Sat. The roads around here are completely eaten up after the recent freeze. You can't even avoid the pot holes by running in the middle of the road. Can't wait for a bit more day light at this stage.

plodder · 31-01-2010 10:16pm

Week of Jan 25
============

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|4.5 mile|8:00|
Wed|5.3 mile|8:50|
Fri|4.8 mile|7:50
Sat|4.1|8:30|
Sun|4.5|8:20|

Total for week: 23.2 miles

Easy week. Had intended to run in Raheny, but having raced the last two weekends, I didn't feel up to it. Work really getting in the way as well

plodder · 07-02-2010 11:19pm

Week of Feb 1
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|6.5 mile|8:00|
Wed|5.3 mile|8:30|
Thu|4.7 mile|8:05
Sat|5|7:26|NCF XC, enjoyable race as usual, great tussle at finish.
Sun|6.5|9:00|

Total for week: 28 miles

Jimh · 07-02-2010 11:27pm

Hi Plodder,
I am looking at doing my first Marathon to celebrate my 50th birthday on the 31st of May in Newry. I'm building my mileage up as well but I am following Hal Higdon's Novice programme and I did 22 miles last week including my first 10 miler on Saturday. I started at 240 Lbs in January and I am down to 222Lbs now. I am hoping to be down to 190lbs by then and looking for a 4:00 target:)
I am doing 4 runs a week and one cross training session

plodder · 08-02-2010 1:31pm

Jimh wrote: »

Hi Plodder,
I am looking at doing my first Marathon to celebrate my 50th birthday on the 31st of May in Newry. I'm building my mileage up as well but I am following Hal Higdon's Novice programme and I did 22 miles last week including my first 10 miler on Saturday. I started at 240 Lbs in January and I am down to 222Lbs now. I am hoping to be down to 190lbs by then and looking for a 4:00 target:)
I am doing 4 runs a week and one cross training session

That's an impressive weight loss. It will help a lot with your goal I'd say. Good luck with it. I am struggling to lose weight personally. Of course, it's not rocket science - my diet is still crap :rolleyes: Hope to sort it out now that I'm back running regularly.

plodder · 14-02-2010 10:57pm

Week of Feb 8
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|6.5 mile|8:00|
Wed|5.3 mile|8:55|
Thu|4.7 mile|7:30|
Sat|5|7:11|ALSAA XC, fast course, happy with consistent pace, felt strong
Sun|9.8|8:55|Finally starting to add some miles for a weekly long run

Total for week: 31.3 miles

plodder · 21-02-2010 11:13pm

Week of Feb 15
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|4.5 mile||
Wed|5.3 mile||
Thu|4.7 mile||
Sat|4.5||
Sun|9.8||

Total for week: 29 miles

Crazy week. Just did not have time for running. Mid week runs all done late at night. My stupid forerunner 405 then lost the whole weeks data when uploading to my laptop, hence no pacing

plodder · 02-03-2010 9:47pm

Week of Feb 22
===========

Another disastrous week (for running). Too much going on at the moment, and got sick over the weekend as well. Not going to even bother describing the runs.

Total mileage: 13 miles

Had a peculiar problem with my Garmin this evening. Every time I stuck the Ant stick into the laptop USB, the laptop just powered off immediately. I thought the stick must be faulty.

Turned out, after walking around with stick in my pocket all day, a piece of silver paper got lodged inside the plug part of the stick, and caused some kind of short circuit. The USB circuits on the laptop obviously just power off the laptop to prevent damage. So, by just prising the silver paper out with a knife, it's all working ok again.

plodder · 08-03-2010 12:03am

Week of Mar 1
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|4.5 mile|8:00|
Wed|5.3 mile|8:22|
Fri|5.3 mile|8:15|
Sat|6.8|8:25|
Sun|10.4|9:00|Hard route, first 5 very hilly. Took a wrong turn and ended up doing 2 miles more than intended.

Total for week: 32.3 miles

Happy enough with this after the last two weeks

plodder · 15-03-2010 9:35pm

Week of Mar 8
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|4.5 mile|7:50|
Wed|5.3 mile|7:24|
Thu|4.5 mile|8:30|
Sat|4.0|8:40|
Sun|8.5|8:15|

Total for week: 27 miles

A little less than I'd like to have run, but was happy with the pace of the longish one and the Wed night run.

plodder · 21-03-2010 11:37pm

Week of Mar 15
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|4.5 mile|7:50|
Wed|6.5 mile|8:00|
Fri|4.0 mile|8:11|
Sat|4.0|7:06|BHAA NUIM XC. Hoped to go below 7 min/mile, but happy enough anyway
Sun|12.5|8:34|Hard after the race yesterday, but need to start increasing the long runs.

Total for week: 31.5 miles

plodder · 28-03-2010 10:58pm

Week of Mar 22
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|4.7 mile|8:00|
Wed|5.3 mile|8:30|
Thu|4.5 mile|8:30|
Sat|4.2|9:00|
Sun|12.5|8:35|

Total for week: 31.2 miles.

Going to try and keep at this weekly distance for a few weeks. Suffering a bit from an old groin strain and don't want to let it get any worse.

plodder · 05-04-2010 12:11pm

Week of Mar 29
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|4.5 mile|8:20|
Wed|6.5 mile|7:54|
Thu|6.5 mile|8:30|
Sun|12.5|8:06|

Total for week: 30 miles.

Missed one run due to Easter :mad: But happy with long run on Sunday. Decided to push it a bit having had two days rest before hand. It's a tough, hilly route though, and I felt it afterwards.

plodder · 11-04-2010 10:08pm

Week of Apr 5
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|6.3 mile|8:40|
Wed|5 mile|8:00|
Thu|4.7 mile|9:50|
Sun|12.5|8:40|

Total for week: 28.5 miles.

Missed another run this week. And the old groin injury is flaring up again :mad: . My daughter tells me that groin problems are often the result of problems in the back, and granted, when I was runnning only 3-4 days a week I was doing much more core training (ie. back and stomach etc.) I definitely think I've been negleecting the back and glutes in particular. Think I need to pay some attention there.

plodder · 18-04-2010 9:22pm

Race report Great Ireland Run

Thought I'd just write this down while the details are fresh. I haven't done many 10ks and the last time I did this one, was 2 years ago (at 45:40). So, I was hoping to break 45 min this time.

This was the first time I've ever done a decent warm up for a road race. Don't know what the problem has been before - maybe the numbers around, or more likely I didn't want to waste energy. But, I think the warm up helped big time today. I was able to take off pretty much straight at my target pace.

I got a great start, near the front, and didn't have any problems with traffic - just had to slow a little at the first bend.

I set the watch to only show average pace (which I've never done before). For some reason, the pace was way off at the start,much slower than what I was running. It took a few km before it sorted itself out. I normally run showing current pace and average pace, which I think is better.

Anyway, to beat 45 minutes, I needed to average 7:14 min/mile, and I started a good bit faster. The first 5km (down hill mostly) averaged 6:50. The uphills were excruciating of course, and I slowed down a good bit, ending up at an average 7:00 pace - and finished at 43:31, which was two minutes faster than my previous GIR. Don't know whether that was a good strategy (if you could call it that), but I seriously doubt I could have run that race any faster.

plodder · 18-04-2010 10:16pm

Week of Apr 12
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|6.5 mile|7:45|
Wed|5.3 mile|8:25|
Thu|4.5 mile|7:30|
Fri|6 mile|8:13|
Sat|3 mile|9:05|
Sun|6.3|7:00|Great Ireland Run

Total for week: 31.3 miles.

No long run this week due to race on Sunday. Did a good bit of work on core exercises to help groin problem. Seems to be working as it's not getting any worse.

plodder · 26-04-2010 9:54am

Week of Apr 19
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|6.5 mile|8:00|
Wed|5.3 mile|8:20|
Thu|4.7 mile|8:00|
Sat|6.2|7:00|BHAA K club race|
Sun|12.5 mile|8:30

Total for week: 35.2 miles.

plodder · 03-05-2010 10:45pm

Week of Apr 26
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|8.7 mile|8:00|
Wed|4.5 mile|8:20|
Thu|4.7 mile|8:00|
Sun|12.5 mile|8:25|

Total for week: 30.4 miles.

Groin problem flared up working in the garden on Sat, so missed run that day. Not too bad on Sun, but still there. Need to see a physio for this

plodder · 09-05-2010 10:17pm

Week of May 3
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|6.5 mile|8:30|
Wed|5 mile|7:30|4 miles @ 7:15
Thu|4.5 mile|8:30|
Fri|4.5 mile|8:30|
Sat|3.1 mile|6:40|Le Cheile 5K time 20:51
Sun|12.5 mile|8:40|last 5 @ 8:20

Total for week: 36.1 miles.

I'd never run a 5K road race before, so had no idea how to pace it. But, interestingly, McMillan's prediction was only 3 seconds out, based on what I did, based on my 10K GIR race a few weeks ago. Really enjoyed the race. I didn't expect to be close at all to a 20 minute time. So, that's something to aim for.

theboyblunder · 09-05-2010 10:27pm

well done. the name is starting to look like a misnomer!

plodder · 16-05-2010 5:00pm

Week of May 10
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|6.5 mile|7:46|
Wed|5.3 mile|8:40|
Thu|5.2 mile|8:00|3 miles @ 7:20
Sat|4.4 mile|8:50|
Sun|12.5 mile|8:30|

Total for week: 34 miles.

The Thursday run was an attempt to do 3 miles at LT pace, but I found it incredibly hard. I actually tried to keep 7:10, but I think now that is way faster than my current LT really is.

plodder · 23-05-2010 11:46pm

plodder · 30-05-2010 6:11pm

plodder · 06-06-2010 8:22pm