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Cool runnings

davedanon

This is my training log. I've been wanting to start one for a while, but there didn't seem much point until I got London out of the way. I'm feeling a bit aimless now, as it happens, but I hope this will help cement things in my mind. I'm also starting it because a training diary is a useful tool for tracking progress, and while I'm an assiduous logger of my miles on Garmin Connect, there is a lack of detail to individual runs, unless you post notes, but I think this is a better option. So, I'm doing this for me, but any feedback garnered, be it positive or otherwise, will be extremely useful and gratefully received. The potted history goes like so:

I'm 52, and I've been running since 2008. I have my wife, and sister, in different ways, to thank for the fact that I lined up at the start of the 2008 RS 5 mile in the park and subsequently ran 40:xx. Then I did the 10, and the half. The marathon I (wisely) left until 2009. I had joined Tallaght AC, and after lots and lots of miles, I ran DCM 2009 and miraculously finished in 3:47. This was a minute quicker than my one previous marathon, DCM 1983, when as an undertrained 20 year-old I struggled home in a terrible state, and that was when the route went through my native village of Raheny. Oh the shame, now thankfully expunged. My marathon experience has been very much one of a good day, followed by an indifferent or outright bad one, but bit by bit the times have come down, sub 3:30, then 3:20, until I ran 3:14:18 in London 2015. That brings it up to date. My current goals are to spend the next couple of months training for shorter stuff, then have a crack at another pb in October at the DCM, but to be honest I'm very much feeling my way. After Derry last spring I had a disaster in October, but then so did many. My ultimate aim is to have a couple of decent cracks at sub-3, or at least as close to it as I can get. Dublin is very possibly not the best place for that, and I will need every possible advantage to pull this off. At the moment I think I've recovered well, but my feeling is that one only has so many hard marathons in the legs, and if I do Dublin it's because I always do it, rather than as part of a long-term plan. Which seems a bit vague and unfocussed, and possibly even a waste of precious time. All of which is a typically long-winded way of saying that I'm not 100% sure of what I'm at here yet. Sort of making it up as I go along kind of thing. So here goes....

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davedanon

Saturday 28th

20-odd minute jog.

2.68 @9.52

HR 131

Sunday 29th

Dublin City Marathon. Went into this with high hopes of a first decent outing since 2012 (!) , when I broke 3:20 for the first time. That was a memorable day, and I still remember the feeling of exultation crossing that line, with 3:19:xx showing on the big race clock. You would endure many a bad day for that feeling every once in a while. 5 years is pushing it though.

Sad to say, unfortunately, it was not to be, yet again. At 14.5 miles I stepped off the course in Walkinstown village. That's where the OH is from, and I knew the local roads well enough. I could plot a route back to town without coming too close to the race. I didn't want to see or speak to anyone connected with this damn event. I just wanted to go home, climb into bed and pull the covers over my head for a long time. A combination of a chill wind (conditions were bloody perfect for running, dammit, let's face it) and the knowledge that every minute that passed brought an increased likelihood of encountering clubmates fresh off marathon pb's had me jogging back to town after only a short while. Got back just before 12 noon, and promptly ran into Krusty, followed by two clubmates. They had both pb'd with 2:49 - 'A' target achieved.

At this stage, my mood had mellowed enough that I was willing to countenance a few brain-numbing pints in McGrattan's. Unlikely to meet any TAC heads in there anyway. After a while I found myself being advised to A) run another marathon very soon because I "hadn't flogged myself" by Krusty's OH ("she's not very tactful", sighed he) and then

being recruited for Krusty's Big 2018 Rotterdam Adventure ("we're all training for 2:27!!!"). All of which just goes to illustrate yet again the triumph of hope over experience. But first, I needed to understand what had just happened. If such was possible.

For the first 10 miles, despite being unable to bridge the gap to the 3.10 pacing balloons up ahead, I was bang-on pace at an average of 7.15 per mile. From what I can tell, furthermore, there was only 2 balloons - either the third balloon or its owner had disappeared - and for a while I laboured under the misapprehension that the third one might be behind me, and I was therefore still in the pacing 'box'. As the gap lengthened, though, I realised my error.

The 10 mile point is just after Chapelizod bridge, where the road starts to climb, and signals the beginning of the drags that last until the Walkinstown roundabout. Very quickly my pace slowed, even though my half-time was 1:36:xx, until mile 13 took me 8 minutes 52 seconds to negotiate. I struggled up Crumlin road, unable to comprehend what was happening to me. I had prepared so well. 12 miles @MP - no problem. Here it was, Race Day, and I was in big, big trouble. Unwelcome thoughts invaded my consciousness all of a sudden, and like an earworm, they are very hard to dislodge. There was 12 MILES left to go. Could I contemplate the suffering that was going to involve. The A, B AND C goals were all out the window, quite evidently. I reckon I would have ended up running about 3:30, had I kept going.

Then, just ahead of me, a guy stopped running, and it seemed to enable me. I stopped running too. I did say that everything had been going well, and that all the signs - weather. etc - were propitious. But there was one odd thing. My hamstrings and glutes had been really giving me gyp all race, and this was unusual. It wasn't painful or crippling enough to prevent me running, but it didn't help. Anyway, it gave me an 'excuse' to stop and try and do something about it, so after a bit of desultory stretching I got going again.

It didn't last long. As previously mentioned, the demons were in my head, and busily plotting how to get me back to town as quickly as possible. I started looking for suitable places to decamp. Barriers all the way past the Children's hospital. Feck that. The village. No way was I going up that drag to the roundabout. The race streamed up Walkinstown Road. I took the first left up Balfe Rd. instead.

My race was over.

PS: One other thing. The day before the race I realised that I was coming down with a cold. It's not an excuse. I believe it had no effect on my performance, but the sniffles persisted for a day or two after, before going away again. Odd. By sheer coincidence, though, I was due in the doctor's yesterday for check-up and bloods, so, possibly, they may reveal something that might account for what happened on Sunday. We shall see.

Week's mileage 36

Singer

Do you have HRM data? Last year when I made a vey similar b0ll0x of DCM, afterwards I discovered that my heart-rate was through the roof for the race (way higher than a much faster HM a month prior) which in retrospect was probably down to a very inconveniently timed cold.

Best of luck with Rotterdam

davedanon

Singer wrote: »

Do you have HRM data? Last year when I made a vey similar b0ll0x of DCM, afterwards I discovered that my heart-rate was through the roof for the race (way higher than a much faster HM a month prior) which in retrospect was probably down to a very inconveniently timed cold.

Best of luck with Rotterdam

Nah, seems to be disappointingly normal.

davedanon

30th-31st

No running. Sunk in gloom.

Wednesday 1st November

Short back on the horse run.

3.03 @8.23

HR 123/135

Thursday 2nd

Systems check.

7 @8.28

HR 140 (spiking, unlikely Max)

Friday 3rd

Same as yesterday. 4x35 sec hill sprints to finish.

7.42 @8.27

HR 122/150

Saturday 4th

Slightly hungover Howth trail/road/pier run. Bloody cold too.

5.46 @9.12

HR 119/141

Sunday 5th

Rest

Week's mileage 23

davedanon

Monday 6th

7 miles @8.32

HR 117/149

Tuesday 7th

6x300m, wu and cd. Done at mile pace from a couple of years back, for some reason. Just a bit of snappy stuff with an eye on a parkrun this weekend.

1.16 @5.30

HR 136/166. Peaked on the third rep, then seemed to settle in around a max of about 150 thereafter.

Wednesday 8th

Rest

Thursday 9th

6.3 @8.17

HR 134

Friday 10th

Easy run, with half a dozen short strides to finish.

6.13 @8.34

HR 126

Saturday 11th

Tymon parkrun. Perfect running weather, cool, damp, virtually windless. A tight group of about 6 formed after the first turn and we tackled the drag. The pace got a bit hot for me, and I dropped back a little, becoming involved in a little three-way battle instead, while a trio of faster chaps strung themselves out over a hundred metres or so. One big chap wouldn't countenance anyone passing him, and surged whenever I did so. I figured that myself and the third chap, who wore a DCM finisher's top (and was, inevitably, from BP) and looked comfortable enough, would probably burn him off. On we went, and sure enough the big chap found that another surge was beyond him, and it was just two - or so I thought. On the 2nd lap the big lad came back again, and this time it was him and the other guy who dropped me, and seemed to work together thereafter. I was blowing at this stage, and mentally I was just hanging on, hoping that all this effort was worth a sub-20 run at the very least.

At some point I accepted that I had no chance of catching either of them, and also began worrying that someone might catch me, which was enough motivation to pick up the pace to some degree after the last left turn at the stone bridge. Hitting the finish line, I was handed a token with the number 8 on it, and made my way to the nearest solid object (a wall) for the now traditional post-parkrun dry-retching. If there's no other reason to skip breakfast, this will do well enough. 19:46 on the clock and I'm happy enough. I plan to be back next week to improve on it. D....., my BP friend who finished 7th (the big lad knew what he was doing after all) tells me his DCM yielded a 3:50 finish off a 3:45 target. And he can run a 19:40 5k? Some serious sandbagging there. I tell him he'll knock chunks off next time out.

3.09 @6.24 (19:46)

HR 162/174

Sunday 12th

Rest

Week's mileage 32

davedanon

Monday 13th

Easy run on local loops.

6 @8.49

HR 125/140

Tuesday 14th

8x300m @5k pace. Done in the park, mostly on level or slightly downhill sections. A little slower than I had expected, probably because I couldn't figure out how to change distance unit on the watch, so ended up with 0.2m intervals - 322 metres.

6.12, 6.05, 6.12, 6.04, 6.19, 6.14, 5.58, 6.20 (av 6.10)

HR 130/162

Wednesday 15th

Trail run around Howth. Four miles or so, very easy. No watch with me.

Thursday 16th

Rest

Friday 17th

Slightly longer run. Feeling fresh after day off.

8.57 @8.21

HR 125. (If there's only one figure, it's the average, because there has been an unlikely spike giving an incorrect Max figure)

Saturday 18th

Tymon parkrun. A little better prepared this week, and I ran from the house which gave me a longer (2.5 mile) warm up. It looked chilly, but in the end the hat and gloves weren't needed for the actual racing. I felt reasonably good, until some, er, stomach problems presented themselves at 9:20pm. Erk alors! A quick trip to the bushes later and I was at the startline, but most definitely not shaking anyone's hand.

A certain regular first-finisher was in attendance, and although he assured me he was 'only going easy', I knew him well enough to take that with a large pinch of salt. His idea of easy and mine are two entirely different concepts. Someone else seemed to be taken in, however - none other than my BP friend from last week, who went shooting up along the grass verge onto K.E's shoulder, and I could hear them chatting as we headed up the long drag for the first time.

I was being a bit more conservative this week, as my splits had been quite uneven last time out, and I was aiming for 3 miles at 6.20 pace or thereabouts. I found myself trailing along behind a clubmate who ran 20 and change last week, some big chap who looked like his size would tell against him, and DF, a doughty competitor who despite his age bracket (60+) was I knew good for a decent sub-20 run. My clubmate dropped back, as I knew he would have to, the big guy couldn't stay with the pace, and it was just me and the oul' fella.

Into the second half, and I had opened up a little gap. He wasn't going away though, but I felt that I could even afford to let him catch me, as I was fairly confident I could take him on the run-in. I was familiar with his running through encounters in the park, and had noted that he always seemed to go hard. I never saw him running easy. Impressive as it was (and it is. A sub-20 for him rates 82% age-graded - I've never cracked 80%) I had the feeling that he was one-paced. It's asking a lot to expect a kick from a man of his vintage, I suppose.

Sure enough, he slowly but gamely made up the few metres between us, then took a short lead. We were into the last mile now, and it's fast. At the stone bridge you veer left, and though it was too far from the line to go all-out, I upped the pace and overtook my game friend. No noticeable response. It was now that I noticed my BP friend up ahead. Not all that far ahead, in fact. With about 150m to go I knew it was now or never, and gave it everything I had. If he had anything left at all it might be enough to hold me off, but his first (6 minute) mile was telling on him now, and I swept past him with only 20m or so to go.

Hit the tape, try to keep stomach contents (1 espresso!) down, recover. Get everything scanned, and I've finished 5th, later upgraded to 4th. My friend comes over and we chat. To be fair, he's knocked a second off his time from last week, but my time has improved by 9 whole seconds. Once again happy with performance. Next week it's the Berlin of parkruns, St. Anne's in Raheny, final preparation for the sub-19 attempt at the Jingle Bells.

3.1 @6.19 (19.37)

Splits 6:24, 6:34, 6:13

HR 160/169

Sunday 19th

Easy run.

6.1 @8.31

HR 126/145

Week's mileage 40

davedanon

Monday 20th

Easy run.

7.12 @8.30

HR 131

Tuesday 21st

3x1m@5k pace. Run on local loops. Nasty headwind in one direction.

6.25, 6.16, 6.11

HR 136/165

Wed/Thu/Fri

No running. Work and ******mas season onset to blame.

Saturday 25th

The planned parkrun wasn't to be (see above for excuse reason). 10 mile run a poor substitute.

10.01 @8.08

HR 129/144

Sunday 26th

Easy run. Baltic early doors. Full cold-weather w****r here - tights, hat, gloves.

6@8.48

HR 125

Week's mileage 29

davedanon

Monday 27th

Easy run.

8.19 @8.39

HR 125

Tuesday 28th

3 m tempo, wu/cd.

6.46, 6.51, 6.47

HR 140

Wednesday 29th

Easy run.

6.01 @8.48

HR 126

Thursday 30th

Rest

Friday 1st December

Rest

Saturday 2nd

Jingle Bells 5k. A last tilt at a sub-19 5k before the year petered out. Perfect running conditions in the park on Saturday morning, so, no excuses. I wasn't completely convinced that I was in the required shape, however, and so it proved, as although in the initial stages a glance at the watch revealed a current, too fast, pace of 5.45, the needed slowdown went too far in the opposite direction and resulted in a 6.13 first mile. Mile 2 was a little slower at 6.20, but the gains in JB are all in the last downhill third. At about this stage I was overtaken by a teammate who was showing his suspected class in a big way. It was both a case of strength on his part and weakness on mine, as instead of pulling back time on the downhill stretch, I was blowing quite a bit, and basically just hanging on. I have run sub-19 3 or 4 times in this race, usually achieved by dint of a sub-6 last mile, but this day I wasn't up to it, and finished with a 6.06 for a 19.07 result. Happy enough? Meh.

5k @ 6.09 (19.07)

HR 163/173

Sunday 3rd

3.24 miles. Jog down to Intermediate xc in Tymon and back again.

Week's mileage 30

Monday 4th

Rest

Tuesday 5th

Rest/inertia

Wednesday 6th

Easy run.

8.13 @9.25

HR 121

Thursday 7th

3m tempo run. Run around the local flat loop.

6.49, 6.54, 6.41

HR 129/159

davedanon

Friday 8th

Short and easy.

4.5 @8.31

HR 124/137

Saturday 9th

Rest

Sunday 10th

'Long' run. Quite brisk.

10 @7.45

HR 142/161

Week's mileage 29

davedanon

Monday 11th

Easy run.

9.01@8.57

HR 124

Tuesday 12th

4x1m@10k pace. 2 min rec. A solo effort. Set the watch up for an interval session, so had no real idea of pace. I could have started pressing buttons to find out, but I was too busy gasping for breath.

6.40, 6.28, 6.24, 6.27

HR 139/166

Wednesday 13th

Recovery run. A miserable evening. Cold, dank and wet. Nice run though.

8.47 @9.14

HR 126

davedanon

Thursday 14th

6x1m@MP was the suggested session, but I had a mind to do a parkrun, so was happy enough to cap it at 4. Run on the flat loop at the back of the house.

4x1m@MP (7.13, 7.24, 7.15, 7.15)

HR 131/150

Friday 15th

Easy run.

7.09 @9.06

HR 128

Saturday 16th

Tymon parkrun, incorporating easy run with clubmates. In hindsight, 7 miles was possibly a little too much warmup for me, given my subsequent performance. It was a cold morning, and patches of frost around the start area prompted the RD to move the startline forward. The result was that the Finish line was now closer to the old startline, with a loooong, punishing-looking run-in. Speaking to Rob afterwards, and he let on that he had erred on the generous side with his measuring, by at least 50 metres. This was to prove significant for a clubmate, who despite a heavy schedule (17 miles the day before) ended up duelling it out with the ageless Dessie, while I toiled behind, unable to find any zip in my legs. I finished in 20.20, good enough for 7th place. I did manage to pip my other clubmate, though, who was struggling a bit with an achilles problem. The other chap finished in 20.04 - which almost certainly would have given him a legitimate sub-20 but for the inadvertent course extension.

The irony is that a timing error a couple of weeks back had given him an official sub-20, despite him clocking 20.07 on his garmin. We had actually been discussing the topic on our warmup run (the chap in question wasn't with us), and the situation had been clarified for me by someone saying "no, he didn't break 20, because he came in behind yer man from BP, the pacer". "Ah", I said, "that's Ray. Yeah, I know him".

Whereupon the man himself appeared. And again, a little while later. And once more, before we arrived at the parkrun staging area. With cooldown it was a 12 mile session, so the long run box also got ticked.

5k @6.33 (20.20)

Sunday 17th

Easy run. A big jump in mileage this week, and target reached.

6.17 @8.43

HR 120/133

Week's mileage 60

davedanon

Monday 18th

Rest

Tuesday 19th

5x1k@10k pace.

3.52, 3.56, 3.54, 4.07, 3.58

HR 132/157

Wednesday 20th

Easy run.

10.05 @8.57

HR 118/134

Thursday 21st

Rest

Friday 22nd

4x1 miles @HMP.

6.39, 6.56, 6.44, 6.51

HR 140/161

23rd/24th

Rest

Week's mileage 25

Monday 25th

GOAL Mile.

6 minutes, maybe a bit less.

Tuesday 26th

TAC Kris Kringle race.

2.66 @6.41

HR 154/173

Wednesday 27th

Rest

Thursday 28th

Easy run on the Curragh. Beautiful morning too.

8.18 @8.54

HR 121/141

Friday 29th

Easy run.

5.17 @8.44

HR 122

Saturday 30th

Floundering a bit lately, in terms of of goals, so went out today thinking vaguely of some kind of session. A 4 mile tempo seemed satisfactory, but when the first mile came in at 7.01, I just stopped, and thereafter it became an interval session. After mile 2 I wanted to quit altogether, but kept going somehow and the splits got better.

4x1mile.

7.02, 7.00, 6.40, 6.31

HR 127/162

Sunday 31st

TAC New Year's Eve waterworks run.

10.7 miles

Week's mileage 37

davedanon

Monday 1st January 2018

Happy New Year. No running.

Tuesday 2nd

5 mile tempo @HMP. Horrendous weather, if I recall.

6.48, 6.57, 7.11, 7.17, 7.00

HR 141/163

Wednesday 3rd

Rest

Thursday 4th

3x1k/8x assorted hill-sprints/1k @5k pace.

Roughly 6.10 pace.

HR 129/163

Friday 5th

5 miles @8.40

HR 118/133

Saturday 6th

Rest

Sunday 7th

Dublin Masters xc. A crisp, sunny day in Raheny, but the wind blew relentlessly. Ran ok, but wilted a little from the 3rd lap on, and finished 4th scorer on the oul' fella team. We were 6th overall, which is respectable.

6k 27.01

HR 159/172

Week's mileage 25

davedanon

Monday 8th

Easy run. Up to the waterworks in the dark.

10.03 @8.56

HR 122

Tuesday 9th

6x800. Done with the legend JT and a couple of noobs. They both wilted after one rep. Average 3.10 for the 6.

HR 148/168

Wednesday 10th

Easy hour.

7.24 @8.45

HR NA

Thursday 11th

Easy run. Didn't feel up to a session after xc and track during the week.

5.06 @8.59

HR 113/131

Friday 12th

Easy run.

5.64 @8.43

HR 120/136

Saturday 13th

BHAA XC Tymon Park. Not much evidence of the hoped-for improvement from the previous week.

3.92 @7.13 (28.16)

HR NA

Sunday 14th

Long run. 12 miler up to Waterworks gate.

12.6 @8.32

HR 126/140

Week's mileage 55

davedanon

Monday 15th

Rest

Tuesday 16th

Trail run from Marlay park up into hills.

9.16m

HR 125/150

Wednesday 17th

Rest

Thursday 18th

Brisk, longish run.

10.01 @8.00

HR 137/151

Friday 19th

Rest

Saturday 20th

Cherryfield XC. Another so-so performance, on a very mucky course.

5m 37.04

HR 155/162

Sunday 21st

10m long run. On club lockup so cut it slightly short. Horrendous weather, absolutely teeming down the whole time.

10.01 @8.40

HR 127/143

Week's mileage 38

davedanon

Monday 22nd

Easy recovery run through Tymon.

7.08 @9.18

HR 116/135

Tuesday 23rd

Easy run, no session.

7.63 @8.28

HR 124/137

Wednesday 24th

8.34 @8.38

wu/cd and 10x90secs/90 secs recovery. 6:50-7:00 pace. Did these in the park, which made it a little more difficult to hit the proper pace. The reps ranged between 6:27 to 7:05, with the average about 6:42

HR 127/154

Thursday 25th

Rest

Friday 26th

Easy run in the park.

8.01@8.42

HR 122/147*

Saturday 27th

Early start with the long run boys. Waterworks route, turned at gate and came back by Kiltipper route.

7.08 @8.46

HR 124/139

Sunday 28th

Raheny 5. It's always in and around it, but this year my birthday and the '5' did actually finally coincide. Just as well I didn't run well enough for silverware in my new age category so, as my change in status wasn't acknowledged in the results. It was a good day for running: mild, but a little blowy. However, the new route (of which I approve) meant that we avoided most of the dreaded Howth road drag/headwind combo. Please to retain this new configuration, RS peeps.

Despite jumping in right at the front, I somehow managed to find myself well back in the crowd at the gun, and paid for it with a very slow start which cost me at least 15 seconds over the first mile (6.40). It's a moot point whether I could have hung on to all of those seconds, however. Meanwhile, I think I'm Tallaght's backmarker as we stream down All Saints towards Watermill, but as we negotiate the new route section I establish my normal place in the running order. Miles 2 and 3 are solid 6:30s and along the way I pass my one real target today - a clubmate who's had the better of me over the xc muck the last couple of weeks. That'll do as a birthday present to myself.

At the end of mile 3 we're about to enter the park near the Red Stables, and I'm happy enough with my progress. I feel I've something left in the tank and not totally gassed as I often am on this stretch. I've no-one in sight in front of me, however, and nothing coming from the rear, so there's no incentive to really push. Not that there's necessarily any extra capacity there.

Heading up the main avenue towards the hairpin and mile 4 (6.50), and I can feel the pace dropping a little. Then we hit the turn, and some guys in front of me slow to a virtual standstill. It's a struggle picking up the pace again, but there's less than a mile to go now, and it's a case of hanging on as best one can. Through the park and back out onto All-Saints. Counting down the corners now, and after the penultimate, I pick up my pace, then drive on with all my might down the finishing stretch. I pick off a couple, but one or two guys do just enough to stay in front, and I cross the line with the race announcer and the clock both telling me it's 33-something....that doesn't seem right (or fair!) and after a few minutes I realise that my starting position has added a lot to my gun time. I make it 32.45, and sure enough that is eventually confirmed in the official results.

Beforehand I had estimated that a sub-33 time would represent a decent effort, so I am reasonably happy, and I had revenge for xc defeats on 2 clubmates, as it turned out.

5 @6.33 (32:45)

HR 156/170

Week's mileage 48

davedanon

Monday 29th

Short, very easy.

5 @9.10

HR 118/130

Tuesday 30th

Easy run.

6.02 @8.40

HR 122/132

Wednesday 31st

6x3 min @ 6.40 pace (75 rec) , 4 min break, 4x30 sec hard (1 min rec) wu/cd

Roughly approximate to 800s, but the time-based interval has a slightly different dynamic. Average probably 6.35 pace. The 30sec intervals aren't timed, but I aimed at a moderately-stro7g 200m effort.

HR 127/154

Thursday 1st February

Easy run.

7.72 @8.37

HR 126/139

Friday 2nd

Long run. Done out and back on the Waterford Greenway. Finished strongly with a 7.23, partly because the OH was (I imagined) waiting impatiently for me back at the start. Hence the HR.

12.06 @8.16

HR 125/155

Saturday 3rd

Rest

Sunday 4th

Rest

Week's mileage 38

OOnegative

Best of luck in Donadea, DFIU as himself says.

davedanon

OOnegative wrote: »

Best of luck in Donadea, DFIU as himself says.

Cheers, but it didn't happen in the end. Was only a training spin anyway.

davedanon

Monday 5th

Easy recovery, with a couple of sneaky 400s on the track at the end.

6.35 @9.10

HR 121/150

Tuesday 6th

5x800@3.10/90 rec. Meant to be 6x, but was feeling a little fatigued.

In my mind these were more or less on the money, but the stats say an average pace of 6.07, which would be a little quick.

HR 145/162

Wednesday 7th

Easy recovery.

7.10 @9.12

HR 120/139

Thursday 8th

Easy run.

7 @8.31

HR 128/149

Friday 9th

12x40sec hill sprints/90 rec. Done on the hill opposite the Speaker Conolly, on the long side, which has a fairly consistent incline and is perfect for the required interval. Pace not really relevant, 5k-ish but more about controlled effort and maintaining form and cadence (in my humble opinion)

HR 123/155

Saturday 10th

Long run up to Waterworks. Nearly always the most satisfying run of the week.

12.06 @8.45

HR 128/148

Sunday 11th

A desultory few miles to round out a 7 day week and hit 50 to boot.

4.29 @8.46

HR 123/132

Week's mileage 50

davedanon

Monday/Tuesday 12/13th

Rest. After me getting coach to change the plan because I was likely to run 7 days most weeks, and then I miss two days running due to birthday and work stuff.

Wednesday 14th

3x800@3.10/4x600@2.20/3x400@1.35 - 90 rec throughout. An interesting session. Wishing to time the recoveries properly, I decided to set up three separate interval sessions on the Garmin, as it doesn't allow you to vary the distances on its interval feature. Then I managed to make a dog's dinner of it, as I couldn't be bothered changing the units from imperial to metric, and buggered up the distances.

3x800 3:11, 3:11, 3:13

4x600 broadly in line I think, can't figure out stats

3x400 1:35, 1:34, 1:32

HR 140/161

Thursday 15th

Easy run.

8.01 @8.32

HR 125/146

Friday 16th

12x40secs hill sprints/90 rec. As last week, opposite Speaker for these. Limited time available, so a truncated warmup and cooldown. Nasty headwind too. Again, all about the effort here.

HR 126/151

Saturday 17th

Long(ish) run. At an event in Croke Park the previous night, so I ended up running in to collect the car. Went the length of the Dodder as far as Ringsend, then over the East Link and up East Wall and Clonliffe roads.

10.56@8.34

HR 122/136

Sunday 18th

Rest. Completely forgot about family event. Running aborted.

Week's mileage 32

davedanon

Monday 19th

Easy recovery.

6.61 @9.18

HR 118/129

Tuesday 20th

3x400, 4x300, 4x200. 75 rec. Targets 1.28/1.06/44 secs. Cunningly ran in one continuous chunk on the Garmin, which made it look like 2 miles at 5.35 pace. Even so, it was too fast. The 400s were fine, but I was definitely too hot on the 3's and 2's. A product of anxiety, rather than Wow These Are No Problem To Me.

HR 128/158

Wednesday 21st

Easy recovery.

7.07 @8.55

HR 120/144

Thursday 22nd

Easy run. Doing a parkrun on Saturday, so no 2nd session this week.

7.62 @8.47

HR 120/140

Friday 23rd

Short easy run. Think I ran with the new husky. Contrary to popular belief, a big strong dog that loves to run seems to still slow one down overall. When it came to a hill and I wanted him to drag me up it he wouldn't play ball, but he did pull me downhill unnecessarily.

4.68 @9.09

HR 127

Saturday 24th

Tymon parkrun, incorporated into 12 mile long run. Not having raced (on road) since the Raheny 5, I prevailed upon coach to let me run a parkrun tester/fact-finding mission. Just to establish a baseline for comparison purposes. I promised not to look at the watch, and I only did once, just to check pace. Also, it turned out that BP didn't have a 20 minute pacer in attendance, plus none of the usual sub-20 suspects (Dessie, Jack) were around, so that all helped in terms of me not knowing what pace I was running at. After a 3 mile warm-up, and a few strides, we set off and a group of 4 broke away fairly quickly, followed by two chaps and myself. The intention was to ease my way into the distance with a comfortable 1st mile. Ideally, in my mind, a 6.30/6.20/6.10 progression would give me a nice sub-20 run. The 6.30 duly ensued, but evidently I slowed a fair bit on mile 2, with a 6.50. I had put the 2 fellas behind me fairly quickly, but one was still chasing me hard - or so I thought. Footsteps approached, then receded, then came again, harder this time. I knew I couldn't hold him off, but lo, it turned out to be a woman. I tried to hang on to her coattails, but she eventually built up a 30 metre lead. We were on the last mile now with the drag negotiated for the last time, and now one of the pursuing chaps did make an appearance and overhauled me with 1000 metres to go. Well now, I said to myself. We're a long way out, pal. I hope you've got something left: because I've got something left. Over the stone bridge and a left turn, and that's where you show your hand. I pushed on, and he wasn't expecting the challenge. It was too much of a challenge running the first woman down, and anyway I was blowing a fair bit. The last mile was 6.17 and I crossed the line in 7th for an official time of 20.25

Afterwards I jogged around for another 6 miles to get 12 in. Big club 40th to go to later.

3.1 @6.34 (20.25)

HR 150/165

Sunday 25th

Easy recovery. Wasn't sure what I was up for. Had 2 dogs with me for one thing, one of whom stayed tethered to me the whole time. In the end managed to stay out for 7+ miles to get me 50 for the week.

7.24 @9.41

HR 112/127

Week's mileage 50

Murph_D

What’s a too-fast 300 and 200 for you, as a matter of interest?

davedanon

Murph_D wrote: »

What’s a too-fast 300 and 200 for you, as a matter of interest?

Sorry, Murph. Missed this. Erm, I think the targets were 1.06 and 44 seconds, and I was 2-3 seconds fast on both.

davedanon

Monday 26th

Easy 6.

6.02 @9.13

HR 120

Tuesday 27th

Track session. 3x (4,3,2,1 mins) @6.40 - 90 secs recovery, 3 mins between sets. Moved up from Thursday as a trip to Kerry for some mountain-climbing had been planned, but, the Beast was on its way to mess up everyone's plans.

Set 1 6.43, 6.38, 6.41, 6.17
Set 2 6.35, 6.40, 6.39, 6.31
Set 3 6.47, 6.48, 6.34, 6.20

HR 136/156

Wednesday 28th

Easy run, probably in the first of the snow.

5.22 @9.43

HR 115

Thursday 1st March

Snowed in

Friday 2nd

Awful, slushy run on any roads that were runnable, including Tallaght bypass!

4.25 @9.28

HR 135

Saturday 3rd

Conditions a bit better. Still on the roads though. A few nippy miles in there.

6.07 @8.17

HR 127/152

Sunday 4th

No running

Week's mileage 31

davedanon

Monday 5th

Easy run.

5.16 @9.30

HR 122

Tuesday 6th

6.12 @8.29

HR 120/137

Wednesday 7th

Road session. 3x (5,4,3 mins) @6.40 - 90 secs recovery, 4 mins between sets. Tough session this.

Set 1 6.36, 6.46, 6.27
Set 2 6.43, 6.38, 6.30
Set 3 6.39, 6.33, 6.28

HR 127/155

Thursday 8th

Rest

Friday 9th

7.06 @8.45

HR 124/137

Saturday 10th

Track session. 5x1200 @1.35 per lap (4.45). 2 mins recovery. At least, that's what I felt I was capable of, at most, despite coach's more optimistic target of "4.30-ish".

4.49, 4.46, 4.46, 4.44, 4.40

HR 141/168

Sunday 11th

Long run. A pretty weary one too, after the previous day's session

12.48 @8.54

HR 123/140

Week's mileage 49

davedanon

Monday 12th

Recovery run.

5.05 @9.14

HR 115

Tuesday 13th

Easy run.

7.02 @8.31

HR 122/136

Wednesday 14th

Track session. 10x400 @1.35 - 45 secs recovery. Done in hideous conditions; wind and freezing, driving rain. Character-building stuff.

1.37, 1.35, 1.35, 1.33, 1.35, 1.35, 1.34, 1.36, 1.34, 1.32

HR 125/162

Thursday 15th

6.01 @8.51

HR 118/129

Friday 16th

20 minute run with 4x20sec strides.

3.08 @ 8.27

HR 121

Saturday 17th

Portlaoise 5k. A reasonable run in chilly, blustery conditions.

19.50 chip time

HR 151/163

Week's mileage 34

davedanon

Sunday 18th

Left out of previous post. No running.

Monday 19th

Easy run. Accompanied by a dog, IIRC. I think this explains why the pace was a bit hot. I was going very easy, but he wasn't.

7.05 @8.27

HR 125/143

Tuesday 20th

Easy run.

8.81 @8.33

HR 119/133

Wednesday 21st

Pyramid session. 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 @6.40 w 90 rec. 2min between 3&4.

Paces 5.54/6.35/6.41/6.35/6.38/6.31/6.21

HR 130/156

Thursday 22nd

No running.

Friday 23rd

No running.

Saturday 24th

Tymon parkrun (officially sanctioned)

Wanted to run Tymon again to get an accurate measure of the improvement since my last go there. That turned out to be about 4 seconds per mile, after a month of training and a 'proper' 5k race. Not bad, but I probably got a little carried away on the first mile. A small sub-20 might have been possible had I raced more sensibly. Probably not fully recovered after last week's race at my vintage, either. Afterwards carried on for another 6 miles with club buddy to get long run in as well. This wasn't officially sanctioned.

7th in 20.12 (6.28 pace according to watch)

HR 157/166

Sunday 25th

Easy run.

8.09 @8.49

HR 122

Week's mileage 44

davedanon

Monday 26th

Short very easy run.

5 @8.50

HR 119/134

Tuesday 27th

Easy run.

7.23 @8.57

HR 120/138

Wednesday 28th

Original session 400s, but having twanged an already stiff hamstring after almost tripping on a run, coach switched me to a progression run - 10mins @7.15/7.10/7.00

10@7.14
10@7.18
11@6.56

HR 137/162

Thursday 29th

No running

Friday 30th

10k Steady (7.45) Found it hard to hit the required pace. Felt like I wasn't moving very well, and was overly aggressive as a result.

6.2 miles @7.34

HR 140

Saturday 31st

No running

Sunday 1st April

3 mile shakeout, 800m @ race pace

3.18 @8.00

inc. 800m @6.53

HR 130/157

Week's mileage 30

davedanon

Monday 2nd

Leinster 10 mile Championship. Very different performance, same result. By this stage last year, I had already broken 90 minutes in a half-marathon and hadn't missed a day's running since Christmas day, by the time this race came around. I ran 1:06:30, only a few seconds off my pb, and we took home the 0-50 team Gold. This year I was in nothing like the same kind of shape. On the other hand, we had a substantially stronger team. Two members were the same, but the replacement for the third could be relied on to run a 62 minute 10 miler.

As G said to me beforehand, "all we have to do is break 70, let's face it". So the 62 minute performance duly arrived, and G himself ran 64-something. As for me, well, the time was nothing special, and in previous years I would have fretted and scolded myself for running barely the right side of 69 minutes. I have learned to be humble, however, or at least realistic, and I knew that while it wasn't a great time, it was an honest effort, and just about as much as I could manage on the day.

The weather was pretty horrible in Raheny, cold, and windy to boot. Not a good day for racing by any means. If I made any tactical mistakes, it was in the first couple of miles, when a tight group of 5 TAC athletes formed and ran 6.36 and 6.38 - bang on G's pre-race assertion that he was going out at 6.40 pace, but as I had said at the time, probably a bit quick for me. That didn't stop me sticking with the group, though, to my eventual cost.

The first little climb back up from the first crossing of the river did for me, with the lads streaming up unconcerned, me huffing and puffing and dropping ever so slightly off. When the nasty wind hit us full-on along the exposed xc section at the seafront, the gap widened. I settled down and tried to maintain a steady pace, but when you run a 7.11 after a 6.38, your pacing has to be called into question. Thereafter it was a case of hanging on, and trying to run smoothly.

By the closing stages I was pretty well done, and praying for the finish line. There was the even bloody longer than before finishing straight to negotiate, though, and as usual I attempted to finish strongly, overtaking one competitor at least, well, two, but he rallied and took me on the line. That was a hell of a long run-in. I was on my knees at the finish, dry-heaving. At least I didn't suffer the indignities that befell the coach, who let's say attracted the attention of his teammates while similarly suffering.

Oh, and I nearly forgot. We retained our crown. As did our senior team. A double double.

10m @6.53 (1.08.55)

HR 151/165

Tuesday 3rd

Easy run.

5.28 @8.39

HR 130

Wednesday 4th

Bog-standard run.

7.01 @8.21

HR 125

Thursday 5th

Same. Plus a few strides.

7 @8.27

HR 123/142

Friday 6th

Short very easy.

5.07 @9.15

HR 115/131

Saturday 7th

Session. 3x(4,3,2,1 mins) @6.30 pace. 90 secs recovery. Three minutes between sets. Done with a clubmate who's outstripped me of late, which means it was me getting the most benefit from the company. Good hard session, done unusually early on a Saturday morning, so all out of the comfort zone. Again a good thing imo. 10+ mile session.

Set 1 6.30, 6.24, 6.25, 6.13
Set 2 6.25, 6.27, 6.24, 6.16
Set 3 6.24, 6.29, 6.19, 6.07

Average pace 6.23

HR 130/163

Sunday 7th

13m long run. Up to waterworks back gate. Beautiful morning for running.

13.42 @8.25

HR 129/149

Week's mileage 60