Running in the Real World

annapr

February is the new January. I'm starting this log to help get me back on track after a very low mileage January, caused by an unexpected health issue, not running related. It's time to get back in the running habit, instead of just lurking on logs here and admiring the fortitude of everyone running in wind and hail.

Running History:
Feeling confident after months of treadmill running, I did my first run outside ‘in the real world’ on January 1st... 2012. My OH ran ‘with me’ in St Anne’s Park, but actually took off like a hare and made a show of me… or so it seemed at the time as I struggled to get over my embarrassment and self consciousness. He wisely went on ahead and I struggled through a slow and painful 3k or so.

… my running and our relationship somehow survived that first run... He still claims he was being motivational ). By May 2012, I was confident enough to attempt my first race -- the Docklands 5k, the time was something like 31:30, which I was delighted with as my main goal was to finish it. The buzz of the race got me completely hooked.

Since then, through some serious life events, running has kept me (relatively) sane. 2014 was the first year I trained consistently and I really enjoyed the progress I made.

I had no interest in EVER trying a marathon, right up to the moment when I started the novice marathon training plan in June or July... Then I found the novice thread here and I was hooked, thanks to Ososlo and the merry band of novices. DCM 2014 was a nightmare, but I finished it, swearing never again (report here:http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=92808536[/URL]) About 2 days later, I realised I will have to do it again, because I have to do it better :rolleyes:.

PB’s and tentative targets for 2015:

Distance|2013|2014|2015 target
5K|26:24|24:53|<25
5Mile|n/a|43:37|42:xx
10K|60:00 Dec 2012|n/a|<55?
10Mile|99:26|90:53|<90
Half Marathon|2h:19m:24|2h:01:39|1h:59m:xx
Marathon|n/a|4h:43m|<4h:30m

My training has been very basic to date but I plan to try adding some sessions to the base of steady running... some from the Clearlier plan on the DCM2014 grads thread and maybe some of Ecoli’s easier ones. I’m hoping the log here will help keep me motivated and honest! Sadly, I don’t think it will make me faster

I’ve been lucky so far to avoid running injuries (probably not doing enough running!) but am prone to clumsy ‘real world’ injuries (e.g, stabbed myself in the toe with the point of an iron…painful and bloody!).

I love running, I love being outside in the air and looking at the sky, in all weathers, puffing up hills, cursing the wind, dodging dogs, the buzz of racing, the community spirit of parkrun… and of course the treasure trove of information and support and laughs on this forum.

As I said to Ososlo, I’m superstitious about starting a log — as soon as I do, something is bound to go wrong. Gulp!:eek:

annapr

Sunday 25th Jan

4.64 mi in 51:21,
very slow average pace of 11:04min/mile... easy run in Edinburgh through the Meadows park down to Holyrood park before breakfast. There's no wind said the OH on the way DOWN. Wrong! On the way back up there was plenty. Although easy pace, felt like work... Effort offset by the drama of the holyrood crags and navigating the steps up and down.

Tuesday 27th Jan
5.06 miles; 10:12 min/mile

Easy 5 miles out the seafront to the wooden bridge and back, not too much wind. Felt good all the way. Last mile slowest because was chatting on the phone for it, probably looked ridiculous running along talking to myself. Slowing down to talk gave me a good excuse not to push myself too much.

Splits clearly show where I turned back into the wind and started talking!

Thursday 29 Jan
4.02 miles, 9:40/mile avg
Splits:
10:09
9:33
9:11
9:46

Went out in the morning in case the blizzards arrived to give me an excuse in the afternoon. Stayed inland to avoid the worst of the breeze. A bit of a progression run, mainly because it was so cold that I skipped my normal walking warmup and jogged from the front door. Well wrapped up, the snow shower found me anyway, loved it.

Sunday 2 Feb
this was my longest run since December -- 1:02 mins; 6.10 miles; fastest mile was 9:36, otherwise slow, slow.

A beautiful day on the seafront, first half an hour with Murph who kept going when I turned back.

I felt it in my legs, quite sluggish and can feel them today.

I know I am claiming 8 days in my first week, but delighted to be back up to 3-4 runs per week and aiming to do 4 this week... starting tomorrow of course.

And I am switching back to Km too, I can't think in miles. :P

adrian522

Congrats on starting the log. I think I ran that 5K in 2012 as my first race too...

hillsiderunner

annapr wrote: »

Sunday 25th Jan

4.64 mi in 51:21,
very slow average pace of 11:04min/mile... easy run in Edinburgh through the Meadows park down to Holyrood park before breakfast.

My routes! Might have bumped into you except that there's no "before breakfast" in my running world .

There's no wind said the OH on the way DOWN. Wrong! On the way back up there was plenty. Although easy pace, felt like work... Effort offset by the drama of the holyrood crags and navigating the steps up and down.

There is nearly always wind in Holyrood Park, and *always* in-the-face for the uphill direction. Got a pleasant surprise yesterday going up that hill and not feeling any wind tunnel effect at all...

Stick to the miles. We won't have a clue how you're doing if you write in metric.

annapr

hillsiderunner wrote: »

My routes! Might have bumped into you except that there's no "before breakfast" in my running world .



There is nearly always wind in Holyrood Park, and *always* in-the-face for the uphill direction. Got a pleasant surprise yesterday going up that hill and not feeling any wind tunnel effect at all...

Stick to the miles. We won't have a clue how you're doing if you write in metric.

Hillside runner, You are lucky to have such a great place to run in the city centre. We saw some hardcore people running up the crags at pace... are you one of those??? Edinburgh is such a beautiful city.

You might think I'm faster if I stick to metric :P

hillsiderunner

annapr wrote: »

Hillside runner, You are lucky to have such a great place to run in the city centre. We saw some hardcore people running up the crags at pace... are you one of those???

Nope! Tried that a couple of times last summer and ended up with a bunch of tourists (I hope!) standing at the bottom shouting at me to go faster . In fairness I was struggling ...

Am usually just doing laps of the road, but am hoping to start going onto the trails (and a bit higher) when the right leg is perfect.

You might think I'm faster if I stick to metric :P

True but then we won't notice the improvements!

Mimojo

Well done on starting your log, looking forward to reading all about your running endeavours Your times & targets are similar to my own so will be looking out for good tips!!

Ososlo

About time:D
Delighted to see you start this annapr! Please please PLEASE stick to miles:) I'll be lost if you don't! Or both is ok too!!!!

ps: you'll go WELL under 4:30 this year! No doubt about that in the world!
Best of luck with it all.

annapr

Mimojo wrote: »

Well done on starting your log, looking forward to reading all about your running endeavours Your times & targets are similar to my own so will be looking out for good tips!!

Thanks Mimojo, you have been doing great training since starting your log... I'm hoping it has a similar effect on me!

annapr

Ososlo wrote: »

About time:D
Delighted to see you start this annapr! Please please PLEASE stick to miles:) I'll be lost if you don't! Or both is ok too!!!!

ps: you'll go WELL under 4:30 this year! No doubt about that in the world!
Best of luck with it all.

Oh you old-fashioned imperialists I'll do my best to be bilingual...
As for 4:30, who knows... it's a long road... but thanks for the encouragement!

chickey2

Best of luck with the log. I'm with you in kilometres! I've no idea of paces in miles which makes me feel a lot better when I read most of the logs on here!

laura_ac3

Ge

laura_ac3

Great to see this log Anna! Good luck with it

FBOT01

Welcome Anna:)

Looking forward to following your progress. Logging here will certainly help keep you "honest", focused and motivated.

Best of luck with hitting those targets......I think Murph hit all his last years;) No pressure:D

annapr

FBOT01 wrote: »

Welcome Anna:)

Looking forward to following your progress. Logging here will certainly help keep you "honest", focused and motivated.

Best of luck with hitting those targets......I think Murph hit all his last years;) No pressure:D

Thanks M! What can I say, behind every successful man, there's a...... running widow :pac::pac: I'm sure Mrs FBOT knows what I mean

but we're not competitive... ahem!

annapr

This was one of those days (at least in Dublin) where it was just fantastic to be outside...

8.01km in 46:20 (Avg 5:47/km)
Oh ok, 4.97 miles (avg 9:19/mi)... see now if I had done that in miles I would have wanted to hit 5!!

I am aiming to get myself back up to a base of approx 20 miles per week of steady/easy running, starting this week.

The first 2-3k felt great, energetic, loving being outside... the seafront was beautiful, sky blue, all good. I was even too warm with a base layer under short sleeve shirt and leggings. I was glad of the inevitable breeze when I turned round at the wooden bridge, cooled me down.

The last 4k really showed me that I am nowhere near pre-marathon fitness -- laboured breathing, feeling tired and sluggish (probably went out too fast at first which didn't help). The second half was almost 2 mins slower... definitely work to be done.

Still, felt great overall... got my endorphins and my vitamin D!

In other news: there was some sort of avian carnage in our back yard this morning... white feathers everywhere and blood and guts :eek:. What's worse, the guts were gone when I got back from my run... ewww...

Dubgal72

You've done it, well done! Following for sure

Mrs Mc

annapr wrote: »

Thanks M! What can I say, behind every successful man, there's a...... running widow :pac::pac: I'm sure Mrs FBOT knows what I mean

but we're not competitive... ahem!

Anna how true this is and the main reason us running widows start running !!!! I'm looking forward to following your log and will be trying to catch you in 2015 !!! .... Best of luck !

annapr

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Anna how true this is and the main reason us running widows start running !!!! I'm looking forward to following your log and will be trying to catch you in 2015 !!! .... Best of luck !

Hello Mrs Mc!!! More like you'll be leaving me in the dust! Have you come to terms with DCM being in your future yet?

Mrs Mc

annapr wrote: »

Hello Mrs Mc!!! More like you'll be leaving me in the dust! Have you come to terms with DCM being in your future yet?

Ha ha not committing to anything just yet !!!

Murph_D

Is it just me or is there some sort of parallel universe being created here?

annapr

Set out today to do a very easy 8k, hoping that it wouldn't feel as hard as Tuesday. I wasn't inspired to vary my route so headed out the sea front again and was rewarded by another glorious day for running. My head told me to slow down and don't overdo it, but my legs insisted on going out 5k... I just couldn't resist going further out the bull wall. I reasoned that I could always walk home the final 2k if necessary.

But, whether the joys of the sea and sunshine helped, I felt much better today and completed the 10k, nice and steady 5.57min/k average.

I know it's only the Tolka Estuary and I'm more of a Wild Atlantic Way girl, but I LOVE the sea front.

On track for my whopping 20 mile (32.2km) week! I will really have to add some hills.

10.02km; 5:57min/k
6.22 mi; 9:34 min/mi

Bungy Girl

annapr wrote: »

I will really have to add some hills.

There's this nice little hill in Fairview Park....;)

annapr

Bungy Girl wrote: »

There's this nice little hill in Fairview Park....;)

I actually looked across at it this morning on the way home from the school run and there is a steep incline up to the back of the park! Quickly back pedalling in case I have to sprint up it!

Bungy Girl

annapr wrote: »

Quickly back pedalling in case I have to sprint up it!

Only 5 or 6 times. Be grand.

Mimojo

annapr wrote: »

I will really have to add some hills

Snap! Need to add some hills myself, to date all of my running is on the lovely lovely flat roads, need to find a good hill or two. I am hoping the thoughts of it is worse than the reality....right??!

annapr

Headed out to the best Parkrun anywhere this morning (St Anne's of course) -- wanted to do this as a training run... decided to go at HM/10 mile pace -- around 5:30-5:40/km. Took it nice and easy, promised myself I wouldn't be tempted into 'racing' the home straight, but as usual my competitive nature kicked in, ony for the last 100m or so... there was a young wan in front of me wearing a coat (!) and carrying a bottle of water so no way was I coming in after her... ended up with about 5 of us within a second of each other!

Got the parkrun email... and I was first... in my age category. this is a first in my life!!! unfortunately it's because a recent birthday catapulted me into a new and ancient age group... hopefully no fast 49-year-olds have birthdays soon and I can maintain my position...

never mind fbot getting his sub-18 pb, he's only a young fella....clearly my achievement is the highlight of today's parkrun! now, when do i qualify for the free travel pass...?

5K: 26:58; 41st woman, 1st in age category (still chuckling at that)

Dubgal72

That's fantastic news, well done! Now I hope you are putting your feet up for the rest of the day and being waited on hand and foot?!

annapr

Dubgal72 wrote: »

That's fantastic news, well done! Now I hope you are putting your feet up for the rest of the day and being waited on hand and foot?!

haha, I'm chuckling even more at that idea :rolleyes:

...and I'm not -quite- that ancient!!!! off for my nap now....

adrian522

Very good running today...a win is a win after all

ThebitterLemon

Nicely done, make sure you get that nap or you mightn't make the Bingo tonight

TbL

Bungy Girl

Great time for a training run! What'll you be like when you're racing ? Overtaking the teenagers no doubt. Well done on the win.

FBOT01

Nice one, Anna.

Mrs Mc

Well done Anna that competitive side always kicks in at the end !!!

Mimojo

Very well done, great running :-)

Runchick

Hey annapr great to see this log started and very well done on the parkrun!

laura_ac3

Good running there Anna. Bodes well for your upcoming training!

annapr

Sunday: 6.11 mi/ in 1:00:30; Avg 9:54 min/mi

WTD: 20.41 mi

Very happy to get over the 20 miles for the week, even if I was a bit tired after the bingo last night

Pleasant easy run along the cold sea front with aquinn, nice to have the company, and I did her a favour by slowing her down considerably

Hope everyone racing today had a good day.

annapr

Well, after my first consistent week in ages last week, I'm sidelined for a few days this week for minor medical reasons... so much for getting a hill session in!

But the good news is that I've signed up for Cork Half Marathon in June, had a deferred entry from 2013... so that gives me a focus for training. Looking forward to it already! (is that weird?)

ThebitterLemon

Jebus Murph,

You told me you'd sort it!!! I see Mrs Murph is going to Cork too!

What am I gonna tell Amber and Ginger

TbL

annapr

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Jebus Murph,

You told me you'd sort it!!! I see Mrs Murph is going to Cork too!

What am I gonna tell Amber and Ginger

TbL

Ssshh, I wasn't going to tell him!!!

ThebitterLemon

Ah God I'm really all over the place, I was sure I'd posted this in boss Murphs log!

I'm not very good at this type of stuff

TbL

Murph_D

You should take one of those aul lad computer classes. Worked wonders for me.

annapr

Saturday, 14th: 6.01km easy; avg speed 5:59/k
After my few days off on doctor's orders, nice easy run home from St Anne's parkrun. The pace was very consistent, at the end I thought, if I could just keep going at this pace for another 36km...

Volunteered to marshall at the parkrun, with some help from the boys -- all decked out in their high-vis. I ended up marshalling them more than the event, but they helped cheer on Murph, Aquinn, Killerz and the twins and FBOT, among others (and not in that order!). They were very impressed with the babies and kids in the race but most impressed by FBOT -- 'why did he get to run and be in charge?' And took their marshalling duties very seriously, accusing a passing cyclist of cheating!

Sunday, 15th: Another easy run (I have to move on from easy this week!); 5:66k; avg speed 6:06/k
Did a loop around Drumcondra, up to Whitehall (had to get some elevation in) and back down to home. The most notable thing about this outing... halfway up Clonliffe road I realised that the elastic in my running shorts had given up... a new wriggling running gait was required to keep everything from ending up around my knees... luckily I had a belt on which helped avert disaster. :eek:

Low mileage week, but now in the hills for some altitude training ahead of the assault on Djouce in a couple of weeks


WTD: 11.67 km/7.25mi
MTD: 54.33 km/33.76 mi
YTD: 86.90 km/53.9mi

Mrs Mc

annapr wrote: »

Saturday, 14th: 6.01km easy; avg speed 5:59/k
After my few days off on doctor's orders, nice easy run home from St Anne's parkrun. The pace was very consistent, at the end I thought, if I could just keep going at this pace for another 36km...

Volunteered to marshall at the parkrun, with some help from the boys -- all decked out in their high-vis. I ended up marshalling them more than the event, but they helped cheer on Murph, Aquinn, Killerz and the twins and FBOT, among others (and not in that order!). They were very impressed with the babies and kids in the race but most impressed by FBOT -- 'why did he get to run and be in charge?' And took their marshalling duties very seriously, accusing a passing cyclist of cheating!

Sunday, 15th: Another easy run (I have to move on from easy this week!); 5:66k; avg speed 6:06/k
Did a loop around Drumcondra, up to Whitehall (had to get some elevation in) and back down to home. The most notable thing about this outing... halfway up Clonliffe road I realised that the elastic in my running shorts had given up... a new wriggling running gait was required to keep everything from ending up around my knees... luckily I had a belt on which helped avert disaster. :eek:

Low mileage week, but now in the hills for some altitude training ahead of the assault on Djouce in a couple of weeks


WTD: 11.67 km/7.25mi
MTD: 54.33 km/33.76 mi
YTD: 86.90 km/53.9mi

FBOT is quiet the Boy Scout !!!!
Never misses the opportunity to run and be in charge !!! Glad you're back fighting fit Anna see YA soon.

FBOT01

Mrs Mc wrote: »

FBOT is quiet the Boy Scout !!!!
Never misses the opportunity to run and be in charge !!! Glad you're back fighting fit Anna see YA soon.

Boy Scout... Somehow I think that may be code for "Control Freak"

annapr

Monday
Rest day -- spent half the day looking at half marathon plans, paces, etc. Reminds me of my daughter's study habits when she would have a beautiful colour coded schedule, but did no actual study.

Cork HM on June 1st is the goal race, so thinking of trying the Hal Higdon Intermediate 12-week plan. That would start in a couple of weeks so in the meantime I'm going to do a few weeks of the Clearlier plan from the graduate thread as a base.

If anyone has better suggestions to get me to June 1st, I'm all ears!

Tuesday 17th
5*2mins@5k effort w 3 mins recovery;
8k/5mi in 46:16; Avg pace 5.47/km; 9.15/mi (?i think)

My first time trying a session like this. I incorporated it into a lovely 5 mile loop here with rolling hills. 5 mins warmup, walking and drills (well ok, a bit of skipping, hope none of the local farmers saw me). About 10 mins easy and then decided to do the first 2 mins @5k on a downhill stretch. Had no idea if I could set it up on the Garmin so just timed myself. Aimed the 5k pace at 5:00/km (25 min 5k)... the first was fast because of the downhill (about 4:30/k for a lot of it). I did the recoveries at about 6:00/km.

Because of the hills, I didn't pay too much attention to the pace after the first couple, tried to keep the effort consistent and then slow way down for the recovery.

The 5k effort felt tough and I needed the recoveries, but the time flew. I even threw in a short hill sprint or two, just for fun.

Finished off with a couple of easy Km and a 5 minute walking warm down and a few basic stretches.

Really enjoyed this run -- great to be back in the hills!

Elevation gain was 63m, elevation loss was 64m... so the paces were all over the shop, not surprisingly speed coincided with downhills!

*Garmin has switched from Kilkeel running to Belleek running... at least I can see Fermanagh in the distance.

aquinn

Fair play to you, that's great going and even better that it was enjoyable, may give that a go this evening. Beautiful day here in the East anyway.

annapr wrote: »

*Garmin has switched from Kilkeel running to Belleek running... at least I can see Fermanagh in the distance.

Does your Garmin do this when you upload runs? Mine has done it of late and I've no idea why. It names everything Kilkeel running, not just me then.

annapr

aquinn wrote: »

Fair play to you, that's great going and even better that it was enjoyable, may give that a go this evening. Beautiful day here in the East anyway.



Does your Garmin do this when you upload runs? Mine has done it of late and I've no idea why. It names everything Kilkeel running, not just me then.

It was great fun to vary it, A... didn't feel the time going.

yeah, Garmin started doing this a while back, no idea why... my theory is that it picks up the nearest location in the 'UK'. some people on the southside get Crossmaglen running apparently! We're about 20 miles from Belleek here...

and the weather is not beautiful here today! cold and windy but at least I missed the rain.

annapr

Plan called for 45 minutes of easy running today and yesterday, so that's precisely what I did, give or take a minute!

Weds, 18th feb
44 minutes, 6.6k/4.1mi -- along the lovely Garavogue River path to Doorly Park in Sligo town. Spectacular place to run, even with the low cloud hiding the mountains. Great place for the new Sligo park run.

Thurs, 19th Feb
47 Min, 7.8k/4.8mi, back in Donegal, a mere 43M elevation gain this time.
This was one of those Donegal days where any and all weather conditions could have happened in any given 47 mins... we had hailstones, thunder, rain, wind, sunshine, blue sky... I set out at the beginning of a shower, with no idea how it would develop, but luckily spent most of the time running in brilliant sunshine. Felt great, nice and easy, steady 6min/k.

I have identified many suitable hills for tomorrow's hill sprints!

annapr

First hill sprints, first time wearing heart rate monitor, first day of James Dunne!

Friday, 20th Feb 6 x 10 seconds hill 'sprints'

Finally time to tackle hill sprints as called for on week 1 of the Clearlier plan. Being confined to the house in the hills with a 4 year old and 6 year old meant I had limited options for warmup and choice of hill. The three of us did Day 1 of the James Dunne 30-day challenge together until they got bored by the lack of movement, then some drills outside the house. Luckily the house is at the bottom of a hill, so I didn't have to go far... no idea if these were hill sprints as intended (and my sprint is very slow) but we had great fun.

Sunday, 22nd feb, 10k/6.2mi, 1:01

Easy pace, but this didn't feel easy. Headed to the Phoenix Park this morning, which was remarkably empty -- probably because it was a damp, cold, windy, dull day. Parked inside the infirmary road gate and did an anti-clockwise loop, skidding along the wet trails. I never felt like I got in the flow today, but sometimes you get days like that.

Passed a soccer match with the ref and one of the coaches roaring at each other... they're f***ing 15 year olds, the coach shouted, without a trace of irony. Charming.

Wore a heart rate monitor for the first time -- wasn't a proper test because I didn't push myself to the max as recommended. The readings seem high for the pace, not sure what to make of that. I'll try to do a proper test this week.

Avg HR: 163 bpm
Max HR: 182 bpm


WTD: 32.65km/20.29mi
MTD: 86.97km/54mi

Not going for any high mileage awards, that's for sure! And I suppose I need to do Day 2 of James Dunne at some point