The main thing is keeping the main thing, the main thing

AuldManKing

This is a continuation of this Log.

2013 was a great year for me running wise, in terms of progression from 2012. I had the distraction of an MBA to complete, so with that out of the way, 2014 should see more progression.


I was injured for the final 4 weeks of this years DCM training cycle, but got renewed motivation from watching a marathon for the 1st time as a very interested spectator.
It has really motivated me to crack sub 3 in 2014.

PB's and Goals for 2014 are below.

Distance|PB|Goal
5k|18:30|17:55
5m|30:30|29:50
10k|38:48|36:59
10m|64.23|61:59
Half M|1.27|1:23
Mar|3:23|2:58


The title of the log is a phrase I heard once that sums up the thought process that you go through training for a particular event while entering other races along the way. Keeping the main thing the main thing, is the main thing!
The 'main thing' may change along the way.

The name change is due to me feeling like a gimp each time I introduced myself to other Boardsies . The new name also mirrors my initials a bit better than RK (which is my wifes initials).

In terms of progression - I've also learned to do a table and link a post

career_move

Boo :mad:

AuldManKing

I've been managing my mileage as I recover from a calf injury. Safe to say now that its recovered - but I dont want to do anything stupid as I'm not a RunningKing now

Tuesday 29th Oct: 8.19m @ 7:35 pace. Great run this - had trouble keeping the pace down, 1st run with the headlamp this year.

Thursday 31st Oct: 4:13m @ 8:35 pace - nice recovery run in the PP.

Sunday 3rd Nov: 10:58m @ 7:50 pace. A bit sluggish during this one and the Ave HR was a high (154) - I put this down to a couple of days in Belfast walking around the shops and Titanic as well as copious amounts of alcohol in the system.

Nice to get a decent run in - no niggles from the calf in a while.

Weekly total: 23 miles.

Will look to increase that this coming week - but still going to concentrate on base building.
Tempted to do a Park Run on Sat to see where I am at - get some training paces sorted etc. We'll see how the week goes.

Settling in now with a big cup of coffee to read the epic race report that's just been posted.

menoscemo

Are you in for Donore 5k and more importantly the A/R beers that night?

BTW do you know it is a Boards sitebannable offense to have two active accounts? Better close that RK one shaprish :P (whatever happened to the AK one???)

AuldManKing

Thanks meno, is that pints after jingle bells race? I'll be doing jingle bells, let me know where we're drinking!

How do I close an account? Do I get a Mod to do it?

menoscemo

Pints here; get voting: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057074490
Kind of only messing about sitebans but it is against rules etc. Not sure how to close account; think you do it through the control panel which you find under your username in top right corner.

Looking forward to a ding dong battle at jingle bells. Might not be in top 5k racing shape but I'll give it a good rattle.

AuldManKing

menoscemo wrote: »

Looking forward to a ding dong battle at jingle bells. Might not be in top 5k racing shape but I'll give it a good rattle.

But I'm an auld man now, just back from injury. I'd say you'll beat me easy. At least 2 mins.

drquirky

Good stuff AMK. I like the goals - doable for sure. Defo have to hit a few runs together in the next while. Unfortunately I'm gonna have to report you to the mods for having a sock puppet account- I so agree w/ all the rules and policies of boards.ie (particularly the no doping speculation and the heavy handed modding of the weather forum) that it actually makes me physically ill to see someone violating them. Its been nice knowing you! :D:D:D:D

Tom Joad

Good to see you back .. some impressive targets you've set down too..

Cleanman

You'll always be RK to me man! I love the targets - especially the 5k one. It looks very familiar!! Good to see you back on track. Still planning to do the Donore 5k so might see you there or even a few beers after since I know a grand total of zero boardies!

AuldManKing

Make sure u turn up for the pints, be good to put a face to the name.

MisterDrak

AuldManKing wrote: »

Distance|PB|Goal
5k|18:38|17:55
5m|30:30|29:50
10k|38:48|36:59
10m|64.23|61:59
Half M|1.27|1:23
Mar|3:23|2:58

Dam you and your table of similar but slightly faster times...

AuldManKing

Spent some of my morning looking up options for a Spring Marathon.

There's so many "if's", "buts" and "Maybe's" about all of them - maybe there's no perfect Marathon destination.

Ruled out Belfast due to feedback & Cork is too late (but could be a good back up). Limerick I'm not convinced about.
Barcelona in March is an option.

So for April Marathons I have:

Paris 6th Apr: Flat - not too sure about the heat and possible congestion??

Kildare 27th Apr: My 1st choice, but sparse crowds and a small field may be an issue??

Rotterdam 13 Apr: Just because I'll actually finish it

Manchester 6th Apr: Apparently the flattest Marathon in UK.

Also have to decide if I'll do the 10 mile in Dungarvan or the 5 mile in Raheny.
Right now its the 10 miler that's current favourite.

In other news...................

6.49miles @ 8:29 pace (137 heart rate) - nice amble around PP with the headlamp.

menoscemo

AuldManKing wrote: »

Spent some of my morning looking up options for a Spring Marathon.

There's so many "if's", "buts" and "Maybe's" about all of them - maybe there's no perfect Marathon destination.

Ruled out Belfast due to feedback & Cork is too late (but could be a good back up). Limerick I'm not convinced about.
Barcelona in March is an option.

So for April Marathons I have:

Paris 6th Apr: Flat - not too sure about the heat and possible congestion??

Kildare 27th Apr: My 1st choice, but sparse crowds and a small field may be an issue??

Rotterdam 13 Apr: Just because I'll actually finish it

Manchester 6th Apr: Apparently the flattest Marathon in UK.

Also have to decide if I'll do the 10 mile in Dungarvan or the 5 mile in Raheny.
Right now its the 10 miler that's current favourite.

In other news...................

6.49miles @ 8:29 pace (137 heart rate) - nice amble around PP with the headlamp.

If it was me; I'd choose Barcelona. Super course and a super race. And it's on 16th march so no work the next day

AuldManKing

Here's a link to some great articles from a 'Lets Run' legend John Kellogg. I found pockets of this very interesting.

There's a lot of reading here, but also a wealth of knowledge - I came across him from a conversation on T Runners log.


http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=192559&thread=192559

http://www.runningwritings.com/2012/04/updated-training-wisdom-of-john-kellogg.html

The 2nd one links to a 300 page PDF doc with a wealth of information taken from Kellogg over a period of a few years.

A lot of this is fairly advanced but there's some good nuggets in there if you've the time to go through it.
The Appendices at the end are well worth a browse.

One for CM's repository.

career_move

There's a lorra lorra reading there :eek:

Here's one back

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2959804

drquirky

career_move wrote: »

There's a lorra lorra reading there :eek:

Here's one back

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2959804

Geez and I only really use LetsRun for the doping speculation, goof on Alan Webb/ Ryan Hall/ you are a hobby jogger if threads....

Seriously though check the Joe Rubio posts they are pretty awesome as well!

AuldManKing

Tuesday 5th:
6:04 miles inc 2x1600.
Only reason for the 2x1600 was to test the lungs and the calf. Didn't want anything too stressful, but wanted a good test none the less.

1.06 warm up (too short)
1st rep: 5:57 - felt surprisingly good, didn't take me long to dial in the pace and knew when it was going too fast.
800m Jog
2nd rep: 6:03 - also felt good but got tough as the mile went on.
Legs felt great - noticed that my stride was very short, naturally very short -Normally I would shorten my stride as I begin to struggle in later stages in races.
don't know if that's just the muscles being a bit 'inelastic' right now or its a result of a lot of easy running plus a months break.

Wed 6th: Rest day (really didn't want it, but knew that I have to work up the mileage week by week.

Thursday 7th: 5.13m inc 10x30secs strides (30 sec rec)

really enjoyed this.
2.65mile (8:50 pace) warm up then went into the strides.
I wanted to keep the strides very structured, so I had them programmed into the watch.
Average time per rep was 5:10 - average distance was about 150m.

I've done strides before, but they were ad hoc during runs. This is the 1st time I actually set out to do strides. Legs felt great afterwards.
Full workout (10x30secs) took just 1 lap of 15 acres.
1.14m cool down - 10.2 pace due to waiting on the bloody dog - I need to get her mileage up now as well as she's not run much in recent weeks :pac:


Mileage wise, the last few weeks have been:
Week/B Oct 14th: 6 miles
Week/B Oct 21st: 19 miles
Week/B Oct 28th: 23 miles
Week/B Nov 4th: Planning 35-38

From next week, aim for Nov is to do 45mpw.
I'll look to increase this in December (to 50mpw) with the 10miler in Dungarvan in mind.

Most runs will be easy paced with one faster run during the week.
Long runs for Nov will be max 14-15 miles.

menoscemo

I have a lot od 2 hr (14-15mile) runs on my weekend schedule for Nov/Dec.
Let me know if you want to hook up for a few on Saturday/Sunday mornings...

AuldManKing

Friday 8th: 4m@8:22 - recovery run in Porterstown pitches with a limpy dog (think shes getting Arthritis - must be getting Auld too)

Saturday 9th: Malahide Park Run
I had decided to do a Park Run to get a feel for where I am in regards 5k/anaerobic form as I hadn't done a 5k since June, nor had I ran anaerobically since the end of June at the 5 miler in the park.
Everything since then has been easy running, MP efforts or Tempos.

Main aim today was not to push it too much - I wanted to manage the ongoing recovery & not have a blow up on the 3rd mile - so the time wasn't really important this week - keeping the miles consistent was the key for me.

Got a good 1.5m warm up done, listened to the briefing and the Happy Birthdays for Malahide P.R. - had a few words with Peckham then we were off.

I was surprised at the number of people who swooshed (yep - thats a word) by me at the start - including little kids!
Kept the pace at what felt like 6ish and eventually settled into a rhythm as the mad starters faded into a spluttering mess.
Was feeling very ok as we approached the hill just after the 1st mile - 1st mile was 5:54. (didn't know it at the time as I wasn't watching time).

Went into the trail part of the run and was surprised that the 'burn hadn't kicked in yet. Picked off another few people - kept the breathing steady.

Mile 2 came around in 6:05 - still feeling comfortable, - tough but comfortable.
I was waiting for the demons to come at this stage & the burn to kick in - neither happened, which delighted me.

I had 4 people in front of me and I picked 3 of them off - the other guy moved on and put a good distance in between us.

Mile 3 was 6:09 - which in hindsight was disappointing given the 'controlled discomfort' that I felt, but I'm also happy with as I didn't blow up and do a 6:2x.
I could hear footsteps behind me, so knew I had to pick it up on the last piece, finished just ahead of 2 other lads

Final piece was at 5:55 pace for a time of 18:59 (18:56 Garmin) and 10th place.

Nice to get a ‘sub 19’ 5k with Zero 5k training and a month off.

Had an interesting 2m warm down with the guy who finished 2nd in 17:31 - He ran a 36min 10k a few months back and placed 2nd place today – his main 'sport' is orienteering`- he hardly races!

3.13m / Ave pace 6:03 / Ave HR 173

6.45miles for the day.

menoscemo

AuldManKing wrote: »

3.13k / Ave pace 6:03 / Ave HR 173

Now that's a short course!!!

AuldManKing

menoscemo wrote: »

Now that's a short course!!!

took me a few mins to figure it out!! - fixed.

MisterDrak

Glad I wasn't down there this morning so, 18:59 would be to fast for me at the moment Nice running.

Peckham

Good to see you earlier.

Was convinced it was you in front of me going through the forest, so I'm glad I didn't give that other guy a nudge as I went past! :P

Really struggled today myself. There's a world of difference between doing 12 x 400 at 5k pace, and doing 5k!

AuldManKing

Peckham, the day I get in front of you in Malahide, you'll know about it!!

pconn062

Solid effort off very little speedwork, well done. Sub 18 should be no problem to you in the next year. I'll race you to it?!

statss

you haven't lost it in aul fella, good work.

AuldManKing

Sunday 10th Nov: 10.17m @ 7.55/m

Beautiful morning for a run, the ickle big 'un had Dub GAA training in Sandymount, so left her off and ran to Monkstown and back.
Makes a great change from the PP - was nearly in MS territory!

HR was at 153 - just at the top end of the Aerobic zone. These runs need to be in the 140's - so should have back off the pace.

Just a recovery run planned for today.

Weekly total: 38.41

AuldManKing

Monday 11th Nov: 3.16m @ 8:52/mile - nice recovery run (HR 134)

Tuesday 12th Nov: 9.72m @ 7:20 pace ('Steady Run' inc 3m Tempo) (HR 147)

This was the best I've felt in training since last May - without a doubt - could have ran faster & longer - one of those nights.

Although the times weren't overly quick, I felt really comfortable throughout.
3 tempo(ish) miles (6:32/6:34/6:33) - followed up with 2 miles at 6:55 & 6:57 (unintentional).
Compared to my last training cycle - where doing tempos were a real struggle, mentally.

Kept a watch on HR - for the tempo miles I averaged 150 - which I'm happy with.

PaulieC

If you're back down irishtown way again, gimme a shout, I'll keep you company out to socodu and back ( if I can keep up)

AuldManKing

Wednesday 13th: 4.18 miles@ 8:12 - easy run. - HR 142 (too high for a recovery run)

Thursday 14th: Football

Friday 15th: 7:08m@8:22 HR 136
Nice run around the Phoenix park - was delighted to start this in daylight, down the trails on the North road side - but went up Military road and Upper Glen road in the dark - had no headlamp. Thankfully it was only 5:30 and the 'wildlife' hadn't come out yet.
Happy with the HR staying in the recovery zone.

Saturday 16th: 3:2 @ 8:26 HR 136 In Carlow at a GAA thing all day watching my daughter play for the Dublin u13 development team (just though I'd throw that in..........) , only got a short recovery run in afterwards.

Sunday 17th: 15.07m @ 8:04 HR 147 - Got an unexpected opportunity for a run on Sunday morning as the ickle one was sick and couldn't play camoige (every cloud and all that........).
Done a couple of laps of the PP making sure to get as many hills as I could in.
Miscalculated the distance towards the end which meant adding on a couple of additional miles - didn't mind it though.
HR was a little high - possibly due to the Saturday night bottle of wine and disturbed sleep from my daughter being sick.

Delighted to get in a 15 mile run at this stage.

Weekly Total: 42.28m Delighted with that - I've managed it upwards for a few weeks - will hold it at 45m for a few weeks.

Some key races for me in the coming months:

Jan 12th: FerryCarraig 5m
Jan 26th: Dungarvan 10m
Mar 2nd: Bohermeen HM
April 6th: Manchester Marathon (almost certain)

cianc

Nice going AMK, that's some solid mileage you're holding, and not a niggle in sight.

Gavlor

I'm running ferrycarrig and fungarvan aswell, you can pace my sub 60 attempt!

Bulmers74

Gavlor wrote: »

I'm running ferrycarrig and fungarvan aswell, you can pace my sub 60 attempt!

Sub 60 for Ferrycarrig - don't be holding AMK back

blockic

AuldManKing wrote: »

Jan 12th: FerryCarraig 5m

Gavlor wrote: »

I'm running ferrycarrig and fungarvan aswell, you can pace my sub 60 attempt!

See you both in Ferycarrig.... Finally a face-off with Gavlor!

AuldManKing

Gavlor wrote: »

I'm running ferrycarrig and fungarvan aswell, you can pace my sub 60 attempt!

No problem - I'll look after pacing the 1st 200 meters of the 10 miler.

What time you hoping for in the 5m?

AuldManKing

blockic wrote: »

See you both in Ferycarrig.... Finally a face-off with Gavlor!

But he'll be on his mountain bike thingy.......(I still think you'd take him):D

Gavlor

AuldManKing wrote: »

No problem - I'll look after pacing the 1st 200 meters of the 10 miler.

What time you hoping for in the 5m?

No idea, I'll have to see how I'm fixed once I get back training

drquirky

Ferrycarrig is a good race- might have to join ye all at it... whats the date?

AuldManKing

drquirky wrote: »

Ferrycarrig is a good race- might have to join ye all at it... whats the date?

Jan 12th - just enough time to get over the new year food/drink fest.

AuldManKing

Monday 18th: 5m @ 8:10 HR 133

Tuesday 19th: 10.06@7:27 HR 145 (inc 3 Tempo)
3 Tempo (6:30 / 6:26 / 6:15) HR average 155 for 3xT


Just realised I'm at 1496 miles for the year - thats a load more running than 1122 in 2012 - but at least I ran a marathon in 2012!

Happy with where I am running wise right now - from next week I might add in some intervals, just to get different stimulusususus adaptations.

Not going to murder myself on the intervals - been reading a lot of running stuff lately and less is definitely more when it comes to this (especially at my age)/

Difficult part of doing intervals in winter is finding a place to do them in the dark - I suppose Chesterfield in PP isn't too bad at night for this.
Other alternative is to swap the long run to mid week and do intervals at w/e.

Might pop over to Lucan Park Run on Sat (only ever done Malahide) - does this make me a park run tourist?

Marthastew

AuldManKing wrote: »

Monday 18th: 5m @ 8:10 HR 133

Tuesday 19th: 10.06@7:27 HR 145 (inc 3 Tempo)
3 Tempo (6:30 / 6:26 / 6:15) HR average 155 for 3xT


Just realised I'm at 1496 miles for the year - thats a load more running than 1122 in 2012 - but at least I ran a marathon in 2012!

Happy with where I am running wise right now - from next week I might add in some intervals, just to get different stimulusususus adaptations.

Not going to murder myself on the intervals - been reading a lot of running stuff lately and less is definitely more when it comes to this (especially at my age)/

Difficult part of doing intervals in winter is finding a place to do them in the dark - I suppose Chesterfield in PP isn't too bad at night for this.
Other alternative is to swap the long run to mid week and do intervals at w/e.

Might pop over to Lucan Park Run on Sat (only ever done Malahide) - does this make me a park run tourist?

They love Parkrun tourists there, a guy called Paul was race director when I ran it, make sure to introduce yourself, they're a very friendly bunch (it's a Parkrun thing:D) Great to see you back on track and congrats to T on the Dublin squad, it must be the good genes:)

drquirky

AuldManKing wrote: »

Difficult part of doing intervals in winter is finding a place to do them in the dark - I suppose Chesterfield in PP isn't too bad at night for this.
Other alternative is to swap the long run to mid week and do intervals at w/e.

Ummmmmm join a freaking club? Tallaght AC trains Tues and Thurs nights on a lit up track :D:D

belcarra

drquirky wrote: »

Ummmmmm join a freaking club? Tallaght AC trains Tues and Thurs nights on a lit up track :D:D

Not a patch on Brothers' Pearse or Sportsworld's home turf I hear...

RayCun

Sure, join Tallaght... if you're some kind of track fairy afraid of getting your runners dirty :rolleyes:

outforarun

AuldManKing wrote: »

Difficult part of doing intervals in winter is finding a place to do them in the dark - I suppose Chesterfield in PP isn't too bad at night for this.
Other alternative is to swap the long run to mid week and do intervals at w/e.

I do my intervals on Saturdays, and long runs on Sundays. When I started running I followed Hal Higdon plans and this is a legacy from these. I find that this works for me. Sometimes the legs might feel a bit stiff at the start of the LSR on the Sunday, but mostly I barely feel the speed session in the legs.

(P&D doesn't have this formula and while training for Cork I found it strange to be running short and easy on the days before my LSR)

drquirky

outforarun wrote: »

I do my intervals on Saturdays, and long runs on Sundays. When I started running I followed Hal Higdon plans and this is a legacy from these. I find that this works for me. Sometimes the legs might feel a bit stiff at the start of the LSR on the Sunday, but mostly I barely feel the speed session in the legs.

(P&D doesn't have this formula and while training for Cork I found it strange to be running short and easy on the days before my LSR)

IMO this is a really bad idea. Doesn't allow for proper recovery and can lead to injury .

outforarun

drquirky wrote: »

IMO this is a really bad idea. Doesn't allow for proper recovery and can lead to injury .

I do hear you. And maybe I've just been lucky.

I should expand a bit.

Part of the reason I have my weekends like this is, as I mentioned above, a legacy of Higdon plans. I also have my weekends like this is for purely logistic reasons. The only time I can be guaranteed to get a run in during the week is in the early mornings (usually starting between 5:15 and 6:15) and the body can struggle with GA pace at that hour, LT pace is very tough, and I don't want to even think about anything faster (admittedly I've never tried).

Obviously I don't know for sure but I don't feel I can attribute any injuries I've had to my weekend schedule. The last significant injury I've had was during a PD training plan (which doesn't have this type of weekend set-up, here I think the injury was due to the weekly ramp up in mileage).

[I'm just remembering now as I'm typing that P&D does have three weekends where a 17 mile LSR follows the day immediately after a race (8K to 15K race distance I think). My PD injury occurred before this part of the plan.]

I should probably also add that when I say LSR, I'm generally thinking 12 to 16 miles. Anything longer and I would adjust my speed session, and would probably avoid intervals.

This post is rambling a bit, sorry.

AuldManKing

Thursday 21st: 6.5m (inc 10x30 secs)

Wrapped up warm for this (or so I thought) - went down to the PP and had a nice trail run - stuck in 10x30 secs on 15 acres and jogged back.

Don't know if I done the bursts too hard (4:30-5:00 pace) but I had stomach issues when I got home and all night.
Also got a chill through the body that made it feel like the dreaded Man Flu as well. Not a good evening for me - just a big girls blouse.

I wont race do Parkrun this weekend as a result - might just take it handy and see how I feel Sunday for a long(ish) run.

AuldManKing

Friday 22nd - didn't do the planned 4m run - took a rest day instead.

Saturday 23rd: Didn't do ParkRun - took the dog for an 8m trail run around the PP.
Lovely run - got inspired by Quirkys tempo run this week, but just went round the Munich's at a slow pace.

Will definitely do a couple of sessions on these in the coming weeks.

7.87m @ 8.29 pace (HR 141 - a bit high for an easy run).

Will cut the LR from 15m to 10m on Sunday as a precaution.

blockic

AuldManKing wrote: »

Friday 22nd - didn't do the planned 4m run - took a rest day instead.

Slacker!