From minutes to miles

So much for regular logging....December was quite busy!!

Week beginning 05/12 - 16.01 (:mad:) miles

Tuesday - 45 mins easy, 4.56 miles @ 9.53 - commute to work

Friday - 4.96 miles inc 6 x 400m

Target time was in or around 107/109s, I have a feeling I got it wrong before I went out. No matter, they were consistent enough on a windy enough day - except for the second last one, I lost concentration watching a couple of cars that were pulling out nearby: 109, 107, 108, 109, 112, 105. Recoveries were 400m and a warm up and cool down of just over a mile each.

Sunday - 65 mins easy, 6.49 miles @ 10.01 - met a friend for this one and headed to St. Anne's

Usual football, cycling and pilates too

Week beginning 12/12 - 14.09 miles

Tuesday - 4.57 miles inc intervals at "hard" pace

Did this before work near the office. Woke up and couldn't face it first thing so cycled to work to help wake up first.

3 sets of 2 mins (1 min recovery), 1 min (30s recovery), 30 seconds and 5 mins between sets

Wet and windy for this one and it was tough, but partly my own fault. I couldn't really see the watch and was focused so much and really giving it welly I overdid the effort a bit, even taking into account the non reliability of the watch on shorter splits. Target pace to be 7:37. Whoops.

Set 1 - 7:16, 7:11, 6:59
Set 2 - 6:42, 6:47, 7:15
Set 3 - 7:05, 6:55, 7:10

Friday - 35 mins easy, 3.61 miles @ 9:42 - In Berlin, lovely run along the river and taking in some sites including the Reichstag. Cold.

Saturday - 60 mins easy, 5.91 miles @ 10:09. My longer run of the week, still in Berlin, still cold. Similar route but also ran along by the Tiergarten (was dark so didn't go in) and through the Brandenburg Gate. Berlin runners very friendly.

Some cycling and football too this week, no pilates.

Week beginning 19/12 - 14 miles

Tuesday - 40 mins easy, 4.05 miles @ 9:53 - local loop

Wednesday - 45 mins easy, 4.49 miles @ 10:02 - commute to work

Saturday - 53 mins easy, 5.46 miles @ 9:42 - ran to parkrun and tipped around with Murphd and Anna, very enjoyable. Lovely catch up after and the usual suspects floating around.

Not feeling the best this week so stuck to easy running and dropped the session and treated the longer run as a bit of a stepback.

Not the best month overall, quite low mileage, really just keeping ticking over and adding in the various speed sessions. I thought it wise to keep the running at 3 days a week (plus the football etc) for a while after the November niggle. Gym visits were neglected with the various December social activities taking precedence but as the month finished I'm feeling well set up for the next block of training. Log to be continued.......

Week beginning 02/01/17

Monday: 5.72 miles inc intervals

Back to the routine of session Monday. Nice to still have the day off work and be able to do this in the park in the day. Park was packed with walkers, kids, bikes, dogs and all other modes of movement for children. I was dreading this before going out, purely because of the 600m repeats, although there were only two!

Two sets of 200m (200m recovery), 200m (400m recovery) and 600m with 5 mins between sets. Target time was 53s for the 200m and 163s for the 600's.

Set 1: 46, 51, 160
Set 2: 51, 52, 156

I think I've built the 600m's up in my head, I still find them tough but they're more doable now. Hopefully I'm getting used to them a bit as I think I was really struggling to hit the paces on them when I first started them. 12 mins warm up and 21 mins cool down.

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 45 mins easy - 4.25 miles @ 10:35

Met annapr for this one and headed through Artane and a nice loop of Raheny. Nice catch up and a good way to start the new year. The 45 mins flew by.

Thursday: Rest from running, back to pilates though

Friday: 35 mins easy, 3.45 miles @ 10:10

A frustrating day in work meant this had had potential for classification as "anger management run". Made a conscious effort to not hare off to blow off steam but focused on keeping it easy and just let myself relax. Not a bad plan for most of my runs as I suspect I've been doing most a touch fast. Checking in with my HR does indicate that my easy pace is getting quicker, and I never set out with easy paces in my head as I just focus on time now and how I'm feeling on the day with the route, weather etc. Having said I think I'm probably going a bit fast sometimes so need to keep an eye on that.

Saturday: 40 mins easy, 3.78 miles @ 10:35

Spent the morning volunteering at St. Anne's parkrun and socialising after so I stuck around the park after to do my run. Tipped around my favourite areas first and decided to break away from habits to vary my routes a bit and find some different spots. Going to try and make more of an effort this year to mix up the terrain, so run on grass or trails a bit more when given the opportunity.

Sunday: 90 mins easy, 8.52 miles @ 10:34

Met annapr for this one. Heading towards and through St. Anne's onto the coast and down the seafront to the Bull Wall and out to the statue and back again through the park and home. Longest run in a while so the legs were definitely feeling it by the end but as usual with the company it passed by quickly enough. Home, quick snack and change and back out to support the xc on in the park. Should left the watch ticking to include the scuttling around different spots to support, great to watch and catch so many in action.

Another decent week, 25.71 miles and I'm rolling the foot as I type to stay on top of things, Might book in for a sports massage this month before Raheny. Back with the bike for commuting this week along with the pilates. No gym visits yet, I didn't want to add back in everything at once, might try get there next week at some stage.

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

What's happened the squash?

TbL

It fizzled out in August/September which it always does due to holidays and recurring commitments we both have at that time of the year. After that my friend moved and we can't really play midweek in the courts we were before. Hard to find pay as you go courts in Dublin where neither are a member of a club so I've to look into it more.

I miss it though. I do enjoy it as an occasional workout and it's nice for variety.

Monday: 5.05 miles inc "hard" reps

Not in work today so headed to St. Anne's in the afternoon, a little apprehensive before heading out with the sound of the wind around the house.

Session was 3 x 4 mins at hard pace which is to be about 7:37. I was a bit tight for time so just took the 5 minutes between sets as the recovery which was fine and did the recoveries on the grass. Paces were as follows:

7:35, 7:32, 7:45

Jogging down to the park the wind didn't seem as bad as it had sounded but I did the first two with the benefit of whatever wind there was behind me. I made an effort not to tear off too fast like I did the last time I did the similar version of this session. The first one flew by and I was working hard by the end. The second one didn't pass by as quickly but I felt I zoned into the right pace well enough, happy to finish the 4 minutes for the next break. So far so good, I was happy with how it was going. Until I started into the last one and from the start it seemed off. The current pace barely got to 7:xx pace and yet the lap pace (not the overall run average pace) was showing 7:xx pace and that stayed the case for the whole 4 minutes. I'm not sure if the watch just didn't read right or if I completely underestimated how strong the wind was! I just tried to put the boot down for the last 60/90 seconds of the interval to cover off that possibility. I finished it sounding like I did a couple of weeks ago when I probably went out too hard and I ended up with my hands on my knees taking some deep breaths before heading off on my cool-down home. 13 minutes warm up and same for the cool down and no idea if the session went well or not :rolleyes:

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 40 mins easy, 3.87 miles @ 10:20

The running gods brought new runners in the post today so off I went in a new pair, delighted with life Lots of runners out this evening, none very friendly though. Great evening for it, love running in cooler weather like this. Body felt great with lots of energy, pace felt handy.

I've finally started putting a list together of some races to focus on. It's just rough at this stage, might not do all of them and could well end up adding in others instead. Depends on what crops up in real life! Looking a couple of months down the road I think I'll lean towards Dunboyne, Terenure and Crusaders for definite as they're all ones I've enjoyed before and think are good for some PB focusing. I would like to give cross country another go so I'm provisionally thinking the BHAA Garda XC in a couple of weeks, will see.

Raheny 5 mile 29/01
Garda XC 04/02
Raheny 2 mile 15/02
Dunboyne 4 mile 26/03
K Club 10k early April
Terenure 5 mile, May (or Dunboyne 5 mile)
Dunshaughlin 10k June
Crusaders 5k July
Jingle Bells 5k December
Definitely some more Raheny 2 mile races throughout the year, another couple of 5ks perhaps and maybe an 800m time trial if the opportunity arises!

adrian522 wrote: »

Looks good Laura. By the way the K-club is April 8th and Terenure is May 14th.

Thank you!! I was looking up some races and dates on the phone the other day, couldn't remember the K-club one and couldn't see the Terenure one for some reason. Hmmm that could be a problem, think we have a family communion that weekend. I wonder if I'd be missed.......Might have to look at the BHAA Dunboyne one.

Good to see you the other day, looked tough out there!