Keep Improving

PDCAT

Bulmers74 wrote: »

Best of luck with the doc - good idea to get it checked out

Thanks Bulmers - Bit nervous about it alright, but better to get it out of the way sooner rather than later.

PDCAT

No running today. Spent an 1.5 hours with the cardiologist today. He's very thorough. Done bloods, checked blood pressure, performed ECG and spent about 45 minutes with stephascope checking the heart.

Nothing really to report. Everything seems fine so far. He said there was a slight murmur, but by the sounds of it he wasn't worried about it yet anyway.

He has set up an appointment in the Mater Hospital for next week for an ECHO. He could have done it himself today, but seemingly the mater is the best place in the country to get the Echo done. He said giving my relatively young age:, young family, family history of heart trouble and running marathon's, it's a good idea to get it fully checked up there.

He may perform a stress test or put holter monitor on me after this.
So far, no problems but the Echo seems to be the important check.

He said, 'You'll probably be a basket case if i suggest you stop running until we get this checked'
I managed to convince him that i'd take it handy and slow down if i feel any problems when running.

I've a 10 mile with 6@LT tomorrow, 5 mile on Saturday and 20 mile on Sunday. No exactly an easy few days planned.

PDCAT

Friday 13/02/14

10.00 - 1.21.07 - Lactate Threshold

Plan was 2 mile @recovery, 6 mile @LT, 2 mile @recovery.
Knew this was going to be very tough, due to last mile of LT being uphill.
Plan was to keep pace between 7.13 - 7.15. Hold it as long as possible, if it started to slip outside this pace, then slow down.

2M = 9.08

5.35M = 7.15

2.65M = 9.11

Was finding it tough, but going ok until the final mile which is uphill. I slipped outside my target pace at 5.35miles and then slowed down to run last couple of miles at recovery pace.
If last mile was flatish, i would have been ok with the pace. Anyway, not too downheartened, a good session.

PDCAT

Saturday 14/02/15

5.00 - 45.56 - (9.11) Recovery


Sunday 15/02/15

20.00 - 2.57.49 - (8.51) - LSR

Legs felt tired/heavy from the very first mile. Probably due to Friday LT run. Anyway, plugged along and actually wasn't too bad in the end. Nice to get this out of the way.

PDCAT

Tuesday 17/02/15

6.00 - 55.06 - (9.11) Recovery

Back on the ring road last night. Bit of a slog as motivation low for this run. 14 miles planned around ring road tonight in the dark. Already dreading it....

PDCAT

Wednesday 18/02/15

14.00 - 2.07.30 - (9.05) Medium/Long Run

Drove the 45 minutes to Kilkenny from work to do this. Wasn't looking forward to a two hour + run around ring road in the relative darkness. Had to take about 5 diversions at each roundabout in order to clock up this mileage. Legs heavy for the first mile, then loosened out and was ok.
Got home at 8.30pm. After the shower and getting gear ready for today, not much time for anything else.
Happy to get that run done.

PDCAT

Thursday 19/02/15

6.00 - 54.57 - (9.09) Recovery

Struggled to keep the pace down on this one.

PDCAT

Saturday 21/02/15

6.00 - 54.45 - (9.07) Recovery with Strides

Childminding duties on Saturday so didn't get out to run this until the afternoon. Legs felt tired, threw in a few strides at the end.

Sunday 22/02/15

16.00 - 2.10.10 - LSR

P&D plan called for 12 mile at MP. I knew with the steep uphill for the last couple of miles to the house, i'd only be able for 10 mile at MP.
Rain was spilling down in the morning, so had planned to push this run to Monday. By 10.30am it had stopped, so out i went. Ran first 4.50 miles at (9.05 pace) then 10 mile at MP (7.35). Last 1.5 mile at (8.58 pace).
Started to rain very heavily for the last 45 minutes and i got soaked to the skin. Happy that i managed to complete the 10 mile at MP.

Took a rest day today. Have to travel up to Dublin tomorrow to the Cardiologist to get the Echo done, so no running tomorrow. This week is a relatively easy week anyway.

PDCAT

Wednesday 25/02/15

8.00 - 1.12.41 - (9.05) General Aerobic

Nice and handy run this morning after a couple of days rest.
Travelled to Dublin yesterday for the Echo. Will probably get the results in the next couple of days. Fingers crossed.....

PDCAT

Thursday 26/02/15

5.00 - 46.05 - (9.13) Recovery

Working evenings, not getting enough sleep lately (bout 6 hours per night) and felt really tired for this. Plan was to run 8miles including 5 X .5 mile @ 5k pace reps. Pushed these until tomorrow morning and ran Friday's recovery run instead. Felt rubbish, hopefully tomorrow will be better.

PDCAT

Friday 27/02/15

8.00 - VO2 Max Session

First one of these i've had to do in this Marathon Plan. Ran 2 mile warm up, followed by 5 X .5mile @ 5k pace with 3 minute jog recovery in between. Then ended with 2 mile CD.
Hadn't ran at 5k pace in a couple of months so legs felt under pressure. Cheated a little with recoverys, went a few seconds over as wasn't really feeling brilliant. Hit the required paces.

2M = 9.13 (pace)

.5M Intervals (6.19, 6.17, 6.16, 6.21, 6.20)

2M = 9.15

PDCAT

Saturday 28/02/15

8.00 - 1.12.00 - (9.00) General Aerobic

Due to childminding duties, didn't get out until the afternoon. Was supposed to do some strides at the end, but a niggling pain in my lower stomach area prevented me from doing these. This niggle has been there now for 2/3 weeks. Think i might have overstretched when doing speed work a couple of weeks ago and tweaked a muscle there.


Sunday 01/03/15

14.00 - 2.02.02 - (8.43) - LSR

Split this run into two sections. First 7 miles at MP+20% (9.05). Second 7 miles at MP+10% (8.21). Weather was brutal and found it a little tougher than i'd like.

PDCAT

Tuesday 03/03/15

7.00 - 1.03.48 - (9.06) Recovery with Strides

Back on the ring road last night. Run went ok, threw in a few strides at the end as the stomach muscle niggle wasn't as bad. Next couple of nights are 11 & 12 miler on the ring road. Can' wait until the clocks change at the end of the month and i can get back running the roads at home.

PDCAT

Wednesday 04/03/15

11.00 - 1.39.47 - (9.04) General Aerobic

Again, on the ring road last night. Legs felt good, enjoyed the run.
P&D plan had this as 11 mile with 7mile @LT.
However, as i'm planning to run in Ballycotton on Sunday, decided to take it handy. 12 mile planned for tonight.

PDCAT

Thursday 05/03/15

12.00 - 1.49.38 - (9.08) Medium Long Run

Legs tired from the previous nights run. Glad these last two nights are out of the way. Plan now is rest today, 5 mile recovery on Saturday and Ballycotton on Sunday.

PDCAT

Saturday 07/03/15

5.00 - 45.58 - (9.12) Recovery

Nice handy one, trying to save the legs for tomorrow.


Sunday 08/03/15

Ballycotton 10 Mile

Have never ran Ballycotton. Always thought it was too far of a drive and too much hassle entering with postal ballot. Decided this year as it was online entry to give it a go. I didn't plan on running a half marathon as part of London Marathon training so Ballycotton 10 mile would have to do.
Set off from home at 9.45am and was very surprised to be in the car park in ballycotton in about 1.35 minutes later. It wasn't half as far as i'd thought and got there in no time.

Immediately i noticed the excellent organisation of this event. Lots of stewards and garda in Village of Cloyne directing traffic, tons of signage in both directions (in and out of ballycotton village), loads of stewards, great organisation in the car parks, marquee to change into your gear, baggage area, refreshments etc......
Also Ballycotton is lovely village and there was a great atmosphere around. Knew lots of faces around aswell. I'll definitely be back again here. Might even bring the wife and two kids as well.

Anyway to the race... My previous PB was 1.13.05 (18 months ago). Was hoping to definitely go under 1.12 and maybe 1.11.
Didnt think i'd get under 1.10.

Miles 1-5 (7.01, 6.49, 7.01, 7.01, 7.12)

I lined up about 70-80 meters from the start line. Turned out this was ideal. For the first mile, i didn't feel boxed or slowed up too much. Not many people passed by and i didnt' need to try and get past too many slower runners. Hit the first mile in 7.01 which was a little fast for what i'd planned but i felt ok so i decided just to go with the flow.
At mile 2 my average pace had reduced to 6.55 and i was conscious that i might struggle later on if i went any faster than this. Second mile was ran in 6.49 and put this down to the downhill nature of the terrain.
Next couple of miles tipped by very quickly. I was passing a good number of people, moving from group to group, staying about 10 seconds and then moving on. Could feel the breeze in my face for the first few miles. It definitely wasnt strong enough to slow me down so i knew it would'nt help me much on the way back.
I started to struggle a little on mile 5, noticed my pace had slipped slightly. This was my slowest mile so far, reached the half way point at 35.15 (1.10.30 pace).

My main concern at this stage was to try and keep under 1.11 pace. I felt i wasn't going to get the sub 70 minutes especially with the last 1.5 miles being uphill.

Miles 6 - 10 (6.48, 7.05, 6.59, 6.59, 7.19)

At mile 6, turned back towards the village with wind behind me. Felt myself pick up the pace here and this was my fastest mile of the race. Was again passing lots of people over these miles. Passed through 10k at 43.44 (47 seconds outside my PB)
Legs started to feel it slightly over the next couple of miles. Focused on just keeping the pace consistent and not drop off. Passed a 16/17 year old young girl at this time, running with her father. She was jumping in the air and singing outloud. She had loads of energy and was cruising enjoying the jog. A few of us around had a good laugh and how we were struggling to badly and she was barely out of breath.

Around mile 7 marker i started to run alongside 3/4 other runners. Over the next few miles, we swapped places a number of times. I was trying to make sure to stay with them and not fall off the back of the group, even when i was finding it tough.
At the back of my mind was the hill over the last 1.5 miles. Wasn't sure whether to hold something in reserve or not. However, by trying to maintain contact with the group, i didn't have a choice.

At 8.5 mile mark, could see the road starting to rise, At first i thought, this is tough, however, it flattened out very soon and i was able to keep the pace up to the 9 mile mark. At 9 miles, my garmin showed 1.03.30.
6.30 for a sub 70 (not a chance), or sub 7.30 for sub 71.
Plan was just to dig in as best i could. Was looking at the distance on my watch a lot at this stage waiting for this bad hill to come, but in fairness it was only in the last .4 mile of the race that i felt any real hill worth talking about. I'm generally pretty good on hills due to the nature of the terrain i run at home. i plugged on up the hill sticking manly to the group of runners that i'd being with for the last 3 miles.
Managed to hang on and we closed on quite a few more people near the finish. Crossed the line in 1.10.31 (PB by 2 minutes 34 seconds).

Happy with this PB and couldn't haven given any more to be honest. It's probably the best i can give at the moment on a fair course.
Mcmillan is telling me 3.17 for London (which i think is a fair bit optimistic).
A really enjoyable day and will be back here again.

Monday 09/03/15

5.00 - 46.09 - (9.13) Recovery

Don't normally run on Monday's but have a few appointments this week, which will make getting my mid week runs in tight. Decided to go out this morning and move Friday's recovery run to Monday. Thought given the 10 mile race yesterday, this would be the most appropriate run to do.
Legs were a little tired/sluggish for the first mile, but after that were ok.

PDCAT

Tuesday 10/03/15

8.00 - 1.12.59 - (9.07) General Aerobic

Beautiful morning for this run. Not a cloud in the sky, nice cool breeze.
Only downside was my legs were not co operating. They were tired, particularly for the first few miles. Working evenings with 5 hours sleep not helping.
Plan was to run this 8 miles incorporating 5 x 600m reps. However, having just raced Ballycotton two days ago and plan to run Portlaoise 5k next Tuesday, i think, i'll keep the run's this week to GA pace or Recovery.

annapr

well done in Ballycotton! Nice pb.

PDCAT

annapr wrote: »

well done in Ballycotton! Nice pb.

Thanks annapr - pretty happy with it.

Sharkey47

Hi PDCAT , well done on your Ballycotton performance. That is great progress. Your training for London is clearly going well......

PDCAT

Sharkey47 wrote: »

Hi PDCAT , well done on your Ballycotton performance. That is great progress. Your training for London is clearly going well......

Cheers Sharkey47. Yeah training's going ok. Don't think i've improved enough to go sub 3.20. However, still a few higher mileage weeks to go.

PDCAT

Wednesday 11/03/15

12.00 - 1.49.15 - (9.06) Medium Long Run

Pissing rain for the first few miles, then sun came out and was a lovely morning for running. Legs felt good.
Three weeks on and i'm still waiting for the Echocardiograph results. Left a message with the doctor's secretary this morning.
There not exactly rushing back with the results.

Ososlo

I'd take that as a good sign that you're not hearing back but still I'm sure you'd rather get word so as to put your mind at ease. Hope you get sorted soon.
Well done in Ballycotton! Great pb! Things looking good!

PDCAT

Ososlo wrote: »

I'd take that as a good sign that you're not hearing back but still I'm sure you'd rather get word so as to put your mind at ease. Hope you get sorted soon.
Well done in Ballycotton! Great pb! Things looking good!

Thanks Ososlo. Yeah i was thinking the same myself. Wasn't pushing to get the results as i had convinced myself that because there was no contact from them, the results must be ok.
I woke up this morning and thought 'maybe they lost my results and that's why i haven't heard.

PDCAT

Mixed weekend of running. Some good, some bad.
Firstly, on Thursday of last week, finally recieved my results from the cardiologist. Had to ring the office myself to finally get them.
Everything normal. He ran through quite a lot of different tests, Left Ventricle, Mitra Valve,Systolic function, Wall thickness and a few others which i can't remember. They were all normal. Most of all no signs of Cardiomyopathy (my mother has this and my grandfather died of sudden cardiac arrest - suspected of this) Doctor told me with the ECG and tests he had already carried out, he was happy for me to continue to run.
He said, if i had any more concerns, he'd carry out a stress test & give me a holter monitor for a couple of days. So this was a big relieve to me. Has been in the back of my mind since before xmas. Glad i got it tested.

Saturday 14/03/15

10.00 - 1.30.55 - (9.05) General Aerobic

Childminding duties, so didnt get out until Midday to run this. Was anxious to get this over with, as i had 3 hours of cutting grass in the afternoon and was hoping it wouldn't rain.


Sunday 15/03/15

20.12 - 3.03.04 - (9.05) LSR

This was supposed to be 17 miles, but due to Ballycotton last Sunday, i had skipped my planned 20 miler, so decided to do it this week. Ran this by feel. Felt comfortable but would have expected a faster pace as four weeks ago ran this in (8.51 pace) quicker feeling very comfortable.
Anyway, second 20 miler done.


Tuesday 17/03/15

Portlaoise 5k

P&D plan had called for 5 X 1K reps @5k pace today, so i decided to run this 5k race in Portlaoise. In 2010, this was my first ever 5k and this has been my fourth time to run here.
The course consists of 2 laps of Portlaoise town centre, then an out and back route from the town, finishing back in town centre.
The route has three downhill sections with two steepish up hill sections. There are a number of sharp twist and turns around the town centre which really slow you down. My PB was 19.56 (August 2014), which i ran 7 months ago during Berlin training. I knew i would be struggling to hit a time i'd be happy with as i havent' done really any speed work in month's, maybe two sessions in the last 7 months.

I started in the sub 20 group, hoping that maybe i'd get something in the 19.4x's. The first lap of the town is always a bit chaotic due to the number of narrow turns, your basically coming to a stop on two/three occasions. I didn't see any distance markers (they may have been there). I basically ran using the mile pace on the garmin. Was hoping i'd be able to keep the pace around 6.17 - 6.20 per mile.
After first lap of the town, my pace was at 6.17, during the second lap this slipped to about 6.22 as i struggled up the hill. We then turned right, out the mountmellick road. I though't i'd make up time here as it's a long, straight road, however, i struggled to keep pace and slipped further to 6.24. I passed about 3/4 people on this section. We turned back towards the town and my pace was now at 6.26. I was still hoping i'd get close to my PB, maybe a sub 20. Along this section, back into town, i could see about 15 runners no more than 10 seconds ahead. I was working to try and catch some of them, but i never did, in fact most of them pulled away from me over the last kilometer.
As i entered the last 200 meters, a downhill section helped me drop the pace again to 6.24. I stopped my watch at the finish line at 19.57.
Looking at official results they have me down as 20.03.
To be honest 19.57 is probably more accurate, but i think they must be going by gun time. It doesn't really matter, it show's i havent' really improved speed wise over the past few months.

I don't think running the 20 miler, less than 48 hours earlier should have affected me much. I'd say the main reason for the 5k time is a real lack of speed work. Running two marathons a year, following 18 week plans with only a little speedwork incorporated is probably not enough to improve 5k time. Will have to look at this after London.....

PDCAT

Wednesday 18/03/15

9.00 - 1.21.39 - (9.04) General Aerobic

Drove into town, and ran around the ring road yesterday evening. Great to see the evenings getting bright. Probably the last run until October i'll have to do around the ring road, back to running at home now. Happy days.

PDCAT

Friday 20/03/15

12.00 - 1.48.43 - (9.03) Medium/Long Run

Lovely evening for this. This run was the first evening since last October i managed to get out on the roads at home after work. Really enjoyed this and great start to the weekend.

Saturday 21/03/15

7.00 - 1.03.38 - (9.05) General Aerobic

Didnt' get out until 11.30am due to childminding duties. This was supposed to be a 5 mile recovery but i added a couple of miles on, due to reduced mileage on last Tuesday's run. Also, ran it a little fast.

Sunday 22/03/15

Wicklow Half Marathon

P&D plan called for 18miles with [EMAIL="14@MP"]14@MP[/EMAIL]. I thought i'd have more of a chance of hitting this pace in a group than on my own. Left at 7am on Sunday morning, arrived up at 9am. Registered and done 3 miles before the run.

Plan was to keep the average pace at 7.30 minute per mile. First three miles were flattish enough - avg pace was moving between 7.25 -7.30.
Between miles 3 - 7, there are a number of steep short uphills. They knocked the stuffing out of me. Was finding them tough. Avg pace slipped to about 7.31 - 7.32. Second half of the race, not as bad.
My legs were feeling very heavy though, after all the uphill sections and mileage over recent days. Also even though temps were about 13 -14 degrees, it felt a lot hotter.
Luckily three water stations well positioned on the course, helped me. Held on to 7.30 pace fairly comfortable to the end. Tried to slow slightly in the last mile as i felt i was slightly ahead of time.
Couple of people passed me here, good atmosphere around the finish line. Passed through in 1.38.31, (7.30 avg pace), probably one minute faster than i'd planned.

This course is probably the toughest course i've ran and i'd include the Connemara half marathon aswell. It's definitely not a PB course (unless your PB is a soft one). Also, there are probably easier courses around to run it at MP pace. Good work out though and good organisation.

Ran 1.4 miles after, bringing it to 17.50 miles for the day and 50 for the week. Drove the 2 hour drive home and was back in the house at 2.30pm.

Out for a couple of pints/smokes last night. First drink/smokes since New Year's day. For some reason, was dying for a few last night.
Only 5 weeks to London. Can't say that the half marathon has given me much confidence. Found it tough running at that pace for 13 miles, however it was a tough course.

PDCAT

Tuesday 24/03/15

8.00 - VO2 Max Session

Sun was shining when i started to tog out for this run. By the time i got to the front door rain and hailstones were banging down.
Ran 2.4 mile warm up, followed by 5 X .37mile (600metres) @ 5k pace with 2 minute jog recovery in between. Then ended with 2.5 mile CD. Went ok, managed to hit all the required times. Ran a couple of them too fast.

2.4M = 9.20 (pace)

.37M Intervals (6.20, 6.14, 6.13, 6.11, 6.20)

2.4M = 9.19

career move

You're flying it! I know you feel like it's a slog to hit the paces but I think you're underestimating the effect the mileage has on you and the cumulative fatigue in your legs. That MP run at the weekend was excellent and another great v02 session today

PDCAT

career move wrote: »

You're flying it! I know you feel like it's a slog to hit the paces but I think you're underestimating the effect the mileage has on you and the cumulative fatigue in your legs. That MP run at the weekend was excellent and another great v02 session today

Thanks CM. Yeah that's what i'm hoping.
None of the run's (Portlaoise 5k, Wicklow MP run, or todays VO2 Session) felt easy. i'm hoping it's the increase in mileage affecting the legs - in the middle of a number of 50 -55 mile weeks which is high enough for me.