Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

adrian522

Saturday

4 Miles Recovery 11:13 m/m

Nice to get out today, I found my HR was elevated even at the slower paces, presumably a result of yesterdays session. Anyway, good to get this in as I missed a bit earlier in the week.

I had intended to do a 12 mile run tomorrow but looking at my mileage I feel it should be shorter. Most of what I've read says the long run should be about 30-33% of your weekly mileage so I may cut back on that a little.

adrian522

Sunday

Long Slow Run 12 Miles @ 10:55 m/m

Wow, what an enjoyable run this evening.

I woke up this morning with a considerable hangover, knowing that if I was to get a run in before dinner I would need to be out the door by 10am, I pretty much dismissed that possibility fairly early and was glad I did as the weather down in Kilkenny was pretty poor.

By the time I got back to Dublin the weather was great, I watched the Leinster match then headed out, it was one of those really enjoyable runs where the miles seem to fly by and the conditions were just about perfect.

Anyway, I tried out a High 5 energy gel at the 6 mile mark, I had no trouble digesting it and it seems to give me the expected boost.

I bought 5 different types of gels on Friday so I'll try them on different runs and see what works best. So far I've had the Isogel and the standard one.

I'm also in the market for a new pair of shoes as there are 200 miles in my current pair I'd like another set so I can alternate them day by day and when the current pair go to the great gearbag in the sky my new pair will be will broken in.

Weekly Totals:

Distance: 32.93 Miles
Time: 5:48:12

Aiming to stick around 32-33 miles for 4 consecutive weeks before bumping up the mileage again.

adrian522

Monday

60 mins easy paced run

5.72 Miles @ 10.29 m/m

The sun was shining when I headed out but it turned into one of those biblical downpours to the point I was actually laughing at the weather. Tonight was possibly the wettest I've ever been.

Good start to the week though.

adrian522

Tuesday:

10 min easy
8x400m with 400m recovery
10 min Easy

400 times(target 1:54:00):

1:56.2
1:52.7
1:53.0
1:53.0
1:54.6
1:49.8
1:53.8
1:53.5

Pretty good session today. It was a bit windy but other than that perfect. The Intervals were a bit easier today, the times a bit more consistent and my HR monitor shows I didn't need to work as hard.

10K on Saturday, not sure whether to keep the days easy between now and then or do one more session on Thursday.

This my my 6th consecutive day running, but I still feel good and not worn out or anything.

SamforMayo

Hi, I'm also intending doing a 10 km Saturday and I intend keeping it easy between now and then, did a tempo run today. Will probably do 7/8 tomorrow and 4 Thursday, rest Friday. Want the legs to be fresh for Saturday.

adrian522

I guess I'll have an easy day tomorrow and see how things are feeling on Thursday!

I want to give my 10K a good go, not only to run a decent time, but my training paces over the next few months will be based on my performance in this race, so want to be as prepared as possible.

Darren 83

SamforMayo wrote: »

Hi, I'm also intending doing a 10 km Saturday and I intend keeping it easy between now and then, did a tempo run today. Will probably do 7/8 tomorrow and 4 Thursday, rest Friday. Want the legs to be fresh for Saturday.

Personally I like to have two days no running before a race keep the legs fresh, best of luck on Saturday.

adrian522

Darren 83 wrote: »

Personally I like to have two days no running before a race keep the legs fresh, best of luck on Saturday.

I reckon I will run Thursday certainly, maybe just a few easy miles though.

adrian522

Wednesday

45mins Easy Running - 4.1Miles@10:58 m/m

8xStrides - 20 Seconds each with 1 min recovery

Tough going this evening, never really got into the run. A little pain here and there, maybe time for a day off.

adrian522

Thursday

5.25 Miles @ 10:25 m/m

No day off here. Got a new pair of shoes so had to take them for a test drive. Moving from a support shoe to a neutral shoe so will take some getting used to. I'll introduce them gradually.

That makes it 8 days in a row running, definitely a day off tomorrow as race on Saturday.

adrian522

Friday:

A rest day finally, really had to force myself into it though.

Saturday:

BHAA 10K @ the K-Club.

A few words on the race. i can't say enough nice things about this race. Great atmosphere, great facilities before and after and the spread really needs to be seen to be believed. All for for just €15. I really don't think I'll ever run a big commercial race again.

Anyway, probably wan't properly rested and still dealing with a little bit of a chesty cough but nothing too bad, I set off at a qucikish pace hoping to be able to hang on through 6.2 miles.

After about 2.5 though it became apparent that I wouldn't hang on so I needed to slow it a bit, before picking up the pace again in the end.

For a first run of the year it wasn't too bad and gives me a good idea of where my fitness level is and also something to aim for.


My garmin time came out as 52:19, but my official time will be a bit slower than that as I wasn't really sure where the official start line was.

Regardless of my times my HR reading indicates that I was working as hard as I would have liked with my HR hovering around 94% of max for most of the race and peaking at 100% right at the end.

Either way I was 30-45 seconds outside of a PB but happy enough with my mornings work.

Big thanks to everyone involved in organizing it.

1. 8:05
2. 8:33
3. 8:26
4. 8:49
5. 8:39
6. 8:23
7. 1:23

Avg Pace: 8:27.

adrian522

Sunday Easy Run/Recovery Run

5.25 Miles @ 10:12 m/m

Not feeling to much soreness from yesterdays run so decided to get out for a few easy miles. Been trying to shorten my stride and increase my cadence in order to get away from the heavy heel striking that is apparent from the soles of my shoes.

Nice day today, sunshine but a strong breeze. Even saw a chicken wandering around one of the housing estates!

Watched the London marathon earlier, need to figure a way to get there next year, need a fake time, a fake address and a fake ID. Any ideas?

Hit 33 miles for the third consecutive week. Daniels reckons you should stay at the same mileage for 4 weeks then up it by 1 mile per run per week and stay at that for another 4 weeks.

Anyway pretty comfortable at this mileage where I will stay for the next week anyway. Quietly creeping up the 1000 mile challenge table!

After yesterdays race Vdot went from 36 to 38 so my training paces will increase accordingly.

Weekly Totals:

Mileage 33.51
Time: 5:33:21

adrian522

Monday

60 mins Easy Pace 5.54 Miles @ 10:50m/m

Not much to say today, easy paced miles were pretty slow, but you get thsat some days, especially on a Monday.

adrian522

Tuesday

Daniels Phase 2 Quality workout

So I've decided to move onto phase 2, as I feel I've done enough base building at this stage.

As I've moved the VDOT up by 2, my paces will be a little faster.

This workout involves 15 min easy, followed by 4x(200m with 200 recovery, 200m with 200 recovery, 400m with 400 recovery) and finishes with 15 mins easy.

It's a nice workout and replaces the 8x400 from phase one, splitting some of the reps into 200's but keeping the overall distance the same.

It's a tough workout but I'll stick with these for the moment.


Paces - target 200m - 0:54 Target 400m 1:48

200 - 51.8
200 - 51.3
400 - 1:48.2
200 - 49.0
200 - 49.3
400 - 1:49.2
200 - 47.9
200 - 52.1
400 - 1:48.9
200 - 50.8
200 - 51.7
400 - 1:46.6

Total 6.8 Miles

adrian522

Wednesday

3 Miles @ 10:55 m/m


Recovery run yesterday evening. Bit of a panic after this run yesterday, I felt pretty bad all through my legs, knees giving pain, calves also as well as shins. I'm hoping it was just a symptom of the tough session on Tuesday, but I was pretty concerned about it a possible injury last night.

Hopefully nothing too serious.

Krusty_Clown

1) Saturday 10k race (close to PB pace)
2) Sunday: trying to shorten my stride and increase my cadence
3) Tuesday: Hard session vdot moved up by 2
4) Wednesday: pretty concerned about it a possible injury last night.

Seems like a lot of 'stuff' happening at the same time. Would you not forget about trying to force stride/cadence changes, as these will happen naturally as your pace/strength increases anyway? Maybe also, consider moving up by just one vdot and then move up another one in a few weeks time? Better to improve more gradually, than get injured more rapidly!

adrian522

New pair of runners in there as well :eek:

adrian522

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

1) Saturday 10k race (close to PB pace)
2) Sunday: trying to shorten my stride and increase my cadence
3) Tuesday: Hard session vdot moved up by 2
4) Wednesday: pretty concerned about it a possible injury last night.

Seems like a lot of 'stuff' happening at the same time. Would you not forget about trying to force stride/cadence changes, as these will happen naturally as your pace/strength increases anyway? Maybe also, consider moving up by just one vdot and then move up another one in a few weeks time? Better to improve more gradually, than get injured more rapidly!

You are of course correct, I'll leave the changing of the mechanics for the moment and maybe step back the paces in the hard sessions for the next few weeks.

I could probably schedule more rest days too.

adrian522

Thursday

45 mins easy plus 8 Strides

Much more enjoyable run today. Seem to be able to run at a lower HR recently than before(72% of max). No real injury problems today.

4 days off work now, hopefully some good beer and some good coffee will be consumed!

Total 5.36 Miles.

adrian522

Friday:

15 mins Easy(10:49)+20 mins Threshold(8:35)+5 Strides(20 Seconds with 1 min recovery)+15 mins Easy(10:22)

This is a fun session, however I actually forgot I was supposed to be doing strides after the threshold bit and started into my easy running before my garmin reminded me about the strides.

Lovely sunshine is great, but a combination of a few beers last night, an espresso with breakfast and warm sunshine don't make for a great combination.

Anyway, very nice run, a good work being done this week.

The mileage total for the year ticked over 250 miles today which is a good milestone.

5.87 Miles

adrian522

Saturday - Long Slow Run

12 Miles @ 10:48 m/m

I'm very happy with how training is going at the moment with my only concern with possibly doing too much. I've done more miles than I intended this week, but I really wanted to do a long run this weekend as I didn't get one in last weekend.

Overall I've 38 miles done when I was aiming for 33 but I had intended upping it next week anyway.

Tomorrow will be a rest day anyway as I need to drive from Kilkenny to Limerick and back and probably won't get much of a chance for anything.

Weekly Totals:

Miles: 38.58
Duration: 6:40:08

adrian522

Sunday Rest Day

First day off in a little over 1 week.

Monday 60 mins Easy Running

5.74 Miles @ 10:28 m/m


Good run today, quite enjoyable. A little faster than usual, probably due to running with someone else which I normally don't do, but still the effort felt easy and the HR monitor confirms that so happy enough.

adrian522

Tuesday looks like it will be a rest day again. The plan calls for a session today but various aches and pains have me persuaded to take a day off today and maybe do some core work and get back to the running tomorrow.

Have to start listening to the body at some point.

adrian522

Wednesday

15 mins Easy + 4 x (200m+200m+400m) + 15 mins easy.

Good session today, fresh from my day off, and didn't seem as tough as the previous week. You run 200,recover for 200 etc. The 400's seem a lot harder than when you just do 8x400 but I'll stick with these for the moment.

Feeling a little bit of tightness in my calf, thinking about investing in a foam roller rather than just stretching.

275 miles for the year now. I'll break out a celebratory ale when the 1000 mile challenge spreadsheet puts my "Year Total estimate" over 1000 miles. Currently stuck on 888.

SamforMayo

I got a foam roller a couple of weeks go. definitely a good buy. Took a bit of getting use to.

adrian522

Thursday 45 mins easy running (9:57 m/m) + 8 Strides (20 Secs with 1 min Recovery)

Continuing along to the plan. A few aches and pains as per usual, nothing too serious.

Tomorrow will hopfully see another session.

Looking to do a race the bank holiday weekend, need to decide between a 5K and a 5 Mile. Decisions.

adrian522

Friday

15 Mins Easy (10:12) + 20 mins Threshold (8:28) + 4 Strides + 15 mins Easy(9:52)

Same Daniels session as last week. The threshold pace is a bit of a struggle but I guess that's the point.

Not sure if there should be some recovery between the threshold piece and the first stride or you should jump straight into it?

Anyway good workout, still alternating between my old(support) shoes and my new (neutral) shoes. Still a bit of soreness, hoping it's just the legs getting used to the new shoes!

Onwards!

adrian522

Saturday

3 Miles Recovery/Easy 10:00 m/m

Decided to get out for some recovery miles this morning. Nice bit of wind and rain put there but nothing too bad thankfully. Feel good after it. Even managed 15 mins of Core work into the deal.

Trying to do some core exercises for 15 mins on my easy days, or at least 3 days per week. Hopefully it will be of some benefit.

adrian522

Sunday

Long slow Run 13 miles @ 10:20 m/m

I wanted to increase the distance from the last few weeks which has maxed out at 12 miles so I planned on 1 extra mile.

I wanted to run a different route so looking at my Google maps, I figured I was about 3 miles from both the Phoenix park and Marlay park. I settled on the Phoenix park grabbed a water bottle and a gel and off I went.

All went well on the way over, didn't get lost or anything. I stashed my water bottle inside Chapelizod gate and went on my way. I had intended coming back for water and the gel after a total of 6 miles but made a mess of that and it was close to 10 miles by the time I got back there.

I probably was running too fast for this run also, I wasn't paying attention to the watch but probably should have slowed down a bit more.

Whatever the reason I started suffering with cramps in my calf from around 9.5 miles and the last few miles were a bit of a struggle. Anyway hopefully lesson learned.

I'll need to figure out a better water strategy, though I do hate carrying water while running.

Weekly Totals:

Miles: 40.18
Duration: 6:42:28

adrian522

Monday 60 mins easy running

6.13 Miles @ 9:47 m/m

The run was fine once I got out there, but it took all my willpower to get out at all, came home from work and slept on the sofa for an hour, finally managed to do a bit of core work and get out the door.

Hopefully the motivation will return tomorrow.