semper currere

scriba

Tue 8th Dec

7.86 km easy in 45:34

Early morning city running, ran to the sunrise, and looped back for home.

Week (46) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Dec 17th - 23rd | 1 | 7.86 km | 81.67 km | 904.88 km

I took last week very handy, as I was feeling a little drained from the build up to Clonakilty, and some non-running logistics. My legs feel grateful for it though. Business as usual this week.

scriba

Post above should read 18th of December.

Monday 7th January 2013

Easy run 8.08km in 48:19

That was the last time I was out. The usual rubbish of time shortage and colds and laziness and weddings conspired to keep me off the roads until now (it almost sounds like it wasn't my fault... which it totally was, barring the illness). So here I am in 2013, with a marathon in June to train for. So out I went in the wind and lashing rain, I tracked the time and distance, but didn't look at it once. The first 5km were 5:30 - 5:45 km splits, while the last three were slower uphill. Didn't feel particularly strong or clever, but I'm back on the roads.

New table, new year!

Week (2) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 7th - 13th | 1 | 8.08 km | 8.08 km | 8.08 km

Goal for the next three weeks is to get myself ready for the Dungarvan 10, I'll try do a 10m session this week and next week, to see where I am (far away, most likely, from where I'd like). But the predominant goal for January is base building, for when I start the marathon block in February.

scriba

Brief review of the year, makes for pretty grim reading, definitely room for improvement!

Month | Days | km
Jan | 0/31 | 0
Feb | 8/29 | 54.89
Mar | 13/31 | 126.29
Apr | 10/30 | 112.53
May | 9/31 | 117.27
Jun | 0/30 | 0
Jul | 2/31 | 13.02
Aug | 2/31 | 12.02
Sep | 8/30 | 61.03
Oct | 16/31 | 117.04
Nov | 21/30 | 209.12
Dec | 7/31 | 81.67
Totals | 96/366| 904.88

I only ran a handful of races, one 10 mile and 2 HM's, hence PBs galore.

Distance | Race | Date | Time
10 mile | Cobh Great Island Run | 15/4/2012 | 1:21:58
HM | Clonakilty HM | 8/12/2012 | 1:48:37


Targets: I'm aiming for 75 mins by the time Ballycotton comes around in March for the 10 mile, and I'll be training for a 3:45-50 marathon. That's pretty much it. With the marathon training, I hope times will come down of their own accord. I'm entered in Dungarvan and Ballycotton 10 mile races, and CCM 2013 so far. In addition, I'll do the Cobh 10 mile in April (charidee) and a HM in May.

scriba

Sunday 13th January 2013

Easy run 10.81 km in 1:07:09

What a week, after getting drenched on Monday morning, by lunchtime I was sneezing and by the evening I was in bed with aches, pains, fever and all the rest of new year cheer. Misery. It was a relief to get out last night, in the dry cold. Ran with some friends, nice to have some company.

Week (2) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 7th - 13th | 2 | 18.89 km | 18.89 km |18.89 km

scriba

Wed 16th January 2013

Pace run 10.85 km in 57:52

More drizzle and darkness, but not too bad all in all. With marathon training due to start come the end of the month, I wanted to see where I was, so this session was all about holding MP for as long as possible. I'm hoping to run CCM in 3:45 or so, so MP is 5:15-20. I ran 8k below 5:20/km before slowing up to a 5:29 and a 5:38 for the last couple of km. Nothing crazy, but a decent workout. Recovery kms tomorrow. I hope it's dry, I can feel the damp on my lungs.

Week (3) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 14th - 20th | 1 | 10.85 km | 29.74 km | 29.74 km

scriba

Sun 20th January 2013

(Very) Easy run 10.95 km in 1:10:35

Slow, chatty run with a friend. Had to do this at 9:30 at night, due to a hectic week of birthdays and extracurricular activities. This week, it'll be back to 4-5 sessions. It HAS to be.

Week (3) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 14th - 20th | 2 | 21.8 km | 40.69 km | 40.69 km

I think 6-8km this evening of easy running.

scriba

Mon 21st January 2013

Easy run 6.65 km in 38:11

Nice and cold tonight, 1 degree, lots of fellow lunatics on the roads

Week (4) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 21st - 27th| 1 | 6.65 km | 47.34 km | 47.34 km

scriba

Tue 22nd January 2013

Mixed run 10.4 km in 1:03:08

A friend of mine wanted to get out for his first bit of jogging in months, so I agreed to do some slow running with him in the middle of my run this evening. The breakdown was:

2.61km in 12:38 (4:50/km)
4.53km in 33:35 (7:25/km) Scorchio!
2.52km in 12:28 (4:56/km)
0.74km in 4:26 (6:00/km) Quick warmdown.

Weather was nice enough this evening, very cold, but no wind. Surface water is going to freeze soon though. 3 running evenings in a row now, which feels great, the habit is beginning to take root again, in the nick of time! The target is to get to around 120km by the end of January, maybe a little more all going well.

Week (4) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 21st - 27th| 2 | 17.05 km | 57.74 km | 57.74 km

scriba

Thurs 24th January 2013

Mixed run 11.81 km in 1:09:21

Same deal as Tuesday, more or less. Ran with a friend from 2.6km to 7.2km, and did some 'speedwork' outside of that along with 0.8km warm-down. Splits:

km 1 | 2 | 3 | 4| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
4:32 |4:25|6:05|6:55|7:31|6:54|7:05|5:40|5:06|4:58|4:59|6:22

Felt good doing this, the early km felt good in a hard work kind of way, the middle kms with my buddy were obviously grand, and I felt good running sub PMP for the 3.8km before the warmdown. The temperature, with the drizzle, felt positively balmy compared to the last few nights, while I was glad the ice was gone. Recovery pace run tomorrow morning, if I can get up.

Week (4) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 21st - 27th| 3 | 28.86 km | 69.55 km | 69.55 km

scriba

Sat 26th January 2013

Easy/recovery run 10.71 km in 1:06:24

More company, I'm getting used to running and chatting at the same time. No more running loneliness! At least until marathon training starts officially... next week!

Had a couple of beers and glasses of red wine out at a birthday last night, so it was good to get out and run it out of my system. LSR tomorrow, first one of 2013! 14-16k should do nicely.

Week (4) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 21st - 27th| 4 | 39.57 km | 80.26 km | 80.26 km

scriba

Sun 27th January 2013

LSR 14km

No time for this, since I paused my tracking app, and never restarted it. But it would have been a grand slow pace, around 6:30/km for my longest run of the year so far. My running partner ran 8 miles for the first time ever, which was nice to see! Weather was awful as usual, but managed at least half of the run in daylight, which was nice for a change. My legs were complaining a bit after about 8km, but that's to be expected, given that I've ramped things up significantly this week. A nice rest tomorrow, and some easy recovery kms should see me fit for next week.

First 5 session week since November.

Week (5) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 21st - 27th| 5 | 53.57 km | 94.26 km | 94.26 km

Next week, the 18 week training cycle for Cork City Marathon begins. I'm still undecided whether to go for Hal Higdon Intermediate 2 or P&D's up to 55 mile programme. I'm taking a rest day tomorrow, so I'll set aside a little time to read up on it then. Or more likely, decide on the plan which has the later start day.

scriba

Decision made, I'm going to give P&D's 18/55 plan a bash. It looks challenging, but I think the benefits will be significant. If the midweek sessions get too much, I'll know about it soon enough, and I'll slide into the concurrent week in Hal Higdon's intermediate marathon programme. The plan is to do the sessions in the mornings before work where possible. My working start times are flexible two weeks out of every four, which gives me a little leeway for the longer runs. I'm pretty excited that the training is starting, it makes the goal of the marathon a little more real and tangible.

So this week's plan is:

MON | TUE | WED | THURS | FRI | SAT | SUN |
Rest/Cross | LT 13km w/ 6.5km 10 mile pace | Rest/Cross | General aerobic 14.5km | Rest/Cross | Recovery 6.5km | Medium LSR 19 km


Now for the rain to feck off, and I'll be mint.

scriba

Tue 29/1/2013

Week 1, Session 1 P&D, training for a 3:45 marathon.

I was supposed to do 3.25 km easy; 6.5 km LT; and warm down with another 3.25km; but my girlfriend's sister needed a running partner for her easy 3 miler this afternoon. Long story short, I ended frontloading the 6.5km easy at the start, done at about 6:05/km pace, and then launched into the LT section. Found it tough to maintain a consistent pace, varying from 5:00 to 5:24/km as the terrain shifted, but I think the effort was constant enough, averaging 5:18/km; which was the softest end of the prescribed target range (from 15K to HM pace). Weather was the usual, a bit gusty and wet at the start, but it calmed down after 5k.

Anyway, the legs found this very tiring, possibly after the big step up last week. But there'll be no copping out now. I'll just try do these sessions as well as I possibly can, regardless of fatigue, use my rest days, and enjoy the benefits of a challenging programme. Just deserts for a slack xmas!

Week (6) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 28th - Feb 3rd| 1 | 13.61 km | 107.87 km | 107.87 km

So first session down. Not ideal by any means, but it's a start.

Edit: Just saw from my tracking app that during this run I hit 1000 km running since I started in February last year. A small achievement, but one I didn't even consider last January.

scriba

Thurs 31/1/2013

Week 1, Session 2 P&D 14km general aerobic

14.76km in 1:29:18; 6:03/km. Grand easy pace.

Contrary to my predictions on the CCM 2013 thread, the goal is still 3:45 for the marathon.

This was much easier than Sunday's run of a similar distance, despite being some 40 secs/km quicker. Effort was consistent and only became more difficult for the last km. Weather was dark, cold and a little rainy. Nothing really to report. My orange GT 2170s look to be finally finished: holes where my big toe should be covered, and another where my crazy right baby toe pushes against the fabric. But more significantly, the springy goodness is all gone from my upper foot. I got nearly 800km out of them, but it doesn't auger well for the life span of my new pair of blue GT 2170s. It looks like might need to go shopping again sooner rather than later.

Anyway...

Week (6) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 28th - Feb 3rd| 2 | 28.37 km | 122.63 km | 122.63 km

And it's the end of the month, so...

Month | 2012 Days | 2012 km| 2013 Days | 2013 km
Jan | 0/31 | 0 | 11/31 | 122.63
Feb | 8/29 | 54.89 | 0 | 0
Mar | 13/31 | 126.29 | 0 | 0
Apr | 10/30 | 112.53 | 0 | 0
May | 9/31 | 117.27 | 0 | 0
Jun | 0/30 | 0 | 0 | 0
Jul | 2/31 | 13.02 | 0 | 0
Aug | 2/31 | 12.02 | 0 | 0
Sep | 8/30 | 61.03 | 0 | 0
Oct | 16/31 | 117.04 | 0 | 0
Nov | 21/30 | 209.12 | 0 | 0
Dec | 7/31 | 81.67 | 0 | 0
Totals | 96/366| 904.88 | 11/31 | 122.63

Micilin Muc

scriba wrote: »

Week 1, Session 2 P&D 14km general aerobic

14.76km in 1:29:18; 6:03/km. Grand easy pace.

This was much easier than Sunday's run of a similar distance, despite being some 40 secs/km quicker. Effort was consistent and only became more difficult for the last km.

Be careful you don't push any harder than you need to on these General Aerobic runs. None of it should be difficult!

scriba

Micilin Muc wrote: »

Be careful you don't push any harder than you need to on these General Aerobic runs. None of it should be difficult!

Cheers Micilin Muc! This was grand, but there'll be others where I'll be much more fatigued. I'm still trying out different pace ranges to begin with, but I'm a fan of keeping easy slow in general.

scriba

Sat 2/2/2013

Week 1, Session 3 P&D 6.4 km recovery

6.6km in 42:39; 6:28/km.

Did this straight after the match this afternoon, all psyched up and full of beans, hence I had to concentrate on slowing the pace down as much as possible. I love when Ireland win, I love when the sun is out, and by Christ do I love beating the Welsh.

Since this was a short one, I jogged the km to the local park (i.e. a bit of grass and a few trees around a football pitch) and did some laps on the grass. Boring, but maybe my legs will appreciate it as the programme goes on. 19km tomorrow, I'll probably do that fairly slow also.

Week (6) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 28th - Feb 3rd| 3 | 34.97 km | 6.6 km | 129.23 km

scriba

Sun 3/2/2013

Week 1, Session 4 P&D 19km Medium long run

19.53 km in 2:08:53 @ 6:36/km

Wanted to keep this nice and slow today. I'm conscious of the fact that I haven't got the base I should from January coming into this programme, so I took this quite easy. My longest run this year, a dull day in Cork, but running by the harbour and marina was nice enough. There's time enough for MP sessions and quicker general runs later on in the schedule. After all, this is the endurance cycle

Week (6) | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Jan 28th - Feb 3rd| 4 | 54.5 km | 26.13 km | 148.76 km

Nice one, week 1 of P&D down. No issues so far. Legs feel a little heavy but I expected that. They'll settle into it over the coming weeks as my fitness catches up. I'm running Ballycotton in 4 weeks, and I might try do some long 'intervals' at projected 10 mile pace during my general aerobic + speed sessions in the next few weeks, just so that it won't be a complete shock. Trying to find the balance between marathon training and tailoring a little bit of it to a 10 mile is tricky. I want to race it, because I want to see where I am, I'm a little at sea at the moment about what my optimal training paces should be. I'll stick with slow sessions slow and hard sessions hard for the time being.

Micilin Muc

scriba wrote: »

I'm a little at sea at the moment about what my optimal training paces should be. I'll stick with slow sessions slow and hard sessions hard for the time being.

How about running by your heart-rate monitor? It's a good indicator in the absence of recent race times.

scriba

Micilin Muc wrote: »

How about running by your heart-rate monitor? It's a good indicator in the absence of recent race times.

Cheers Micilin Muc, good call, if only I had one. Reading a lot on running by effort recently, and running by heart-rate would seem to be the way to go. It's a slippery slope though, if I start buying things like this, I'll be a cyborg by 2016. But my times will improve... decisions.

scriba

Tue 5/2/2013

Week 2, Session 1 P&D 13km w 10 x 100m strides.

Or rather that's what it was supposed to be. I had LT session on the brain and didn't check, so instead I did 13km w/ 7km LT (10 mile pace). I doubt any serious harm done. I'll throw the strides in with the general session on Thursday.

13.26 km in 1:12:29, with 7km in 34:30 (avg 4:56/km)

What a day for running, and a good day for testing yourself. Went down to the Marina for this one, and went up and down twice (plus a little bit) for the LT part of the run. Plan was to keep LT under 5 min km, but only just. Wind and rain battered me as I ran into it, but I kept my pace nice and consistent both with and against the wind (between 4:53 and 4:58 km splits). Then a nice easy jog home. This session was good psychologically for me, with the 8 miles of MP coming up on Sunday.

Week (7) P&D 16 | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Feb 4th - Feb 10th| 1 | 13.26 km | 39.39 km | 162.02 km

The kilometres keep creeping up in my excel file. Job.

scriba

Thurs 7/2/2013

Week 2, Session 2 P&D 16km General aerobic run.

16.48 km in 1:40:02 (6:04/km); with some 10km of this done on grass.

This was a boring run which went on forever, mainly because I resolved to do as much of it on grass as I could handle. So up to the local park (Tory Top) and ran 8k of laps around the park, and then onto another field and did a few grass laps around that. I then went back on the road as the sun went down, and ran to the lough for a few laps of that. All rather aimless, but there's some benefit in there somewhere! I just didn't fancy doing one of my traditional 10 mile loops around the city and suburbs today, the thought of all that rush hour traffic made me decidedly unmotivated. I'm going housesitting for a bit next week in the country, and I think a few long runs out there are just what I need.

Other news, at this morning's weigh in, I came in at 192 lbs, which is a loss of 11lbs since October. Weight loss is no longer my main goal for running, but it is a significant factor in helping me achieve some running goals (marathon and then quicker marathons) and life goals (don't die with a heart encased in frytex-like material). Long story short, I'm pleased with that. I've cleaned up my diet over the last few months, making small adjustments, and now I'm getting a lot more water, veg, fish, and have moved away from my 80% sandwich diet (which I miss - I should try gatecrash some 21st's for my fix). The goal is to get down to 182 lbs or under for CCM.



Week (7) P&D 16 | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Feb 4th - Feb 10th| 2 | 29.74 km | 55.87 km | 178.5 km

scriba

Sat 9/2/2013

Week 2, Session 3 P&D 8km recovery.

8.21 km in 52:41 (6:25/km); 6.4k on grass.

Nice cool and bright morning, went up the local park again. Legs still adjusting to running on grass, but I'm sure it'll do me the world of good in the ... ahem ... long run. All this lapping of parks is allowing me to catch up on some episodes of marathon talk, so win-win.

Really enjoying P&D at the moment. There's a real sense of purpose when I look at the plan at the start of the week, and accomplishment at ticking the sessions off. Tomorrow's 13k of MP should be interesting.

Week (7) P&D 16 | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Feb 4th - Feb 10th| 3 | 37.95 km | 64.08 km | 186.71 km

scriba

Sun 10/2/2013

Week 2, Session 4 P&D 21km LSR w/13k @ MP.

21.23 km in 1:57:11 (5:31/km); MP avg pace 5:13/km

Beautiful morning for running. I was a little apprehensive about the MP this morning, as I've only ever run this distance a handful of times. But away I went, picked a route, and plodded merrily along in the sunshine. The aim for the marathon is 3:45, requiring an MP of 5:18/km or so. For this run, I set an arbitrary target of between 5:10 and 5:20 for the MP kms and if they become too tough, slide down to 5:20s to 5:30. I was a bit heavy legged for the warm up 4km, but running at MP was much less tricky than I had feared, and I felt strong until the last 0.5k of it (I've a lazy mind, always looking forward to the finish, even of a 100m stride!) So I'm delighted with that, no niggles or pains to report, and another week down.

Well, one thing to report, runs are definitely straying into bodyglide territory now! :eek:

Splits for the MP kms:

1 5:18
2 5:15
3 5:12
4 5:14
5 5:11
6 5:18
7 5:17
8 5:08
9 5:12
10 5:11
11 5:10
12 5:11
13 5:14

Week (7) P&D 16 | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Feb 4th - Feb 10th| 4 | 59.18 km | 85.31 km | 207.94 km

Micilin Muc

I remember that first MP session when I did P&D55 - I think I was barely hanging on. My actual marathon pace 16 weeks later was much faster. Good training Scriba

scriba

Tue 12/2/2013

Week 3, Session 1 P&D 16km General aerobic run

16.1 km in 1:36:24 (5:59/km), climb: 296 m

Grand 'soft' day down in Cork to kick off week three, and the first of the five day weeks in the programme. I went down to Belgooly this afternoon after work, and ran a couple of ~7km loops incorporating a spicy 1km long 90m incline, and a few other peaks and troughs. Hadn't done any sort of hilly stuff since before Clon in December, and it was slow enough in parts. But it was manageable, and really good for the legs. I'll try fit some more hills into the general aerobic runs over the course of the programme. Nice to be running out in the green fields again.

It's amazing how quickly the legs adapt to distance. I 'ran' 14k on a flatter route 16 days ago or so, my longest run of the year at the time, and I thought my legs would fall off. This was nice and easy.

Week (8) P&D 15 | Sessions | WTD | MTD | YTD
Feb 11th - 17th| 1 | 16.1 km | 101.41 km | 224.04 km

blockic

scriba wrote: »

Tue 12/2/2013
Grand 'soft' day down in Cork to kick off week three, and the first of the five day weeks in the programme. I went down to Belgooly this afternoon after work, and ran a couple of ~7km loops incorporating a spicy 1km long 90m incline, and a few other peaks and troughs.

Nice running scriba, P&D is tough going. On week 7 now myself but will be worth the rewards I hope!

Belgooly is my local village down home, not too flat at all around those parts!:) What loop did you take? Kinsale direction?

scriba

blockic wrote: »

Nice running scriba, P&D is tough going. On week 7 now myself but will be worth the rewards I hope!

Definitely, enjoying the focus it brings. Tough is good.

blockic wrote: »

Belgooly is my local village down home, not too flat at all around those parts!:) What loop did you take? Kinsale direction?

I was going to try explain it, but not knowing the area too well would make that tricky. My mam lives down there. It's easier to insert a wee map. Nice spot for running, sometimes joined by local dogs

blockic

Ah I know the one, havnt ran that loop but drive it plenty of times. My old primary school is just off that loop so nice memories of the area! Hefty drags there over the first half, but a nice downhill finish! Just as well you didnt do the loop clockwise!! :eek:

The walkway there on the Belgooly to Kinsale road is a nice spot for a recovery run too!

scriba

blockic wrote: »

Ah I know the one, havnt ran that loop but drive it plenty of times. My old primary school is just off that loop so nice memories of the area! Hefty drags there over the first half, but a nice downhill finish! Just as well you didnt do the loop clockwise!! :eek:

The walkway there on the Belgooly to Kinsale road is a nice spot for a recovery run too!

Yeah, I've seen where it splits off to the primary school! This was my first run of it since the start of December, but I'll be doing it both ways once I get a little fitter :eek: . That walkway is a great amenity for the area, great to see it being used in the early evenings too. I did most of my runs for Clon last year out here, and it really helped with the hilly aspects of the course.

You're really motoring through your training, I foresee impressive results!