Don't stop moving...

All change this week, a lot less buggy running for logistical reasons. Week 2 of the 80/20 Level 2 5k plan. Mileage wise my heaviest one in 2021. First impressions are positive, it seems quite consistent. The long runs aren’t crazy long, but the recoveries aren’t too short. (so far). I just seem to head out most days for a ~40min run.

Monday:

10km @4:58/km, HR Average: 144

First and probably not last attempt at the March challenge. I wanted to try the “easiest” bonus structure first to feel my way into so tried the +10 seconds per km approach, starting at easy +1min/km.

At slower than easy, it’s bloody hard. I think the GPS follows much more accurately if your pace is smooth. But I was slowing/stopping/sprinting at the end of the first few splits to hit the target.

Great run though, and a cheeky progression session. My HR was average 144 so didn’t work the body too hard. My highest HR at the end was about 160 so not even too much high intensity.

Tuesday:

7.7 @ 4:32/km HR:151 (avg), 175 (max)

Session was called Speed Play, warmup, then 5 x 2mins in Zone 4 with 2 mins recover and CD.

Enjoyed it, again I really was using perceived effort as a guide rather than the number on my watch for HR. The plan says Zone 4 is somewhere between your 15/20 minute effort a mile effort. Pace wise (3:36/km to 3:49/km), it looks a little slow, but my heart rate was fairly solidly up there for the last 3 reps. And I think I was fairly honest effort wise. It was noticeable that as the Reps went on, I was hitting the target HR more and more quickly within the rep.
So 2 theories, my pace has slowed a bit since 2020 (quite possible) and my legs were a little weary after LSR on Sunday and a (gently paced) Progression Run Monday. Either way, I’m comfortable I wasn’t cheating the session.


Wednesday:

8.3k @ 4:47/km HR: 139 (avg)

Foundation run, so mostly Z1/Z2 here. Felt fine.

Thursday

8km @ 4:51/km HR: 146 (avg) 171 (max)

Hill Reps #4

Got interrupted by a work call halfway through my warmup, but other than that this one went to plan. 10 x 30 second Z5 efforts up a hill in the area. Again really enjoyed this, and used landmarks to benchmark my efforts. All were :30/km, and most :20/km (as best you can tell in such a short effort).

Love these short hill reps, the effort builds nicely but no rep feels bonkers because it’s short.

Friday

7km @ 4:56/km. Avg HR: 141

Plan called for 30 mins in Z2 with 5 mins in Z1 WU/CD. Executed it roughly, for a nice easy morning run.

Saturday

12.5 km with buggy @4:52/km, Avg HR: 143

Weekly LSR, which in the plan was ~11.5km, mostly Z2 with WU in Z1. So went a little long, I was painting more estates around Dundrum/Churchtown and misjudged.

My HR was well controlled for most of it, but the last 1.5km uphill with buggy and tiring it crept up into Z3 for sure.

Sunday

8km with buggy @ 5:00/km, Avg HR: 146

Recovery run, so needed to stay in Z1 for the entirety. This I did, (just about). It’s soooo hard to control pace that finely.

That said, legs were a little weary so didn’t have much go anyway. A fella whizzed by me at one point, and I just wanted to shout “I’m on a recovery run!”. haha

Looking forward to Zaytoon this evening...#youngatheart

Week: 62.8km (20km with the buggy)
YTD: 463.72km

The start of the building phase in the training plan this week (last few weeks were “base” phase). So sessions start to become a little more involved and incrementally harder week to week. New baby is due Easter weekend, so no idea how far into the plan I will get! Let’s see. 😉

Monday:

8.4km @ 4:43 HR: 143 (avg)

Lovely mild weather for a foundation run. Although when I’m running without the buggy I sometimes find that pace I need to hit for Z2 heart rate can be quite fast, so I tend to shy away from chasing the exact Z2 reading. It would feel odd doing ~4:30/km for an easy day.

Tuesday:

7km @ 4:21/km HR: 153 (avg) 179 (max)

This was 3 x 3 mins in Z4 off 2 mins (and WU/CD). My first so called “Long intervals” and definitely hit me in places I haven’t been in a while. Goal effort/pace was between 5k and mile effort/pace and wait for HR to follow which it did. I was working hard at end of each interval which was tough, but the recoveries were long enough that I wasn’t cursing when they finished either.

Weather was gorgeous for this one, squeezed in at lunchtime as it was.

Wednesday:

8.0km with buggy @ 4:53/km HR: 147 (avg)

Recovery Run. A little (lot) harder work than planned as I took the buggy out on the hills of Killiney/Ballybrack. Gorgeous morning for it though.

Thursday

10km @ 4:33/km HR: 153 (avg) 180 (max)

Short Intervals #4

10 x 1min in Z5 with 2min off.

Had forgot my chest strap, so HR is off wrist which is close to meaningless. Anyway, over a minute rep, perceived effort is a more realistic measure. Especially for Z5, just go for it really.

I’m really enjoying this training plan, (maybe I won’t in a few weeks as sessions get longer/harder), and this session is a good example of why. The reps were short so none lasted that long, but 10 was a relatively high number to get through.

My legs were a little stiff and sore on some of the reps, and seemed to be my limiting factor at times (As opposed to my heart and lungs). Maybe the hill buggy run yesterday was lingering a little. Or I’d do some S&C on Tuesday afternoon with some new exercises, so could have been that either.

Friday

8km @ 4:51/km

Z2 run. So, nice and chilled by myself around the block. No chest strap again, so was all off perceived effort. My watch gave an average HR of 157BPM, which is just wrong.

Saturday

12km with buggy @4:36/km, Avg HR: 152 Max HR: 171 BPM
Fast Finish long Run was the plan. Basically about 45 minutes of Z2, then finish with 12 mins of Z3.

Loved this one, went exploring all sorts of random estates, which meant a lot of gentle hills. Weather was good, and E was singing along to Frozen. The last 12 minutes was testing but not bonkers.

Defo felt like I’d done a workout later in the day though. But the rugby distracted me nicely. Still can't believe Wales were 2 phases away from a grand slam.

Sunday

8km with buggy @ 5:05/km, Avg HR: 143

Didn’t really want to go out. Was very tempted to just drink coffee and do jigsaws with E. But convinced myself to get out by saying something like “Just do 5km, you’ll be back in 25 mins then”. And predictably once I was out, I stayed out longer!

Week: 61.5km (28km with the buggy)
YTD: 568km

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Congrats! Double buggy or redundancy of buggy running now?

Babies can't buggy run until 6 months when they have some neck and core strength. So no double for a while. I have started him on a hard regiment of S&C though (aka tummy time)

Reckon the buggy might be more popular as a way to reduce the energy and noise over the next months!

OK, back on the logging horse.

Have been back to running gradually, and still haven’t fully ramped up to previous level (and can’t see that happening soon tbh).

Across 1st 3 weeks of March, did about 50km as I was trying to squeeze in bits and bobs, every 2nd day do a 5km was my goal, optimistic for a new parent, but modest for a runner..
Last 3 weeks, I have managed to do 33, 40 and 34km respectively :eek: . With a newborn, toddler and work, opportunities to do anything other than 5km around the block are hard to come by. Most likely this trend will continue for awhile, but I am trying to work in some of the 80/20 HR based workouts to keep sharp as I can.

5k TT Report

By far the highlight of the running period has been the 5km TT. I’ll just put in a report for the record here (really an expanded version of the report in the challenge thread)
I actually wanted to do this one with the buggy, as the last time I raced 5km with the buggy was pre-COVID, and I’ve achieved sub-20 with the buggy in 2019 and 2020, so wanted to add 2021 to the list.

Usual 5k TT routine for me (bar being awake with C twice between midnight and 6am), including pumping up the tyres as hard as they'd go,

Jogged to marlay with buggy and plan was to 3 x DBR mile loop.

Got Frozen soundtrack playing for E and started the 5k workout on my watch. Started hard on downhill toward the main house, and plan was to maintain the pace as best I could on the second half of loop which is into breeze and uphill. Wash rinse repeated this strategy for 3 laps.

The first lap felt easy as the buggy ran down the gentle hill, and the slight uphill along the concert field was fine. It got a little trickier when I came out to the playing fields and got hit with the gentle headwind. Which with the buggy can feel vicious, like pushing a parachute. Knew this stretch would be my final stretch of each lap, so mentally tried to minimise the effort so as not to have too much dread for subsequent laps!

My goal pace was just keep it below 3:50/km if I could, and see what happens in the last k or so. Average pace was 3:47/km at this point, so pretty on plan. Dig in on second lap and try to keep it up.

Second lap was a bit harder, hit a bit of a dip in my pace as the effort caught up on the 2nd half, but just tried to look forward to turning the corner into the last lap. Average pace still around 3:48/km, so slipping but on plan still. Little resolution to “Stop the slip” on the last lap made.

Last lap, blowing hard, every little incline (and the route is pretty flat) starting to feel like tough work, pace even dropped to 4:10/km at one point – just lost concentration really. So last 300m foot down to just see what will be. Average pace was still in the 3:48/km range, so on target there. With 100m to go, two arms on buggy, pump the legs as best I can and see what happens until the watch beeps….19:00

Splits ended up as 3:45, 3:49, 3:46, 3:51, 3:48 which was bang on prediction and it hurt in all the right places.

Clearly, on another day it could have been sub 19, but after little or no running in the previous 3 or 4 weeks, and not sleeping much, it was a strong result for me. And a PB with the buggy too. I'll never cease to be amazed how a bit of competition (even virtual) can make you run so much quicker)

Really enjoyed it, and wandered home at a plod as a warmdown .

Also passed it on to my college buddy WhatsApp group where we did a team event, which my team won by a single second across teams of 4!

Starting to do a few more sessions, it’s a delicate balance. I want to continue to train and at least maintain fitness. However, I also don’t have much spare capacity to be tired around the house. So rest days can come from nowhere…

Monday

5km with buggy @ 4:44 Avg HR: 140

An easy jaunt around the block at lunchtime. Nothing spectacular.

Tuesday

7.0km with buggy @ 4:27 Avg HR: 155

Speed Play 3 session 4 x 2 mins in Z4, off 2 mins.

Back to Olaf’s for this one, enjoyed it, but defo was drifting toward Z5 on the last rep or 2. This was completely driven by the realisation that I could almost do a lap in 2 mins. So before I could stop myself I was chasing that nonsense, nothing to do with the session target. Ha! Missed on achieving it by about 10m on the last lap.

Might need to pick a different place for sessions, or have more discipline.

Wednesday

6Km with buggy @ 4:55/km Avg Hr: 144

Easy run around the area. E was fierce chatty, made it harder work than it should have been. lol

Thursday

Rest day due to crazy day at work, and babysitting duty.

Friday

7.3km @ 4:44/km

Hills #3, 6 x 1 min in Z5 off 2mins.

Up and down the hill at Airfield Farm here. Had a few waypoints on the hill to check my paces and keep consistent. Really enjoy the short hill effort in Z5. There’s no thinking required, basically blast up the hill, it starts to hurt, then its over.

Saturday

Rest, again more due to family than training plan.

Sunday

A day of 2 runs..

1st – 3km with buggy @ 5:54/km

was due to meet Lambay in Marlay for an easy one with buggy. Managed to get E and I out of the house in time, but then halfway to the park had to U-turn because of a puncture. My 1st mid run puncture in 2000km, raging. Limped home by pumping up the punctured tyre hard, run for awhile then repeated.
Was really disappointed to miss some social running, so much so my wife chased me out during afternoon nap time for another run.

2nd – 10km @ 4:52/km

Enjoyed this, the sun actually came out, so was thoroughly pleasant. Listening to Strong Songs and burning off my bad mood.

Totals

Week: 38km (21km with buggy)
YTD: 776km (416km with buggy)

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)

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.

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)

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! 

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

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,

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

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).

I've thought that more than a few times

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.