Sub 5 minute mile

Swashbuckler wrote: »

What size are you in runners?

There he is. I actually bought the flats after one of your posts! They were my first ever pair of non regular runners and remember my pleasant surprise at how light they felt compared to my Asics at the time. I'd be an 8.5 UK or 42.5 EU usually.

I won some money playing Fantasy Football this year \o/ Actually had a terrible year overall but the league I was in was equally as bad I won by a single point in the end so yesterday was quite nervy as the games were going on. I've been playing since I was in college but this was the first time money was involved for me. I think it became a little less fun as a result and I'm not sure if I'll do it again.

Aaaanyway, while they were certainly not on my radar previously I just might pick up a pair of carbon plated shoes after all Not going to jump the gun just yet though, I'm considering putting it towards a treadmill or an exercise bike either. Tough decisions.

On the running front. I hit my 30 miles two weeks ago but missed it this week gone by.

Two weeks back I did a 10x400 @ mile pace session w/ 1 min r/. Just wanted to see if I might be in sub 4:50 shape. I'd love to be able to run it without completely redlining but think I will actually have to push myself hard to get there. The target for the session was 72 secs and I hit [74,71,72,72,72,73,72,73,72,68]. It wasn't a struggle and feel I could have hit the targets with a little more effort on the ones I missed by a second here and there. Marked out the distance would have helped too. It'll be tight I'd say and the thoughts of doing 4 back to back (plus 9 metres) puts the fear on me a bit.

Last week I redid the following 800 session from a few months back - 3x(600FR, 30 sec r/, 200FR, 7 minutes jog). Last time out I missed the pace on all the 600s but this time I managed each of them with 1:47, 1:47, 1:45. No issues with the 200s after 30seconds rest. They always feel very short after a longer rep. Was very happy after this and a good wake up for the legs.


3 Km - TT
Last Saturday was supposed to be an Intervals session but I changed it out for a 3 k TT. Had a couple of drinks Friday night but wasn't heading out for this until the late evening so was back to normalish by then. Managed to get out between the showers too which was a bonus. Having fallen short of 10 minutes on a couple of occasions previously I decided on a different tac. 3:20 is 10 flat pace but I planned to run the first km in 3:15, expect to fade from there but not too much that a final km kick might see me home. The route was uphill out the Navan road and back in again. I reckoned it was around 1.5 k up and then down, so 3 km and I'd get the benefit of having a downslope for the second half. It was a bad estimate. :rolleyes:
1 km - Up the navan road at a nice clip. I think I touched 3:00/km initially but reeled it back to target. I wasn't feeling the pace was something that was going to take a toll. I was feeling good. Watched beeped at 3:14. Lovely
2km - Right, try an hold 3:20 pace. I came to my loop around after only 300 metres or so, so knew I was going to have to run past my starting point. Kept the breathing controlled and the form relaxed and soon saw the watch beep at 3:18. Sweet, there was no doubt I was on course at this point.
3 km - Allowed myself to slow a bit to 3:25/3:30 pace to save a little for the finish. A nice position to be in. I knew I could afford to do this as I was probably around 8 seconds up. Also, by running past my starting point I was going to have a little extra elevation gain. Picked up the pace for the last 300 metres to as close to a sprint as I could manage. 3:15.

Final time - 9:46.

This is as short a report as they come because it really did go by in a blur. While I was certainly working hard, the suffer fest never really hit apart from maybe when I was trying to sprint at the end. Just one of those days. If only they could all be like that. My plan of not specifically pacing for 10 minutes paid off too I think as there was less psychological baggage involved in the effort. Nice to have another 2021 target checked off the list.

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Thats a super 3k TT. Fair play.

My claim to fame on Fantasy Football was the year I spent a week in the top 10 in the world (number 1 in Ireland). Finished out the season 49th in the world and top 10 in Ireland....Gave it up since...Too stressful!

:eek:

I hope that's on your CV for awards/achievements.

Laineyfrecks wrote: »

Great 3k TT & what a nice feeling having another target ticked off the list

Thanks Lainey. My initial approach wasn't to have so many targets. It kind of just happened this year.

I've had single year targets before which I didn't hit and so was left looking back to find some positives to take out of the year in that case. There are always ones to find (like I was running more and enjoying it) but setting a few extra targets that aren't primary ones are great fun. All upside with little downside IMO.

Some serious FF performances. All eclipse my best ever finish. I had to go back and check there. I managed 1936 once which wasn't far off the year when I actually achieved that :pac: Yep, there were a lot less distractions back then. The current distractions are all good off course.

Oh and I collected my winnings today. Apparently 3 never paid in so the pot was reduced slightly. Still it came to € 440. Feel a little undeserving as I got lucky with it being a relatively weak league.

"Awful tired now boss. Dog-tired".

After getting 3 days of no running over the bank holiday weekend I decided to do some cramming mileage wise. On the Monday I ran the furthest I have since doing the Connemara Half back in 2007. That was the only race I had run as an adult up until the last couple of years. Turns out I actually posted in the main A&R forum back then too and even competed against the famous Krusty that day. It'd be over 10 years before I think I posted in the forum again. Anyway...

June 7-13

• Monday. 21.15 km Steady - 1:28:13. Having run a steady 12k at 4:00 pace the previous week I figured I'd bump it up to 4:15/km for an intended HM run. I brought a tiny water bottle in hand for this. Actually forgot I had it but did eventually start using it after around 16 km. It wasn't much and I think I might have survived without it. Carried it home then too as I never passed a bin to dispose of it. The effort was controlled for the most part. Never went to heavy breathing or worried if I was nearly finished until the last 2-3 kms. Over the last 2-3 kms I became more aware of the impact of hitting the road in my bones. It must have been a sign that I was going to flag if I kept going. It's not a sensation I'm familiar with and it had me wondering if that's the cause of injury for many i.e. pushing on when the muscles are properly fatigued. As I mentioned I was never feeling feiced at any point really though and the pace actually finished up being 4:10/km. It was an enjoyable experience overall and I caught up on a couple of podcasts. Maybe I was working a little bit harder to maintain the pace towards the end. I knew my target was going to get me under 1:30 anyway then I didn't want to look at the pace chart after and see it dipping towards the end I suppose.
  
• Wednesday Session - Reps 3x400R(70s), 4x300FR(48s) - The hotel is now busy again so I was off to do these on a less preferred stretch of road. Turns out there's a 3 m incline (according to garmin) over the stretch I ran which might explain the times differing between each second rep. With every second one having an elevation gain and proabblu a slight headwind the 400s were 68, 72, 67 while 300s were 48, 46, 47, 46. Legs were tired before starting the session but knew they'd be grand once I got into it. Still with the heat included I was well cooked by the last 300. That was almost as fast as I could have run it I think.
• Thursday - 4.2 km Recovery jog w/ buggy. Down to the shop and back. Later that evening - 8.1 km - 41:50
• Saturday Session - Intervals 8x(2 min Hard, 1 min jog), 4x200R. Hard effort is Interval pace apparently and my current target interval pace is 3:15/km by my calculations. I found this a tough session with my mileage cramming earlier in the week catching up on me. Very surprised when I got home to see I actually managed the pace exactly on 7/8. With me flagging a bit on number 7 coming in at 3:20/km. During the 5th rep I was considering packing it in at 6 but stubbornly stuck it out. Ran towards home and on the way decided I may as well do the 200s too. They did feel a piece of cake after the main body of the workout. No issues with them. I'll make a note that I should always be fit to get the reps even if I pull the plug on the main session.

35 miles last week over 4 days running.

Murph_D wrote: »

Jeepers. An 88 min HM followed by two more sessions in the same week. Seems a bit OTT - careful now!

OTT maybe. But only a little. I'd a quiet week and 3 to 4 days before it. Certainly wouldn't be making a habit of it. Having plenty of zero mile days at the moment too.

Right. *checks notes*

July 5-11 - 47 km. I was still running easy the groin seemed to be improving. Before the holidays I did a 10 miler trying to be disciplined with the pace. With around 2 miles to go I was coming down a steep hill when I felt a twinge in it and was cussing myself for not going even easier down the hill. Finished that run off in fowl humour. Waited for the pain to hit me in bed that night but while I could feel it it wasn't as bad as expected. Off to Teelin in Donegal for the week where I went for a gentle hilly trot around the hills on the Sunday.

July 12-18 - 25 km. Climbed Slieve League with the two boys up the Pilgrim Path. Beautiful day but the clouds rolled in right as we reached the top to the point where we couldn't see a few feet in front of us. I decided I didn't want to be one of those idiots you hear about getting rescued off of Irish mountains so we made a hasty turnaround. I'd say we were no more than 200 steps from the very top but we didn't chance it and so the kids never go to see the Ocean. They were still delighted with their exploits all the same so all was good and we were going to be driving up to the viewing point during the week anyway and I was going to point to them where they had been. Had a quick look at Strava that evening and saw the route up to the viewing point along with a Segment or two. Groin was holding up so I decided I'd try a decent effort up to the car park. Off I set. I didn't know where exactly the segments were so ended up giving it a decent effort all the way up. Around 5 kms from the house. Not used to hills in Meath but I remember enjoying them when growing up in Cavan. Got up without needing to stop but obviously I had to take a couple of minutes to enjoy the view once up before tipping back home again. I let the hill back down dictate the pace as I was starting to accept the fact I should just enjoy the non-planned running when I can and kind of forgot about minding the groin as I covered the decent in 20 minutes. Amazingly, there wasn't any negative feedback from it. I didn't feel I deserved to not be suffering a little after the run as I certainly had thrown caution to the wind a little. That said I took 3 days off running. The weather was too nice and typically Irish we were trying to scramble to do as much as possible within the days because sure it could start raining at any moment. Back to Meath at the end of the week and I decided to do my first session in 5 weeks as a tester. 4x1km w/ 400m jog. Tough going but averaged 3:20/km with a bit of puffing.

July 19-25 - 40 km Not back up to 30 MPW yet but managed two sessions. 1 speed and 1 interval session. The speed session was my first in a long time but the main issue thankfully was fitness as opposed to injury. Hit the target paces albeit with walking recoveries for the fast reps.

July 26- Aug 1 - 41 km. Again short on mileage. I did one made up speed session. 2x800Reps, 4x200@fast_pace. Loose targets for these I'd hoped I'd clock the 800s at around 2:20/21 but they were 2:22 and 2:24 which were around 3:00/km pace. The pace for the 200s were in the 2:30s with the legs feeling it a bit after the 800s so I was satisfied I could really push the pace again.

Aug 2 - 8 - 50 km. Finally back up to over 30 MPW. 1 speed session this week. 3x500R(87.5), 3x300FR(48). Again with the walking recoveries after the 300s but hit the paces. Someone had a fire going in a nearby field so I was doing my best to not be breathing heavy every time I passed that section of the road. 1 Interval session also. 4x800s. Happy with the pace I managed on these (around 2:36 each).

So there I am. Didn't go the to physio. I'm great for not looking after injuries 🙄 I grew up watching and then playing with too many GAA hardmen which will no doubt bite me big time in the future. The groin is still a bit twingy but not during any running, only when not moving too much. It's definitely getting better of it's own accord and I don't think the running is causing it any harm at this stage or so I like to tell myself.

Someone put the idea in my head about actually running an 800m Masters race. I've gone so far as to contact Athletics Ireland to see if I need to be registered with a club to take part in the National Masters. Needless to say I'm still awaiting their response so I'm going to bite the bullet and join the local AC I think. If I don't make that race, maybe there'll be some mile or even a 5 km to have a bit of fun at. I don't feel I'm in the shape I was in a couple of months back but I hope it's just a case of getting my weekly mileage back to a more consistent level. Edit: I'm also going to try and run a sub 4:50 mile at some point in the next few weeks. I think/hope it's achievable while giving it a little less than 100% effort.

Plans to run the National Masters got torpedoed last week. I got news that on that weekend I've got both my godsons birthday party and nieces communion so I'll be crisscrossing the country a bit that weekend. Then I got sick so it wasn't looking like I was on track to be in the shape I'd like to have been anyway to do myself justice.

Still though. Plugging away three 30 mile weeks in a row before this week where I hope to hit it again. That consistency of mileage usually puts me in pretty good shape for some longer distance stuff so I'm definitely going to be testing it in September. The groin has gone backwards a little so I'll keep an eye on it.

August 9-15 - 48 km

Speed Session - 4x400FR (64s), 4x400R(70). I had the two boys with me for this and they tried to keep up for the first 200 metres on a few. Wasn't on it today with the Fast Reps 65, 65, 65, 67 before cruising the Reps in 68, 70, 69, 69. The FRs were all in the one direction while the the Rs were in the opposite so the GPS might have been conning me a little but I definitely found the FRs hard to hit.

Interval Session - 4x1k on, 2:30 off. Out with the kids again. This time on their bikes where we'd have a 2:30 rest before I'd try and chase them down for the 1ks. These again were tougher than I'd hoped but we had a bit of fun. 3:27, 3:18, 3:23, 3:22.

August 16-22 - 48 km

I was sick for the first half of the week so had 3 days off. Glad I managed to cram the mileage in so just ran what I felt on the weekend. No fast stuff.

Steady Run - 9km in 35 mins.

Interval Pyramid - 2,4,6,8,8,6,4,2. Same pace target as my previous interval session of around 3:20/km. All the splits were actually 3:1X as I covered 15.5 km over the whole run. I got a nice lift from this.

Onto this week where the groin is playing up again. Need to be little careful. I was onto Trim AC last week so membership is imminent on that front. We'll see if they can tempt me with any events.

I forgot to mention I did my first parkrun last week with the family. I posted about it in the parkrun thread. Also, I got confirmation today that I'm officially a club member. The registrar asked if I'd be interested in cross country. We'll see how the dates fall for that but the races will be in October. If I can manage one I'll be delighted.

September 13 - 19 - 48 km

The return to school for everyone has squeezed my free time a lot. I'm at home minding/collecting/working Monday to Tuesday and every second Wednesday so I'm under pressure to fit everything into a little less time. Ended up in A&E with the baby last week too. After waiting 4 hours Wednesday night we gave up and went home with my wife retuning Thursday morning before finally being seen. So energy was at a low ebb. Managed to get a early long run in on the Monday and a lethargic session at around about mile pace.

8x400R @milePace w/ 1.5min rec . I've an idea of what mile pace is. I still hope to run sub 4:50 this year but ran these at 4:40 pace as that's what Rep pace works out as on the old 800m plan i.e. 2:55/km. Very tired on these but made sure not to absolutely kill myself hence the 1.5 minute standing recovery. If I was feeling better this might have been 10x400 w/ 1 min recovery and have a proper fitness test. I got them done anyway with the theme being I started each well but faded towards the end. I know I was tired but the fading suggests that 4:40 is not my mile pace yet. I don't think I was starting them too fast. Splits were [68,68,69,68,69,69,69,68] so all just under 2:55/km pace. I had to be satisfied enough that I could manage those splits given the way I was feeling but certainly wasn't buzzing afterward.

🏃 5 km TT - 16:59 😎 PR. After the midweek session I took in one recovery run and a day off. I'd no idea what I'd do on Sunday at that stage but was planning to get up early before the kids and out for a long run of some kind. It didn't happen. Running has been a bit aimless with the injury the last couple of months but I've managed to maintain roughly 30 MPW and while not feeling I'm in particularly top shape or sharp I decided during the day I'd have a bash at a 5 k TT. The plan was to try 17 minute pace but to be prepared for a blow-up even potentially quitting after 3 km which I would then simply accept as a decent cobweb duster.

• 1 km - 3:23. A decent start. Up the hill and out of the business park. Not sure how I was feeling yet, I had gone out only a little fast and was slowing naturally without forcing myself to. A perfect split on appearance.
• 2 km - 3:25. There or thereabouts. I was still probably slowing during the start of the second km as I came to the one stretch of the route that has neither a footpath nor street lights to complete my loop back into the business park. I'm leaning towards it being a blessing that I met two cars (who must have thought I was nuts) on the short 2-300m stretch coming towards me. It meant two things. One, I crossed to the left side of the road as I wasn't wearing any reflective clothing and two I upped the pace quite a bit to shorten my time on that stretch. The blessing being that I'd arrested the deceleration enough that the km probably ended up being a couple of seconds quicker than it would have been. Would I pay for it though?
• 3 km - 3:23. The start of the 3rd km was pretty much where I'd started the 1st and I had to dig in a little as I went up the small hill again. It still slowed me and I was starting to suffer quite a bit. I was ready to accept the inevitable decline. The road had a gentle slope downwards for a bit so I let my legs spin a bit faster without upping my breathing effort. When the watch beeped at 3:23 I couldn't believe it. It meant I was on pace but the horror hit me that now I'm really going to have to dig in if I want it. Was it the last kick of a dying horse? At least I'd given it a go.
• 4 km - 3:27. Absolute suffer fest for the dying horse. A km where I'd a net downhill but still dropped pace explains it well. I was starting to gasp so I'd a battle to maintain my form and try and relax my breathing. Started watching the watch a little too much here. "Feic only 300 m of this km gone", "Okay it's just a mile left", "Just get to the 5th km". Passed a scared looking pedestrian who gave me a wide berth. Down to the bottom of the hill to make a 90 degree turn at traffic lights before heading back uphill. Trying to focus on anything that took my mind off the suffering, so it's the arms now that I imagine are doing the work. I don't get the reassured feedback of this as my arms are beginning to flag a little too. When I saw the split I figured 17 or below was off the menu but if I could somehow not lose any more speed I should beat my best of 17:13 at least.
• 5 km - 3:20. I'm absolutely gasping and turning heads on the far side of the road. A car passes where someone shouts out the window at me. I don't know how I even notice these things I feel I'm in a tunnel now. Back to the mind games. I know I'm spent but I also know my legs can go faster for a short while without my lungs to assist as much so just need to hang on until around 200 left. Empty anything that's left, not even looking at the watch, just waiting for the beep which mercifully comes and I hit stop straight after. 17:01. No time to think I'm going to fall over. I wobble a little but remain vertical somehow. There's a small hip-high fence beside me that really doesn't look comfortable so stagger on. 50 yards up ahead is a petrol station and Supermacs. I can't be lying here or the defibrillator will be out so I wobble on not sitting down. Eventually getting back to a slow jog.
• Final time - 16:59 I began to digest the time. A surprising PR of 17:01.02. Never believed I was in the right shape to pull that out. Damn, I was much closer to sub 17 that I thought I'd be to at the 4 km mark. Wait, what were the splits? Something was no adding up. I then realised I'd waited for the watch to beep for the 5th km before pressing stop. I had to wait until I got home to check Garmin Connect. There it was 0.01 km extra and 1.7 seconds. Subtracting it gave me 16:59.3. That's good enough for me so feic it, I'm taking it 😝

Thanks everyone.

Ah cool. Fair play to him. Saturday is often a non running day for me so having the parkrun on the doorstep hopefully will help clock up some easy miles the odd week. I probably won't be able to ditch the buggy for a while yet to go gung ho at it.

@Lambay island It's funny in that I'd the complete opposite feeling after the 400s. Just need a few good nights sleep sometimes I guess. Spent Sunday night on the baby's room floor as my reward 🙄. She's going for a COVID test today, along with one of her brothers. Pretty sure she picked up whatever it is in A&E last week.

Did I mention a potential race? That's what I get. I've only just gone and turned my ankle quite badly outside the school. Stepping off the path, my foot landed on the downslope of a gutter and I'd say I took a few years off some young lives with my roaring as I fell to the ground 😥.

Straight on with the ice now. I'm no stranger to ankle injuries but it felt like the worst I've done in a long time. I'm hoping it hurt more because the adrenalin wasn't flowing like it would be on a run or during a game. We'll see if the ice does the trick. Less than a half hour ago and it's already badly bruising on the opposite side of the twist from the foot being elevated. Fingers crossed on this one.