Don't stop moving...

MisterJinx · 24-05-2021 11:12am

Fair play, I don't know how you are managing to keep it up with the new little one :eek:

crisco10 · 31-05-2021 9:27am

Good solid week for me, as predicted I got all the sessions done, but missed a couple of the easy/foundation runs. I think it will be like that a lot of weeks, as there is no way I’ll get out 7 days a week at the moment.

Loving the nice weather, and dying to get out when the sun shines!

Monday

Nothing..just couldn’t fit it in. #shouldershrug

Tuesday

7.4km @ 4:28 Avg HR: 155

Long Interval #1 session 3 x 3 mins in Z4, off 2 mins.

Got out on my own pre-dinner for this one. Lovely afternoon for it, on the face of it a fairly short session which made it easy to fit in.

Avg pace on Reps was 3:25, 3:33, 3:41. First rep was downhill, last on grass so probably about the right pace for Z4 (~mile to 5k pace). Heart rate never got into Z5 either which was good.

Wednesday

9Km @ 4:51/km Avg Hr: 143

Lots of loops for this foundation run, loops of pitches, car parks, roads etc. Run felt nice, but it was 45 mins of Z2 on the plan, which was quite long by recent standards!

Listening to Fighting Talk podcast, and it really reminded me how far I have drifted from soccer. They were talking about the England 2020 squad, and I didn’t know any of the “bolters” they were discussing.

Thursday

10.6km @4:34/km

Short Intervals #3. 10 x 1 mins in Z5 off 2 mins. WU/CD.

Been a while I did a session with 10 reps. Psychologically found that hard, around the 3rd or 4th rep I was blowing! Tried to keep up the effort and started counting down from 5 when I got to Rep 6 so the numbers sounded lower.

I had been thinking that maybe I was working too hard on my Z4 sessions, but having done this one, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t. This was proper Z5 stuff. Reps mostly on grass, with paces between 3:15/km and 3:30/km.

My form toward the end of some of the reps was certainly a little loose, reminiscent of Phoebe from Friends or Mr Tickle. Tried to keep as square as I could as I fatigued.

Gorgeous morning to be out though, and finished it at the local GAA club where E is doing a sports camp, so joined in for 10 minutes before heading home to work. Great to have all that in the bag before work!

Friday
Rest

Saturday

12.3km with buggy @ 4:37/km

Fast Finish #7 on the training plan. Basically, 40mins in Z1/Z2 then 12 in Z3. My route choice was pretty honest, in that the last km was solid drag from Dundrum TC up to Sandyford, heart rate defo crept up into Z4 by the end.
Another gorgeous morning, and great to be out.

Sunday

6km with buggy @ 4:50/km

Easy like Sunday morning, scorcher of a day coming!

Totals

Week: 45km (18km with buggy)
YTD: 822km (434km with buggy)

crisco10 · 08-06-2021 9:46am

Still loving the gorgeous weather, have even donned the singlet a few times!

Was very much a week of 2 halves from a running perspective:

The first half was right on plan and enjoyed the various sessions. Second half was a complete wipeout, plenty of cross training filling a skip and decorating E’s new bedroom though. Lol. The next week on the plan is a step back week, so now I feel a little like a cheat, missing the weekend session, and now hitting a week of easier sessions. The temptation to try and "make it up" is real.

I’m very quickly realising that with 2 young uns, running is the first thing to be sacrificed if there’s something unusual happening. This is fine, I don’t want running to become something that the rest of the family resent because I insist on it when things are busy.

That said, I foresee it becoming more challenging as the world opens up and social events come back. Don’t know what I can do tbh.

Monday

Rest

Tuesday

8.2km@ 4:27 Avg HR: 154

Long Interval #2 session 4 x 3 mins in Z4, off 2 mins.

Lovely lunch run on my own, down to a local small park for a few laps. Most reps at 5k pace or slightly slower which felt like hard but not impossible pace.
4 reps ticked away pretty quickly on this one.

Wednesday

8.5Km with buggy @ 4:57/km Avg Hr: 141

Recovery run with E before the showers came in for the afternoon. Managed to find a road within 3km that I hadn’t run up so headed out for that. Then let E choose a lot of the route from there, generally focussed on our treasure hunt list of Dogs, Buggies and Red Cars!

Legs felt a little stiff on this one though, and was a sweaty mess at the end. Very humid!

Thursday

11.1km @4:31/km

Short Intervals #5. 8 x 1.5 mins in Z5 off 2.5 mins. WU/CD.

After enjoying Short Intervals #4 last week, I was looking forward to this one.
I must say I did struggle at finding a Z5 effort over 90 seconds. It seemed much easier to just burn it up for 60 seconds. I was trying to find the hardest pace I could maintain over 90s. As a result, I think I probably only got to Z4.5 for the reps.

Pace seemed to reflect that, over varying terrain and winds, but most reps were only a bit quicker than 5k pace, with a few slower (but hills/wind did play a part there).

Again this week, finished it at the local GAA club where E is doing a sports camp, so joined in for 10 minutes before heading home to work. Hammies felt the workout though.

I enjoy how this session built on last weeks, less reps, but 2 more mins of high intensity running, and the recover time (overall) was the same. Very clever construction.

Friday - Sunday

Running got sidelined by Bank Holiday DIY. Was supposed to do a fast finish hour on Sunday, but otherwise only missed recovery runs.

Totals

Week: 28km (8km with buggy)
YTD: 849km (442km with buggy)

crisco10 · 09-06-2021 4:14pm

A bit OT for a training log, but was listening to a really interesting podcast during the week on loss of fitness.

Link to "How Fast Do We Lose Fitness"

It is somewhat scientific, and they throw numbers around a lot. But the key messages were interesting and surprisingly intuitive. Basically, it’s all about specificity, what you train you gain, i.e. if you do lots of sprinting, you won’t improve your marathon time much. And if you just do 100kms a week with no speed work, you won’t improve your 100m. And conversely, if you stop training it’s use it or lose it.

The interesting discussion for me was around the experiments they had done on elite athletes and asked them to stop/reduce training for 3+ weeks.

First of all, because their base was so high, even a relatively large drop in fitness still left them miles ahead of the class. Despite being far from elite, it’s still a relevant lesson for me in that the past 5 or 6 years of running will have built my resistance to detraining effects. The ramp back up is also a lot easier if you have a “long term” foundation.

Second, some cohorts were asked to drop their mileage significantly, but keep the intensity up when they did run. I.e. reduce the easy/recovery runs but keep the sessions. This cohort didn’t see any drop in their 5k time between the start and finish of the experiment. Again, an interesting lesson that if you have a few weeks of reduced load, it doesn’t have to be the end of the world.
Third, even if you do 20% of your normal training load, you reduced the detraining by up to 50% (i.e. it's very non-linear). So if you are on holidays, or life is life, anything you can do will have a significant impact on the speed at which you lose your training.

There was probably plenty more that others might like, or find overwhelming or confusing or irrelevant but just thought I’d share my thoughts and takeaways. Given my current resource challenges I really enjoyed how it made me think about how I manage workload and what I should do when I do get out.

crisco10 · 14-06-2021 11:53am

A step back week so felt like a bit of a cheat having missed a few sessions last week…

That said, after all the heavy lifting that demolishing a shed and filling a skip requires, my hamstring started to get a bit “there” during the week. Started to treat the same way I did before Christmas, some S&C, and reduce the intensity of running.

I actually think the baby isn’t helping massively, my back and left glute are a bit sore too. #newparentproblems

Overall, I think I’ll also be keeping it easy next week. Given I am following a training plan with no target race, a second down week to manage a niggle is probably the more sensible approach.

Monday

Rest

Tuesday

6.8km@ 4:24 Avg HR: 154

Long Interval #1 session 3 x 3 mins in Z4, off 2 mins.

1st session of the step back week, it was fairly straight forward and I even donned a new pair of Adidas Supernovas that arrived about 10 minutes before I went out the door. First experience of Adidas and really enjoyed them.

My legs were pretty tired/sore after all the labour over the weekend (at least it showed all that manual handling training has paid off - my back was fine!) and paces showed that. However, all about the effort and that was there.

Wednesday

7.2Km with buggy @ 4:57/km Avg Hr: 141

Similar to last week, sweaty buggy run at lunch in the humid weather. Popped into pick up some DIY supplies at halfway point, and the balance was a lovely jaunt around the area. Starting to base my routes on E’s random choices at crossroads as to which way we go, leads to some interesting loops!

Thursday

7.5km @ 4:57/km. Avg HR: 137

Was up and out for this one, but on Wednesday night my leg was a bit sore, so was battling with myself, do I do the session, or just an easy. The amount of times I was like “ah sure f* it, I’ll do it”.

Managed to discipline myself into keeping it easy and before the threshold where I could feel my hamstring tightening.

Friday

5.6km @ 5:06/km Avg HR: 136

Another lovely morning run, is there anything better than bright, warm summer mornings?

My leg was ok, if there if you know what I mean.

Highlight of the run was stopping in Screwfix to collect some new blades for my Stanley knife, and getting ID’ed as they are a restricted item! Lol. I didn’t actual have ID with me, so had to ask for the manager and plead my case. Maybe I should wear my running gear more often if it makes me look more youthful.

Saturday

9.8km with buggy @4:48/km Avg HR: 144

Another gorgeous morning, another easy chilled run. I REALLY REALLY had to work hard to hold back though, I was straining on the leash in the second half to make this a Fast Finish session.

Got home and managed to wallpaper a feature wall in E’s new bedroom, without a complete falling out with my wife, so that was the main victory of the weekend tbh.

Sunday

6.3km with buggy @ 4:51/km Avg HR: 141

Just about managed to get out before the heat of the roasting day for a quick jaunt with E. it’s so much quicker getting out in fine weather, no coats, gloves, foot muffs, scarves, heated unicorns to worry about. It’s literally in the buggy and off we go.

Totals

Week: 43.2km (23km with buggy)
YTD: 892km (457km with buggy)

crisco10 · 21-06-2021 10:01am

A boring enough week as I was protecting my hamstring and not running fast.

Got out 5 days, all runs about were in Z2 and taking it easy. I still find it mad that over the years my old Marathon Pace is my easy pace now. Also, because of all the easy running I somehow managed to have my heaviest mileage week since C arrived. not sure how!

The hamstring feels a lot less present now which is good, I'll probably do a half week from the training plan and see how it reacts.

Week: 47.2km (29km with buggy)
YTD: 940km (486km with buggy)

crisco10 · 28-06-2021 9:29am

Was feeling a good bit better this week, so went for a slightly more intense week, i.e. introduce one session. While the session went well, I did feel it in the following days.

I half heartedly looked for a 5k race over the summer, but no real luck. If anyone hears of one in the Dublin/North Wicklow area think of me. 😊

A bit of heartbreak this week too, my watch randomly restarted itself and started behaving erratically. I think it must have gotten water damaged at swimming on Saturday, but it’s a tri-watch so swimming shouldn’t be a problem. Garmin customer support for Irish based people seems non existent though? If I was UK based, I’d be eligible for a free swap of units. But all it says in Ireland is “contact your local dealer”….#confused

Monday

8km with buggy @ 4:53/km

An easy after work jaunt. LOVE summer sunshine.

Tuesday

10km with buggy @ 4:36/km

Short Interval #2 session 5 x 1.5 mins in Z5, off 2 mins.

Leg was feeling good, so decided to give a session a go.

Really enjoyed it, went to the Meadowbrook pitches to keep it nice and flat. E was a tough task master, when I was recovering, she was asking why had I slowed down and why was I breathing loudly! Harsh.

Wednesday

5.25Km with buggy @ 4:48/km

A very easy lap of Sandyford. My leg was a little sore from yesterday.

Thursday

7km with buggy @ 4:53/km.

Another pre dinner jaunt, kept it super easy to protect the leg.

Friday

7km @ 4:51/km

Up and out before C wakes up, up to Fernhill for a few loops. Was a pretty chilly morning!

Saturday

Children got in the way. And my leg was still a bit sore so took a rest day.

Sunday

13km with buggy @ 4:51/km

A super start to a sunny Sunday. A really relaxed run, painting some estates near Churchtown and E was full of gas. We basically spent an hour chatting sh!t and laughing.

Run was ok too (even without my watch)!

Totals

Week: 50.7km (38km with buggy)
YTD: 990km (533km with buggy)

crisco10 · 16-07-2021 9:34am

Been a fairly mundane fortnight for me. I’ve lost a lot of my mojo these days to be honest, I’m happy to be getting out but legs are struggling to feel it and my desire to log is dropping! #keepatit the great boards.ie migration hasn’t helped.

I’ve also just been filling fierce stiff generally, need to up the stretching etc I feel!

Week Commencing 28th June

C’s christening was on the Saturday so was fitting things in, and my Hamstring was still a bit sore. The christening felt somewhat normal, a garden party with all the cousins. Was wrecked but in a good way!

Had a lovely 13km with E on Sunday where we had a tea party on the local green at the end, while watching some underage football games. Very chilled.

Total for week was 52km @ average pace of 4:49/km. No sessions, just lots of easy running.

Week Commencing 5th July

Weather was fierce muggy this week, and my energy levels reacted accordingly. Favourite run was to/from swimming class with E, was the day after reflooring our spare room so my glutes took a while to loosen up!

Total for week 39km

YTD: 1081km (586km with buggy)

At midway point of year, I’m pretty happy with that mileage. My A goal was hit 2000km so on track for that. Not much room for missing winter running!

crisco10 · 24-08-2021 9:35am

Pretty disasterous 6 weeks for me on the running front.

Between 2 weddings, vaccine and a series of illnesses working their way through the house, I did minimal running in 2nd half of July (averaging about 30km per week). And August has been a complete write off (40km in total so far).

Just found with sick kids and me or my wife sick, there was just no slack in the schedule for me to get out. Also, my head cold ended up in my chest which was a bit nasty for a couple of days. And last thing we needed was me coming home from a run sicker than I went out.

All a bit fed up, sh!t weather, challenging family times etc. Hopefully, things will settle again in September and I get my rhythm back.

YTD: 1224km

MisterJinx · 24-08-2021 9:48am

Sorry to hear that. It can be very challenging at times with all the commitments! Hopefully you are on the road to recovery and with September, coming I find, there is a bit more structure to the week with play/school and holidays over so fingers crossed for you that it is a better month.

crisco10 · 14-09-2021 12:31pm

Back on the horse a little more in the past week:

Got 3 x 6km with the buggy in with E. Average pace of about 4:45/km.

Went on a longer run on my own, ~13km at about the same pace. Enjoyed being back out.

If I maintain ~5k per day, I'll hit my 1000 mile target but it will be close!

crisco10 · 20-09-2021 8:46am

Week Commencing 13th Sep:

Keeping a similar vibe, just getting back on the horse.

Mostly buggy running, got out for 3 x 6km with E. And also had my 1st work meeting post-covid down in Cork, so squeezed a quick 5k in around the island. Was a lovely day around the UCC campus area. Nice to be back out in a few ways!

And....the biggest news of the week, C made his buggy running debut! took E and C out in the double buggy for 6km at 5:10/km. He seemed to enjoy, and stayed mostly awake! Just can't believe he is 6 months old, time is already flying! Reckon we will give Parkrun a go this saturday, exciting times!

My goal was to do this before October, so ahead of schedule there.

YTD: 1286km

crisco10 · 29-09-2021 10:22am

W/C 20th Sep:

Overall, still struggling to get my mileage back, but regaining my frequency out this week. I've also got a little bit of inflammation in my adductors (twisted it playing with E!!!), so trying to manage that while keeping out on the roads.

Midweek running was 3 days of double buggy running, at approx. 4:50/km. Threw in a sub 4 min km with the double to see how it felt, overall the buggy is relatively solid at that speed but definitely needs more control and is a good shoulder work out!

Saturday was a huge day, after 80 weeks return of Parkrun. Yipppee. My wife even volunteered to run it as well, so we had a family day out.

As I mentioned on the Parkrun thread, Tymon park has some works ongoing, so it was a different route. Lots of short sharp climbs which with buggy meant a lot of leg drive! I didn't really get the benefit on the downhills though because

a) still getting used to it and probably was a little hesitant

b) the buggy doesnt have a hand brake, so I had to control the speed solely with my arms and

c) some of the downhills were also on curves, and I was hesitant of going too fast while turning and tipping, particularly since the weight difference between E (almost 3) and C (6 months) was already bringing a weight imbalance...

The last km down the "avenue" was fun though!

Anyway, excuses in, did it at probably 85% effort in 20:46. I'd no idea where I would land pace wise with a more serious effort with the double, so happy with that. It's close enough to tempt me in to targeting a double buggy sub-20, but with everyday that gets harder as the passengers grow!

YTD: 1334km

crisco10 · 29-09-2021 10:25am

Don't know where else to post this, but anyone else see the strange letter in the Irish Times today??

Sir, – I recently returned to Paris and was able to do some running in Parc Monceau, a public park in the eighth arrondissement that is a favourite with local runners. What a joy it was to run in loops under the trees at this tranquil location, surrounded by families and all sorts of people exercising and enjoying themselves. What was most striking about the tranquillity of the running experience was that runners ran in silence, the majority without listening to music, or even when running in groups.

What a joy just to hear the honest crunch of dozens of feet on the dusty trail, and not the French equivalent of chatter about Covid-19 events, Leaving Certificate results, property prices, the Premier League, new dogs, and Garth Brooks. If only running in Ireland was the same. – Yours, etc,

ReeReeG · 29-09-2021 1:38pm

Wow. The writer sounds really fun.

crisco10 · 04-10-2021 3:51pm

W/C 27th Sep:

Yay - doing enough running to go back to day by day logs. lol. Getting the groove back again which feels great, even entered the Clontarf 5 miler at end of November. I don't think I'll follow a plan or anything, but hopefully should keep me consistent. This week was my 1st 50km+ week since at July so a good start!

I've been seeing a physio too about a small bit of inflammation in my knee, but nothing major, and its recover seems unaffected by running or lack of it. Probably won't be hammering out sessions though just in case.

Monday

10km at 4:55/km. Nice little jaunt on my own in the rain, nothing major, but enjoyed stretching the distance a little (relatively)

Tuesday

7km with buggy @ 5min /km

Not sure how to log the preschool pickup/drop offs, given my load changes at the midpoint by definition. Pushed an empty buggy down to collect E, and long way home, lovely day to be out

Wednesday

6km with double buggy @ 4:55/km

Drop-off this time, 2 in the buggy for first half, just the one for second half. My god the weight difference when losing E is massive!

Thursday

6km with buggy @ 4:58/km

A bit of a wander of a run after work, found a new (to me) path around a pitch near Sandyford village. It seems to measure about 500m, with some undulation so have noted it down as a possible future session spot.

Friday

Rest

Saturday

5km with buggy @ 3:55/km and 2km with buggy @ 4:58/km

Back to tymon, single buggy only this time. Forecast was for rain, but that didn't come about, just fresh sunshine! Was a bit more mentally prepared for the course this week, so actually enjoyed it a little more. My goal was ~20min achieved by hanging on in the uphill middle parts and then let fly in last mile or so. Really enjoyed attacking the last km, and did it in approx. 3:30. Overall time was 19:37 so pretty much on plan too. E wasn't ready to get back in car so we did another little lap as a warm down.

E has gone mad for Parkrun since it returned (in Feb 2020, she couldn't walk or talk). She now loves watching the finishing funnel, getting "her" barcode scanned etc. So much so, she asked to go for a buggy run on Saturday afternoon. She pushed her little buggy around the block while running, but I had to give the pre-race briefing, give her a finish token and scan her barcode. Was great to see, and long may it continue.

Sunday

14km with buggy @ 4:45/km

Nice longer run, started off wet but finished in blistering sunshine. A net downhill route so pace doesn't really reflect the leisurely pace of the run.

Week: 50.6km (40km with buggy(s))

YTD: 1362km

Murph_D · 12-10-2021 8:25am

Sorry to read on fb about your recent parkrun. How are things?

crisco10 · 12-10-2021 6:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118007556#Comment_118007556

Cheers D.

Yeah, not quite what I had expected to happen.

Turns out you can't run off a brain bleed! In Beaumont now and probably will be for awhile.

Recover will be slow and long according to my doctor sister so this log may very well change in pace!

As I said over on FB, kudos to all at Tymon, they did a fab job looking after the kids and me when it happened (I was running with the double buggy when it happened).

Lambay island · 12-10-2021 7:01pm

Christ. Sorry to read that C. That must have been frightening for all. Take care with the recovery.

Dubh Geannain · 13-10-2021 11:43am

Feic. That's an horrific thing to happen. Mind yourself with the recovery.

ariana` · 13-10-2021 12:10pm

Gosh i hope you make a speedy recovery.

And fair play to all involved. Thank god you were at parkrun and not out on solo run.

crisco10 · 13-10-2021 3:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118013225#Comment_118013225

I've thought that more than a few times

crisco10 · 01-12-2021 7:45pm

So, sort of got back to running this week.

Did a whole 1.2km @ 5.10/km. Not sure how much was unfitness after 49 days of no running or how much was discomfort from lingering effects but I felt pretty unfit!

The main test was seeing how I felt in days after, cos with the particular hemorrhage I had if I over do something I'll just have headaches and fatigue as a hangover.

The hangover from this run was probably present for sure so if I can get up to to 2 runs a week by Christmas wih a combined distance of approx 5k I'd be delighted.

Determined to be patient.

Lambay island · 01-12-2021 9:36pm

Nice to read some positive news. Fair play.

ariana` · 02-12-2021 10:23am

Good to hear from you, you crossed my mind at the weekend. Glad to hear you are back on the road to recovery and I wish you well with that. Hope you catch up lucky breaks now 🤞

MisterJinx · 02-12-2021 12:58pm

Sorry to hear about what happened to you, sounds like it could have been very serious and that you've been very fortunate. Hope you are doing well and on the road to recovery.

Murph_D · 05-12-2021 10:11pm

Great stuff - easy does it all the same! And welcome back.

crisco10 · 13-12-2021 4:31pm

Another week, another solitary run.

2km at 5:03/km

This time did an extra lap of the pitch to stretch myself a bit. I had seen the neurosurgeon the day before and we talked about running. He was for it, and had said gentle exercise will help my recovery but I need to build up to everything (e.g. harder/longer/more frequent runs) slowly.

crisco10 · 18-12-2021 9:11am

Week of 13th December:

2 runs this week.

Monday; 2.5km at 4:55/km

Funny enough given the thread on useless stats, my Garmin gave me a "recovery time" of 38 hours for this one! Before my stroke, I only got that sort of number after a long session or something 😅. Anyways, as ever just doing things on feel and grateful to be out plodding again.

Thursday; 2.5km at 5:10/km

Very relaxed. Was 1st 2 run week so didn't want to put any stress on the body.

This week was the first week I actually felt I could get to 5k again which is great. Still getting head and bodyaches which is normal but a bit debilitating too.

Great to see a bit more activity on boards too!

MisterJinx · 18-12-2021 2:38pm

Well done. Progress is progress and while it's a long road I'm sure it's a great feeling to be able to say that you can be active and run when things could have been a lot worse.

Don't stop moving...

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