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What I log about when I log about running

Huzzah!

Huzzah! for running!

Background:

I'm female and in my 30s. I'm not sporty and I wouldn't really consider myself to be "fit". I'm also sllllooooowwww. But, for the most part, this doesn't bother me. I'm still surprised that I can comfortably run 10 miles. (10-whole-miles. Me!:o)

I've been running fairly consistently now for two(ish) years. I'd finished Couch 2 5k a couple of times before but never kept it up; mainly, I think, because I was running my training runs flat out and really didn't enjoy it. Three years ago, I tried again and stuck with it and now, despite my grumbling, love to run (at least most of the time). Key to running more consistently was discovering the runmute. You can't beat the headspace that running gives you.

I started practising yoga last year. I try and attend 3/4 classes a week. There may be "better" ways to cross train/complement my running but yoga is the only thing I'll stick to.

PBs and Goals:

My principal goal for the rest of the year is to try and run a PB at the race series half. My current PB is from the Wexford half earlier this year and is 2:15:4x; I trained like the dickens for it. Still and all, I'm hoping to run 2:14:xx in September. Along the way, I'd like to run a 10K PB at the Fingal 10k. My 10K PB is my oldest and, potentially, my softest. Once I run the half, I've half an eye on tackling a 5K plan - gotta get the value out of the buke - with Jingle Bells being my focus for the rest of the year. That's a way away yet, though.

I used a plan from Pfitzinger and Latter's Faster Road Running for Wexford earlier this year and I think I'll use it again for September. I've built in a buffer week for the Fingal 10k, so the plan will start in earnest next Monday. I've been enjoying running off plan for the past couple of weeks but am looking forward to getting back on plan soon. Gives me less wriggle room for slack off!

Distance|Current PB|Target|
5k|26:53|>26|
5 Mile|46:40|>46|
10k|59:53|58:xx|
10 mile|1:43|1:40|
Half mara|2:15:43|2:14:xx

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Huzzah!

Tuesday, October 31st
Plan: 13k Endurance
Total: 12.5, Endurance (1:29:46)
Avg Pace: 7:10 min/km
Avg HR: 153 Max HR: 171
Splits: 7:34; 7:49; 6:56; 7:32; 7:11; 7:16; 7:18; 6:35; 6:49; 7:01; 6:50; 6:39; and 8:28

I think this was a better attempt at reigning in the effort on the endurance runmutes. I’m not sure I’ll ever hit the paces on the runmute, which are prescribed 7:12 per km for the early stages and 6:32 for the latter part.

Thursday, November 3rd
Plan: Vo2 Max 11km, incl 5x3min uphill @ 3k-5k race effort (jog downhill recovery)
Total: 12km, including above.
Avg Pace: 7:20 min/km (1:28:56)
Avg HR: 149 Max HR: 181
VO2 Max Splits: 5:05; 5:05; 5:12; 5:15; and 5:22

This was a new kind of torture wrought upon me by Pfitz. My last VO2 Max workout was a disaster. I didn’t really think about this one until I was underway, which is unlike me, but progress of a sort, I think. Found it tough. Doubted my ability to continue after the first one but stuck at it. The splits are closer to 5k pace than 3k pace. I only included three-minute recoveries when I set the workout up, but I took a wee bit longer. I also walked some of each recovery, mainly because I wanted to keep moving forwards towards a hot shower and dinner, rather than run up and down the same hill. The last split isn’t as bad as it seems written down there – I’d about 20 seconds to go when I spotted a couple up ahead walking. If I’d maintained pace, I would’ve gone lumbering past them and probably then slowed just in front of them, so I just eased off the pace a bit to save my blushes.

ariana`

Following with interest

I bought that book (on your recommendation i believe) so i'm going to actually read it soon and pick one of the plans although realistically it will probably be January before i start to follow it. How did you find the HM plan? That is most likely the distance i will target although i haven't identified a target race yet.

I'm also thinking of joining a club, my local club does a track session once per week so i'm not sure how that will fit in with following a plan but i'll see how it goes.

chickey2

Well done on that session, it looks tough. I always dread the V02max sessions but feel good after them.

Huzzah!

ariana` wrote: »

Following with interest I bought that book (on your recommendation i believe) so i'm going to actually read it soon and pick one of the plans although realistically it will probably be January before i start to follow it. How did you find the HM plan? That is most likely the distance i will target although i haven't identified a target race yet.

I'm also thinking of joining a club, my local club does a track session once per week so i'm not sure how that will fit in with following a plan but i'll see how it goes.

From my relatively inexperienced position, I think the Pfitzinger plans are a decent step up from the more basic plans that we all start out using. They're also quite straightforward once you work out your paces and the structure of each of the workouts. The plans in the book are definitely a challenge, but you've built up a great base, so they might be less challenging for you. It might sound sad, but I got as much of a buzz seeing what I could achieve doing the plan than I did getting the actual PBs out of it! By this I mean, when I initially looked at the plan, the idea of doing a 16k run incorporating an 8-10k tuneup race on a Saturday followed by a 16k endurance run on the Sunday seemed impossible, but it was a great feeling once I'd done it.

I was definitely more comfortable the second time I used the half plan. There is a point around the four-to-six week point that I reconsider all my life's choices as that's the point I was at my most fatigued. Once you're about a month out from your goal race, though, the half plan gets easier. I've improved my half time by about six minutes in a year. All of my other PBs have fallen quite a bit too (3 minutes at 10k and 5k) A lot of which is the natural progression I made as a relative newbie, but a lot of it I put down to the plan.

Huzzah!

I meant to say that it's definitely a huge part of my 2018 plans, which are starting to take a small bit of shape, to join a club and I'm also a bit unsure as to how club sessions fit in with following a plan. It will be interesting to find out!

ariana`

Huzzah! wrote: »

From my relatively inexperienced position, I think the Pfitzinger plans are a decent step up from the more basic plans that we all start out using. They're also quite straightforward once you work out your paces and the structure of each of the workouts. The plans in the book are definitely a challenge, but you've built up a great base, so they might be less challenging for you. It might sound sad, but I got as much of a buzz seeing what I could achieve doing the plan than I did getting the actual PBs out of it! By this I mean, when I initially looked at the plan, the idea of doing a 16k run incorporating an 8-10k tuneup race on a Saturday followed by a 16k endurance run on the Sunday seemed impossible, but it was a great feeling once I'd done it.

I was definitely more comfortable the second time I used the half plan. There is a point around the four-to-six week point that I reconsider all my life's choices as that's the point I was at my most fatigued. Once you're about a month out from your goal race, though, the half plan gets easier. I've improved my half time by about six minutes in a year. All of my other PBs have fallen quite a bit too (3 minutes at 10k and 5k) A lot of which is the natural progression I made as a relative newbie, but a lot of it I put down to the plan.

Thanks. I think they will challenge me as well. Everything for the last 4 months has been run at any easy pace so running sessions like you just did the VO2 Max will challenge me A LOT :eek: Anyhow, i must have a better read of the book first. I'm sure i'll be back with questions.

Huzzah!

Friday, November 3rd
Plan: Recovery 5k
Total: 0
Too lazy to do this at lunchtime and no other time to get it done.

Saturday, November 4th
Plan: 14k Endurance
Total: 13.92km (1.34.03)
Avg Pace: 6:46min/km
Avg HR: 148 Max HR: 167
Splits: 6:56; 7:02; 7:02; 6:57; 7:01; 7:02: 6:52; 6:28; 6:26; 6:26: 6:26: 6:28; and 6:40

The evenness of the splits is appealing to me. Anyway, was looking forward to getting out on this and then I got delayed by visitors (how rude). I then struggled with motivation, but I was loving life once I got underway. The weather could not have been more perfect and I felt like I was cruising along. I hit the paces pretty bang on the effort was correct, too – what a difference a flat route makes! I took an out-and-back route and I’d a small concern that the wind was on my back the entire way out and that I’d struggle with it on the way home, but it was fine. It started to really chuck it down with rain when I was at the top of my road, so I didn’t bother adding the .10 to bring me to 14k.

48k total for the week. I need to stop skipping recovery runs but happy enough apart from that.

Huzzah!

Cor, is it really only week 3?!

Monday, November 6th
Plan: Speed 8km, incl 2 sets of 3x300m@800m to mile race pace (jog 300m recovery and 4 min btw sets)
Total: 9.7km
Max HR: 178
300m splits (avg pace): 4:42; 4:41; 4:34; 4:48; 5:22; and 4:33

Despite doing my best to mess this up, I think it went pretty well, apart from the second last split, which I made a hack of. I think the splits might be a couple of seconds outside what Pfitz recommends, but I used a calculator to find my mile race pace and I’m happy enough with what I managed. I was expecting this to be harder when I looked at it before setting off, but it was actually quite fun.

Tuesday, November 7th
Plan: 13k Endurance
Total: 12.5km,
Avg Pace: 6:55 min/km (1:25:16)
Avg HR: 149 Max HR: 170
Splits: 7:22; 7:33; 7:01; 7:19; 7:02; 6:48; 6:44; 6:29; 6:24; 6:40; 6:23; 6:28; and 9:03

Don’t you just love running? Delighted with this. My legs were really tired setting off, but I managed to hit all of the paces at the required effort for an endurance run. I didn’t think I’d manage this on a runmute, so I was pretty happy. Apart from that, it was just the perfect weather for running and I really enjoyed myself.

Thursday, November 9th
Plan: Lactate Threshold. 13km, incl 3x8min LT Intervals (jog 3 min recovery)
Total: 13.01km
Avg Pace: 6:56 min/km (1:30:18)
Avg HR: 150 Max HR: 179
Splits: 2k@7:21. 5k@7:18. LT: 5:38; 5:41; 5:34. Cooldown@8:03

Found it so difficult to motivate myself to get out and do this, which is odd given that I was loving life on Tuesday. My legs felt pretty heavy on this one and I was glad when the LT intervals started and woke them up a wee bit. I love a good tempo run and these intervals were fun. I struggled a bit in the middle of the second one as I was running up quite a steep hill but the others were manageable. Pretty happy with the pace on this; the hilly nature of my run home seems to be having less of a negative impact on pace v effort. Progress, of a sort

Huzzah!

Saturday, 11 November
Plan: 16k endurance
Total: 16.15km (1:51:49)
Avg HR: 148 Max HR: 175
Splits: 6:55; 7:13; 6:57; 6:59; 6:58; 7:03; 6:48; 7:00; 7:37; 6:25; 6;42; 6:32; 6:09; 6:14; 6:31; 8:39; and 7:35

This felt like a much longer long run. It had all the hallmarks of a proper long run, including dozing on the sofa for an hour in the afternoon once it was done

Everything felt quite tight once I’d finished and I possibly ran a couple of KMs too quickly but nothing a short recovery run and loosey goosey session won’t fix.

Sunday, 12 November
Plan: Friday’s recovery run of 5k.
Actual: 4k
Avg HR: 129 Max HR: 141 (take that, HADD!)
Avg pace: 7:43

Skipped Friday’s recovery run and it dawned on my on Saturday’s run that I was averaging only four runs a week, which isn’t good enough. I woke up on Sunday morning and my legs felt about two inches shorter than usual such was the tightness of my calves, so I decided to head out with my o/h on his recovery run. I was determined to keep this easy breezy, which I did. The stiffness eased quite nicely and I had a nice stretching session after.

55kms for the week and I’m enjoying the plan. It’s familiar enough that it’s easy to follow but different enough to keep it interesting. I’ve been running slightly lower mileage than what I’d been doing and I’ve been feeling good. I was surprised that next week is a recovery week but perhaps yesterday’s run shows me that it’s coming at the right time. The stitch issue remains a problem and I’d a corker of a one on the LT run. I even managed to get one today, despite not having eaten anything before heading out

eyrie

Dying with jealousy over here at your max HR!! :pac:

Stitches are nasty. I have no helpful suggestions whatsoever but I'm sorry you're experiencing them!

Huzzah!

eyrie wrote: »

Dying with jealousy over here at your max HR!! :pac:
(

Aye - just needed a few 13+ minutes miles to keep it there

Huzzah!

This week was a recovery week, made up of general aerobic runs of 10-11k in duration to total 49km. I managed 20.5

I took the hand on Monday evening and decided not to run as I could easily get the run in on Wednesday. That was a mistake and lesson learned. I really struggled to run at all for the rest of the week due to a dicky tummy and I should know by now to get my runs in as per the schedule. It felt really good to mitch off on a run, though!

Next week there will be some more plan deviation, although I'm determined to run the required amount of Ks. I got a last-minute free entry to Run in the Dark, so I'm going to do that as my VO2 max session - I know it's not the best run in the world but free is free and I need a little bit of help with this type of session, so I jumped at the opportunity. No great loss if it doesn't work out and it's too crowded or whatever.

Then, instead of a long run at the weekend, I'll be running Run the Line and I'm really nervous! It's like the first time I ran a parkrun or a road race all over again. I certainly won't be racing and I'm going to do my best to enjoy it and not less the nerves take over

chickey2

Run the line is a great race, I did it last year but unfortunately can't this year. I did the short course and walked a lot of the uphills. Enjoy.

eyrie

You've got an exciting week ahead of you so! Looking forward to hearing how you get on in Run the Line in particular, sounds like an amazing event. I know what you mean about the nerves but hope you're able to just enjoy it!

Baby75

Hi Huzzah really enjoying reading your log

we have ran a lot of the same races and I say passed each other as well as our times are so close

Well done on all your PB so far

good luck at run the line

Huzzah!

Baby75 wrote: »

Hi Huzzah really enjoying reading your log we have ran a lot of the same races and I say passed each other as well as our times are so close

Thanks! Given your great run on Sunday, it won’t be long until you’re leaving me in the dust, I think

Baby75

Huzzah! wrote: »

Thanks! Given your great run on Sunday, it won’t be long until you’re leaving me in the dust, I think

thanks plenty of room for both of us to see our times improve

Are you going to run DCM 2018 this year

skyblue46

Baby75 wrote: »

thanks plenty of room for both of us to see our times improve

Are you going to run DCM 2018 this year

Fair play to you woman with all the races you're running this year. Squeezing in next years race is something else though! Our own little time traveller :P

Baby75

skyblue46 wrote: »

Fair play to you woman with all the races you're running this year. Squeezing in next years race is something else though! Our own little time traveller :P

oooh well spotted

I am sitting here giggling talk about Jumping way ahead of myself LOL whoops!

Will you be running DCM ''next'' year

skyblue46

Baby75 wrote: »

oooh well spotted I am sitting here giggling talk about Jumping way ahead of myself LOL whoops!

Will you be running DCM ''next'' year

Not sure yet...I'm jumping even further ahead of myself. 3:15 to get an entry to Boston or London..I'm looking at a 2 year plan, if it fails I forget about it.

Huzzah!

Baby75 wrote: »

oooh well spotted I am sitting here giggling talk about Jumping way ahead of myself LOL whoops!

Will you be running DCM ''next'' year

That's the grand plan!

Huzzah!

Run in the Dark

I did this run in place of the planned VO2 Max run of 13km.
Warm up of 2k@7:39 and cool down of 1k@6:50.
Avg HR: 164 Max 176
Splits for the 5k: 5:11; 5:13; 5:12; 5:35; and 5:04 (26:36)

I’m still not in great form, with whatever ailing me last week turning into sinusitis, so this was my first run of the week. I suffer from sinusitis generally and, if I can motivate myself to get out and run, it often provides some relief. The race was the motivation, although I was also feeling a bit less rubbish than I had been on Monday and Tuesday. The plan was to run this at my current 5k PB pace of approx. 5:10/KM but I ended up running an average of 5:15/km. I couldn’t make my watch out so here’s a top tip: if you’re running a race at night, set your backlight to stay on.

The race was only slightly delayed and we set off in waved starts. There was plenty of room to run, until we hit the first turn, and then for the rest of the run, there was a lot of getting stuck behind slower runners and jostling for position, which was to be expected. I decided not to worry too much about hitting paces/effort and just enjoy. I pretty much ran this in my LT zone, so it’s hard to know where I am fitness wise, but I don’t think a run last night after missing various runs and being ill would’ve been any gauge anyway. I have to say, it was pretty funny watching people cut corners and run where they weren’t supposed to. I seem to have run a slightly too long route, but Garmins aren’t the most accurate around Grand Canal.

Thursday, 23 November
Recovery run 10k@6:59/km
Avg HR 135 Max 149

The silly season has started already and I foresee more runs into work to accommodate after-work shenanigan. Took me a while to get out of the pit and listening to the wind was not making this run an encouraging prospect. Overdressed for this. Took my gloves off about five minutes in, then my fleece came off and the gloves went back on. Nothing else much of note.

eyrie

Sounds like a good run for not being in great form! Was it a good event?
You're doing Run the Line this weekend aren't you? Enjoy!!

Huzzah!

eyrie wrote: »

Sounds like a good run for not being in great form! Was it a good event?
You're doing Run the Line this weekend aren't you? Enjoy!!

Yeah, that was the plan, until I had a bit of a meltdown and, for the first time ever, wimped out of a race

I read a Facebook update on Friday evening and got the idea that I would've been completely out of place taking part and that was that (how embarrassing).

Run in the Dark was good fun. It's definitely not one to race but the atmosphere was great. It was well enough organised, but at one point, I ran a completely different line to everyone else and I still don't know what the correct route was. I stuck to the road, while everyone else ran up on a path. The marshal didn't say they were wrong, so they probably weren't, but the route wasn't very clear. To be fair, that was the only bit that wasn't clear, though.

Huzzah!

Sunday, November 26th
Plan: Endurance 16km
Total: 16km (1:49:44)
Avg HR: 138 Max HR: 165
Splits: 7:06; 7:03; 6:45; 7:05; 7:03; 7:08; 7:19; 6:33; 7:08; 6:31; 6:30; 6:23; 6:21; 6:44; 6:45; and 7:12

Long run with nothing much of note. I didn’t feel wiped after this, like I did the last time. Gave my new Mizunos a spin. They’re my first non-Asics pair of running shoes and I love them. I can’t get over how easy they were to break in and they’re so light.

34kms for the week and not what it should be but it will do. *rambly bit ahead* I kind of regret choosing to do a 5-k plan and should have possibly stuck to base building/easy running for a couple of months, instead. I think it’s worthy logging as it’s something I will need to consider when putting my grand 2018 plan in place. I was having a small crisis in confidence with my running, which culminated in skipping RtL, and was probably as a result of not being able to run properly the last few weeks - all that extra energy had to go somewhere

Anyway, I’ll give Jingle Bells a spin on Saturday and see how I go. I’m going to try running it fasted to see if it helps the stitch problem.

I have also, despite swearing off the distance for life, signed up for the Wexford half in April and will be on the lookout for a plan to take me there. As much as I’ve enjoyed the FRR plans, I’ve been following them for a year now, in one variation or another, and it’s time to change it up a wee bit. I tentatively opened Jack Daniels last night before quickly closing it again, but the 18-week plan might be an option. I think I’m probably not experienced enough to give the Hanson method a try. The other option, of course, would be the graduates plan from last year. I quite like the idea of doing a parkrun tempo on a Saturday, followed by a long run on a Sunday, but would need to figure out how to include my runmutes as these would be slightly outside the 60-minutes prescribed for the bulk of the runs. Something to ponder. *ends the rambling*

Annie get your Run

Huzzah! wrote: »

Yeah, that was the plan, until I had a bit of a meltdown and, for the first time ever, wimped out of a race I read a Facebook update on Friday evening and got the idea that I would've been completely out of place taking part and that was that (how embarrassing).

Oh no!!!! You would not have been

If you ever think that again just post the question in the race thread and someone will give you an honest answer - you could have run with Anna and I.

Huzzah!

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Oh no!!!! You would not have been If you ever think that again just post the question in the race thread and someone will give you an honest answer - you could have run with Anna and I.

Thanks - you're very good! I just had a numpty moment. I'd signed up with my boyfriend, who was more than willing to stick with me, but I just had a feeling that everyone was going to be far quicker. I should've thought of the race thread!

eyrie

Aww, that's totally understandable - I get it! I was intimidated just thinking about RTL. I couldn't do it anyway, but if I could have I'm not sure I would either, so I know where you're coming from. Would definitely like to do it some day though!
Know what you mean about plan regret/indecision too. So many options and it's hard to know what the right way to go is. FWIW it's worth I loved the Graduate plan and would definitely use it again, but I've no experience of any of the others you mentioned.

Annie get your Run

eyrie wrote: »

Aww, that's totally understandable - I get it! I was intimidated just thinking about RTL. I couldn't do it anyway, but if I could have I'm not sure I would either, so I know where you're coming from. Would definitely like to do it some day though! .

You should both look at www.imra.ie

cheap to join and very reasonably priced trail runs. I was unfortunate enough not to get to do any this year but hopefully will in the new year - most weekend races are on Jan-March.

I get it too BTW, I was exactly the same last year but it's an event for all standards and the organisers are lovely and very welcoming.

The Muppet

+1 on the graduates plan, it has a variety of sessions and longer runs, I used it this year myself for the Great North Run and really enjoyed it.