Am I Running Or Jogging?

Ososlo · 25-07-2016 06:37PM

Excellent race and report! Well done Max.

Maximus Alexander · 26-07-2016 08:37PM

I was a bit of a naughty boy yesterday and didn't do my recovery run. I was absolutely shattered; more from another horrific night's sleep than anything else and I just zonked on the couch when I got in...

Plan: 4 Miles Very Easy

My legs were a little heavy for the first couple of kilometers which was a good thing really because it encouraged me to keep the pace down. Came alive a bit later but I was surprisingly disciplined and didn't speed up much. My average heart rate here was the lowest I've ever seen it. My hamstrings felt a little tender, but just in a "Hey you used us the other day!" manner rather than anything sinister.

Total: 6.6km @ 6:22/km

And now back to our regularly scheduled marathon training...

denis b · 26-07-2016 09:01PM

Max. Great race and very entertaining report. I missed the race this year but your report guided me through the experience every step of the way. Really decent pacing job as well. Enjoy the race series.

The Muppet · 26-07-2016 09:11PM

Interesting you mention the hamstrings max. Both mine twinged me once or twice yesterday, they were fine today though . I've never had a peep out of them before yesterday except I pulled one when I was a child not an experience I'd like to repeat if memory serves me right.

Maximus Alexander · 26-07-2016 10:38PM

Very similar to myself Tom, I've never had so much as a twinge in my hamstrings bar one other time after doing 400m intervals too fast. Weird that it happened to us both. I wonder with neither of us having raced 10k before if it's just something we wouldn't have come across? Hope yours are all right!

Singer · 26-07-2016 10:40PM

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Very similar to myself Tom, I've never had so much as a twinge in my hamstrings bar one other time after doing 400m intervals too fast. Weird that it happened to us both. I wonder with neither of us having raced 10k before if it's just something we wouldn't have come across? Hope yours are all right!

Welcome to niggleville. Dial it back if things don't feel better over the next few days, and don't be afraid of rest days.

The Muppet · 26-07-2016 10:53PM

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Very similar to myself Tom, I've never had so much as a twinge in my hamstrings bar one other time after doing 400m intervals too fast. Weird that it happened to us both. I wonder with neither of us having raced 10k before if it's just something we wouldn't have come across? Hope yours are all right!

Perhaps , No twinges this evening though I feel they are still a little tender, As Singer says just take it easy this week.

Firedance · 27-07-2016 09:50AM

The Muppet wrote: »

Your wan in the pink top might have been firedance keeping an eye on you.:D

well done again

Pink??!! nooooo, firedance wears red

:D and firedance was away in a lovely spa not thinking about 10k races!!

WELL DONE Max!! that's a great result and a brilliant report, sometimes these other runners help take the focus off our own pain and gives us something to aim for too! Really delighted for you and can't wait to see the gains the rest of your marathon training will bring.

PS: foam roll those hamstrings lads...

The Muppet · 27-07-2016 11:20AM

How are the hammers today Max?

Maximus Alexander · 27-07-2016 11:26AM

Seem to be grand now, I'll be running home from work this evening so that'll be the test. Must remember to foam roll this evening. How about yours?

The Muppet · 27-07-2016 02:35PM

I'm fine max . The strides later will give them a little test .

Maximus Alexander · 30-07-2016 08:06PM

Wednesday, Plan: 6 Miles with Strides

I did this as another commute home. I was feeling pretty good and went a touch faster than intended. Had to add a little loop on at the end as the commute isn't quite 6 miles. I also forgot to do the strides. :rolleyes:

Total: 10km @ 5:53/km

Friday, Plan: 4 Miles Easy

This was supposed to be done on Thursday but I was having further sleep troubles and was just too tired. Napped instead and did it Friday. I was quite successful in keeping it slow this time, pretty conscious that there was a longest ever LSR the next day.

Total: 6.4km @ 6:20/km

Today, Plan: 15 Mile LSR

Headed out towards Dalkey and back, but the route turned out to be maybe a mile short so I had to add a bit of a loop at the end. It was going pretty well until the last mile or two where the energy levels really took a dive and it was a struggle from there. I had been pretty comfortable up until that. Perhaps the preparation wasn't the best as I'd no gels and only some fizzy jellies for fuel. Still, I ran for over two and a half hours so that's pretty mental / cool. I probably couldn't have done much more though which worries me a bit; endurance is not where I'd like it to be.

Total: 24.2km @ 6:31/km

Maximus Alexander · 31-07-2016 07:08PM

Plan: 3 Mile Recovery

Took it nice and easy, legs were a touch stiff but in much better condition that I thought they had any right to be. They loosened out later on. Average heart rate was the lowest I've ever seen.

Total: 5km @ 6:27/km

That brings me to 52km for the week.

Maximus Alexander · 03-08-2016 09:42PM

Yesterday, Plan: 5 Miles Easy

Tiredness caught up with me a bit and in addition to the heat yesterday I found myself feeling very lethargic during this run. The perceived effort was much higher than it ought to have been, but weirdly when I got home and had a gander at the Strava data, it was all pretty ok in terms of pace, cadence and heart rate. I never looked at the plan and just assumed it was meant to be 4 miles like the previous Tuesdays. Dope.

Total: 6.4km @ 6:06/km

Today, Plan: 7 Miles with 5 PMP

I did this as a commute, but as it's a bit too long I had to run past home and back. Normally I'd turn off towards Balinteer at The Goat, but instead I carried on as far as The Beacon Hotel. For some reason I thought the route flattened after The Goat, but no, it carries on uphill. :pac: There was a bit of wind about and I misjudged the pace and ran it too fast, so really the effort was in excess of what it ought to have been for this run. I mean I felt pretty good throughout, but I'd be concerned I might have to pay for it in my LSR this week! It was a nice, invigorating run though; total polar opposite of yesterday.

Total: 11.3km @ 5:43/km

Maximus Alexander · 04-08-2016 11:39PM

Plan: 3 Mile Recovery

Yep, wore myself out yesterday and the lethargy was back today. It was meant to be recovery anyway so it was nice and slow and the 16 miles looming this weekend made sure I stuck to that. However, I sneakily got back the extra mile that I missed on Tuesday! Heart rate was nice and low.

Total: 6.4km @ 6:24/km

Maximus Alexander · 06-08-2016 10:17PM

Plan: 16 Mile LSR

Absolute disaster today. I've been in a foul humour over it all evening, just trying to put it behind me now and move on.

I set off about half past two with a bottle of water with a High5 electrolyte sachet dissolved in it and some money in my pouch. It was overcast, but when I stepped out it was warmer outside than in. The plan was to hit all the parks again like I did a few weeks ago but taking a longer route. I had mentally broken the run down into four 4 mile runs, which sounded easy.

I felt great on the route to Bushy Park, lots of pep in my step and had to keep prodding myself to slow down. By the time I got into the park the sun was out and I had checked off the first four miles. Still feeling good, if a touch warm, I headed down towards Tymon. It was quite gusty and this was all into the wind, so I dropped the pace a bit to conserve energy. Same deal once into Tymon, even when I crossed the M50 and turned back the other way, the wind was somehow inexplicably still in my face.

Once out of Tymon it was off to Knocklyon Road and I realised my water was nearly gone already so I stopped at the service station to grab another bottle along with some Wine Gums. I gave the legs a quick rub down while I was here because I've been having a bit of a twinge in my gluteus medius region lately (nothing major) and I was off again.

At this stage I was into my third 4 mile and everything was grand really. The plan was to head towards Taylors Lane and up to Marlay for a lap before heading home. It was on Taylors Lane where everything started to fall apart. I had been sticking to the shade, where available, but there was no shade here and the sun was at my back. I suddenly started to feel really warm and had to guzzle my water and splash a bit on me to try and cool off but it wasn't working. When I was working my way up the hill past St Enda's park, I was roasting. There were sheets of water running off me and I felt like my eyes were a little unfocused and I was starting to get a bit dizzy. When I crested the hill the watch beeped for 18km and I had to cross the road to get into the shade and slow to walk immediately to cool off; I don't remember ever feeling so hot in my life.

I walked for about 2 minutes and drank more water and, being in the shade, I cooled off a bit so I started back up again but there was no recovering. Anytime I left the shade I felt myself heating up rapidly and I barely made it another mile before I had to slow to a walk to cool off again.

This continued for a while, run for a while, stop and cool off, but I was getting worried now about what I might be doing to myself. I found myself in a field where, again, I was completely exposed and when the watch beeped for 23km I just had to stop an call it. My legs actually felt ok, it was the rest of me that was shagged.

When I got in the door I just sat there in a daze for ten minutes and downed a bottle of Powerade, a pint of water and some mixed nuts before showering. I've never failed to complete a run before and it's really hit me hard, I feel awful about it. Really, really down in the dumps and like a total failure. Angry. Disgusted.

Total: 23km @ 6:31/km

It's about 8 hours now since I set off for the run and I've taken on a good few litres of liquid, but haven't needed to pee yet. Headache too. I guess I don't do well in the sun.

mel.b · 06-08-2016 11:30PM

Max, i wouldn't best myself up too hard about that today. You pretty much set off for your run at the hottest time of the day. It was bound to be tough, especially when the shade was limited and you were further into the run. Lots of lessons learnt i'm sure.

Maximus Alexander · 07-08-2016 11:10AM

Cheers Mel. It's hard to take solace in that though since all the other novices seem to have complete their runs without too much trouble! I'll certainly be trying to set out earlier for these in future anyway.

The Muppet · 07-08-2016 11:31AM

Your being very hard on yourself max .

What we've taken on is tough we all have good days and bad days we should learn from both and move on .

Yesterday was tough going for me too ' I'm not sure why ' could have been the hills ' the heat or the kfc

I had for dinner Friday or a combination of all 3 . At the milage were doing It doesn't take much to turn any run into a bad one.

Chin up and move on

Up earlier you say . Will u be in the park for 9 next week so?

Maximus Alexander · 07-08-2016 01:14PM

In the park for 9 might be pushing it now, but never say never!

Maximus Alexander · 07-08-2016 03:47PM

Plan: Recovery

Tore up the plan a bit today. I had a lot of running rage when I set out and my legs didn't feel like they'd done an LSR yesterday so there was no way I was going to be able to force a recovery effort. I wasn't setting the pace, the adrenaline was, and it went in a pyramid between marathon pace and 10k pace with splits of 5:50; 5:25; 5:15; 5:02; 5:15; 5:48.

So not a recovery at all, at least in the physical sense. Mentally it was though, I feel much better now than before.

Total: 6.1km @ 5:26/km

53.4km for the week, joint highest ever. Gotta accentuate the positives.

tailgunner · 07-08-2016 05:24PM

I think you're being very hard on yourself too. It's quite distressing not to hit the arbitrary mileage target on a given day, but you probably gained more fitness from 14 very tough miles yesterday than you would have from 16 relatively easy miles.

For what it's worth, I've had more "bad" long runs than good ones, and often read other people's logs wondering how they seem to breeze through their runs. Sometimes I'm absolutely hanging together by the end of mine, and in an awful way for the whole day after.

Anyway, one bad run isn't going to make or break your marathon. It's the cumulative effects of weeks and weeks of training that will prepare you. You've been very consistent so far, and there's a long way to go yet!

Maximus Alexander · 07-08-2016 06:49PM

I appreciate that TG, a valuable bit of perspective. The mind's a funny thing (at least mine) in the way the negatives can stand out while the positives fall by the wayside. I was reminded today on my 'recovery' run when I did a kilometer in around 5 minutes of a run I did less than a year ago. I had done a 5k progression run and the final split was 5:00 and I wanted to vomit after it but was chuffed with myself. I sure have come along way since then!

denis b · 07-08-2016 07:41PM

I think you did the sensible thing in the end to be honest. Very occasionally a run just does not work out. Sometimes you can figure out what went wrong and sometimes the riddle is never solved. One thing that really stands out from your own outline is "hydration". Might be worth ensuring that you are well hydrated during the week and especially so on the days leading up to your LSR in this humid weather.

annapr · 08-08-2016 12:44AM

You had a lot of symptoms of dehydration on that LSR, so agree with everyone else, don't be hard on yourself.. Lesson learned for the future, especially when it's hot. And you got most of it done, so not too bad at all.

Ososlo · 08-08-2016 07:52AM

Yep agree with everyone else. You were likely a bit dehydrated which is not fun.
I would say though, that you need to be careful with the rage runs. That's how you can end up injuring yourself. You had a high mileage week culminating a long run, so you should have taken it extra easy yesterday, but part of me however understands why you did it! Be careful!!!!

Bluesquare · 08-08-2016 08:25AM

You are being awfully hard on yourself. Yesterday was not a pleasant day to do a LSR- does sound like you were a bit dehydrated all right. Get your iron levels checked just in case . I just say that to everyone who has a bad run - because it's happened to me more than once and iron has been the issue.

Firedance · 08-08-2016 09:58AM

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Cheers Mel. It's hard to take solace in that though since all the other novices seem to have complete their runs without too much trouble! I'll certainly be trying to set out earlier for these in future anyway.

Just catching up here, +1 to what everyone else has said Max don't be too hard on yourself.

Don't compare yourself to others either, we're all different and face different challenges on these marathon journeys. I can empathize completely with you on this one, heat and I don't get on well either. Keep your eye on the weather forecast and in the days coming up to your LSR if high humidity is forecast put a half a salt tab or dioralyite in one of your glasses of water for a few days and on the day itself be prepared to slow right down, up to 30/40 seconds a mile slower than usual. You made the right decision and you've learned valuable info on yourself, better to happen now than on race day. Your training is going so well.

Singer · 08-08-2016 11:11AM

I think you clearly need to get yourself off to somewhere nice and hot for a week or two of warm weather training... maybe after DCM though

Maximus Alexander · 08-08-2016 11:24AM

Thanks guys, it does seem like dehydration was the culprit and thanks for the Dioralyte suggestion FD, that's something that might work for me because I seem to sweat out a ton of salt!

I'm feeling the anger run in my legs this morning. Looking forward now to making less of a hames of things next Saturday on the '14 mile LSR'. (It's probably going to be 16 miles)

Singer wrote: »

I think you clearly need to get yourself off to somewhere nice and hot for a week or two of warm weather training... maybe after DCM though

It might be quicker to just shoot me now and get it over with. :pac:

Am I Running Or Jogging?

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