Keep Improving

PDCAT

Monday 26/03/12

5.12 = 51.12 - (10.00) - Recovery

Not much to say. Gorgeous evening for this. Lovely run. Legs feeling a little heavy still. This is third run in a row i've noticed this.

PDCAT

Tuesday 27/03/12

6.29 = 56.47 - (9.02) - Easy

Another beautiful evening for this run, apart from swallowing hundreds of midgets. Legs felt better than last few days.

PDCAT

Thursday 29/03/12

5.12 = 46.28 - (9.04) - Easy

Last run before Connemara Half. So plan was to run this slower, about 9.30/10 minute pace. However, during the run i felt good and thought that as mcmillan has 9 minute mile my easy pace, then it wouldn't make much difference to run this a bit faster. Have two days rest before half.
My Half PB is 1.46.43 (only have ran 1). Targeting sub 1.43, looking for 4 minute PB which maybe a lot to ask if the course is hilly.
Will see how it goes. Looking forward to running this as the scenery around there is beautiful. Just hope we get decent weather for it.

PDCAT

Sunday 01/04/12

Connemara Half Marathon

First let me say, what a great event this is. Great location, Great Organisation and Great Weather on Sunday. Absolutely loved it. Have been depressed since i got back home from Galway yesterday morning. Would love to do this again.

Atmosphere in Leanane for the couple of hours before the race was brilliant. Spent most of this time, sitting down soaking up the sun.
My PB for half was 1.46.43 which i got in Kilkenny Half last September. My Target for this was sub 1.43. I was looking for a four minute PB on a hilly course. Was concerned that i was aiming too high but i have seen good improvements lately with decent PB's in Dungarvan 10mile & Portlaoise 5K.
i was planning to target 7.50 minute miles, taking the first 1.5 miles handy up the hill and making back time between miles 2 - 9.

Started off around half way back in the pack. This was a bit of a mistake as i spent the first 1.5 mile zigzaging my way around people. At least this prevented me from starting off too fast. At the top of the hill my average pace was approx 8.35. Was happy enough with this and then started to push passed loads of people bringing this average back down.

From miles 2 - 4 were the same. Moving passed big bunches of people, feeling really good, weather was beautiful and took a few glance's around at the scenery. Hit mile 4 at 32.11 just over 8 minute mile pace. Felt i was having to work harder than i'd like to be hitting this pace and was a little concerned weather i would be able to hold it never mind increase the pace.

From miles 5 - 7, i stuck behind a good looking blonde girl who was moving fairly nicely at 7 minute miles. We were passing bucket loads of people. These miles brought my average pace down to approx 7.50, where i wanted to be. Around this time, i noticed the pace was starting to slow, so i passed this girl out and moved ahead. She seemed to fall back pretty quickly.

From miles 7 - 9, i kept ticking away nicely at approx 7.40/7.50 pace. Was finding this fairly comfortable now and was quietly confident that unless i fell to pieces i would at least have a PB at the end of this run.

Heading into mile 9 i was waiting for the hill. Was continuing to pass lots of runners, didnt' really feel any hill until just before mile 10. This is when i started to feel it. i was still passing a few runners, but my pace had dropped and i was fighting hard to keep a decent pace up.

I knew that the hill finished at the mile 11 mark, so i kept pushing knowing that the top was coming up. At the top i was only 6 seconds outside sub 1.43 pace. My legs felt ok and i knew that unless i fell apart i should reach my target.

From miles 11 - 13 - Started pushing as hard as i could coming downhill. Was still passing a few runners. My aim at this stage was to try and get a decent PB and i wanted to finish strong. The last half mile of the race my legs were starting to die, was pushing as hard as i could and for the first time in the race i was feeling it. Was really happy when i eventually got to the finish line.

Overall really happy with my performance, decent improvement, felt strong and really enjoyed the event.

Time was 1.41.39 PB (PB by 5+ minutes - on a hardish course).
Target time for the year was sub 1.43 - achieved.
Four PB's in four run's so far this year.

Hoping to do another Half in the summer. Think sub 1.40 would be the goal on a flat course.

Planning to run 5 Mile run in Killarney this Friday night. Will just jog along at 10minute mile pace and take it easy. Climbing Carrautwohill on Saturday and more climbing on Sunday.

belcarra

PDCAT wrote: »

Sunday 01/04/12

Connemara Half Marathon

First let me say, what a great event this is.
From miles 5 - 7, i stuck behind a good looking blonde girl who was moving fairly nicely at 7 minute miles.

Reading between the lines!;)

Great run and a savage time on that course which is as tough a road HM as you will get in Ireland I would imagine!

I have plans to go to Dundalk for a HM on Wed., May 9th which is supposed to be a fast course so may be an option for yourself??

PDCAT

belcarra wrote: »

Reading between the lines!;)

Great run and a savage time on that course which is as tough a road HM as you will get in Ireland I would imagine!

I have plans to go to Dundalk for a HM on Wed., May 9th which is supposed to be a fast course so may be an option for yourself??

Haha:D

Yeah, nice weather meant more flesh on display. Not that i was looking:)

Thanks, i think i'll look into Dundalk and see. Plan is to run Amsterdam Marathon in Oct, might look for a half to do which would fit into this training plan. Have soft 5mile/4mile/10k pb's which i'm hoping to break before this.

PDCAT

Tuesday 03/04/12

6.29 = 1.02.25 - (9.55) - Recovery

Freezing cold last night, didnt want to do this at all. Wife sick, so she wasn't running. Knew i'd feel guilty if i didn't go out, so off i went.
Expected legs to be sore/tired after half on Sunday but surprisingly they felt good. No soreness and no real tiredness. Took it handy and ran at a slow pace. After a short distance, i warmed up and really enjoyed this run.

Have to juggle around my running this week, so going out tonight for an easy 5 miler.

PDCAT

Wednesday 04/04/12

5.15 = 50.46 - (9.52) - Easy/Recovery

Legs felt tired yesterday evening doing this run. Will rest today and run Killarney 5miler tomorrow evening.

PDCAT

Friday 06/04/12

Killarney 5 mile run

As i was down in Kerry hillwalking for the weekend, I decided to take in this 5 mile run on Friday night with the missus.
As had ran Connemara half previous Sunday, i decided to take this very easy and run with herself at an easy pace.
First mile was ran in about 9.15. Was getting slightly frustrated at this pace and getting stuck behind big groups of runners. Increased the pace for the next two miles. My wife was starting to feel this pace so we slowed down again. Nice run, good atmosphere around the down and great way to start the easter weekend. Time was 45.02 on the website, even though my garmin showed 44.36. Doesn't really matter as we were taking it handy. Was a PB for herself and she could have knocked another couple of minutes off that if she'd pushed it.


Saturday 07/04/12

Hillwalking was the plan for this weekend, and what a day this was. A group of 10 of us started at 9.45 am on saturday morning in the reeks. Started by climbing steep gulley to the summit of Beenkeragh, then onto Carrauntoohill, down to the top of Devil's ladder, then onto summits of Cnoc na Toinne, Cnoc an Chulainn, Maolin Bui, Knocknapeasta, The Big Gun & Cruach Mor. Eight peeks in total and seven of them over 900meters in height. Climbed quiet a few of the highest peaks in Ireland in one loop. Finished back at the carpark at 6.15pm. (8.5 hours in total). The pace was savage as two leaders are super fit mountain marathon runner's with years of experience around this part of the country. Legs were absolutely killing me at the finish.

Sunday 08/04/12

Wrecked after yesterdays walk. Had an indian meal and one pint of guinness before hitting the bed. Started walking at 11.20am and walked up Torc Mountain - fairly easy going, apart from the fact that legs were struggling from the day before. Took total of three hours. Nice and gentle walk to end the weekend.

Legs really sore from Saturday's walk so decided not to run on Monday or Tuesday. Will hopefully be ok to get out for 6 miler tomorrow.

PDCAT

Wednesday 11/04/12

6.27 = 56.42 - (9.02) - Easy

Feeling guilty as i had missed Monday & Tuesday's run due to sore legs from hillwalking the weekend. Decided to go out this morning and run the miles i should have ran yesterday. Legs a little tired but not too bad. Plan is another 5+ miles tomorrow.

PDCAT

Thursday 12/04/12

5.13 = 46.16 - (9.00) - Easy

Legs very tired today. Hopefully will have recovered for Saturday's 10 miler.

PDCAT

Saturday 14/04/12

10.00 = 1.34.13 - (9.25) - LSR

Felt ok during this run. Lovely morning for it.

Sunday 15/04/12

4 mile leisurely walk to loosen out the legs.

BobMac104

Great time in con PDCAT. Training is really paying off for you! Fair play man.

PDCAT

Monday 16/04/12

5.14 = 51.02 - (9.56) - Recovery

Miserable weather tonight so covered up well. Took it very easy and legs felt ok. Back to F4L training tonight. Over a month since i did any speed work.

PDCAT

Tuesday 17/04/12

(Total = 10.0K) approx

2K - (Avg 9.18 per mile pace)

F4L

8 X 800m - Reps (300 Walk/Jog in between)

Times of Reps
(3.21, 3.23, 3.16, 3.08, 3.17, 3.11, 3.01, 3.00) - per 800m

First time at F4L in over a month. First speed session in over a month. Delighted to be back at it. Rained constantly during this session and got soaked. Times of reps all over the place. Plan was to run between 3.15 - 3.20 but couple of new guys ran with us last night whom were very fast and pushed the pace high on a couple of the rep's. Last rep was the only one where i couldn't keep up with these guys. Found this tough. Another session with F4L on Thursday.

PDCAT

Thursday 19/04/12

(Total = 8.1K) approx

1.6K - (Avg 9.19 per mile pace)

F4L

1.2K WM - Slow

4 X 400m - Reps (400 Walk/Jog in between)

6 X 100m - Reps (300 Walk/Jog in between)

1.2K CD - (Avg 9.19 per mile pace)


Times of Reps
(1.30, 1.25, 1.21, 1.19) - per 400m

(17, 17, 16, 16, 15, 16) - per 100m

Legs a little sore after Tuesday night and sore again after last night. Should be ok for tomorrow's 12 mile LSR.

PDCAT

Saturday 21/04/12

12.00 = 1.53.16 - (9.26) - LSR

Legs sore for the first 6 miles. Didn't enjoy these miles at all. Definitely think it's because of the speed work Tuesday & Thursday on the Track. Not sure if im pushing too hard when doing these reps. Last six miles were ok. Legs were warmed up.

Sunday 22/04/12

4 mile walk - loosen the legs a bit.

Monday 23/04/12

5.14 = 58.03 - (11.17) - Recovery

Ran this recovery with the wife this morning. Again legs really sore, havent recovered from run's last week. After three miles, they were better. Not enjoyable when legs are as sore as this. Reminding me of when i was training for DCM 11. Hope there's an improvement for tomorrow 6+ miler.

PDCAT

Tuesday 24/04/12

6.26 = 56.37 - (9.02) - Easy

Legs still feeling sore, not quiet as bad as yesterday. Again, after a few miles when the muscles warmed up, legs were fine. Might run Thursday on GAA Pitch for a change of surface.

PDCAT

Thursday 26/04/12

5.00 = 45.04 - (9.01) - Easy

Miserable day out, no motivation for this. Decided to go down to the GAA Pitch to run this on a softer surface as my legs have been a little sore this past week. Actually found the legs were in ok shape today and no real soreness in them. Happy i dragged myself out the door for this run. Legs feel in better shape. Plan now, is to run a 5 mile race on Sunday (Rock GAA 5 Miler). Hope its accurately measured.

PDCAT

Sunday 29/04/12

Rock GAA 5 Mile

No LSR this week. I decided to do this 5 mile race instead as i had a 5 mile target i wanted to hit.
Preparation for this was useless, parent's 40th wedding anniversary the night before. So queue - Loads of food, a few pints and a few smokes.

Drove up to Mountmellick early Sunday morning for this run. Was freezing with a wind that would cut through you. My warmup was also useless, about 1/4 of a mile of jogging. Noticed that my right leg was sore during the warm up.

My PB was 38.09 (June 2011). Target for this year was sub 36.00. Due to the recent improvement in my times i decided to target a 7minute per mile pace with the hope of getting sub 35.00.

Mile 1 - About 80 - 90 runners entered, started off fairly conservatively. Started fairly near the back so i'd have a few runners to pass during the race. Passed about 4 runners in the first mile and ran this in 6.57.

Mile 2 - Was finding it tougher than i expected, could feel my right leg a little sore. There was uphill sections in this mile. Passed about 3 more runners and ran this in 7.09 (14.06 overall).

Mile 3 - Found this mile a little easier. Passed another four runners some young fella's whom started off too fast and ran out of gas. This was my fastest mile, ran it in 6.51 (20.57 overall). Knew here that sub 35.00 was not going to happen.

Mile 4 - This was by far the toughest mile. Ran almost all this mile into a headwind. At times i felt i was wading through water and was suffering alot such were the conditions. However, it was the same for everybody. Passed 4 more runners here and concentrated on keeping in front of them till the finish. Slowest mile in 7.17 (28.14 overall). This was over 30 seconds faster than my 4 mile PB, which augurs well for my 4 mile race this year.

Mile 5 - Conditions not too bad when we turned for home. Tried to maintain a decent pace so as to keep in front of the 5/6 runners i had passed in the last couple of miles. One guy passed me in the last mile (only runner to pass in the whole race). Tried to keep with him and managed to stay within a few seconds. Last mile was 7.02 and overall time was 35.16 PB.
Happy enough with this i suppose. PB by nearly 3 minutes, hit my target for the year of sub 36.00 fairly comfortably.
However, dissapointed i didn't acheive sub 35.00.

Maybe with better conditions (a few hills and very windy) and better preparation (warmup, food, drink, smokes), i might have achieved this.

BTW -- Really well organised race with loads of food afterwards, lots of spot prizes (i won 40 euro sports shop voucher) and distance was measured bang on. Well done to all involved in this.

PDCAT

Monday 30/04/12

5.16 = 58.22 - (11.19) - Recovery

Right leg has been sore since the run Sunday. Noticed it during warm up before the race and was pretty sore afterwards.
Calf/Shin area was sore when walking/running and tight/cramps in hamstring. Reminded me of the injury i had before DCM last September whereby physio said that issue was being caused in the hamstring area.

Wife does some massage as part of her job, so got her to work on hamstring on Sunday night. Hamstring seems better but calf/shin area still very sore when running. She massaged calf area last night, so i will see if this helps or not. Looks like it could be a trip to the physio Saturday morning. But will try and run tonight and see how it goes.

BobMac104

Nice 5m time PDCAT great PB but i suspect that wont last long!! I hope the niggle clears up fast also.

PDCAT

BobMac104 wrote: »

Nice 5m time PDCAT great PB but i suspect that wont last long!! I hope the niggle clears up fast also.

Thanks Bob. Yeah was kinda happy with the time as sub 36.00 was target at beginning of year. Due to the recent improvements, i've been getting greedy and was really looking for sub 35.00. Conditions were probably the worst i've ever ran for a race, hoping that this had an impact.

More worried about leg to be honest, hopefully it's just a niggle and will be ok soon.

BTW - Reading your progress - Hope all is going fine for Cork - your times have certainly being dropping.

BobMac104

I reckon sub 35 will come sooner rather than later for you.

Ah take it easy for a day or two and it will come right id say hopefully.

Ya Training is going well enough thankfully. hopefully now i can just get to the start line in one piece!

PDCAT

BobMac104 wrote: »

I reckon sub 35 will come sooner rather than later for you.

Ah take it easy for a day or two and it will come right id say hopefully.

Ya Training is going well enough thankfully. hopefully now i can just get to the start line in one piece!

Think you'll have no bother in Cork.... your clocking up the miles in training and your race times are improving greatly. Will be watching your performance with interest.

PDCAT

Tuesday 01/05/12

6.28 = 56.33 - (9.00) - Easy

Wasn't really looking forward to this as the right leg was very sore whilst running on Monday. Hoping that the calf massage i recieved the night before would help. Pissing rain outside but actually didn't mind this to be honest. Run went well, no real soreness from the leg either during or after the run. The massages the last two nights have definitely helped. Might get this done more often - if the missus has no objections....

Not totally sure that the leg as recovered though, so will be keeping an eye on this for the rest of the week.

PDCAT

Thursday 03/05/12

5.15 = 45.27 - (8.49) - Easy

Supposed to go to F4L and do some speed work, but as the leg had been sore earlier in the week, decided to give this a miss and do a run at home instead. Normally run this at 9.00 minute per mile, ran slightly faster last night as wasn't getting any speed work in. Lovely evening for it and run went well.

PDCAT

Saturday 05/05/12

10.01 = 1.34.40 - (9.27) - LSR

PDCAT

Haven't updated this log in a couple of weeks. Very mixed couple of weeks, started off bad and improved as it went on.

After last run had a couple of heavy days on the beer with an old friend of mine. Lasted two full days and was sick as a small hospital afterwards. Gave out to myself big time and decided to knuckle down and put it behind me.

Anyway --

Friday 11/05/12

6.27 = 55.06 - (8.46) - Easy

This was my first run in five days and after previous weekend session so pushed this harder than normal.

Tenerife

Off the Tenerife (Puerto dela Cruz) for a week with herself. Brought the running shoes and decided to do a few days at a slow pace with herself to keep ticking over. No beer for the week was the plan and succeeded fairly easily.

Sunday 13/05/12

8.00 = 1.23.08 - (10.23) - LSR

Ran this at 7.30am in the morning in 20 degree's. Sweated fairly heavily. Ran with the wife at her pace. Right leg still sore.

Wednesday 16/05/12

5.13 = 52.14 - (10.11) - Easy

Got burned on the beach Sunday, so didn't run for a couple of days. This run went fairly week.

Thursday 17/05/12

5.11 = 52.31 - (10.16) - Easy

Friday 18/05/12

EL Teide

This was one of my main targets for the year along with Amsterdam Marathon in October. This was the reason i didn't do a spring marathon and reason i booked Tenerife for the holiday. EL Teide is the highest mountain in Spain at 3,700 + metres (12,000+ feet). It is the highest volcano in Europe (third highest in the world).
Wife and myself headed off at 6.30am for 90 minute drive to start this trek. Started off at 2,200 metres - five hour climb up to the crater of the volcano and top of the mountain. I found this very tough after about 3,000 metres as started suffering from altitude sickness, headaches, shortness of breath, light headedness. Had to stop numerous times and slow my pace down considerably. At one stage doubted i would make it to the top. Slowly but surely stuck at it and achieved one of my main targets for the year. Another four hours treking back down the mountain made this a very enjoyable day. Total time 9 hours in total.

Sunday 20/05/12

10.00 = 1.33.44 - (9.22) - LSR

Back home on Saturday and ran my normal route on Sunday morning. Run went well.

Monday 21/05/12

5.13 = 56.30 - (11.00) - Recovery

Ran this slow with the wife this morning. Right leg a little sore again and plan is to go to physio on Saturday morning if it persists.

PDCAT

Tuesday 22/05/12

6.27 = 54.56 - (8.45) - Easy

Only home from work at 2am, so legs a little sluggish and this felt hard this morning.