A Slow Journey to Faster Times

yaboya1

Training update.....

Tuesday 28th Oct - Nothing
Wednesday 29th Oct - Nothing
Thursday 30th Oct - Nothing
Friday 31st Oct - Nothing
Saturday 1st Nov - Nothing
Sunday 2nd Nov - Nothing
Monday 3rd Nov - Nothing
Tuesday 4th Nov - Nothing
Wednesday 5th Nov - Nothing
Thursday 6th Nov - Nothing

Lots of alcohol & junk/rubbish food in there too . I'm heading to Canada tomorrow for a week, so it will be at least the 15th or 16th before I hit the roads again. I plan to get back training with some easy running, possibly taking in a couple of parkruns before the Jingle Bells 5k on the 6th December where I hope to have a go at going sub 17.
I've still had no joy with a response from Garmin about my HRM (despite three emails since this time last week. They don't answer the phone!), so I've gone ahead and ordered a Polar FT2 for the specific purpose of training by HR. It seems to be well reviewed in relation to that particular feature.

jebuz

Now that's a quality training block, great effort

RacoonQueen

yaboya1 wrote: »

I've still had no joy with a response from Garmin about my HRM (despite three emails since this time last week. They don't answer the phone!), so I've gone ahead and ordered a Polar FT2 for the specific purpose of training by HR. It seems to be well reviewed in relation to that particular feature.

Their email response time is embarrassingly slow 5-7 working days or something.

viperlogic

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Their email response time is embarrassingly slow 5-7 working days or something.

You be lucky if that. And when they do finally respond to your very detailed question they ask how can we help and you have to wait another week! Grrrr

I just ring now and usually get a response within 10mins

yaboya1

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Their email response time is embarrassingly slow 5-7 working days or something.

viperlogic wrote: »

You be lucky if that. And when they do finally respond to your very detailed question they ask how can we help and you have to wait another week! Grrrr

I just ring now and usually get a response within 10mins

I went to their idea section and submitted one of my own:

'Respond to emails from your customers about your faulty products' :pac:

FBOT01

Enjoy Canada.

yaboya1

Time for a quick update....


Toronto Training Camp (7th November - 15th November)

Spent eight days eating & drinking like an obese North American. No running. Feel like I'm at least two stone heavier.
Got back to Dublin early yesterday morning and managed a few hours sleep before another big roast dinner in the evening. Watched the DCM programme that I'd had taped from Setanta and saw myself in a starring role at the top of Heartbreak Hill Roebuck Road .


Sunday 16th November

After 20 days of zero running and mega binging, I decided to get my act together again today after a good night's sleep.

A.M.
75 minutes Easy - 8.75 miles @ 8:41min/mile average (132bpm avg)

Awoke early enough and hit the road almost straight away, as I was feeling good and it was a nice morning outside. I expected to struggle, but I skipped along nicely and this actually felt really effortless towards the end. Wore my new Polar FT2 for the first time, which only measures HR & time so the distance is an educated guess and I've got no individual mile splits.


P.M.
60 minutes Easy - 7.17 miles @ 8:23 min/mile average (140bpm avg)

Despite a not so great forecast, the perfect running weather held all the way through to tonight, meaning I couldn't wait to get back out there. I texted Duanington on the off chance he'd be around for a run, which he was and we got going at around 8pm. Miles ticked by much quicker than this morning (as they always do in company) even if the HR was slightly higher. I think that's more down to me using up energy blabbing, than the actual running effort! I wore my Garmin so I'd have mile splits this time.


Splits:

Mile 1 - 8:36
Mile 2 - 8:06
Mile 3 - 8:07
Mile 4 - 8:22
Mile 5 - 8:07
Mile 6 - 8:33
Mile 7 - 8:40
0,17 - 1:35


Two very pleasant runs that were far more manageable & enjoyable than I'd originally expected. I'm far less pessimistic about the Jingle Bells 5k now than I was at 8am this morning. Delighted to be back

yaboya1

Monday 17th November - 45 minutes Easy
4.46 miles @ 9:13min/mile average (131bpm avg)

Felt really stiff & sore all over today. The equivalent of the 'bounce' factor in a racehorse. Just a short run at recovery pace with the intention of doing just that. Hoping to be feeling good enough to give a steady session a bash on Wednesday.


Splits:

Mile 1 - 9:11
Mile 2 - 9:05
Mile 3 - 9:14
Mile 4 - 9:15
0.46 - 4:24

I actually completed closer to 5 miles today, but the Garmin took almost half a mile to warm up, so only recorded what's above in 41:08. I was bang on 45 minutes on the Polar.

annapr

Drove past you on Ballybough Rd yesterday morning... Would have beeped but didn't want you to think you were being harassed by some random motorist!

yaboya1

annapr wrote: »

Drove past you on Ballybough Rd yesterday morning... Would have beeped but didn't want you to think you were being harassed by some random motorist!

Is that the same excuse everyone else who ignores me uses? :P

yaboya1

Tuesday 18th November - 90 minutes Easy
10.08 miles @ 8:56min/mile average (132bpm avg)

Legs still really sore for this, but I feel like I ran that out of them and should be fine by tomorrow. It seems every time I take any sort of a break I struggle with soreness coming back. I maintained a very consistent HR all the way through the run, without paying too much attention to the mile splits. The wind & hills are probably the reason for the variance in pace for some of them, while the first mile was a little quicker as it wasn't exposed to either and I was also only warming up at that stage. Normal service resumed on the waves/acknowledgements front, 0/4 today :pac:


Splits:

Mile 1 - 8:08
Mile 2 - 8:49
Mile 3 - 9:15
Mile 4 - 9:14
Mile 5 - 9:17
Mile 6 - 9:05
Mile 7 - 9:04
Mile 8 - 8:46
Mile 9 - 8:42
Mile 10 - 8:54
0.08 - 4:24

yaboya1

Wednesday 19th November - HR Max Test

Having toyed with the idea of giving a steady session a go today, I decided (swayed by the talk on the Graduate thread) instead that it was about time I calculated an accurate HR Max for myself. This is especially important since I'm going to be training by HR for the next few months. I had attempted this twice before with the Garmin HRM and the results seemed inconsistent & unreliable. I settled on 177bpm a few months ago, as that was the highest I hit during the 2400m test, despite the actual HR Max test only giving me 175. Since I now have a HRM that can be trusted, I thought it was time to get this sorted once and for all.

There are many different methods recommended for calculating such a figure, and the one I used before obviously wasn't too reliable if I hit a higher bpm during the 2400m test. I feel like I need a couple of miles to warm up before my HR gradually starts to climb, so blasting out a quick 400m & 800m after a slow mile or so doesn't seem to work for me (as the previous results show). So here's what I decided to do:


2m warm up (start slow, gradually up the pace)

1m @ VO2 Max (In this case, VO2 Max = as fast as possible)

4 minutes Recovery

1m @ VO2 Max (same as first mile)

1m cool down (Try not to collapse)


This went well. I don't have splits as I was so focused on everything HR related that I came out without the Garmin. I warmed up as planned and then ran a mile as fast as I could into an absolute monster of a wind. I actually feel this probably helped make sure I hit my HR Max. I think that mile was around 5:40 - 5:50. I walked most of the recovery, before turning back with the wind behind me for the next mile. Made sure not to drop the effort level though. I reckon this one might have been below 5:30. Dizzy spells and very close to vomiting when I completed. I think that means I put it all in. Hit the same high HR in both miles - 182bpm. I'm as certain as I can be that this is correct. Around six miles in total for the day. If the weather is decent later I might throw a few recovery miles in. They'll feel really nice after that!

yaboya1

Wednesday 19th November (p.m.) - 45 minutes Easy
5.11 miles @ 8:49min/mile average (131bpm avg)

So I got out for my recovery miles in the end. The hamstrings (which never normally give me trouble) were extremely tight, so I thought it would be better to get this in tonight rather than waiting until the morning. A perfect dry, cool evening awaited me just before I went to go out the door around 5:30 - 5:40pm. Then I got a phone call from a friend and by the time I hung up, the heavens had opened and everywhere was flooded (paths, roads, fields etc.). Still, I thoroughly enjoyed it and made sure to take it very easily. Hamstrings feel better for it, however one thing that's worrying me a little is a small niggle I'm feeling in the left achilles. The last time this happened, I ignored it and tore a calf muscle by the following Sunday. This time I won't make that mistake. I definitely won't be doing any running for the next couple of days and will re-evaluate on Saturday before I attempt to do anything else.


Splits:

Mile 1 - 8:42
Mile 2 - 8:56
Mile 3 - 8:46
Mile 4 - 8:57
Mile 5 - 8:36
0.11 - 1:04

Calvin Johnson

When you say niggle... what do you mean exactly?

yaboya1

Calvin Johnson wrote: »

When you say niggle... what do you mean exactly?

I can feel a pain/soreness that's not normally there.

yaboya1

Sunday 23rd November - 90 minutes Easy
11 miles @ 8:24min/mile average (132bpm avg)

Deliberately took Thursday & Friday off, and I was hungover resting yesterday so didn't do any running there either. Ninety minutes at 50bpm below my HRMax was the simple plan for tonight. Managed a very even effort all the way, and the pace only started to drop slightly in the closing miles. I'm pretty happy with that, especially considering I managed almost a mile further than last week at the same HR (admittedly I added more than two minutes to get the 11th mile in ). I would have expected the average pace to be a bit slower if I'm honest, but the perfect cold running conditions probably help in that respect. First week back after my break and I've logged 52 miles. Nothing wrong with that .


Splits:

Mile 1 - 8:09
Mile 2 - 8:16
Mile 3 - 8:32
Mile 4 - 8:19
Mile 5 - 8:18
Mile 6 - 8:29
Mile 7 - 8:21
Mile 8 - 8:31
Mile 9 - 8:28
Mile 10 - 8:30
Mile 11 - 8:28

yaboya1

Monday 24th November - 40 minutes Easy

Perfect morning out there for a run. Pity I didn't get to do much of it!
Canned this after 500 yards when the achilles started annoying me again. I had no issues doing 11 miles last night, but I could almost feel I was going to do damage if I continued today. I probably did too much too soon last week, with 41 miles in 4 days (including 2 doubles) after a 3 week layoff. For the minute I'm going to give myself at least one rest day between runs until the body seems able to stand up to it again. Hopefully I'll be ok to do myself justice in the Jingle Bells race, but if I feel like I do today I won't be running.

yaboya1

Thursday 27th November - 60 minutes Easy
7 miles @ 9:01min/mile average (133bpm avg)

Thought I'd be safe enough to chance a run today after a couple of days off. That proved to be the case, with more than an hour of running without any pain from the rogue achilles/calf. I'm still going to err on the side of caution and take tomorrow off though.


Splits:

Mile 1 - 8:28
Mile 2 - 9:04
Mile 3 - 9:02
Mile 4 - 9:04
Mile 5 - 9:18
Mile 6 - 9:05
Mile 7 - 9:08

yaboya1

Sunday 30th November - No training to report.

Gave myself a rest day on Friday as planned, with the intention of getting out for a few miles before work on Saturday/Sunday (or both).
A hangover put paid to yesterday's plans and I was just too tired to get up early enough this morning. Rather than admitting I've just been plain lazy, I'll pretend I've been looking after my myself and making sure I get to the start line fit next Saturday. My training has been so poor though that I really don't know what to expect.

Calvin Johnson

You'll be fine, my training has been very average since Dublin as well. You won't have lost any fitness in my opinion.

Sub 17 is odds on...

yaboya1

Monday 1st December - 60 minutes Easy
7.13 miles total - 6m @ 8:42min/mile average (133bpm avg)
1.13 miles with 10 x 100m Strides - 6:56min/mile average (164bpm avg)

Very cool out there this morning, but perfect for running once you're dressed appropriately. Planned to just get an easy hour in, but I'm paranoid about how I'll hold up on Saturday considering my recent problems. To describe my achilles as an injury would be exaggerating, but the fact that there's something noticeable there each time I run in the past 10 days prove to me it's not imaginary either. Stuck to the plan for the first six miles, but decided to throw some strides in towards the end to see how I'd handle 5k pace. The definitive answer is: I'm not really sure. It definitely hurt more when I ran faster, but at that stage I was already running for 50+ minutes. I'm not feeling any discomfort now afterwards either. I'll take the rest of the week easy enough and see how I feel on Saturday morning. Really don't want a DNS/DNF.


Splits:

Mile 1 - 8:03
Mile 2 - 8:34
Mile 3 - 8:45
Mile 4 - 9:01
Mile 5 - 9:03
Mile 6 - 8:46
*Mile 7 - 6:13
0.13 - 1:38

*includes strides

Duanington

Nothing worse than having a niggle hanging over you going into a race Yaboya1.
There's probably little to be gained from anything other than easy stuff at this stage anyway, getting to the start line fit and healthy has to be the priority now.

jebuz

A DNS and remaining injury free is much better than a DNF and picking up an achilles related injury. Achilles niggles are there for a reason, you're being told to back off or risk being sidelined for potentially a few weeks. I know the feeling of the achilles niggling at you, like you're almost on the edge of a serious injury and it's frustrating when you're training well or coming up to a race you had your eye on. I had the same experience in the build up to DCM, knew I was close to a bad injury and I reluctantly backed off any sort of fast running that week and combined with a few days off, did the job and got me to the line ready to go. Only you know yourself how serious it is but if it hurt when you ran faster I think you're in danger of doing some damage. There's little to be gained from racing the 5k especially as its not a goal race and you know yourself there'll be plenty more down the line. It's been a great year for you, targets smashed all over the place so would be a shame to pick up an injury potentially upsetting your momentum as you hit the new year and no doubt you've got some ambitious targets in mind for next year.

AuldManKing

jebuz wrote: »

There's little to be gained from racing the 5k especially as its not a goal race and you know yourself there'll be plenty more down the line. It's been a great year for you, targets smashed all over the place so would be a shame to pick up an injury potentially upsetting your momentum as you hit the new year and no doubt you've got some ambitious targets in mind for next year.

+1
Not too much to be gained (that cant be got later) and a lot to be lost if it flares up.

ger664

Agree with others there is always another race get it seen too before you make it much worse.

yaboya1

Thanks lads.
I agree with you all tbh. It was running on such a niggle that saw me tear a calf muscle 18 months ago.
I'll see how I feel on Saturday. If it's still at me I'll give it a miss. Niggle free I'll probably give it a go, but allow myself the option of dropping out if I feel it coming on again.

Murph_D

Had a DNS in the Jingle Bells myself last year. Still blagged the mug though.

yaboya1

Saturday 6th December - Jingle Bells 5k (18:26)
5k @ 3:42min/km average

So it seems like I'm one of very few not to snag a pb this morning. I can't complain though (considering my poor training, lack of fitness and recent injury worries), so I won't. Just in case I forgot, I was given a harsh reminder of how difficult 5k's are. AMK can confirm this as he tried to speak to me while I hung over the railing dry retching at the finish. Great race and super fast course. It's just a pity I wasn't in the shape to take advantage. I'll be back for revenge next year!

cianc

dry retching?
Sandbagger

RacoonQueen

I thought I saw you in the club after the race but we've never met so how would I know?!