The Next Chapter - Being Better Than Most People At Most Things

BeginnerRunner

A) Pause Squat:
90kg 4x6

Stiff Leg Deadlift:
90kg 4x6

C) Long Pause Bench:
120kg x2
125kg x2
130kg x2 @8
125kg 3x2

D) Touch & Go Bench:
120kg x5
125kg x5
130kg x5 @9
125kg x5

OTHER:
Pull Ups 5x5
Chin Ups 5x5

Great little session. Took about an hour. Short run planned for this evening as well. Busy day!

BeginnerRunner

5.15km @ 5m 52s avg
75% MHR avg
30m 16s

"Jaysus what's going on" - me, a km in. My HR was all over the place. Got up north of 85% even tho I was moving slow.

Came back down within a km and then dipped to low 70s and stayed there.

So strange.

Gimme a nice morning run where I only wake up about half way around any day over that.

BeginnerRunner

14.42km @ 5m 45s avg
1hr 22m
74% MHR avg

It was like running in Connemara today. Every season in an hour. Sun, hailstones, rain and breeze. Nuts.

REALLY wasn't feeling it at all today. Back to back 4am starts with the baby, LOTS of work stuff going on, and just generally beat down and tired.

Good character building workout.

Saw 94.xx on the scales today for the first time in years tho.

BeginnerRunner

7.37km @ 5m 44s avg
42m 17s
79% MHR avg

Well today suuuuuuucked but at least it's done.

Baby woke us at 4. He eventually got up about 5.30am. I was dressed and ready to run by 6.15am but it was still frosty.

Called an audible and left early for work in the thoughts that I'd get a chance to run around 9/10am when it should be thawed so I left my running gear (inc leggings) on and headed to the office. I run my own company so for the most part can wear whatever the hell I want.

Tech disaster happened. Was flat out until about 11.30am. Eventually escaped at 12.

Central locking fob in car is gone, at least the unlock button is. It's keyless entry and the little emergency key won't work.

There's a boot release button that still does work, so I climb in the back setting the alarm off.

Head to tesco to get food for lunch and dinner ahead of picking the kid up at 2pm. Sit in the car park for a while disassembling the key hoping to dislodge whatever stuck the button.

10 minutes later I have it sorted. Get some carbs and water and realise I'll still have enough time to just about get 7km in if I park outside where he's minded.

Great news. Except now it's above 5deg and I'm dressed for below zero. It was a very warm run.

Suffice to say - HR reflected all that ��

Hope y'all had more chilled runs today!

BeginnerRunner

A) Pin Squat:
110kg 3x5

High Bar Squat:
105kg 3x6

C) Deficit Deadlift:
105kg 6x4

D) Comp Bench:
100/120/130kg x1

E1) Close Grip Bench:
100kg 6x4

E2) Pull Ups:
x5, 6, 7, 8, 12

Quite a rushed session today. All done inside 52 minutes from walking in to walking out.

First time doing deficit pulls in about 2 years.

Haven’t seen a set of 12 pull ups in quite some time either. Benching about 1.5x bodyweight.

Running an easy effort 10k in about 57 minutes.

Holding on to 2x plus bodyweight squats and pulls.

Just been chipping away all year.

Apparently consistency matters.

Even got some heavy squats outta the wife today too!

Might be a cheeky 4k round trip job to SV and back tonight for a few beers.

8ish k due tomorrow afternoon.

BeginnerRunner

3.66km @ 6m 08s
22m 28s
69% MHR avg

A literal beer run (and bread, salad, rice crispies and brioche burger buns...).

I've been running 4x per week for the last month (3x per week for the 6-8 weeks before that) and am starting to build in a 5th session each week now.

The plan is to run approx. 3.5km for the next 3 weeks, then add a km every 3rd week or so up to about 6-7km. At that point I'll have probably maxed out the time I have to run in general during the week so will figure something out next year.

Until then, all I really care about is getting out, getting some miles in and making it very low stress. Still staying well away from any kind of tempo or interval work for now just because I know if the workouts stress me they won't get done, and done is better than perfect.

BeginnerRunner

8.11km @ 6m 02s avg
48m 55s
74% MHR Avg

Some decently chonky hills on the route today so HR was a bit higher than I'd like.

Km splits are mad - first one was 6m 27s next couple were about 6m 02s, and the rest were all 5m 4Xs.

For whatever reason, on my last couple of runs the first KM HR reading has been all over the gaff. Mid 80 to 90+%. No idea wtf is going on there.

BeginnerRunner

A) Squat:
125kg 4x45

Deadlift:
160kg 6x3

C) Comp Bench:
132.5kg x1 @7.5
105kg 8x5

D1) Filly Press:
15+16 3x10 e/s

D2) Inverted Row:
3x10

OTHER:
pull aparts
dead bugs


Nice little strength sesh tipped off in about an hour this morning. Got a few hours work done, took a break, few more hours of work now, first post lockdown hair cut, another hour or two of work, 5km run, then feet up.

Loooooong day but lots of mini breaks makes it feel like I'm not wokring at all.

BeginnerRunner

5.44km @ 6m 09s
33m 22s
74% MHR avg

Running late in the day continues to be analogous for "slower splits at the same HR" for me.

Lifted earlier in the day so maybe that played into it too.

Miles in the bank anyway.

BeginnerRunner

Strength Work Yesterday...

A) Larsen Press:
125kg x1 @8
120kg x5 @9
115kg 4x5

Spoto Press:
135kg x1 @8
125kg x5 @9
120kg 4x5

OTHER:
Pull Up 5x6
Chin Up 5x6

Short and sharp. Took < 40 minutes.

BeginnerRunner

Long Run Today...

18.09km @ 5m 49s avg
1hr 45m 19s
75% MHR avg

Weekly Total: 42.6km

The sun was low in the sky, the air was sharp, and we ran one of the most scenic routes around - Bray to Killiney.

About half way out on the route you hit Killiney Hill, which for non Dubs, is short - only about 900-1,000m but BRUTAL. Averages out at around a 9-10% gradient, and peaks somewhere between 17.5 and 18%. The worst part is that mid way up here's a switch back which just ruins any and all motivation or tempo.

Hadn't planned on being on it today, but we were feeling good so extended the run out a bit and paid in lactate.

Absolutely mega run regardless.

Also the longest run both in time and duration of my life ever, so pretty stoked with that!!

(...and even tho it was probably 5/6 degrees during the run, I still lost over 2kg )

Annie get your Run

Your lift days are making my eyes water....! Not at your level (or anywhere close) but it's something I was into a few years ago before the running but took over. Would love to get back to it but hard to find a decent trainer and the local gyms are full of teenagers :rolleyes:. Would you have any suggestions for good online training? I just need a refresher on form and some way to start building a program with the basic home equipment I have.

BeginnerRunner

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Your lift days are making my eyes water....! Not at your level (or anywhere close) but it's something I was into a few years ago before the running but took over. Would love to get back to it but hard to find a decent trainer and the local gyms are full of teenagers :rolleyes:. Would you have any suggestions for good online training? I just need a refresher on form and some way to start building a program with the basic home equipment I have.

To be fair at my peak I was training 15+ hours per week.

Hard to really say re: online programs, but there's a chap down in Wexford, Larry Doyle that's worth talking to https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie/

BeginnerRunner

8.11km @ 6m 00s
48m 43s
73% MHR avg

T-shirt weather run before 7am. WTF?!

Wore my new pegasus trail 2 gore-tex. Deffo feed more padded than my peg 36s.

BeginnerRunner

4.12km @ 6m 25s
26m 29s
71% MHR avg

Sh*t show of a day yesterday. Didn't get home from work until 9pm. Brought my gear with me, changed before I left the office knowing that if I was dressed to run when I pull up outside the gaff it'd be easier to go. It worked.

Right shin's a bit sore the last couple of days. Not sure if it's the peg trail 2s or the increaesd volume. Not too tender to touch, so will keep an eye on it.

"Slept" last night for about 4 hours total on our kids floor - he just wouldn't settle so am full zombie today.

Missed yesterday's strength sesh and supposed to be out for 8km today too.

I'd say I'll just ditch tomorrow's shorter run and do it then, and lift today.

Life. Fleh!

BeginnerRunner

Strength sesh from yesterday...

A) Front Squat:
110kg 6x3

Pause Off The Floor Deadlift:
130kg 5x4

C) Comp Bench:
132.5kg x1 @7
125kg x4 @8
120kg 4x4

D) Mid Grip Bench, T&G:
90kg x10
95kg x10
100kg x10 @8ish
95kg 2x10
90kg 2x10

OTHER (done as super sets with the above):
Seated DB Curl 15kg 5x10
Concentration Curl 10kg 5x15
21s 20kg 3x21

That was a really nice session. Took 80ish minutes but all felt great. Enjoying lifting 2-3x per week using longer workouts instead of more frequent shorter ones. Just feels better for my life right now.

BeginnerRunner

6.58km @ 6m 23s
42m 03s
68% MHR avg

Right shin's been a bit sore since Monday. Wore a new pair of shoes for my first 2 runs of the week so was eager to get out today in my trusty peg 36s to see if it felt better.

Felt grand all the way thru the run. Now, 2 hours later, also pain free.

I really hope it's not my new shoes

Murph_D

This is potentially an interesting log, but the title puts me off. Not seeing anything here to to suggest your approach will make you a better runner than the rest of us. Lifting weights certainly won’t do it. Not having a go, but do you have an approach to running that might be different and worthy of the log’s lofty title?

BeginnerRunner

Murph_D wrote: »

This is potentially an interesting log, but the title puts me off. Not seeing anything here to to suggest your approach will make you a better runner than the rest of us. Lifting weights certainly won’t do it. Not having a go, but do you have an approach to running that might be different and worthy of the log’s lofty title?

First post.

"PS - the log title is my goal, to be better than almost everyone at almost everything. I don't have the time or energy to dedicate to being anywhere near national caliber in lifting anymore. It's a 20+ hour per week effort that leaves you feeling like complete **** all the time. It was grand in my 20s but not in my 30s!

I'm still stronger than 99% of the population, I've rowed 2k faster than most people could touch, spent a winter learning to swim capping out at 1,000m unbroken and now want to figure out what kind of run numbers need to happen to be above average at running.

....which all sounds very arrogant and conceited, I know - but having done ok in a couple of different sports I understand and appreciate just how much work and effort goes into them, so I enjoy the idea of being able to talk with a reasonable level of proficiency across domains "

Being above average at running depends on your perspective, I guess.

BeginnerRunner

A) Larsen Press:
120kg x1 @8
105kg x8 @9
100kg 2x8

Close Grip Bench:
90kg x10
95kg x10
97.5kg x10 @8
90kg 4x10

OTHER - done as supersets:
pull ups 5x6
chin ups 5x6

Short on time today so quick little 50min sesh. No time for lower body work

Easy 10k planned for tomorrow. Had to push the weekend long run back to Wednesday as both myself and run buddy are up to our ears finishing off for xmas. It'll be a nice way to cap off the pre xmas period tho.

BeginnerRunner

11.2km @ 5m 55s
1hr 6min
75% MHR avg

Weekly Total: 30.09km

A lot less mileage this week than last. Had some shin pain earlier in the week. Not sure if it was down to an 18km jaunt last Saturday, or 2 days in new shoes.

Have done 6ish and 11ish k in my old shoes since with no probs, will try a 5-6km run in the new ones Monday and see what happens.

Today's run was grand. Felt a bit harder than normal at that pace but it's been a wild few days.

Should get a couple of runs and a couple of lifts in before xmas anyway.

BeginnerRunner

5.08km @ 6m 18s
32m 03s
approx. 78% MHR avg

Forgot my HRM belt today so was relying on the dubious ability of my apple watch to read HR. Figured since I was using it for HR, I may as well just go balls deep and use the run tracker too over strava.

Interesting results.

I've been skeptical of strava's accuracy since I got the watch 8 weeks ago. It always seemed to be 10% longer in distance terms than my run buddies polar, but his watch was a few years older so we reckoned GPS tech must have moved on...

However after today, where I ran about 30s "slower" per km than the same relative effort tracking with strava, I'm 99% strava is just wrong. And I know theoretically strava only reads what the GPS chip in the watch tells it, but this is a hill I'll die on.

The big PITA is that it calls into question the last 8+ weeks of logging on strava and the distances / splits - so I assume I'm gonna see a big drop off in total mileage over the coming weeks as I switch to the apple run app (it'll import directly to strava after so at least I'll be able to keep an automated record somewhere).

I guess the good thing about the switch is that it happened early in my running "career", and unlike strava, I can set the apple app to give a live km pace as opposed to average so it'll make tempo work easier.

Was planned to be a shorter run today anyway as we're gonna attempt Bray to Dalkey and back to round out the year with an ill-advised but all too tempting half marathon distance long run.

BeginnerRunner

A) Pin Squat
110kg 5x4

Deficit Dealift:
125kg 6x3

C) Comp Bench:
130kg x1 @7
132.5kg 9x1

D) Long Pause Bench:
127.5kg x1 @8
120kg 3x4

OTHER - done as superset thru session:
Seated DB Curl @ 15kg 5x10
Concentration Curl @ 12.5kg 5x12
21s @ 20kg 3x21

Baby has croup. Got about 4 hours sleep last night. All of it wrapped in a duvet on a yoga mat, on the floor of his room.

Apparently the second night is meant to be worse. F*ck that.

At least I'm done with work (for the most part) this year, so all I have to do is keep the kid alive, keep myself alive, and cook xmas dinner in a couple of days

Hannibal_Smith

Hope your son is better soon and last night wasn't as bad as you expected!

Annie get your Run

For what it's worth, you might want to consider getting a proper running watch, I'm a Garmin fan but your friends Polar is probably really good too. Apple and Samsung smart watches are more 'jack of all trades' pieces of tech AFAIK where as Garmin and Polar are specifically made with running and sports in mind.

BeginnerRunner

Annie get your Run wrote: »

For what it's worth, you might want to consider getting a proper running watch, I'm a Garmin fan but your friends Polar is probably really good too. Apple and Samsung smart watches are more 'jack of all trades' pieces of tech AFAIK where as Garmin and Polar are specifically made with running and sports in mind.

Yah I think it might be, esp since the apple app crashed on todays run

I'll push it to my birthday next year and make a call then

Hannibal_Smith wrote: »

Hope your son is better soon and last night wasn't as bad as you expected!

Thank you!

It wasn't. It was worse

...ah tbf he jus slept on me as I sat upright in our bed in a pillow fort all night. Could be worse!

BeginnerRunner

HALF MARATHON (distance) DAY

21.38km @ 6m 24s avg
2h 16min
75% MHR

Guess that's the half marathon distance checked off anyway, and concludes my first 12 weeks of running.

Today was... interesting. Baby's been sick the last 2 days so I've got maybe 4hrs sleep per night. Had a spice bag and 3 cans of Guinness last night (athlete!) and woke up to a text from my run buddy with a screenshot of the weather forecast asking if I fancied moving it to tomorrow.

(it was due to lash and be windy AF during our scheduled window this morning)

I couldn't.

So said how about we do a short run today and go for the half between stephen's day and NYE? We agreed that was sensible.

Then we also agreed to do a recce of a portion of the planned route, and we'd just go out for 5-8k and turn back at that point.
I think we both knew that we were making bargains with ourselves and as soon as we set off it was gonna turn in a 10k in one direction with no choice but to reverse the route to get home.

I was nervous enough coming into it after the 18km jaunt up and over Killiney Hill 10 days ago. It knocked lumps out of me, felt really hard on reflection and given my strava seemed to be 10% off, was prolly ACTUALLY closer to 16km.

Today's route was a bit more friendly and I hadn't run most of it before so I didn't know what parts to worry about, and since there was plenty to look at for distraction purposes it felt like a little running tour. We went Bray > Shankhill > Ballybrack Village > Killiney > Dalkey. Some gradual inclines but nothing long or severe.

We ran mostly into the wind AND uphill on the way out, though we didn't realise it at the time. It was a pleasant surprise at the turn around point to get some help from the elements and terrain. Checking back, the splits out were 6m 30s avg, and 6m 18s avg on the return leg.

I've no idea if it was psychological or not, but we took some gels with us and 10-15 mins after consuming we both felt like we were floating along.

The run back to Bray past Shanganah Park was unnerving. That's my traditional "I'm home now" point. Felt absolutely brand new. Super fresh. No aches. No real stress. HR way under control. And still chatting away. We were both saying we reckon we coulda easily tipped along to 30k (and then probably died). It was so nice to still feel in a rhythm at that point.

My only battle wound's a small blister on one toe on my right foot. I wore my peg trail 2 goretex cos of the rain and returned with dry feet, fresh calves and a little bit of bubble wrap on my second toe of the right foot.

After a couple of nights of very little sleep (in weird positions) and the day after a fairly heavy lifting sesh in adverse weather conditions when neither of us REALLY fancied it, I think we can considerate that a nice little start to getting into running and hopefully putting up some respectable times in the future.

It'd probably be easier if I wasn't 95ish kg, but that's a task for 2021

Next step will probably be to work on improving our 5k time for the first quarter of the year and see where that brings us next.

BeginnerRunner

5.05km @ 6m 08s
31m 02s
?% MHR

Christmas day run. Got the ham on in the coke, set an alarm for the oven pre heat and also turkey to go in, and told the wife what to do while I snagged a bit of a freshen up run.

We were up (as always) early with the baby so needed something to give me a jolt of energy.

Arrived home just as my folks arrived, the turkey was on and I'd a few hours of doing nothing before all the madness kicked off.

First xmas ever where we stayed at home and hosted. Great success.

BeginnerRunner

10.05km @ 6m 20s
1hr 03min
76% MHR avg

Second attempt at this one today.

Went upstairs at 12ish to get changed, texted my wife from bed to say I was napping instead.

Got back out about 4.30 after some food and a lot of netflix.

Miles in the bank.

BeginnerRunner

A) HB Squat, no belt:
140kg x2
145kg x2
150kg x3

Deadlift, no belt:
180kg x2
190kg x2
200kg x2

C) 3ct Bench:
125kg x1 @8
117.5kg x4 @9
112.5kg 2x4

D) Close Grip Bench:
110kg x4
115kg x4
120kg x4 @9
110kg 3x5

OTHER - done as supersets with benching:
Pull Ups 5x6
Chin Ups 5x6

First lifting session in a week went very very very well. Obviously MILES away from all time bests but to string together some reasonably heavy squats and my best deadlift performance since injury within 7 days of running a half marathon distance is something I'm REALLY frickin' happy with.

Pull Ups are feeling great to so will probably move to 7s from next week.