Once in a Lifetime....for now

eyrie wrote: »

Ha, the lesson from this is clearly to keep running (and racing) in the cool early morning! I think you might be unusual enough in that though - I'm sure I've heard HR elevation in the morning is fairly typical (or maybe I'm just taking my own experience and assuming it applies to other people too ). Agree about temperature though so if you're somewhere hot, running early is definitely easier on the heart rate.

Pfitzinger has a view on it......https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20826032/the-tell-tale-heart/

Monday 1st: 7.3 miles @ 8:43. The interval part of this was 10*400s. Splits were all in the 1:43-1:46 range, exactly where they were meant to be. Nice relaxed running.

Tuesday 2nd: Rest Day

Wednesday 3rd: 10 miles @ 8:45. Another of the staple 6*1k intervals off 800m. This one had a few strides at the end. Splits were 4:48, 53, 36, 45, 40 and 39. Paces dictated by HR range prescribed.

Thursday 4th: 7.6 miles @ 8:26. Another of the staple runs, this time a moderate type run in the form of 8 times a seven minute run in Zone 2 followed each time by a 60 second surge to HM/M pace.

Friday 5th: 8.6 miles @ 8:45. Up to Poppintree Park for this one for a change. 4*2k off 800m. Splits were 9:58, 9:57, 9:59 and 9:30. Again paces dictated by HR with the last interval benefiting from a circuitous downhill route home.

Saturday 6th: 9 miles @ 8:41. A lovely run up to the 12th lock from Phibsboro all along the banks of the Royal canal and back. It was another 6*1k. Splits were 4:43, 50, 56, 44, 45 and 39. Lots of strollers, runners and families enjoying the bright sunshine.

Sunday 7th: 7.5 miles @ 8:29. Over to the PP for this one. It was a repeat of the type of run I did on Thursday. Stayed in the HR zones and kept the surges nice and controlled.

2.5 miles were added to this when I joined Applegirl for a couple of her miles. The 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours is some challenge. I would imagine the sleeping challenge is as difficult as the running one. After 36 hours she still seemed right as rain to me and very determined to see the job through. Respect!

So a decent week of running and feeling really fresh on it. The experiment will continue.

It was a fantastic day of sport too with Sam Bennett producing a great sprint to win the first stage of Paris-Nice. It was his 52nd career win and he took out quite a few of the worlds best sprinters today...a class act. Nice also to see that Utd can still pull off the odd result. Great to do it against City to end their winning streak. Highlight of the weekend though had to be the further fall from grace at fortress Anfield....warms the heart.

PS. The empty arena at the European indoors led to one consequence I hadn't considered....that womens shrieking could shatter glass! Dear God some of them had me wondering if medal winning really is orgasmic :eek:

Thursday 18th: 8.7 miles @ 8:39. This was a 4*2k off 800, w/u and c/d. On my usual downhill then uphill route resulting in splits of 9:44, 9:59, 10:30 and 10:35. All done in the prescribed HR zone @ 90% LTHR.

Friday 19th: 8 miles @ 8:33. An easy run just keeping HR at the top of zone 1/ low zone 2

Saturday 20th: 9.5 miles @ 8:40. The regular 6*1k @ 90-92% LT HR and a few 30 second bursts afterwards. Another sign of progress with splits improving for what on this day was actually all done at the lower end of the range. Splits were 4:46, 50, 25, 35, 35 and 4:46.

Sunday 21st: 8 miles @ 8:14. W/u followed by 8*6 mins @ 82-85% LT HR followed by 1 min at M pace. Really comfortable again. Definite gains being made and more importantly its hugely enjoyable.

So that's the boring account of my running. Other stuff...congrats to Treviso, ariana and the Lemon on great PBs over the weekend. All well deserved after great blocks of continuing training.

I'm still here, still alive and training away using the Easy Interval Method. It's a strange one. I started it 8 weeks ago with the fear that it might be too much, now I'm afraid it is not hard enough. That being said I will be sticking with it. The fitness is improving, legs feel great, niggles are gone and I have never enjoyed getting out so much. After the 6 months I had I think that enjoyment is the priority for me...times less so.

The delivery man will be bringing a few bits this week...the Atreyu Artist and the Asics Magic Speed. Neither are "Super Shoes" but both are carbon plated and mid stack height. Also on the way (I should hide my bank card while drinking) is a Stryd Pod. The geek in me can't wait to start playing with it

So the postman, DHL man and DPD man arrived, each bearing gifts

An Post man brought the Stryd pod. This is absolute geek heaven. I probably won't consider doing any running by power until I have a month or 6 weeks of mixed running done just to give it some time to work out some reasonably accurate numbers.

DHL man brought the Atreyu Artist shoe. My God it's white, very white! It is reasonably high stack, uses a nitrogen infused foam and has a carbon plate. I used them for a few 1k reps last night and they definitely respond better to an increase in pace. I didn't like them at all on the slower bits...too spongy a feel for me.

DPD man brought the Asics Magic Speed. My God it's neon orange, very neon orange! :pac: It uses Flyte Foam Blast and has a carbon plate in the midsole. If this is a half way house between old style trainers and super shoes then I can't wait to try a genuine cheat shoe. I wore them for some 1k reps and a "see where I'm at" (better than I imagined) 5k tester. They just felt perfect. From what I read I think they would slot in alongside Endorphin Speeds.

Unfortunately I now have a little moral dilemma....I love the Magic Speed, I love the Evoride 2 and I love the Glideride. I am all Asics in my rotation at the moment. However I have gone to war with the company Well war with their social media and customer service departments anyway. You see it went a bit like this.... I waited months for the Asics super marathon shoe, the Metaspeed Sky, to appear. When it did I was in like Flynn to order a pair. Unfortunately their system failed and a week later they cancelled my order and refunded my payment. I lost the plot (my ire no doubt fuelled by the fact that a fawning Corkonian Nikeophile had got a pair) and set my sights on Customer Service and the Asics Insta, twitter and Facebook accounts. My hurt and upset was generally ignored I retreated to my corner to lick my wounds and accept the fact that I would have to wait until the next release before I could try to get a pair....Then last week I got an email from Asics. I opened it eagerly. Had they found a pair hidden in the corner? Were my prayers to be answered? No! They were thanking me for my purchase of the wonderful Metaspeed Sky and requesting that I write a review for their website. :pac: This had all the appearance of an open goal! The heavy artillery was loaded and in I charged with a full on assault!! No prisoners were taken as I systematically destroyed their service. What a victory!! My joy lasted less than 24 hours until I got another email. "Dear S, Our staff has read your review and values your contribution even though it did not meet all our website guidelines. Thanks for sharing and we hope to publish next time" :eek:

New Balance shoe suggestions anyone? :pac::pac::pac:

Treviso wrote: »

Just to add fuel to the fire, Asics processed my refund for the return of said MetaSpeed yesterday with no fuss. Got to say I'm impressed with their customer service

Are you a oneAsics member? I signed up when purchasing the MetaSpeed as it included 90 day gear trials. If not, maybe that is why I got the preferred treatment?

Yes, I am a One Asics member....and have purchased 6 pairs of shoes over the last 12 months. I just think it was a fook up...

Well that few months passed quickly 🤣

I was told that a few venerable posters had risen Lazarus-like over the past few weeks in an attempt to breath life back into this forum. I think that there may well be room for an old contrarian as well. 😁

Just a brief recap on the intervening months first. I came down with a hamstring injury in June through my own stupidity. I took a couple of weeks off and went to my physio. The diagnosis was a upper hamstring tendinopathy. I got it relatively stable after 12 days of no running and alongside a regime of exercises I slowly built mileage back up from 6 miles a week to 37 in mid October.

Then I made a long overdue visit to a great family in Den Haag. I cannot say enough about how well I get treated there, nor can I say how much I love B's two kids. They are gems, totally unlike their da 🤪 As for his wife...wasted on him! Sure if I want to see the 3 of them again I suppose I'll just have to accept B as part of the deal. 😘 Anyway we headed out for a run on my first day there, a lovely route with a mixture of city streets and wooded park areas. Shortly after B led me on a slight detour to see a WW2 German bunker before we resumed our run. Suddenly I was in a heap on the ground. My first reaction was that the ghost of a Nazi soldier had taken me down but the loud laughter coming from the Man from Tang made me realise I had actually tripped over a tree root 🙈 The pure fookin embarrassment soon gave way to a realisation that I had properly done the tendon.

The next couple of days, pain aside, were a joy. Lots of food, endless different craft beers and IPAs and lots of time with the kids too. B you are a lucky man and a great Dad.

So that was it until today. Not one run. The physio has been great, a very honest girl. It's a bolli× of an injury. Most other tendons (always slow to heal because of the lack of blood supply) can be immobilised but obviously this one can't. Simple things like getting out of the car can set it back. Today I did a few 1 minute jog/walk repeats. Hopefully I can build it back slowly but even best case scenario won't see hills or speed for months. Worst case isn't something I could deal with...

The positives? I have had lots of time to read some more about training and the theories, philosophies and opinions on them. I have also become something of an expert on all the 2022 shoes that will be hitting the market next year....well not all, all bar one brand 🤑💉💊

Hey man, a lot of what you said on your log resonated...the sands of time bring their own pressures. 🤯