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Chapter 2 - Finding Nemo

Swashbuckler

2018 - Chapter One: The Day That Never Comes - Post 1 to 634

2019 - Chapter Two: Finding Nemo - Post 635 onwards

Original Post:
I've decided to set up one of these in the hope that every now and then someone will come along and in their good nature, answer one of my many questions about my training. I find I've been posting a lot of questions in the Random Running thread so maybe this is a better way of going about it.

Background
36 year old male. Been running for 7 years but only started properly focusing my training since January. Only learned what a tempo, LSR etc. were this year! Previous to that I just went out most days and ran 6 miles at as fast as I could manage. No direction or focus to my training. Had ran some half marathons and mixed in circuit training. But this year I really fell in love with running. Thanks to advice from people on here and chatting to some advanced runners I've met at many races this year I've manage to see significant improvements.

PB's;
5k - 18:22 - Parkrun (2017)
10k - 37:44 - Run Killarney (2017)
Half Marathon: 1:31:35 Charleville (2012). Most recent Half was in June - Half Thru the Heart which I did in 1:33. Extremely tough course and the distance was a little short.

Short to Medium term targets (over the next ~10 months);
5k - Sub 18
10k - Sub 37
Half Marathon - Sub 1:30

Long term targets/dreams;
5k - Sub 17
10k - Sub 35
Run my first Full Marathon (maybe by end of next year).
Run a really good Full Marathon.

Myself and my wife have a baby on the way so I'd say the training could be impacted for a while but I really hope I can keep it up to the same level.

I generally do two/three sessions a week (mix of intervals and tempo), one long run and the rest easy runs. Train 5-6 times a week with one day off.

I do all my Mon-Fri training within my one hour lunch break. LSR is either at the weekend or in the morning before work.

I know I should probably join a club. I would love to but we'll see how life changes once baby arrives. Even if I could do one session a week with a club I think it would be of benefit.

Last weeks training;
Mon: 7 miles steady/progressive starting at 7min/mile and finishing at 6:30min/mile. I'm thinking this run isn't of much benefit as it's in no mans land pacewise for me?
Tues: 5 x 1 mile intervals. Intervals at 5:50min/mile average with 3min recovery between.
Wednesday: 10k easy/recovery @ 7:30min/mile. Not sure if this should be slower but I read that it's bad to have easy and LSR paces the same i.e. too much running at the slow pace. The 7:30 pace felt easy.
Thursday: 15 mile LSR @ 8min/mile. Total time: 2 hours.
Friday: 4 mile recovery jog @ 8:50 min/mile.
Saturday: Parkrun 5k - 18:22.
Sunday: Rest

Probably overdid it a bit last week. Not sure to be honest but I feel good. I'm still learning. I'll be giving up the Parkruns in a couple of weeks for a while so I wanted to run a couple of them pretty hard to end up on a good note.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I'm looking to improve and still relatively new to proper training so I'm willing to take any advice on board.

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Swashbuckler

ariana` wrote: »

I believe Testosterscone and/or Safiri alluded to this also recently on the Graduates thread with reference to busting a$$ for short term gain... We're a generation of having everything "on demand" where sadly patience is a lost virtue - now i need to go and practice what i preach myself :P

Well done on the recent 10k race P, super report too, great reading.

Cheers ariana. I have a couple of friends with similar mentality who I've tried to get around to my way of thinking but with no success. I give up! haha

ariana`

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Cheers ariana. I have a couple of friends with similar mentality who I've tried to get around to my way of thinking but with no success. I give up! haha

Don't give up, you may not convert the masses but you may convert 1 and to that 1 it could be a huge difference.

Swashbuckler

I was going to say how fresh i'm feeling but it only takes one crap night of sleep to reset that! So I'll start by saying I was feeling fresh.

Monday - Easy 6M @ 8:06min/mile to settle back into it after my Ennis exploits. Felt surprisingly ok. Nothing major to report on this one.

Tuesday - Straight back into the sessions!!

2x1200 + 2x1k + 2x800 Off 2min. All targeting 6min/mile pace.
Funny when I look at a session like this now, it looks ok to me. A few months back i'd have feared it a bit.
I expected the legs to be a bit tired for this one but everything felt ok. For once I'm able to say the splits were pretty much bang on the money.
1200's - 5:58/5:58
1000's - 6:00/5:58
800's - 6:00/5:57
Constantly tuning into the body. Repeatedly asking how do I feel compared to how should I feel. Getting the effort levels spot on. About as good a session as it could have been. Bang on the money. Didn't feel overly tired. Small bit fatigued after the 800's.
Total mileage for the session - 8 miles

Wednesday - Easy 7M at 8:11min/mile. Early start here as I knew I wouldn't get out on my lunchbreak. Legs took two or three miles to wake up. I did wonder to myself how hotbutteredscones does so many morning runs - and morning sessions. Can't be easy when the body is still half asleep. Nice run but it was a cold cold one.

Thursday - Easy 7M at 8:04min/mile. Nothing spectacular to report here either apart from the weather was crap. Wind picking up and would pick up more Friday as I was to find out..

Friday - 4x(1M/90s jog/1k) Off 2.30. 6.20 pace for the 1M/6.00 Pace for the 1k
One of those sessions that tells you "You are now preparing for longer distances" haha. With the Tuamgraney 10M and Limerick Half coming up I figured I might be seeing some more "bulky" sessions. Was looking forward to this one as much as you can look forward to the pain of these. I knew looking at the target paces what to expect though. Not spectacularly tough but expecting to have to work a bit and for the legs to feel it more than the lungs. And so that was the case, although I hadn't accounted for the fact the wind would be desperate. This made managing the effort levels particularly difficult. I would usually head out onto the drags and undulations of the roads for my Friday sessions but given the levels of wind I figured i'd keep it within the confines of the Industrial Estate.

Set 1 paces - 6:20/5:57
Set 2 paces - 6:19/5:58
Set 3 paces - 6:17/6:04
Set 4 paces - 6:17/6:04

Pretty happy with that. Seems to hit the headwind at the start of each of the 1M which was a pain. The first and fourth set were the toughest. Maybe the wind dies down a bit in the middle, i'm not sure but the middle two felt ok. Was happy to get this one under my belt.

Total mileage for the session - 10.3 miles. A big session and one that will stand to me.

Saturday - Easy 14M. Nice way to round off the week. My last 14 miler had been a bit of a disaster so I made sure to stay tuned into how I was feeling here. Took the usual lovely route along Shannon bank out to UL, up past the parkrun and back towards home. Felt good. Nothing unusual in the legs really. Tired a bit from mile 11 onwards but given the week behind me that was expected. Saw so many runners out and about it was great.

Got back home and me and the missus and baba headed to Galway for the night. Had a great time. A lovely city. I must look for some races up there in future

. So a good week behind me there.

Total mileage for the week - 52.4 miles.

Heading into a little block for the "longer stuff" now. The last of the Run Clare series is this Sunday. Tuamgraney 10M with some ridiculous hills. I don't really have much expectations or even excitement for this one to be honest. It feels like its been a long series. I've really enjoyed it but in a way I've felt a bit tied to it and seen some races come and go that I would like to have done. But i'll give it a good crack anyway and at worst it will stand to me for the Limerick Half hopefully.

Swashbuckler

Carrying on nicely from my last log it turned out to be a week of pretty crappy sleep. Twice a night waking baby. Felt like it was catching up with me a bit at last. Surprised it took 6 months to be honest.

Anyway race week!

Monday - Easy 6M in what felt like the warmest day of the year so far. What a pleasure to be running in a bit of heat for a change. Not so much for the Rotterdam folks who had tough conditions looking at the race reports. Some fairly inspiring efforts and mentalities though. And some wicked times...
Anyway back to the run. Yeah it was easy. Legs felt fine. The normal easy running.

Tuesday -session day! 8x1k off 90s targeting 6.00/mile pace. So close enough to 3.44 target for the 1k.
A very nice session. As always the first one felt a little tough. Legs still getting I to it. Second one still a little tough but can feel myself warming into the session nicely. Third to sixth I'm motoring along nicely. Very controlled and honestly effort levels were grand. At a couple of stages I had to remind myself to pull back a little and a couple of the splits ended up on the fast side. Seventh and Eight legs were feeling it a little but by no means over reaching or even struggling. Just a little higher on the effort level scale.
Splits were 5.59/5.55/5.58/5.50/5.54 /5.56/5.57/5.58.
Really happy with how it went.
Total mileage for the session was 8.5 miles.

Wednesday - Easy 7M. Nothing remarkable. Legs were fresher than usual after a session like that. Still crappy sleep.

Thursday - Easy 6M. Nice and handy.

Friday - Off. The runner in me hates these days off. haha.

Today - just about to head for a 20min shakeout with some strides.

Race tomorrow in Tuamgraney. Ten miles with two big hills and God knows what else. A better sleep last night. Wasn't pushed about this race but now it's almost upon me the usual pre race excitement is creeping up on me. Not sure what to expect really. I'll give it a decent crack though.

OOnegative

All the best tomorrow, sounds like a challenging route but as you say you’ll give it a good lash. Run well!!

hot buttered scones

Best of luck tomorrow and mind those hills!

skyblue46

All the best for Tuamgraney. I'll be looking forward to the report.

OOnegative

Well done on the podium finish.

Swashbuckler

Well where do I start on the one... There won't be any heroic tales of sprint finishes and epic battles with this one. This was a race of two halves. The first half was all about survival and the second half was all about.......... survival.... Haha..

I had looked at the race profile for this one a week ago and laughed. Pretty horrific looking by any stretch of the imagination. But how bad. Too many runners these days are avoiding some of these tougher courses. The trick they're missing is its these courses that will truly make a runner out of you. Anyone who was able to run today just had an absolute belter of a workout. The profile didn't even do it justice! It was awful in a weird sadistic brilliant I loved it way. Lol

Anyway the usual pre race routine. No sleep, weetabix, bagel, banana, Disney, quality time with baby, rest for mama etc.

. This time I made the journey on my own. We decided the weather was looking too bad for the two of them to be standing around for as long as it would take me so missus and baba stayed at home. I definitely missed them at the end but on the plus side I spent a nice bit of time mingling with the other runners. Runners are a lovely bunch. Very happy people.

I headed off to Tuamgraney around 11. Got there much too early but met and had a chat with the organisers. They've been taking a lot of flack lately with the whole run clare vs run the Banner battle. I'm sure there's more to it than either side is saying but I've no interest in the politics of it all. Like I said all I want to do is put one foot in front of the other as fast as i can. Collected my t-shirt and headed back to the car. Was there with a few buddies. I don't think any of us had any major expectations in terms of target time. I certainly didn't. This was never going to be a gauge of where I'm at for ten miles. By the end it proved to be something much more valuable than that.

Big crowd at this. The series definitely draws a crowd. Did my usual warmup with some drills and strides. Nice atmosphere at the start line.

I won't go through a mile by mile account so what I'll do is give my splits upfront and give a synopsis of the race.
Mile splits were; 6.18 / 6.56 / 5.59 / 6.15 / 6.24 / 6.27 / 7.05 / 6.23 / 6.11 / 6.14
Total time was 63.09
Distance looked a little short on Garmin at 9.83 miles. I was assured it's spot on at ten but I don't really care. It is what it is. Another 30s on to my time is fairly irrelevant considering.

Some weird looking splits there I know but I shall explain!

We started off pretty conservatively apart from a couple of lads who shot up ahead. I knew that's the last we'd see of them. A group of 5 of us settled together for the first 1km which was the flattest part of the course. Then the unmerciful first hill kicked in. I'm not sure words can do it justice. All I'll say is even with me managing the effort level as best I could (at one stage my pace was 8.16min/mile) I was still pretty wrecked at the top of the hill. Given what happened in Lahinch I was absolutely adamant I'd give myself some sort of recovery on the downhill. The four lads didn't and they bombed on. What followed for the next few miles was endless rolling hills. So bad that I was cursing downhills at one stage. Just give me some flat fu*king road please! Uphill downhill uphill downhill constant.
By halfway I was really feeling it in the legs and knowing worse was yet to come. By mile 5 the group of four started going backwards and were back with me. I couldn't understand it. Was I going better than I thought or were they just wrecked. Turns out they were just wrecked. A few of them complimented me on my race management after. I laughed. I didn't think I was managing anything. Just surviving.

Anyway I pushed on and made them suffer for going too hard on the downhill haha. And then we hit the monster hill at mile 6. It killed me. Just when I thought I was at the top of it I turned a corner and there was more of it. I stopped briefly. A walker started encouraging me to at least walk and the lads behind me were suffering too. This was honestly the kick up the arse I needed. I got into a slow jog and eventually got to the top. Then I knew the worse of it was over. Downhill again. Legs like jelly. Push on and don't give up third place whatever you do! The last two miles felt like forever. More hills but I was mentally in a better place than I was on the hill. Came back into scarriff and more drags. Eventually I heard music and got some encouragement from supporters. Looked over my shoulder and the lad behind me was well behind. Crossed the line at last. Thank God that's over.

I did a bit of mingling. Everyone said the same about the course. Met up with my buddies. Dead bodies everywhere at the line haha. Hung around for a while and proudly collected my third place plaque.

So that's it. An awful but rewarding and mentally and physically challenging route. That will stand to me in Limerick. The mental strength I showed today surprised me a bit. I did stop so I only score myself a B- maybe B+.

Glad the series is done although it was nicely progressive and coach worked my training really well building me all the time.

Summarizing the series Barefield was short of my expectations. Lahinch was a disaster. Ennis was above expectations even adding the 30m it was short by

. Today was punishing but in a weird way the most beneficial.

Roll on Limerick.

AuldManKing

Thats super work. I did the GIR today for similar reasons. Not for a pb but for a good workout.

Many Congrats on 3rd. Super achievement and helps the boss in his metrics

hot buttered scones

Well done and well managed. Well done on the 3rd place too - your race management worked out well for you there. A seriously good performance.

Swashbuckler

AuldManKing wrote:

Many Congrats on 3rd. Super achievement and helps the boss in his metrics

I completely forgot about those metrics. Technically it's a pb coz I've never run a ten miler so we can fudge that too. Haha

hot buttered scones wrote:

Well done and well managed. Well done on the 3rd place too - your race management worked out well for you there. A seriously good performance.

Cheers man. It genuinely didn't feel like any sort of management at the time but I'll take the complement thanks. It just felt like pure survival.

hot buttered scones

Swashbuckler wrote:

Cheers man. It genuinely didn't feel like any sort of management at the time but I'll take the complement thanks. It just felt like pure survival.

Oh but it was - ok you may have pushed a bit hard in the last hill, but you let those lads head away and then caught them again later on. The first 2 off sounded like they were way ahead, so you managed the race and beat everyone else around you. You used what you had learned from your last hilly race to good effect. I think today also puts you in great position for Limerick too.

Swashbuckler

Cheers M. Much appreciated. Yeah that's what I kept reminding myself during it. The pain will be worth it in the long run. Yeah I don't think there's a lot of time to really blow limerick out of the water but definitely big improvement on current pb is on the cards all going well

Murph_D

Congrats on the result and the racing skills!

Kellygirl

Congrats! Sounds like a tough race. Worth it at the end for the 3rd place though. That’s fantastic.

Swashbuckler

Thanks lads and ladies. Pretty wrecked after it but worth it for sure

ariana`

Well done! It sounds like you ran a super race albeit without realizing it! And a podium finish too, super stuff. I bet your baby girl and her mama are very proud of you... well ok, baby will be in a few years!

Swashbuckler

ariana` wrote:

Well done! It sounds like you ran a super race albeit without realizing it! And a podium finish too, super stuff. I bet your baby girl and her mama are very proud of you... well ok, baby will be in a few years!

Makes it all worthwhile to come home pretty wrecked to kisses and hugs from a bundle of cuteness. The missus was very proud and very gutted that the one race she didn't show up at, I finished on the podium. Haha

Duanington

Well done, P

Great result on what sounds like a poxy course !

Swashbuckler

On reflection I'm thankful for the poxyness of it haha. I didnt want to be thinking about any sort of pb or anything like that yesterday. I'm pretty happy that I got a real mental toughness check...stinker of a course but every now and then they are great. you can forget completely about times and pb's and all that crap.

Swashbuckler

Monday - Easy 6M @ 8.21min/mile
Legs were pretty tired from the race. My ass discovered muscles it never knew it had. The run helped get the blood flowing.

Tuesday - A mini session of 12x1min @ 6min/mile pace Off 90s recovery.
Legs were worse on Tuesday believe it or not. Definitely more sore than the day before. Glutes even worse. God, thinking back on that course the legs really took a hammering. Anyway the session itself was good. Not a difficult session by any stretch and tailored for the tired legs.
Splits were 5.33/5.56/6.00/5.51/6.03/5.49/5.55/5.37/5.50/5.49/5.48/6.05.
Some way off the mark. I've always found those shorter sessions a little tricky to judge and I always seem to veer on the side of too fast instead of too slow. It's a very short stress so I'm not worried but it would be nice to start honing in on the pace a bit better for those short snappy sessions.
Total mileage for the session with warmup and cooldown: 8.05 miles

Wednesday - Easy 7M @ 8:16min/mile
The most annoying wind! Can't understand this weather. It's all over the place. Last week I went from wearing gloves, to being blown all over the place, to running in a tshirt in lovely heat. Anyway this run was easy but annoying. Legs still not great especially the glutes.

Thursday - Easy 7M @ 8.09min/mile
Had to get out early in the morning for this as I was meeting a friend visiting from Boston during my normal running lunch. He had ran the marathon and did pretty well. 2:58 in those conditions was very good. We had a good chat about running and what his plans were and what mine were and all that craic. Anyway the run was nice. Lovely morning. Legs were starting to come back to me. About time I thought!

Friday - 10 x 800m @ alternating 6:10/6:30min/mile off 75s Recovery
Lovely looking session and one where I had a few questions for coach. At first glance I thought the reason for the split paces was some sort of stress management but what this session actually does is dip over threshold and then force the body to use that lactate as a fuel source. Found it very interesting. Anyway the sessions itself; not as bad as I thought it would be. I headed out onto the roads for this one. Stayed away from the flat industrial estate. This is definitely a session for the legs. Breathing and heart rate are all fine (comfortably hard) throughout the session. That was managed nicely by coach - wanted to keep me away from redlining at any stage and I definitely felt I didnt. I didn't have to work overly hard for any of them. 800m is just about short enough where mentally you can tell yourself its just a bit more than 3mins.

Splits were;
6.09/6.29
6.07/6.22
6.05/6.21
6.08/6.30
6.09/6.27

Not bad. Easier to settle into the pace given more time. Felt strong on each. Legs probably a bit tired by the last set. Was happy to get this done.
Total mileage for the session: 9.18 miles.

Saturday - Easy 14M
Took the usual route around by the bank of the river out to UL and back. Beautiful morning. I love those long runs on days like that. So many runners out. You'd know the Great Limerick Run was approaching. I passed the parkrun just as they were all gathering. Nice crowd there. Legs were ok. Tired by mile 10. Had to work a bit for the last couple of miles.

Total mileage for the week was 51.2 miles. Another solid week. Feel like I'm saying that a lot lately which I guess is a good sign.

Next up is the Limerick Half Marathon in two weeks. Got this weeks plan - big week ahead! Should have me in decent shape for Limerick.
Really looking forward to the half. It's been a long time since I raced one - May of last year IIRC. Half Thru the Heart.
I remember saying on here i'd like to run a sub 1.30 half this year and someone said (not sure who?) i'd be disappointed with that given the shape i'd be in and that's probably the case. I think sub 1.30 for Limerick is my minimum expectation. What the A target is i'm not sure yet. I plan on racing Charleville in Sept with a big proper block of half marathon training behind me. For Limerick i'll probably be lacking some longer, chunky sessions but that's ok. Looking forward to giving it a good crack and seeing what happens.

hot buttered scones

And your definitely not sandbagging? :P

OOnegative

Swashbuckler

Haha hang on a sec lads didn't I just say 1.30 was minimum? I haven't actually given ye my target. Haha

AuldManKing

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Haha hang on a sec lads didn't I just say 1.30 was minimum? I haven't actually given ye my target. Haha

Even a 36.59 10k gives a HM of 1.21.

You ran ~36:04 so, that must knock a min or so off that - so 1:20, and then add on a couple for lack of training. So 1.22.16 is the target. Its all scientific.

hot buttered scones

Mind games before the Glue Factory outing at Charleville - lulling me into a false sense of security I reckon! :P

(only joking)

Swashbuckler

Haha sounds great in theory AMK. Emphasis on "theory".

Haha HBS. We're all on the same team. No mind games.

Swashbuckler

Monday - Easy 6M at 8.04min/mile
Felt super on this run. If only I could figure out how to have days like this more often. I think partly due to the fact baba is sleeping a little better so I am (was) getting better rest.

Tuesday - 5x1200m off 2mins targeting 5.50min/mile pace.
Decided to try out the new Nikes on this one. Saw them for sale in Lifestyle and couldn't leave them behind. The session itself was great. As always, the first 1200m the effort level felt a little high as my body is still warming up. Maybe I should think about improving my warmup which at the moment is just two miles easy. The remaining four sets went great. Well documented on here already how I feel about these sessions.
Splits 5.52 / 5.48 / 5.50 / 5.50 / 5.53
Pretty much bang on. The Nikes felt great. Definitely racers and I'll only be using them for shorter stuff. There's nothing to them. Very light and very little support.
Total mileage for the session: 8.2 miles.

Wednesday and Thursday - Easy 7M at 8.05min/mile and 8.04/mile.
Wedneaday was ok. Bit of indigestion and acid reflux but I got over it.
Thursday was a beaut of a day and I had 6hrs sleep! A new well rested man.

Friday - 7x1M at 6.15min/mile pace off reducing Recoveries of 3min/2.30/2/1.30/1/30
A tough looking session on paper and an area I know needs improving. Did just over a mile warmup and eased into the pace. Again, the first one always feels a bit harder. Felt fine though. The 3min recovery was great. Haha. There's not too much to say about the second to sixth miles apart from the fact the session got tougher as it went on with the reducing recoveries. By the seventh I was digging in a bit but form was still good. Effort level definitely higher. Feeling pretty stubborn at this stage and pushed on for the seventh. It's not often I indulge myself and I'm usually pretty good at trying to stick to what's prescribed. By the seventh my mentality was a bit "f*ck you session you're not beating me". Pretty tired by the end. Definitely felt all of that session.
Splits were ;
6.16 / 6.16 / 6.18 / 6.15 / 6.21 / 6.17 / 6.03
I'll allow myself that stubborn last one just this one time. ðŸ˜‚
Total mileage for the session was 10 miles.

Saturday - Easy 14 miles at 8min/mile.
Beautiful morning outside. There's nothing quite like taking off on a long run on mornings like these. Decided to try to encorporate as much of the Great Limerick Half route as possible. It was definitely a nice change to run this route. From a race perspective its not the best route by any stretch. Definitely a route set up to minimize costs for the organisers. Was nice to be able to see where the bumps, drags and drops are though. I live in Limerick but wouldn't necessarily be familiar with all of the route.
As for the run itself it was enjoyable given the sunshine. Legs felt surprisingly good after a hard week. Definitely feel the difference in the heat.

All in all a great week. Surprised myself with how good I felt all week. On paper I expected to be a bit wrecked.
So Limerick Half next weekend and really looking forward to it. When I first gave coach my race plan for the first half of this year I had highlighted Ennis and Limerick as the two races I wanted to concentrate on. The only downside is there hasn't been a lot of time to do half marathon specific stuff but that's no excuse. Looking forward to the challenge. It's a whole different ballgame when you get to this longer stuff. Very unforgiving. Roll on next Sunday.

Duanington

you're in great shape P - enjoy the next week, you've put yourself in a great position for Limerick