From minutes to miles

denis b · 05-08-2016 09:18PM

Well done Laura. I see that your easy pace is getting progressively faster. Must be recovering very well. Best of luck with your next plan.

Mrs Mc · 05-08-2016 10:15PM

Well done Laura that sounds like a tough race well done for sticking it out.

annapr · 06-08-2016 09:18AM

Good Fingal report, Laura... you showed some mental toughness to get through it (unlike me being a wimp

)

And thank you for not pointing out that you left me in the dust on that 'vertical trail'

Younganne · 06-08-2016 10:36AM

Congrats on the 5k PB Laura and well done for the fingal 10k, you definitely have a handle on the mind games that happen to us in races. Best of luck with the new plans, looking forward to watching your continuous improvement .

laura_ac3 · 17-08-2016 09:39PM

Started update, boards lost it – internet frustration so short version. You'll have to imagine that my story about footpath rage from being forced onto the verge by a grown man on a bike was amusing. Cheek of him, and he was the one that seemed miffed when I shouted sarcastically at him that I'd get out of his way..... Anyway, new plan, very different to what I’ve done before – intervals, 200/400m repeats, shorter but faster tempos – focus is on 2 mile/5k races for a while.

Week beginning 01/08/16

Monday: 6.09 miles. Session 1 – 3 x (2*200m, 1*400m)

Recoveries were to jog the distance ran with 5 mins jogging between sets.
Warm up to the park before starting the session. Target time for each was 54s for 200’s and 109s for 400’s, give or take, I was told they’re a guide.

56s (200m), 55s (200m), 111s (400m)
56s (200m), 55s (200m), 117s (400m)
54s (200m), 56s (200m), 111s (400m)

All done by effort and not watching the time as they were being done. Pretty happy to look back after and have them fairly consistent. Tough with the 400’s to go out hard, but not quite as hard as the 200’s, harder to judge. Enjoyable session overall. It was tough, especially the last set, but manageable. Over a mile for each of the warm up and cool down.

Tuesday: 45 mins “easy” (4.36 miles @ 10:20)

Runmute into work. As mentioned before I always find these a bit tougher but I really struggled on this. Was putting it down to one of those days, except I began to think it was more like a warning shot from the body. Sore throat appeared later, got worse during the day leading into…..

Wednesday – Saturday: Rest/Sick

Tonsillitis, off sick from work for a couple of days, antibiotics blah blah, no running. Was feeling well enough to go ahead with planned parkrun volunteering on the Saturday so good to catch up with a lot of the usual faces and some less frequent. Half thought about going for a tester easy run but another day rest was the wiser decision.

Sunday: 35 mins easy (3.35 miles @ 10:26)

Chanced a local amble around the 'hood, feeling much better – no ill complaints.

Disappointing end to the week after a promising start but these things happen, 13.8 miles for the week.

Firedance · 17-08-2016 09:45PM

New plan! super duper, best of luck with it Laura.

laura_ac3 · 17-08-2016 10:26PM

Sure I might as well keep going.....

Week beginning 08/08/16

Monday: 4.03 miles. Session 2 – 2 sets of intervals

Monday evenings turning into session nights. This was the postponed session from the previous week. Over a mile warm up and then did the intervals on the straight stretch in the park.

Plan was 2 x (2 mins hard, 1 min jog, 1 min hard, 30 sec jog, 30 sec hard, 30 sec jog) with target pace for the hard sections to be 7:40.

2 mins (7:24), 1 min (7:32), 30 sec (7:14)
2 mins (7:38), 1 min (7:36), 30 sec (7:16)

I had really worked myself up about this session that it was going to be nigh on impossible and I was going to struggle horrendously. I think I had recent fartleks in my memory, but they weren’t on as level a stretch. I know Garmin isn’t that reliable over the shorter distances and takes a while to settle so not taking the paces as gospel, just a guide. I didn’t rely on them too much when I was doing them, more on the longer 2 minute ones than the shorter ones, and just tried to focus on giving it a good effort to serve the target of going fast.

Tuesday: 45 mins easy (4.34 miles @ 10:22)

Very similar to last week, another runmute in but felt much better this week and didn’t struggle half as much.

Wednesday: Football

A woman down so bonus extra running

Thursday: Rest/Pilates

Friday: 2 miles easy (10:33 pace)

Phasing in an optional extra day of running. Didn’t do it on the last training block, said I’d see how the body held up. Going to try build it to an easy 30/35 minute run so I started with 20-ish today. Bit further from home than planned so rounded it to 2 miles. Will see how it goes and back off if needed, I just think the extra day to add in a couple of extra easy miles might be a good idea with the second session now a week.

Saturday: 3.88 miles. Session 3 – 20 mins tempo

Decided to incorporate this into parkrun as I thought it would make it easier with the company of others. Pace was to be faster than I had done before (8:25) based on Docklands time. Did a few minutes easy beforehand and the first couple of minutes of parkrun the same to avoid the initial congestion.

Started into the tempo section thinking incorrectly it was to be 25 minutes. Probably went off a bit too enthusiastic, pace was definitely a little too hot so focused on keeping it steady. Found this very tough overall, including going up by Mt. Playground on the first lap. Aftyer about 15 minutes I wanted to stop the tempo but mentally bargained with myself to get to 20 and then call it a day. Got to 20 with a secret mental plan to cajole myself into “just one more minute, ok just another, sure you’re practically at 25, keep going”. That wasn’t happening today though, at 20 I felt I was pushing too hard for a tempo which a quick check of HR confirmed. Said I’d be wiser to leave it at 20 and keep it as a decent tempo and not turn into a death march for the last 5 minutes. Jogged it easy for the last bit to the finish. Tempo pace was 8:23 for the tempo, some parts were faster, others slower, depending on the profile of the course etc. Little cool down after and then coffee with the usual suspects after. Felt a bit disappointed initially that I called it quits, etc etc – until I look at plan later and it was supposed to be 20 mins in the first place. Doh, facepalm.

Sunday: 70 mins easy (6.69 miles @ 10:28)

Headed to St. Anne’s taking in some of my favourite spots. Felt very warm on this, was early afternoon and seemed very muggy and I was sweating lots. Didn’t feel particularly bad though, just tiring towards the end which I would have expected. Got home though and was hit with a bout of not feeling well, wiped me for a couple of hours. One of those days I guess. I had water as soon as I came in, maybe I was dehydrated, I had sweated lots. Felt fine by late afternoon and got lots of fluid and food into me.

So a much better week this week, 20.95 miles for the week. Usual cycling too.

Bungy Girl · 18-08-2016 06:17PM

Nice work on the speedy sessions! When's the first test of the new plan going to be ? Just to pass on what I was told by another runner around 6 weeks into Operation HTFU - she told me she reckoned it takes 6-8 weeks to see the improvement from a new plan/focus. I had been expecting results a bit earlier but it turned out 6-8 weeks was fairly accurate. No harm doing races before that of course to see where you're at, but don't be worried if the results aren't quite what you'd have expected initially. It'll all come good in time!

laura_ac3 · 19-08-2016 07:50AM

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Nice work on the speedy sessions! When's the first test of the new plan going to be ? Just to pass on what I was told by another runner around 6 weeks into Operation HTFU - she told me she reckoned it takes 6-8 weeks to see the improvement from a new plan/focus. I had been expecting results a bit earlier but it turned out 6-8 weeks was fairly accurate. No harm doing races before that of course to see where you're at, but don't be worried if the results aren't quite what you'd have expected initially. It'll all come good in time!

That's interesting. Thanks for the feedback. I suppose it takes the body time to adjust. I'm already doing that mental madness of how am I supposed to go at x race pace when I'm finding x session tough!! First test will probably be a 2 miler in a couple of weeks. Been a good while since the last one so use it see where I'm at since then. No 5k target yet. I'll probably try malahide parkrun at some stage but will get some more training under my belt first. Looking at jingle bells then as well but every year something comes up to stop me going so I won't look that far ahead yet!

FBOT01 · 19-08-2016 05:41PM

laura_ac3 wrote: »

That's interesting. Thanks for the feedback. I suppose it takes the body time to adjust. I'm already doing that mental madness of how am I supposed to go at x race pace when I'm finding x session tough!! First test will probably be a 2 miler in a couple of weeks. Been a good while since the last one so use it see where I'm at since then. No 5k target yet. I'll probably try malahide parkrun at some stage but will get some more training under my belt first. Looking at jingle bells then as well but every year something comes up to stop me going so I won't look that far ahead yet!

Malahide:eek::eek: I heard a rumour that that's a short course :P:D

Bungy Girl · 19-08-2016 09:54PM

FBOT01 wrote: »

Malahide:eek::eek: I heard a rumour that that's a short course :P:D

I'm just going to ignore this....:P

laura_ac3 · 01-09-2016 12:10AM

Where I did I used to find time to update my log…..

Week beginning 15/08

Monday: 5.06 miles inc 6x400m

Monday so what is now becoming session night. This looked the easiest session in the plan, still a tiring outing though on the last couple of reps! Equal recovery between each and target time to be approx 109 seconds.

Warm up – 1.24 miles @ 10:27
113s, 110s, 116s, 112s, 113s, 113s
Cool down – 1.09 miles @ 11:01

Didn’t quite hit the required pace but I’m doing them by feel and trying not to go out too hard and die in the first 100m, the consistency is there or thereabouts (aside from the middle one) so happy enough.

Tuesday: 45 mins easy (4.25 miles @ 10:35)

Runmute into work. Quads felt tight after the previous evening but the legs loosened out by the time I got in. I see this other runner each morning I do this run in. Gave him “the nod” and smile this morning and a little wave to say good morning and got nothing back. Nada, zilch. He’s off my Christmas card list anyway.

Wednesday: Rest

Football off so decided to take a rest day. Well timed with the deluge of rain.

Thursday: 4.5 miles inc 3x 3 mins @ hard pace

Target pace to be 7:40 with 3 mins recovery after each one so plenty of recovery.

Warm up – 1.26 miles @ 10:20
7:39, 7:33, 7:33
Cool down – 1.49 miles @ 10:29

First one went well, pace was about right. The second two are a bit deceptive in that I think it took a while for the pace to settle properly on the watch as I don’t think I went any faster on those ones, I was definitely having to work hard on those to keep the current pace near where it needed to be. I was doing the recovery before the last one when I saw a woman I had met at one of the Raheny 2 mile races. We gave a wave and said hello and passed in the opposite direction. Doing the last rep I had turned back up the avenue and I was busting a gut trying to finish the last one well and hanging on as much as I could, while catching her up and going past her. She started trying to have a friendly chat, asking me if I was doing Frank Duffy. “No….pant….wheeze….you….wheeze….?” she answered yes and I mangled out a good luck before stuttering “session” and waving goodbye. Felt terrible as I’d been completely rude so turned on my cooldown to find her and apologise and have a more friendly chat for a couple of minutes together.

Friday & Saturday: Rest

Friday was planned, Saturday was a self inflicted write off. Hanging after a work night the previous evening so all thoughts of parkrun and getting out later were banished. By the time I felt human it was time to get ready to go out to friends for dinner. Not the worst thing to have the extra rest day as I’m only phasing in the extra day running and I’ve also been adding some gym stuff.

Sunday: 70 mins easy (6.68 miles @ 10:29)

Decided to mix it up and not do anything in the park today. Headed from home through Clontarf, onto the coast for a while and back towards home a different route, so more undulating. Felt great on this, body felt strong and I didn’t fade towards the end like recent longer runs.

20.49 miles for the week. Usual cycling done too along with pilates on Thursday and went to the gym twice as well. It’s not a very long workout, just a bit to supplement my running and add in some weights. A couple of exercises to work on my glutes, the leg press machine and a couple of upper body weights. Also taking the chance to do some of the exercises given to me by Myles as finding time at home can often be trouble when laziness takes over!!

Week beginning 22/08

Monday: 6.9 miles inc 2 sets of pyramid intervals - 200m, 400m, 600, 400m, 200m

This. Was. Hard. Seriously felt like the toughest run I’ve ever done by myself. The recoveries were the distance just ran and target paces were 54s, 109s and 166s with 5 mins jog between sets

Warm up – 1.27 miles @ 10:14
Set 1 – 43s (ballsed this one up, it was too short), 109s, 159s, 113s, 53s
Set 2 – 53s, 104s, 180s, 114s, 55s
Cool down - .72 miles @ 10:55

The 600’s were so tough, I felt like I was lacking the endurance to see them out at the target pace, especially the second one. I held reasonable consistency on the other distances but that one was a killer. I was doing the mental bargaining after the first set trying to convince myself to call it a day as a good workout as the thought of doing a second set filled me with dread. I remembered BungyGirl and her log recently where their coach had said on some track session, anyone could do the first two sets but it was the third that “something something…insert motivational phrase here”. I couldn’t for the life of me remember what was said but something that the third one is the whole point of the session and what counts. It was starting to get dark before I did the last 200m so I had left the park and did it on my way home when I found a clear, flat stretch. So the recovery after the last 400m was actually a bit longer than it was supposed to be. Park was still fairly busy though despite the late hour and doing the session it was like a zoo. Families, kids, dogs on roaming leads, roaming dogs not on leads, kids on bikes, kids on those weird push frames with wheels, adults on scooters. Chaos. Arrived home later than anticipated with the OH cooking dinner and me looking a sweaty and tired mess. Found this very very tough.

Tuesday: 45 mins easy (4.32 miles @ 10:25)

Runmute into work, legs not feeling as sore as I thought they would. Went by my friend again, didn’t try waving again.

Wednesday: Football

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 4.8 miles inc 20 mins tempo

1 mile warm up @ 10:17
2.4 miles tempo @ 8:20
1.4 miles cooldown 10:32

Target pace was 8:25 so happy with this one. Felt tough at times but doable and much better than the last one a couple of weeks ago. Don’t think I started off as fast and it was flatter route, plus I knew this time how long it was supposed to be!

Saturday: 70 mins easy (7.01 miles @ 9:59)

Longer run incorporating St. Anne’s parkrun. Did 30 mins-ish warm up from the house and around the park and met Annapr. Plan was to do the parkrun in about 30 mins, a bit faster than true easy. Pace felt a bit hot at times despite being well behind the pacers so we just did our own thing and eased back when we wanted while having the chats. Probably a tad too fast but we did anpther few minutes easy cool down after which brought me up to my required time. Off to the coffee shop with the usual suspects and to snigger at sympathise with murph_d.

Sunday: 25 mins easy (2.39 miles @ 10:28)

The first run in the dark in a long time. The 6th running day this week so added on a few minutes since last time to build it up but keeping it lower for now.

Happy with that week. 25.42 miles and the body is holding up well. Usual cycling, pilates and one gym visit this week.

laura_ac3 · 01-09-2016 10:07AM

And onto this week

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 2 mile Raheny summer series race

Decided to do this one to see where I was at. Training this summer has gone well and with one good performance in Docklands, a decent attempt at a 2 mile and a generally poor 10k I felt a PB was on the cards. Bearing in mind recent advice that it might take while for the benefit of recent sessions to kick in the 4 week cycle was nearing an end so it seemed a good time to set a marker for now. BungyGirl kindly offered to pace me around. I really wanted to run the best time I could on the night to see what I was capable of. Based on VDOT from Docklands, along with some friendly competition, the A++ goal was 15:36 and anything better than my prior PB of 15:52 the A goal. The last one of these I did before Docklands was 16:02 so taking another few seconds to get a PB seemed a manageable task but the dream goal seemed a bit daunting. Just the usual thoughts of finding the recent tempo tough, struggling to maintain paces on shorter reps were in my mind but knowing that as ever on race day it’s easier than doing sessions by yourself and the benefits of adrenaline etc.

Still, having said that, I was the most nervous for a race that I’ve been in a long time – to the point where I was googling pre race nerves that day in work. Most unlike me. I tried to do positive visualization and repeated in my head periodically a mantra I found online “light as a fox, strong as an ox”. Except I kept mixing it up…..light as an ox wasn’t the inspiration I was going for!!! Did a 2 mile warm up down to the clubhouse to register, found BG who was well prepared for her pacing. She went off to recce the course and the wind while I went to the bathroom about 37 times. The wind had picked up during the day so I was feeling apprehensive about the A++ goal. We lined up at the start after I disclosed I have a bad habit of going like a bat out of hell for the first couple of minutes. I wore the watch but said I wouldn’t look at it in case the pace freaked me out at all. Just focused on staying with BG and trusting that if we were slowing she’d give me the kick up the arse to pick it up. Settled into a pace for the first stretch with her reminding me not to go off too fast on a couple of occasions. If I had the energy I would have laughed when she said the first mile should feel “easy”!!! The wind had been noticeable until we took the first turn to go parallel with the park. Couple of seconds ahead of target I was informed. This next bit seemed to go by really quick and before I knew it we were taking the turn for the section towards the start/finish area for the halfway point. Had an inner smile at one guy along here who was offering support and reminded everyone to keep at it and that everyone is feeling the same right now. It helped keep the focus. We had gone past a few people and were kind of between groups at this point. We went through halfway with the time being called out and we were a few seconds ahead of target. I remember thinking oh, halfway already, that’s not so bad, I’m feeling it but not dying, I can do that again. Anyone who has read my race reports would know that’s not a thought I usually have at halfway – it’s typically my point for a mental wobble.

The next bit though was the real test. It was into the wind with a slight gradient so BG moved in front to offer a bit of shelter. I was determined to stick with her and not let a gap open, at a couple of points I was so tight I thought I was going to snip at her heels!!!! The breathing was more labored so I did a systems check and reassured myself that nothing was on a meltdown and focused on keeping good breath in, good breath out, nice and steady. BG offering encouragement that if I got through this part well there was no reason we wouldn’t hit target. Taking the next turn at the shortest race line (so tight my hip grazed an ill parked car on the corner) I reassured myself that I know this course well. This was where I had done my tempo so same as that day I focused on getting to the next roundabout, then the next and so on. The group in front were slowly coming back to us and were strung out in a little line. Really feeling it here but was waiting for the last turn to just hang on. BG in my ear saying from the corner it’s 90 seconds to the finish and you can handle anything for 90 seconds. As we took the corner the last person in the mini group was just ahead so went past her. I remembered from here that if you go to go decisively so just tried to push on so she wouldn’t surge past, which she didn’t. The next two were a man and a woman side by side but I didn’t have it in me there to stride to catch up. I felt like I was hanging by the skin of my teeth and I wanted to stop but the finish could be heard. The man had kicked on so he was out of range but I tried to catch the woman but she was starting to kick herself so she pulled away ever so slightly. Heading for the line in sight I heard a timekeeper we passed calling out 15.05…..what….did he say :05?? Feeling galvanized (and BG offering enthusiasm) I found a bit of a spurt with that woman in sight, pushed past and managed to nick a couple of seconds ahead of her. Crossed the line, feeling totally spent but very very very happy.

Official time was 15:18 and the two miles were 7:46 and 7:32. Absolutely delighted with that needless to say and a big big thanks again to BG for her help and encouragement, it was brilliant to have, I’m not sure I would have pushed on as much by myself. Did a lap cool down after together and then I went and got the nicest, tastiest Chinese PB takeaway I’ve ever had!! It’s been clean and healthy eating for the last 5 weeks so the takeaway was much appreciated. Marker is set now anyway so it was a successful outing, hopefully more to come with the training kicking in more!

Firedance · 01-09-2016 10:31AM

Brilliant, laura, just brilliant!!! absolutely delighted to see the progress you're making - there's definitely something to this shorter stuff training!!!! yipeeeee

hillsiderunner · 01-09-2016 10:49AM

Great to see the progress Laura. You have great consistency with the training, it is good to see it paying off

.

Ososlo · 01-09-2016 11:01AM

Congrats Laura! Brilliant racing and very well deserved pb! You're flying it!

aquinn · 01-09-2016 11:14AM

Lovely few days to catch up on and a brilliant report on the 2 miler. A fantastic new PB that is well deserved from recent training. Well done.

Kennyg71 · 01-09-2016 11:30AM

Well done o. PB Laura and epic report, your really getting back to fitness.

Younganne · 01-09-2016 01:27PM

great report Laura and congrats on the well deserved PB. delighted for you, all the great training is paying off!

FBOT01 · 01-09-2016 02:18PM

Nice going, Linda

Great to see some early results from the new regime and FairPlay to BG getting through a long run like that without any recovery breaks

Keep up the good work. What's the target at the other end of the new plan?

Bungy Girl · 01-09-2016 06:32PM

Well done Laura! So happy you got your A++ goal and then some

. Glad I didn't trip you up or get my pacing sums wrong (although washing the precisely engineered splits off my hand before the start wasn't the finest moment of my pacing career

).

Fun Fact: I got quite different splits on my watch (7:39, 7:34), with an average pace of 6:31 :eek: for the extra .01 mile. Just shows the importance of keeping to the racing line, even if you did graze your hip :pac::pac:

The sub-15 can't be far away based on that performance. Next time!

Firedance · 01-09-2016 06:35PM

Bungy Girl wrote: »

(although washing the precisely engineered splits off my hand before the start wasn't the finest moment of my pacing career ).

I can just imagine the conversation, either out loud or in your own head, when you realised this, brilliant!

Bungy Girl · 01-09-2016 06:42PM

Firedance wrote: »

I can just imagine the conversation, either out loud or in your own head, when you realised this, brilliant!

I realised about 10 mins before the off, had a big panic, and must have asked at least 5 strangers in the vicinity for a pen to repair the damage. Thankfully they were still imprinted on my brain so was able to salvage them after a random bystander gave me a selection of pens from her car! In case anyone's concerned that I can't work out splits for a 2 mile race (:o), I had target times for each corner of the route. #pacernightmares

Murph_D · 01-09-2016 08:26PM

Excellent performances, from both the pacee and the pacer. Congrats on the big PB; enjoyed the report too!

Mrs Mc · 01-09-2016 09:44PM

Only catching up here well done on pb great report delighted for you all the training is paying off.

Clearlier · 01-09-2016 10:32PM

Great report, great pacing and most of all great running. It sounds like you had a near perfect race. Well done!

HelenAnne · 02-09-2016 11:20AM

Really well done, Laura! Sorry I didn't see you after the race. Did you come back for tea and biscuits? (It was packed, so I could have missed you).

laura_ac3 · 02-09-2016 09:32PM

Thanks folks for the nice words, on the phone so can't multiquote. Much appreciated.

FBOT - no specific targets or races yet picked. Thinking of keeping with this focus and the 2mile/5k races up until early December. Then maybe look to target raheny 5 mile at end of January. As you can see BG is already motivational about a sub 15 attempt at some stage!

No HelenAnne I didn't make it to the clubhouse this time around unfortunately. The OH came to collect me to go get the Chinese takeaway so I was heading home for dinner. Great to see you and congrats on the top 3 finish. Hope you had a good race!

Haha. Yes BG writing her paces out by someone's car was quite amusing - confidence inspiring

denis b · 03-09-2016 03:08PM

Really enjoyed that report Laura and didnt quite expect that punchline...what a pb.

annapr · 03-09-2016 10:34PM

Brilliant report and result Laura, you foxy ox or oxy fox, whichever.

Of course you did have the most well prepared pacer ever by your side, she had spreadsheets going for a week getting ready, I had a laugh at the washing hands moment :pac:

Also laughed at the idea that BG offers any shelter whatsoever from wind

Well done you though, those sessions are really paying off. Enjoy the hols!

From minutes to miles

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