Fitter, faster and emm, forty.

asimonov

Here goes log number two. The first one finished here back in 2009 and since then I have run one more marathon (2:52) last november.

Two weeks ago I turned 40; and this log is my attempt to track a year of running as a master's runner. I'm spectacularly crap at keeping a training diary, I've started the 1000 mile challenge twice and given up both times when I've lost track of what I've run and when - so I'm hoping this will keep me honest in that regards.

Since the end of november, I've only been tipping a long really I haven't done any speed work or tempo work in about 3 months. I began putting some form of structure on my running at the start of January.

My basic week is approximately 100 kilometre's run over 6 days; monday is a rest day and I'd typically have workouts on tuesday, friday and a long run on sunday.

My goal race for the year is the dublin marathon, hopefully with a solid race series before it. The overall strategy is to focus on getting 5k and 10k time down before the summer and run county and regional track and road races through the summer before doing a shortish 10 - 12 week marathon programme. I'll also have a go at the connemara half marathon (my fourth time entering it) - i do love that hill . I get a schedule from a coach every sunday night - and just follow that.

Last sunday I ran a 3,000m indoor race in nenagh in just over 10' - i had never run that distance before ( or indoors before) and it was such a buzz. I was expecting a world of pain, but it wasn't that competitive and the pace felt very cruisey, I lost track of the lap count as well and so I didn't even get to kick as I thought I had another lap left to go

This week has been all easy - steady running so far (4:45 - 4:30 pace) except for Friday's hill workout which was 10 X 1' hill with 90" recovery - which left me way out of breath and jelly legged - 90" recovery is barely enough time to jog back to the start so its continuous activity.

Tomorrow is 120' over hills at around 4:30, and i'll use that as my starting point for the log.

Krusty_Clown

Good to see you back. Looking forward to tracking your progress towards a cracking time in Dublin. Anything you're going to do differently this time, to try and avoid injury? Have you kept up the remote coaching the entire time?

Slogger Jogger

Likewise, good to see you back. Was hoping to see you at the mudfest in Annagh hill today. Good luck with the training. You're aging well

asimonov

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Good to see you back. Looking forward to tracking your progress towards a cracking time in Dublin. Anything you're going to do differently this time, to try and avoid injury? Have you kept up the remote coaching the entire time?

Thanks KC, I'm pretty dialed into it now, so starting to enjoy it again. Yeah, still using the same guy. Obviously, we went over where it went wrong last year and really it was a case of being too aggressive and just pushed it too far. This year I have a structured strength programme twice a week that includes some weights as well as core work. I have to take recovery more serious as well, so I'm going to Star Geoghegan once a month and doing stretching twice a day. I'm so inflexible it's not funny. Nice one on Chicago btw, very jealous.

RacoonQueen

Good luck with the log asiminov. Look forward to seeing you progress. You've made incredible gains in the past so we'll be expecting big things in October! :pac:

asimonov

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Likewise, good to see you back. Was hoping to see you at the mudfest in Annagh hill today. Good luck with the training. You're aging well

Well you set the m40 mark last year, I'm only playing catchup!

@RQ - thanks for the pressure ;-)

dermCu

Brilliant, just what the world needs - another auld fella who is poised and ready to embarrass us young lads by showing us how its done!!

Good luck with the training log. Some savage training last year. Its too early but I have to ask anyway; do you have a target time floating around in the back of your head for Dublin? Do I have to start nervously looking over my shoulder??

Abhainn

dermCu wrote: »

Brilliant, just what the world needs - another auld fella who is poised and ready to embarrass us young lads by showing us how its done!!

Good to see you back. Like your plan in build up to Dublin.
Us auld (older) lads need to stock together, though thankfully I have still some months to go

asimonov

dermCu wrote: »

Brilliant, just what the world needs - another auld fella who is poised and ready to embarrass us young lads by showing us how its done!!

Good luck with the training log. Some savage training last year. Its too early but I have to ask anyway; do you have a target time floating around in the back of your head for Dublin? Do I have to start nervously looking over my shoulder??

Someone has to keep you on your toes dermot. Just set me a good target in London - nothing soft now! Until then i have two targets in mind, sub 2;45 and the real one

Abhainn wrote: »

Good to see you back. Like your plan in build up to Dublin.
Us auld (older) lads need to stock together, though thankfully I have still some months to go

Ha! thanks for the backhander abhainn ...enjoy your last few months clinging on your thirties..don't worry it's not too bad on this side.

Monday 7th
63' easy with 8 X 15" strides / 4:46 / 13.32km
Felt ok - legs tired from sunday's run.

Tuesday 8th
76' tempo (45' @ 3:44 / 12:08km) / 17.80km
1st tempo run of the year, had been dreading it but was actually ok once my legs got into it. The wind made holding the pace under 3:45 difficult but did it and got home before the icey rain started.

Izoard

asimonov wrote: »

Two weeks ago I turned 40...

Is there any documented proof of that?

You still look like you did @ 21, and you disappeared for most of the '90s, so I'm reckoning a cryogenic chamber of some kind....

Good luck!

shotgunmcos

Izoard wrote: »

Is there any documented proof of that?

You still look like you did @ 21, and you disappeared for most of the '90s, so I'm reckoning a cryogenic chamber of some kind....

Good luck!

Jaysus Izoard, I haven't seen flirting like that since --Amadeus--'s last gasp attempts at winning hunnymonster over before she tied the knot.

Maybe you are spending too much time up in the clouds dude

Izoard

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Jaysus Izoard, I haven't seen flirting like that since --Amadeus--'s last gasp attempts at winning hunnymonster over before she tied the knot.

Maybe you are spending too much time up in the clouds dude

Damn, thought is was a PM...:)

shotgunmcos

Izoard wrote: »

Damn, thought is was a PM...:)

LOL

Oh, by the way asimonov, nice one putting up the log, best of luck with it!

Now I'll let you ould fellas get on with things...

asimonov

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Jaysus Izoard, I haven't seen flirting like that since --Amadeus--'s last gasp attempts at winning hunnymonster over before she tied the knot.

Maybe you are spending too much time up in the clouds dude

easy lads...i'm not a piece of meat...i've got feelings.

Wednesday 9th
91' easy / 4:48 / 18.92km
Ran at 7am just 13hrs after tempo and legs felt it. a struggle.

Thursday 10th
64' easy with 8 X 15" strides - watch died - approx 13.5km
Legs totally re-charged after yesterday

Friday 11th
66' with intervals (6'@3:30 / 3'@3:22 / 6'@3:27 / 3'@3:19 / 6'@3:27 / 3'@ 3:20) all off 90" - 14.40km
Pretty happy with first proper pace run of the year; would have taken straight 3:30 / 3:22 splits - plenty of recovery so only really straining for last 6'

I am down to run the inter-clubs on the 26th in santry - i think the club are b / c ranked, i hope we get a team out on the day. Rest tomorrow and then only 90' easy on Sunday.

asimonov

Saturday 12th
Rest

Sunday 13th
96' easy / 19.4k /
Short LSR because of the two hard sessions this week. Ran nice and early in the morning sunshine,when everything is perfectly fresh. I went down by the river barrow and saw an otter for the first time down there :cool:.

Monday 14th
58' Easy / 4:41/ 12.54 pace
Felt good, enjoyable run on country roads under moonlight with the ipod on. Love those runs.

Tuesday 15th
Rest

Wednesday 16th
Track - 10 X 1.5' @ 3:20 pace (450m) w/ 90" recovery
Managed to ruin this session on myself - I misread the schedule and took what felt like a rather leisurely 90" jog recovery between reps instead the 60" it was meant to be. I convinced myself at the time it was right because I was racing on Sunday so it was supposed to be light. Compounded the error by not restarting my watch for warm down so don't even have a record of the total distance / time.

Thursday 17th
62' easy / 4:47 / 13.01km
My Brooks Glycerin's are wrecked and my orthotics shot - so decided to go to Amphibian King to get gait redone and replace neutral + orthotics with straight stability shoes. I was offered Brooks Something, Saucony somethings and Asic 3020. I chose the Asics and they felt great - but I'm sure it will take a few runs to see how they go.

Friday 18th
41' Easy / 4:45 / 8.61km
Post work easy run, shortest run in a long while. felt good and fresh.

All in all, its been a totally unremarkable week of training, I have a pretty big workload at the moment with two big projects coming to a close, so at this stage happiness is just being able to get the runs in without too much stress.

Tomorrow, I'll run in the county intermediate xc and then the following sunday is the interclubs.

tunguska

Jaysus Simon you're looking well, had no idea you were even close to 40. Anyway look after yourself this year so that you do yourself justice In October.

Sosa

Hey asimonov,i just your new log now,no idea how i missed it before.
Best of luck with the training,i'll be keeping an eye on your progress and our paths may cross at a race some time over the next few months.

asimonov

Thanks Tunguska, it must be all the years of clean living (not). Hopefully see you at the interclubs next saturday if you are running

Saturday 19th
31' easy / 5:03 / 6.1km
very easy jog after a day spent stuffing my face with cocktail sausages...how come cocktail sausages are so much nicer than actual sausages????


Sunday 20th - Intermediate CC
36:36 / 3:48 / 9.6k - 2nd.

Somehow, we are starting to become a xc family. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but at one stage this morning i was thinking it might be a good idea to buy a windbreaker and some flasks for the future. A telling sign if ever there was one.

The 7 year old picked up a silver in the u9 girls and my OH made a really good xc debut to finish 5th in the ladies intermediate. While she raced I got to look after the bawling 3 year old boy. Ours followed immediately after hers, so at her finish line it was a case of "well done, great run, here's the boy - i'm off" - so I didn't get to do any kind of a warm up or anything - and by anything i mostly mean go for a pi$$.

Compared to other counties, the competitive standard in these races is moderate enough to be honest; there just isn't the numbers to have competition right though the field - so they tend to string out pretty quickly. I'd love to see more runners in them. However today there were two very quick lads in the field and then a couple of guys from the club with whom I have a mutually beneficial "friendly rivalry" with.

Going there, I had thought the race was to be 8k, but it turns out it was 10k - with 5 laps of a hilly 2k course with a strong wind. I started slowly enough and fell into 5th place; the eventual winner stretched the lead from the very start. I moved into 4th after the 1st lap - passing a guy who would normally be in a different class to me, but who has not really been training. 2nd and 3rd were ahead of me by about 30m at this stage; on the second lap i saw the guy in third struggle on one of the hills, and so a little push on bridged the gap by the end of that lap - 4k gone and 6 to go.

I had planned to stick behind these two for a while but we hit a hill and the pace slowed a little and I took the chance to go by them both and was left with 3 laps of solo, paranoid running left. I just tried to run as steady as I could; trying to think of anything but the pi$$ i was dying to take. In reality though, I was starting to slow, with my average pacing dropping from 3:44 to 3:48 between the end of the 2nd lap and the finish. I went into the last lap with a lead of 100m or so and i managed to hang in there to take second. Overall, I am very happy with the run, I think i got the strategy right, i was never going to win it and so I got the most out of it I could. Now if i can just manage to scape into the top half of the bottom quarter next Saturday - i can happily put the spikes away until next October.

Izoard

asimonov wrote: »

The 7 year old picked up a silver in the u9 girls and my OH made a really good xc debut to finish 5th in the ladies intermediate. While she raced I got to look after the bawling 3 year old boy. Ours followed immediately after hers, so at her finish line it was a case of "well done, great run, here's the boy - i'm off" - so I didn't get to do any kind of a warm up or anything - and by anything i mostly mean go for a pi$$.

The family that runs together....The Asimonov's are making the rest of us look bad:)

Congrats to Mrs.A and the middle A on their performances...something in the genes.

Krusty_Clown

Fabtastic. Second place, and the family running together?! Inspiration fella! Really glad to see the log back now.

asimonov

My wife absconded with my garmin charger to germany for the week; so the log is sadly lacking in detail. With the kids farmed out to their granny on saturday, I took the chance to call up to Donadea to see the start and first 4 laps of the 50k race there. Fair play to Anto, there was a really good atmosphere up there and it was good to meet up with a few other boards ARTists who i hadn't met or who I hadn't seen for a while.

Monday 21st
75' easy

Tuesday 22nd
50' easy

Wednesday 23rd
Light session 4 X 3' @ 3:30 pace + 4 X 30" @ 3:20
Had to go to the track for this and use iphone as a stopwatch
Thursday 24th
Rest

Friday 25th
30' easy

Saturday 26th
National Interclubs XC 12k - 80th / 126

Tough old race really; in the pens at the start everywhere I looked there were tall skinny lads in their twenties. I hadn't run 12k xcountry before so wasn't sure what to expect. Started at what i thought was a reasonable pace but found myself going backwards rapidly - so had to pick it a little just to hold my position. I kept that comfortable effort going for all of the 1st lap and then pushed on the effort (even though the splits showed i was slowing) - I had three really good laps then and made up a fair few places battling away. It was a hard lap to get a push on for as there were 4 right 90' corners that were pretty mucky and there was also a strong wind to contend with. I was starting to hurt by the end of the 5th lap and kinda just hung on for the last two; passed a few others and got passed by one. I had enough in me to kick well for the last few hundred metres. It was one of those races were i don't think i could have gone much faster...but i could have gone longer.

Obviously 80th position out of 126 isn't anything to write home about; but i really wanted to do this race because it is the opportunity to run in a national event against with the best in the country and also I hope it will be good for my running later in the year.

O'Dwyer, Simon Gowran A.C. B 00:46:26
00:02:42 00:06:03 00:06:09 00:06:13 00:06:13 00:06:21 00:06:24

Sunday 27th
Rest - was supposed to be 50' but was looking after the kids all day, so it was a no show day.

asimonov

this log is a disgrace, but from here on in i am back in logging action. nothing much going on on the running front - treading water really. The only two stand out sessions were a cool 10 X 900m with VillageRunner in 3:09's last wednesday and then a tempo with 40' @ 3:59 / 20" @ 3:41 on saturday....other than that its chug chug chug....:)

My once a year IMRA trip to wicklow is on this weekend just to confirm that roads ≠ mountains. Should be a blast.

osnola ibax

Great to see you back here again asimonov. Best of luck with your training, hopefully see you in Dublin this year.

asimonov

Wicklow Trail Race 18th / 121:09

I arrived at Johnnie Fox's just after 10:30, pretty much straight away I bumped into SJ and his two young helpers who were sorting out the transport logistics. There was a reasonable mist down over the hills, but i expected that to get burned off by the sun as I had left kilkenny that morning under clear blue skies and sunshine.

It had been just over a year since my last outing on the hills in Annacurra, and the memories of that run had faded sufficiently for me to reminisce with a rather (misguided) warm and rosy hue about hill running in general. A 25k trail race, sure what could be easier than that?

In the few weeks before this i have been starting to come back into some sort of fitness after my post marathon break. I figured the couple of xc races that I had run recently would stand to me, and checking back on the 2010 results I was able to get a handle on where I should stand against the overall results. Benchmarking against a couple of lads i knew, and all other things being equal, maybe a top 10 - 12 finish is where i figured i could get to. That said, my basic plan was to follow the lead ladies for the course - they were probably about 4 min ahead of me in terms of target time but I hoped their pacing would help me to get the best out of myself.

I hadn't had the chance to do a recce before hand; and was pretty worried about the navigation aspect, but i had downloaded KC's gamin connect link from last year so i had some rough info.

As with most community based events; this one had a really good buzz in the build up. I quickly fell into conversation with a really sound guy beside me in the car park who was very experienced and a font of knowledge about the route and what to expect in the way of terrain. According to him, the route is basically 3 big hills; and once you came to the last water stop its only one more hill and you are done.

We got the bus out to the start and basically had a few minutes warm-up before the off, I just had enough time to do some stretches and hide Mithril's lucozade bottle*.

At the off, the legs engaged and my brain turned off I quickly abandoned my plan to track behind the ladies and found myself settling into about 9th place. We ran a couple of k's on forest road before taking a sharp right hand turn and up on to Hill No. 1 (djuice / djoust ). I'm very used to road races where the first few miles are run for fun and you feel numb to the effort required, in contrast here we hadn't even started the real climb and my heart was really racing and my breathing very heavy.

We ran on up to the boardwalk into a stiff cross wind and heavy mist - i had no concept of where i was or what direction i was running. My breathing was still heavy, but i was getting a draft off a guy ahead of me and i didn't want to drop off the pace and lose him. But we came upon an ultra runner, and my drafter / draftee skipped by and left me in his wake. I took the opportunity to slow up a little but with the wind it all felt a bit of a battle, I took a quick check of the watch…"ok only about about 90 minutes of this left" oh fcuk.

After the boardwalk, there is a nice trail section around the hill, but I was struggling to get my feet down quickly enough, and occasionally careering off the track altogether, twice I pulled over to let faster runners through. After this there is a really good downhill section on grass which leaves you crossing a bridge at the foot of a really steep hill that i walked up. It's a mad feeling walking up a hill, cursing yourself for having to walk yet not really getting any recovery from the walk - I just remember sweat falling off me.

I reached the top of the hill, and I remember a section that was a lot like Mordor at very top. Once i reached the start of the downhill I let another guy through. This section in isolation is probably a fantastic run - but my legs were shot and i found the turnover quite hard on the downhills. A young guy from Raheny went by me at this stage and rather than let him go, I went with him - he seemed to have the legs on me going downhill but i could catch him on the flatter sections. We dropped down a long way before coming to the first drinks stop, he grabbed a water and kept going whereas I stopped and drank. The guys at the water stop estimated we were top 15 at that stage.

I continued on and could still see Raheny guy ahead of me. He had stretched the lead to a couple of hundred metros by the time we reached the bridge over the river. This whole section was the lowest point for me i think. I felt wrecked and knew I had lots of running still to do, totally aware of the fact I had started to hard and was going backwards in terms of position. Not my usual game plan.

Mid way up my run / walk up the next hill, i was passed by Donna Mahon, spurned on by this I closed the gap on Raheny guy again and by the time I reached the second water station i was ahead of him again - having passed him on the road…the lovely flat and friendly road section. On this road section i passed Mithril - I just came up behind him and he turned and said "suffering?" - thanks for the boost there Mithril!

I took a gel and some water at the water station and the second lady, Karen Alexander passed me like i was standing still, which i was. The battle between me and raheny guy had turned into a rather sad war of the attrition…where he would jog very slowly all the time and i would walk a good bit and then catch him with my "just a tiny bit faster then him" jog, i then wouldn't have the energy or heart to go by him…so i'd just start walking again…repeat as you like.

Two more guys caught us on this hill, they went through us pretty close to the top when we had to go over these massive stones - I took the opportunity to pass Raheny guy at this point and I think he pretty much walked in from there.

Just at the top of this final big hill - i caught up with KC, Fair play to him, even though he had just run a marathon over twice the mountains I had; he had the graciousness to give me some water and a quiet pep talk that got me going again.

It felt great to run the last 4k or so at speed on proper track and road; i chased down one of the guys who had passed me earlier, and crossed the line just over 121' minutes about 15 seconds behind the other guy who passed us on the final hill. I think when the final results are posted I'll have finished in 18th position. In the end i wasn't too far off my target time. But the second lady, Karen Alexander passed me with 8k to go put 3.5' on me in that 8k. Says a lot really.

I have never been as beat up after a race; not even the marathons compare to it. It's now tuesday and i haven't run since - hamstrings, quads and calves all took a fair hammering. I will go back next year, i might just alter my expectations and my race plans before hand though. In the meantime, I'm off to spend a summer running on the road.

*joke.

Slogger Jogger

For your first trail race you did great. There was parallels in your run with mine from last year. I was ahead of Karen for 2/3s of race and the 1/3 she put a good few mins into my time. She got faster as the race went on, as I got slower :rolleyes: You can be a decent runner but running in the hills is another story and it can knock you for six, but you stood up to the challenge well. Nice report, well written.

Krusty_Clown

Haha. I was going to say that it sounds exactly like my run from last year too (except you managed to shave off a few minutes on the significantly shorter course on a much cooler day ).