2016 - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

spurscormac

I have tried one of these training logs before, but always tailed off a bit.
Hoping this one can last a bit longer.

Goal for 2016 is to get a good base fitness in Jan/Feb with maybe a goal race in Mar/Apr - will decide on that in the coming weeks.

I've started with an aim of running every day in January, 30 mins or 5k minimum.
This should also get me a good start on the 1000 mile challenge and if it becomes a habit, get me there this year.
So far I've done...

Jan 1 - 6.28 mile run
Jan 2 - Parkrun Castlebar + warmup & cooldown, for total of 4.95 miles
Jan 3 - Easy 3.5 miles

Have a run planned this evening and track session tomorrow night to get me to 5 in a row.
Also hoping to implement some core sessions at home to increase benefit of base fitness work.

Here's to 2016...

spurscormac

Update:-

Jan 4 - Completed 5 miles at a decent pace.

Track session tonight.

spurscormac

Jan 5 - Track Session total 5.63 miles. 7 x 800 @ 10k goal pace, with a floating 200 recovery. Total includes warm-up and cool-down.
Tough session, especially the 6th rep, but feel good afterwards.

spurscormac

Update...

Jan 6 - 3.3 miles v easy run with the dog in tow with the rain teeming down. Initially annoyed at the stop/start with the hound wanting to sniff everything, but think my legs were happy with the easy pace after the track session to be honest.

Jan 7 - 4.2 miles at not quite a tempo pace, followed by 5 x 100m hill sprints.

First 7 days of January, total 33.82 miles.

Getting a HM training plan from a club mate, first proper training plan, previously just did track a couple of weekly 6 milers if I could and a long run at the weekend.
Gonna quit the run every day goal for Jan and focus on the quality plan, switching to core work at home on the non-running days instead.

Aiming for Kinvara Rock & Road half in early March, and will see where I am at that point to determine the rest of the years focus.

spurscormac

Update:

Took Friday off.

Saturday 8th - Parkrun with the dog, who mostly wanted to walk and sniff every bush. Finished in 29:26, so turned into a very easy run.

Sunday 9th - 8.66 miles in 8:19 pace with a group of clubmates. Company makes it much easier to keep the pace.

spurscormac

Monday - rest day, intended doing core work in the evening, but had to work extra hours when I got home.

Tuesday 12th - Am did 20 mins of core work and some foam rolling on a tight calf.
PM - Track session of 8 mins warm-up, drills, then session of 4 x (3:30 @ 5k pace, off 60, 70sec @ 5k pace - 5 sec, off 90), 6 min warm-down.
Really felt it as one of the 90 sec recoveries was mistakenly cut to 75.
Good to bank another quality session though.

spurscormac

Wednesday 13th - Rest Day

Thursday 14th - 4.68 miles easy run this morning averaging 8:40. This was a case of an easy run becoming a hard run. Due to the frost/ice on the paths & roads, I could never really settle into a pace, so while the pace was slow, I was quite tense during the run.

spurscormac

Friday 15th - Rest day

Saturday 16th - Training plan required a race this weekend, couldn't make the Tuam 8k so alternative was local Parkrun. Finished in a course PB of 21:23. There was a couple of icy sections where we had to slow down so overall I'd say that cost me ~12 seconds.

Sunday 17th - Rest day

The coming week is the start of a 6 week plan for Kinvara HM on March 5th.
Need to focus on the quality of the sessions and get a few easy miles in between where I can.