"It's what you do next that counts"

Wednesday
5.8 miles with a 1 mile and a 1 minute effort.
The mile came in at 6'06, started too cautiously and splits look like 3'11/2'55.
The minute came in at 5'10 mile pace.

Thursday
8 miles with 4 at a hard tempo 6'51, 6'49, 6'46, 6'42. I did this same session at the end of October on the same course and the splits were 6'55, 6'51, 6'54, 6'55 and the heart rate yesterday averaged a few beats less, so good signs.

The back to back fast runs were all about gathering data points for stryd so it can calculate my Critical Power (CP) and I'm a little bit impatient.

Friday
10 miles easy, 8'41 pace, AHR 146, Average Power 260


Got the results of my bloods back and the great news is my Thyroid is back to normal, I felt it was but great to have the confirmation.
The bad news is my cholesterol is high. For over a year now my doctor has wanted to put me on a statin but I've resisted and I had improved my ratio of hdl to total back in May thanks to diet.
Diet fell apart over the summer, got back on track but has taking another hit and the ratio has moved into the red.
We've made a deal, bloods will be taken again in April, I'll try lower it with diet, doctor not convinced and feels its familial. If I don't lower it, I go on the statin. Both my parents have high cholesterol and my dad had a heart attack at 54, so I know the seriousness.

Wednesday
5 miles at 8'54 pace, AHR 141
Horrible time to run (5pm), traffic & people. There's a chance I may have just been in a bad mood.

Thursday
3.5 miles in my new rincon with 1x2k in the middle at 3'56 pace. Love the shoe but I had it a bit tight having swapped the insoles with more cushioned ones. Took them out and put the wafer slim ones back in.

Friday
5 miles with 5k at 340 Watts. This is where stryd has estimated my 5k effort to be.
I was pretty good at sticking to the wattage and it did lead to even pacing. It was a hard effort in the wind but I did feel I had more to offer.
This was confirmed after the run by Stryd increasing my Critical Power and in doing so, it now has 5k effort at 347 Watts.

I ran 20'45 (pace 6'40, AHR 176) around the concert field, quiet pleased and if I get a good morning whereby I'm feeling good and the weather plays ball, I'll have a go at sub 20, now that would be a nice way to finish the year, there was definitely more in me today.
Today's effort was my fastest 5k since a 20'02 at Marlay Parkrun way back in June 2019.

shotgunmcos wrote: »

What's with the Watts?!

Surely a 100kg dude and a 65kg dude running the same pace = different Watts? How is relative to pace or am I missing some basic physics?

I haven't looked into the detail as yet. It's on my to do. You're right of course but I didn't mention anyone else's numbers? The 340 Watts represented my 5k effort, the pace was the outcome.
When setting it up I had to input height and weight and then the next step was to perform some max efforts over a few seconds up to 20 to 40 minutes.
I've only really done 1 max effort of 1 minute, I've also done a mile but not quite max and a 4 mile tempo.
It takes the info from the max efforts and gives you a Critical Power number in wattage, this number is roughly the pace you can hold for between 30 and 50 minutes.
The race efforts are then all a percentage of your critical power, that's how I came up with the 340 Watts, it's roughly 104% of CP.

It has me now at 4.3 watts/KG.

What I like about it so far is that it seems to be very accurate with distance.
It also has me finishing my runs a bit fresher, in particular the longer ones by keeping my effort even, has definitely slowed me down on hills and sped me up on downhills.

I really must look into the how, only have it 2 weeks.

Saturday
4 miles at 8'38 pace, AHR 147
Planned to do 6 miles but felt a twinge in my right calf at mile 3, so headed straight home.
Spent the evening with the massage gun and foam roller, found a very painful knot of sorts.

Sunday
Up early for a planned solstice hike to Fairy Castle. Well worth it, even if it did take a good 3 hours when home to warm back up.
More time with the massage gun, still a sore point.

Monday
Was to be a 5k time trial but felt the calf needed one more day of TLC.

Tuesday
5K TT, 1.5 miles to warm up with drills and strides, 2 mile cool down after.

Was nervously excited for this, must have peed about 10 times before leaving the house.
Conditions were almost perfect, maybe just a tad on the cold side, I wore two pairs of compression shorts to protect the right hammy and calf guards for the right calf.

Had a target power of 345ish, bounced out of the gates and felt super, power reading was in the mid 370s, quick look at pace 5'50!
Found it hard to bring the power down but I did, 6'22 first mile.

Going onto the second mile and feeling strong, not quite in the super territory anymore. At this point I noticed 3 runners I coach, looked like they were finishing up their easy run and were going to hang around and offer support.

The course I used was the concert field in Marlay Park, it's a pretty flat 1k loop, so I had 2 laps left and now I was in a battle, 6'31 for
mile 2.

I was kind of glad I had support as I probably would have thrown in the towel heading out onto the 4th lap. Form was collapsing and I constantly had to remind myself to relax, lower the shoulders, run tall, quick arms. I'd guess this was the slowest km.

One last lap and I get a pretty good shout, I knew I was going to beat 20'44 from last Friday, no matter how much I fall apart, and I am falling apart, 6'39 for mile 3.

One last push and I cover the last 0.12 at 5'36 pace, finishing time of 20'13, well chuffed with that.
Average power came in at 346 which was on the money but the wrong way to do it. With the exception of the sprint finish, my power was going down, unlike Friday's effort whereby it was increasing throughout.

A sub 20 before the end of the year would be amazing and I'm close. Just not sure I can psyche myself up for another effort, mentally that was tough going this morning.

I've done SFA 5k work since the early summer and with Hamburg crossed off the calendar, maybe this is where focus should shift.

Lambay island wrote: »

Nice TT..If I could be of any help on the pacing side of things, let me know as I'm only around the corner from Marlay.

Appreciate that and likewise, when things settle down, we do have a Sunday long run group that meets at 8am in Marlay. You're more than welcome, I'm probably the slowest and the quicker runners are around 60 to 65 min for 10 miles when they're racing. Good bunch and our favourite run is up to Bohernabreena reservoir.

Christmas
5 miles at 8'32 pace, AHR 152

Stephen's Day
7.6 miles at 8'00 pace, AHR 155
Catch up with a friend.

Sunday
5 miles at 8'47 pace, AHR 149

Monday
5 miles at 8'48 pace, AHR 151
Lost all impulse control, wolfed down mince pies and scones. Felt guilty after so got the gear on and reluctantly headed out. Very quiet out, which I enjoyed but the run itself was awful, feel like all the fitness and positivity gained from last week has evaporated.

Bought a garmin 645 out of my vouchers, my 235 which I love has been on the way out for awhile.

Need to get back into the habit of early morning runs, I enjoy them more and they set me up nicely for the rest of the day.

Only 8 miles away from my 2020 goal of 1,650 miles, set this during my quarantine period back in September to keep me honest.

Looking forward to evaluating the year and making new goals!

The niggle above turned into 3 weeks, which was the right amount of time to ruin all momentum. Combine that with my business barely surviving and a self diagnosis of SAD, it was the perfect storm.

No injuries, just a few pounds heavier and I'd say I'm closer to 23 mins for 5k than the 20'13 in December.
But I've accepted that now, finally :-) My middle daughter has been a big help, she's running 3 times a week and I now join her on two of these, I love these runs and the bonding has been brilliant.
With two of my three daughters going back to school on Monday, this should help with the morning routine.
I find if I miss my morning window, that's it for the day, I'm unlikely to go later and the annoyance I cause myself for the remainder of the day certainly isn't worth it.

Tue - 3 miles at 8'19 pace, out the door before 7am.

Wed - 4 miles at 8'14 pace. Followed by 2 miles with my daughter.

Fri - 5 miles easy/aerobic 8'40 pace. Out before 7am, beautiful morning.

token56 wrote: »

Sorry to hear about all your difficulties. I suffer with SAD myself and I usually find after the hour goes forward at the end of this month I pick up quite a lot.

Cheers for that, can't wait.
Exactly the same, tend to get going in April and it's definitely the longer/brighter days that help.
Also started taking Vit D for it about 5yrs ago based on docs recommendation and that's certainly helped as well.

Mon - Rest

Tue - 5 miles at 8'40 pace. Bumped into a friend at the start of this, he's a sub 3 guy. Did a couple of miles with him but our paces are just off. His slowing down was still too much for me.
I'm following a low carb and fasting diet for a few weeks, so I was drained of the correct energy.

Wed - (Am) 5 miles with 6x20 second strides at the end, walk recovery between efforts.

(PM) 2 miles with my daughter at 10'40 pace, she's progressing nicely.

Thu - Delighted to get out early for this, started at 6:45am. This was the norm for years but I've struggled badly this year to get my ass out of bed in the mornings. I'm blaming the cat for some of it, I've turned into his personal door man.
The run itself was a struggle, average pace was 9'10 but with low carb, it really needs to be 10 minute mile-ing.

Good start to the week.

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Low carb & fasting :eek: Keto?

I've adopted intermittent fasting 16:8 for 2-3 days a week and checking macros (for a month only to get into a rhythm). Really makes you consider the timing of your runs.

I probably should have said lower carb rather than low carb.
I did it in April of last year and shifted 7kg, since the turn of the year I've put 3kg back on.

When you read up on it, it's very interesting, the lower carbs is about lowering insulin levels so the body can tap into fat reserves.
Can't remember if I shared the Jason Fung video and his fridge/freezer analogy.
The whole video is worth a watch but from 13 mins on is the analogy.

https://youtu.be/tIuj-oMN-Fk

In theory it's great but when you have an addiction to sweets, the whole thing becomes very challenging.
Top that with lower carbs means lower intensity running, or at least it does for me.

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

I’ve being doing low carb for over a year.

My taste buds have completely changed , from being addicted to the likes of skittles and sugar I think I’d puke now if I ate skittles

For me it also doesn’t affect my running in any negative way, in fact I think it’s probably helped as the body is using fat for fuel, I can run longer without the need for short term carb top ups.

TbL

Fair play to you, Here's hoping.
Did you go cold turkey off the sweets? and for sessions would you add any carbs to your diet beforehand or during?

Just having a look back over the log and although I'm not very consistent at posting, it's been good to keep tabs for me.

So a bit of an update. The year has been very mixed, at times I've felt great and on the verge of getting back to my best but just as I start to make plans/goals, the body stops cooperating.

Back in July I fancied my chances of breaking 20 mins for 5k in my first actual race in some time. I ran a stinker in 22 flat. A few weeks earlier I had run 5'52 for a mile TT, so I just put it down to the weather and the hilly course.

But within a couple of weeks, my easy pace had slided to 10'30 miling (6'30) from 8'15 (5'10) for the same HR effort. It appeared my Thyroid is acting up...again.

I took it easy and enjoyed my holidays but still feeling a little tired. I no longer can distinguish between running tired or Thyroid tired. Back with my Doctor next week to go through this week's blood test.

Couple of positives, I'm injury free and last week at Marlay Parkrun I ran 21'36 which was a bit of a surprise, didnt think I was in that shape and I'll hit a 1000 miles for the year this evening.

I've also signed up for a few races, one of which is the Malaga Half in December, that'll be more about enjoyment than time.

Nov 14th - Sant Vicenç Del's Horts 10k

I was super excited for this but a few days out I started to feel flat. The day before I went for an easy 5k run, left the HR strap off, as I didn't want to know the numbers.

Race morning I couldn't tell if I was coming down with STH or just nervous energy. Music was pumping and great to see so many club singlets & smiles.

I reckoned I was just nervous, so went for my 10k pace of 7'05.

Miles 1-3 (7'01, 7'03, 7'09)

I knew after mile 2 I was struggling and didn't feel right, kind of gave up on mile 4

Miles 4-6 (7'40, 8'04, 7'53)

The finish was horrible, very similar to the open hill of Marlay Parkrun.

Travelled home that night and felt very weak. Went for a PCR test, which was negative but I ended up missing a whole week's training.

The following week I ran 40 miles but still not quite a 100%, enough nasal mucus to fill a swimming pool.

Still I gave Marlay parkrun a bash and although feeling flat, still ran 21'17, so no real fitness lost.

Last week Nov 29th to Dec 5th - another 40 miles which included a session of 3x1 mile at half marathon effort and a 12 mile long run at 8'24 mile pace.

Yesterday I ran a 3 mile tempo with 3x25 sec strides to finish.

I was due to run Malaga Half Marathon this weekend but I've now cancelled (new restrictions and my wife doesn't want to go) and will target a 14/15 miler.

I plan to post more as I need to stay accountable on the run up to Seville Marathon in February.

Last 6 weeks have been good, averaging 40 miles a week.

Jan 1st - Started with an easy 3.5 miler with my wife in the morning.

In the evening I ran a 5 miler with a bit of a strong effort (36 mins). Felt great after this.

Jan 2nd - 7 weeks to Seville Marathon. Having only returned home from Portugal on December 30th, my wife booked for me to go back over for a few days. Got to the apartment just before 4pm and headed out for a tired but easy paced 5 miler.

Passed lots of training groups, couple of shirts with Estonia, Poland and Austria on them

Jan 3rd - 12 miles which included 5x1 mile at roughly 10 mile to half marathon effort (7'30 mile pace). Recovery was a 1 mile jog.

Since Malaga I've lost just over 3kg. Pretty chuffed with this giving I started just before the holidays (183lbs down to 175). Feel I'm running a little better too

Enjoyed that! Top man.