Take Your Lumps Like a Man, Private Twinkle Toes!!!

dintbo

So just under 18 weeks to DCM, time to start a log.

Boring Bit: Male, 37, running almost three years after way too many years of smoking, eating and sitting on my ass! Knocked the fags on the head and started eating a lot better after a nasty illness. Running came pretty quickly after that.

Running History: If I'm being honest I've gone about it arseways. At first I never wanted to bother with races, then it was all about the marathon - pretty typical running (badly) before I could walk. I only started enjoying shorter stuff this year. Current P.B's all from this year:

5k 20:36
5m 35:18
10k 42:19
HM 1:36:27
Marathon: 3:32:48

The Actual Point: DCM is my main target and after good results from the 55-70 mile P&D I followed for Cork a few weeks ago I've decided to... try something very different. I read the Hansons Marathon Method a few months back and was sceptical about a plan where the longest run is 16 miles, so I figured lets give it a try. I don't follow plans to the letter, but I will use it as a template and try to stick to its principles.

Since Cork I've not run that much and it's been all easy miles. This is the first week of the plan but its only easy running anyway so I can just blend into week 2 next week. I'll probably do a parkrun on Saturday though, just to see if I remember how to move my legs vaguely quickly. Thoughts, comments, criticisms very welcome.

Monday 22nd: 4 mi @ 9:14 - Did my first double digit run the day before (10 miles ish) so took this one at recovery pace.

Tuesday 23rd: 6.1mi @ 8:28 - Legs moved so did I.

Thursday 25th 5.8 mi @ 8:20 - This one felt really slow so was surprised to see the pace. Good sign hopefully.

dintbo

Friday 26th: 7.4 mi @ 8:32 - It was so grey and dull this morning so I reached for my trusty hi-vis for the first time in a while. Despite this it was an enjoyable run. Kept the effort easy as has been the form over the last few weeks with the main focus on building the miles back up slowly. My left quad has been slightly niggly since Cork so today will be mostly dedicated to the foam roller. Looking forward to trying a little faster running in Johnstown tomorrow. The parkrun is over 4 miles from my house so the run over and back will make tomorrow my highest mileage day in a while.

dintbo

Saturday 27th: Johnstown park run.

5.6mi @ 8:44 I left the house a little early so ended up running a lap of the course as well as the 4.5 ish miles out to Johnstown. Definitley a little excessive but I didn't want to run the 4.5 then stand around for 20 minutes.

5k parkrun @ 6:34 Garmin always measures this course short as there is loads of tree cover. 20:24 means a 12 second P.B. for me! See full report below.

3.2mi @ 9:32 The legs decided recovery pace was the best for the way home. They also decided to stop running with a mile or so to go, so off went the watch and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll.

12 miles for the day.

dintbo

Johnstown Parkrun:

This run is still pretty new but is already very well established and has 100+ runners almost every week. I hadn't run this for a few weeks so was looking forward to running with a bit of speed (relatively speaking of course). They changed the course a little, moving the start line back a good bit in order to loose the need for one slightly longer lap and this was my first time running this since the change. I really like it, but I did get caught at the beginning which caused a me a little heartache as the race went on. As I mentioned earlier gps accuracy is even more unreliable than usual due to the amount of tree cover so the following mile splits are pretty wrong!

Mile 1 - 6:42: I got caught behind several slower runners and a few children at the start which took a little while to get around. My problem was that once I started making space for myself I built up the pace way too much. I ran past several younger runners and couldn't help but admire them. I remember thinking that once they got a little older and learned how to pace better they would be unstoppable. As it turned one of those runners (JM 11-14 it turns out) would sail past me in the last lap and beat me by a comfortable 14 seconds. Maybe one day I'll be a little older and learn how to pace better. Until then I have a lot to learn from these young folk. So very impressed.

Mile 2 - 6:55: As I hit the gravel for the second time around the lake I become acutely aware of how much I'm suffering and how early it is to be suffering this much. I decide to pull back my pace a little just to catch my breath. At this stage I'm convinced that a P.B. is out the window but all mathematical ability has left me so I plug on as fast as I can. I managed to overtake one person on this lap and spent the rest of the time convinced he'd be back. By the end of the second mile all I wanted to do was stop. Please just let me stop!!

Mile 3 - 6:51: Mile three and it was time to decide whether I was gonna go for this or jog it home. I always seem to have this 'chat' with myself in races and the answer is always the same - jog it home... don't you f@*king dare jog it anywhere you lazy son of a... well you get the point. It felt like I had slowed right down but I just plugged on. I passed on more runner on this lap and was again convinced he'd be back again. So when I heard confident steady footsteps coming behind me I was quite sure it was him. It wasn't. I was the junior I mentioned above. I tried to go with him but there wasn't a hope in hell. I was 6th finished in a time of 20:24 which gives me a small P.B. of 12 seconds.

After thoughts: I didn't think I had any chance of hitting a P.B. today to be honest. I know people say you often get a few 'free' P.B.s off the back of a good marathon cycle but I really didn't think I had any zip in these legs at all so I'm very happy with this overall. There is one speed session a week for the next nine weeks of the Hanson plan so it will be interesting to see what kind of a difference that makes to my shorter distances. I also must enter a real 5k race or 2. The parkruns are fantastic but not quite the same as a real race.

One of the best pieces of advice I've picked up from other people's logs is the importance of the P.B. beer. I really couldn't decide so I figured I'd have three. Greedy? Yes! Sensible? Also yes!



Starting in Ireland, then off to the States, and finishing in Norway

dintbo

Boy oh boy that #500 packs a punch!! Seriously bitter but very nice!

Anyhoo, back to running.

Sunday 28th: 4mi @ 9:24 Legs were very stiff after yesterdays efforts so this was really slow. My left leg really didn't want to have anything to do with this at the beginning but it came round in the eventually! It felt better at the end than it did at the start, which is really the point of these recovery runs.

Monday 29th: 5.9mi @ 8:47 I still had a little stiffness this morning so stayed on the easy side of easy and ran a chunk of this on grass. I live beside a horse-racing track which comes in very handy as it has a 1.3 mile loop on grass, a .95(ish) mile loop on tarmac and is unofficially open for people to use. I ran the mile to and from the actual entrance instead of scaling my wall and did three laps on grass. Nice morning for it.

Tomorrow should be my first speed session of the plan, but it's the only actual session this week so I'm moving it to Thursday. It's 400m intervals (or as it will be for me .25 Garmin miles). I'm usually pretty crap at hitting the right paces in these kind of sessions. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.

dintbo

Tuesday 30th: 6.2mi @ 8:33 - Pretty uneventful run. It was a grey morning but still pretty humid and everything moved like it should do. My left leg is still pretty tight at the start of these easy runs but always seems to have loosened buy the end. I'm foam rolling a good bit but maybe its time to book a rub!

Thursday 2nd: 10x400m w/400m rec (7.9mi @ 7:53) - Ouch! I find these types of sessions pretty tricky, and today was no exception even with that generous recovery. In fact, the session was supposed to be 12x400m but I bailed on the last two. I was slowing too much and figured I was running myself into the ground with no real benefit!

I looked over the speed section of the book last night to check what paces I should be aiming for. You pick your paces based on goal 5k/10k times. as I ran 20:24 at the weekend I figured I aim for 20 min 5k pace which gave me 1:38 for the 400s. I set up a workout on my Garmin for this, having never really used it before. I figured/was hoping that the watch would display the time for the previous 'lap' as it would do in auto-lap mode. That was I could check the time of my 400s after each one, but it didn't. I hate trying to check pace when running 'fast' so I just decided to run by feel and check my times afterwards.

It was back to he race track for this session, but on the tarmac path this time. As the loop is almost a mile every second 400 was slightly uphill and into the wind. I thought the 400m recovery would mean I was pretty fresh going into the next 400 but boy was I wrong. Interval times were:

1:36
1:37
1:33 (easy tiger!)
1:34
1:29 (getting ideas well above my station!)
1:37
1:33
1:42 (starting to get harder now)
1:31 (got carried away on the slight downhill)
1:42 (this one felt much slower than that - a real struggle!)

Looking back on those numbers I guess they're not too bad. I knew the way I was running the last 400 that carrying on would have been pointless, but I have to say, I'm surprised that only 2 were slower than target, and only by 4 seconds. maybe I should concentrate on the ones that were too fast.

Not exactly a successful session, but I wouldn't consider it a complete fail either. Easy miles to look forward to for the rest of the week.

dintbo

Friday 3rd: 3.4mi @ 9:08 - Legs felt stiff and sore after yesterdays intervals so I kept this one short and very easy. I've been skimming Dubgal's novices thread and I think the general lesson of 'slow down' has sunk into my subconscious. Probably wont do any harm!

Saturday 4th: 6.1mi @ 8:49 - I was down in Waterford for the weekend visiting my folks. This one started out quite stiff as well but loosened into a comfortable run after a couple of miles. I was running into a pretty strong wind for a couple of miles and really couldn't believe it was July. I can only imagine how tough Clontarf was!

Sunday 5th: 10mi @ 9:09 - I'd heard a little about the Deise Greenway and it sounds like a great idea. A walking/running/cycle lane stretching from Waterford to Dungarvan following a disused railway line. It's still very much a work in progress but there is a stretch just outside the city that's usable. My plan was for 8 - 10 miles so I decided to go for the 10 and run 5 miles out and back. The entrance is 3 miles from where I was starting so I only ran 2 miles of the greenway but it looks very promising. The track is about 4 metres wide and is and ideal place if anyone in Waterford is looking for some freshly laid tarmac. Be warned though it's not officially opened yet and there are parts which wouldn't be suitable for roaming children yet!

I decided to do this run as a very easy - pretty easy progression with 9:40 - 8:40 in mind as vague paces. It's amazing how fast 8:40 can feel after 5 miles of slower running. It's all relative I guess. I decided to take a day off tomorrow (today) to prepare my legs for a 8x600 and 6 mile tempo this week.

dintbo

Monday 7th: 8x600m w/400m rec (8.5mi @ 8:13) - As I didn't quite succeed in finishing last weeks speed session, I was slightly nervous about this one. Then I gave out to myself for being an idiot. It's me, running somewhere on my own, with a watch on my wrist vibrating every now and then. I've had actual reasons to be nervous in my life, this was not one of them.

So after having a 'chat with myself' I looked back on last weeks session to see what went wrong. Easy! The early reps were too fast. So I decided today that finishing the session was far more important than hitting my target pace. I picked that target pace the same way as last week, using a 20 min 5k goal time. This gave me 2:25 for the 600s but mostly I planned to run comfortably hard so I'd still have something left for the last two reps and look over paces after the run. When I woke up this morning I really didn't fancy doing laps of the racetrack or going up and down the same pre-measured piece of road so I just programmed to workout into my phone and picked a route to run. This meant that some reps were uphill and some were downhill. I know this may not be the ideal way to do speed intervals, but it leads to a far more interesting run IMO. Interval times were:

2:23 - felt pretty comfortable for 5k pace.
2:24 - also pretty comfortable for 5k pace.
2:28 - I was starting to work a little harder here.
2:27 - I got a slight stitch towards the end of this one so had to stop for a few seconds then spent most of the recovery trying to get my breathing back on track.
2:26 - I made a concious decision not to flake this one so I was surprised it wasn't slower. The stitch was a good warning to watch myself!
2:26 - I can't remember much about the rep but I know I really wanted to call it a day after this. HTFU time!!!
2:31 - This is getting very hard now. Get to the end of this and there's only one more.
2:30 - Who cares, it nearly over! Sometimes I hate trying to run 'fast'.

Overall I'm very happy with this session. I'm still starting a little too fast but the main improvement I see here is that I realised and pulled it back slightly. It really is amazing what differences a few seconds make. I also noticed my recovery paces are slower in the second half so next week I'm going to make sure I keep them nice and slow from the start.

dintbo

Wednesday 8th: 6.1mi @ 9:10 - A mixture of sluggish legs and a pretty stiff breeze led to me taking this one nice and slow. Nothing particularly remarkable about this run. I did enjoy it though.

Thursday 9th: 6 mile tempo (9.1mi @ 8:10) One of the things I like about the Hanson plan is the amount of tempo miles there are. I know tempo means different things to different people but for the purposes of this plan it is the same as PMP. There are 120 mile of tempo pace over 15 runs building from 6 to 10 miles so plenty of time to decide on a realistic pace and try to internalise it. I decided to make my life relatively easy today so I picked an easy route and gave myself a pace range of 7:40 - 7:50. As the plan goes on I may speed these up a little but I'd rather start at a pace that I can get and work from there, instead of flogging myself and feel like I'm getting nowhere.

After a mile and a half warm up it was time to hit the tempo miles:

7:45 - Perfect start, this feels nice and easy.
7:51 - Most of this mile was nicely downhill so it should not have been slower than range - even if only by a second. I'm not sure what happened but I must have lost concentration towards the end of this mile. When I saw the time of it, I woke up
7:42 - That's more like it. Again this one felt nice and easy.
7:45 - I'm starting to feel a good rhythm going here. It's hard to believe that about 7 months ago I considered this my optimistic HMP!
7:48 - This one was harder than it should have been - maybe I'm getting a little cocky. The pace slowed during this one and I had to pick it up a little too much to get the mile on target. If I hadn't checked my watch about half way through and saw 8:xx I would probably have been way off.
7:39 - Last tempo mile and I feel pretty fooked. I thought I would finish on an uphill so I ran the flatter bits a bit faster to give me a cushion, then the watch buzzed just before I turned the corner for the hill.

Overall I'm happy with this session, but I would have thought it would have been a little easier. This is the first week that had both speed and tempo runs so that could be part of the reason. Next week's tempo is also 6 miles so I think I'll keep the same pace range but pick a slightly hillier route.

dintbo

Friday 10th: 7.5mi @ 9:05 Again I kept this one nice and slow. I picked a nice route with a couple of nasty hilly bits, just to get a bit of a work out in without stressing the legs. My left leg is still bothering me slightly on certain days. I run and it's a little sore so I decide to go to the physio, then the next day it's fine so I leave it and on and on. Think I'll just book in for next week regardless. The physio I go to is very good, but isn't a runner. I would love to find a running physio in wexford, but I've had no joy so far!

I'm off to a garden party in Inistioge for the afternoon/evening where I'm sleeping in a tent. Between the booze and sleeping on the ground I'm waiting to see if tomorrow's easy 6 happen at all!

dintbo

dintbo wrote: »

Friday 10th: Between the booze and sleeping on the ground I'm waiting to see if tomorrow's easy 6 happen at all!

And it didn't!

Sunday 12th: 10mi @ 8:35 Really lovely run this morning. Maybe the day off yesterday did me good, or maybe sleeping on the ground somehow massaged my legs, but either way they felt good on this one. I picked a challenging enough route, but one where you do most of the work in the first few miles. I probably ran this a little too fast in places but as it was only a 10 mile 'LSR' I figured what could be the harm in opening up a little. This has been my first over 40 mile week since CCM so I'm happy to have that done. I did consider adding a few miles on this morning to make up for the missed 6 yesterday, but the hanson book is pretty clear that adding miles to the long run isn't a great idea. I may add a couple of miles to my shorter runs next week, but I certainly won't loose any sleep over it!

dintbo

Monday 13th: 5.4mi @ 8:37 - Pretty miserable morning for a run but it was enjoyable enough none the less. It was followed by a day of mostly vegging on a couch watching movies and gogglebox so any good it did me was probably negated. None the less, you gotta have your couch days from time to time!

Tuesday 14th: 3x800m w/400m rec (5.4mi @ 8:21) Well this was a total failure! it was supposed to be 6x800m but having to pause halfway through the 3rd rep to dry-wretch for a bit I decided to can the session and go home. Grrrr! The target was 3:15 for the 800s. Actual times:

3:13 - Sweet
3:19 - a little slow and I really felt like I was working hard.
3:43 - disaster as I had to stop half way through. Probably should have finished everything there but finished out the rep then jogged home.

I have been finding these speed session really hard. I couldn't remember having this feeling during the P&D plan I followed earlier in the year, but then it clicked with me. Not only had there not been as many of these types of sessions, I had replaced a lot of them with parkruns as having a local one was new to me. So now I'm left with a bit of a dilemma, do I repeat that session again next week, scrap it and move on to the 4x1km, or do parkruns every week and forget about the speed sessions. I know the last option isn't the best, but I do tend to chicken out of the faster stuff a little if I'm on my own. I'm too stubborn to do that with others around me so I think I'd be getting a better V02max workout in a parkrun. Or maybe its time to join a club. First off though, I'm gonna eat some pie!

dintbo

Wednesday 15th: 6.2mi @ 8:47 - Nice run this morning, nothing particularly remarkable. It was nice to enjoy a run after the disappointment of yesterdays failed session. I can't help but wonder if I should have taken a rest then continued, quitting these things leaves me slightly uneasy as it sets a precedent.

Thursday 16th: 6 mile tempo (9.2mi @ 8:15) - Ouch ouch ouch! I don't know why I found this one so hard but I really did. Thoughts of quitting early crept in again but instead I did like I should have done Tuesday and had a rest before continuing on. There are a few factors I could blame - it was pretty windy in places and humid when out of the wind. Plus I'm an idiot!

I choose a route that would have a drag for a mile or so towards then end. Nothing particularly steep, but enough to make you have to work hard! By the time I got to the tough bit, I was already working very hard so I wasn't feeling overly confident. I had to stop twice, once just as mile 5 started, and also about half way through that mile! This is where I wanted to quit it, but I figured two completely failed sessions in a week would really bother me so when I stopped the second time I waited for a decent bit before I moved on. Annoyingly, strava counts elapsed time for laps, not moving time so mile 5 of the tempo looks incredibly bad (which in fairness it was!)

Tempo mile times (target was 7:40 - 7:50):

7:49 - Nice slow start, no need to flog it too early.
7:49 - I'm noticing the wind a lot more now. I had to work pretty hard to keep this one on target. I've mentally started readjusting my target to 7:45 - 7:55.
7:36 - Oops! It's not drastically too fast but this could have played a part in my soon to be downfall. The wind had eased of a little but I hadn't pulled back the effort level.
7:52 - Now I'm starting to feel the pain. I had to hug the ditch at one stage here as a truck with a particularly wide load can towards me and I enjoy having an upper body, so I'm attributing the 2 seconds to that.
10:33 (8:09) - So here is where it all went wrong. The two numbers here are elapsed time and (moving time). Having to stop twice really means that the pace of the mile means nothing. Best thing that came from this was fighting the urge to go home and trying to finish the session in some way!
7:55 - Considering what just happened I'll take that, though after such a long recovery in the last mile it, again, really means nothing.

I spent the cool down jog home trying to figure a few things out. Exactly 2 months ago I ran 15 miles @7:48, now I have to rest after 4!!! Obviously I have lost a chunk of the fitness I built up training for Cork, this was to be expected. But I'm surprised at how much. I could try come up with other excuses (humidity springs to mind - I forgot how much of a sweater I am in this kind of weather) but what's the point, I am where I am. Next week I'm going for slower pace targets for the speed and tempo runs. Depending on how that goes I'll try to build them beck up over the next few weeks but I'm going to have to take that slower than I had first thought.

Wottle

Hi dintbo
Good work so far, don't be so hard on yourself with hitting exact times.
I think you're right to slow everything down a tad, better to get the session done albeit 10 secs a mile slower, better for confidence going forward.
We're about the same age (36) and our pbs are similar and I also get anxious about sessions.
I have my first one on Saturday and I'm going to use my heart rate for recovery, let it drop back down to 70% before I go again. Could this be an option for you with the 4/6/800s. Over time you'll start to see you need less time to recover between reps and can use that info along side splits to map improvement.
Will follow your progress with interest. Best of luck with it.

dintbo

Cheers Wottle, by the looks of your new log you're enjoying the comeback! Fair play.

I don't have a HRM strap and don't particularly relish the thoughts of wearing one either. You have got me thinking though. Maybe I could use that idea but take some of the tech out of it and start a new rep when I feel ready for it. The book I'm using for this cycle stresses the importance of doing the session in a way that you can finish all the reps so that would fit in nicely. Of course the worry would be that I'd end up doing 1k reps with 3k recovery :rolleyes: I think I'll give this a go next week. Thanks for the thoughts!

dintbo

Friday 17th: 6.6mi @ 9:05 - I decided to run a slightly different route for this one, but thought it was gonna be a little shorter and not quite so hilly. Still a very enjoyable run though. I couldn't help but remember my Run Kilarney experience last year. Very tough marathon, but amazing scenery all the way. I hope those running it this year enjoy it, and have an easier time of it than I did!!!

Saturday 18th: 8.2mi @ 8:34 - I had been considering doing a parkrun this morning, but I got a call yesterday which meant my presence would be required elsewhere. I was going to try our a different road run there, slighlty longer but nicer so I tried it out this morning for an early one. Nice road to run, and legs felt good so went for the pacier end of easy.

dintbo

Sunday 19th: 9mi @ 8:45 - Stayed in my folks house Saturday night so off for a nice Sunday morning jaunt around Waterford. Plan only called for 8 miles but a slight miscalculation meant it rounded off to an even 9. Kept the pace pretty handy and just enjoyed the nice morning.

This has been my first 7 day week since CCM (every week seems to be my first something since CCM!!) so I think I'll celebrate with a rest day today. I'm in two minds as to whether I should take a planned day off every week or just take them as I feel I need to. I did the later in my last training cycle and it seemed to work though it can be hard to shake that 'if I did it differently maybe I would have reached the start line quicker' feeling.

Speed session tomorrow so I adopting a 'bring it on' attitude. It's gonna be the best run ever!!

dintbo

dintbo wrote: »

Speed session tomorrow so I adopting a 'bring it on' attitude. It's gonna be the best run ever!!

And it was!!! Well it was certainly better than last week anyway

Tuesday 21st: 6x800m w/ridiculously long rec (8.6mi @ 7:57) - I decided to repeat this session from last week but make it as easy as possible for me without sacrificing too much of the quality. If I'm being honest I knew I needed this to be in some way successful after my last attempt. Wottle suggested using heart rate to mark the end of recoveries, but as a non-HRM wearing person I just adjusted this to using my 'when I feel ready' sensor Using this technique meant I didn't have to adjust my pace which I preferred as that was I was still running the full 4.8km at a good pace for me.

I went over to the racetrack for this one. The tarmac path is a little under a mile long and during my warm-up I noticed that the wind was pretty strong on the uphill side so I decided to make my life even easier by starting my reps with the wind at my back and using the recovery to get back to that sweet spot to start the next rep - cheeky I know! This meant the recoveries were around 700m, so very generous.

Target for the 800s was 3:15. Actual times:

3:11
3:09
3:10
3:09
3:11
3:12

So all were a little on the fast side but with a favourable hill, wind and recovery I shouldn't get too carried away. I am happy with the idea of longer recoveries to get the quality miles in so I'm pretty pleased.

dintbo

Wednesday 22nd: 6mi @ 9:14 - This was a lovely morning for a run, nice and bright and early enough not to be too humid. Kept the pace nice and slow after yesterdays 800s. Overall the legs felt looser afterwards so mission accomplished.

Thursday 23rd: 6 mile tempo @ 7:49 with warm-up and cool-down. - Last week I found this a very tough session so was hoping for more success today. I decided to go for pretty much the same route as last week noting that it wasn't windy today so it shouldn't be as hard. I decided to change my approach ever so slightly for these tempo runs. For the last two weeks I have been picking a pace range and trying to get every mile into that. Today I pick a target pace (7:50) and tried to get an average of that over the 6 miles. This meant stopping the watch after the w/u and before the c/d so I could read the average pace of the tempo miles easily. I figured this was closer to marathon behaviour, where you know what miles should be easier and which ones should be harder. I also find this a less stressful way of doing it rather than trying to get each mile to a certain pace. I finished with an average pace of 7:49 so very happy with that. Miles were:

7:58 - Purposeful slow start. I really didn't want to feel too much effort at the beginning.
7:40
7:47
7:46
8:06 - This was always gonna be the tough mile, it was the one that broke me last week so no surprises here.
7:40 - If I'm being honest I probably shouldn't have run this one so fast. I glanced at my watch during the first part of this mile and I was at 7:53 average. I knew the last half was downhill so when I got there I just went for at to try pull that number down. I don't know what's happened to me, I used never care about numbers!!!

So overall I'm very pleased. Next week this moves up to 7 miles tempo. so I'll pick an easier route. Warm-up and cool-down bring the total of the day to 9.7 mi.

dintbo

Friday 24th: 6.6mi @ 8:50 - Sometimes I get a little jealous when I read logs from people who have an abundance of parks to run around. Wexford town has nothing but as I was back in Waterford for a couple of days I figured I'd do a 'Tour de Parks' Taking in a lap of the Peoples Park and the Nature Park. This was meant to be 7 miles but I was happy to leave it at 6.6, as it was pretty wet and my top had become pretty heavy at that stage!

Saturday 25th: 5.8mi @ 8:59 - This is a pretty standard loop I would run when I'm in my folks house, though I took in a little detour around the back of the hospital to lengthen it a little, and to avoid the evil seagull hanging around the roundabout at the main entrance I swear he followed me the last time I passed there, landing on every street light above me and cackled as I went by. I can't be sure if he was trying to sh1t on me as well, but it came pretty close!! It was a much more pleasant day for a run than Friday and the shape on the map looks kinda like a submarine; happy days!

Sunday 26th: 13.5mi @ 9:05 - Back to Wexford for this one and I was a slightly bold boy. I was only supposed to do 12 today, but I had a hankering to run this route so I did! I kept the pace pretty slow throughout though there are a couple of fast miles where the pace would creep up, but not the effort. I was happy with how 13 miles felt at that pace, I could easily have gone on for another few! A nice jaunt to round off a good week's running.

Wottle

Great consistency, well done.
I'm heading to Wexford (hook) on Monday for the week and I'm quite worried I'll miss days. I have a huge fear of dogs and they seem to be on every route down there. I think I may have found a 1 mile loop though ( I hate loops). I'm actually very lucky in Dublin with all the parks nearby.

dintbo

Wottle wrote: »

I'm heading to Wexford (hook) on Monday for the week and I'm quite worried I'll miss days. I have a huge fear of dogs and they seem to be on every route down there. I think I may have found a 1 mile loop though ( I hate loops).

Hope you're finding some places to run down there! I was actually pretty close yesterday eating fish and chip and drinking strong beer in Duncannon!

Monday 27th: 4mi @ 9:02 - took the lazy option and went for my trusted 4 mile recovery route instead of the full 6 my plan would suggest. I'm gonna be playing around a lot with it this week so start as you mean to go on and all that. Enjoyable run, nothing special!

Wednesday 29th: 7 mile tempo @ 7:41 with warm-up and cool-down - For some reason strava is only showing the last of these three runs so I've linked garmin connect instead. The last time I was running in Waterford I did a lap of the peoples park and realised it would be a good place for a 5x1k session as a lap is a km with every 200m marked. I'll be back down later this week for the spraoi weekend so decided to change a few things around. So Thursday's tempo run happens today and yesterdays intervals will happen on Friday.

7 miles this week for the tempo so I went back to picking a favourable route with some nice gentle downhill sections and flats. I figured the average pace would be closer to 7:45 because of this but I ran the run mostly by feel. Any time a had a quick glance I was surprised at the pace being a little fast but the effort felt right so I stuck with it. The last mile was a little slower so maybe I was a little hasty earlier on but it still didn't feel too difficult. I will pick a slightly harder route next week. Individual miles:

7:48
7:44
7:43
7:43
7:37
7:24
7:52

So a couple of miles in the second half of this were too fast. I didn't feel it though. It was a lovely morning for a run and that probably made the effort seem easier. Overall I'm happy with that one.

Greenmachine

dintbo wrote: »

Hope you're finding some places to run down there! I was actually pretty close yesterday eating fish and chip and drinking strong beer in Duncannon!

Monday 27th: 4mi @ 9:02 - took the lazy option and went for my trusted 4 mile recovery route instead of the full 6 my plan would suggest. I'm gonna be playing around a lot with it this week so start as you mean to go on and all that. Enjoyable run, nothing special!

Wednesday 29th: 7 mile tempo @ 7:41 with warm-up and cool-down - For some reason strava is only showing the last of these three runs so I've linked garmin connect instead. The last time I was running in Waterford I did a lap of the peoples park and realised it would be a good place for a 5x1k session as a lap is a km with every 200m marked. I'll be back down later this week for the spraoi weekend so decided to change a few things around. So Thursday's tempo run happens today and yesterdays intervals will happen on Friday.

7 miles this week for the tempo so I went back to picking a favourable route with some nice gentle downhill sections and flats. I figured the average pace would be closer to 7:45 because of this but I ran the run mostly by feel. Any time a had a quick glance I was surprised at the pace being a little fast but the effort felt right so I stuck with it. The last mile was a little slower so maybe I was a little hasty earlier on but it still didn't feel too difficult. I will pick a slightly harder route next week. Individual miles:

7:48
7:44
7:43
7:43
7:37
7:24
7:52

So a couple of miles in the second half of this were too fast. I didn't feel it though. It was a lovely morning for a run and that probably made the effort seem easier. Overall I'm happy with that one.

Nice even Tempo there

dintbo

Time to catch up after a busy weekend!

Thursday 30th: 6.5mi @ 9:09 I picked this route for mile 3, an incline of 500 ft in just under a mile. It really get you working hard without stressing the legs out too much. I'm tempted to include this in my tempo run later this week to see how I handle it! Nice run all in all.

Friday 31st: 5x1km w/ generous recovery (7.7mi : 8:33) I had decided to run this in the peoples park in Waterford as the outer path is 1km. I couldn't be 100% sure of its accuracy, and I knew with the amount of tree cover that the garmin wouldn't be a bastion of accuracy either so I just ran by feel and tried to enjoy it. If the lap was a km then I ran the intervals a little too slow but that doesn't really bother me, as the pace felt right. It turns out I much prefer running intervals when you know where the rep ends, and you're not waiting for the watch to buzz. I jogged the recovery until I felt ready to jump into the next one. Kms were:

4:14
4:02
4:07
4:10
4:16

Recoveries lasted roughly 4 mins each. I'll probably park run next weekend so I won't do another speed session before the weekend.

Saturday 1st: 6.1mi @ 8:37 I decide to completely ignore the watch during this run and try to guess my average pace when I finished. I figured I was around the 9:00 maybe a little slower! So my natural pacing is pretty crap! This was a not much to report run. It happened, all was well

Sunday 2nd: 12.2mi @ 9:14 Being in Waterford for the spraoi it was pretty inevitable that pints were going to happen. So after a few on Saturday night I was tempted to can this run till the next day, but then quickly copped on, as Sunday evening pints were also pretty likely to happen. In my younger days I used play a good few pub gigs and the like around Waterford and the band I used to play with asked me to join them for their Sunday gig. Knowing this could have turned into a bit of a session I laced up and went on my way. I wasn't fully sure where I was going for this one, hitting a few roads I'd not been on before. Had a nostalgia buzz when I came upon the Nightcap pub on what used be the main Waterford/Dublin road. It looks like it's been empty for years now!
Anyhoo, back to the run. I usually wouldn't bring water for a 12 miler but having had those few pints, I figured it wouldn't be the worst idea. I was glad of it as well. It was a comfortable enough run, nice and easy pace with a few slightly hilly bits to keep me honest. The hope was that I would feel pretty fresh for the length of the run. Other than very stiff legs at the beginning, which I blame on lots of standing around the day before, that was how it worked out. I was happy to only be doing 12 though.

Tuesday 4th: 9.3mi @ 8:48 Back in Wexford after a rest day yesterday. Legs felt pretty refreshed as I made up for the lack of a run by doing 2 sessions on the foam roller. Decided to throw on a couple of extra miles to this morning's run so I could do a hilly route I enjoy. Started with a nice and handy pace but as the first half of the run is mostly uphill the second half is a lot of downhill so the pace naturally got faster. I had to keep myself in check a few times but the average pace was still within acceptable easy pace range, just!

dintbo

Wednesday 5th: 7 mile tempo (7:45) with warm-up and cool-down - Listening to the wind in bed, it was difficult to raise myself to go out and do this run, but I do think it's important to let weather interfere as little as possible in training. If you never run in the wind and rain then the first race you do in the wind and rain could really hurt. I changed my target from 7:45 to 7:50 to compensate but as it turns out I really didn't need to. I accidentally picked a route that meant I bore the brunt of the wind during my warm-up and cool-down so the tempo miles themselves were quite comfortable. I'm happy to notice that these tempo runs seem to be getting a little easier, though of course it's hard not to have the 'can I hold onto this for 26 miles in a few weeks' thought! Answer is, of course I can Miles were:

7:43 - Downhill, nice handy start
7:52 - Easy start made me lazy, started to pick it up a notch when I saw that time at the end of the mile
7:48 - I came across roadworks here that meant I'd be a lot more comfortable if I changed direction. I was doing an out and back on part of a long road, so I just went the other way instead. This possibly made my morning easier as I had the wind at my back a bit more.
7:47
7:47 - These two miles were nice and steady. I started to realise that I could go for 7:45 average so picked things up towards the end.
7:42 - Everything was still pretty comfortable, even with the slight increase in pace.
7:34 - Last mile so I just went for it. I was a little fast, but after having my slowest mile at the end of last weeks tempo, I was glad to have my fastest mile at the end this week.

Very happy with that one. Warm-up and cool-down bring my miles for the day to 10.2

dintbo

Thursday 6th: 6mi : 8:59 - Well this was a far nicer morning for running than yesterday Took it nice and handy, especially at the start as the legs were a little stiff after yesterday's tempo. A very enjoyable run where the legs felt nice and loose afterwards.

Friday 7th: 5.9mi @ 8:51 - Yesterday was my OH's folks wedding anniversary so I knew my day was gonna be mostly based around eating and sitting, and what a great day it was!! Because of this I felt almost weighed down this morning as I tried to rise myself. But another sunny morning beckoned so on with the runners and off I went. There are a lot of easy miles to be run in this plan, which I quite like if I'm being honest. I do try to vary the routes a little to keep Things interesting, so today was about undulating hills. I don't mind running uphill, it's easier on the legs and I usually slow down enough to maintain effort levels. I am not particularly good at running downhill though. I always feel like I have to slow myself in order to keep control, and this usually feels like I'm thumping my legs into the ground. So in this training cycle this is something I'd love to improve on and this route is a pretty good one for that. Again a very enjoyable run.

I'm considering doing a parkrun tomorrow as I've done no speed sessions this week. I am catching up with a few buddies for a beer or two later but I hoping it doesn't turn into anything too late and heavy. Otherwise I may have to rethink. I had hoped that I'd feel up to a sub 20 attempt at my next parkrun, but the way my speed sessions have been going I don't think I'm there yet. However, if I make it out there without too much of a hangover I'm gonna give it a good shot and see what happen.

dintbo

Saturday 8th: Johnstown Parkrun (20:54, 7th finisher) with Warm-up and Cool-down - So not too heavy a night last night, but still a bit of a late one. I woke up in plenty of time and didn't feel too groggy so off I went. It took a lot longer for the legs to loosen during the jog out there, and coupling that with the warm weather I knew it wasn't going to be a PB day. It still felt good lining up and I was looking forward to running as best I could.

Lap 1: My 'plan' was to be pretty conservative during the first lap, put the hammer down on the second lap and try to hang for the last lap. So off I went at what felt like a good conservative pace. The usual scramble for position happens at the start so I wait for everything to settle down before I overtake a good chunk of people. By the time I had gotten to the other side of the lake I couldn't even see the person in front of me. I overtook nobody, and nobody overtook me for the rest of the run. Even though I thought I was doing a pretty conservative pace I felt pretty drained by the end of the first lap and wondered if I could put the hammer down...

Lap 2: ... I couldn't. The lap was a real struggle and I was feeling the heat in any of the exposed areas. There is so much tree cover on the course that I had hoped the heat wouldn't be as much of an issue, and it probably shouldn't have been. During the lap I really felt like I had nobody to chase and I think this caused me to ease off the pace as well.

Lap 3: I tried so hard to up the pace in this lap. As I went around the lake for the last time I was feeling pretty strong, maybe I was gonna make some head-way. But that was short-lived. By the second half of the lap I was barely hanging on. I knew by the lack of footsteps behind that there was no immediate challengers so I unconsciously eased off the pace here. I managed to pick it up for the last up and down hill and nearly ploughed into the kid giving out the finishers tokens as a result!! Strong(ish) finish to a tough enough run.

It's a pretty disappointing time but I do think the heat, along with some dodgy pacing my myself, played a pretty big part. There was only one PB in the top ten finishers this morning so I wasn't the only one affected Either way I'm not gonna dwell on it too much. I'll probably go for it again next week, as it's far more enjoyable than a 3 x 1 mile session.

The jog out and back brings the total for the day to 13 mi.

dintbo

Sunday 9th: 14mi @ 9:13 After yesterdays efforts I wasn't fully sure how this one would go. So I started slow, very slow. It took ages for the legs to loosen up a little so I kept the pace down till they did. I had decided early on that if they still felt stiff at mile three I'd double back and call it a 6 mile recovery run. Luckily things loosened out and I ran as planned. Kept it pretty handy and mostly enjoyed the run. I found the last couple of miles pretty hard, but I usually take that as a good thing. I've yet the run a marathon where the last few miles weren't difficult so it's all good practise.

Monday 10th: 4mi @ 9:43 - I probably would have taken this morning off but I'm heading to a wedding tomorrow so I'm not convinced I'll get any class of run in on Wednesday. Legs were pretty tired after what felt like a tough weekend running so recovery pace and distance required. Happy I did it though, as everything feels a little looser now.

ThebitterLemon

If you're racing a marathon and the last few miles aren't difficult then you're doing something wrong

TbL

dintbo

Tuesday 11th: 6.2mi @ 8:53 - Lovely morning for a run. Took things pretty handy and enjoyed it.

Thursday 13th: 7 mile tempo (7:46) with warm-up and cool-down - As expected there was no running the day after the wedding. I was down in Waterford for this one, and it was tempo time. I decided to head out to the beginning of the Greenway again and do the tempo as an out and back. I had planned not to start until I got to Greenway, but had left it a little late as I had things to do that morning. So I started once I crossed the bridge. I underestimated how busy that bit of road from the bridge to the Greenway would be, and had to hug the wall a couple of time in order to keep my legs. Other than that the effort felt pretty even throughout, until I sped up for the last couple of miles. The paces, however, look a little all over the place. this is the last 7 mile tempo in the plan so next week it goes up to 8. Miles were:

7:53 - A nice easy start, plus a little wall hugging
7:42
7:42 - With it being mostly downhill and with a gentle wind at my back these were easy enough miles. This is an out and back run though so if it's easy one way...
7:51
7:56 - ... it gets a little harder the other way. I turned a during the third mile of the tempo so now the wind, though still pretty gentle is in my face and I have a very easy but steady incline. It's enough to knock the wind out of me a little. I think I need to work on conserving my energy more when conditions are in my favour, so I can do better when they're not!!
7:36
7:38 - My average pace was now creeping closer to the 7:50 mark than I would have liked. So I decided to try and work towards 7:45 over the last couple of miles. I'm not sure if this was the best move, or should I have tried to maintain a steady pace. I figured in a race, if you have the energy to up the pace for the last section, you do it, so why not in a tempo run. I couldn't quite get to 7:45, but was happy overall.

I'm taking a second day off today day as I feel my legs could do with a rest I'm feeling pretty lazy Parkrun again tomorrow though so another toughish weekend ahead of me.

dintbo

Saturday 15th: Johnstown Parkrun (20:48 - 6th finisher) with warm-up and cool-down - This ended up being almost a carbon copy of last week. The only real difference in the run was that I went out lot faster, probably too fast. By the time I had reached the lake I felt like I was almost done. So I pulled back a little but I think the damage was done. It wasn't as hot as last week at the beginning, but by the end it definitely played it's part. I was overtaken about half-way through the first lap for the last time, after this my position never changed. This week, however, I could see the runner in front of me for a lot of the last lap, I just couldn't seem to gain any ground on him. Chatting to him afterwards he reckoned he was slowing in the last lap, so I must have been slowing as much as him! For some reason I feel like I ran a bit better this week, and I do have a 6 second improvement to show for it, though still 25 seconds away from a PB.

On the run home, I think I figured out why my last two parkruns have been slower. Firstly, I think I expected to see big improvements by doing a few 5k sessions at the beginning of the Hanson plan. That was pretty unrealistic looking back on it. But the main reason is attitude. I ran the Cork marathon in June as my main race of the year so I gave it everything I had. The next parkrun I did after that I also gave it everything and ran my 5k PB, but it hurt, it really hurt! As I'm in the middle of a marathon training cycle I guess I'm not will to flog myself that much. 5k isn't the goal, so I'm not gonna break myself to PB one. I'll leave that till next year.

As I type this I should be out for an easy 10 but my legs had a very different idea. I'm used to being very stiff and slow when I start, but today was a different kind of discomfort. I got about a quarter of a mile down the road and I knew it wasn't gonna happen. I was landing on my left foot in a really odd way in order to ease the discomfort and that couldn't continue. Myself and the OH are away for a few days tomorrow, so I may just take a day or two off. Better a few days now than a couple of weeks in a month or two!

Dubgal72

Hi dintbo, just got round to reading this, very enjoyable log. You've had some interesting posts re mental and physical battles Hope the niggle doesn't turn out to be anything serious.

How are you going to integrate parkruns for the rest of the plan? My plan (a HM/XC plan) has the option of a parkrun at the end of a step back week which I like. Pacing the speed sessions evenly can be tough. No harm in doing the first interval rep too slow. Any time I've done the first rep of an interval session too fast, I've paid double for the rest of the session and I'm not sure that I've gained any extra benefit from it.
Once you programme your inner metronome you'll be away in a hack and pacing the parkruns will be a doddle in comparison to now. I got great advice for checking pace in the first km of a 5k: check your breathing, you shouldn't be blowing hard in any way. If you are, you're going too hard too early.

Enjoy the break!

dintbo

Cheers Dubgal

I only have two more weeks of speed sessions left so I'll do the parkruns for those assuming I'm around. After that those sessions change to longer intervals (1 - 2 miles) closer to HM pace so the parkruns won't be a suitable replacement for those. I'll either not run them for a few weeks and volunteer a little, or run the odd one when my Sunday run is only 10 miles.

I like your point about breathing in a 5k. I have definitely ended up breathing very heavily at the beginning of some 5ks and some speed sessions as well. It's something I must pay more attention to.

Dubgal72

dintbo wrote: »

Cheers Dubgal

I only have two more weeks of speed sessions left so I'll do the parkruns for those assuming I'm around. After that those sessions change to longer intervals (1 - 2 miles) closer to HM pace so the parkruns won't be a suitable replacement for those. I'll either not run them for a few weeks and volunteer a little, or run the odd one when my Sunday run is only 10 miles.

I like your point about breathing in a 5k. I have definitely ended up breathing very heavily at the beginning of some 5ks and some speed sessions as well. It's something I must pay more attention to.

Ah good, glad to help
On the speed sessions, I'm not an expert, I'm wondering if parkruns are a good enough substitute for purpose-specific speed sessions?

dintbo

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Ah good, glad to help
On the speed sessions, I'm not an expert, I'm wondering if parkruns are a good enough substitute for purpose-specific speed sessions?

Almost certainly not, but I've gotten to the stage where I really dislike them, so I figure I'm better doing something I enjoy and getting close to the stress that a speed session is meant to bring rather than hating them and avoiding them at all costs!! I wouldn't suggest this for anyone else as a good idea I follow plans very loosely, using them mostly as a template because the enjoyment I get from running day to day is more important to me than one or two big goals in a year. I wouldn't be this quick to mess with the strength sessions (HMP) or tempo sessions (MP) though as they are more marathon specific.

I'm am thinking of concentrating on 5k/10k for the first half of next year so I'll need to take my speed sessions more seriously then.

Dubgal72

Ah I see and completely agree with you, enjoyment is key. If you're not enjoying running (or a specific type of running pain :eek:), it's just not worth it.
Ever thought of joining a club? That would bring you along even further....

dintbo

I have thought about it many times, I just haven't done anything about it. I do think it would be a logical next step for me though Not that I've ever let logic interfere with my decision making before :D

dintbo

Well a day or two off became four, but that may not have been the worst idea in the world. I started back yesterday so have decided to just do easy runs for the remainder of the week. My Sunday run should be 15 miles so as long as the legs feel OK I'll do that, nice and slow. This does man I've missed a speed session (I'm gutted :rolleyes:) and an 8 mile tempo. I'm a lot more bothered about missing the tempo but there are two more of the exact same run in the plan. I also may throw a couple of PMP miles in towards the end of Sundays run if I'm feeling up to it.

Thursday 20th: 4mi @ 8:34 - I picked my usual 4 mile recovery route for this, to test the water after a few days off. I'm used to running this route the day after races or heavy sessions, so to do it with the freshest legs I've had in a couple of months was quite good fun. The pace was a little fast for my easy pace, but that was with me holding back. It almost felt like I tapered for a 4 mile recovery run!!

Friday 21st: 9.3mi @ 8:40 - Went a bit longer a hillier for this one. This is a favourite route of mine, mostly because of the views once you get up a little. this morning however, you couldn't see two feet in front of you in places. Luckily I left pretty early so only met a couple of cars on the narrower sections - cue dintbo leaping into the ditch Again this was a little fast in places but very enjoyable. I missed running after 4 days, I can only imagine what it's like for the folks who have to take much longer breaks.

As a pointless aside, I've noticed Strava have starting calling runs by the time of the day now as default (i.e. Morning Run).

dintbo

Saturday 22nd: 7.6mi @ 8:58 - This was a nice one. nothing spectacular, just felt nice and leg-loosening. Took a route that includes a couple of sharp inclines to get the legs working without stressing the joints too much.

Sunday 23rd: 14.9mi @ 8:41 - I decided to turn this 15 mile lsr into a sort of fartleky progression run. Basically my plan was to start off easy for a few miles, and if I felt like it maybe go up a gear for a few miles, and then maybe go up another gear again, possibly, or something like that :eek: I planned a route that took in a few miles of the Wexford half marathon course. After the first loosening mile I kept the pace in or around 9 min/mi for the next 5. In retrospect I should probably have done these a little slower but it felt good and I was breathing very easy and chatting away effortlessly (to myself!!). Gear shift number 1 and I spent the next three miles around 8:10 - 8:20 min/mi. I decided during these to head for the slowest end of my marathon pace but couldn't decided to go for 2 or 3 @ MP. I was in my second MP mile (7:50) when I realised if I went for 3, I'd end up doing the third into the wind on a drag that has made me come unstuck on a number of occasions when trying to keep some kind of pace. So in the interests of being able to run this week I decided 2 would do, and for the remaining 4 miles I headed back towards 9 min/mi. I was pretty tired by the end of this one, but happy with the effort.

Two things struck me during/after this run. The Hanson plan I'm following maxes out 16 miles for the long run which means I'm almost at the longest mileage for one run. I really want to follow this part of the plan properly,as the main reason I'm doing it is to see how a marathon feels with only 'short lsr's done. I know I will be tempted to throw in an 18 or 20 miler or 2! Must resist.

Also, when I finished I pressed the button to stop the watch at my door, and the distance read 14.99 mi. It didn't even strike me to run a little extra to round up the number. Conclusion - definitely not OCD

Monday 24th: 5.8mi @ 8:48 - Beautiful morning for a run. Bright but not too warm. Took it handy. Job done!

dintbo

Tuesday 25th: 3x1600m w/600m rec (7.8mi @ 7:58) After doing 5k pace work of any description I had no excuse but to actually follow my plan today and do the last speed session in it. I kept Dubgal's sage advice about breathing too heavily in mind and also vowed to only look at the watch after each rep and not during (which I mostly stuck to). this made the session a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I hit the racetrack for this one where the concrete path around is just under a mile, meaning each mile would be a lap and a bit. With very little wind around I hoped for an easy(ish) morning. I was hoping to hit 6:30-6:35 range for the miles. Actual miles were:

6:33 - Nice and controlled. Kept the breathing in check and didn't feel the need to double over afterwards
6:35 - Similar to the last but I was little more relieved to see then end of this mile. Very happy with the pace so far.
6:36 - Working pretty hard for this one but able to keep it going. Slightly out of pace range, but who's gonna cry over one second

I was very happy with the effort this morning. It's the first time in a while I've done a 5k pace session that felt so controlled. It's a shame it didn't get there till the last of these sessions in the plan, but better late than never. I remembered on the cool-down jog home that this was very similar to the last Vo2 max session I did in P&D for cork so I had to look back and compare. In P&D the recovery is described as 50-90% I think. In Hanson it's 600m. Here are the numbers:

Lap|P&D May 21st|Hanson Aug 25th
Mile 1 |6:38 |6:33
Rec 1|3:26 |3:28
Mile 2 |6:36 |6:35
Rec 2|3:29 |3:21
Mile 3 |6:33 |6:36

So I'm pretty much where I was in May, but that was two weeks before my goal marathon, not two months so all in all I'm pretty happy. I think it's pretty interesting how similar the recoveries are, considering how differently they are described

ThebitterLemon

Nice session, consistent splits well done

TbL

dintbo

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Nice session, consistent splits well done

TbL

Cheers TbL. Glad to have it done!

dintbo

Thursday 27th: 8 mile tempo (7:50) with warm-up and cool-down - I've settled on 7:50 as a good PMP for the moment. I had hoped to find 7:40 easyish by now but that's not the case. I'd be very happy with 7:50 pace in DCM so I'll stick with it unless it starts to feel too easy. Baring that in mind you'd think this was the perfect tempo run by the description, but I'm not so sure.

There are different meanings to the word tempo depending on what plan you follow. For some, like me, it's marathon pace, for others it's faster. But one thing I think all tempo runs have in common is that they are meant to be evenly paced, and that's where I failed slightly!

8:09 - The summer is my easiest time of the year, free time wise. Now that's all over (sniff sniff), I'm left with the choice of early mornings or evening running. I'll take morning over evening any day as long as I wake up early enough. I've decided to blame this early start for the pace of this mile. After I saw that mile time I decided to forget pace and run by effort.
7:59 - I didn't even look at the watch when this mile finished. I was happy enough with the effort so kept on as I was.
7:47
7:52 - Well this is more like it.
7:39 - Ah hang on now, where was I off to with this one. I think I looked at my watch for the first time during this mile and noticed the average was creeping down. I'm pretty sure I made a subconscious decision to go for it a little. Not necessarily a good habit to get into.
7:44
7:41 - Still trying to get that average down and not really thinking of the point of the run.
7:50 - It was kinda pleasing to finish bang on a 7:50 for both last mile and average.

Overall I was very happy with this one. I could try to argue that it was good race practise, starting slow, then getting faster as opposed to starting too fast!. But really what I need to be doing is practise even pacing as much as possible. Next time!

Firday 28th: 6.2 mi @ 8:56 Nothing particularly interesting about this one. Legs started off tired and grumpy but didn't complain for too long. I was surprised to be at the top end of my easy range but I didn't feel under pressure at any stage. Two 10 milers to finish off the first week in a long time that I followed the plan to the letter, give or take a decimal place or two.

dintbo

Saturday 29th: 10.1mi @ 8:40 - I had two 10 mile easy runs to do this weekend so I decided to do one on the faster side of easy and one on the slower side. This was the faster one and if I'm being honest it was a little too fast, but it did feel easy and controlled all the way.

Sunday 30th: 10mi @ 9:15 - Lovely morning for a run this morning. During the week I had toyed with the idea of running the Oylegate half marathon which is on today. I am so glad I decided not to. I would much rather spend a morning like this morning running easy! Plan followed!!

dintbo

Monday 31st: 8mi @ 9:07 - Every Monday run in the plan so far has been for 6 miles easy, not that I've always done that. I was just setting off on my 6 miles when I had a quick look at the plan and noticed it was for 8. Figured I'd have the time so off I went. Handy run and a nice way to start the week.

Tuesday 1st: 6x1 mile w/400m rec (10.3mi @ 8:23) - Today marked the biggest change in the Hanson plan. This is where the speed sessions stop and the strength sessions begin. These are longer intervals at slower pace with less recovery that the speed session. I had misremembered the details about these from my first reading of the book. I thought they were meant to be run at HMP, but the actual pace is meant to be 10 seconds faster than MP, which would be HMP for a lot of faster runners, but certainly not me. As I have been using a pace range of 7:40-7:50 for my MP runs, I figured I'd go for 7:30-7:40 for these intervals. As it was my first time running then I know I spent way too much time looking at the watch. Miles were:

7:31 - So I kinda cheated here a little and picked a route where I knew the first mile would be a fast one. Hit the pace well, but didn't get a good read on the effort required
7:33 - I had to work a little harder for this one but still felt in control.
7:33 - Well you gotta love consistency!
7:36 - I remember this mile being pretty tough. This session is meant to help improve lactate clearance and tolerance. I felt that familiar sting in all of the miles reps but this was the first time one that didn't really clear before the next rep began. I decided to take this as a sign that the session was working perfectly (ever the optimist ).
7:20 - Dam it anyway, I had such as nice consistent streak going but I have my excuses ready. I hit a head wind in the first part of this rep, nothing too strong but enough to make you have to work a little harder. It didn't last too long though, but I think I forgot to reduce the effort. Oddly enough this mile didn't really feel any harder than the previous 4.
7:24 - After the speedier last mile this felt about right for 7:30. Guess my internal clock isn't quite there yet.

Overall I'm very happy with this one. I definitely enjoy this kind of interval session over the 5k paced ones Which is good as there are 6 more to go.

dintbo

Thursday 3rd: 8mi @ 7:49 with warm-up and cool-down - Another Thursday another tempo run. Picked a 4ish mile loop to do twice for this one. I changed the second lap a little to avoid a narrow street with broken bits and a wheelie-bin obstacle course, yet still managed to hit 8 miles almost exactly where I started. The main objective of the day was to have as evenly paced run as possible, after last weeks which was a bit all over the place. I'm not quite there yet but definitely getting better. Miles were:

8:03 - Another slow start but I wasn't gonna get too bothered by it.
7:47
7:50
7:51 - Now that's a little closer to even pacing. Its odd I always find the beginnings of these runs difficult and it often feels like I won't be able to finish. Yet by mile three I feel like I'm motoring along and could go all day!! Clearly the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
7:36 - Ah now there I go again. Just pure lack of concentration this time. I was probably enjoying the fact that the start of the second lap felt easier than the first one. As there is not much difference between the pace of the tempo runs and the strength sessions I'd better keep an eye on this.
7:51
7:47
7:44 - Happy days. Felt pretty tired by the end of this one but could have gone on for a few more miles if I had to. I'm taking this as a good sign.

Firday 4th: 6.1mi @ 9:15 Legs felt a little tired after yesterdays tempo so took this one nice and handy. By the end they had loosened out nicely.

ThebitterLemon

You getting a great consistency going.

Any planned races?

TbL

dintbo

Cheers TbL, things really seem to be clicking back into shape for you as well. I'm thinking of doing the Ferns half marathon next weekend, but there is one unavoidable thing that could get in the way of that. Otherwise I may be tempted to make the trip to Dublin to do the half the following weekend. I would like to get a half in before DCM.

dintbo

Saturday 5th: 6mi @ 8:41 - It had been a while since I ran on grass so I figured why not this morning. the plan was to do 4 laps which would have brought me close enough to the 8 miles on the agenda for today. On the third lap I started to get a pain in my back that I've never had before. It wasn't very sore by any stretch but I get nervous about back stuff so I finished off the third lap and left it there. It didn't hurt again after the run so I'm assuming it was nothing. maybe some awkward foot falls on the grass?

Sunday 6th: 16.5mi @ 8:53 - I was down in Waterford for this one so I decided to do an out and back to Tramore. I knew it was 7 miles to the very outskirts so I figured a little loop around would bring me up to the 16. Just as I was leaving the house I had a slight change of heart and decided to head out on the back road and come back in on the main road. What I didn't figure was that it made the run a little longer. In fact I knew leaving Tramore that I was gonna be one mile over. My plan is very specific about not extending long runs, so I compromised and decided to run half the extra mile and walk the rest of the way home.

This run felt good. My legs were a little tired but that is the point of this plan, running those 16 miles to simulate the last 16 of the marathon, as opposed to the first 16. I do think I went a little too fast though, but the effort felt very controlled throughout. I couldn't help but be a little disappointed in the amount of empty gel wrappers thrown on the side of the road. We are lucky to have such nice places to run, it's a shame to see that kind of rubbish. Surely if you can carry a gel, you can carry an empty wrapper. (/rant)

dintbo

Monday 7th: 6.4mi @ 9:37 - After yesterdays run I decided to hold well back on the pace for this one. Legs felt looser and the end than they did at the start.

Tuesday 8th: 9mi @ 7:49 with warmup and cool-down - I mentioned above that I wanted to do the Ferns half marathon this weekend and it turns out I can. So after entering last night my thoughts turned to how to adapt my plan. I'm pretty sure if I just carry on and do the half as an extra session I will end up either injured or needing way too long to recover and I have no interest in not running it as fast as I can on the day. So I decided to loose one session this week and one next week. As the strength sessions I started last week are the closest the HMP it made sense to me to drop those and continue with the tempo (MP) runs. This way I loose out on a total of 12 miles quality running in the missed sessions in favour of a 13 mile race. I know the stimulus isn't exactly the same but I really fancy running a half before DCM and giving it a decent shot. I reckon this is my best chance.

Because of this it made sense to do what is usually Thursday's tempo run this morning. It increases to 9 miles this week so I extended the lap I used last week a little and off I went. The overall numbers looks good (9 @ 7:49) but once again when you break down the individual miles the range of paces is shocking! Some miles were definitely easier than others due to hills, wind etc. but I feel I should have more consistency than this, especially after making good progress in that regard last week. Oh well, I guess I could pretend I was trying some close to HMP miles, though that would be just bulls£$t. Miles were:

8:12 - I do like a slow start.
7:54
7:51
7:54 - These were close to where I wanted to be but all still a little slow. As long as I don't go too fast to try make it up...
7:34
7:34 - Idiot! The first of these miles started on a pretty generous downhill, I just forgot to slow down when the effort picked up.
7:46 - Back in range
8:06 - Wake up sleep-face
7:29 - Yup, now that's what I call even! This finished on the pretty generous downhill as well but that's just plain too fast for a tempo run of 7:40-7:50 range.

Regardless for my lack of consistency within the miles I'm still happy with this one. Lets face it If I see an average of 7:49 at the end of DCM I won't give a flying toss if the miles are a bit uneven. Easy miles for the rest of the week during which I will consider what pace to try tun on Saturday. My P.B. is 1:36:27 which would be 7:22 pace but I don't feel like I'm as fit now as I was when I ran that in April. I'll probably start out around 7:30 and see if I have anything left in the tank for the last couple of miles.

dintbo

Wednesday 9th: 6.2mi @ 9:12 (I think) - When I plugged in the watch to upload this run a message appeared, which I stupidly clicked OK to without really registering what it said. Just as the window disappeared My eyes and brain caught up with each other and I noticed the word reformat had been in the message. Not really important anyway. I have been taking Wednesdays off recently, but was going to be out on Wednesday night for dinner and a couple of drinks, so I figured I'd enjoy the 'lie-in' more on Thursday. Easy run, nothing special.

Friday 10th: 6.1mi @ 9:04 - Again nothing crazy, just a little flush of the legs before the half marathon tomorrow.

Saturday 11th: Ferns Half Marathon in 1:36:34 (Garmin time) - Pretty close to a P.B. and definitely a little better than I thought I was able for so very happy with this. I couldn't hang around to see the results posted up, so waiting for them to appear on-line before I know my official time. There was no chip timing today so I expect the time to be a few seconds slower. report to follow.