"If I'm not out there training, someone else is."

donothoponpop

Good to run with you today. I did push the second a bit too much- once I get on a track all the glory day memories come back, and I get too competitive. Ask Slogger Jogger, think my arms were raised in victory when I finished just ahead of him on our last track session:D

ecoli

16th Oct

AM lots of drills and speed development

PM 11.02 miles in 1.21.08 (7.22 mile pace)

Today was the last day of my level one coaching course. Have to say this was very good and a great chance to get insight from top coaches in the different disciplines. The only down side to knowing these coaches is on courses like this when they know who you are and they know that you can do these sort of drills with the correct technique you frequently get used as a demonstrator as such i spent most of the day doing drills of one form or another. This had me fairly tired and tender by the end of the day so the long run was a small bit harder than it should of been as the body was fairly tired still managed to get a long one in without pushing it as i have a session planned for the morning. Normally wouldnt do a session day after the long run but due to having to switch the week around a bit in terms of training had to be done

ecoli

Sunday 17th Oct

AM

Session:

1.29 mile warm up and drills

2 x (2 min hard, 1 min easy, 1 min hard, 30 secs easy 30 seconds hard,2 min easy,2 min hard, 1 min easy, 1 min hard, 30 secs easy 30 seconds hard) 3 min recovery between sets

Splits: 1.8 miles in 12.02 and 1.77 miles in 12.03

1 mile cooldown

Knew the session was gonna be hard as legs were still little tender from yesterday. Decided also to get away from the track for this one as in these early sessions be good to do them over hilly course for ankle strength so headed down to Tymon Park was happy with getting in the full four that i had intended to as the plan called for roughly 3-4 miles of solid running so was all good looking forward now to an easy day tomorrow

ecoli

Monday 18th Oct

AM

3.44 miles in 24.40 (7.10 mile pace)

PM

8.12 miles in 59.36 (7.20 mile pace)

Late night in work last night so i was kinda tired today as such run s were a little sluggish. Decided to have a bit of company on my evening run so i caught up with the training group from college as i still know alot of the team and was good to put faces to names i had heard had been recruited to the college this year.

ecoli

Tues 19th Oct

Rest

Felt a little tired this morning nothing major but as i have not had a day off in 12 days i thought better give my body a bit of a break so i took a complete rest day and will start back tomorrow fresh and raring to go. Ideally over the next while i wanna phase out rest days and alternate it with recovery days but i want to do this slowly to prevent getting run down or risking injury so i will try to go a little longer next time without the rest day depending on whether the body feels it needs it or not

ecoli

Wed 20th Oct

AM

7.51 miles in 53.56 (7.11 mile pace)

PM

3.75 miles in 26.37 (7.05 mile pace)

Felt i had a the spring back in the legs and the rest gave me that little extra something back that i was missing sunday and monday. My evening run didnt go according to plan i was working late so the plan was to get out on my lunch break at a reasonable hour which didnt happen due to somethin coming up. Finished work at 12 and decided to get a sneaky mid night run in. Have to say it was great running at this hour not a soul on the streets (funny looks from the odd taxi man that went by). I felt invigorated running at this hour and it got me thinking back to an interview with Felix Sanchez the 400m h guy who at the time was after going three years unbeaten. He talked of how he trained at four in the morning so that he had the mental edge over his competition. He said there was no better feeling than knowing by the time you have finished your hard work for the day your competitors were only getting out of bed. Like this the lads who i training with and race against came to mind curled up in bed as i was out clocking the miles

woodchopper

ecoli wrote: »

Wed 20th Oct

Like this the lads who i training with and race against came to mind curled up in bed as i was out clocking the miles

Well said although by the time you get up those same runners will have their morning run done.

ecoli

woodchopper wrote: »

Well said although by the time you get up those same runners will have their morning run done.

haha unfortunately sleep is the one aspect of my training that i dont do properly because I work shift work my sleep patterns are kinda all over the place. Was up and out the door early enough today for morning run for a nice 4 and a half miler

ecoli

Thursday 21st Oct


AM

4.77 miles in 32.17 (6.46 miles pace)

PM

1 mile warm up

Session: 10 x 400m w/ 1 min recovery

1 mile cooldown

Splits|76|73|72|74|74|73|74|74|74|75|75

+ Core work

Today felt really good and even though i was a little fast this morning the session went according to plan. The target according to the schedule was to hit these reps in 74. The idea of this session was to try and focus on maintaining form something i am not accustom to in the sessions so i went out on time for the first two hundred but then kinda fell asleep in the seconf half and closed in 76 which was too slow. The session got better after this and all in all it felt quite controlled

ecoli

Havent been updating lately becaus i have had two injuries come one after another but the last two days i have managed to run consectutively pain free. The watch was put away and did roughly 4 mile loop getting back to just running no worrying about pace or distance all i can tell you is that it has been SLOW;)
Hoping to build slowly and have knocked races on the head for the foreseeable future just build back up. Worst thing about it is aerobically i feel good however i am restricted by the body so just have to keep it very slow for now and build back up the mileage hopefully

Krusty_Clown

Sorry to hear that eColi. How did you pick up the injuries, if you don't mind me asking?

ecoli

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Sorry to hear that eColi. How did you pick up the injuries, if you don't mind me asking?

Minor tear in calf (prob put down to overdoing the drills) once i got over that i came back and on my first run back got a very bad knee pain. Rested for the week and now seems to be a bit better however due to work circumstances and few other things i couldnt get to a physio so just had to put my faith in rest and take things easy

ecoli

Sunday 14th

Still not wearing the watch as of yet the main thing is just keeping building without putting any pressure on myself. Did roughly 6 miles thou (my usual 4 mile loop plus a smaller loop added on) The pace felt like it was more than just "warm up pace" for the first time which i was happy about. I still get a very tiny twinge in the knee while running however it doesnt feel like it will cause the knee to go or even make things worse so i am starting to think this could just be down to the mind being protective rather than a physical thing

ecoli

Monday 15th

Managed to do 6-7 miles today and even tried pushing it for a bit to see would the knee hold up. Unfortunately didnt hold up great knee wasn in pain but i could feel a slight discomfort disappeared when i dropped the pace again. Coming near the end of the run it returned however. I think 6-7 is the limit that my knee can hold up so i think i will try to get to the physio in next few days because i dont think this will go away on its own. Gonna back off the mileage a bit again tomorrow just to be safe. Frustrating to say the least

kennyb3

Pity about that ecoli, hopefully you ll be back v. soon

ecoli

kennyb3 wrote: »

Pity about that ecoli, hopefully you ll be back v. soon

Only good thing is given the fact i can do 5 to six without pain i will still be able to keep the fitness up somewhat so hopefully physio tomorrow will give optimistic version. last injury i suffered he had fixed by the next day i was back running so pray that he can work his magic again (the guys is a Guru with injuries:p)

ecoli

Tuesday 16th

Today hit the pool as the leg was a little stiff today so said that i would get off my feet with a bit of swimming still get in a bit of training. Not a stronger swimmer to say the least so this was not that enjoyable still it served its purpose.

Came home and got in my push up challenge for the day...... up to 22 today which was harder than it should have been (probably from the swimming)

ecoli

Wed 17th

60 min gym work out + 30 min core

Hit the gym tonight for a good 90 min work out which i felt. Tried to focus on working on alot of the stiff that i neglect when in full training.

Thurs 18th

Down to physio today to confirm the injury was as i thought IT band. He was not a happy camper with the poor flexibilty in my hips (which I have neglected admitidely) so alot of flexibilty work over the next few days and i have to go back to him in 10 days.so hopefully be back in no time

ecoli

I have taken the leap of faith.The days of self coaching are behind me. After a long chat and discussion I have decided for the first time in three years to leave my training in the hands of someone else. Am going back to a coach that i was with for a brief period previously as i believe now is the best time to go back and i truly believe that he will get the best out of me. As a juvenille he lead me to my highest place finish in the All Irelands.

While I have faith in my coaching i think it is very hard to coach yourself. I found that bad performances often caused knee jerk reactions and changes in the overall plan and I think that letting someone else coach me will give me more stability in my overall training.

Will have to sit down in the next week or two to discuss everything but i have a bit of time given the fact I am not running at the moment

ecoli

Fri 19th


Light gym work and flexibility

Still not running yet though i feel the physio stretches are really helping (though i wouldnt have needed them if i hadnt ignored my stretching so much:o) Im not back with the physio till monday week as I am heading to New York tomorrow for a week but i intend to go back light jogging over there. Friend I am going over to is also coming back from injury so will have company for the very light very easy runs.
Once I am back its a meeting with the coach and the physio and hopefully i will be ready to go and am very optimistic about the coming season hopefully some good PB s in the 5k and 10k and the fact that the coach's running credentials are very notable in this area (they are his specialist events of recent years) I am really hoping he can push me on to the next level

ecoli

Week in New york where I took some R and R regarding everything, no running, ate what i liked, few drinks here and there and just completely unwound. Was exactly what i needed as it gave the knee chance to rest properly as only thing i kept up was my physio stretches and under no pressure to try and go back to soon.
Came back to the snow which was a suprise but probably a blessing in disguise as it prevented me from doing too much too soon so i took things nice and handy.

Monday 29th
2.1 miles easy

Tuesday 30th
4 miles easy

Wednesday 1st
REST

Thursday 2nd
5 miles easy

Friday 3rd
REST

Saturday 4th
7.43 miles easy

Sunday 5th
8.97 miles easy

Happy with how the week went as the snow prevented any bit of pace but the effort was still high. Only drawback was i couldnt get down to the physio for a follow up but thankfully the whole week went pain free.. Will make the trip down when the weather clears up properly

ecoli

Monday 5th

Rest

Graduated from college so being a busy day decided to take it off. Was meeting the new coach on Tuesday anyway so i said i would take this as my rest day and just follow his plan from tomorrow on

Tuesday

7.03 miles easy (7.36 pace)

After the recent fresh snow there was good grip on the paths so was running at what was first humanly pace i have ran at since i came back so i was happy.

After that sat down with the new coach and went through training history and aims for the philosophy. Was delighted to hear his philosophies were very similar to mine and the fact he has alot more experience and has been under some top coaches himself I feel i can completely trust in his training and what he has planned. He does want me to go back and focus on 5k and 10ks though so there will be very little racing of halves and the marathon is a few years down the line however the mileage will be as high as previous and even a little higher. In the mean time still building back so only 40 this week

ecoli

Wednesday 8th

6.31 miles @ 7.46 pace

Prob left this run a bit late but still got it done so i was happy. Having only 40 miles this week i feel kinda guilty but i suppose i should look at it on fact that i am 10 miles up on last week but also the fact that i am building back slowly after injury to prevent a relapse especially given that weather (though that is not an excuse)

woodchopper

Who is your coach out of interest or if you do not want to mention his name what is his training philosphy/training plans for you.

Regards Woodchopper

ecoli

woodchopper wrote: »

Who is your coach out of interest or if you do not want to mention his name what is his training philosphy/training plans for you.

Regards Woodchopper

Not gonna name him but he is very much Lydiard based with a emphasis on high mileage. Going to be focusing on 5ks and 10ks over the year with certain target races and PB times this year which he is optimistic i can achieve

ecoli

Thursday 9th

6.56 miles easy

Thinking to myself yes the thaw should make things easier. Boy was i wrong this was the hardest days running with the melted snow just making the ice slippier. Ended up spending most of the time running around a grassy field in my estate that is like .3 miles a loop roughly so needless to say this was probably the most boring run i have ever done in my life but the fact that it was not compacted snow meant it was safe to run on if not a bit hard

Friday 10th

6 miles @ 7.46 pace

with the melting ice still around i was not having a repeat of yesterday so I said f*^k it and hit the Tallaght Bypass. Dont think onlooking cars whizzing by me were to happy i was on the road but i pay my car tax so they can go to hell thankfully the hard shoulders were relatively clear of ice so i was happy to run along there. 14 miles left this week so hopefully they will be ice free and can get back to normality

ecoli

Saturday 11th

5.82 miles moderate pace

With the roads being clear i was what i thought was back to nice healthy pace which looking back may have been a bit of over enthusiasm

Sunday 12th

9.13 miles easy + 50 min flexibility workout

After spending the day in work watching the cross i was ready to go when my own training came along and had five of the club guys out so was a good run that progressively got quicker till we were at a a good steady pace dipping under 7 min pace. Nice but still controlled.
Also got my p90x package in the post yesterday so i decided i would do the stretching and flexibility workout which is broken into static first and then ballistic working on over all flexibility with alot of yoga moves. incorporating this i feel will really help injury prevention


Total Weekly Mileage: 40.85

ecoli

Monday 13th

Rest

Woke up today feeling a bit sore which was not a good sign at first thought it was the flexibilty work but after a while i was a little dizzy so i think i am coming down with something so I took today as the rest day wrapped up well and have spent the last few hours with hot water with lemon slices so hoping i will not be struck down with it and be back to normal tomorrow

ecoli

Tuesday 14th


4.36 miles @ 7.36 pace

This was a huge mistake. I thought i would be okay with what i now know is the flu with just a short light run. How wrong I was spent the rest of the day feeling even worse so i am just gonna have to stop training till I shake this. Getting really annoyed with all the false starts in my training need to get the consistency back

Wednesday 15th

Rest

Feeling a bit better today so hopefully i will be rid of this in the next day or two so that the week in terms of training is not a complete right off

TheRoadRunner

Join the gang. Haven't ran all week, fell like crap.