Confessions of a never has been.....

Duanington

aquinn wrote: »

DD good morning and massive congratulations on Seville PB. What a report and race management under the conditions when you weren't feeling great. Fantastic. That Spanish guy, ah.

Thanks A - the Spanish guy was a classic alright

Duanington

12.03.2019


Monday

6 "easy" miles after work...I say easy but they weren't all easy...picked it up by the end and while it was enjoyable, it wasn't quite easy.

Tuesday


Lunchtime run with one of the lads in work, easy stuff

5.3 miles

Wednesday



Down to the track with the crew for a slightly reduced session.

Alternating 600s and 800s with 75 seconds recovery, reducing to 60

Focused on form, didn't sweat over the pace and held back just a tad on effort.

Good session, blowing a little harder than I'd like but that's how it goes for me after marathons.

In and around 2 minutes for the 600s and 2.47 for the 800s


Thursday


easy miles in the park with 6 x strides....form, form, form

Just over 5 for the lot

Friday

5 easy miles at lunch, really enjoyed this one

Saturday

Small session

2 x 3,2,1 - Just working down the gears from MP(ish), not worrying about pace, again more about effort and form....ran the last rep pretty strong and blew out a few cobwebs

Enjoyed this, legs were a little tight at the start but felt better by the end


Sunday

off


Monday



Longest run since the marathon, 11 miles on the cards with a pickup to steady effort over the last 2 miles or so.

Really enjoyed this one, moving well by the end...but I knew I'd run 11 miles afterward too.

Duanington

Said I'd update this early so Swashbuckler can get his questions in :pac:

16.03.2019

Tuesday

Easy run home from work, bumped into FBOT and Murph getting ready for their session in the gale....I wasn't even a teeny bit smug jogging on home....

just over 5 easy miles


Wednesday


Down to the track with the Wednesday gang, a little tired heading down for this, busy week in work though and I was glad to get out of the office for a bit

Warmups\drills done and we were given the session;

1k, 2x800, 4x600

I actually liked the sound of this one, "cruise" the k and build momentum over the 800s to finish fast over the last 600

Easy peasy? Not quite - the 1k felt good, as did the 800s but when it came to the 600s, the lads were leaving me for dead. By the last rep, the group had moved away from me and I was hanging on to try and hold pace, never mind finish fast.

Looking back at the session splits, everything was around 5.30 pace....give or take a few seconds. So while not a bad session on paper ( although the 1k and 800s were probably a little quick), the heavy feeling in the legs when I tried to turn them over quicker on the 600s tells a tale...

Plenty of work to do to build the turnover back up but it'll come back with a bit of patience and a little hard work.


Just shy of 7 miles for the lot

Thursday

5.4 easy miles around St Anne's with FBOT, wrecked me lovely new runners int the muck, he wouldn't stay on the tarmac.

Friday

A lovely run home from work to bring an end to a crazy week in work, one of those relaxing easy runs that reminds you why you run in the first place
just over 5 miles

Saturday

Another mini session today, building on last week but not burying myself in any LT stuff just yet

2 x 4,3,2,1 minutes with 50% recovery ( i.e. 2 minutes after the 4 minute rep)

Wind was blowing hard out there when I got out to St Anne's, I had originally planned on focusing on holding 6.30 for the 4 minutes and working down to 5.50-6.00 for the 1 minute but changed to focus on effort because....well, its probably a better workout in those conditions.

The first set was a little bit of a shock to the system, I haven't ran an early morning session in a while and I found it tough to settle\concentrate on form\effort ( the whole idea of the session)

In stark contrast, the 2nd set was great, good form, good turnover and finishing strong but controlled into the wind.

Paces were a little erratic but the tree cover and wind won't have helped there

4,3,2,1 (6.45, 6.14, 6.05, 5.48)
4,3,2,1 (6.32, 6.09, 5.55, 5.40)


Short warmup\down to bring the total to 6.7 miles

Swashbuckler

Haha you're too kind.

I've been focusing a lot more on my effort level lately moreso than target pace. If I'm prescribed 6.30 tempo pace and I feel my effort level is rising because of wind or hills or whatever I ease back to keep it tempo effort. Same applies to pretty much all of my sessions lately. Effort has become my priority.

That being said I've seen a few things on Strava lately (I know I shouldn't compare and each session is different) where people mentioned about deciding not to push the pace and reverted to effort. I've gotten it into my head that all sessions irrespective of whether they are threshold or Vo2 max or tempo or whatever should always be based on effort. Is that wrong? Do you not always go on effort or do you disregard for some sessions and try to hit paces no matter what?
Another side to this is I saw Scullion saying lately that he had questioned whether he was pushing himself hard enough because he could only think of two or three sessions in the past while where he was buckled. I can't remember the last time where I was really shot to bits after a session.

Not sure if I'm making sense but I guess what I'm asking is, is there a time for forgetting about effort and just hitting those paces no matter what?

Duanington

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Haha you're too kind.

I've been focusing a lot more on my effort level lately moreso than target pace. If I'm prescribed 6.30 tempo pace and I feel my effort level is rising because of wind or hills or whatever I ease back to keep it tempo effort. Same applies to pretty much all of my sessions lately. Effort has become my priority.

That being said I've seen a few things on Strava lately (I know I shouldn't compare and each session is different) where people mentioned about deciding not to push the pace and reverted to effort. I've gotten it into my head that all sessions irrespective of whether they are threshold or Vo2 max or tempo or whatever should always be based on effort. Is that wrong? Do you not always go on effort or do you disregard for some sessions and try to hit paces no matter what?
Another side to this is I saw Scullion saying lately that he had questioned whether he was pushing himself hard enough because he could only think of two or three sessions in the past while where he was buckled. I can't remember the last time where I was really shot to bits after a session.

Not sure if I'm making sense but I guess what I'm asking is, is there a time for forgetting about effort and just hitting those paces no matter what?

Personally, I think there is a time and a place for both P. I'm not sure about mere mortals like us obsessing over hitting a certain pace week after week. Scullion may talk about it now but others in the same class would disagree with that approach, particularly when in the depths of marathon training (throw in cumulitive fatigue, weather conditions etc). I'm not in the depths of marathon training, I'm actually still recovering from one so I was out today listening to the body and dipping down into various effort levels accordingly.

If there are hills\wind involved, you get less bang for your buck, you're hitting the same effort but getting less pace as reward....try to ensure you hit that pace with those obstacles or conditions and you're overcooking the session. That's certainly my take on it and I know for sure that I've overcooked the effort on many sessions over the years because of wind\hills\whatever.



The flip side of course is that when you are chasing a time, you need to get comfortable with a certain pace. I suspect that's what Scullion is talking about but his whole day revolves around his training, naps, massages, rest, nutrition etc....

When it comes to training to race, I think effort is a better guide to performance than the watch will ever be. I don't think anyone looks at their watch as they race against that runner over the last 400m of a race, its about effort, and for me, I find the more in tune I get with those various effort levels, the better I race.

I've stated before that our Wednesday sessions are never ever run at a prescribed pace and I love them for that reason. Its always about "cruise the first rep" or "build into race pace" or "finish strong"...confusing at first but very helpful when it comes to tuning the mind.

I thnk you're dead right to focus on effort and think it'll stand to you in the long run

skyblue46

Ok, I'll jump in here on behalf of all the hobby joggers who read lots of logs in the hope of picking up little nuggets of information. P's question got me intrigued because it's a common problem for lots of runners to run their easy days too fast. If they/I can't judge easy pace there is no chance they can work out if running into a 40kph headwind should mean reducing the pace of a threshold run by 5/10/30 seconds. As P mentioned there has been lots of chat about running by effort rather than pace. I tried it for the first 90 second rep this week and instead of running it at 6:20 I ran it at 6:47! Is it wrong to run all reps by the watch, bust your balls on half of them and cruise the other half and be happy that the average of the session was where it should have been?

I'm also curious about you doing sessions now in the light of the 'one day easy running for every mile raced' post marathon recovery advice. Is that for novices only?

Swashbuckler

skyblue46 wrote:

Is it wrong to run all reps by the watch, bust your balls on half of them and cruise the other half and be happy that the average of the session was where it should have been?

I know the question is directed at D but I'll jump in with my opinion here.

Definitely not. If your threshold pace is 6.30 for example and you run half the session at 7 and the other half at 6 then you've pretty much done no threshold work in that session.

To the specific session you mention were you prescribed a pace but 5k effort was mentioned? In that scenario all reps should be 5k effort. Ignore the pace.

Duanington

skyblue46 wrote: »

Ok, I'll jump in here on behalf of all the hobby joggers who read lots of logs in the hope of picking up little nuggets of information. P's question got me intrigued because it's a common problem for lots of runners to run their easy days too fast. If they/I can't judge easy pace there is no chance they can work out if running into a 40kph headwind should mean reducing the pace of a threshold run by 5/10/30 seconds. As P mentioned there has been lots of chat about running by effort rather than pace. I tried it for the first 90 second rep this week and instead of running it at 6:20 I ran it at 6:47! Is it wrong to run all reps by the watch, bust your balls on half of them and cruise the other half and be happy that the average of the session was where it should have been?

I'm also curious about you doing sessions now in the light of the 'one day easy running for every mile raced' post marathon recovery advice. Is that for novices only?

I'm no expert at judging the effort either, S - the varying paces from yesterday's session show that. I'd agree with P, busting out half a rep and cruising the other half doesn't sound like you'd get the desired result from the session. A consistent average or, depending on the session, a stronger finish would give for a better executed session

There's room for both effort and based and watch based training in my view but yesterday's conditions would have meant I'd have to run far too hard to hold the intended pace range.


On the returning to sessions, I've read lots recently about the 26 day thing too and while I think there is a lot of merit to it, its also such a broad, sweeping assumption. I think you've to allow for training history, marathon history, how well you've handled the recovery etc...

Having said all of that, I feel that I'm still recovering. I ran a marathon with some sort of bug in the system and probably left myself a little more depleted than I would have otherwise so its common sense to take this next few weeks pretty carefully.
This week (week 4) saw a return to running "full" sessions but they are short sessions, no reps longer than 4 minutes and the focus for me was on turning the legs over. 1 week off, 1 week easy and then easing back into it is how I've played this one.
In general, I think caution is the word when returning to training and I still feel like I'm being cautious

Swashbuckler

Duanington wrote:

I thnk you're dead right to focus on effort and think it'll stand to you in the long run

Cheers for the detailed answer D.

Duanington

24.03.2019

Took Sunday and Monday off to switch off a bit before I started to build into a structured week.

Tuesday

Ran home from work, bumped into FBOT and tipped around with him for a little bit on his warmup for his session.
6.2 easy miles

Wednesday

Back to the track today, tough looking session on the cards and a good crew to run it with

3x600, 1200, 3x600 - all (roughly) off 60 seconds

Very consistent throughout this one in terms of split times which is encouraging, hard work at times but I could feel the legs turning over well for the first time in a while. There is hope yet!

600s were all in around 1.59\2.00
1200 was 4.10 (5.35 pace)

6.5 miles all in and a feel good factor again after a session more importantly.

Thursday

Met one of the lads from the club to run around St Anne's on the grass. Good chat, miles ticked by and the body felt good

Friday

Very easy run home from work, 5.4 miles

Saturday

Another session but a little meatier than previous weeks and the first real sustained LT type session in quite a while;

10 minutes in around 6.00\6.05
4\5 mins easy
5 x 25 sec hills
4\5 mins easy
10 minutes in and around 6.00\6.05



Up and at it nice and early in St Anne's for this, I both love and hate early morning sessions

Love: nobody in the park, early morning sun, smell of the grass, getting home as the house wakes up and I'm done
Hate: being tired and sluggish

I was mindful of overcooking this and turning the session into a race so built into the first 10 minute section rather than plunge straight in. Found a good stride but if I'm honest, this was a bit of a shock to the system and I was blowing a little harder than normal

I was glad to get through the first 10 minute section (6.07 pace) and jogged down to the hill at the bottom of the park.

More shocks to the system here, really focusing on getting the legs and arms moving fast, kicking from back to front and holding form.

jogged back down and repeated 5 times

Jogged easy for 4 minutes then got into the second section. Quite a bit of fatique in the legs at this stage but I found a good stride again and locked it in.
Ironically this section didn't feel quite as awful as the first section, maybe because I was closing in on the end of the session but I was obviously distracted - stopped the watch a minute early like an eejit ( and didn't cop it until later)

Jogged home with another warm, fuzzy, post session feeling in the belly....and some tired legs

5.00 pace for the hills and 6.03 pace for the second tempo section.


8 miles all in for the day



Sunday

Met FBOT for a few easy miles around Clontarf\Fairview. Enjoyed this, plenty of chat on a lovely evening.

Just over 40 miles for the week, plenty of S+C and I've dropped way back on coffee consumption too

AuldManKing

Whats the story behind the coffee consumption?

Duanington

AuldManKing wrote: »

Whats the story behind the coffee consumption?

Thought Swash would ask that one :pac:

I don't actually drink a lot of coffee...but I drink it strong and black.

2 reasons;

1 - I don't think it agrees with my stomach, it plays havoc with the aul digestive system and I've had more than one emergency dash to the jacks out on long runs over the past few months.

2 - It has me wired at times, hard to explain but I'm a pretty chilled out fella, except when I'm going through a phase of drinking lots of coffee. Then I'm a bit more highly strung than usual.

I think I'm just one of those oddballs that coffee doesn't agree with


Of course I could be wrong but it's day 4 or 5 and already I feel the better for it.

Swashbuckler

Duanington wrote:

Thought Swash would ask that one

He got in before me

OOnegative

All ok Davey?

skyblue46

OOnegative wrote: »

All ok Davey?

B, you really have to get on to Strava! :pac:

OOnegative

skyblue46 wrote: »

B, you really have to get on to Strava! :pac:

If that’s the case DD is just plain lazy.....

Duanington

OOnegative wrote: »

If that’s the case DD is just plain lazy.....

Time is precious B - building it up again, solid week last week, step back week this week ( which ties in with a work trip to Paris, ran by Notre Dame in flames yesterday)

The log is suffering but the training is going well, I’ll get back to this when things settle down

Duanington

Sooo....fast forward 15 months and it turns out training wasn't really going as well as I thought.

Turns out I had an L2\L3 compression in my back which was manifesting itself as hamstring pulls, spasms during sessions and general discomfort around the lower back\hip\ and is probably what caused the spasming that nearly floored me in the closing stages of Seville.

In truth, something had felt "off" for quite a while, I had gotten myself pretty aerobically fit but my body didn't seem to hold up too well during harder sessions (especially longer sessions). During the xc season of 2018\2019, I felt fitter and more confident than ever when it came to training and competing in races.
But, thinking back now, I can recognise the warning signs that were becoming more and more frequent.

I had a routine of a long, hard session on a Saturday, easy Sunday then a long easy run each Monday in the lead up to Seville. Tuesdays were easy then Wednesdays were on the track with the work crew. Thursday and Friday were easy again to get ready for the tough session on the Saturday morning.

The reality is that the I was pushing the body too hard by squeezing in the "must have" long run on the Monday ( after work too), there were evenings when the rain was coming at me sideways and I'd have done 17\18 miles as part of a tough session on the Saturday, out I'd go for 20 odd miles "easy" - and have to lie on the ground for 10\15 minutes at the end to let my back ease out.

The track session was also one of those "must haves", I just never skipped it.

Seville came and went and while I got through it in the end, it was touch and go for the last few miles. I took my time rebuilding and eventually got back to a stage where I was stringing weeks together fine, I just wasn't moving well. Nothing felt fluid, nothing felt comfortable and I started to lose confidence in my body, I just didn't trust it well enough to push it very hard.

October brought DCM, I knew deep down I hadn't put in the work to put in a good showing so was mentally prepared to switch to a plan B option pretty early on in the race if there were any warning signs. I probably should have skipped the race but I had arranged a big enough charity effort for the day and felt obliged to take part I suppose.

10k in and my back, glutes, hip flexors were starting to lock up. I spent the second half of the race high fiving kids and eating jelly babies ( which was actually a fantastic experience to be fair)

Shortly after DCM I sat down with my physio and went through the history of the last few months, he did some pretty standard tests, asked the usual questions. It was obvious enough to him that this was coming from my lower back and his advice was to lower my expectations for "quite a while" in order to let my body respond to the S+C\Rehab work that he was prescribing.

So, a daily diet of 20-30 minutes of core and strength work was on the menu, and has been for almost 12 months. It was tough at first, but then it progressed and as the weeks and months passed, I started to feel stronger. The flexibility tests showed the results ( I could barely tip the tops of my ankles when I first started)
In the same way that the problem started to show itself in small ways, the results of the rehab started to show - a long run with no pain at the end, a track session where I felt smooth for once, nothing major but definite signs.

With entries for both London and Chicago deferred this year, it gave me the chance to just focus on getting strong, healthy and learning to trust my body again.
For the most part, S+C came first - if I was against the clock and something had to give, the run would be scrapped, I'd do my S+C routine.

More physio visits, more tests, more positive results until June came along and I was told that I was more or less there in terms of the programme, I was good to start picking training up again....so long as I keep the S+C up too.


So what would training look like?

Simple enough to be honest, I don't have a coach right now and while I'm a little obsessed with coaching and various training methods, I'm always drawn back to the stuff that interests me and has worked for me in the past ...and that I enjoy.

Reasonably high mileage with easy being easy
Tempo stuff that is actually tempo (and not a time trial)
Reps that are tough but controlled
Hills


The plan for the next few months is to run a combo of the above, continue to build on the last 2 months and to maintain S+C sessions (3-4 per week). I'll run XC if it happens and look to rejoin a training group when I feel comfortable pushing the pace a little.


I'll also try to stick to this log more regularly, I'm not sure what I'll get from it but there are plenty of other 40somethings around that might take an idea or two from my rehab\training.


Right now, I'm enjoying training, running relatively pain free and moving well, if I can keep things moving that way, we'll see where I land in 2\3 months time.

Swashbuckler

Woohoo he's back!

OOnegative

Great to see you back D & you’re well on top of the niggles!!

Duanington

24.08.2020


Monday - off, planned day off. Did my usual S+C routine though

Tuesday - 8 miles easy around St Anne's, started running these just on the steadier side of easy to stimulate the stride pattern a little, nothing of note in terms of pace or effort, just a little less of a lazy jog and a bit more focus on form.


Wednesday - Session day.

Warm up + drills then onto my field of choice for;

2 x 600m
2 x 400m
4 x 200m
2x 400m
1 x 600m



Stiff enough for this to be honest, stiff all over though and most likely down to the previous week's tour of the west coast ( camping with the kids), far too much driving for my liking.


Got through the session all the same, nothing world beating about the paces but solid effort, the loop I use an "honest" one without being too tough


8 miles or so for the lot

Thursday

8 miles on the money in St Anne's, a pretty good S+C session too


Friday

Found myself close enough to the PP for a change so took the chance to run there, 4.6 miles all very easy .

S+C


Saturday

Starting to feel a little more human after returning to the normal routine. Planned session today was:

6 x 5 minutes off 90 seconds. More of a focus on effort than pace at the moment, hovering around what feels like threshold.
Wore the HR strap to check HR data after too

Picked "the pitches" loop in St Anne's for this, its pretty flat with just one slight drag to deal with, there was quite a wind blowing for this one though and I did have to deal with that for 2 or so minutes of each rep.

Paces hovered around the 6.10-6.15 for each rep, which is about where I thought it would land.

Good session, tougher than I'd like a times but the HR data indicates that I was well within range, I do have a bit of a problem with perceived effort at times so that may explain it.

9.5 miles or so for the lot



Sunday

2 hours very easy, threw on the HR strap to keep me honest with the pace. Easy has to be easy on these and nothing more for now.

Just over 14 miles in 2 hours


A good solid week on the books


Monday



AM - Just over 5 miles nice and easy
S+C

PM - Just over 5 miles nice and easy on the grass


Tuesday

S+C session

6 miles very easy in the AM

4 miles very easy in the PM

Wednesday


Session day again

Plan was for 12 x 1 min on\off + 4 x 30 sec on\off

Lashing rain so I threw the spikes on for this, used a loop that took in a couple of drags but allowed for a bit of momentum too.


Really enjoyed this, controlled the 1 minutes and opened up a bit on the 30 seconds. Blowing hard by the end though

Just over 8 miles for the lot


Thursday

6 miles easy and S+C


Friday

AM - PP again for 6 very easy miles, felt like I had the place to myself, lovely run

PM - 3 miles easy


Saturday


Plan for today was to extend a run that I've been doing every 4 weeks or so for the last while. Essentially its a "tempo" run but on the easier side of tempo range. 160 BMP is the target effort which is just above where my marathon effort (well trained marathon effort that is, according to some testing data I am working from), so just above marathon effort really.

The coast was pretty windy but given that pace isn't really the issue for this one, I decided to use the coast anyway - it would give me straight lines which is probably more important for this one.

Straighforward enough for the session itself, had to drop the pace back into the wind quite a bit for a mile or two to keep the HR around the target level, which is fine. I enjoy this session, its a good aerobic workout and I extended it out to 40 minutes today, building on the 35 minutes I ran a few weeks back.

Pace was not as good as it was last time I ran the session but that's ok for now to be honest, not something that worries me.


Sunday

Long run today, easy effort, HR strap on again to keep me honest. Tipped around St Anne's for most of this, taking in the sporting atmosphere that has returned there in recent months.

A little strapped for time so cut the run back to 1 hour 35 mins, just over 11 miles.

66 miles for the week

Duanington

Week of 07.09.2020


Monday

S+C session in the morning followed by some a steady run in St Anne's

I love steady runs and I feel confident enough to put one per week into the schedule now. It does put a little extra stress on the ageing body but the much maligned steady run is dynamite in my book, I run a lot of very easy miles and not a lot at that higher end aerobic level.

Anyway, out the door and onto the grass for a loop of st anne's, just locking in a steady effort really, working but still very much in the easy range. It took a few minutes for the legs to wake up but once they did, this went pretty well....apart from the humidity

40 minutes or so at 7.25 min\mile

Tipped home for the last mile or so very easy




PM - Headed out in the evening to flush the legs out a bit, 4 miles or so in St Anne's



Tuesday

more S+C in the morning

Then 50 minutes easy in St Anne's


PM - 35 minutes easy


Wednesday


Session day today

More fartlek on the cards

4 x 1 min on\off, 4 x 90 sec on\1 min off, 4 x 1 min on\off


Used a winding loop between fields for this, pretty windy out there but this one went pretty well. No spikes required though, sun was splitting the sky

Ran hard while really focusing on control for the ons....relaxed on the offs

I love fartlek sessions, I love using the loop that I use too - its just running hard then easy, hard then easy....so simple but if you string 6\7 weeks of this stuff together, it really does bring you on.

Anyway, finished very strong, working harder over the last few reps but always feeling there was more to give.


Lighter S+C today, just some core work\pressups.


Just shy of 8 miles for the lot today

AuldManKing

Good to see you back logging DD.

Duanington

14.09.2020


A pretty hectic few days on the work\family front, I knew I'd be up against it to keep the show on the road and was prepared to take a day or two off if needed.


Thursday


(had to check Strava for this one) - happened to be over in Marlay Park at lunchtime, had my sister for company for a few easy miles exploring the park, all nice and easy and yet somehow rushed too


4.1 miles

Friday




AM

Met a work buddy for a few miles in the PP, loved this run, good chats, pretty tired with reduced sleep the previous few nights but the company soaked the miles up nicely

6.2 miles

PM - S+C and then 3.6 easy miles with some strides.



Saturday


Woke up tired and groggy and thought about canning this run altogether, while I had initially planned 8x1k (controlled), I resigned to modifying the session to allow for a few mental days.

After a warmup that felt reasonably ok, I picked out 3 x 1k on the watch and said I'd see how the body felt after these.
To be honest, I made a mess of this. I was anxious to get a session done and as such, pushed too hard on the k reps.

They all came in at 3.35-3.37 which isn't super quick but it's faster than my current 10k fitness and left me pretty wrecked. 5 minutes jog and then into 2 x 1 mile @ around 6.10\6.15 ( all on the grass, I would usually allow 5-10 seconds "slippage" on these).

First mile was 6.14, 2 minutes easy then a much harder effort which had me floating around the 5.55\6 min pace mark.

Watch stopped about 200m short on the second mile for some reason.

All in, a silly session. I should have run something a lot easier or just gone easy altogether, body was wrecked today and had good reason to be.


Sunday - forced myself to take the day off, didn't want to, kept convincing myself that I was grand to go and run but I am trying to think and act long term these days.

Just over 50 miles for the week

Duanington

16.09.2020


Big focus on sleep the last few nights and it has made me feel a hell of a let better than I did last week. Nothing special planned for the week, lots of easy stuff, a little bit of threshold stuff and littler bit of faster stuff.


Monday

AM - S+C work then just under 7 miles with a work pal who made the trip over the St Anne's, lovely run, miles flew by in company


PM - 3.5 miles along the coast, dragged in to be honest, totally different run than earlier



Tuesday


AM - more S+C and then 5.6 miles around the grass in St Anne's


PM - Just over 4 miles around St Anne's, lovely buzz in the park with all the football\hurling games and training going on.



Wednesday


Session day;

1,2,3 mins (off 50% previous rep), 4x30sec on\off, 1,2,3 (off 50% previous rep)


Didn't take long to warmup in the heat today, picked the "top field" in St Anne's for this one, strides, drills then down to business.


This session really is all about that last 1,2,3, the 4x30 sec on\off is where it really gets going. I have a bit of a thing with perceived effort, I'm not sure if its a subconscious thing or what but I do tend to back off the effort a little, only to realise later that the effort really wasn't that bad.

Anyway, controlled the first couple of reps without backing off, got to the 4x30 seconds section and I started to wonder had I focused a little too much on controlling things up to that point....

I hadn't....the climb back up the 1,2,3 was pretty tough, and very hot.


Finished this one very strong and as I had indeed hoped, I ran the 2nd 3 min section quicker than the first, embracing the hurt and pushing on a little.

Paces were a little choppy with the loop I use but the 1st 3 min section was at 5.55 pace while the second was at 5.40 pace, not sure I'd trust the paces listed on the others, most are too short to get a good reading


Good session, nice warm down to finish off

Duanington

21.09.2020


Thursday

AM - small S+C session then just under 6 miles on the grass trails in St Anne's. Legs a little heavy but everything else felt pretty good


Friday

Lunchtime trot around the Pheonix Park (working from Mammy D's which is not too far from there). Bumped into a clubmate who was just finishing off a session and ran a few miles with him. Lots of chatter about the demise of races this winter, not looking good for xc etc....while I felt a little selfish for moaning about the potential for no races etc, it really is a big part of so many people's lives in this country, that became more apparent while chatting to a club coach after the run, he was visibly upset at the thoughts of no club racing this winter.

6.3 miles


PM

3 miles easy, out the coast road and back, lovely evening for it



Saturday


Session on the cards today (grass, winding loop):

10 mins @ 6.10
3 mins easy
4 x 2 mins @ 5.50 (off 60 seconds)
3 mins easy
10 mins @ 6.10


The key for this session was really to control the two effort levels, the loop I use keeps this honest, it's slow in places but its quick in places too, plenty of sharp turns and tree cover too so it's ideal for effort focused sessions.

After a decent warmup + drills, I got straight into it.

Pretty "blowy" over the first 10 min section, felt a little stiff and heavy legged as is the norm in the AM these days. Recovered pretty quickly tough and stayed focused during the 2 min sections.

Into the second 10 min section and the body was moving much better, both hamstrings were a little tight but I had settled into this and controlling the effort much better.
Finished strong, feeling pleasantly tired - job done


10 min@ 6.13 min\mile
4x2 mins @ 5.53\5.50\5.55\5.50
10 mins @ 6.08


Very happy with this, despite the slower than planned first 10 min section, mental focus was good throughout.



Just shy of 10 miles for the lot




Sunday


Up and out the door by 9.30 this morning, down the coast, u turn at Fairview, back along the coast and then onto the trails on Bull Island.
I love these trails they really slow you down but they also provide a mental distraction from the long easy run, twisting and turning, bumps and dips....the surface is sand based obviously so its easy on the bones too.


Came out of the trails right at the end of Bull Island and took a minute or two to watch the seals flop around the place ( I counted 12), I was glad to have the wind at my back on the way home.

13 miles @ 8 min pace - a little quicker than I've been running these of late, I've consciously done that, really just to open the stride up a little more. While the HR does climb a little, it feels like a more natural stride pattern than the 8.30+ per mile stuff I've been doing for the last while. While I may well switch back to those at some stage, they've served a purpose for now


65+ miles for a very good week

AuldManKing

If you're in the PP and fancy company - give me a shout.
Flexible around lunchtime too (most days)

Duanington

23.09.2020

And the beat goes on...

Busy week this week with physio sessions to squeeze in between work\life\training. Feeling pretty good and starting to feel stronger on sessions, reading a lot at night too which always helps the sleep (reading up on Lydiard at the moment)


Monday

AM - S+C session, heavy enough one this time

6.5 easy miles around St Anne's


PM - Just over 4 miles nice and easy

All on the grass


Tuesday


Usually a double day for me but today it was a slight progression run, starting very easy and working down to steady effort, all on the grass. A very enjoyable run and one I'll look to more and more over the coming months. ( just under 8 miles, starting out at above 8 min pace and finishing down around 7.10 or so)

More S+C


Then a quite painful visit to the phsyio in the evening time. Did a lot more work than usual on both hamstrings and calves and I felt it

He's happy with everything though, all good on that front. Instructions were to take it easy for a day or two after, asked about a session tomorrow and his reply was more or less :rolleyes:


Wednesday


In all seriousness, physio had said to very simply listen to the body in terms of running a session, if things are tight, back off, if they're sore - jog.


Which is basically how it panned out

I had 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 down for today, off 50% recovery


In race times, I'd normally run these hard...but that isn't the aim at the moment, so the plan was to run them controlled and of course, back off if the legs were too tender.


Moving pretty well over the first couple of reps, got through the 3 minute one though and the "good" hammy was straining a little by the end. At the start of the 4th one, it was very tight, borderline sore so I just packed it in and jogged around the sunny park for a bit.


I actually enjoyed tipping around and not doing a full session on a Wednesday for once !

I'll come back to this session in a few weeks, maybe next week




Just over 6 miles for the lot today

Swashbuckler

Welcome back D. Might have been covered already but are you planning your own training on the fly at the mo? Any plans to go back to coaching?

Duanington

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Welcome back D. Might have been covered already but are you planning your own training on the fly at the mo? Any plans to go back to coaching?

Thanks P - flying solo for now alright, keeping things simple. Trying one or two things out etc....

I'll definitely go back to getting coached at some stage alright but I'm happy to tip along for now and use myself as a guinea pig