Sub 5 minute mile

Oct 11 - 17 - 35.6 km (running), 16.5 km (exercise bike)

4 runs last week including a very unenjoyable 1 hour slog. Only for a Second Captains podcast I might not have completed it. Then A bike and run on Sunday. Nothing interesting here so I'll just update "the slings and arrows of Mr Glass's fortune" from the last week 😅

The ankle is sore and it takes quite a while for it to loosen out but it'll get there and not too concerned with it. Hobbling around playing soccer with the kids on Saturday I strained a tendon or something on my big toe on the same foot no doubt from compensating for the ankle. Had to call a quits to our game there and then. It's an unusual location between the ball of the foot and the top of the toe but it doesn't look like it'll bother me when running. The pain in my left foot is probably the main issue at the moment. Rolling it with a golf ball a couple of times a day. It was coming on well until Sunday's run which was going okay until I decided to push the pace a wee bit to see if my ankle could take it*. It could but the foot started screaming at me. Gah! Got home grumpy but thankfully I've the bike to fall back on and give both my feet a rest when needed.

Still doing the physio prescribed exercises for the other injuries. Just need to be more consistent with them. I think they do help.

*There was another reason... My first pair of proper fancy runners - Asics Magic Speed. I finally decided to pull the trigger as I figured they'll help with my motivation to drag myself out of my current slump get back to decent fitness. My plan is to wear them and have a December crack at a sub-60 10 mile. I think I'll need all the assistance I can get for that.

Two 2021 targets outstanding. That 10 mile and a sub 4:50 mile. Annoyed about the mile particularly as I was definitely in shape a few times this year to get a few seconds under I'd say.

When there's no main thing, how about keeping two things the main thing?

Still hoping to kill two birds with one and a half stones as the year closes out.

After re-introducing the Rep sessions a couple of weeks back I've stuck with the plan of a Repeats session midweek. And then alternating between an Interval or a Tempo session as the second session of the week.

Target 1 is to get under 4:50 for the mile. Fumbling with the repeats a little as I hoped to find a mile pace I can maintain for 1,609 m. Despite being well able for the pace on reps where I've a nice recovery I attempted a mile pace fitness test today. 400s with 1 min r/ and had to bail after 6. Hands were on my knees after 5 and rather than stretch the recovery out I finished on the 6th. The odd numbered reps were directly into the wind which sapped me a bit too. Never get as much back from the wind as it takes. An average of 70s for 10 would leave me low 4:40s shape and that was the faint hope but doesn't seem realistic. Today was an average of 70s over 6 which probably pushes me back up towards 4:50. I've done some 800 and faster paced stuff up to now as I've been trying to make running faster feel easier but I'll now be mainly focussed on familiarising myself with what my mile pace will feel like over the next couple of weeks. Looking like 4:48/mile (2:59/km) is a realistic aim I hope, which would mean those 400s should have been in 72 seconds over 10. Not saying I would have managed that today either 😁

Target 2 is the sub-60 10 mile. I look back at my 1:00:56 from last year and can't believe I pulled that out back then. Must have got myself on a really good day! On the days I do Tempos now I'm watching the pace for sub 60 and will try to increase the volume of tempos that I would normally be used to. Last Sunday I looked to do just that with 5x1 mile 2:30 r/. [5:50, 5:47, 5:46, 5:43, 5:38]. A little too quick but I figured with 2:30 as opposed to 2:00 recovery it was okay. That's the most mile repeats I've done before and it was a nice confidence builder although I did have 2 days of no running before it. Also, it stands alone a bit in comparison to all my recent workouts in terms of the return versus effort so I know I'm still only working my way back. We'll see what happens.

On reflection, the mile probably still is the main thing 😉

NIA live hopefully. Most of my runs at the moment are in the evenings except the days I'm in the office so I'd be throwing in an extra 40 minutes driving to get to the nearest track for a session in the evening. Be willing to drive late for a race though.

That course of action crossed my mind too. But while my mind somersaulted and a few possibilities were imagined I settled on the fact that they had their chance to jump me at the very start when my guard was fully down so they were likely/hopefully just having a laugh at my expense. Worst case they wanted me to go into the bushes to look for it and then jump me in there but I wasn't going to do that. I'd ignore them and not let them ruin my workout 🙂

Great stuff. So you're in or near PB shape. Hopefully you nail it next time.

Thanks. Never saw it on the website. So that painful closing 800m was 2:36. Lots of time bled there.

I've popped in to update the log a couple of times only to get side-tracked reading everyone elses. Great to see the place a bit busier although it does effect my productivity a bit.

Dec 6 - Dec 12

As I mentioned the mile race on the Wednesday killed me due to having to hang on after going out too hard. My lungs were shot for a couple of days after. Finished the week with 21 miles including an attempted Interval session on the Monday but I was still goosed. The wind didn't help that night as I struggled through 5x1k w/ 2 minutes jog. Decided not to worry about the splits too much which averaged around 3:30.

Dec 13 - Dec 19

Trying to make up for lost mileage I did an easy 10 mile on the Monday. I was definitely still feeling the combined effects of the race and the Sunday session and then threw this on top. However by Wednesday I was back to feeling more myself and got in a nice Tempo km session 1,2,3,2,1 averaging below 3:40 for each. Got a lot of confidence from this to be able to do it with a tired enough body. The weekend was going to be a busy one with nights out on Friday and Saturday night so I did a paired back session on the Friday, 30 minutes steady which averaged 3:57/km pace. The hangover was worse on Saturday than the Sunday one was and finished the week off with an easy 6km on the Sunday.

Dec 20 - Dec 23

Game face on this week. The only day I could see myself fitting in a 10 mile TT was Thursday the 23rd. So on the Monday I wanted to do a not too testing session that would give me two full days recovery. So what did I do? Well, the logic was not too many Intervals and not too many Reps as I cobbled together a hybrid session. 3x2 min on 1:30 off, 3x300R, 3x2 min on 1:30 off. It equated to 3600m of Interval work (covering just over 600m in around the 2 minutes) and 900m of Repeats. I think I over egged the Christmas pudding here and it should really have been 1 minute intervals as I was a bit too tired after this for my liking and the legs were heavy the following day. The 300s were in around 50s so slightly too hot too. Anyway no time for excuses onto the 10 miler...

Wed Dec 23 - 10 mile TT - abandoned

Woke up/was woken up by the baby in the morning and I knew straight away I wasn't feeling 100% as a result of the effort I needed to actually get up. That feeling you get when you might be about to come down with something. Hopefully not. Trudged around the house before heading for the office. Thoughts of delaying a day entered my head but the following day is Christmas eve and I don't have a back up route planned closer to home. I've the gear with me anyway so decide I'll be at least going for a run of some kind. Jogged out to my start point and tried a few strides. No pep in them and certainly not feeling strong. But I'm here and this run is just supposed to be "a bit of craic" (twisted definition) at the end of the year. It was a target, but well down the list from the shorter distances. No real stalling, off I go.

Mile 1 - 5:55. Had to reign the pace back a bit after the first few hundred metres. Looking for any positive signs at all, I take it as a positive that I actually need to slow down a bit.

Mile 2 - 6:02. Trying to zone in on the pace here but I was hoping I'd feel more comfortable this early into the run. The route is along the main road on a very gentle upward slope into Dunshaughlin village. We'll see what the split is for this mile and decide if I'll be turning for home in the village. The 6:02 is not too bad. I'll give it another mile.

Mile 3 - 5:58. A bit of of a reprieve here. The wind is at my back and towards the end of this mile I find myself being able to ease my effort level back a bit and actually feel comfortable with the pace. Maybe the first 2 miles shook me out of my funk. Lets keep going.

Mile 4 - 6:00. Still feeling okay here. As the watch beeps this is the first point in the entire day that I start to believe that it might actually be on today and what a surprise that would be.

Mile 5 - 6:01. Keeping on pace. This mile started with a bit of an uphill finishing with the road levelling out into the wind. I feel I'm handling it well and was still feeling capable. I'm also at a point where I'm as far as I'm going to get from base so I try to tell myself I'm committed to the full distance now (or so I thought). I knew that the biggest tester lay just ahead though and so did start to pump the legs a little at the end of this mile to get a bit of momentum heading into mile 6 which was mostly uphill and into the breeze.

Mile 6 - 6:07. Uphill for what feels like forever and into the breeze (anyone that's run the Dunshaughlin 10k might know the particular section I'm referring to). I started this mile at a good clip but was prepared to bleed time here. I decided to work a bit harder though than I had been up to here (maybe a bit too much) so as not to lose too much time and get my reward of a steep 200m downhill to finish the mile. But truth be told the hill signed my death warrant and getting to the top of that hill was literally the high point for me. I expected a lot of relief at getting there but it had just emptied me and the steep downhill, while a little relieving, was still more of an effort than I wanted as the mile beeped at 6:07. The split was actually quite good for what this section entailed but it probably was not worth the effort I had put in and how I was feeling told its own story. Only 4 miles left though. Lets see what my pace for mile 7 settles at.

Mile 7 - ... Keeping an eye at the watch I look to see where my pace settles at it as drifts up to 6:20. I try to remain controlled and regain my composure but it sits at 6:20. I'm not pushing really hard at this stage but feeling fatigued. I know I could run another sub 6 mile with effort but that'd write me off completely. I don't think the thought of "only 3 more miles" will be enough to drag me home so I finally see sense and pull the plug. If I push myself into the red zone here to see if I can get the pace back down, and if that results in me blowing up I'll still have 3 miles to trot back to base. I'll definitely get cold and possibly sick. So a more gentle trot ensues as I head back along the main road in lovely sunshine with the pesky breeze is still blowing a bit. Legs are heavy but I'm fairly nonplussed, just concentrating on keeping the shuffle at a level that I don't get cold. Ara, it was a decent workout if anything.

December not quite living up to the highlights of earlier in the year but still been a good year nonetheless. I might pop up my musings and some sort of plan for 2022 over the Christmas.

Happy New Year all.

After December being a little underwhelming performance wise I took my mind off the planning and logging over Christmas. I wasn't going to post back until I had a proper plan for the year... I still don't but that didn't stop me posting my 2022 targets in the main forum. But events have trumped plans slightly.

I got text on January 1st asking if I'd be interested in running the Meath Masters CC. 6k didn't sound too scary so I said I would. Also, the race was to be in Trim this year so unless I was to be out of town I really had no excuse not to go. They were hoping for a good hometown representation. I asked if I was M35 or M40 this year. M35 it is and was expecting I'd be making up a team. I doesn't appear that way. The club seems to have an abundance of talent from over 40 up so I'd likely be running as an individual club member.

Next task, after the recent weather. I definitely had to get spikes this time. Took too long to get the finger out so it was on a flying trip to Navan to discover no one stocks running spikes over there. Well almost non one. Sports Direct had their own brand in odd sizes so I took a pair in desperation on the Thursday before the race. On the Friday I went for an easy 9 k on the road and then donned spikes for the first time in 20 years to do some 200 Reps around a GAA pitch. After a couple of laps I started slipping and sliding everywhere as the the muck because caked on the soles. So the stock spikes wouldn't do the trick. (5mm maybe?) More panicking, but fortunately I work with a guy whose related to the sports shop owner in Dunboyne. A nice dangerous looking set of 12 mm were collected Friday night.

Meath Masters Cross Country

I could hear the tannoy from my house about 45 minutes before my race so knew I'd better go. I made the short jog with my bag on my back down to the Porchfields. I shied away a little from going around doing big introductions with everyone. Everyone knew everyone so I just kind of collected my number and went off for my warm-up, missing a team photo in the process that I'm sure I wasn't missed for. I remembered Sacksian in his log saying how most go out too fast in Cross country races and spend the rest of the race slowing down. I didn't want to do that so I'd an idea of what approach I'd like to take into the race but really didn't trust I had the experience or discipline to pull off a decent cross country race plan. Bit of research into my new clubmates beforehand helped. Trim is well decorated with successful athletes in their masters ranks including a guy who won Meath Novice CC last year. So my plan was to tail him and hope I could keep pace for as long as possible. Unfortunately he was nowhere to be seen around the race start so I picked another club stalwart that I'm sure had won the race a few times, Seán Murphy. He'd run a 2:44 marathon in October so we'd see how that approach went. 4 laps of 1,500.

Lap 1- Not sure of the runner numbers but I'd guess 80-100 were lined up. I lined up right at the outside to avoid traffic, hoping to not get mouthfuls of muck at the start. Seemed to work okay and I was probably just outside the top 10 heading over the first hump before a gentle downhill, a very acute turnaround before heading back up the same hill. 1st km beeped in 3:35. Maybe a little too quick given the conditions I thought but I was feeling nice and controlled so wasn't really fearing the opening pace was going to kill me later. That was the last time I actually looked at my watch as I now focused on the task at hand. Basically try and keep pace with Seán. The rest of the lap was relatively flat but boggy in a few places particularly at the start of each lap.

Lap 2 - At the end of the first lap 2 guys had opened up a bit of a gap on the rest of us. Had no idea who they were but I really just focused on hanging onto the back of the chasing pack which was now 6 including me tucked in behind them all. Down the hill and then back up again. I notice that I seem to weather this section better than those around me as I go past the guy in 7th without extra effort before easing past 6th place. Just before the course levelled out again I'm into 5th place going past a Dunboyne lad. But as the ground flattened and hardened again I found everyone seemed to be moving quicker than me through here. The Dunboyne guy passed me back less than a minute after I'd gone by him. Coming to the end of the 2nd lap the wind is coming at us at about 45 degrees so half cross wind half in our faces. I give a little push to get in behind the 3 guys in front of me. Dunboyne and two teammates which included Seán. The remainder of the chase group have fallen back a little as we end lap 2.

Lap 3 - Onto what is now my favourite section of the course, I pass Dunboyne again on the uphill as I continue tailing my two clubmates. Up to 5th again. Can't understand why I have to work harder again on the following flat section again to keep up. Maybe they all planned that this was the easiest section to put the boot down a little so I just followed suit banking on their experience. Dunboyne is dropped as we enter the windy home stretch for the last time. It's the first time I'm feeling the effort properly here and consider my position. "Hey, not too bad", "if I just keep ahead of whoever is behind me I should get a category medal". I knew there were 3 of us now in it for 3rd place overall but knew the two guys were in older age groups too. So, "do I need to race them here?". Hung on anyway to Seán but I must have lost concentration daydreaming about the position in was in and how tired I was feeling as my other teammate began opening a small gap. This turned out to be a deceptively large gap. He was obviously going for it with a lap to go.

Lap 4 - Hanging with Seán, I kind of don't want to go past him even though I start to feel like I could. Go through my favourite hill section as I run up beside him instead of passing. I know he's a class act and feel like he's done a lot of the work to get me this far. 3rd place is gone maybe 50 m ahead now. We start to lap a couple of athletes here so I back off a wee bit to give him room to avoid a squash going past one. But as we reach the harder flat section again someone shouts encouragement at him telling him there's only 800 m to go. I momentarily forget my respect and put the foot down. Up to 4th and I can sense he's falling further and further back. I'm also starting to close the gap on 3rd. 50 m comes down to about 40 as we get around to the home straight. Another little kick and I'm maybe 30 behind but I can see the finish is probably too close now. If I kill myself trying to catch him, he just has to realise I'm closing in and and bit of a kick will seal it for him. Also, he's in an older age group so do I really need the drama. I ease off again to allow myself to finish in a slightly less messy manner (more graceful 😀 ) than I might otherwise have had. Still f**ked mind you but 4th in 22:20. 2nd in the M35s

km splits were 3:35, 3:39, 3:45, 3:42, 3:53, 3:36. That 5th km in 3:53 stands out as when I maybe could have tried to kick on past Seán. Turns out he was actually slowing with a tight hamstring during the final lap. Still even if I had it's hard to know what I would have had in my legs a 3rd place. Very happy with the outing though. I haven't seen the official results but the gap to the first 2 looked massive as they weren't in my sight anyway on the last lap. I'm happy I'd a sound enough (simple) plan and didn't dare follow them off at the start. Could have been a lot messier.

Thanks everyone.

@Wubble Wubble I won't be racing next weekend. While I don't have an actual plan yet I do want to get some quicker stuff in over the few weeks and am considering a mid distance race. I've had bad luck announcing I'm doing any particular race on a few occasions in the last year so I'll simply see how the next couple of weeks go first.