"It's what you do next that counts"

Letyourselfgo

Friday - 5k again
Saturday - 9 miles of cycling, strength work in the middle and given that I was already soaked I decided to get the run done, 4 miles in total at 8'20 pace.

Feeling good and the weight is falling off. I've tried many times before to lose weight but it's always a big effort but not this timeand I reckon it's down to 3 things.
1. Running 5/6 days a week
2. Strength training 2/3 times a week
3. Healthy eating and the use of a food diary.

Letyourselfgo

I was spent yesterday. 9 mile cycle and for a lot of the day I was a guinea pig in the gym for peoples practical exams, so had no energy for a proper run.

So I was eager to get out today and got 5.5 miles done at 8'15 pace and it felt great. The strength training has definitely helped with running up hills as I found it handy enough and this has always been a huge weakness of mine.

I have an entry for Raheny but I think it's just come a bit too early so might leave it.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/433149005

Chivito550

Good work on the progress. But are there any more faster sessions in the pipeline?

Letyourselfgo

Chivito550 wrote: »

Good work on the progress. But are there any more faster sessions in the pipeline?

They've been lacking alright. I tried 9x100m strides during a 5 miler last week and I felt I'm just not ready for fast work yet. I wanted to give myself another couple of weeks, which will mean starting next week and I'm definitely not shying away from it, just want to do it right.

Up early this morning for a very slow 5 miler. My body never really woke up for this but glad I have it done.

Weighed in yesterday and I'm 7 pounds down in total.

dna_leri

Letyourselfgo wrote: »

They've been lacking alright. I tried 9x100m strides during a 5 miler last week and I felt I'm just not ready for fast work yet. I wanted to give myself another couple of weeks, which will mean starting next week and I'm definitely not shying away from it, just want to do it right.

Up early this morning for a very slow 5 miler. My body never really woke up for this but glad I have it done.

Weighed in yesterday and I'm 7 pounds down in total.

Well done on the weight loss, that will make a difference.

I would recommend starting the strides this week. They will be tough whenever you start. Do 2 or 4, what ever you feel up to. Build them up gradually.

pistol_75

Letyourselfgo wrote: »

I have an entry for Raheny but I think it's just come a bit too early so might leave it.

Good to see you back at it. If you have the entry would you not just run it anyway so see where you are now and have something to compare against?

ecoli

Letyourselfgo wrote: »

I have an entry for Raheny but I think it's just come a bit too early so might leave it.

Personally I reckon it would be no harm in running as just a hard effort. Your body is prepared to cope with running that distance as you have been doing it in training and even though you you are still just building slowly the odd hard effort like that will boost you aerobic fitness.

Just remember though its a training run rather than a race and it wont negatively affect you mentally (I can understand where you are coming from with regards thinking it is not the best option but as long as you don't build it up to be anything more than a training session it won't knock you)

Running a tempo effort in a race can make it feel easy and as such can give you mental boost sometimes needed to kick on with training

Letyourselfgo

Yous' are making a good case for it, damn you
and it would be good to know where I'm at. Right I'll give it some serious thought over the next couple of runs and see how I'm feeling.

theboyblunder

+1, what ecoli said.

Just stay away from him on the day in case he is still a viral incubus

ecoli

theboyblunder wrote: »

+1, what ecoli said.

Just stay away from him on the day in case he is still a viral incubus

Unfortunately for you and the SB clan I am back 100% so should be fighting fit come Sunday Viral free

Letyourselfgo

dna_leri wrote: »

I would recommend starting the strides this week. They will be tough whenever you start. Do 2 or 4, what ever you feel up to. Build them up gradually.

5k run tonight and finished it off with 3x80m fast strides. I felt great during these, plan was to run quick till my form failed so 80m. I could definitely do with a few pointers from someone ...ahem... ecoli felt I was inthe air way too long.

Weights session last night also, this has developed into
3(6-8 reps) of the following
Military press
Deadlift
Squat
Bench press

Flirting with the 5x5 stronglifts though.

ecoli

Letyourselfgo wrote: »

5k run tonight and finished it off with 3x80m fast strides. I felt great during these, plan was to run quick till my form failed so 80m. I could definitely do with a few pointers from someone ...ahem... ecoli felt I was inthe air way too long.

Weights session last night also, this has developed into
3(6-8 reps) of the following
Military press
Deadlift
Squat
Bench press

Flirting with the 5x5 stronglifts though.

You know where I lurk on a Tuesday and Thursday

With the strong lifts personally I would think you are better off with a general overall endurance routine until you build up strength and technique. 5x5 is a high intensity one and hard enough to try and manage that and building up your running especially with the incorporation of sessions to come yet.

The squats and deadlifts will pay huge dividends here and I have found them working wonders for me personally and no harm to throw in cleans also.

Letyourselfgo

Day off yesterday.
Today - 6.5 miles with a 6'50 mile in the middle, felt great and could have carried on but going to bottle some of that instead.

Definitely not racing Sunday. I feel good but It's just too early in the comeback, I'm not strong enough for a race yet, so sticking to the end of Feb and I'm fairly sure by then the kids in the club that race the park runs will be behind me plus it's relay day for the juveniles on the 22nd so none of them will be there

Letyourselfgo

5.8 miles this morning. It was tough running into the wind but thankful to have missed the hailstones.

Letyourselfgo

We had dinner with freinds on Saturday and man did I pig out. The starter was a cocktail sausage dipped in melted cheese and surrounded first by spicy peppers and then by streaky bacon, delicious, so much so I had 7 of them :eek:
Didn't like the main course much but again went crazy on dessert.

I didn't mind eating so much as you gotta enjoy yourself as well, problem in the past was I was enjoying my food far too much on my tolberone.

Still a pound down for last week.

Sunday
5k fartlek in the rain and wind, loads of little bursts from 5-12 seconds
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/436509151

Monday
Day off

Today
3 miles on the treadmill, speed was easy but the aim was about keeping the cadence high (180+), I've done a few of these runs already and they feel great and make the time go by quicker.
Followed the run with stregth training.
I've a free hour on Tuesdays now from 6-7 while the little one throws her hat at the high jump, so will use this time for a track session, 200s tonight just to see how I go. Ecoli put up the following so will digest it and make some plans for the future

ecoli wrote: »

I think if you are going to do a 30/35 mpw style training you are probably best off concentrating on 5k training for now to build up your aerobic base before you go into specific training as 35 mpw is not a huge amount to work with and as such your overall intensity on a daily basis will have to be pretty high to get the best bang for your buck without overcooking it and frying yourself before you get into proper race fitness. I think dna eluded to this in his review of indoors and the importance of endurance going into race specific work so my advice would be as follows

1) Next few months build strength and aerobic power this means Tempo's and CV reps (600s-1200s I think probably be the most suitable). Off such low mileage I would try to use longer aerobic threshold tempos (at around MP) as a replacement for the traditional long run (5-7 miles), Supplement this with steady longs runs (8-10 miles). It is not uncommon for 800m runners to do these longer style workouts, Joe Vigil (if you can get his book definitely worth a read) has used these to great effect with some of his runners and if you look at Brenda Martinez over the last 18 months it is not uncommon to see 10 mile tempo's pop up in here winter training

2) Turnover is something which takes practice. You should be doing something atleast once a week to work on turnover. During your endurance work these can be as simple as a lactic strides (after run or 6-8* 80-100m). These should not be hard and the recoveries in between should be sufficient that these do not become a session

3) Ancillary work is crucial - off such low mileage you will need to be making up the effort elsewhere and this is where the ancillary work comes in - weights and low intensity plyometrics should become a part of your overall weekly routine. Introduce these slowly to allow your body to adapt but stressing the CNS will be of huge value when it comes to speed development sessions in the season and also form

4) Keep your runs short but steady - off that low mileage I would say you would get a better bang for your buck running short doubles rather than longer singles. Running 2*4 milers at a steady pace (just slower than MP) will yield better aerobic returns for a low mileage 800m runner than one slower 8 mile run. The shorter runs means that your body should recover that bit better while being able to achieve high intensity but this element of training is one that will come into play more as you get closer to your season.

Once you get into your season you should aim to have one race pace session every week with a supplementary session (Over distance/ Under distance on alternating weeks). Turnover work can be counted as a third session of the week but again aim to try and keep these alactic.

morceli

Good to see your going well, a few months at it and you will be flying. Is the plan for the Graded leagues in the summer, will you be doing any races over 1500 or 400's?

Letyourselfgo

morceli wrote: »

Good to see your going well, a few months at it and you will be flying. Is the plan for the Graded leagues in the summer, will you be doing any races over 1500 or 400's?

Thanks for that, yeah feeling good.
Yep graded meets for sure. 800m would be the main thing but I would like to get under 5 for the 1500m as well. I like the idea of the 400 but not sure.

You seem to be very consistent yourself at the moment. What are your plans? and how is the weight loss going?

morceli

Letyourselfgo wrote: »

Thanks for that, yeah feeling good.
Yep graded meets for sure. 800m would be the main thing but I would like to get under 5 for the 1500m as well. I like the idea of the 400 but not sure.

You seem to be very consistent yourself at the moment. What are your plans? and how is the weight loss going?

Yep taking it very easy and not setting any plans at all for the next 3 months, just to run 6 days a week and eat well, will do the odd imra run in place of my long runs just for a bit of fun. The Last 2 week dropped 7lbs so not bad, but thats coming from a very fat base. I hope come the summer I can do a few 5ks maybe 3ks if all goes well. But the training is the main thing now, not going to worry about races.

Letyourselfgo

morceli wrote: »

Yep taking it very easy and not setting any plans at all for the next 3 months, just to run 6 days a week and eat well, will do the odd imra run in place of my long runs just for a bit of fun. The Last 2 week dropped 7lbs so not bad, but thats coming from a very fat base. I hope come the summer I can do a few 5ks maybe 3ks if all goes well. But the training is the main thing now, not going to worry about races.

Great stuff on the weight loss. Good idea not setting any goals yet, I just find I'm way too impatient

Letyourselfgo

Letyourselfgo wrote: »

I've a free hour on Tuesdays now from 6-7 while the little one throws her hat at the high jump, so will use this time for a track session, 200s tonight just to see how I go.

I was late getting to the track and I start coaching the juveniles from 6:50. So I'd about 35 minutes which would give me plenty time to clean up after.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/437228649

Warmed up by running 3 laps and then did the drills I give the kids, there hard. Fast tippy toes, high kness, skip and goose, didn't do the clap.
4x200m with a walk of 200 to recover.
Ran 34-33-33-34
Before I knew the split I thought I was flying and was close to 30, shows you what I know. All reps were consistent and I held my form well except for the last 50m of the last rep.
Cooled down with another 3 laps.

Won't do this session for a while but I'll do plenty of strides of 80-100m from here on in and might start going to the marlay loop for 1k sessions again and I noticed on strava someone beat my time for that loop

Chivito550

Letyourselfgo wrote: »

I was late getting to the track and I start coaching the juveniles from 6:50. So I'd about 35 minutes which would give me plenty time to clean up after.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/437228649

Warmed up by running 3 laps and then did the drills I give the kids, there hard. Fast tippy toes, high kness, skip and goose, didn't do the clap.
4x200m with a walk of 200 to recover.
Ran 34-33-33-34
Before I knew the split I thought I was flying and was close to 30, shows you what I know. All reps were consistent and I held my form well except for the last 50m of the last rep.
Cooled down with another 3 laps.

Won't do this session for a while but I'll do plenty of strides of 80-100m from here on in and might start going to the marlay loop for 1k sessions again and I noticed on strava someone beat my time for that loop

Great work. Nice and consistent those splits are. It's a slow build up to being able to do twice as many reps with less than half the recovery. Next time out try the same session again but with a 100m walk, 100m jog recovery.

What I don't understand is doing that session and then opting to stop it immediately. This is exactly the type of stuff that is needed. Getting used to running at a sub 2:20 pace. You can build strength, endurance and speed all at once. They aren't mutually exclusive.

Might be useful to find a coach in the club. Having too many advisors can be a bad thing.

RayCun

Letyourselfgo wrote: »

skip and goose,the clap.

??

Letyourselfgo

RayCun wrote: »

??

Goose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_rNFrZIi24

High Skip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTy62Kx9mvQ

Clap
This guy is doing it too slow and his arms are going out too far.
The kids find this the hardest but the improvements have been huge over time. When they get tired they end up hunching over so probably only cover 10m correctly, now though a lot of them are up to 50m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCgw5UfBo9o

They do drills for about 15 minutes at the start of every session. Before they start their drills though we do stuff on the spot high knees, butt kicks, jumping, drill for oil (loosen hips) and clap on the spot before every training session, can't find a tippy toe vid and we've started doing Karaoke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tAdcq_64E

RayCun

aah, we just call that toe pokes or straight legs
I wouldn't do the clapping one, there'd be too much messing, their form would go completely
The older ones do the karaoke with high knees as in the vid, but for the younger group its just swivel hips

Letyourselfgo

RayCun wrote: »

I wouldn't do the clapping one, there'd be too much messing, their form would go completely

Lots of messing at first but when doing it on the spot I started playing a game of last runner standing, if you get too slow, hunch over or stop, you're out. I think it's a good one as it helps them to maintain their form longer...well I think so, no real evidence to back that up bar visual observation

Letyourselfgo

5 miles nice and slow, no niggles from last night but definitely didn't want to go any faster. Had off the ball for company, great run.

Letyourselfgo

5.8 miles at a nice pace, not quite easy but close. Slowed down for the last one in particular, legs just feel good but got to remind myself to bottle it.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/437943562

Over the 100 miles as well which for me is a nice start to Jan.

Letyourselfgo

I took yesterday off as I had a twinge in my right knee, nothing too serious but just being cautious. Woke up this morning fine but just in case I decided to do my session on the treadmill.
Session was 4x6 mins with 2 min jog recovery, I was trying to hit 85% of max (170), which I did really well.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/438857236

Throughout January I kind of ran 3 days and then 1 day off, so for Feb I'm going to try for 4 days on and 1 day off.
I've drawn up a schedule for myself based on a 10 day cycle. Within those 10 days will be 4 easy days, 2 rest days, 1 long run and 3 sessions (1 under distance, 1 over and 1 hill work)

Letyourselfgo

8 miles this morning and it was tough. Not sure if it was due to the wind for the first 2.5 miles, under eating yesterday, session yesterday or the fact it's the longest I've ran in a while but glad it's over. I'll prepare better next time. Garmin went twice as well
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/439175028
Average pace was more like 9 m/m and not 7:30 and distance was over 8.

I'm now 15 pounds down in weight loss which is great but I still have an awful pouch which needs sorting.

pconn062

Well done on the weight loss, that will make some difference. More miles and a sensible diet will help shift that pouch!