What difference does a second make?

TheRoadRunner

going well peckham, you are making a quick recovery. Are you still planning on racing Saturday ? I'm gona give it a bash myself. It's a tough little course

Peckham

donothoponpop wrote: »

Its great to read these last few log entries, you're coming back quickly Peckham, some fast times in there, good man.

You know yourself the problems of coming back from injury and training too fast too soon, so I'm just curious as to how much you know when to put on/take off the brakes?

Cheers. This was actually my first ever injury lay-off so I'm learning myself how to come back from it. I'm basically going with what feels good, and kind of set targets of building up weekly mileage from 15 to 20 to 25 and so on until I get to 40. Base of the 15 to 25 mile weeks is a mixture of 5-7 mile runs, and will start moving up towards 10 mile runs when I get to 30 per week.

In terms of pace, I'm actually surprised how fast I'm going. It feels fine, so I'm happy enough to go with it. Will introduce speedwork maybe the week after next.

Peckham

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

going well peckham, you are making a quick recovery. Are you still planning on racing Saturday ? I'm gona give it a bash myself. It's a tough little course

Yep, still planning on racing. Anything you can share with me about the course?

TheRoadRunner

Peckham wrote: »

Yep, still planning on racing. Anything you can share with me about the course?

Hills loads of horrible little hills. check out photos fom last year on the results page http://bhaa.ie/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&sort=0&s=20080223144724740

Peckham

Early morning 5.12 miles @ 7:48 pace.

Went out slowly as still wasn't awake and decided to keep it slow throughout. Think every mile was pretty consistently around the 7:45-7:50 pace.

11 miles in less than 12 hours - may not sound like much to some of our ultra people here, but am considering it good progress!

Peckham

4.00 miles @ 7:35 pace

Felt good, enjoyed every minute of it. Really appreciating being back running. Wanted to get out this evening even though it's BHAA in the morning, as that race is just a speed session for me really.

MCOS

I'd say it does feel good Peckham to be back running! Could for you

ike

Well done Peckham - your patience seems to have paid off!

Peckham

4 mile BHAA today with some of the others here. Delighted with my second outing at cross-country, much more pleasant that the initial outing two weeks back!

Clocked the first mile much quicker than I planned (6:12), but was feeling good so kept the pace up and kept it pretty consistent to finish in 24:58. To be honest, I would have happily taken anything under 30 mins today.

donothoponpop

Peckham wrote: »

4 mile BHAA today with some of the others here. Delighted with my second outing at cross-country, much more pleasant that the initial outing two weeks back!

Clocked the first mile much quicker than I planned (6:12), but was feeling good so kept the pace up and kept it pretty consistent to finish in 24:58. To be honest, I would have happily taken anything under 30 mins today.

You were looking to go under 30 and you went 5 mins quicker than that?!? Jeez, that's some result, well done.

Peckham

donothoponpop wrote: »

You were looking to go under 30 and you went 5 mins quicker than that?!? Jeez, that's some result, well done.

Thanks, to be honest I actually didn't have a time in mind, which is very unusual for me. I was just going to race based on how I felt and keep in mind the bigger picture (i.e. getting back running consistently). I was very surprised at how comfortable I felt running at that pace.

SUNGOD

i think i can safely say without fear of contridiction............your back

great time peckham you must be very happy with todays race

Slogger Jogger

Its great to read about people coming back from a lay-off and doing well. Great running.

Peckham

Appreciate all the good feedback here. Thanks guys.

Spent about an hour in the gym today doing core and strength, which I think a focus on whilst I was injured was a big contribution to coming back well.

Good week this week. Total of nearly 25 miles, 5 days consecutive running and a speedy race. Very pleased with that.

Sosa

Peckham wrote: »

Appreciate all the good feedback here. Thanks guys.

Spent about an hour in the gym today doing core and strength, which I think a focus on whilst I was injured was a big contribution to coming back well.

Good week this week. Total of nearly 25 miles, 5 days consecutive running and a speedy race. Very pleased with that.

Well done Peckham,great running,after such a long lay off especially

Peckham

8.06 miles @ 7:11 pace.

It is for evenings like today why I run! Went out for a handy 6 miles, but was feeling really, really good. Not sure why, maybe it was the confidence from Saturday's race. Was consistently pacing at 7:15-7:20, and decided to stay out for an extra 2 miles, when I decided to go for a fast finish and did my final two miles at sub-7 pace.

Good start to the week, although I had better slow down the next few days!

ManFromAtlantis

very impressive. wish i could do that. keep it up. actually, garmin and the like bring a new dimension to these logs, take the guess work out of distance and time and make for more interesting reading.
4 months after the '1 second episode' how do u find it has affected your training or mind set. i mean was it a blessing in disguise as the sub 3 must be a big motivating factor for this year. i know for me being just over teh 4 hr mark, theres unfinished business and it helps haveing a blatant goal.

Peckham

Yes, my feeling now is very much that the "one second incident" was a blessing in disguise. If I had gone 2:59:59 I would have met my goal of going sub-3 and would have taken this year off marathon racing as I had intended.

If that had happened, I would have been less eager when coming back from injury (which happened during the marathon itself) and probably would have taken longer than needed to recover, and done less cross-training whilst injured. Basically I would be very unfit now, and probably have put on around a stone in weight.

My next target race would have been London 2010, which I wouldn't have started specific training for until post-Christmas 2009...and it would have been very unlikely I would have gone sub-3 again.

As things stand, I've entered the Berlin marathon to resolve the unfinished business, and who knows, maybe I can take a chunk off my PB.

Or maybe, I'm just trying to justify it to myself!

shels4ever

Peckham wrote: »

Yes, my feeling now is very much that the "one second incident" was a blessing in disguise. If I had gone 2:59:59 I would have met my goal of going sub-3 and would have taken this year off marathon racing as I had intended.

If that had happened, I would have been less eager when coming back from injury (which happened during the marathon itself) and probably would have taken longer than needed to recover, and done less cross-training whilst injured. Basically I would be very unfit now, and probably have put on around a stone in weight.

My next target race would have been London 2010, which I wouldn't have started specific training for until post-Christmas 2009...and it would have been very unlikely I would have gone sub-3 again.

As things stand, I've entered the Berlin marathon to resolve the unfinished business, and who knows, maybe I can take a chunk off my PB.

Or maybe, I'm just trying to justify it to myself!

I met a guy in the park the other day who ran 3:00:00 twice in a row, his third go at a sub 3 was a 2:54 so thats one way to do it

Peckham

Woke up Tuesday morning totally exhausted from Monday evening's run, so Tuesday turned into a rest day, which was probably needed.

Had intended to join Shels and Woddle at the Raheny 2 mile race last night, but a lack of transport prevented me from going. Instead I went for a run/gym combo....

3.25 mile run to gym, 50 minute weights and core session in gym, 1.9 miles home. Felt incredibly strong afterwards! Total run was 5.09 miles @ 7:40 pace.

Out again this morning for 4.17 miles @ 8:02 pace (feeling slightly tired).

Peckham

10.16 miles @ 7:15 pace

Have today off, so headed out for a morning run in the spring sunshine. Went off quite fast, but despite (kind of) wanting to slow down, it just felt good so I went with it. Delighted to get back into double-figure runs.

Peckham

Despite being in picturesque Donegal for the weekend and right beside a lovely lake, I decided to do my scheduled 5 miler on a hotel treadmill! Not sure why I did this - guess I couldn't have been bothered to go out and work out a route for myself.

Silly decision. Gym was too warm and the 5 mile took over 40 minutes and felt a lot more exhausting than it should have. Also the 40 minutes felt like 2 hours as it was so boring!

Still though, weekly mileage of 32.5 miles, so heading in the right direction. Planning on a 30 mile week this week as I've been building for the past few weeks, and then maybe step up above 35 next week.

May introduce some structured speedwork this week.

TheRoadRunner

Coming back nicely Peckham ! That was a great 10+ mile run the other day. How are the injuries coping with the extra mileage load ?

Peckham

Injuries seem to be coping very well with the extra mileage, and am surprising myself how easily I'm finding it to get back into the training mode. Want to take this week as a bit of a recovery week before building up the mileage further.

Peckham

Peckham wrote: »

May introduce some structured speedwork this week.

Well, I've introduced some speedwork this week, but unfortunately it's not structured!

Decided to do a 6 mile session that included a 3 mile warmup, 2 miles worth of intervals and 1 mile cooldown. Intervals were to be a small pyramid of 400-600-800-600-400.

Having been away from interval sessions for quite a while, I had lost all feel for it, and posted the following:
400: 1:11 :eek: (2:03 recovery)
600: 2:02 (1:57 recovery)
800: 2:52 (1:47 recovery)
600: eh, had to quit after 500 metres which I did in 1:40

So, total lack of structure, and two lessons learnt:
1) Work out paces that suit my current fitness
2) Include a "lap time" on my watch display so I can structure recovery times

Enjoyed it though, and feel good now!

Peckham

5.13 @7.37 pace last night

Kept the brakes on as body was a little sensitive after the previous night's poor speedwork session, and I'm hoping to get a short tempo run in this evening.

Plan for weekend:
Tonight: 8 miles with 3 @ 6:50ish pace
Tomorrow: Have to work, so will be a rest day
Sunday: 11 miles

Have decided to start on the Pfitzinger <55 mile plan as base training as I need to introduce some structure in my training. In terms of where it starts off, it's pretty much where I'm at at the moment, and will get 10 weeks of the plan done before I am taking a three week break. Will build back up again after my break and then probably use the 12 week <70 mile plan for Berlin.

cfitz

Peckham wrote: »

400: 1:11 :eek: (2:03 recovery)
600: 2:02 (1:57 recovery)
800: 2:52 (1:47 recovery)
600: eh, had to quit after 500 metres which I did in 1:40

1:40 at 500 - you hadn't fallen off the pace at all, how did you know to stop?! And looking at those times, are you sure you're a marathon runner?

Peckham

cfitz wrote: »

1:40 at 500 - you hadn't fallen off the pace at all, how did you know to stop?! And looking at those times, are you sure you're a marathon runner?

I knew that it was time to stop as my body was screaming at me!

Am definitely a marathon runner - I hate short distance speedwork, but don't mind tempo runs so much.

ManFromAtlantis

out of interest, whats your best 1 mile time on a measured/track tks. and do u think you could go faster?

Peckham

I don't know what my best 1 mile time is, certainly not on a measured track.

I know that part of my marathon training last year involved various 1,600 metre repeats (which I ran on clear stretch of pavement near where I live using a Garmin), but I can't recall what sort of time I would have been doing them (maybe around 5:30?). Certainly haven't gone sub-5 minute though (which I should consider as a goal).