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

ECOLII

Hannibal Smith wrote: »

Lol...does a song ever come on and you think...jees I hope no one else can here this?

Unfortunately its more a case of "hope I'm not singing too loud" :P

I have been previously described as being born to be the embarrassing dad/uncle at weddings

ECOLII

pconn062 wrote: »

Well there goes any thoughts I had of tagging onto you next weekend! :eek:

To be fair the recoveries were fairly generous here so wouldn't read to much into the times in terms of being able to hold that pace on race day, I would like to but we will see how it goes next Saturday

ECOLII

Saturday 7 miles easy (7.45 min pace)

Handy one with "the exile" today around PP both were happy to take it nice and slow. Also booked in for a coaching presentation with Honore Hoedt in 3 weeks time. At the rate I am going I might as well move to Athlone for the month of Feb with how much I will be in AIT:D

ECOLII

Sunday 6 miles easy (no watch)

Handy one after work Garmin still MIA at the moment so stuck to a pre determined route legs finally free of the DOMS from early week gym

Monday Session

2.5 miles easy
1 mile jog bends/stride straights
3x(600, 1 min rec, 200) 4 min recovery between sets
2.5 miles easy

Splits
(1.45, 31.5)
(1.43, 33.7)
(1.43, 35.1)

There was goods and bads to be taken from this session

The good
- 600 splits generally on target)
- Form pretty good
- Felt much better doing this than the 500/300 sets a few weeks back at relatively same paces

The bad
- Pacing of session itself a little erratic, 1st set went too slow followed by too fast and the last 200 I switched off a bit having focused too much on the 600

All in all not a bad session though and nice to get it out of the way early week with race on Saturday

Dory Dory

pconn062 wrote: »

Well there goes any thoughts I had of tagging onto you next weekend! :eek:

ECOLII wrote: »

To be fair the recoveries were fairly generous here so wouldn't read to much into the times in terms of being able to hold that pace on race day, I would like to but we will see how it goes next Saturday

And here I thought he was referring to your choice in music and uninhibited singing, and not your pace!

ECOLII

Dory Dory wrote: »

And here I thought he was referring to your choice in music and uninhibited singing, and not your pace!

Quite possibly, I would imagine that pconn's ear for music might be offended by the likes of Flashdance and Dubstep alright

ECOLII

Tuesday 1.5 miles easy, 5 miles steady (6.40 pace), 1.5 miles easy

Nice handy one with TBL up around the waterworks this morning feeling generally pretty good, coming back down I got a shock and had to put the boot down a bit to keep with him as he started upping it more than I expected and caught me off guard.

Wednesday OFF

Sleep won out by the time I was able to get out the door after work, weighed up the few miles v the extra hour sleep in a race week I think it was the sensible option

Thursday Afternoon 4 miles easy (7.17 min pace)

Handy one around UCD on lunchbreak from work, great feeling seeing the gridlock not moving an inch as I skated by. Legs feeling really good for the weekend and should be good after a light session to keep ticking over later tonight.

TRR_the_turd

Rather you then me heading back out there this evening!

ECOLII

TRR_the_turd wrote: »

Rather you then me heading back out there this evening!

Thankfully it looks like I won't have to bring the shovel down to the track

ECOLII

Thursday PM

2 miles easy,
10x200m w/ jog 200 (90 sec) recovery
2 miles easy

Splits:
34.4, 33.5, 33.6, 33.2, 32.8, 32.4, 31.7, 31.3, 29.3, 28.9

Couldn't bail on this session or put it off with race on Sat so finished work and slowly trekked towards the track. As if I was getting a sign the wind was in my face the whole way urging me to head back to the confines of a nice warm house.

Didn't bother with drills or indeed removing layers and just went as is, this session was just about getting the legs turning over for the race. Was even nice to myself and ran with wind on my back for the simple reason being this was not a session I was supposed to be running hard it was all nice and controlled. Was great having the track to myself with a fresh coat of powdered snow

1st rep a bit too controlled and ended up a little slow but I got into my running after this. Got into a bit of an interesting game with myself analysing stride length of each rep in comparison to the previous ones as a result of the footprints in the snow (surprisingly very little difference in majority of cases)

I dunno whether the legs were loosening out, the wind was picking up, or my hands were losing dexterity due to the temperatures but what ever the cause the reps were progressively getting faster without much change in effort and was running nice and relaxed.

Around the 6th rep and I was coming down the last 100m and got the fright of my life getting hit with a clump of snow in the back of the head. 1st thoughts were that some thugs had spotted me on the track and decided to come down for a bit of fun (which could have ended up with me getting pneumonia camping out till they allowed me to leave). Thankfully as I finished the rep I realised that it was just as a result of the kick back.

Last few and really got the knee's driving and put caution to the wind slightly and decided to run best relaxed effort shocked to see a 28 on the watch although again the wind and cold fingers probably had alot to do with that

Nice little tune up session and legs are feeling good for the weekend

TRR_the_turd

what time is your race on at?
Have you ran on that indoor track before?

ECOLII

TRR_the_turd wrote: »

what time is your race on at?
Have you ran on that indoor track before?

Race is at 1.

1st time to race on it also my limited indoor career has spanned a few outings down to Nenagh as a youngster so it will be interesting to say the least however growing up funny enough I seemed to handle the banks pretty well and had 2 years where I set 1500m PB indoors and was quicker than my outdoor races.

Hannibal Smith

All the best for tomorrow!

Dubgal72

+1 give it socks

pconn062

See you down there tomorrow, I presume you didn't get called up to the elite squad and will be stuck with the rest of us plebs!?

KielyUnusual

pconn062 wrote: »

See you down there tomorrow, I presume you didn't get called up to the elite squad and will be stuck with the rest of us plebs!?

Damn it. I thought ye were both running on Sunday and I'd be able to catch the Battle of the Mods (or is it the Mod Vs. the Rocker?) on the live stream. Well, best of luck anyway.

ThebitterLemon

Best of luck Boss.

TbL

ECOLII

pconn062 wrote: »

See you down there tomorrow, I presume you didn't get called up to the elite squad and will be stuck with the rest of us plebs!?

Still pending Thanks to Rineanna I know that our 1st choice is down to race in Vienna this weekend so depends on if one of the younger guys was called up or not. Nothing said as of yet but I have made club aware that I am there to be called up if needed. Will find out in the AM

Netwerk Errer

Best of luck lad. Drive it home!

ECOLII

Probably the longest that I have gone without racing in quite some time so was looking forward to getting back out at it. I was really pumped for this race and felt a PB was on the cards given how training has been going.

Good to have a bit of company on the way down with the wolf. Down there and good to see so many boardsies around with Timmaay, pconn, thewolf and Chivito around the place.

Before the race itself noticed a few of the lads talking about pacing and figured it should be a tasty pace. When we lined up we were fighting for space on the start line as there were probably a few too many athletes. Gun went and immediately i got boxed and ended up near the back of the field and panicked a little. I wasn't letting myself get separated from the lads up front so sling shot round the pack out in lane 2/3 and came off the bend sitting in 3rd.

Hit the first lap seeing 33/34 click by and figured I was bang on pace although I was breathing a bit heavier than I would have liked. from here the laps started ticking by like lightning (especially with 2 clocks on the track you are effectively getting 100m splits). Didn't feel comfortable around the bends but I was ticking away with splits on pace (400m: 67, 600m: 1.42, 800m: 2.18 , 1km: 2.54). One lad had flew by me obviously chasing down the leaders but otherwise lads weren't pulling away ahead

It was here however that the lack of racing became apparent, as my old coach who was watching said it was about this point when stride changed from looking like I was pushing on (up on my toes) and reverting to my old style (flat footed) legs weren't too bad but I was fading. Next 2 laps weren't pretty as I saw 3.30 and 4.05 on the watch as a Celbridge guy passed me relatively easy. With 100m to go I figured I was still on for close to PB so really tried to up it.

It was only after when I saw pconn finish not too far behind did I get a better idea of my time being outside the 4.20s (he had timed himself where as the main clocks stopped for the winner)

Time was later confirmed as 4.23.53

Ultimately the time was not what I had hoped but I think I underestimated the need for getting a few middle distance races in before I would be race fit. Despite the time I am generally happy with the race, went for it on the day and just didn't have it. Them the breaks sometimes. Despite that I am optimistic that the training is going well as I know outdoors I have tended to clock closer to 4.26-4.30 in opening races previously.

Next stop Leinsters in 2 week

Sacksian

ECOLII wrote: »

Time was later confirmed as 4.23.53

Ultimately the time was not what I had hoped but I think I underestimated the need for getting a few middle distance races in before I would be race fit. Despite the time I am generally happy with the race, went for it on the day and just didn't have it. Them the breaks sometimes. Despite that I am optimistic that the training is going well as I know outdoors I have tended to clock closer to 4.26-4.30 in opening races previously.

Next stop Leinsters in 2 week

I'd say that's a great run-out (for both you and PConn) - I don't know how tactical/true the race was at the front, but the guys who finished first and second are both 4 minute 1500m runners, so they'll be looking to run a lot quicker by summer too!

And it's worth keeping perspective on where a 1500m fits into your overall priorities for the year.

You never know who's going to turn up, but you might get a better race at Leinsters.

ECOLII

Sacksian wrote: »

I'd say that's a great run-out (for both you and PConn) - I don't know how tactical/true the race was at the front, but the guys who finished first and second are both 4 minute 1500m runners, so they'll be looking to run a lot quicker by summer too!

And it's worth keeping perspective on where a 1500m fits into your overall priorities for the year.

You never know who's going to turn up, but you might get a better race at Leinsters.

Cheers yeah 1500 is not the focus it is just a product of working on a bit of speed at the moment and I am happy with how the training is going definitely feeling a lot better at these sort of paces.

Leinsters will be interesting in itself as I am running 800 there so will be completely out of my comfort zone but I am enjoying this type of training and I think it will really stand to me when I go back to the 5k/10k stuff in March

Calvin Johnson

Well done today.

What do you think is your best distance?

ECOLII

Calvin Johnson wrote: »

Well done today.

What do you think is your best distance?

10k/HM have always been my strongest I think personally

ECOLII

Sunday & Monday OFF

I could use excuses with life commitments but truth is laziness caught up with me a little (as well as tiredness due to about 7 hours total sleep between Sat and Sunday)

Tuesday

2 miles warm up,
1 mile jog bends / stride straights
2k, 1k, 1600 (400m alternations) w/ 5 min rec
2 mile cooldown

Splits
2k 6.42 (72, 91, 73,92, 73)
1k 3.31 (69, 1.44, 38)
1600m: 5.41 (92, 74. 1.40, 74)

All in all this was the poorest session I had done in a long while I had considered pushing it back to another day but I thought this was more laziness creeping in after last two days so figured it was best to just get it done.

Couldn't get the legs rolling on the faster splits no matter how hard I tried, I dunno if this was the cold, being a bit sluggish after two days off, or tiredness but either way I struggled to hit the paces I wanted though the 1st rep was consistent atleast

2nd one and I had made a glitch (using the house mates garmin with the lap splits showing as mine is still MIA) I left it unlocked and it had switched to overall time as opposed to the lap splits I had set up and being dark on the track I was unsure as to what pace I was running so the off was alot slower than intended as was the last 200m.

Corrected it for last rep and decided to switch up the order of the rep in the hope that it would warm the legs up to get going a bit faster however there was no joy and kinda fell apart on the second last lap

Not a good session so will just draw a line under it and look to the positives

- Got the full session done
- Effort was certainly there on the faster reps

ECOLII

Wednesday AM 7 miles easy (8.06 min pace)

Short turnaround for this one after the session last night but I welcomed the company and was good to get out of the way early ticked by very quickly with dublinrunner and yaboya

ECOLII

Thursday 10 miles easy (7.25 min pace)

Down to Corkagh Park with the Dr. Turd combo handy one and thankfully they waited as was held up

Friday OFF

Saturday OFF

Sunday 8 miles easy (No Watch)

Late one after work and needed to get out after a hellish week in all regards which ended up me missing 2 days and continually chasing lost sleep

Monday 5 miles easy + 4 miles easy (7.01/7.29 min mile pace)

Run mute in and out of lectures as I was stuck for time, pace dropped a little fast on the first one as stomach issues meant I was running with a purpose (making it to college in time )

Handy one on way out, definitely a better option than being caught in Town Traffic on a Monday evening

Tuesday Session

1.5 miles easy,
1 mile jog bends/ stride straights
(6x600 w/ 2 min rec) 3 min (4x200 w/ 1 min rec)
1 mile easy

Splits:
1.48, 1.49, 1.50, 1.50, 1.52, 1.52
33, 32, 31, 32

Body was sluggish today but starting to come back to myself. Kinda hoped I would perk up during warm up however sadly was not to be so I said to myself see how first rep goes (plan was 800s with long break). After 400 I knew it wasn't happening so I made the best of a bad situation and changed up the session. In the end turned into a decent Vo2 max style session something which hadn't done in a while. Finished the 600s and took a slightly longer break and through in a set of 200s to keep the volume up and get a bit of turnover work done. Finished up as a decent little session and did more for the fitness and confidence than would have either trying to slog through the original session or bailing completely.

Running can be a funny old sport at times

ECOLII

Wednesday 8 miles easy (7.11 min mile pace)

Getting back into the habit of my post work midnight runs Missed these to an extent :rolleyes:

Thursday AM 2 miles easy, 6 steady, 1.5 easy

Met up with TbL for this one, gone are the days of having to pace him through sessions now its a case of reeling him in when he is going too fast Didn't feel great for this one but considering I was out of the bed about 3 min before I hit off I will take it

ECOLII

Friday Session

2 miles easy
1 mile jog bends/stride straights
6x400 w/ 1 min rec
2 miles easy

Splits 70, 70, 70, 69, 69, 71

Late night one again and I was gonna bag it but I am making a bit more of an effort as I have gotten a little lazy last few weeks and missing a few runs I probably should have if I am truthful with myself.

Felt really good on the warm up and as I got going. Pitch dark again on all bar the last 10m of the rep so were all done on feel which was surprising considering how consistent the splits were and in controlled it felt, last one I was starting to feel but nothing too drastic.

Not a huge session but a decent one to keep the legs ticking over and happy to get it done

ECOLII

Wow 5th page of the forum, says alot

Saturday OFF
Sunday OFF

Saturday comprised of Donadea in morning, work in evening and then salvage the relationship that night following on from said absenteeism Was meant to do a few loops while in Donadea but between one thing and another by time I got around to it was too late as a physically distressed Dory Dory diverted my attention from my own run.

Sunday was working 10-7 on the back of 2 hours sleep so needless to say common sense prevailed and a long night sleep was in order.

Monday 4 miles easy (7.37 min pace)

This week will be all about tipping over as between one thing and another I will have the best part of 13-14 hour days from Monday through Thursday plus being race weekend I am not too worried about reduced load as long as I get out running.