Running in the Real World

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

Ososlo

annapr wrote: »

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

Yeah the readings aren't really gonna mean much until you know what your max hr is. Then you'll know what % of your max you should run to for easy/recovery runs, mp runs, tempo runs etc.
Enjoy the test:D

annapr

The plan for today (Clearlier, week 2) called for 60 minutes, with 20 min at tempo pace.

Due to the wind and my current fondness for hills, I decided to do c.20 mins easy up to Albo (as Albert College Park is fondly known by teenage drinkers), 20 mins circuit of the park (2.5 laps) at tempo pace and 20 minutes easy back home (downhill and wind at my back).

The first 20 mins was fine, into the wind and uphill -- in retrospect, maybe a little fast for 'easy'/warmup pace. The 20 mins of tempo felt very tough. I was aiming for around 5:30/km based on McMillan's recommended training paces. The garmin was all over the place, partly because of the trees I think, so I stopped checking it and just tried to keep up the effort for 20 mins. I found it tough and had to ease off a few times, so I don't know if that counts as a proper tempo run. I only managed one km at 5:27, so not great.

I was very happy to slow right down and head downhill for home after that. Even though when I looked at it later, the paces were quite consistent, the effort definitely didn't feel that way.

A wise old runner told me that training paces should be determined by your current fitness levels, not what you aspire to... so those McMillan recommendations might be a bit high for now. Coming off several nights of poor sleep and with a headcold didn't help either. Excuses, excuse, just damn slow!

Got home and got a mild migraine -- I occasionally get exercise-induced migraines, which means I probably did push myself too hard, even though it doesn't look like it.

Used this as a heart rate test too: Max Hr was 203 bpm; Avg HR 174bpm.

10:28km/6.39mi in 1:01; Average Pace 5:56/km. 9:33/mi.

FBOT01

Those HR figures look very high, Anna. You might want to check the HRM is working correctly. There are many different ways of getting/checking your max heart rate but they say 220 minus your age is a good guide to zone it should be in.

annapr

FBOT01 wrote: »

Those HR figures look very high, Anna. You might want to check the HRM is working correctly. There are many different ways of getting/checking your max heart rate but they say 220 minus your age is a good guide to zone it should be in.

Thanks M, I thought they were very high too, and I didn't think I was working THAT hard. I haven't checked my resting HR with that monitor yet, so that will give me and indication of whether it's working right. Thanks for the age reminder :P

FBOT01

annapr wrote: »

Thanks M, I thought they were very high too, and I didn't think I was working THAT hard. I haven't checked my resting HR with that monitor yet, so that will give me and indication of whether it's working right. Thanks for the age reminder :P

At least I didn't do the calculation for you:D

yaboya1

So now we know what age you are:

220 - 203 (HRMax) = 17?

annapr

yaboya1 wrote: »

So now we know what age you are:

220 - 203 (HRMax) = 17?

Haha! Well if that's what the Garmin HRM suggests, it must be right. Mental age maybe

annapr

45 minutes easy:
45:03 min/7.02 km; Average Pace 6:25 min/km. 10:19 min/mi.
HR Avg 160 bpm;

Stayed flat today, back to the seafront... and slowed it down. Tried to concentrate on form. Still felt a bit tired in the second half, so I'm definitely blaming the head cold.

Avg HR was lower than yesterday, reflecting the effort I suppose. Also tested my resting heart rate using the same monitor and avg was 53bpm, which is about right. I must do a proper test to establish the right max (for a 17-year old )

annapr

Still thinking (obsessing) about this heart rate stuff... I plugged my numbers from this week into the calculator on the graduate thread (below). this gives me an average HR for the tempo (yesterday) and easy (today) that are in the right range, albeit at the higher end of the range.

Max Heart Rate 203
Resting Heart rate 53

% of Max Heart Rate|This week actual
Tempo 164 - 184 |174
Easy 142 - 164 |160

If the max was lower, say around 180, then the actuals would be too high. Ok, enough already, I will do a proper test, following the instructions in the links Clearlier provided... when I don't have a cold.

aquinn

annapr wrote: »

Still thinking (obsessing) about this heart rate stuff... I plugged my numbers from this week into the calculator on the graduate thread (below). this gives me an average HR for the tempo (yesterday) and easy (today) that are in the right range, albeit at the higher end of the range.

Max Heart Rate 203
Resting Heart rate 53

% of Max Heart Rate|This week actual
Tempo 164 - 184 |174
Easy 142 - 164 |160If the max was lower, say around 180, then the actuals would be too high. Ok, enough already, I will do a proper test, following the instructions in the links Clearlier provided... when I don't have a cold.

St Anne's Parkrun time. I'll be there for you, cheering!