Things will come to those who wait...

pconn062

Monday: 4 miles in 30 mins

Don't normally run on a Monday but with the few days off last week I thought it would be fine. Felt good on this.

Tuesday: 57 mins + 4 strides

Another gorgeous morning, running in the dry just does so much for the motivation. Beautiful views down by the sea as well. Going to try to get into the habit of making strides more regular to hopefully logging them here will help.

Wednesday: Session

5x1k off 60 seconds recovery+ 4x150m stride-outs

Have to go to Dublin tonight for a concert meaning I would miss training so had to get this done during the day on my own. Was a little annoyed when I got to the track to realise that there were four barriers on each lap blocking off the two inside lanes. Couldn't get my brain to work quick enough to figure out the 1k distance from the third lane so I was forced to run in lane 1 and run around the barriers every 100m, which was less than ideal. This probably added about 20-30 meters to each rep so I'm not sure how accurate these splits are but hit 3.29, 3.38, 3.29, 3.28, 3.29. There are a couple of positives I can take from this:

1. I rarely ever do sessions alone so was happy to be able to grind it out.
2. It was quite windy at the track especially down the back straight which probably affected the splits slightly.
3. The extra little bit of dodging around the barriers probably added a bit of distance to each rep meaning they were probably worth 3 or 4 seconds more (this is just a guess).
4. The recovery was short and this is the first time I have averaged under 3.30 for each rep for this session.
5. The chest still isn't 100% right, so maybe that had an influence as well.

So overall, happy with how that went. Going to keep an eye on the weather and if it's not too bad on Saturday we might make a trip to the Parkrun in Raheny. Stewarding at the Nationals on Sunday as well which should be fun!

RayCun

pconn062 wrote: »

Couldn't get my brain to work quick enough to figure out the 1k distance from the third lane

start level with the 400 start in lane 7?

might see you Sunday, will be around for the kids' races at least

pconn062

RayCun wrote: »

start level with the 400 start in lane 7?

might see you Sunday, will be around for the kids' races at least

I'll have to take your word on that Ray, maths wouldn't be my strong point!

Will keep an eye out for you on Sunday, good luck to the kids. My advice, bring wellies!

Chivito550

8m extra per lane is covered each lap. So if you ran in lane 6 you do 2 laps of 440m plus 120m. So start 120m back from the finish line (should be marked on track) followed by 2 laps in lane 5. Then jog back to the start. Easy.

ThebitterLemon

Chivito550 wrote: »

8m extra per lane is covered each lap. So if you ran in lane 6 you do 2 laps of 440m plus 120m. So start 120m back from the finish line (should be marked on track) followed by 2 laps in lane 5. Then jog back to the start. Easy.

Ya learn something useful everyday around here (well almost!)

Tnx

TbL

pconn062

Thursday: About 1 hour recovery

Easy run today on tired legs. Not sure why but my calves were in absolute bits after the track session on Wednesday, don't know why the reaction was so bad but killing me during this.

Friday: 32 mins easy

Very long day in work and by the time I was home it was lashing. Plan was to head into the (gravel) track in Dunleer to meet a friend but it was flooded and impassable. Tried several routes on the road but they were all flooded as well! Ended up running around the village which was less than ideal with the rain and traffic, was getting pretty dangerous hopping up and down off footpaths so called it a day early. Calves still in absolute bits for this.

Saturday: St. Annes Parkrun

3rd, 17:36

Conditions were ideal for running this morning; calm, cool and dry. I remember this as being a pretty fast course but when we arrived parts of it were quite flooded with some very mucky spots. Had a bit of hassle finding the carpark which left us a little short of time to warm up, would have liked to run a lap of the course beforehand but had to settle for a 10 minute jog. Just had time to change runners before we had to line up. After the start two guys tore off and me and the brother settled in behind the second group. After only about 400m we pushed on by ourselves in 3rd and 4th.

The first problem came up when we hit a piece of flooded path and had to run up on the bank which was very mucky and required a bit of a slowdown and some balance. Got into the stride again but there was a lot of slowing down at corners which were too slippy to take at full speed. Hit the main straight on the first lap and I was feeling good, started to pull away slightly from my brother just before the start of the second lap. Hit halfway in 8.44, about where I wanted to be. Was on my own now for the whole second lap, hit the flooded patch again this time and lost my footing on the mud, which upset the rhythm a little. Coming up to the next bend there was a woman walking a dog just as the path was narrowing and just as I went to pass her the dog jumped out in front of me! Had to jump out of the way up onto the grass and nearly fell over here, fecking dog! 1k to go and I was starting to work but not dropping much time. Picked it up going down the home straight, finishing in 17:36 (equaling my PB).

Happy with the effort and achieved what I set out to do which was to get a good solid run down. Ran hard, but not flat out or full race effort so to equal my PB was a good result. This course is fast when it's dry but today with all the tight bends and slippy corners it was a lot slower. Think it was worth 10-15 seconds so hopefully can chip a chunk off that in two weeks at the Jingle Bells 5k, would have company too whereas today I ran mostly on my own. The only slight issue now is my calves which are still in bits but hopefully a rest day on Monday will help. Going to try and squeeze a long run in tomorrow before heading down to the Inter-counties for the day.

ThebitterLemon

pconn062 wrote: »

Thursday: About 1 hour recovery

Easy run today on tired legs. Not sure why but my calves were in absolute bits after the track session on Wednesday, don't know why the reaction was so bad but killing me during this.

Friday: 32 mins easy

Very long day in work and by the time I was home it was lashing. Plan was to head into the (gravel) track in Dunleer to meet a friend but it was flooded and impassable. Tried several routes on the road but they were all flooded as well! Ended up running around the village which was less than ideal with the rain and traffic, was getting pretty dangerous hopping up and down off footpaths so called it a day early. Calves still in absolute bits for this.

Saturday: St. Annes Parkrun

3rd, 17:36

Conditions were ideal for running this morning; calm, cool and dry. I remember this as being a pretty fast course but when we arrived parts of it were quite flooded with some very mucky spots. Had a bit of hassle finding the carpark which left us a little short of time to warm up, would have liked to run a lap of the course beforehand but had to settle for a 10 minute jog. Just had time to change runners before we had to line up. After the start two guys tore off and me and the brother settled in behind the second group. After only about 400m we pushed on by ourselves in 3rd and 4th.

The first problem came up when we hit a piece of flooded path and had to run up on the bank which was very mucky and required a bit of a slowdown and some balance. Got into the stride again but there was a lot of slowing down at corners which were too slippy to take at full speed. Hit the main straight on the first lap and I was feeling good, started to pull away slightly from my brother just before the start of the second lap. Hit halfway in 8.44, about where I wanted to be. Was on my own now for the whole second lap, hit the flooded patch again this time and lost my footing on the mud, which upset the rhythm a little. Coming up to the next bend there was a woman walking a dog just as the path was narrowing and just as I went to pass her the dog jumped out in front of me! Had to jump out of the way up onto the grass and nearly fell over here, fecking dog! 1k to go and I was starting to work but not dropping much time. Picked it up going down the home straight, finishing in 17:36 (equaling my PB).

Happy with the effort and achieved what I set out to do which was to get a good solid run down. Ran hard, but not flat out or full race effort so to equal my PB was a good result. This course is fast when it's dry but today with all the tight bends and slippy corners it was a lot slower. Think it was worth 10-15 seconds so hopefully can chip a chunk off that in two weeks at the Jingle Bells 5k, would have company too whereas today I ran mostly on my own. The only slight issue now is my calves which are still in bits but hopefully a rest day on Monday will help. Going to try and squeeze a long run in tomorrow before heading down to the Inter-counties for the day.

Nice time in what sounds like tough conditions. Well done

TbL

ThePiedPiper

Nice running today pconn. Starting to exert superiority over the young fella again must feel good.

pconn062

ThePiedPiper wrote: »

Nice running today pconn. Starting to exert superiority over the young fella again must feel good.

Ha, of course not, I just want to see everyone succeed! It's hard to hold a peak for long so it's just a temporary changing of the guard I'd guess. You heading to DkIT tomorrow?

ThePiedPiper

pconn062 wrote: »

Ha, of course not, I just want to see everyone succeed! It's hard to hold a peak for long so it's just a temporary changing of the guard I'd guess. You heading to DkIT tomorrow?

Probably won't get up, no. I've to go to a mass tomorrow to do with school, and few things to sort round the house..

Half thinking of Blayney 5k next weekend, not sure..

Duanington

Well done on the Parkrun - I was running some easy stuff in the opposite direction and spotted you ( recognised you from the forum everyone puts the photos up on) - you were moving very well at that stage, fair play to you

ThebitterLemon

Duanington wrote: »

Well done on the Parkrun - I was running some easy stuff in the opposite direction and spotted you ( recognised you from the forum everyone puts the photos up on) - you were moving very well at that stage, fair play to you

Was it the tea cosy that gave him away

TbL

pconn062

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Was it the tea cosy that gave him away

TbL

More like my rugged good looks!

pconn062

Duanington wrote: »

Well done on the Parkrun - I was running some easy stuff in the opposite direction and spotted you ( recognised you from the forum everyone puts the photos up on) - you were moving very well at that stage, fair play to you

Thanks D, plenty of people out running in that park, lovely spot. Wouldn't have been able to say much to you at that stage!

AuldManKing

nice work in the park run, must be confident of a good PB at Jingle Bells.

pconn062

AuldManKing wrote: »

nice work in the park run, must be confident of a good PB at Jingle Bells.

Thanks AMK, yeah I'm going to give the JB 5k a good lash, will go out hard and see what happens. Will you be there yourself?

Chivito550

You better be lacing up those spikes in Athlone. I'm worried you are drifting over to the dark side. Too much time hanging around with the wrong crowd!:p

pconn062

Saturday PM: 4 miles easy

Tipped out and did another 4 miles after the parkrun to try and help loosen out the calves.

Sunday:

AM: 4 miles
PM: 6.5 miles

Got a call to see if we could be at DkIT for the inter-counties at 9.30 so couldn't face getting up really early to do a long run, opted for a double day instead. 4 miles very easy in the morning, glorious weather, sunny and frosty. Then spent the day marshaling at the inter-counties, lots of standing but a great days athletics with seeing Fionnuala Britton in full flight being the highlight for me. Then my self and the brother headed out for another run when we got home, very cold and dark for this one but a pleasant evening for running. Legs are sore now, calves feel a bit better but the quads are complaining at me big time. Just need to survive the next two weeks then I will be taking a short break before starting base building.

pconn062

Chivito550 wrote: »

You better be lacing up those spikes in Athlone. I'm worried you are drifting over to the dark side. Too much time hanging around with the wrong crowd!:p

Ha, don't worry I'll be in Athlone. Was just thinking about how lovely Indoor running is when I was standing in a boggy field at the inter-counties today. Starting base building for outdoor track in a few weeks, looking forward to it.

Chivito550

pconn062 wrote: »

Ha, don't worry I'll be in Athlone. Was just thinking about how lovely Indoor running is when I was standing in a boggy field at the inter-counties today. Starting base building for outdoor track in a few weeks, looking forward to it.

Loads of racing opportunities. 2 Rounds of League, AAI Games, Leinsters and Nationals. From what I've heard there's more buzz and atmosphere at the indoor meets here than the outdoor ones. Probably because it's so compact. I'm very much looking forward to it. Not really going to think about outdoors until after.

pconn062

Chivito550 wrote: »

Loads of racing opportunities. 2 Rounds of League, AAI Games, Leinsters and Nationals. From what I've heard there's more buzz and atmosphere at the indoor meets here than the outdoor ones. Probably because it's so compact. I'm very much looking forward to it. Not really going to think about outdoors until after.

Yeah even last year there was good craic at the Leinster indoors (apart from the fact that you are not allowed to eat or drink anything but water in the venue :rolleyes:). Was talking to my coach recently and we decided not to really target the indoors this year so will probably only run the Leinsters for a bit of fun. Going to be patient and build up properly to the outdoors.

Chivito550

pconn062 wrote: »

Yeah even last year there was good craic at the Leinster indoors (apart from the fact that you are not allowed to eat or drink anything but water in the venue :rolleyes:). Was talking to my coach recently and we decided not to really target the indoors this year so will probably only run the Leinsters for a bit of fun. Going to be patient and build up properly to the outdoors.

I don't think anybody truly targets indoors. It's a means to an end. Still think it's good to get a few races in, to break up the training, and to work on the speed.

I heard that about the food. Will that rule be in place again? Makes no sense. Were athletes not allowed to have a food with them, or a sports drink?

AuldManKing

pconn062 wrote: »

Thanks AMK, yeah I'm going to give the JB 5k a good lash, will go out hard and see what happens. Will you be there yourself?

Yep, will be there, not a goal race, might be sick, be doing well to finish etc etc........

You're in great shape!

pconn062

Chivito550 wrote: »

I don't think anybody truly targets indoors. It's a means to an end. Still think it's good to get a few races in, to break up the training, and to work on the speed.

I heard that about the food. Will that rule be in place again? Makes no sense. Were athletes not allowed to have a food with them, or a sports drink?

I don't know about this year but when I was there in February you couldn't have food, no sports drink, nothing but water. And they were enforcing it, two security guys there. I actually bought a bottle of Lucozade from the vending machine in the stadium but was told I had to go outside to drink it (which I did!). You also couldn't stand within 5 foot of the track even if everyone was running in lane 1!

pconn062

Monday: Off

Much appreciated rest day!

Tuesday: 13k easy

Borrowed my brothers Garmin to try and get an idea of what my easy pace is these days. It was only when I got out I realised it was set to kilometers after the parkrun we did on Sunday. Averaged 4.34 pace which when I calculated turns out is 7.20 a mile. Pretty happy with that as this felt very easy.

Wednesday

AM: 4 miles easy
PM: Session 10x400m off 100m in 25 seconds, 4x150m

Splits: (80, 82, 82, 81, 81, 80, 80, 80, 79, 77)

Back to 400's tonight at the track. Very foggy at the track and conditions weren't nice, felt like the cold air and fog was getting into your lungs so I wore a scarf to keep the worst of it out. Coach said to try and hold 77/78's but I knew that wasn't going to happen. We decided to go out a bit easier to try and finish stronger which we did averaging 81 for the first 5 and 79 for the second 5. I felt pretty strong doing these and probably could have done 1 or 2 more if necessary. The recovery is soooo short in this session that you feel you are not recovering at all. We had our coach shouting at us to keep the recovery going , so we were running the 100m @ under 7 minutes a mile. Damn tough session but great for building strength. Finished off with 4 150's @ 1500m pace to get some speed into the legs. Coach told us today that the point of this sessions is to try and build it until we can do 12 @ 75 pace :eek:, then we will be ready to try and break 16 minutes for 5k. I love his ambition! Easy running for a few days then will do another session Saturday, probably tempo with hills.

AuldManKing

pconn062 wrote: »

Monday: Off

Much appreciated rest day!

Tuesday: 13k easy

Borrowed my brothers Garmin to try and get an idea of what my easy pace is these days. It was only when I got out I realised it was set to kilometers after the parkrun we did on Sunday. Averaged 4.34 pace which when I calculated turns out is 7.20 a mile. Pretty happy with that as this felt very easy.

Wednesday

AM: 4 miles easy
PM: Session 10x400m off 100m in 25 seconds, 4x150m

Splits: (80, 82, 82, 81, 81, 80, 80, 80, 79, 77)

Back to 400's tonight at the track. Very foggy at the track and conditions weren't nice, felt like the cold air and fog was getting into your lungs so I wore a scarf to keep the worst of it out. Coach said to try and hold 77/78's but I knew that wasn't going to happen. We decided to go out a bit easier to try and finish stronger which we did averaging 81 for the first 5 and 79 for the second 5. I felt pretty strong doing these and probably could have done 1 or 2 more if necessary. The recovery is soooo short in this session that you feel you are not recovering at all. We had our coach shouting at us to keep the recovery going , so we were running the 100m @ under 7 minutes a mile. Damn tough session but great for building strength. Finished off with 4 150's @ 1500m pace to get some speed into the legs. Coach told us today that the point of this sessions is to try and build it until we can do 12 @ 75 pace :eek:, then we will be ready to try and break 16 minutes for 5k. I love his ambition! Easy running for a few days then will do another session Saturday, probably tempo with hills.

thats a super session - sounds very well structured.

Do all the runners run at the same pace??
At our sessions we have different abilities and the slower ones go off 1st and faster ones later (60 secs later for 800's) - would make a session like that very difficult.

pconn062

AuldManKing wrote: »

thats a super session - sounds very well structured.

Do all the runners run at the same pace??
At our sessions we have different abilities and the slower ones go off 1st and faster ones later (60 secs later for 800's) - would make a session like that very difficult.

Thanks AMK, tough session but hopefully it pays off. When we are doing these session we would have several different groups doing them at different paces. So for example tonight we had three different groups, our one, another doing it at 85 pace and another doing it as two sets of 5x400m @ 90 second pace.

pconn062

Thursday: 55 mins recovery

Very easy recovery run on grass, headed up my usual haunt which has been badly flooded for the last few weeks but it back to normal now. Pretty tired at the start of this but felt good at the end.

Friday: 55 mins easy/steady

Met up with my bro and friend of mine for this. Did a few laps of our gravel track and then headed out on the road, lovely evening for it again and covered just shy of 12k according to my friends Garmin (what's with all these Garmin users using kilometers , what that in old money??).

Saturday: Session

3x(2x2 mins uphill, recovery, 1k @ 5k pace)

Tough old session this morning, headed into out clubrooms in Dunleer as we could use the track and the big long hill on the road outside. The hills were meant to be run @ 10k effort and according to mt brothers Garmin we did these mostly at about 6.05-10 pace. Enjoyed this session and felt strong the whole way through. The k's we ran were about 20m long, hit the three k's in 3.34, 3.30, 3.22. Did the first one a bit slower to make sure we didn't overcook it for the rest of the session. Legs got a real battering on the huphill sections but thankfully recovered before we headed in for the k's. Was feeling really strong for the last k so pushed it out a bit.

Really happy with how I'm feeling at the moment, definitely getting into good shape. It's funny how sessions that would have killed me a month ago and now feeling much easier. Entered the JB 5k last night so hoping for a very good run next week if conditions play ball. Long run in the morning before heading down to spectate at the Louth aul boys and girls cross country champs (also known as the Masters cross country!!). Thankfully I'm still too young to run!

pconn062

Sunday: 90 mins long run

Out for a long run early this morning, my two runny buddies cancelled on me so I trotted out on my own. Really lovely morning and I headed down towards the sea where the views were lovely as always. Chest felt a little tight for the first half of this but was fine by the end. Covered a hair over 12 miles in the 90 minutes, enjoyable run. Good weeks training, 52 miles or so and two decent sessions. Hopefully can stay healthy this week, won't do a whole lot of intense work, just keep it ticking over nicely.

pconn062

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 50 mins easy

Headed up to the grass for this as both my shins were very sore after the hills at the weekend. Didn't enjoy this much, chest was very tight and breathing was laboured for the first 30 mins. Seem to having an ongoing issue with my chest, I seem to be allergic to something in my house, most probably dust. We have wooden floors which seems to gather a lot of dust (we hoover every day, honest! ). It could be the dog either (or my girlfriend! :pac:).

Wednesday: Session

8x400m in a two minute cycle

Splits: 78, 73, 74, 74, 75, 73, 72, 71

Chest didn't feel great all day, still very tight. Headed out to the track tonight not feeling very optimistic. Coach had a sharpening session lined up for us, short and sweet. 400's in a two min cycle so if you run the 400m in 80 seconds you get 40 seconds recovery. He didn't mess about, said the target was 75 seconds for each rep. We messed up the pacing on the first one but got into it after that. Conditions were pretty good, cold but little wind with the only issue being a bit of smog (the problem with having a track in the middle of a housing estate). Very happy with how this went, felt controlled doing these and while they weren't easy, I could have done 2 more if necessary. Feeling like I'm in really good shape and my coach gave my a ridiculous target for Saturday, which I think is a little out of my reach but the plan is to try and go out hard and hang on and get the best time possible. The only small glitch is how my chest feels, still feeling very tight and I hope it plays ball for the weekend. It's cotton wool time!