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A life in the day..
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30-01-2016 10:03pm#1
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Will be following with great interest
do you have any goal races for the year M?
Not yet. A lot depends on whether and which club I join. There's nothing very local and I'm currently starting to look for work a full time athlete so I'll probably wait until I'm settled into a longer term routine to make a decision on which club to join.
I'm probably a natural 800m runner but I'd only train for that seriously as part of a group and there's an argument that at 38 I might be better off focusing on longer distances. I'd really like to do DCM again. I really enjoy half marathons. I'll probably end up running races at a variety of distances. If I can run consistently without injury I'd expect to be able to PB at everything over 1500m without the need to specifically target a race.0 -
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Sun: 8 miles
Monday: 3.5
Tuesday: 7 with 12*30 second bursts (probably about 800m effort)
Wednesday: 3.5
Thursday: 7
The pace varies from day to day, if I feel good I go a bit faster, if I feel tired I go a bit slower.
Found my garmin and brought it along with my phone and the strava app today and found that the Strava app isn't as far out as I feared. It still over measures a bit but it had my 7 miles today at 7.1 which isn't anything worth getting worried about. Might stick with the phone as it's a bit of a pain to check on how far you've gone so I don't check it as often as I do with a watch.
I've been quite fortunate to move to a place where there's a former railway line running about 2 mins jog away and that's where I've been doing 90% of my runs. Here's a couple of pictures from a nice day!
and this one of the actual trail/old railway line:
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Gone freezing over here the past couple of days. The thread about shorts and tights has me laughing. Tights (leggings) for me for almost every run these days and even then I don't always get warm enough - not trying hard enough maybe.
Thursday - 8.2 miles with 4 as a progressive tempo - roughly 7:40, 7:20, 7:00 and 6:40. Working pretty hard for the last one with the thought in the back of my mind that it includes a strava segment. Took 1 second off my personal record but even if I went flat out I wouldn't be near the guy who holds the record who did it as part of a ten mile tempo in 50 mins :eek: I dug out the HRM for this to find that my bpm is coming in at about 1050. When I'm below 1000 I reckon I'll be ready to break 40 mins for a 10k.
Friday - A brisk 3.5 in the evening - brisk because it was freezing again. Did it around the marine lake that they have here for the sailing club. The sea/river around me is essentially a huge estuary. When the tide is in it's fine for water sports but when it's out you can walk to an island so totally unsuitable for water sports. Thus frustrated the locals (in 1901) built a wall which is low enough to let the water in at high tide but retains the water when the tide goes out. Very nice it is too.
Saturday - 10
Sunday 8.5
Just over 45 for the week which was the target. Happy with that I went shoe hunting and ended up getting three pairs after I promised to get rid of all the pairs that I currently have.
I got the Mizuno Mujin which arrived this afternoon and seem fine - they'll get a test drive tomorrow. I've never had a trail shoe before so I'm looking forward to seeing how they go.
I'm now waiting for the Mizuno wave rider 18 and the New Balance 870v3. I was tempted by your suggestion Bungy Girl but I realised that I've never worn Saucony before and there aren't any running shops nearby so I was ordering online and I thought it best to order a brand that I know my size in (NB and Mizuno are a full size different for me).
Monday - Half term this week so I have to fit in running like a normal person does this week. I took the boys into liverpool where they spent the entire day in a play centre called underwater street - recommended if you have young kids and are in liverpool. I got out relatively late for 4 easy miles that took me as far as the entrance to the Royal Liverpool golf club which is on the British Open circuit. I stopped for a moment to take a look at the clubhouse which even in near total darkness is pretty grand. As I started back I realised that somebody was watching me from the other side of the road a bit strangely. A little while later I realised that they probably saw someone dressed in black suddenly emerge from the entrance to the golf club and start running - probably looked a bit suspicious!
Tuesday - Took advantage of the in laws looking after the two boys to get in 8 very hilly miles which was a bit of a shock to the system after the pancake flat old railroad that I've gotten used to. Enjoyed it but realised that I lost the remote for my car which must have fallen off my keys somewhere. I had visions of driving back with my alarm beeping incessantly but fortunately it stopped as soon as I put the keys in the ignition. Reminded me of a friend who is deaf that was driving along wonder why everybody was gesticulating at her to realise when she got to her destination that she had forgotten to turn off the alarm when she got in and had driven the whole way with her alarm going! Another freezing cold day - it took 45 mins before my hands stopped feeling like blocks of ice. Just found my running gloves so they'll be put back into service tomorrow.
The body is creaking a bit but overall it's holding up pretty well.0 -
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AuldManKing wrote: »I wear both DS Trainers & the NB 870v4 and while the NB took a while to get used to, I love them now - they are my goto long run shoe - not so much for a session.
If you are looking for a neutral runner - why the NB 870's as they are a stability shoe?
I agree with the wave riders - I also bought a pair and sent them back as they didn't 'fit right' around the ankle (I bought them in a shop and had tried them on).
It's around the midfoot that the wave riders don't fit me very well. They were better on their second outing but still not good enough for anything other than a short recovery run.
I thought I'd try the 870's because they were described as a mild stability shoe and I know that I do move around a fair bit to the point where AK and other running shops would recommend a stability shoe. I decide a while back to stick to neutral only and should have stuck to that. Hopefully I've learned my lesson this time.
I've just received the Mizuno Wave Ultima 6 (I had the 7 before) and it seems comfortably enough if a little chunky.0 -
I'm well overdue an update at this stage! Mostly because I've been away skiing. I'm going to break this down into two posts I think.
I don't remember many details of the individual runs but I do remember being pretty wiped and totally ready for a down week. Ideally it would have been a week later to fit in with going skiing but doing another 'up' week would have just been inviting illness/injury. I did consider front loading the week as I was leaving on the Saturday but my legs made it very clear that wasn't going to happen.
Monday 22nd - 3.5
Tuesday 23rd - 7.1
Wednesday 24th - 4.9 - I have been doing back to back longer runs at the weekends and I thought that I might be able to get away with doing it midweek instead but the body just wasn't up for it so I cut it short.
Thursday 25th - 7.1
Friday 26th - 3.7
Saturday 27th - 1.8 - I struggle to get loose enough to run early in the morning but I didn't think that I would get out for a run that evening so I took 10 mins or so out and did a quick run - 6:26 pace so reasonably quick for me at the moment.
Sunday 28th - Day 1 of skiing. I've been paired with someone who can definitely ski but who goes at a pace that I find very straightforward. Afer we get back I ask one of the hotel owners where I can run. Some comedy ensues as her English is at about the same level as my German but my running clothes give a good hint as to what I want to do and after a few hand signals I work out that there's a path by the river which is about 5 miles long if I take a left turn when I reach it. I take said left turn but less than a mile the path is blocked off for some kind of building work. With the river to my right and the main road to my left there's nothing for it but to find out what was in the opposite direction. 2 miles later I ran out of path as I arrived at the edge of the Salzach river. 2 miles is enough though and I go back and forth until I get to 9.6 miles. Surprisingly I realised that it's warmer here than it was in Liverpool and I could easily have worn shorts (if I had brought any).
A total of 37.7 miles for the week which I'm happy enough with.0 -
Monday 29th - 3.6 – Fitting in with the warmth I noticed the previous evening the snow was a bit slushy and the person that I was guiding had gone off with an instructor to improve their turns so I help to guide my wife. Unfortunately whilst waiting for a slope to clear someone skis over the back of the skis of the person that I’m guiding for the week and they have a minor but awkward fall which results in being brought off the mountain on a skidoo and to the hospital. Fortunately there’s nothing serious wrong but she’s put out of action for a few days.
Tues 30th - 4 – It snowed overnight and the temperature has gone back to what you might expect in February up the Austrian mountains. The skiing is a bit more robust as my wife wanted to work on technical stuff and while I’m told that I ski reasonably well I haven’t a clue how to instruct people on improving their skiing. I headed off with a few of the more adventurous skiers acting as sweeper to pick up anyone left behind. A very straightforward job! My legs were pretty heavy so I just did the 4 miles.
Wednesday - 4 - Much better skiing as there's a layer of powder above the ice now. I was back with my wife and others this day. She really enjoyed the challenge of getting down a slightly slushy steep slope but it was hard work and my legs still heavy that evening so again I left it at just 4.
Thursday - Streak broken - The day started off really well. It had snowed through the night and the skiing was just fantastic although many of the blind/VI skiers struggled with the different environment. I got a tip to lean back a little to negotiate powder and it worked a treat although my quads were quickly killing me. I was skiing with the more adventurous skiers again but I bumped into my wife who wasn't feeling great so I accompanied her back to the gondola's where she headed for home with an instructor who wasn't enjoying the very snowy conditions and had decided to pack it in for the day. After dropping her off I skied for around for an hour in search of the others without finding them but enjoyed the great conditions. It wasn’t long though before I start feeling a bit off though and head back towards the gondola's myself.
My throat quickly got sore enough that even talking was painful. Someone gave me some strepsils but 3 of them had no impact so I headed to the pharmacy who quickly directed me to the doctor who took one look at my throat and prescribed antibiotics. It was astonishing just how quickly I went from feeling fine to just wanting to curl up in a ball and die
. I went to bed for 24 hrs and ate nothing other than pills until the following night. I did consider seeing if I could jog a mile but the short walk to the pharmacy and doctor told me that it would just be stupid. I had resolved to be a bit stupid in pursuit of my goal to run at least a mile every day this year but I wasn’t prepared to be stupid enough it seems.
Friday was spent in bed. I eventually surfaced in the evening and as it was the last night I headed over to the bar for an hour or so. I was in bed by 10:30 though which is totally unlike me.
Saturday was travel day and I was thankfully beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Swallowing was beginning to be feasible without huge discomfort.
Sunday I could probably have run and would have if my streak was still intact but on this occasion I decided to give it a rest for one more day.
Monday – 1.7 – I was feeling much better by this stage but still a bit weak and 1.7 was as much as I could do. Even though it has only been 4 days it’s almost like my body has forgotten how to run.
Tuesday – 1.7 around marine lake. I slightly misjudged the tide and got a bit wet. I was definitely getting stronger and felt able for more but I was still feeling pretty stiff and un-coordinated. I’m doing a squat matrix and myrtle routine most days and this was helping with co-ordination.
Wednesday – 4.5 – Time to lengthen it out a little so back onto the Wirral way and it went absolutely fine.
Thursday – 7.7 – Felt great today, first time that I’ve been normal since I fell ill. This was done at a relatively quick 7:47 pace. I noticed that my posture has gotten pretty poor so something to keep working on
Friday – 4.6 – Back to a normal pace and it feels like I’m back to normal.0 -
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Nearly 4 weeks since my last update
On reflecting on my last post and aquinn's timely comment added to a pretty high resting heart rate I decided to take a step back. For all that I didn't think that I should have been run down I clearly was. I have a few theories as to why but I'll not bore you with them.
As sometimes happens the lack of running lead to a general stiffening up of my body and an old rugby injury flared up again which leads to all kinds of loss of spinal mobility. The first physio that I saw was a total waste of space but the second guy really knows his stuff (used to play football with John Aldridge at Tranmere) and really got to work on it yesterday.
There's still a lot of work to do but I felt miles better this morning and did my first run in about a month. 1.4 miles at about 7:30 pace - it's a start!0 -
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Well overdue an update again
25th May was 6 miles in a bit less than 50 mins that included a bit of unplanned marathon pace as I experimented with a shorter stride.
26th May was a more sedate 5.5 miles also in 50 mins
27th May was my first hill session. These were very short hill sprints. I warmed up for a couple of miles out to a reasonably steep hill. A busy road which wasn't ideal but it worked. I ran the first one using my watch and from then on just ran from one point to where I ended the first one. It was quite a lot of fun to run fast uphill but I was a bit surprised to find that I had used up all of my fast twitch energy by the time of the last one as I could feel the muscles just not recruiting properly.
28th May - 29 min recovery run
29th May - 11.1 miles in 98 and a half minutes. 50 mins out and a bit quicker back
39.6 miles for the week which with the addition of the two sessions for the week was exactly where I wanted it.
Week beginning 30th May
Monday - 28 min recovery run
Tuesday - 5* 3 mins with first one too fast again (6:11, 6:39, 6:42, 6:31, 6:33)
Wednesday - I ended up doing a hilly marathon pace effort type run today as my time was limited. 6 miles
Thursday - Easy 6.4 miles
Friday - Long hills - 8*30 seconds. I thought that I had cut this one short but looking at my garmin shows me I didn't so I must have miscounted. A really enjoyable session but my legs were feeling it towards the end.
Saturday - easy 30 mins
Sunday - 12 miles
Current week
Monday - recovery 20 mins. Legs were beginning to feel the accumulated fatigue
Tuesday - 4* 4mins (6:33, 6:28, 6:37, 6:34). I wanted to try and make sure that the first rep wasn't too hard but I may have overdone it and I ended up with a session that's fine but a bit short of what I think that I should be hitting
Wednesday - Ran an unplanned race today but the report will have to wait for tomorrow.0 -
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So I felt fine if a little tired after the race. I let the following day get away from me though and ended up as a day off.
Friday was 3 easy
Saturday was 5 easy.
Sunday I started to realise that a hip niggle was beginning to get to me. I'd had it for a week or 10 days at that stage following a slightly over aggressive stretching session and it was typically bothersome for the first mile or so and then would settle down but it started annoying me just walking around the house.
I took the Sunday and the Monday off trying to work out what was causing it. Experimenting going up and down stairs I started to realise that I wasn't using my glutes and was overstriding on my right side again.
Tuesday - 5 niggle free miles on a new route put the spring back in my step.
Wednesday - 6 easy
Thursday - 6.8 easy
Friday - 2.7 incl. 6 hill sprints. A double sports day at school limited my time for this and I only took 2 instead of the recommended 4 minutes rest between reps. Reasonable effort nonetheless.
Saturday - My wife is away in Galway at the moment but we were going to my in-laws uncle's 95th birthday party and the in-laws kindly suggested that I head over early and they'd look after the boys while I went for a run. 5.2 miles in 45 mins.
So, last week ended up at just 21.3 miles but my hip is 90% ok now so I'm hopeful that I've managed to avoid any serious problems and I'm already at 26.2 for this week. Back into the 40's next week and continuing with 2 sessions a week is the plan.0 -
It seems like the gaps between my updates are getting longer. It's not intentional, I just don't plan updates so when I'm busy this gets the heave ho. Anyway, training continues on. I had planned to do a 5 mile race next Wednesday but it turns out that it's now closed to entries so I feel like a bit of an idiot for not entering. I'll try to find a 10k race over the next couple of weeks instead.
Sunday 19th June - 5.9 miles in 48:47 to make 32.2 miles for the week
Monday 20th June - 3.3 miles in 29:07
Tuesday 21st June - 6.9 miles in 54:06 incl. 5*4mins with the first 4 @6:30 pace and the last @ 6:00 pace
Wednesday 22nd June - 6.8 in 59:13
Thursday 23rd June - 7.9 in 74:22. Met up with one of the other Dad's for this who showed me his regular (pretty hilly) route around the town. I was surprised at how fast he went but I think that he might have been showing off a little as when I looked him up on Strava later I saw he had 4 segment PB's for the run
. Nice to run with someone even if the narrowness of the path meant that I was running behind him most of the time
Friday 24th June - 3.1 in 28:03. Proper recovery run after the hills of yesterday.
Saturday 25th June - 5 miles in 43:07
Sunday 26th June - 13 miles in 1:46:37 - actually a touch further as I forgot to switch the GPS on. I did this out and back on the promenade which is nice but exposed and is hard work running back into which is always a stiff breeze (at least so far).
46.4 miles for the week
Further update(s) to follow!0 -
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Nice - what are you training for?
More training
I jest a little but the first half of this year has been about building my capacity to train. When I looked back at the last few years I realised that I had gotten into a pattern of training reasonably hard to get back to the level I was at previously, getting injured, training hard to get back to the level I was at previously, getting injured.....
I'm pretty sure that I've never actually run 1,000 miles in a calendar year before which was a surprising insight so this year has been about building consistency and the ability to train at a higher level.
Not having a race to focus on has also given me the opportunity to learn a bit more about what I need. The biggest insight here is that I actually need to do some form of speedwork at least once a fortnight or my stride starts getting very messy very quickly.
That said, I have got DCM in mind which is one of the reasons I've been upping the longer runs over the past few weeks. If come the 8th of August I feel that I can handle the 12 week P&D 55-70 plan with a few minor modifications I'll give it a whirl. The moment it starts feeling like I'm pushing myself towards injury I'll pull back though so I don't give myself more than a 50/50 chance of making it there.0 -
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Well overdue a bit of a catchup here.
My last entry finished up with the 10k race that I had ran and I remember thinking the next day that if I had to go and run 17 miles (ala P&D) I'd make a much better fist of it than I would have been able to when I ran my previous PB - I'm really not sure that I could have managed 17 though. Instead I ran 3.3.
Tuesday - Friday (2nd to 5th August) - I was in Paris with the family so running took a backseat as we toured the boulevards of Paris and climbed up the 704 steps to the 2nd floor of the Eiffel tower (as well as down the 50 or so to the sewers which the boys wanted to see..., until they got in and realised it stank!).
We got a Paris pass, a little pricey maybe but we made full use of it and went to a few places such as the chocolate museum where we wouldn't have gone otherwise.
As is my custom I relaxed my usual dietary rules on holidays and indulged in the pain au chocolat's as well as a few other things resulting in a reading of 84.5 kgs when I got back.
I did run every day but 3, 3.1, 3 and 5.2 was just about keeping me ticking over a bit. I did 5.5 and 13.1 at the weekend to give me 36.2 for the week.
Week 2 of August - Week 1 of marathon training - I'm following P&D's 12 week 55-70 plan with a few modifications (some planned some not). The main one is that I'm doing recovery runs as recovery runs which means that I'm not fussed if I only do 2 or 3 miles instead of the prescribed 5.
Mondays are a rest day on this plan although I'm signing up for a hot yoga class to try and retrieve a little bit of flexibility.
Tuesday - Plan was 8 + strides. I did the 8 @ 8:17 but had to abandon the strides. Flew back to Bray with the family to see my parents.
Wednesday - 10.5 @ 8:08 - I remember Krusty posting a few routes a long time ago so decided to explore one of these out the back of Shankill. Good for me because it was a little lumpy and almost all of my running recently has been on pancake flat routes
Thursday - 2.9 recovery @ 8:49
Friday - 12.5 @ 8:37 - Over the cliff to Greystones and back on the roads. The cliff walk remains my favourite place to run.
Saturday - 3 recovery
Sunday - 14.9 supposedly with 8 @ marathon pace but it was pretty lumpy and a lot downhill so I just went for a decent effort. On reflection I probably could have pushed a little harder. This was the run that saw me clear 1,000 miles for the year.
Total: 51.9 miles for the week0 -
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If I was overdue an update the last time I'm not sure how you would describe it now. I haven't had any injuries but I noticed that for various (mostly valid) reasons I wasn't getting in the midweek back to back MLR's that P&D prescribes. I also wasn't generally happy about the direction that my training was going in. In particular my attempts at marathon pace and tempo's were pretty hopeless.
After grappling with the problem for a few days I decided that the best way for me to approach it was to work from the bottom up so I tore up my P&D schedule and started making it up by myself. I don't necessarily recommend this approach - I'm running a serious risk of just blowing up in Dublin but I'm happy to take it because I wouldn't have been happy to run 3:20'ish which is what I think that I was heading for.
So I've inserted a session once a week which started at quarter miles and gets progressively longer. In an ideal world I'll get a MLR including a few marathon pace miles in as well as a long run. I had planned alternating a long run with back to backs at the weekend but my first effort reminded me that they don't work for me so back to the long runs again.
15 - 21 August
I took Monday off because that's what P&D said - in retrospect I should have continued running every day. Tuesday was my first mix up with the schedule. I was still in Bray at that stage and convinced myself that I had to do 9 miles with strides so I did about 8.5 with a couple of strides (should have done more) but in reality this should have been the first of my back to back MLR's. Wednesday - 12@7:58. Thursday - 2.7 tortoise like. Friday was my first attempt at tempo - didn't work out at all averaging about 7:10 for the tempo miles - 8.7 @ 7:36. Saturday was 3 recovery and Sunday was 17 @ 8:13 along the old railway path. 52.3 miles for that week and I was happy enough even if the tempo hadn't worked out and I had made a mistake on the back to back MLR's.
22nd - 28th August
Monday I took off again as per the schedule. On Tuesday I was back in Bray to bring the boys back to Liverpool and took the time to go on the cliff walk again - I remember thinking as I ran along that this was good for the soul. It's just such a beautiful place to run - 9@8:27. Wednesday and Thursday had to be written off for family reasons - can't remember exactly why - Thursday might have been the day we brought the boys to Alton Towers. Friday - 12.4@8:17. Saturday 3.38 recovery. Sunday was supposed to include some marathon pace miles but after a reasonable start I just never got into a groove and drifted well off the pace - 17@7:50 was the end result.
42.4 miles for the week and I was starting to get worried about my ability to hit marathon and tempo paces.
29th August - 4th September
Monday - 2.2 recovery - tentative steps towards a change as I decide to aim to run every day again. Tuesday - 11.5 hilly miles where I got lost at least twice exploring the local area. One path ended in a field with barbed wire preventing people from climbing over the gate - fortunately there was enough space to go underneath it. Wednesday off - can't remember why. Thursday 13.8 @ 8:50 - more exploring as I found the wirral circular path and found myself running past the Typhoo factory and an industrial bakery from which there were some pretty enticing smells wafting over. Friday off again. Saturday 6.2 easy and Sunday saw my first 20 of the year @ 8:48 pace. It brought me exactly to a preserved railway station which I took a few minutes to look around. They've left the booking office more or less as it was 60 years ago when it shut to passengers.
53.8 miles for the week - time for a new plan.
5th to 11th September
Monday off. Tuesday - First session. I really didn't know how this one was going to go. I thought about 24*quarter mile - 90s recovery. Ended up with 19 as my legs let me know that they had had enough. Went off way too fast for the first one ending up at 76 seconds. Settled down a bit afterwards - there was a strong wind blowing which meant that I was cruising the ones with the wind and working a bit harder into the wind. No prizes for guessing which ones were which! 76, 85, 86, 87, 91, 85, 94, 85, 91, 86, 95, 83, 91, 87, 85, 94, 91, 84, 101. I was happy with the session overall averaging about 88.5 seconds a quarter. Wednesday - 2.3 recovery, Thursday was supposed to be a few miles at marathon pace but the legs weren't ready so I just ran steady instead - 10.3 @ 8:08. Friday 4.6 easy. Saturday and Sunday was an attempt at back to back 2 hour runs as I think that they're excellent for developing endurance - not for me though as I struggled badly on the 2nd one. 14 @ 8:12 and 13 @ 9:19.
55.8 miles for the week with one good session.
12 - 18 September
I needed one easyish week between now and the taper and with a half marathon already entered for the end of the week I decided to make it this week and do a mini-taper.
Monday - 2.3 easy. Tuesday - 8 * half miles aiming for 3:00 per interval. I found myself a relatively sheltered spot for this one down by a working trainline. Happy with these as they came in at: 2:55 (took off too quickly again but settled down earlier), 2:51, 2:59, 2:59, 3:02, 2:58, 3:02, 3:03 for an average of 2:59. The legs were getting tired but I think that I could have done another 2 if I had needed to. Wednesday - 3.2 recovery, Thursday 13.9 @ 8:30. Friday 4.2 easy. Saturday off. Sunday - race.
English half marathon
I had entered this race a few weeks previously when I realised that I was struggling with marathon pace with a view to doing the 10@marathon pace in the P&D schedule. Although I had abandoned the schedule it seemed like a good plan to stick with. I had 1:35 in mind as a time that I would be happy with with 1:32/33 as something I'd get on a good day.
Conditions were near perfect. The course was reasonably flat with a profile that saw us climb 200ft over the first 7 or 8 miles. I arrived in plenty of time which was helpful as I hadn't a clue where to go. My plan to go to the car park specified in the race instructions had to be abandoned as the roads were cordoned off but after a little meandering I saw another car park on a side street so tucked in behind them. I got changed and joined a couple of others with the intention of tacking on to them to find my way to the start (never been in Warrington before) only to find that they too were relying on google maps. After a couple of false starts we found our way and the setup was perfect so I dumped my bag, did a short warm up and was able to hop in near the front of the race. I had decided to run the race to heart rate and was relieved to discover that the good scrub I had given my HRM strap the night before had gotten rid of the outlandish readings I had been seeing. The effects of the mini-taper kicked in as the first slightly downhill mile came in 6:52 (132). Miles of 7:10 (146) and 7:30 (147) followed as I finished the 3 steady miles (target of 145 HR) and moved into the marathon pace section. I had targeted 155 as a heart rate that was reasonable for marathon pace but when I went towards it I felt like I would have had to work a little harder than I wanted to so let it stay a little lower. Miles 4 - 8 came in at: 6:59 (154), 7:17 (151), 6:50 (151), 7:02 (152) & 6:45 (151) with the 8th mile being net downhill. I kept myself occupied by counting the number of people I passed (about 60 in total) and was amused by a guy playing Rocky music who seemed to decide to race me, surging as I went past him a couple of times. Garmin says that mile 9 included 111 ft. of downhill and it showed as that came in at 6:26 (150). At this stage I realised that I was working a little harder than I should be for marathon pace and considered upping the pace to finish sub 1:30 but sense prevailed although my HRM had had enough and reverted to outlandish readings again. Miles 10 (6:45) & 11 (6:53) ticked by before we went through the Warrington Wolves stadium which confused the garmin which recorded miles 12 and 13 as 7:03 and 7:14 respectively. I crossed the line with a chip time of 1:30:56 and a big smile. I ran a few miles to warm down and headed home.
On reflection I learned a few things from the race. 155 HR is too ambitious for me right now for a marathon. I'll probably head out at 150 maximum for the first half at least and I'll plan to ease into that effort level. Condition permitting 3:10 seems a possibility. I have to work on strengthening my hips. They were what did for me the last time I ran a marathon 5 and a half years ago and although they held up for the half I don't think that I would have been able to do a full marathon without them impacting my ability to run.
48.3 miles for the week and the priceless knowledge that if all goes well a decent PB (currently 3:24 from DCM 2010) is on the cards.0 -
September 19th - 25th
Monday - 3@10:02. Copped on after about a half mile of easy running and turned it into a proper recovery run. Just about achieved my goal of going slower than 10 min miles.
Tuesday - 4.7 easy
Wednesday - 8 easy
Thursday - I pushed the session out a day to allow for recovery from the half. I gave it a reasonable go but in truth I was off the pace and effort levels I expect. I did this with one of the school Dad's and we both set off like idiots at 5 min mile pace. The wind picked up and up as the session went on and we finished into what felt like a gale force wind (but in reality was probably a 10mph breeze). The session was 5*1 mile and the splits were (no prizes for guessing which ones went into the wind!) 6:03, 6:08, 6:54, 5:59, 7:00. I was disappointed but realistically it wasn't a bad session.
Friday and Saturday were two easy days of 5.4 and 3.1
Sunday was my 2nd 20 miler of this campaign. I ran the same route as the first one out along the old railway track with a view to running it a bit harder this time. Job done as I averaged 8:28 compared to 8:48 for the 20 miles although it was hard work towards the end. I'll be moving these on to the seafront from now on which risks wind but the surface is much more like Dublin.
Debating which shoe to wear for Dublin. I bought some Mizuno wave legend 4's a few weeks ago and they're fine but subsequently bought a pair of Mizuno sparks with a view to having a cheap pair for recovery runs and it turns out that they suit pretty well. There's a bit less forefoot cushioning than the Legend which is what is giving me doubts. I'll wear them on a couple more long runs to see if I can handle them. They're also 25 grams lighter (yes, I weighed them) and cost me only £30.
55.2 miles for the week.0 -
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5/5/10/12mins today plus the realisation that if I up the elevation on the treadmill it'll help with glute recruitment. Also, belly breathing helps!
The silver lining to the cloud of this injury is that I haven't been overly bothered by the chest cold that I picked up while I was back in Bray last weekend for my parents 40th wedding anniversary. I'm guessing that I picked it on the plane and it has hit my wife badly but (possibly because of my dramatically reduced training load) my body has handled it pretty well so far. It should be well gone by Sunday week and I'm taking the boat over next week so no airplane filtration systems to endure! Still thinking about a hazmat suit though!
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