Plodder's progress

plodder · 21-12-2009 2:44pm #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 3:23pm

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

plodder · 21-12-2009 11:02pm

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 4:17pm

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 10:00pm

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 8:58pm

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 7:44pm

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 9:56pm

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 9:16pm

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 10:19pm

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 10:27pm

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 12:31pm

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 9:57pm

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 10:13pm

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 8:47pm

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 · 07-03-2010 11:03pm

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 8:35pm

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 10:37pm

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 9:58pm

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 11:11am

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 9:08pm

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 8:22pm

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 9:16pm

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 8:54am

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 9:45pm

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 9:17pm

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 9:27pm

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

plodder · 16-05-2010 4:00pm

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 10:46pm

plodder · 30-05-2010 5:11pm

plodder · 06-06-2010 7:22pm

plodder · 13-06-2010 8:54pm

plodder · 20-06-2010 9:14pm

Week of June 14
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|10 miles|8:11|
Thu|4.3 mile|9:00|
Fri|8 mile|8:10|
Sat|13.5 mile|8:15|

Total: 33

Had a warning shot across the bows this week, injury wise. Last Sunday, I did 10-12 miles PMP and on Tuesday, did another ten close to PMP, but felt a nasty pain behind the knee afterwards, which didn't go away for two days. Went to a sports therapist my daughter goes to, and she says I am just "pre-injury" there.

This is very frustrating because the work done over the last month has got me feeling very comfortable running 8:00 min miles for a reasonable distance. The problem I think, is two things. 1) hilly terrain - one of my favourite long routes includes a 3 mile downhill section, which is very enjoyable, but hard on the knees obviously and 2) running on cambered country roads. The physio says this is really bad!

So, this week, I missed the tempo run, but seem to have recovered ok otherwise.

It's a bit worrying since tomorrow is the start of the official 18 week program for the DCM. Even though, I'm a bit ahead of it now, I worry that I'll be able to keep up with it when it gets a bit more intense.

plodder · 27-06-2010 10:20pm

Week of June 21
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Mon|4.5 miles|8.8 m/mile
Tue|8.7 miles|7.3 mph| 4 miles @7:35
Thu|10.4 mile|7.3 mph|
Sat|5.4 mile|7 mph|
Sun|13 mile|6.8 mph|last 3 miles at 8:00 min/mile

Total: 42

Missed last Sunday's run so had extra run on Monday. Had two heavy duty sports massage sessions since knee problem appeared. It hasn't gotten any worse, and is actually feeling a bit better, except the dreaded "clicking" of the kneecap, which is a sign of it not tracking properly. I have a pile of exercises to do, which I hope will sort that out. Tuesday's tempo run felt ok. Long run on Sunday was enjoyable, if a bit slow. So, that's the first week of the schedule "officially" done. I'm glad to move on now, and start building it up a bit.

plodder · 04-07-2010 2:28pm

Week of June 28
===========

Day|Distance|Pace|Comments
Tue|8 miles|easy| incl. 10 x 100m strides
Thu|10 mile|7:45|Clontarf and Dollymount. Nice flat route.
Sat|4.5 mile|8:50|
Sun|14 mile|8:34|Windy! Tried a Hi5 isogel

Total: 36.5

Made a big effort to avoid the hills and crappy country roads this week.
Tuesday went to Newbridge house in Donabate. I've never run there before, but found an approx 3.5 mile circuit on grass and tarmac. The grass wasn't the most level, but it felt good anyway.

Thursday was a lovely run along seafront at Clontarf following course of the 1/2 marathon today - mostly grass and sand, with some tarmac/concrete paths as well.

Am down the West for a few weeks now, so it's back onto the roads again. At least, the knees felt ok today. But, it was very windy, and hard to keep an even pace.

plodder · 11-07-2010 10:47pm

plodder · 13-07-2010 7:33pm

Tue July 13

After the knee scare last weekend, I was on the point of not running at all this week. But, I went to the gym last night, and did some good work with lunges using light weights, and a pile of other exercises/stretches, for the glutes, quads, hips. And about 3 lengths in the pool (a future in triathlons, I think not). The day's rest helped obviously as well. So, the knee wasn't hurting at all this morning and I decided to head out (on holiday this week).

Was supposed to be 8 miles with 10x100m strides. So, I warmed up for about 1.5 miles and tried one stride. Felt a bit of a twinge, so decided to forget the strides. Ended up covering the 8 miles fairly well, as a kind of fartlek session. I'm avoiding the busier country roads, and sticking to the tiny boreens where you can run along the flattest part, which is usually in the middle.

If the knee gets any worse, I'm going to start dropping recovery runs, and go to the gym instead. Tomorrow supposed to be 5 miles recovery. I think I'll play it by ear and see how the knee is first.

pgmcpq · 13-07-2010 8:37pm

Hello fellow-sub-3:30-for-Dublin-er ! I've just been catching up on this log - since we're looking at similar goals for Dublin I'm interested to see how your getting on. That's a handy 5k time - that would do me right now (10k time is not shabby either)!

I'm prone to the odd knee niggle myself. Moving my recovery runs to grass and slowing down has made a difference (though keeping good form requires a bit more concentration). The P&D plans space the PMP miles out to once every two weeks.

Fair number of those runs look look pretty fast - I've been tinkering with different pacings while trying to follow the spirit of P&D. Are you targetting specific paces are you running for PMP, GA, LT etc ?

Good luck.

plodder · 13-07-2010 10:57pm

pgmcpq wrote: »

Hello fellow-sub-3:30-for-Dublin-er ! I've just been catching up on this log - since we're looking at similar goals for Dublin I'm interested to see how your getting on. That's a handy 5k time - that would do me right now (10k time is not shabby either)!

I'm prone to the odd knee niggle myself. Moving my recovery runs to grass and slowing down has made a difference (though keeping good form requires a bit more concentration). The P&D plans space the PMP miles out to once every two weeks.

Fair number of those runs look look pretty fast - I've been tinkering with different pacings while trying to follow the spirit of P&D. Are you targetting specific paces are you running for PMP, GA, LT etc ?

Good luck.

Hey, thanks. Well PMP is 8:00mm, so I've been trying to do a fair bit of that for my long runs. I know that is possibly over-doing it. Based on the 5K race I did (which surprised me) I thought my LT pace should have been 7:10 to 7:20, but frankly, I haven't been able to manage that and it's more like 7:35 and even that seems fast.

I'm quite heavy - well over 14 st. So, I've always felt that all my miles cause stress on the knees. So, I do push myself quite hard, thinking I might as well, because it makes little difference one way or the other. I'm running a lot on hills at the moment (unavoidably) so I try to work hard going up and take it easy going down. But, what's killing me is busy roads with bad camber.

I totally agree on concentrating on good form. Even today, it helped to think about how I was running. As soon as I can run on grass again, I'd like to get doing strides, as they do seem to help with that.

pgmcpq · 14-07-2010 6:40pm

plodder wrote: »

So, I do push myself quite hard, thinking I might as well, because it makes little difference one way or the other.

Interesting - I wonder if that's true. It might also be that you might benefit more than most from slower recovery runs if you could keep goo form. I don't know - it might be worth polling some of the more experienced opinions on that.

plodder wrote: »

But, what's killing me is busy roads with bad camber.

Ouch - that will do it. You have to run facing the traffic for safety so one leg is always has a longer reach ? Yes - that will lead to problems. I had a bout of ITBS last year and this is something I really pay attention to now. No alternative routes.

There's a couple of guys (one in my AG) I know who would be around your size who kick my butt every time. To be honest the first time I saw the guy in my AG - he pushed my out of medal position

my reaction was "Are you kidding me?" - but he flys (18.xx 5ks, 3x.xx 10ks) and I have to assume that he's getting the miles in. (Wish he'd take up American football

).

plodder · 18-07-2010 10:32pm

pgmcpq wrote: »

Interesting - I wonder if that's true.

It's probably complete bo**ocks to be honest. It's all very well if you can get away with it. But I feel I'm on the brink of injury right now. So, I'm obviously not (getting away with it).

It might also be that you might benefit more than most from slower recovery runs if you could keep goo form. I don't know - it might be worth polling some of the more experienced opinions on that.

Yes. Frankly, I'm so wrecked after this week's running, it won't be hard to do recovery runs at recovery pace.

Wednesday
5 miles recovery (9:25 pace). Knee was ok.

Thursday
10 miles with 8 @ 8:13. I'm not sure what this was supposed to be - probably LT, but a bit slow for that. Again, I was concentrating on foot placement, not to exacerbate the knee issue. Got lost on a bog trail, which slowed me down a bit too. Overall, was happy enough with it.

Saturday
4 miles recovery on grass at ALSAA (9:00 pace). Made mistake of going to gym afterwards and doing a bit too much with weights, ostensibly to work on knee strength, but I don't think it helped my long Sunday run.

Sunday
15 miles around Malahide, Portmarnock, Baldoyle, Donaghmede, Kinsealy. Weather was unexpectedly warm, and hadn't made a great effort with (pre)hydration or fueling. Result was at 11 miles, I felt a serious thirst. So, surviving the last 4 miles was quite a challenge. Amazing how the mind works to try and convince you to stop in situations like that. I started arguing with myself whether next week's training would be adversely affected by continuing on. Managed to finish it without stopping. But, that was definitely the toughest run I've done this year. (8:33 avg. pace)

Total for week: 42 miles

plodder · 23-07-2010 8:25am

Tuesday 20 July
10 miles with 5 @ 7:30

Wednesday
5 miles recovery (9:30) Really getting the hang of recovery runs now

Thursday
10 milles with 8 @ 8:00. a bit faster than intended, but it felt ok, and I've three days before the big pmp run on Sunday.

plodder · 25-07-2010 4:22pm

Sat 24 July
5 miles recovery (@ 9:17)

Sun 25 July
16 miles PMP. 5 miles @ 8:40, 10 miles @7:57, and 1 mile 9:40. First really challenging workout of the plan. I can't say I found it easy or even comfortable, but I got it done. It was an out and back 8 mile course. The nice tail wind I had for the start was quite a breeze in the face for 7 of the pmp miles. Also, I was glad to have done the pmp part close to the end. This is what P&D reccommend and I figured one mile is enough of a cool down at the end.

Miles for week 46

plodder · 02-08-2010 9:16pm

Recovery week.
Tuesday 27 July
8 miles @ 8:30 (mostly @ 8:00)

Wed 28 July
Missed 5 mile recovery run.

My bad!

Thu 29 July
9 miles, 6.5 @ 8:00

Sat 31 July
5.8 miles @ 9:15

Sun 1 Aug
13.1 miles @ 8:38

Total 36 miles

pgmcpq · 03-08-2010 3:47pm

plodder wrote: »

Sun 25 July
16 miles PMP. 5 miles @ 8:40, 10 miles @7:57, and 1 mile 9:40. First really challenging workout of the plan. I can't say I found it easy or even comfortable...

Nice going. Don't worry it is neither comfortable or easy for anyone !

plodder · 09-08-2010 9:13pm

Week starting Monday August 3rd

Tuesday
10 miles: 2.5 @ 8:30, 5 @ 7:30, 2.5 @ 8:20
Started out very lethargic, but feeling ok by the end.

Wed
4.5 recovery @ 9:20

Thu
11 @ 8:17

Sat
7 miles @ 8:44. Didn't feel good on Saturday at all. I developed a weird stiffness/pain in right side of shoulder/neck and the pain is excruciating when I twist my head at all. Also, had a fair number of pints on Friday night. So, it didn't sound great for the weekend's running. Barely managed 5 or 6 strides as part of a slow 7 miles. Not good.

Sunday
18 mile long run. Neck was quite sore but felt I could stll chance the long run. So, I dropped a bottle of powerade out on the route at about 12 miles, and took off comfortably enough. Was struggling a bit by the time I got to the bottle and was able to drink about half of it. I ended up pouring out the rest because running with a half bottle of sports drink sloshing around just turns it into froth. Anyway, long story short, was getting very thirsty by 14 miles and had to stop for a while. Last 2 miles were a nightmare. I just wanted to walk. So, overall it was a disaster. last week the 16 miles were nothing like as difficult. I can only conclude that the drinks on Friday night left me a bit dehydrated. Also, this is the first 18 mile run I've done in 2 years. So, it's bound to be a bit harder. But, I didn't think it would be this bad. Will have to be better prepared for this weeks 20 miler.

Total for week: 50 miles

plodder · 29-08-2010 11:19pm

Haven't updated in a while due to illness and losing my frickin Garmin USB stick.

Week Aug 16

Mon 7 miles @ 8:40
Tue 5.5 miles @ 8:35
Wed 12.5 miles @ 8:20
Thu 5.3 miles @ 8:50
Sun 20 miles @ 9:00

Total 50.3

Week Aug 23

Tuesday 7 miles @ 8:00
Wednesday 8.7 @ 8:06
Thursday 6.5 @ 8:40
Saturday 5 @ 9:00
Sunday 14 w 11 @ 8:07

Total 41.2

Been trying to catch up on plan after nearly week's layoff due to chest infection. This week was supposed to be a recovery week, but tried to do last week's PMP run today. It was a few miles short but it was ok.

plodder · 02-09-2010 1:44pm

Week Aug 30

Tuesday 7 miles @ 8:20
Wednesday 11 miles @ 8:05 (7 @ 7:45)

Yesterday's run should have been faster, but about 4 miles were on the beach at Dollymount, which was quite a (foot) drag (very enjoyable though). I really feel I should be doing more tempo runs, as they have been very much lacking the last few weeks.

plodder · 05-09-2010 9:00pm

Thursday

Rest day. Went for sports massage. Left hip was quite sore afterwards.

Friday

12 miles medium long run @ 8:25. Left hip was still quite sore after massge and I could feel it right through this run.

Saturday

Decided not to do recovery run as hip was still sore. A bit pissed off actually, that I was feeling worse after a physio session than before. Well actually, I know some bits of me are feeling better. There were some serious knots in both quads that are flattened out now and the ITBs are probably better as well, but whatever she did with my left hip was hurting. Though, in fairness she did say I might not feel great before Sunday.

Sunday

20 mile LSR @ 8:32. Quite happy with this run. Legs felt strong, though breathing was very laboured towards the end. Took 2 gels, and 500ml water.
Physio was probably right but will know for sure tomorrow morning :pac:

plodder · 07-09-2010 6:15pm

Week Sep 8

Monday

rest

Tuesday

8.5 miles including 6 x 600m (0.38 miles) with 600m rest

First attempt at a VO2 max session. Also, I never set up an interval session on the Garmin before, so like everything else with this thing, made a balls of it, the first time. Anyway:

Warmup 2 miles approx (unknown pace)

Laps
2 6:55 141bpm
3 8:10 144
4 6:40 152
5 8:30 146
6 6:30 150
7 8:09 146
8 6:32 155
9 8:25 147
10 6:33 150
11 8:09 139

Warm down 2.7 miles @ 8:00

Need to check if those paces are ok, but they seem to be around my last 5k race pace.

plodder · 08-09-2010 8:15pm

Wednesday

Christ on a bike! My quads were bloody sore after yesterdays session. Did 12 miles today @ 8:40 (131 bpm). and it took about 5miles for the pain to subside. Was caught out by the dark this evening as well. Lovely evening as I left, and complete darkness when I got back a few minutes ago. Will have to dig out the lights and stuff now.