nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

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.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

MY BAD

Swashbuckler wrote: »

I'd love some thoughts from people on their own approaches to base building, phasing training etc. But I expect most of ye are all feckin marathon runners in which case it's a very different ballgame.

Any thoughts of marathon training for me have gone out the window at least for the first half of next year anyway.

If I was to ask specific questions to the gang on here it would be;

Is there such a thing as too long base building?

Not us all though!

As a non marathon runner who picked up an injury in February, it took me six months of building to feel I could race again. For you I guess it will depend on your targets, goals, and what distance you want to focus on. I would say once you get over this injury and start to build the mileage again you'll want to start testing yourself a bit more adding tempo stuff, maybe short hills etc. My advice would be use the next few months to get in the habit of supplementary running specific work, but never let it be too taxing that if will affect your running. Don't ramp it up too much, not just the mileage but more importantly the training load. Also get in the habit of strides just to keep a good turnover. Obviously the longer you're out the longer your base building period will be...

healy1835

Mellow Yellow 26.2 wrote: »

As a non marathon runner......

What's with the username S?

MY BAD

healy1835 wrote: »

What's with the username S?

Past notions!!

Maybe some time in the future myself Swashbuckler can join the DCM novice thread :pac:

Swashbuckler

Mellow Yellow 26.2 wrote:

As a non marathon runner who picked up an injury in February, it took me six months of building to feel I could race again. For you I guess it will depend on your targets, goals, and what distance you want to focus on. I would say once you get over this injury and start to build the mileage again you'll want to start testing yourself a bit more adding tempo stuff, maybe short hills etc. My advice would be use the next few months to get in the habit of supplementary running specific work, but never let it be too taxing that if will affect your running. Don't ramp it up too much, not just the mileage but more importantly the training load. Also get in the habit of strides just to keep a good turnover. Obviously the longer you're out the longer your base building period will be...

Thanks for the feedback S. Someone took the jump!

When you say supplementary stuff do you mean Drills, strides etc or do you mean the core, foam rolling, stretching/flexibility/S&C stuff?

You were one guy I was interested in getting feedback from. How long were you actually off the road?

In terms of racing Im not pushed. I'd happily spend the year training without specific targets. Like you said though it all depends how long I'm out. I don't feel too optimistic right now!

MY BAD

I've had a spell n the past when I hadn't ran in months then months of slowly slowly building thinking I'll never race again. When you go over a year without a race if can be hard be optimistic but never give up and keep it positive. I suppose some background, I actually had two injuries. The first was a issue with my left shin which I got in the middle of February. That kept me out for a maximum of 7 consecutive days in a row but I had another 5 and 6 day spells out too in that period. I only ran less than 30 km for the next 4 weeks. I blame the shoes for that injury because I never got fully diagnosed. When I felt I was over it I started to ramp things up pretty quickly. Big mistake! That's when I picked up at IT band issue on my right knee. This kept me out for four days straight first, a very frustrating 4 weeks with some runs as short as 3km followed. I was running between 2 and 4 times a week and stopped as soon as I felt any pain. I got in the habit on my days off doing supplementary work. The next four weeks I made good progress, all easy runs with strides added once a week or so. I finally did my first session after 9 weeks of easy running. But it was 14 weeks really since I was doing sessions consistently. I'm still base building even though I've raced twice in July. I think because of the strides and strength work I never really lost my speed in this period I can knock out 800s at the speed before these injuries but my endurance strength definitely has gone backwards. In terms of supplementary work what am I doing? No foam rolling, and not much stretching either. My week target is the following but not always like this...
Monday is strength work day. Deadlifts maybe 60kg 3x8, single leg squats with 25kg kettlebells in each hand 3x 10, planks, Copenhagens maybe 3 sets of 15second holds, tippy toe farmer walks with the 25kg kettle bells. Heel drops/holds with weight. Strength running on YouTube has some good excerises I add in. I can spend a hour doing this if time permits.
Tuesday easy 45 minutes run finish off with strides. Then the myrtl routine at home with resistance bands.
Wednesday is track session. Drills and strides before any session. What ever the boss prescribes for the workout. And maybe 20 minutes of light strength work with body weight only at home afterwards.
Wednesday 60 minutes of running easy. If I can't be arsed or tight for time after Wednesdays sessions I'll do that 20 minutes of body weight strength work after this run.
Friday 45 easy again with strides or short hills sprints. Then I've a very basic plyometrics routine I follow for 10 to 20 minutes as it gets the tendons firing. Sometimes I swap this routine with my mytrl on Tuesday and vice versa depending if I do hill sprints or strides.
Saturday is normally tempo day. Drills and strides before it. I'm not too pushed about paces so much more so by feel, even if I'm given a pace target. I'd like to spend another 20 minutes doing strength work using body weight after this but I don't usually have time.
Sunday. Long ish run 10 to 12 miles at the moment. If I notice a flare up in my knee I might do a few single leg squats with weights after as I find this the best.
It sounds a lot but it's not very time consuming. If you do your run in the morning then what ever routine you follow in the evening to complement your running.

Swashbuckler

Cheers for all that detail S. A lot to digest there! I think I know where I've gone wrong this time so at least that's something. Moving forward (if and when that is) I definitely think I need to add some sort of s&c/myrtl/core work.

Now if only I could shake this feckin injury. Frustratingly flaky. Fine one minute and angry hip the next. More physio tomorrow and scan next week.

Swashbuckler

Thought I'd update y'all incase ye were worried.

What a difference a couple of days and a second physio visit makes.

Feeling much much better the last couple of days. Went to physio again on Thursday. Earlier in the week I had to go back to the doc for more pain relief (and stronger). Sleep has been badly hit with this injury. No comfortable position to be found.

So in terms of the physio visit I went into her on Thurs feeling a fair bit better but still some pain in the hip and plenty of numbness and tingling in the thigh. Went through a lot of questions and checks before even putting her hands near me. It's one thing I like about my physio is the level of detail she goes into before even going near me. Maybe they're all like that! After the checks she was a little surprised and went over the notes from the last day. Now that things have calmed down and the whole area is less angry it seems like the quad is the main culprit.

She did lots of work on it and some dry needling. Went at the piriformis, psoas etc and they seemed fine. First time dry needling. Not a fan of it but it seemed to be effective. Anyway yesterday and today I'm much much better. Was even able to sleep on my belly last night with pretty much no hip pain and much more feeling in the thigh.

So I need to make sure I keep rolling it. The core is something the physio wants me to make part of my routine. Very simple core work and told me to stay away from planks, sit-ups etc. The exercise she showed me is super effective and I can feel the core getting hit nicely but most importantly it's focused there and no loss of form elsewhere.

In terms of running its up to me really. I'll see how I go. Realistically I'm gonna be starting simple, bring the mileage back up conservatively and base build for a long chunk of time assuming I stay healthy. I can't say I've been overly pissed off the last two weeks. I think the injury forced me into a break that I needed. Work has ramped again and baba on the way so need to stick to my rule.

Anyways all good it seems. No big plans forthcoming in terms of running. Have kinda steered clear of strava a bit but checking every now and then incase anyone was wondering why I wasn't giving kudos. Lol.

skyblue46

Delighted to see you get significant improvement. Long may it continue. There's no doubt you are planning the right steps going forward as well.

MY BAD

Good to hear you are making some progress. Hopefully you're on the right path.

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Have kinda steered clear of strava a bit but checking every now and then incase anyone was wondering why I wasn't giving kudos. Lol.

I was the same I stayed away from strava and here. I didn't want to add to the anxiety of been injured and seeing everyone flying

coogy

Happy to hear this positive news!

I'm sure you'll do what's for the best over the coming weeks!!

Kellygirl

Delighted to hear of this progress. That’s great news.

eyrie

This is great to hear! Hope the positive trend continues

Swashbuckler

Our little girl got a little brother tonight. All are doing well

healy1835

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Our little girl got a little brother tonight. All are doing well

Nice one mate. Exciting times, enjoy every second

OOnegative

Congratulations P!!!

Kellygirl

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Our little girl got a little brother tonight. All are doing well

Congrats P. Delighted for you. Lovely news.

skyblue46

Great news P. All the best to mama and baba. Hopefully all went well and you have them home soon.

Wubble Wubble

Congrats on the new arrival P. Delighted for you.

ariana`

Super news to start the day P! Thanks for sharing. Congratulations to all and a speedy recovery to L.

Younganne

Congrats on the new arrival. Great news P

MY BAD

Congrats P

diego_b

Big congrats to you and your family!

Singer

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Our little girl got a little brother tonight. All are doing well

Congrats to the 4 of you

Back in Black

Congratulations and enjoy!!

Baby75

massive congratulations

average_runner

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Our little girl got a little brother tonight. All are doing well

Congrats, ye will have great fun!!

AuldManKing

A book has been opened on the name of the ickle boy;

No - its not Alan.

OOnegative

AuldManKing wrote: »

A book has been opened on the name of the ickle boy;

No - its not Alan.

Don’t call him Michael anyway........

skyblue46

OOnegative wrote: »

Don’t call him Michael anyway........

Michael Noonan from Limerick! Oh that brings me out in a cold sweat :pac:

I'm sure P and his good lady will be much more tasteful than that.

Duanington

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Our little girl got a little brother tonight. All are doing well

Love it - congrats P