Phoenix Nights

jake1970

Congrats on the PB.

Chartsengrafs

Thanks folks. 'Tasty'.. that's a new one

Saturday 16 July 6.9 miles track
I didn't make it out for a recovery run on Friday as I had a work thing so straight back into it. And it was a tough one.
100,200,300,400,800,800,400,300,200,100 pyramid, with a mere 100m recovery between each. So it was an endurance session as much as anything. After a slow jog we then did 4*400.
I won't list all the times but the 400s were coming in at 81/82 which I was happy with considering the lack of recovery. I was tired Saturday night.

Sunday 17 July 9 miles @ 8.01 pace.
I set out to do 9 instead of the usual 10-12. By the evening I was glad, I genuinely thought I could feel the difference. Bit of a struggle this one.

Monday 18 July 5.5 miles @ 8.10
More sensible pace today, trot around Trinity with some workmaktes at lunch. Very warm but enjoyable.

Tuesday 19 July 5.2 miles hills/tempo incl 3 @6.33
Most of us are racing Sunday so we did 20 minutes hilly/trail tempo instead of the 30 we have been doing. Hottest day of he year and felt it, but maintained pace well and didn't slow/drop off like the majority of my group did. Looking forward to a day off tomorrow.

Murph_D

Chartsengrafs wrote: »

Thanks folks. 'Tasty'.. that's a new one

I'm pretty sure I learned it from Ferris B.

(Oh, and are you doing the timewarp or do those runs belong in July?)

Chartsengrafs

Not sure what was going on there Murph! Edited.

tang1

All the best tomorrow, hope it goes to plan, run well.

tang1

Great running this morning, would I be right in saying that's a new PB? Tasty time either way.

Chartsengrafs

Thanks very much Tang, only seeing your good luck message now. Yes, a PB of ten seconds. I've always attached a caveat to my previous PB, from what I suspect was a slightly short course although I can't confirm that.
Also, 25 seconds faster than Dunshaughlin a month ago. Either way a PB!

Thursday 21 July 7.4 miles @ 7:58
I skipped the tempo run due to Sunday's race, and took this handy. Felt a little tired after it though if I'm honest. I neglected to mention that I tried out my new racers on Tuesday, and liked them

Friday 22 July 5 Miles @ 8:15
Nice easy one at lunch with a few guys from work. Another warm one.

Sunday 24 July Fingal 10k 38:11
Got out to Swords early and jogged into Swords Main St area with a clubmate. Went off by myself and did some strides, and swallowed a fly (again!). I was coughing for a few minutes as it was kind of stuck in my throat. Unable to shake off the irritation and asked a fellow runner if she would give me some water, which she kindly did. Lifesaver, as it was ten minutes before the start and it was very uncomfortable
I felt warm but OK in the warmup.

I hopped into the pen and lined up. I can't remember much by way of detail but here we go.

Mile 1 6:08: I like to start steady over 10k but steady was quicker than usual. Mild drag to start with, spent half a mile passing a good few, but not in an-over eager way. I didn't know the course but felt a PB was on.

Mile 2 6:04. Still felt very easy, but the first few miles felt downhill, I knew I would pay for this later.

Mile 3 6:15
I grabbed a sip of water at 4km or so and lost a bit of rhythm in doing so as I slowed right down (I struggle with cups). I often would not drink over 10k but felt warm today. I was going slower anyway on approach, about 6:12 pace at the time of the water station, taking my time going up the first bit of a drag

Mile 4 6:10
Took a while to get my groove back, but get my groove back I did.

Mile 5 6:07
At the 8km sign my legs felt a bit tired and I had to start into the 'two laps of the polo grounds' mantra.

Mile 6 6:09
The 9km sign felt like it would never come. I looked at my watch quickly and it said 5.75 miles. So I missed the sign. That was a nice boost as I was nearly home

0.22 mile 5:58 pace
I made no effort to speed up but apparently I did.

Overall I decided to go out a bit more aggressively than Dunshaughlin and gained 25 seconds in doing so. My plan was to hold 6:0X minute miles and see where that got me. It's a PB (10 seconds) and that's good but I really felt 37:XX was on and I was disappointed to miss out.
Not the easiest route but not the worst, it's certainly fair. Good day out, some good running by mates in the club.

Total 9 miles

jake1970

Congrats on another PB.

denis b

Just catching up with the logs after the hols. Double pb's....serious congrats. You must be in the shape of your life. Keep it going.

Back in Black

Well done on the PB. You are flying around the minute.

Chartsengrafs

Thanks folks, it was nice couple of races so I'm pleased with how things went.

Tuesday 26 July 6.4 miles
Straight into hilly tempo. I've had better ideas. The tempo part was 20 minutes but I pushed hard throughout, not sure of times.

Wednesday 27 July 5.75 miles @ 8.28 pace
Saw sense today and eased the effort off. Felt better after this, very easy around Trinity at lunch

Thursday 28 July 6.3 miles@ 8.17
Still tired/conscious of burnout I skipped the tempo session and ran easy again. Went to Porterstown Park for a change of scenery.

Saturday 30 July Track 6.5 miles
I was glad of the easy miles and felt OK after warming up.
6*200, 6*300 all with 200 recovery. Paces were good. We finished with 3*400, chasing the slower groups, and my group in turn being chased by the fast lads. Hammered these (by my standards) in 78,74,75. Then again it's easy when there are only three..

Sunday 31 July 12 miles @ 8.07
Started off slowly with the first mile in 9 minutes, felt that worked very well. I was tired enough from 10 miles onwards.

Tuesday 2 August 6.2 miles
Back to hilly tempo (25 minutes) around the Garda XC course. Underside of my big toe is sore today, wonder if I stomped on a root or something.

Wednesday 3 August 5.7 miles @ 8.11
Lunchtime meeting meant no Trinity at lunch so took it nice and easy myself this evening. Stupid toe is still sore though, something similar happened a few years back, it felt a bit off for weeks!

Chartsengrafs

Finishing off the week..

Thursday 4 August 6 miles incl 2 miles TT-type.
Main session was a 2 mile run back to the clubhouse after a warmup. Straight down Chesterfield; we more or less treated it as a race. Mile1: 5.32, mile 2 : 5.32. It's the quickest I've ever covered two miles, surprised myself a bit.

Saturday 6 August 14.1 miles @ 8.03
This was my longest run in about two years. It felt like it too. Mostly because I ran alone - stag party Saturday and night meant I would forego this morning's track session knowing that the chances of running long on Sunday would be slim.

Sunday 7 August 5 miles @ 8.19
Recovery in more ways than one. Took it easy last night so felt fine, though the fresh windy evening helped to blow off some cobwebs.

Chartsengrafs

Tuesday 9 August 7.6 miles
35 minutes of this was a pyramid session around the usual hills/trails. The 'on' bits were anywhere between 5.40 pace and 6.15 pace. Fairly pushed this. Pulled right back on the recoveries however.

Wednesday 10 August 5.7 miles @ 8.12
Easy at lunch

Thursday 11 August 6 miles
Incl 2 mile TT-type thing at 5:36 pace. Eased off ever so slightly on last week's pace but this was still very close to my limit.

Saturday 13 August 6 miles
200s,300s,400s. 300s around 58. Finished with 3 near vomit-inducing 400s: 82,74,76

Sunday 14 August 12 miles @8:00
I had great company for the first 8 but finished this off alone. Looked about as lively as most of the folks plodding through their half ironman.

Tuesday 16 August 5 miles
Getting my taper on for Frank Duffy. Bit daft doing the race with the lack of long runs but it'll be fun if nothing else. Incl 20 mins steady / tempo-ish at 6:23 or so. Legs are feeling heavy, last week took it out of me.

tang1

Best of luck in the morning, hopefully won't be to far behind you!! Run well.

Chartsengrafs

tang1 wrote: »

Best of luck in the morning, hopefully won't be to far behind you!! Run well.

Thanks you too tang. My target is more or less the same as yours so I'll keep an eye out!

tang1

Chartsengrafs wrote: »

Thanks you too tang. My target is more or less the same as yours so I'll keep an eye out!

Trim AC candystripes and shaved head will be me.

jake1970

Best of luck tomorrow. Enjoy!!

Chartsengrafs

Wed 17 August 5 Miles @ 7:49
Nice easy run, raining throughout so has the streets and bits of the park to myself

Thursday 18 August 4.5 miles @ 8:10
Taper continued with easy run at lunch

Saturday 20 August Frank Duffy 10 Mile. 65.21
My focus this year has been very much 5/10k distance but I wanted to mix it up a bit so signed up for the fun (!?). My training has not been geared to longer stuff at all but I cockily thought at the very least my pb of 65:07 would be toast. Aim wasn't too aggressive either in theory; high 63's. From mile 4 however I realised my target was unrealistic and that low to mid 64 was still worth going for.

Needless to say it was a shocking morning, the weather was quite bad. The hills were OK but the bits that caught me were the parts with headwinds. I kept trying to join groups, but any time I did they slowed, so I ran much of miles 5 to 9 alone and worked very hard to maintain 6.35 pace for some bits.

Splits were 6.30, 6.17 (careful now!), 6.25, 6.25, 6.29, 6.35, 6.25, 6.23, 6.34, 6.41 and 36 seconds for 0.11 mile. Reading through the splits it's still a little unclear where I leaked so much time. Obviously the last two miles but that 0.11 / 0.36 seconds at the end threw my pacing a bit (not saying the Garmin is correct btw).

So a bit disappointed with the time but happy that I left everything out there. Dead man walking from mile 9.

Total 11.7 miles.

Chartsengrafs

Tuesday 23 August 6.4 miles @ 8.22
My achilles was sore immediately following Frank Duffy. I was hobbling for the test of the day. I took two full days off, applied foam roller to calves, ice to the achilles and pizza to my face. This run was a tester, mostly on grass and luckily it felt fine.

Wednesday 24 August 5.3 miles @ 7.51
Some easy miles at lunch

Thursday 25 August 5.5 miles
Including 20 minutes tempo on grass, mile paces were 6.17, 6.14, 6.12, 6.12 (for the remainder of the 20 minutes)

Saturday 27 August 6.4 miles, track
4*400, 4*500, 1*800. Lovely morning for this, felt good. 400s in 77-81, 500s around 1.43.

Sunday 28 August 11.1 miles @ 8.02
This started badly, I went over on my ankle in the first mile. I stopped and a clubmate waited to make sure I was OK. I gave it a minute or two then continued at 9 minute pace. I think I was lucky (again), continued the run without pain and the pace crept up. Will keep an eye on it.

Chartsengrafs

Decided to get a last road race in before the season ends. Out of bed, porridge in to me, down to Carlow good and early. Turned out I was 25 hours early as the race is on tomorrow. My absent-mindedness knows no bounds

Chartsengrafs

September started with a few missed training days due to a cold and then my Garmin packed it in. I forgot about logging completely, but got my old Garmin back working by the end of the month. September was fairly unstructured, partly by design as I was away a good bit and the road season had effectively ended. Rather than log the month's activities, I'll restart from October. Again, fairly unstructured due to holidays etc but back to tempo, track this week.

Sat 1 Oct 6.3 miles @ 8.03 There was no track session so I ran easy myself
Sun 2 Oct 10 miles @ 8.06 Easy, usual Sunday. Need to get these back to a regular 11/12 though. Went out to watch the Dublin Novice XC shortly afterwards and to take some pictures. The lad I coerced into joining the club earlier this year came just outside the top 5. Amazing progress considering this is his first year of structured training and from memory, second XC race. Very pleased for him.
Tues 4 Oct 7.1 miles From memory this was a good hard session. After a warmup, we did 1 mile hard. Then a short pyramid (one to 4 minutes), finishing with a mile hard again. The final mile was in 5.53
Wed 5 Oct 3.7 miles @ 8.16 Something came up so I could only run for 30 minutes
Thurs 6 Oct 7 miles incl tempo 3 easy in group, 3 tempo, 1 cool down. 3 tempo miles were 6.17, 6.23, 6.30. I recall running this alone and drifting off the pace in the final uphill mile.
Friday 7 Oct 6 miles @ 8.17 Easy recovery by the canal

Monday 10 Oct 9.55 miles @ 7.57 I was away and couldn't get out Sunday so ran longer on Monday. Last run before holidays.

Seville: Wed 12 Oct, Thurs 13 Oct, Friday 14 Oct, Sat 15 Oct Easy miles each day I got out. 5.6 miles, 5 miles, 6 miles, 4.1 miles. Average pace improved as I adjusted to the relative heat - from 8.11 to 7.55.

Monday Oct 17 4.5 miles at 8.17 in Granada Only morning run on holidays, all others were evening. Only one I didn't enjoy, the ice cream and abnormally large whiskey after dinner the night before didn't help. Wasn't hard, but it was a bit bleh.

Wednesday Oct 19 6.3 miles @ 7.50 Back home, nice lie in and popped out in the early afternoon. Ticking over on holidays paid off, this felt very easy, and hopefully back to tempo tomorrow night.

Chartsengrafs

Finishing off the week. I've developed a nice head cold since the final few days of holidays which didn't help some of these sessions!

Thursday 20 Oct 6.6 miles
Incl 2.5 mile tempo (6.14, 6.10, 6.10). I expected this to be 3 miles but we went back to easy pace a half mile earlier than expected. Felt good.

Saturday 22 Oct 6.5 miles
My first visit to the track in 5/6 weeks. 2*800, 2*400, 6*200, 2*400, 1*800. Not sure of times as I'm still using my temporary Garmin. Definitely missing some leg speed - I was fairly wrecked but the congestion certainly didn't help.

Sunday 23 Oct 11 miles @ 8:07
Not much to report, started with the first mile at 9 min pace and steadier after that.

Chartsengrafs

The congestion I mentioned in my last update got a lot worse and I missed a full week. Nothing I could do about it unfortunately. I started to feel a bit better on Friday of last week, just in time for a 2 night stag in Germany. I'd usually be put out by missing training but I knew I still wasn't up to running so went anyway with no regrets. Perhaps a week off wasn't the worst thing that could have happened, it's been a while!

Tuesday 1 Nov 6.5 miles @ 8:27
Eased back into it, didn't look at the watch until I got home. Took it very easy, pace was a little slower than expected. Lovely evening to be out, Autumn is definitely my favourite time of year to train, I've always loved it.

Wednesday 2 Nov 5 miles @ 8:15
Easy again, felt a bit wonky after the week off but still enjoyed it.

Thursday 3 Nov 6.3 miles
3 miles easy(ish) out (8:46, 7:33, 7:41) 2.5 miles tempo back (6:39, 6:07, 6:15) & cool down. Paces were all over the place but not to worry. Legs felt very rusty but aerobically I felt OK.

Saturday 5 Nov Hills/ XC 6.4 miles
I'm not attending the track at the moment so ran loops of the Dublin Novice XC course (not a full mile) with a few clubmates. 1 lap easy + 4 laps steady. Steady / tempo paces between 6:12 and 6:20 I think.

Sunday 6 Nov 12.2 miles @ 8:04
I'm occasionally in Kilkenny at weekends so did my long run from here. About 3 miles out and back on the Waterford road, then into the Castle park and along a path by the river in the direction of Bennetsbridge. Another fantastic morning for it.

In other news I started work on a new postgrad this week but I'm reasonably confident of juggling it, training and work. It's been a few years since the last postgrad I did - a lot more working alone on this so time management will be critical! Happy to get started all the same.

Chartsengrafs

Tuesday 8 Nov 6.4 miles
This included 10*200 with 200 recovery. After that 2*800. No idea of times as I'm still using my backup Garmin but felt I was moving well for the 800s which were on a nice hilly lap. First bit of speed in a while!

Wednesday 9 Nov 6.1 miles@ 8:12
Easy jog home from work. Didn't fancy going through the Park so came up the Navan Road. Legs were nice and tight after last night but this helped a lot.

Thursday 10 Nov 6.1 miles incl 2.5 tempo
3 miles easy out (8:50, 7:55, 7:45), 2.5 tempo back (6:16, 6:06, 6:07) and a cool down.

tang1

You running Jingle Bells?

Chartsengrafs

tang1 wrote: »

You running Jingle Bells?

Yep I intend to, there'll be a good crowd from the club hopefully. You're doing it too I think?

tang1

Chartsengrafs wrote: »

Yep I intend to, there'll be a good crowd from the club hopefully. You're doing it too I think?

Sure am, any time goal in mind?

Chartsengrafs

tang1 wrote: »

Sure am, any time goal in mind?

Not at all, just going to run hard! Happy with my pb earlier this year but I've done no little to no interval training in recent months. Would be plenty happy with low 18 so will run as well as I can to do so. How about you?

tang1

Chartsengrafs wrote: »

Not at all, just going to run hard! Happy with my pb earlier this year but I've done no little to no interval training in recent months. Would be plenty happy with low 18 so will run as well as I can to do so. How about you?

Love to run low 18 to but not to sure I'm in that kind of shape, could try hang onto your coat tails and hope for the best.

Chartsengrafs

tang1 wrote: »

Love to run low 18 to but not to sure I'm in that kind of shape, could try hang onto your coat tails and hope for the best.

Not sure I am either. Sure at least we'll both try to finish this one and go from there