Spiral out - keep going

Sunday 5th - 14.5m, 13.5m@7.52

This run kinda matched my longest MP run for the DCM in August. Felt ok after the rest day on Saturday, no sign of the groin issue from Friday but couldn't be certain until I started running. Was a small bit windy as well today.

After a mile warmup, I started at the 7.52 pace. It's amazing how comfortable that pace felt today compared to DCM training. Weather was very mild so took off my base layer when I passed the car at mile 4. Also, dropped my headphones back to the car - I'm finding that I prefer to run without music for any non easy run these days.

First half of the run seemed to be against the wind. Miles were
7.56, 7.48, 7.53, 7.46, 7.51, 7.58, 7.49
Reached the furthest turning point and headed back to the car with wind at my back. Miles were
7.48, 7.52, 7.46, 7.42
Was feeling good at this point but turned out last 2 and a half miles were going to be directly into the wind in an exposed area. Had to increase effort here which in turn caused the paces to increase, makes no sense really! Miles were
7.44, 7.35, 7.47 (1/2 mile)

Was happy to get through the run without any injury issues and being able to hit the paces.

Weekly mileage - 35.5m
Year to date - 28.5m :eek:

Next week's plan looks good with plenty of easy runs, one manageable tempo and a slower long run. Increase of mileage though, going up to 50 miles.

skyblue46 wrote: »

Just curious T....what's the thinking of 13.5 miles at MP. In light of an upcoming 10 miler particularly.

I suppose it's not really MP anymore S, was just doing a bit of a comparison in paces from DCM training. The plan I'm following is not specifically aimed at the Dungarvan 10, but more of a gradually buildup to the Cork half marathon.

Endurance for me is where I need to do the most improvement. My shorter distance PBs don't correlate to the longer distance ones. If I can improve endurance, the longer distance times will reduce, as will the shorter ones - I have the speed but not the engine yet!!

I've been finding the various types of runs on the plan really enjoyable and can already feel the benefits. So to answer the original question, I'm assuming that running 13.5m at a quick enough pace will improve my overall endurance. To put things in perspective, I'm going to try to run Dungarvan at a quicker pace (6.40) than my 5k time from May :eek:

Road to Dungarvan Week 9

Quite a daunting week with 6 days running on the plan for the first time and also, 6 days consecutive days running if you include last Sundays. Miserable weather forecasted for the week too

Monday 13th - 6m easy, 9.27avg

Ran this in the midst of storm Brendan, no other time to do it really. Decided to run it in the local park where the lack of trees made it the safest place to run. Wasn't too bad except for a long straight stretch where I was fighting into the wind struggling to breath. At least it made the run exciting. Running in these conditions has finally made me come to terms of being addicted to running - I couldn't not run today

Left the park to find a tree after falling into the road covering 2 of the 3 lanes. At least it didnt fall into the park and on top of me!

Tuesday 14th - 8m 3x2m@6.59 w 400m/3min recovery

Another run, another soaking - Was lashing for the whole thing. Forgot to select the interval session on my watch so did a 1m warmup and then started the interval workout. Wind did play a factor in it but not as bad as yesterdays. 1st and last reps were with the wind, middle one against.

1st - 6.52 6.50 - jogged recovery
2nd - 6.54 6.51 - walked recovery here due to the extra effort against the wind
3rd - 6.53 6.53 - jogged recovery

Felt a bit meh about the session afterwards for some reason. It's only when I checked Strava afterwards that I realised how good it was. Even with the 2 recoveries (one walking), it was my 2nd fastest ever 10k (44.53), 1st being Charleville HM. Made me feel a lot better about it.

Wednesday 15th - 7m easy, 8.40avg

You might see the average pace there and think it was too fast for easy but it really did feel easy at that pace that day. It was a great run going around the Blackrock loop. Maybe it's because I do most of my long runs around that route that the quicker pace felt easy.

Thursday 16th - 5m easy, 9.13avg

Did the 5m loop out in Ballincollig regional park. Not as easy feeling as the day before but still felt good.

Challenging session tomorrow before I finally get a rest day

Still unsure about the 6 days even though I feel ok this week. I like my rest days

Friday 17th - 8m 4x1m@6.49 w 800m/8min recovery

Really struggled to do a similar session a few weeks ago, so was worried about it. It was 4 reps this time instead of 5 but the paces were quicker. This time round though, I was able to hit the paces and more importantly, keep the recovery pace to 8 min/mile. The last time I had to slow the recovery to 8.30 as I felt I wasn't recovering enough. This time I felt I was recovering at 8min pace.

1st rep - 6.48 (7.58 recovery pace)
2nd - 6.47 (7.58 rec)
3rd - 6.43 (7.50 rec)
4th - 6.41 (7.54 rec)

Was delighted to nail this session, and while it was tough I felt good towards the end. 2nd best 10k ran during the session (44.29)

Sunday 19th - 16m 13.5m@8min 2m@7.49 - 7.58avg

Lovely morning to run even though the path were a small bit icy. The biggest obstacles were the amount of people out - spent a lot of the time slaloming between the different groups.

I did notice around the 6 mile mark that the legs were feeling a bit tired, probably after the Friday session. Was able to keep the miles under 8min and up the pace for the last two. The legs had that familiar lead like feeling afterwards, that I remembered from the long runs for DCM.
I kept thinking that the pace for this run was very similar to my actual DCM pace, so that gave me encouragement of the improvement I've been making since then.

Weekly mileage - 51 miles
Year to date - 130 miles

Good tough week done, happy to come out of it unscathed. Think the plan eases out a bit for the next 2 weeks in preparation for Dungarvan.

Warning no exciting race report, just a boring two days of running

Great to see some fantastic running from boardsies today in Raheny, felt really jealous seeing all those times come in today

Friday 24th - 7m, 6m@8.40, 1m@6.59

Ran this around my normal Blackrock loop and it felt great. 8.40 is considered an easy pace these days but it depends on the day. Today it felt real easy and I was enjoying the jog around. Bumped into my sister running with her friend towards the end, so ran with them for 2 miles. They were complaining about me running too fast for them (9.30) so I slowed to 10.31 for the 6th mile. Left them for the last mile and sped back to the car in 6.49

Sunday 26th - 11.5m, 10m@8.09 1.5m@7.45, 8.01avg

Ended the week with a shorter long run than normal, with paces a tad slower than previous weeks too. The 8.09 pace felt great and quite easy, while the legs felt good too. Miles were quite consistent as well
8.09, 8.05, 8.06, 8.12, 8.06, 8.09, 8.08, 7.56, 8.00, 8.01

No problem with the increase in pace, maybe too much as it averaged 7.35 for the last 1.5m. Felt really good after it though

Weekly mileage - 47.5
Year to date - 177.5

With Dungarvan next Sunday, next week sees a lot of easy runs with 1 speed session (albeit a bit easier than normal). The plan at this moment is to run with the OH with a pace of 6.45 at the start. See how I feel around the 6 mile mark and go from there.

Dungarvan 10 race (finally!!)

So after the run on Friday, I went out for a 2 mile shake of the legs and some strides. After getting through this without any issue, I was confident that everything was ok injury wise.

Left Cork in plenty of time with the OH and picked up a friend on the way. Arrived in Dungarvan in plenty of time, picked up my number and went off on the warm up. Wind was blowing really hard so it was a concern for the race. Changed into the Legalflys and headed up to the start line.

Plan for the race was to run with the OH at a pace of about 6.40-6.45, try to shelter as much as we could for the first 5 miles and go from there.

Mile 1
Good start to the race but looked like we started a bit far back when the 70 pacer balloon suddenly popped up in front of us. Lot of jostling about around the first few bends and I did make a mistake of going onto a footpath. Nearly slipped and came a cropper, which would've been my own fault - schoolboy error. Back round to the start line and off out of town we went 6.37

Miles 2,3,4
Trying to settle into the pace at this stage is really hard; must admit I did find the going tough early in the race. Myself and the OH were passing a good amount of people though, while trying to shelter behind as many people as possible. End of mile 2 saw us take a sharp right off the main road and onto country roads.

OH then had a problem with the pinning of her gel so I ended up carrying that in my hand till mile 5 (my pocket was full). Went up the first hill ok and a nice downhill section past the first water station at mile 3. I was still struggling with the fast pace so poured most of the bottle over my legs, back of neck and back. Mile 4 was the slowest but it was a hard mile, with the wind hitting us at an angle that was really hard to hide from.6.41,6.25, 6.48

Mile 5
Still battling hard into the wind. We're in a nice group of runners here running at roughly the same pace so it was easier to tuck in here. Headed up to the 2nd water station so time to take a gel. Hand the OH the sweat covered Maurten that I had been carrying all along (if I was a a proper gentleman, I should've taken that one myself ) and took out the nice fresh one from my pocket.

I normally don't need water taking Maurten gels so it was probably a mistake taking a bottle of water whilst trying to eat the gel. Not sure if it's just me or not, but they take a while to eat - more of a jelly than a gel.6.42

Mile 6
The water station broke up the group that had formed and myself and the OH drove on, sensing that turn back was only small bit up the road. Got to the turn and it was a great relief to not have to face that wind. But wait, what was this blowing in my face - more bloody wind! Sticky mile this one as we knew there was a nice downhill section up ahead but could ages to get to it. I did feel at this time though, that I was feeling marginally somewhat fairly ok, better than earlier anyway.6.39

Mile 7
Strange miles these. Some points I felt really strong, well able to push on and then seconds later I would feel my legs were getting heavier and heavier. We forgot about a tough drag up to the downhill section and we struggled here tbh. At this stage I thought my goose was cooked - legs were super heavy. Downhill section finally arrived and I kinda attacked it just to make some time up. My OH thinks I'm making an early attack and wishes me well, but I shake my finger to say that wasn't happening. With the next turn there was finally a feeling of wind at our backs.6.38

Mile 8
Longest mile ever on a really straight road. I was feeling a bit narky, conditions of the roads were annoying me - typical irish boreens where the middle of the road slopes out either side. My right foot was giving out to me. My really expensive shoes shouldn't be dealing with these types of conditions. Yes I was probably delirious! Finally the next turn was in sight, where we would rejoin the main road and face some hills.6.35

Mile 9
Nice steep slope to join the main road, followed by a short downhill. I remember seeing some annoying politician's face on a billboard at that time which added to the pain at that stage. I thought there was meant to be a steeper hill here but didn't feel like that. Looked at my watch and there was a mile and a half left. Pace had slipped a bit so I felt I could push on/suffer for the remainder. I left my OH at this stage and again, she gave me some words of encouragement to go for it. Maybe I upped the pace a bit too much but was catching and passing loads of people. The end of the mile got us to the last hill of the race, which we first passed around mile 2 6.38

Mile 10
The hill was in two stages, middle was flat, and I did feel a bit gassed at the top of it but only half a mile left. There was a nice downhill section which I was able to attack again and get my breath back. Felt I was being tracked by two guys I had just passed so had to keep the pace up. End of the downhill and not much left. Was still pushing the pace, crowds were cheering us on here so couldn't be seen to slow down. Around the last bend and went as fast as I could.6.08

Chip time - 66.02
Thought I had done enough to go under 66 but no harm done seeing as goal time was around 67ish.

Lies, damned lies and statistics
Just to make myself feel better. Dungarvan was my first proper race ever last year. It's over a 10min PB from that race and a 8min PB for 10 miles, from Mallow last year. Even my time without performance enhancing gadgets shows improvement - Predicted time sans next% - 69.20 :D 5min PB

On other matters, I've signed up with a coach and will start a new plan this week. From glancing at it tonight, it's look tough but let's see how it goes. Feet up tonight with first beers since new years eve and Superbowl on the tv