Man! I feel like a runner

Mon 29th June
No running, but into S&C class that morning. Evening stroll for air.

Tues 30th June
5 x 2 mins in Zone 4 with 2 min recoveries (60 sec walk, 60 sec jog). I did this waaaay back in week 2 of the plan, looking back at my notes the weather was probably similar so it was a real pleasure to see the paces were a fair bit faster this time around the HR stayed in Zone 4 easier. I felt like it confirmed how I had been feeling the last couple of weeks.
154 miles for June.

Weds 1st July
Into S&C again in the morning.
Very short easy run in the evening, 3.3 miles @ 9.27/m, avg HR 140.

Thurs 2nd July
Another easy run, 3.4m @ 9.20/m, avg HR 140. Felt bloody great tbh.

Fri 3rd July
I was back and forth whether I would run at all, but I generally do a short run the day before an actual race with a few strides so decided to stay with that. It felt awkward and not great, which is normal the day before a race so in a weird way I also found this comforting :pac: 2.4 miles, 9.40/m avg HR 138.

Sat 4th July
So here we were, 13 weeks of HR training behind me, feeling great and ready to tackle 10k and hopefully get a PB.
I never eat before morning training runs, and hadn't eaten before the mile or 5k TTs, but decided it was better to eat before this one so had a light brekkie and headed over to the PP to meet my personal pacer, Murph_D
Nice little warm-up and chats and back to Chesterfield Avenue to get started.

Off we went and got into the pace quickly, D just seems to lock into pace so naturally!! I didn't even have to think for myself About half a mile in and it felt like the pace was too hot for me, and my breathing was a bit heavy, but I just focused on settling into it. Mile 1 was 7.13 which was perfect, but I was thinking how am I going to keep that pace up for 5+ more miles.. I tried to focus on positive things like this is the harder part of the course, or when D's watch beeped for 2km that the kms were going by quickly at least.. By the end of mile 2 I already felt like the sub 45 was beyond me (and possibly said this aloud, although I was banned from talking ). Up the hill out of the glen and I was thinking I'd be doing well to get to halfway at this pace. When we turned into the Acres, and up what I never thought was a tough hill before, I was breathing hard and gone mentally. I stopped, put my hands on my knees and shouted to D up ahead that I was done. He jogged back saying 'no you're not', bless him, and told me not to stop the watch! I didn't but did start jogging again, after a couple more pushes and it just felt hard. 3 miles never felt so long. I felt awful about letting D pace me and then blowing up, but he was an absolute gent about it (is anyone shocked by that though?) and it was the right thing to finish it out. Pushed the last little bit to get under 50 minutes. 49.29.

Personally, I really don't think it's that tough a course. I also thought the weather conditions were how I like them! I haven't been flat out with social activities now that life is back up and running a bit more normally. So all the reasons mentioned by people are not valid! The pace just felt too fast for whatever reason, even though all my training suggested it shouldn't really?
I do plan to try again in the near future.. just not sure when exactly. Or where.
ANYway, it was an enjoyable morning despite the last 3 miles being rough and MASSIVE thanks again to Murph_D for his pacing! And I enjoyed the warm-up and post-run chats.
Also thanks to shotgun and Healy (I suppose ) for the organising and putting together the results!

Sun 5th July
Lazy morning, then finally visited a friend who had a lockdown baby
Really fancied a run when I got home, so over to the UCD trails for a nice 5 miles. No HR monitor, no checking the watch, just some tunes and running as I felt. 9.20/m avg.

27.4 miles for the week.

Mon 6th July
Evening walk and 30 mins of mobility type stuff.

Tues 7th July
Into S&C in the morning, 45 mins class, pretty tough on upper body which was better than it being tough on the legs
Easy jaunt in the rain that evening, no HRM but I felt good. 9.15/m avg, 5.4 miles.

Weds 8th July
For whatever reason, cos it wasn't an easy run really like I had planned for all runs this week, I arranged to go up the hills I did take plenty of short walk breaks on the way up. Desperate weather but so much fun! Left calf was giving out a bit as I got near the top, so made sure to look after it the rest of the week with my usual exercises. 7.2 miles total, averaging 12 min miles (but obviously the down ones were a lot faster!).

Thurs 9th July
Easy evening run which was needed for some head clearing. Calf a bit tight after the hills but not too bad either. 4.5 miles @ 9.15/m avg.
Did 30 mins of stability work off that UA page again.

Fri 10th July
S&C in the morning, 45 mins.
More easy miles with no HRM. Run felt a bit sluggish for whatever reason. 4 miles @ 9.25/m.
Over to my sister's in the evening to give my nephew a card for his flippin' 21st!!! I feel ancient.

Sat 11th July
Down to Offaly Headed out to the wind farm with my Dad for a run (although we ran separately). It was great to get all the fresh air although I really noticed how much more humid the midlands are compared to Dublin! You could really feel the heat coming off the bog! Felt good though, and couldn't keep the pace down. Well, I probably didn't try too hard either. 5.5 miles @ 8.48/m avg.

Sun 12th July
My brother and his crew were over from Galway so went for a run with him in the afternoon, hitting up the canal banks and we spotted a heron He seemed determined to run the legs off me so it was not a very easy run for me really, even though we were chatting all things running throughout. 8 miles @ 8.49/m. Wore the HRM and sure enough I was in Zone 3 for most of it.

Total miles: 35.

I was all sure at the start of the week I'd try another 10k TT this coming week but I don't know if I'm bothered anymore. I'll have a think about it the next couple of days anyway, see how I feel.

I think I need a physio appointment as well, I'm not injured but there's an issue that might turn into one. Dr Google tells me its my piriformis; it doesn't hurt AT ALL running or walking, but when I get up from a chair or out of my car I'm a bit lame on one side for a few minutes with the pain in that area. I'm no expert but I suspect that's not supposed to happen Best to be safe I reckon .

Murph_D wrote: »

Excellently run mile. Certainly suggests your 10k target is well within your grasp. Well done - Project Sub-6 sounds exciting! What’s the method going to be like?

Yeah, that's a good question :pac: It will involve properly reading Daniels for a start. Might try doing a few 200s sessions the next couple of weeks just to get started and a bit of practice at workouts like that.

Mr. Guappa wrote:

Do you think the shorter than normal warm up helped your race?

Interesting question. I don't think so? I was thinking would I have gotten another couple of seconds if I was more warmed up but now you've given me food for thought. I'll have to try both approaches a few times maybe

Mon 27th
Early S&C class, plenty of glute work.
Handy evening run, 3.3 miles @ 9.24/m.

Tues 28th
Some early morning mobility and core stuff.
Went up to club training for the session for the first time in god knows how long! It was 200s so that fit nicely with my mile-plans. I stupidly thought 800m pace was the way to ease in - but of course that is faster than mile pace I realised about half way through! Anyway, target was about 43 seconds in my head. We did it in the cricket field in Marlay so one way was slightly downhill and then slight uphill coming back. I'd had to manually program in the workout as Garmin Connect wouldn't upload from the app, so a few reps were actually more than 200m. I was reasonably happy with it: 43, 46, 42, 47, 44, 47, 43, 47. 60 secs standing recovery each time. Nice to do it with company too.
Just 3.3 miles total for the evening.

Weds 29th
Early morning S&C again, sucker for punishment even when off work
Headed off to Kenmare then, but stopped off in Glengariff park to meet a clubmate who has been cocooning in Cork since March (we'd actually ran together the day before lockdown was announced). We'd intended to follow the parkrun route, but the website directions include 'head north' etc which was not helpful so we just ran! It was lovely, but quite hilly! 3.2 miles @ 10.18/m avg. Then sambos in the rain for a real Irish break.

Thurs 30th
I'd been wanting to climb Carrauntoohil for a good few years, but never seemed to find a weekend other summers to go do it. This summer is of course a different matter! I had somehow talked a few friends into it, who may or may not hate me now, but I had a great time I really loved it.. even though I naively wasn't expecting actual climbing (hands etc) up the Devil's Ladder! We'd booked a guide which was definitely the smart idea, if only for the help he gave us crossing the stream / river which had risen a lot overnight from the gallons of rain!! We actually hadn't realised Kenmare was flooded until after the climb, we'd left early and not driven through the town and couldn't understand why people were texting us about floods.. :pac: Anyway, 8 hours on the hills. SO much fun.

Fri 31st
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I may have gone for a short run only we had to check out by 9am so I just drove to my sister's in Cork for the day. I needed a nap there, the tiredness from the day before really caught me.

Total miles for July: 141

Sat 1st Aug
I'd driven on up to my brother's in Rathdowney Friday night as I also hadn't seen him and his family since before lockdown and he had agreed to bring me on a trail run I'd seen him do on Strava a few times. I actually assumed he might cut it short but NO, 14 miles! No sympathy for my tired legs It was a fab run though, called the Leafy Loop and circles Durrow through various natural woodlands and along the Nore. Laois ain't flat either; I flat out refused to run up one hill! Legs were fairly tired afterwards. Avg pace 10.10/m.

Sun 2nd Aug
I was in Offaly by now and headed out for an afternoon run to bring the weekly mileage up to 30. 6.5 miles @ 8.57/m. I was surprised that my legs felt ok on this and just went with it. I could probably do with a wee sports massage though, the pesky calf was not so happy with the mountain and I don't want that to flare up again.

Total for the week: 30.3

Murph_D wrote: »

+1 to that, what a great week of runs etc. Nice 200s to start off with, nothing wrong with those. And good call on the Carrauntoohill guide, you can never be too careful up there IMO. I have a friend whose brother fell off. :eek:

Christ. The guide did tell us stories of some tragic incidents which he maybe should have saved for afterwards, not when we were clinging on to the Ladder.. one of my friends was anxious enough already.

crisco10 wrote: »

Based on your aversion to the phrase "head north" probably a good call to have a guide for Carrauntoohill...

Lovely weeks running!

Cheers.. yeah the guide was a good call alright, especially with mist blowing over every so often, wouldn't want to go down the wrong way! He was of course ascending and descending with his arms folded. Like a stroll in his backyard!

Mon 3rd Aug
Nothing! Bit of visiting in Offaly (while I could eh?) before heading back to the big smoke.

Tues 4th Aug
45 mins S&C, quads very tight.
Up to the club for more 200s that evening. The club schedule was 6 x 200s off 40 seconds this week, so just stuck with that. It went a lot better this week, I suppose knowing a bit more of how it can feel from the previous week helps? Same place as last week, so reps 1,3,5 slight downhill and the rest with a slight uphill: 42, 43, 42, 42, 41, 43. Was quite pooped for cooldown however! 3 miles total for the evening only.

Weds 5th
Easy 6 miles, tried to keep HR easy as possible but the humidity seemed to affect me a lot. Avg pace 9.34/m, avg HR 145.

Thurs 6th
More easy miles, 5 @ 9.21/m. Didn't bother with the HRM but it didn't feel as warm out and all felt easy. Had intended on some mobility stuff but never got around to it.

Fri 7th
45 mins S&C in the morning, body felt quite tired.
Still decided I'd try 400s that afternoon... I don't think I like them very much! The plan was 2 sets of 4x400, 75 secs between the 400s and 3 mins between the sets. I'd seen a man do 400s along the side of the sports fields in UCD during lockdown so I thought it was handiest to just go there, it's on grass away from the path so no people-traffic issues really. The target was 90 seconds (6 min mile pace):
Set 1: 93, 87, 91, 89 -- guess which direction had the bit of wind on my back
I took about 4 mins between sets actually cos I had the 75 sec AND the 3 mins programmed in. I was wrecked and wondering how I'd manage 4 more.
Set 2: 95, 91... and stop! I just couldn't face the last 2 at all. I probably could have forced myself seeing as I wasn't totally dead, but my head wasn't really in it. But I had definitely underestimated how tough they would be. Lesson learned!
3.7 miles total.

Sat 8th
Easy 6 miles enjoying the sun and Enrique in my ears. 9.43/m, avg HR 145.
30 mins mobility and core stuff when I got home. Very much needed!

Sun 9th
Headed up to Marlay for my long run, had 12 miles in mind but finished with 10. The left calf was giving out a bit so decided not to push it - although maybe I should have cut it shorter. I have a sports massage booked for tomorrow anyway so we'll see. Nice morning all the same, few miles solo in Marlay then went over to St Enda's and bumped into a clubmate for a couple laps there. Back to Marlay where I met a group from the club so joined them for a few miles and chats. Finished with tae and snacks near the market with club and parkrun folk
Avg pace 9.44/m, avg HR 138.

Total miles: 34, happy enough with that.

This was the first week of the mile plan D shared with me. I'm not gonna follow it religiously but will certainly use the sessions. I want to keep running up the hills / trails regularly enough, so will play it all by ear at the same time. I know it might mean not breaking 6 minutes for the mile but right now I just want to do whatever is enjoyable.