Shotgun 2020

Monday 17 December
Swim 2,400m Tri Group
I was down early enough for a warm up for once. Fins on and 600m of catch up and back stroke. I liked the look of the main set, 2 sets of 6x150m steady. I lead out the middle lane and lost my group so I swam the whole set alone. We were supposed to be off 2:50 but my early morning math isn't great so I just took 15 sec recoveries. Given the times I was going a couple of seconds early. There were a few missing form the middle lane though so I'm not really leading out yet. Plus my times are not good enough to join the tail of the fast lane.

dist|time|pace
150m|2:28|1:39
150m|2:30|1:41
150m|2:35|1:43
150m|2:28|1:39
150m|2:31|1:41
150m|2:32|1:41
150m|2:28|1:39
150m|2:32|1:42
150m|2:34|1:43
150m|2:30|1:41
150m|2:28|1:39
150m|2:29|1:39

Pretty happy with the consistency. Not as tight as I could if I was fit but to get 5 of the reps under 1:40 pace, particularly the last 2 , was pleasing. As I tired I tried to swim "better" instead of "harder". Focusing on things like high elbow, reach before the catch naturally rotating my hips, triceps at the finish etc.. A lad in my lane commented that he was watching my stroke and it seemed slow, despite moving well. Blown away that someone was actually studying my stroke

Promise this wont become a swimming log and I'll post a run again ASAP!

Wednesday 20 December
Swim 2,400m
Plan was a mix of endurance and speed. Easy 800m with 60 sec rest, 2x400m steady with 30 sec rest and 8x100m fast with 10 sec rest. Fast 100s with 10 sec rest is more like strength endurance. Its not top end speed or the 100s would be off 3 minutes or something. The 800m was about form and practicing tumble turns. Improving but still awful. Ideally I wanted to break 7 minutes for the 400s and 1:40 for the 100s.

dist|time|pace/100m
800m|14:34|1:49
400m|6:50|1:43
400m|6:51|1:43
100m|1:32|
100m|1:38|
100m|1:38|
100m|1:37|
100m|1:38|
100m|1:35|
100m|1:35|
100m|1:38|


The 800 was comfortable but I'd occasionally lose my breath at the turn.
The 400s were steady but tougher than expected to hold the pace for the second one. Also a tingle of cramp in the sole of my right foot.
The 100s were hard work. The first one too fast and tired myself out. The 10 sec rest was barely a breath. I relaxed the effort a tad but tried to keep a higher turnover. I was fighting off the cramp in my foot each time I turned and pushed off the wall. It felt like putting the brake on with my right foot. I had a bit of traffic to overtake on reps 6 and 7 so a couple of sprints mid rep made those faster. It also toasted me. On the last rep the foot finally cramped painfully leaving me hanging onto the lane rope after the turn. By the time the lifeguard ran over I had shaken it off and finished the length. Good session hitting my targets and keeping decent form.

Saturday 22 December
Easy 7.21 miles @8:00
Concious that 8 of the last 10 posts have been swimming related. So a run Dirty cold wet night out there. I ran easy across town for a loop of the north circular road. Half way around the loop I stopped with a sudden loss of motivation. This last mile was taking forever. As soon as I stopped too I felt the cold and my cold wet top stuck to my raw chest. I glanced at the watch at it showed 3.5 miles. Oh! I though I was still in the 3rd mile so now a mile ahead of myself I snapped back into the zone. Funny, I have almost no memory of that 3rd mile. Properly zoned out. Mindless running. Part of the last mile was running up O'Connell street under the lights. Usually pleasant but it was so wet and busy with traffic and Saturday nighters. The bones of an hour done, sort of reluctantly.

Friday 28 December
I really want to run but can't yet. I have a serious acute health issue to get under control.

Instead Ill post a couple of pics of my first proper training notebook that isn't a note pad. Got the idea from the Christmas gifts thread and Santa delivered

healy1835 wrote: »

You have a link for that pal?

The Journal? Sure. It's by Lauren Fleshman. Lovely leathery cover to protect it from sweaty hands after a run. Very high quality journal and I'm a geek for this stuff

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Believe-Training-Journal-Fleshman-2014-12-10/dp/B017S2B20Y/ref=mp_s_a_1_9/257-3055792-0221344?ie=UTF8&qid=1546068242&sr=8-9&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=believe+training+journal

Friday 4 January
Plan: Easy 6 miles
Actual: Easy 6.17 miles @8:05

Chilly out there. I got out for the country route for the last hour of daylight. I felt ok starting but perhaps it was the cold that shorted my lungs a bit on a long hill that takes up half of mile 2. By mile 3 and turning around I felt hungry. I ate healthy today but not enough. My heart rate went up as my belly rumbled through the next 3 laborious miles. Not a great run at all. The hills, breeze, posture all felt like more effort. To make matters worse I came back to the office hungry and one of the girls had dumped a pile of Friday goodies on a table. I ate a bag of salt n vinegar taytos, a full box of chocolate fingers and 6 dark mini kitkats


Earlier this morning... (and partial reason for the hunger)
Swim 1,000m.
Just 25 minutes in the pool. I got there very late but intended a short swim anyway to see how the lungs felt. I was just in time for some max effort 100s :rolleyes: Basically 6x100m max with a minute rest and some easy 50s either side of the set.

Reps
100m|1:28
100m|1:25
4x50m|easy
100m|1:21
100m|1:28
100m|1:32
100m|1:27
4x50m|easy

I joined the back of the group for the first 2, left them go 10 seconds and chased them down. Then got found out. So lead off for the 3rd one. I had SharkBoy (sub 20min 1,500m type) leading out the fast lane with paddles on his arms and a pull buoy between his legs. I went for it, max effort, held him to the turn then lost a few meters. Clocked 1:21 which surprised me. I was breathing really heavily though and died over the next 2 reps. I dropped back behind to lads for the last one as I was spent but caught them just after the turn and gave it max effort for the last 40m to pass them both. Very short swim but complete red line!

Monday 7 January
Plan: Easy 6 miles
Actual: Easy 6.27 miles @8:31

Week 2 begins. This week will feature a "session of substance", tomorrow. An interval session. Game face on and all that. Then a day off and easy running for the rest of the week. It should be an interesting session but I wont begin to get a sense of where I am until week 3 that brings on the workload.

Todays run was a lovely very easy out and back the countryside. I love this route and happy I found it. Its an honest hilly out and back. The scene sounds, smells and colours change regularly and It feels like luxury to be able to get away from city/work life so easily. After the first mile I turn off to head up a long country hill. There was a gentle breeze on my back nudging me forward and it felt quite peaceful. The odd car slows down and almost always salutes. The distant hills across fields were covered under cloud and there was a taste of rain in the air. I kept the effort low and sorted a few thoughts out. The route back was into that constant breeze and thus noisier. I did get the smell of fresh cut grass, in January! A farmer cutting the local football field. Nice run and 6th day on the trot

Wednesday 9 January
Plan: Rest
Actual: Easy 7.27 miles @8:28

I took yesterday off to get onto the pain relief. Thankfully it works and I got some sleep last night. Even a nap this afternoon too. Significant because over the 2 weeks of health problems over the Christmas Period I hardly slept at all.

Legs and lungs felt ok and I trotted around the town reigning in the pace. It was wet but oh so calm. The high tide was like glass. Pretty uneventful run except for 2 tipsy girls running beside me for about 60m in town screaming. Interesting company until one of them doubled over and vomited onto the road.

Friday 11 January
Plan: Easy 6 miles
Actual: Intervals 12x400m

I felt much better today. Legs and lungs were good. I figured I'd do the first rep and see how it was, back off if any pain. 1.5 miles easy warm up then into the reps. I tend to go off too fast but I had the target pace 5:52-6:00 dialed into the watch and that really helped me control the set. I started each rep fast but brought it back to the desired range and worked to hold it there. I was anxious before the session but figured the aerobic recoveries were generous (400m or 1:45 to 2mins) and I'd back off if there was pain/niggle/breathing difficulties.

I actually found the target pace manageable. Hansons say that if you cannot run the recoveries easy then you are doing the reps too hard. I maintained 7:45-8 min pace on the recoveries. The last few were tough and my heart rate maxed at 182, well into the red zone, but I actually enjoyed the session and am bloody delighted to get in done! 9 miles all in. The right calf is a little tight so some rolling and stretching as soon as I can. An easy run tomorrow and the program will be back on track

12x400m w/400m recovery
Target pace 5:52-6:00
rep#|rep time|avg pace
1|1:28|5:57
2|1:29|5:59
3|1:28|5:55
4|1:30|6:02
5|1:28|5:56
6|1:27|5:52
7|1:29|5:59
8|1:28|5:57
9|1:28|5:57
10|1:29|5:58
11|1:30|6:05
12|1:28|5:56

Sunday 13 January
Plan: Easy 8 miles
Actual: Easy/Steady 8.18 miles @7:38

I thought I missed the window and was facing a late evening Sunday night run, my least favorite time if the week to run. I hit snooze on the alarm and then the kids got up at silly o clock in moods. Alas another opportunity opened because the pool was closed and their swim cancelled. It was dark setting out into the wind. The first mile was slow then I kept a steady effort into the wind for miles 2, 3 and 4 (7:51, 7:31, 7:31). It was an out an back to the Coonagh Roundabout so wide open to the wind. I maintained the steady aerobic effort on the way back for miles 5, 6 and 7 (7:28, 7:24, 7:10). The cyclists were only starting their Sunday morning spins geared up and grimacing into the wind. The last mile up town and home was slow.

Overall the legs felt full of running. The rib injury is sore but nothing I can do about it. It will just take a few weeks. Next week is the first long run of the program and the prescribed pace is 20 secs faster than this run which right now seems unlikely :eek: Week 3 of the program overall steps up the intensity. Very happy to finish week 2 on track and intact

Mileage summary: Actual (Plan)
Week 2 : 44.67 (41)
Total program : 78.27 (67)

Tuesday 15 January
Plan: Intervals 8x600m
Actual: Intervals 8x600m

I was dreading these. The way the Hansons plan works is that the speed session comes at the end of the 6 straight running days. Legs are not Fresh. That wasn't it though. I historically don't do intensity first thing in the morning. Well, in my University rowing days we did but that was "easier" as it was part of a crew and coaches basically told us what to do!

Doing running intervals unfueled is tough and doing them at 6am in the dark unfueled is tougher. The kids were awake at silly o clock again and nearly excused me out of it but I knew I would have no window later and I don't want to swap sessions around unless I really have to. This wasn't one of those decisions. It was a simple matter of HTFU and get them done!

1.5 miles sleepy warm up into town and onto the bridge. I had the workout on the watch so before I could talk my way out of the hurt and into an easy run, it beeped and I set off. The watch doesn't wait for you to decide if you would like to do it or not it just plows on beeping through reps and recoveries. As usual I set off faster than the planned pace and settled into the reps. Overall the volume of work was the same as last week but the reps were essentially holding the pace for an additional 40+ seconds. After the first 4 successful reps I overcooked rep 5 and switched off a little on rep 6 before pulling it back together for the last 2. I found it more challenging than last week (4 days ago) but I think it was just a case of energy/fueling rather than fatigue. The fatigue will come, I'm sure of it. The quads were feeling the workout on the 2 mile cool down but very pleased to get this done this morning

A pint of High 5 Zero Electrolytes, a large helping of overnight peanut butter, cacao and seed oats and a mug of Joe and I was good to go for the day..

8x600m w/400m recovery
Target pace 5:52-6:00
rep#|rep time|avg pace
1|2:11|5:52
2|2:12|5:57
3|2:11|5:52
4|2:12|5:55
5|2:09|5:46
6|2:14|6:01
7|2:12|5:55
8|2:12|5:55