An 18 Week Sabbatical

Monday 22nd March
Long Run w/ 25 minute split tempo + 2 x 800m @ 10k pace
Short as they were, the addition of the two stints at 10k pace to this week’s tempo run, made this an important session to get right. I tried to make things as reflective of a real race as possible by doing the first effort with the assistance of the wind, then retracing my steps to tackle the wind head on for the second effort. The 30 seconds off didn’t give me a whole lot of recovery, so I like to think I’d have held the 3:12/km average pace without the break. I find it hard to believe I could hold that pace for a full 10km though, but it wasn’t a lung bursting effort either. Although it might very well have to be 84% of the way into a 10km race. But after the 25 minutes of tempo running tonight, my legs weren’t completely fresh either, and it didn’t feel like I was overreaching. 3:12/km equates to a 32:00 10k time, which is well beyond me right now, but if I progress along the same trajectory as I did when following Magness in 2018, I might get closer to it than I think.
Totals: 1:38 - 22.77km


Tuesday 23rd March
Run 1 - 8km
Totals: 0:34 - 8.01km

Run 2 - 14.5km w/ 6 x 100m strides The strides were done up a slight hill, which was even slightly more uphill than the hill I used for last week’s strides. Paces were slightly faster as well, and reflecting on the improvements, I felt slightly better about myself.
Totals: 1:03 - 14.50km


Wednesday 24th March
Run 1 - 10km
Totals: 0:41 - 10.01km

Run 2 - 18km A longish run up around Rosemount and Northwest Business Parks. After it uploaded to Strava, I saw I achieved the 2nd fastest time on a 1.17km segment. I wasn’t aware I was running a segment, and while I’ve never gone out chasing chasing course records, it’s nice to study them and see how I compare to others. Feeling good about myself, I investigated further to see who had the top spot. I found out it was Sean Tobin, and that I’d need to have been 1 minute and 30 seconds quicker to take the crown. That would require running my aspirational 10km pace on what is an uphill stretch of road. And Sean Tobin was probably out for an easy jaunt when he was running. It really shows where you stand in the grand scheme of things.
Totals: 1:13 - 18.01km


Thursday 25th March
Run 1 - 6km Recovery
Totals: 0:33 - 6.03km

Run 2 - 16km w/ 8 x (200m @ 5k-3k pace/200m jog) I worked out the above paces based on the markings on the track rather than taking the readings on my Garmin, which look better, but experience tells me are unreliable when running ovals.
I drove to Porterstown Park for this, parked there, then ran to Castleknock College for the bulk of the warmup. After returning to my car, I changed into spikes to do the real work on MSB’s 400m grass track. Happily every 50m was marked out, which suited my session perfectly.
The plan was to run the first 100m at 5k pace, then pick it up for the last 100m. I broke it down as 1) run for 100m, 2) accelerate, 3) accelerate again after 150m. At least that was the plan, but the final 100m were on a bend, and uphill (believe it or not). I probably could have arranged things better to take more advantage of the wind, but I was putting in the appropriate effort at the appropriate times, which I suppose is what the session was all about. I had deliberately chosen to run on grass, so as not to get too hung up on numbers, so there’s little point worrying about paces now.
Totals: 1:17 - 16.14km


Friday 26th March
10km Run I ran up to the NSC for this, and was greeted by yet another set of newly erected barriers blocking entry to the public on one of my usual routes. This is the third barricade put up on what used to be a regular route for me. I just hope the changes are temporary.
Totals: 0:43 - 10.00km


Saturday 27th March
Run 1 - 8km Recovery This should have been done yesterday, but thinking I’d have loads of time to get two runs done in the evening (on account of a half day in school), I forwent my usual pre-work run. I did have loads of time, I just didn’t manage it well, so the recovery run was moved to this morning. I was still following the sequence of the workouts, so it felt like I was staying true to the plan.
Totals: 0:51 - 8.00km

Run 2 - Long Run - w/ 16km @ MP Humbling, windy, very windy, but still very humbling!
I wore my ON Cloudracers, the same runners I wore for DCM 2018, to find out how advantageous carbon fibre plated soles are; turns out very. This doesn’t surprise me, but I need to do some test runs that I can compare to the last time I solely focussed on running. I’d like to blame the wind for my woes, and while 40km per hour winds didn’t help, they don’t explain away all of the splits that were so far off my :35/km target. And I don’t think the ON runners do either.
Totals: 1:34 - 23.61km


Sunday 28th March
Run 1 - 16km Recovery The majority of this was on grass; very slow, but at least my heart rate was very low as well.
Totals: 1:36 - 16.00km

Run 2 - 6km Recovery I wasn’t too enthused about getting dressed up for a second time today, especially for a half hour run. Bit I needed another 6km to make it a second consecutive 100 mile week, so it felt like I had no choice but to do it.
Totals: 0:34 - 6.00km



Weekly Totals
Running - Time: 12:24, Distance: 161.09km
Cross training - Time: 0:00
S & C - Time: 0:12 Almost too embarrassed to log this, but I did a few press-ups upon waking up two mornings this week. I thought it would kick start good habits, but still waiting.

Monday 5th April
km w/ 20min tempo + 3 x 3min uphill My HRM readings today were complete BS, so there’s no point detailing them.
I drove to the Phoenix Park and did the full 100 minutes there. The tempo portion was done around the Playing Fields, and I got about 2⅓ laps covered in the 20 minutes. This is the longest continuous time I have spent at tempo in this block, but with base training well and truly period over, I didn’t think I could soften my target. So the objective of holding :27/km remained the same.
It was another day of strong wind and sudden gusts, which made things much harder on certain parts of the irregularly shaped quadrilateral loop I was running. I tried my best not to react to the conditions, telling myself it was guaranteed to be easier when I’d inevitably be running with a tailwind. Of course, this is what happened, but I don’t think it ever compensated for how hard I was being forced to work when conditions weren’t in my favour.
I was a second or two outside my target pace when I turned out of a headwind for the final time. I still had 2 minutes left to run, and there was an automatic increase in pace now that the wind was no longer working against me. Expecting things would automatically fall into place, I relaxed a little too much at this juncture. No increase in pace showed on my Garmin, and I was forced me to dig a little deeper than I would have liked to bring it home.
Despite 20 out of 29 minutes of hard work done, it didn’t feel like I was anywhere near finished. The hill reps up next had me a little trepidatious. Ideally, I would have started them a lot sooner, but the base of the hill was 2-3km away and I don’t think there was any expectation in the plan to tempo over to the nearest available incline.
I decided to use a different hill to the one I’d settled on during a scouting mission last week. This last minute change meant the wind would be less of a problem. It wasn’t specifically stated in the plan, but I reckoned the intention was to do these at a tempo effort. Being all uphill though, aiming for a particular pace wasn’t sensible, so I just tried to replicate the effort I had been holding for the earlier 20 minutes.
I wasn’t too far off the :27/km tempo target with this approach, and come the final 3 minutes uphill, I thought “What’s the worst that could happen?”, and pushed a little bit harder than I did for the first two reps. I hadn’t completely flogged myself though, and don’t think I would have had any problems had there been more uphill efforts required.
Early days yet; but I felt good about my progress after this.
Totals: 1:06 - 16.60km


Tuesday 6th April
16.5km As per usual, it was up to the NSC for this run, and I stayed in there for every one of the 13 kilometres at pace; never once straying onto the grass.
Totals: 1:05 - 16.01km

There was a second 5-mile run scheduled for this evening that I didn’t get done. The plan is to make up for the missing distance over the course of the week.


Wednesday 7th April
Run 1 - 14km* *This was down in the book as an 5-mile run, but I added an extra 4km to start making up for some of the missing distance from yesterday evening’s missed run.

I’m back in Tullamore for a few days: Today, I took a roundabout way of linking up with the Grand Canal Way. I was getting to the halfway point in my run, when I decided running up a country road with no through traffic would be a good way to finish out the first seven kilometres. My watch beeped when 7km were completed, and I thought of turning. It was only another 50m or so to a bend in the road that I thought would make a more natural turning point. I carried on and duly rounded the bend, only to be greeted by an Alsatian idling outside a farmhouse. “Just my ****ing luck!”, I thought. The dog didn’t bark or show any signs of aggression, but I didn’t want to risk going any closer to it, so I promptly turned on my heels and started heading back for the safety of the Grand Canal Way. I looked over my shoulder, hoping to fnck, the Alsatian hadn’t given chase. He was loping down the road, but thankfully didn’t seem to be in any great rush, and was merely seeing off the unfamiliar interloper. I made my way back to the canal, and then back home without any further incident.
Totals: 0:57 - 14.01km

8km Recovery I thought about catching up with the rest of yesterday’s missed miles in this evening’s run, but it was tagged as “recovery”, which I’m guessing has something to do with a bastard of a run scheduled for tomorrow. The missing miles were meant to be run at pace, so it didn’t seem prudent to be adding them onto a short recovery run this evening.
Totals: 0:48 - 8.01km


Thursday 8th April
18km w/ 4 sets of (4’ tempo, 2’ 10k pace, 4’ jogging) The bloody wind once again proved to be my nemesis. I seem to be frequently blaming Mother Nature for my woes, but the differences in my paces go some way to proving I wasn’t just imaging things.
This looked a tough run on paper, and I can’t say I was particularly relishing it. The prospect of failure loomed large, but with an average pace of 3:25/km for the tempo efforts, and 3:12 for the 10k ones, I’ll chalk it down as a success. I never like tempo runs, and have routinely found them to be the hardest thing to do well in any of the running plans I’ve followed. I often need to work too hard to hit my target pace. But today, knowing I had to hit 10k pace immediately after finishing the 4 minutes tempo, ensured I kept the effort in check. The approach worked well, and it was only when coming towards the end of the combined 6 minutes, that things got difficult.
I was running on the pancake flat Grand Canal Way in my Nike 4%, but things won’t be any different when I do my peak race in 12 weeks (in fact I’ll be wearing even better shoes, and Allah willing, it’ll be a lovely calm day); so plenty to draw confidence from.
Totals: 1:16 - 18.00km


Friday 9th April
Run 1 - 19km Run I ran a bit longer than the plan decreed; partly to make up for the missed 5-miler of Tuesday evening, and partly because I missed a turn on the return leg of what was an out-and-back run.
Totals: 1:07 - 16.51km

Run 2 - 8km It was just a case of getting this done to round off the week. I thought about going for something easier than my standard training pace, but with two consecutive recovery runs scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday, I soon reasoned this wouldn’t be at all necessary.
Totals: 0:34 - 8.01km


Saturday 10th April
13km Recovery
Totals: 1:12 - 13.00km


Sunday 11th April
14km Recovery
Totals: 1:21 - 14.00km



Weekly Totals
Running - Time: 10:14, Distance: 134.04km
Cross training - Time: 0:45
S & C - Time: 0:00

Monday 19th April
10km warmup + 3 x {500m(5k), 300m(3k), 200m(1mi)} This was a daunting session on paper, but I’d no problem increasing the pace when required. I wanted the session to reflect race conditions as much as possible, so I ran the reps however the road fell on the same route I’ll use for Saturday’s TT. So sometimes the gradient, wind, etc. were in my favour, sometimes they weren’t. I maintained my speed over the three sets, and during the last 500m rep, I even had the rare experience of having to slow down because I was running too fast. Being able to run the subsequent 300m and 200m reps in my quickest times for the night, shows it hadn’t cost me. I finished the session very pleased with myself, and quietly confident ahead of Saturday’s TT. As it turned out, that confidence was misplaced, but that’s a story for another day.
Totals: 1:21 - 17.36km


Tuesday 20th April
Run 1 - 10km As per usual, it was up to the NSC for this. I was running out of time, and didn’t complete the full 1km cool down.
Totals: 0:41 - 9.73km

Run 2 - 12km After yesterday’s session, and another planned for tomorrow, I considered making this an easy run. I even started out with this plan, but once the first kilometre was completed, I copped on and decided that the truer I was to the plan, the better. If Magness had meant for this to be an easy run, I’m sure he would have detailed it as such.
Totals: 0:50 - 12.00km


Wednesday 21st April
16km w/ 12 x 200m @ 3k pace I drove to Porterstown Park to use the 400m grass track there. After warming up on the outer path, I changed into my spikes for the intervals. A 3,000m race is not a goal, but if it was, my goal time would be 8:59 or quicker. This translates to :00/km pace. To hold that, I needed to run the 200m reps in less than 36 seconds. The last time I ran in Porterstown, I averaged 37.5 seconds for four 200m reps, which were ran at 5k down to 3km pace. They weren’t easy, and In light of that, I wasn’t particularly relishing the prospect of having to run twelve 200s at an even higher intensity. Failing to hit the <36sec target seemed like a very realistic prospect. Thankfully this just happened for the very first rep, which is often my fastest one. Looking back on the times made me quiet happy. They took me more out of me than I’d be able to give in a 3,000m race, but sometimes hitting the numbers is more important than how you hit them. And today’s session felt like one of those times.
Totals: 1:12 - 15.44km


Thursday 22nd April
Run 1 - 8km Run This was a shorter run than normal; I guess to serve as part of a mini-taper for Saturday’s “race”.
Totals: 0:38 - 7.76km

Today was supposed to be a double run day, the second of which was a 9-miler. But I was getting the early warning signs of an impending injury. Porterstown Park hasn’t been getting much rain of late, and there wasn’t much give on the grass track yesterday. It was good for running fast, but not very forgiving when running in spikes with zero cushioning. I’ve suffered through more severe pain, and came through longer runs unscathed, but I remembered the cautious approach I resolved to take starting off this plan, and did an 80-minute cycle on my turbo trainer instead.


Friday 23rd April
6 miles w/ 6k easy + 6 x 100m strides
Totals: 0:46 - 9.69km


Saturday 24th April
4km easy
Just a very short leg loosener an hour ahead of today’s TT
Totals: 0:20 - 4.00km

5km TT

After the above warm-up, I stripped down to shorts and singlet, did a few stretches and some drills, then a few sprints to keep the blood flowing, took a few deep inhales, and began the race.

I’d a long report typed up that still didn’t say half of what’s gone through my mind since. Analysing things to death was only annoying me. In a nutshell, it wasn’t the performance I was expecting. Hopefully the next race I do will be a proper race, and a significant improvement on the performance I turned out today.
After a long walk of shame, I began this slow trudge home. I’d all day to reflect on what was a substandard performance, which is not so much because I was so far off my 15:50 prediction, as the complete collapse I experienced in the fifth kilometre. I like to think I’m able to hurt when needed, but there was no evidence of that today. I didn’t even feel any great levels of discomfort at any stage, so it’s rather puzzling what happened. Training has been going well of late, and while it wasn’t the peak race today, a race was still part of the plan. I’m assuming by strictly adhering to the plan, I’d have been in someway half decent shape on a race day. I felt good all week, and even one week later, I haven’t came up with any answers. If something similar happened on a training run, I’d just put it down to a bad day at the office. I’ve no other option but to do the same here, and move on.
Totals: 0:38 - 9.59km


Sunday 25th April
I had the option of a day off or a short recovery run. The good weather meant there was no way I was going to take the day off and sit on my couch all day, so I did an easy 100km on the bike instead.



Weekly Totals
Running - Time: 6:20, Distance: 85.59km
Cross training - Time: 5:02
S & C - Time: 0:47

I’ve a much clearer picture of what the year has in store than I had on my resumption of this log. I got an email a while ago telling me my Ironman in June has been cancelled. However, there weren’t many running races I was certain would go ahead. So even though I grew more and more committed to this 21-week plan, it still felt like a bit of a side project. Since then, things have changed for the better, and the Irish running calendar is starting to take shape. I’ve entered three races between now and 3rd July.

15th May - 5000m Time Trials, Le Chéile Athletic Club, Leixlip
30th May - Down Royal 10k,
3rd July - Gold Coast 10k, Ballygally

I also need to find another race on 12th June, but there’s no panic on that. The 10k on 3rd July will be my peak race, which is a week after it’s supposed to happen, but that should be easy enough work round. Ideally I’d like to do the peak race on a track, so if I can find something more suitable, then I’m prepared to switch target.

Now that I’m at the start of the “Competition Period”, barring catastrophe, I can guarantee that I’ll see the plan through. I’m not sure what I’ll do after the peak race, whenever it is, but at least I’ve something definite to focus on until then.

Monday 10th May
Distance Run w/ 6 x (1 mile @ 10k pace/4mins rec.) While the resumption of sports no doubt made a lot of people happy today, it messed with my sporting plans. I was hoping to do this session on my go-to routes in the NSC. But the return of group training meant there were a lot more cars there than there has been of late. After discovering this on the warm-up, I deemed it would be too dangerous to be both dodging cars and belting along at 10k pace. So I ran to Ballycoolin Road and did the intervals there. There were a couple of points on the stretch of path I was using that necessitated slowing slightly, but bar taking my chances with the cars in the NSC, there wasn’t much else I could do. The 1-mile intervals were done as three sets of one out and one back rep. It was predominantly a crosswind for each rep, and the differences in the paces are mainly attributable to elevation.
Due to rain, I left my go-faster shoes at home, so I’m hoping there’s another second or two I could take off my overall average pace of 3:17.83/km for 6 miles of fast stuff. Even without that, holding the same pace in a 10k race, would see me finish in under 33 minutes, which judged against Saturday’s 5km race time, would have to be deemed a success.
Totals: 1:25 - 20.44km


Tuesday 11th May
Run - 21km I combined the two daily runs and ran from Clonsilla to Leixlip along the Royal Canal. Due to COVID restrictions, it’s the first time in a long time I’ve ran this route. I’d love to say it was inspiring to be back, but it just felt like a dreary long slow run.
Totals: 1:29 - 21.34km


Wednesday 12th May
Run w. / 7mins tempo, 2 x 3mins 10k, & 2 x 45secs 5k It was wet today, so once again, I wasn’t wearing my racing shoes for a speed session. But on the plus side, it wasn’t windy, and I was grateful for that much. I was working hard, but at the same time, I was acutely aware that the tempo effort needed to be followed up with two faster 10k efforts, which in turn needed to be backed up with two even faster 5k efforts. All reps were all brought home on target, and I feel like I did a good job metering the effort.
Totals: 1:02 - 14.66km


Thursday 13th May
Run 1 - 8.5km Totals: 0:36 - 8.52km

Run 2 - 13.65km I was almost 9km into what supposed to be an easy 7 miles, when I bumped into my brother who was also out for a run. I knew a significant slowdown was going to ensue if I started running with him, but I wasn’t attaching much importance to the run anyway, and it would have been a bit rude to just run by him. So I fell in step with him, and was thankful of the company. It’s the first time I ran with another person in what feels like an eternity, so the remaining slow miles passed rather quickly.
Totals: 0:42 - 13.65km


Friday 14th May
10km Run
Totals: 0:42 - 10.01km


Saturday 15th May
4km easy
Totals: 0:20 - 4.01km

Le Chéile 5,000m TT

Warm up This included three hill sprints of 7 seconds, 16 seconds and 25 seconds duration. Two and a half laps of the track progressing to what I hoped would have been today’s race pace.
Race

The lap times above will tell the story of the shortest race report I’ll ever write; Disappointed.

I wasn’t in the mood to immediately go for a cool down jog, and while quietly brooding on my own race, I watched the final one from outside the track. By the time that race ended, it had just started to rain heavily, so it made the decision to hop into the shelter of my car and drive home even easier.
Totals: 0:37 - 9.46km


Sunday 16th May
12km Recovery Totals: 1:10 - 12.00km



Weekly Totals
Running - Time: 8:29, Distance: 115.82km
Cross training - Time: 0:00
S & C - Time: 0:45

peter kern wrote: »

ie which day did you feel better?
did you prefer track or road
alone or with somebody?

I don't really know how to answer those questions to be honest. It was my first track race, so I think I'd need to do a few more of them before coming up with a preference. From the mental side of things, I'd prefer a road race, but it's an undeniable fact that track races are faster. And as it's all about the time for me, were it possible, I'd still enter a 10,000m track race in 5 weeks.

I'd the same level of confidence heading into both races, but the implosion I experienced in the solo TT meant I adopted a different strategy for the race in Leixlip.

Obviously having someone to run the full 5,000m with both times would have been great, but you'd need the perfect running partner. And in a race with only 12 runners, I was unlikely to be so lucky. I stuck with the leaders for 2.5 laps, but it didn't work out. Was there any benefit to what I did? It's hard to know, but it was demoralising to see the gap grow over the final ten laps. I'm well used to running on my own in training, and racing on my own in the run legs of triathlons, so having company is certainly not something I depend upon.

peter kern wrote: »

thats good enough for me .
so i take it you are going to train more on the track if you want to do 10 k track race.

That would definitely be the sensible thing to do, so "No", I won't be doing it.

But more seriously, I don't have ready access to a track. If I was more motivated about this 10k mission, I'd probably rejoin Dunboyne AC, and do my sessions on their track. But honestly, my mind is already wandering to what I might do after 3rd July, and it doesn't necessarily involve running or triathlon.

Monday 17th May
Distance Run w/ 1mi (10k), 600m (5k), 1.2k (10k), 600m (3k), 1mi (10k), 400m (3k), 400m (1mi); 3min recoveries I was happy with the paces I held for all of the reps. If anything, I was even faster than I was expecting. So it was a bit of a tonic after the disappointing race two days prior. But the nagging voice of doubt is telling me it might be another case of training well and racing poorly.
Totals: 1:12 - 17.42km


Tuesday 18th May
Run - 21km I had to drive from Dublin to Tullamore this evening, and stopped off along the way to get this run done. I pulled off the M4 and parked up in a village I’d never heard of before; Johnstown Bridge. The change of scenery was good. Being a bit pressed for time, I didn’t really have time for my routine warmup and cool down. Consequently, I was pushing the pace from first to last step.
Totals: 1:26 - 21.40km


Wednesday 19th May
12km Run
Totals: 0:50 - 12.01km


Thursday 20th May
Run 1 - 6km Recovery Totals: 0:36 - 6.01km

Run 2 - 18km w/ 8 x 45” surges I drove to the Phoenix Park for this, and stuck to flat terrain for the entire run. I ran conservatively for 9km before starting the first of eight surges, when my watch auto lapped for the tenth time.
Totals: 1:13 - 18.01km


Friday 21st May
10km Run
Totals: 0:43 - 10.01km


Saturday 22nd May
25km on Wicklow Way With a slightly longer long run than usual scheduled for this weekend, I figured it was worthwhile driving to Marlay Park for it. It was only a short distance from there to link up with the Wicklow Way. It was nice to be away from traffic and the non too inspiring routes I’m used to running in Dublin 15. And if all the climbing I had to do helps with strength, then that’s another bonus.
Totals: 2:11 - 25.00km


Sunday 23rd May
16km Recovery Totals: 1:10 - 12.00km



Weekly Totals
Running - Time: 9:42, Distance: 125.87km
Cross training - Time: 0:45
S & C - Time: 0:00

Monday 24th May
Distance Run w/ 6 x (800m @ 10k pace/800m steady) This looked like a challenging run on paper, but despite that I still opted to go to The Polo Grounds and run on grass. I’m not sure how much speed that took away from me, but I’m telling myself it was significant enough. I concentrated on the effort rather than the pace. I’m pleased with the consistent times I held for the first four 800m 10k-reps. And while I didn’t hold that consistency for the final two reps, I’d much rather be a few seconds quicker than a few seconds slower.
Totals: 1:03 - 15.66km


Tuesday 25th May
Run - 23km I combined today’s two scheduled runs and did the recommended distance in one activity.
Totals: 1:33 - 23.00km


Wednesday 26th May
Distance Run w/ 8 x (200m 5k-3k pace/200m jog) The 200m efforts were all done on flat ground; the odd numbered efforts were all in the same direction on what was basically the exact same stretch of path, the even numbered ones in the opposite direction. So any advantage to be had from either the wind or gradient was nullified. It’s probably easy enough hit target paces for such short efforts, but at least I wasn’t failing.
Totals: 0:57 - 13.01km


Thursday 27th May
13km Easy This was one of the rare runs in the plan that is actually tagged as “easy”, so I felt I had the imprimatur from Magness himself to take it even easier than normal.
Totals: 1:04 - 13.00km


Friday 28th May
10km w/ 6 x 100m strides
Totals: 0:42 - 9.83km


Saturday 29th May
5mins w/ 3 x 1min blocks accelerating to 5k pace Totals: 0:15 - 3.57km


Race - 10k
I arrived at Down Royal Racecourse 24 hours early for a 10k race ChampionChip Ireland were holding on 30th May. However, MyRunResults were hosting the Northern Ireland 100K & 50K Championships at the same venue today, so I parked up without realising anything was amiss until I walked up to registration.

Luckily a 5-person relay race was part of the 50k Championships, and MyRunResults were kind enough to give me a number free of charge. So major thanks to them for accommodating me and saving me a pointless 3½-hour round trip.

Warm up A short trot with three sprints; completed as close to the start of the race as I dared leave it.

Race My hope today was to get as close to 33 minutes as possible, and my strategy was to hold sub 3:20/km pace for as long as possible. I’d forgotten to switch on the auto-lap mode on my watch. So with just average pace showing, I wasn’t fully aware of how early, nor how far, I was off my target pace. I’m not sure I could have done much about it had I known the >3:20 kilometres had started so early. But I drove up North not expecting to run a whole lot faster than 33:32. Also, I was on my own from the get go, and I managed to avoid a capitulation after a 3:26 split midway through. And at the end of the day, I was lucky to be even racing, so I’ll graciously accept the result and take it as a sign I’m on the right track for 3rd July.

Cool Down
Totals: 1:01 - 15.18km


Sunday 30th May
I didn’t bother with the scheduled recovery run, and opted for a 3½ cycle instead.



Weekly Totals
Running - Time: 9:42, Distance: 125.87km
Cross training - Time: 0:45
S & C - Time: 0:00

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Can I ask why you seem to have dropped S&C these last few weeks, is it a conscious decision?

As I’ve gotten older I’m convinced that S&C is essential for form and improvement

TbL

It certainly wasn't a conscious decision. This is just just what half-arsed training looks like for me, and it's simply just a bad habit I've let develop. Anytime I've had an injury, I'm as convinced as you are about the merits of S & C; touch wood the next reminder isn't just around the corner. I had hoped logging zero hours week after week, would shame me into doing something, but I'm still waiting. While I know it's easy to do effective work at home, home fitness is not something I ever seriously got into. And with gyms being shut for so long, it was easy find an excuse not to do anything. Now that they're open again, my excuse is it's too late in the program to be changing anything.

I suppose I've been foam rolling regularly for 10-15 minutes (sometimes up to three times a day) for the last while. No doubt that's helping keep the injuries at bay, but I don't count it as training. And I intend to go back to Bikram Yoga this week, which combined with running itself (the most specific strength work you can do) has most bases covered.

Monday 31st May
Distance Run w/ 4mi MP + 15mins tempo After a 5km warm-up, I changed into a brand new pair of Saucony Endorphin Pro 2s. Despite only going 1 second per kilometre quicker, I was working much harder for the the 15 minutes at threshold than I was for the MP effort. I’m telling myself though the combined distance of fast running was in excess of 10km, and only 2 days after doing a full 10km at an all out effort, so I’m going to cut myself some slack on this occasion.
Totals: 1:16 - 18.38km


Tuesday 1st June
Run - 18km
Totals: 1:13 - 18.00km


Wednesday 2nd June
20km w/ 8 x 10” hill sprints + 1hour run Totals: 1:36 - 20.02km


Thursday 3rd June
12km Totals: 0:50 - 12.00km


Friday 4th June
Distance Run 3 x (600m, 600m, 400m @ 5k pace w/ 40” rest) I was happy with this run; the second session of the week. Well, happy with the finishing paces above, but as I’ve found out a few times in recent months, it’s a lot easier hold sub 16 minute 5k pace for short reps, than it is for a full 5,000m.
Totals: 1:10 - 16.37km


Saturday 5th June
14.5km Recovery I ran to the NSC, and stuck to the cross country route for the bulk of this run.
Totals: 1:21 - 14.51km


Sunday 6th June
Long Hilly Run Seeking a change of scenery, I drove to the Hill of Tara for this week’s long run. It was all on grass and very much an up and down affair.
Totals: 1:42 - 22.64km


Weekly Totals
Running - Time: 9:15, Distance: 121.94km
Cross training - Time: 0:00
S & C - Time: 0:00

peter kern wrote: »

can i ask how do you calculate that your marathon pace is 3.24 ?

I was aiming for 3:27/km, same pace I held in DCM 2018. While it's only a 3-second difference, I'm not confident enough in my current form that I'd be willing to slowdown when the margins are so fine. It was a day when I wanted to hit my target paces no matter what, and in the moment, the fact I was moving too fast was of minor concern.

peter kern wrote: »

and how can your marathon pace be 3.27 if your 2nd half of your 10 k race was 3.25 pace ...
or to make it clearer, 2 days after a race you train as fast or faster than what you run 5 k in a 10 k race and call it marathon pace...

Well if that’s the way you want to look at it, fair enough. But the way I look at it is I know I’ve ran 3:27/km in a marathon before, so until old age catches up with me, I’m going to continue training with that pace in mind.

PS. Now that you’re here, can you tell me have you ever flown with a bike from Ireland to Iceland?

Monday 7th June
Distance Run w/ 3 x 2,400m - alternate 400m LT/400m 10k to 5k I deliberately chose to do this on MSB’s grass track, as it would give me an easy excuse should I fail to hit my paces. I wasn’t particularly relishing this run, which had an affect on my mentality. Plus pools were back open today, which was an unwelcome distraction. Despite today being a bank holiday, I’d left it until late afternoon to start. So I was under pressure to get things wrapped up before my inaugural swim of 2021, and my mind was elsewhere when I should have been solely concentrating on running fast.
I’m working out the speeds above based on the 100m markings on the track, rather than the more generous figures my Garmin recorded. The numbers don’t look great, but I’m sure there’s a significant margin of error attributable to how quickly I pressed the lap button upon crossing the 100m chalk markings. But Garmin Connect shows that my cadence increased with each attempted turn of speed, so I’ll take that as clearer evidence that I was successfully doing what I was supposed to be doing.
Totals: 0:57 - 12.20km


Tuesday 8th June
Run - 17km After a longer than planned power nap this evening, I wasn’t feeling very sprightly. I seriously considered just doing this as an easy run, but I copped on during the opening kilometre, and stuck to the original plan of 15km at pace.
Totals: 1:09 - 17.00km


Wednesday 9th June
15km w/ 6mins LT, 3mins 10k, 2 x 400m 10k & 4 x 10sec sprints I was well off my 3:23/km target for the opening salvo. Although, I’m pretty sure a lap pace 3:24/km was showing on my watch before taking a left hand turn with about 90 seconds left in the effort. But I just couldn’t maintain the pace, and finished the effort with a rueful shake of my head. The start of the first 10k wasn’t going too well either, and once again, I found myself a couple of seconds off my target pace. I started to think I was in for a long evening, and knew a change in approach was required. Grunting things out wasn’t working. So I consciously took the decision to relax, and focussed on lengthening my stride. As if by magic, my speed increased and it was fairly plain sailing from there on. I actually had to slow down for the 400m efforts; a rare occurrence of late.
*I don’t believe the varying speeds my Garmin is giving me for the 10-second sprints, so I won’t bother detailing them. Suffice to say, they were all max efforts, and the 50-second recoveries were very much needed.
Totals: 1:02 - 14.90km


Thursday 10th June
Run 1 - 10km Legs felt a bit heavy on this run. I was wearing old-school racing flats, so I’m attributing it to that.
Totals: 0:42 - 10.11km

Run 2 - 8km Recovery I’d taken the morning off; not the most sensible decision when a double run day is scheduled. It meant I had to get the two runs done in the evening, and I only began this run at 21:48. It was a lot of reluctance I took the first few steps, but in an attempt to cheer myself up, I ran by the local pubs to see how outdoor drinking is going down with the neighbours.
Totals: 0:49 - 8.01km


Friday 11th June
10km w/ 6 x 100m strides A fairly standard run on the eve of a race done and dusted.
Totals: 0:43 - 10.01km


Saturday 12th June
Race (The Virtual Kind) - 5k

Warm up In an attempt to give this something of a race like feel, I’d driven to St. Anne’s Park to use the parkrun route there. I’ve never ran here before, but it seemed to one of the easier parkrun courses in Dublin. Anyway, I scoped out the route on my warmup, and threw in a few sprints for good measure. Then after stripping down to a singlet, and lacing up my Sacouny Endorphin Pros for only their second outing, I undertook my most half hearted attempt at a “race” ever.

Race It’s hard to draw too much confidence from this, but there’s not much I can complain about either. The route was about as fair a route as I could hope for, and conditions were ideal. It’s simply a case that when a decent performance was required, I just wasn’t able to deliver. I’m losing heart in this whole 10k project the closer it gets to D-Day. The idea that I might not be as fast as I’d like to think I am, is a hard one to get away from. And unless something magical happens on July 3rd, I don’t see how I’m going to break 33 minutes.

Cool Down
Totals: 0:48 - 13.46km


Sunday 13th June
3km Recovery I started this at 21:49, not long after finishing a 4½ hour cycle, so getting this done took a lot more resolve than it should have.
Totals: 0:16 - 3.01km


Weekly Totals
Running - Time: 6:35, Distance: 88.73km
Cross training - Time: 5:28
S & C - Time: 0:00