Keep Improving

Ososlo

Really sorry to hear that. Horrible thing to happen. It's not easy for anyone - child or adult.

Good luck with the run tomorrow.

PDCAT

Ososlo wrote: »

Really sorry to hear that. Horrible thing to happen. It's not easy for anyone - child or adult.

Good luck with the run tomorrow.

Thanks Ososlo. She was a great little dog alright. Great attitude and lots of character in her. She'll be missed.

Haven't done a tempo run in a while, not looking forward to it. First two miles should be ok, after that i'm expecting it to be tough.

PDCAT

Wednesday 17/06/15

8 Miles = Total

Plan was to run 6 miles with 4miles @ tempo pace.
As the route i was using for this was hilly, i decided after a couple of miles to change it as i was struggling to hit the pace and with the third mile being very hilly, i switched to a more comfortable terrain which left me further away from home and thus the increase in miles.
Ran 1 mile warm up at (9.15) pace.
Then 4 miles @ 10k pace (6.59) - This was tough.
Cooled down with 3 easy miles (9.05) pace.

Glad that one's done. 4 mile at tempo pace was very tough.

PDCAT

Friday 19/06/15

4.00 - 36.48 - (9.10) Recovery

Shortened this run as i'd added a couple of extra miles to Wednesday's. Beautiful morning out again. Plan for weekend is Parkrun on Saturday and 14 miles on Sunday, then off to watch the Cats play Wexford.

PDCAT

Saturday 20/06/15

6 Miles = Total

Parkrun 5k

Done 2 mile warm up, then the 5k race and 0.9 mile cool down.

Another nice morning for this. After half a mile my pace was 6.20 minute per mile. I was lying in about 11th place. Passed three runners shortly after this. Completed first lap in 6.26 average pace, a little faster than last week. Over the next two laps passed most of the runners in front and i was in second place just a couple of seconds behind the leader and catching. Then out of nowhere, a lad came flying by both of us, same fella that cruised by me last week on the last lap. Anyway finished in 20.32 (3rd place), 20 seconds faster than the previous two weeks. Happy with that as it shows that i'm making some headway with the speedwork.

Sunday 21/06/15

14.00 - 2.05.12 - (8.56) LSR

Legs felt a little tired, not too bad though and time flew. Fairly comfortable run. Off to Nowlan Park, then to see Kilkenny beat Wexford, poor game and second half was a procession.

PDCAT

Tuesday 23/06/15

8.00 - 1.12.21 - (9.02) Easy

Legs a little tired yesterday evening after two long stressful days in work.
Was going to do the st abban's 4k club race tonight, but think i'll plan a few hill repeats instead. Haven't done these before, interesting to see how it goes.

PDCAT

Wednesday 24/06/15

5 Miles = Total

Decided to do some Short Hill Repeats instead of doing the 4k club race.
Ran a 2 mile Warm up, followed by hill repeats.
Hill had a steep gradient, decided to keep the reps to 30 seconds in duration with 2.30 minutes walk recovery afterwards. Ran these reps 90% of full effort (about 5.15minute per mile pace). Completed 8 of these hill repeats, could have done more except the right hamstring was cramping. Notice that since i started doing the faster stuff the hamstrings are feeling it. Will have to stretch more.
Another 2ish mile Cool down.

2.1M = 9.06 (pace)

8 X Hill Repeats (30 sec's/2.30 walk recovery)

1.9M = 9.11

PDCAT

Thursday 25/06/15

6.00 - 55.09 - (9.11) Recovery

Little bit of a slog, legs not feeling the love. Probably a bit of tiredness from the hill repeats the evening before.
Parkrun 5k tomorrow morning, and 14 mile planned for Sunday.

PDCAT

Saturday 27/06/15

6 Miles = Total

Parkrun 5k

Done 2 mile warm up, then the 5k race and 0.9 mile cool down.

A few faster runners for this run on Saturday, than recent weeks.After half a mile my pace was 6.21 minute per mile. I was lying in about 13th place.
Passed a few people, completed first lap at 6.21 pace 5 seconds faster than last week. Half way through the second lap, i checked my average pace and it had slipped to 6.28. Don't know what happened here, was finding it tough and also lost a little concentration. Completed the second lap at 6.28 pace, then just hung on as best i could for the last loop. Was battling it out with a tall guy. He had passed me on the previous two laps on the flat sections and i had passed him back both times on the hill. Anyway, in the last lap, he came flying past me again and i knew he was anxious that i'd get him on the hill. Unfortunately, while i closed up on him, i couldn't quite get there. Finished in 20.35 (7th place).

Sunday 28/06/15

14.00 - 2.06.42 - (9.03) LSR

Legs were fairly tired and found this a little tough.

PDCAT

Tuesday 30/06/15

8.00 - 1.12.22 - (9.02) Easy

Again, legs felt tired. Working evening shift this week, so normally find these runs tougher anyway.
Also, wore too much clothing when running today as it looked like it was going to rain when i left the house. Sun came out pretty quickly and it was boiling hot. Track session planned for tomorrow morning.

PDCAT

Wednesday 01/07/15

6.00 = Total Miles

Went into the Watershed track this morning.
Plan was to run 10 x 400m reps at approx 92 seconds with 200m recovery.

Not as tough as the last time when i could only complete 8 reps.

1.60 Miles (8.54 pace)

10 X 400m reps (90,91,91,91,91,93,90,91,91,92) 200m recovery

0.65 Miles (9.01 pace)

PDCAT

Friday 03/07/15

6.00 - 55.04 - (9.11) Recovery

Legs felt terrible at the start of this run. Working evenings, so that was part of it. However, felt absolutely shattered for the first few miles. Last couple of miles, legs woke up and found them pretty comfortable. Have to change around the run's a little this weekend as have visit to Croke Park on Sunday for Leinster Final. Will run LSR tomorrow morning instead and recovery on Sunday morning.

PDCAT

Saturday 04/07/15

16.00 - 2.26.02 - (9.07) LSR

Switched long run to Saturday as going to Croker early on Sunday morning. Decided just to run by feel, so was a little slower than normal. Ok until the last couple of miles, then i suffered abit. Was shattered towards the end. My own fault, took no water with me, felt dehydrated, fairly warm out as well, struggled home.

Sunday 05/07/15

6.00 - 55.02 - (9.10) Recovery

Legs felt better than i expected them to be. Only downside was a dog that has been chasing me for the last couple of years, finally decided to bite me. Tore my compression sock off. Only small bite mark on the leg and not sore. As i was going to Dublin that morning, i just put some antiseptic cream on the leg. Contacted the woman who owns the dog to let her know what happened. She apologized, i'll wait and see what she does about it.
Very good match in Croke Park, happy with that performance.

PDCAT

Tuesday 07/07/15

6.00 - 56.35 - (9.25) Recovery

Very tired run yesterday evening. Just slogged it out really. Cut the run from 8 miles to 6 as the plan at the minute is to do the Borrisoleigh 5K tonight and wanted to rest the legs somewhat.

Bulmers74

PDCAT wrote: »

Tuesday 07/07/15

6.00 - 56.35 - (9.25) Recovery

Very tired run yesterday evening. Just slogged it out really. Cut the run from 8 miles to 6 as the plan at the minute is to do the Borrisoleigh 5K tonight and wanted to rest the legs somewhat.

Might see ya there!

PDCAT

Wednesday 08/07/15

Borrisoleigh 5K

Ran this last year whilst training for Berlin. Went ok and got a 19.56 PB then. Had done approx 6 weeks of faster stuff lately and wanted to see where i was. About six weeks ago, i would have struggled to get a PB but was a little more confident now.
Plan was to get under 19.40, as close to 19.30 as possible. This is a very fair course, starts with a steep downhill and is fairly flat throughout with no real hills. I started pretty conservatively and let a number of people pass me. At the bottom of the hill, i knew my pace would be a little on the fast side, but wasn't too worried. Went through 1K in 3.48. Was expecting this to be a faster one due to the steep downhill at the start. Passing a few here, focused on two runners that had just passed me and were 10 meters ahead. Worked on keeping with them and at 2k passed both of them and moved on. 2nd K was 3.55, again was happy with this. Both KM 2 & 3 were ran on a very narrow lane with very poor surface, some potholes here too so not great for running fast.
3rd K was 3.57, caught up with a young lad here and we basically stayed together the rest of the race, passing people and running with him really kept me focused and forced me to keep my pace up.
Back on good road surface for the fourth kilometer and this was my slowest at 4.01. My time at 4k was 15.41, was feeling ok and was confident of a PB but not sure by how much. Passing a few people in the last kilometer. The young lad that i was running with sprinted towards the end and i wasn't able to respond. Gave it my best and sprinted knowing that every second would count. Crossed the line in 19.31 (PB by 25 seconds). Happy with this, shows an improvement of about half a minute with six week specific training. If i wasn't starting Chicago marathon training next week, i would love another couple of months at this. Think i could knock another chunk of it.

Friday 10/07/15

6.00 - 56.22 - (9.23) Recovery

Ran this late in the evening, plan to do a 10k race in the morning. Legs tired.

Saturday 11/07/15

Marathon Des Escartots 10K

Not sure this was a good idea. Another race less than 72 hours after the 5k on wednesday. Also, 6 mile recovery run completed late on Friday evening. Decided to give it a bash, wanted to see how i'd go. PB was 42.57 in January. Was hoping to get under 42 minutes. Wasn't sure how the legs would be after Wednesday's race.

Plan was to run at 6.45 minute per mile pace and see could i hold it. Started off fine. For the first 4k, managed to keep to this pace, running just behind the 3rd & 4th place women. At approx 4k, i was starting to struggle. The two women were pulling away slowly and one male runner passed me from behind. My average pace drifted out to 6.50. Long drag up to the 6k mark knocked the stuffing out of me. Then we turned for home, managed to stick with it for the last 4k. Pace held constant, I had a decent gap on any runners behind me and nobody was catching me. The three runners in front continued to pull away from me however.
Again coming into the finish, tried to increase the pace, average pace dropped to 6.49 and crossed the line in 42.26 (PB by 31 seconds).
Obviously, didnt hit the target so not overjoyed, but i think performance was affected by racing the 5k three days earlier.

Sunday 12/07/15

14.00 - 2.04.14 - (8.52) LSR

Early start for this one as had a busy day ahead. Legs felt pretty good actually and was comfortable throughout.

Ososlo

Wow! 2 lovely pbs in 4 days! You're flying it! Congrats and recover well

PDCAT

Ososlo wrote: »

Wow! 2 lovely pbs in 4 days! You're flying it! Congrats and recover well

Thanks Ososlo. A little disappointed in the 10k result but think i can go better on fresher legs.

PDCAT

Tuesday 14/07/15

8.00 - 1.12.06 - (9.00) Easy

Little tired as working evening shift and had a late night on Sunday with too many pints. Went ok though and pace was pretty comfortable.

PDCAT

Wednesday 15/07/15

6.00 - 54.12 - (9.02) Easy

Beautiful morning, legs sluggish due to working evenings, recovered after first couple of miles.

PDCAT

Friday 17/07/15

6.00 - 54.33 - (9.05) Easy

This was meant to be a recovery run, but ran it a little fast as legs felt ok. Plan to run my last Parkrun 5k tomorrow before commencing Chicago Training next week.

PDCAT

Saturday 18/07/15

6 Miles = Total

Parkrun 5k

Done 2 mile warm up, then the 5k race and 0.9 mile cool down.

This was my last Parkrun for a while. Six weeks ago, i ran my first ever parkrun. Plan for the last few weeks was to increase speed and hopefully see an improvement in my times. Again, started off conservatively in this run, passed a few people in the first mile. After that, basically a group of 5 of us ran fairly closely together for the remainder, swapping places regularly. Gave it everything i had at the end and managed to hold off the rest of the group. Finished in 20.12 (7th place).
Over the past five parkrun's my times have improved (20.51, 20.52, 20.32, 20.35, 20.12). Approx 40 second improvement over the six week period.

Sunday 19/07/15

10.00 - 1.29.18 - (8.55) LSR

Was supposed to run 16 miles, but due to helping out in a missing person's search, i had to cut this run short and decided just to run the 10 miles.
Walked about 8 or 9 miles later in the day during the search in tough terrain. Legs were pretty tired.

That's the end of the 8 weeks of faster stuff. Over that time, i ran 5 Parkruns, 2 Club races, 1 hill repeat, 2 track sessions, 1 tempo plus a 5k & 10k race. Times for shorter distances have improved. Would love to spend another couple of months at this, but Chicago Marathon Training starts on Tuesday. It's a 12 week training plan, so fairly short.
Ran 3.17 in London, goal for Chicago is 3.14 (Boston Qualifying time).

PDCAT

Tuesday 21/07/15

8.00 - 1.08.46 - (8.35) General Aerobic + Strides

Started P&D 55 mpw 12 Week Marathon Training Plan for Chicago this evening. I'm a little concerned with using such a short plan. I'm used to running 18 weeks plans mostly, shortest plan to date was 14 weeks.
Also, i find the 12 week plan is a little lower on miles than i'd like. First two weeks are 35 & 39 mile weeks. I've added an extra 5 mile recovery on those weeks. Have also added a 22 miler into the plan along with the two 20 milers. Have changed a few other things in the plan to increase the mileage.
The pace's i've chosen are a little faster than before. For instance the GA run above would normally have been ran at 9.05 - 9.10 pace, now it's 8.40 - 8.45. Shouldn't be a problem, just moving me out of my comfort zone a little.
Having said that, i ran last night's run too fast, need to slow down a little. Threw in a few strides on the last mile.

PDCAT

Wednesday 22/07/15

5.00 - 45.41 - (9.08) Recovery

Added this run in to this week's plan, just to get a few extra miles in. Went fairly comfortably, just needed to make sure, i kept to the correct pace.

PDCAT

Friday 24/07/15

9.00 - 1.17.35 - (8.37) General Aerobic

Again, ran this one too fast. Having a little difficulty keeping the pace between 8.40 - 8.45 as i'm starting off a little anxious making sure i keep the pace up. Ran most of this at 8.30 pace, slowed up in the last mile to bring it back a little.

Saturday 25/07/15

5.00 - 45.39 - (9.08) Recovery

Beautiful morning out for this run. Really enjoyed it.

Sunday 26/07/15

Ballynonty 10 mile

Plan was to run 13 miles with 8 @MP. Decided it would be more comfortable to travel the half an hour to Ballynonty and run this at Marathon pace. Three mile warm up before the start at (9.18 pace). Then decided to run all 10 miles at MP (7.10 - 7.15) pace.
First mile slightly uphill and kept pace at 7.15. Next mile downhill and pace picked up here. Average pace was at 7.06, after this mile. Started running with another guy here for the next 3 miles. We chatted for a bit over these 3 miles, so i knew i was feeling good as i'm normally not able to have a conversation when in a race situation.
He started to tire at half way, so i pushed on. Was feeling ok at mile 6, average pace at 7.11. We turned for home at this point and it was here that i started to feel it. My running was more laboured, legs felt heavy and i felt i was working a little. For the next two miles, i kept tipping away, passed three other runners and moved on from them. The last two miles i found pretty tough, was always confident of hitting the target, but felt i was close or on the limit keeping this pace.
Anyway, crossed the finish line in 1.12.28 (7.14 pace).
Happy enough that i kept to MP, but slightly concerned with how difficult the last two miles felt.

Monday 27/07/15

Slievenamon & Mount Brandon

Took a days holidays from work as it feels like a long time since i managed to get out on the local mountain areas. Used to hike these nearly every second week a few years ago, before the kids came along.
A few pints on Sunday night had me feeling a little underwhelmed, but i'd taken the day off work and couldn't be wasting it. Just myself and the wife headed off, firstly to Kilcash earlyish, about 2 hours in total (up & down), then drove to Graignamanagh and started on Brandon. Another 2 hours, legs not too bad, a little heavy from the day before.
Finished the evening with a dinner in Langton's. Was exhausted when i got home, so early to bed.

Tuesday 28/07/15

5.00 - 45.46 - (9.09) Recovery

Was supposed to run 11 miles this morning but swapped run's and moved Wednesday's run forward as i was concerned the legs wouldn't be in great shape after the exertions of the previous few days. In fact, legs felt good this morning, hope their up to 11 miles tomorrow.

PDCAT

Wednesday 29/07/15

11.00 - 1.35.23 - (8.40) Medium Long Run

Wasnt really looking forward to this as wasn't sure how the legs would be after recent days and also longest GA run at new pace. Again, started off too fast and was approx 10 seconds per mile ahead of planned pace until mile 7. I started to slow slightly for the last 4 miles to bring the average pace back slightly. Need to try and get GA pacing sorted.

Bez Bing

What paces are you targeting? P&D paces suggest that GA runs are run slower than MLR and Long runs.

PDCAT

Bez Bing wrote: »

What paces are you targeting? P&D paces suggest that GA runs are run slower than MLR and Long runs.

GA pace is 8.40 - 8.45 - according to P&D 15- 25% slower than MP. MP for this one is 7.15. I tend to go with 20%. Have done for the last two times i've used P&D.

LSR - As per P&D, i run first half MP+20% (8.40 - 8.45) in this instance. Second half i run MP+10% (7.58 - 8.03). Again only first week at these new pace's.

MLR - Again, the last two marathon's, i went with MP+20% for MLR which is 8.40 - 8.45 in this instance. My understanding was that these are to be run at a similar pace to LSR's. I didn't fancy running them any faster than MP+20%.

I'm using the same logic, i've used for the last two marathon's which went pretty well for me. Improved PB from 3.36 - 3.26 last October in Berlin. Then again improved from 3.26 - 3.17 for London in April.
I took another look at P&D book a few weeks ago to make sure the pace's were correct. I can do some adjusting if need be. For example run GA run 25% slower than MP which would slow them down alright.

Bez Bing

Using P&D I go with:
GA 15-25% slower than PMP
LR & MLR 10-20% slower than PMP.

SO for me PMP is 7:50 so that works out at:
GA: 9:01 - 9:48
LR: 8:37 - 9:24

I usually end up running in the higher of those ranges e.g. GA around 9 m/m and LR 8:45 m/m.

My first time doing the P&D plan so always interested to see how others are doing it.

PDCAT

Bez Bing wrote: »

Using P&D I go with:
GA 15-25% slower than PMP
LR & MLR 10-20% slower than PMP.

SO for me PMP is 7:50 so that works out at:
GA: 9:01 - 9:48
LR: 8:37 - 9:24

I usually end up running in the higher of those ranges e.g. GA around 9 m/m and LR 8:45 m/m.

My first time doing the P&D plan so always interested to see how others are doing it.

Yeah, quite a lot of folks on here have used P&D plan in the past. Majority seemed to have changed things slightly to suit what's best for them.
For me, i tend to go with the middle range for each required pace.
I found the LSR MP+20%, MP+10% run of great benefit and i believe this has been a key session in helping me improve my Marathon times.
I tend to keep the MLR run at MP+20% to give the legs a break, particularly if i have a Lactate Threshold or VO2 max session the same week.
What Marathon are you doing?
I assume you are going with the P&D 55 MPW plan.
Best of luck with the training.....