This is my Redemption Arc

Little guy is having no luck between one thing or another he has not managed to have a full week since he started in creche almost 7 weeks ago

Monday - 4.3 miles recovery

Tuesday - OFF

Wednesday - 7 miles progression (8.24, 7.56, 7.39, 7.21, 7.06, 6.54, 6.38)

Thursday - 7 miles easy incl 6x15 sec strides

Friday - 4.3 mile recovery

Was thankful of the recovery paced effort to start off the week as I was still catching up on the weekend between one thing and another. The one thing I have found is the two recovery days in this early stage of training has worked well for me in terms of taking mental pressure off myself. I know it is probably a bit unnecessary from a physical standpoint given that the training is light at the moment but it is proving crucial in terms of keeping me mentally fresh with the lack of sleep. I will gradually phase out one for an easy run but in terms of establishing routines it is definitely working well

Tuesday was foiled by the eldest taking a turn at waking in the evening after work and put spanner in the works in that regard. Need to carve out opportunity in the mornings to run if I am going to sustain consistency long term. Sleep patterns too erratic in evenings to rely on.

Wednesday and the two lads back in creche freeing up the morning and I took full advantage of it. These progression runs have been a good gauge of fitness for me over recent weeks. I tend to like them in base phase for this reason as they are not overly hard sessions (even by the end the effort remains within) and I tend to know I am fit enough to do proper sessions when I hit a certain level of paces at the right effort. I think next month will add a single session and complement it with these. A good barometer for me with these is If I can have a 90 second pace range finishing close to 6 min pace I know I am in decent aerobic nick so the aim will be to hopefully be hitting 9 miles by end of Feb at this level. Trying to do training right this time to get back and not gonna rush it

Friday was a bit of a weird one. Handy run and enjoyable however struck a bit of a cord as running along the canal seeing tributes to Aishling Murphy. This was followed up by coming across a plaque in tribute of one of my old training partners relations who was hit by a car as a kid. Had run by it a few times but seeing how long ago it was (she was a little younger than me but almost half my life ago)

Was considering dropping in a PR tomorrow in place of a session but given the announcement on the change of restrictions coming this weekend I think I might just play safe and avoid the madness for the sake of a weekend. Starting to feel like I am a little crazy because I am not seeing this lifting as a good thing given the current state of play in the country. Perhaps I am overthinking it but the data around the virus and current variant doesn't fill me with confidence in fact I am still very much of the opinion to avoid it at all cost as I do think it is something that is going to haunt our health system for decades to come in terms of chronic health of the nation.

I agree with the mental health aspect though I fear we are replacing short term for long term implications in that regard based on studies into the neurological implications of long covid etc. Not dismissing genuine mental anguish of many during all this just from my perspective environmental stressors are more controllable that physiological. I think fact that Long covid as well as the pressure health system is already under (nothing has changed there and this will only compound the issues)is just gonna lead to such a deterioration of relative health for many in society on a wide scale for a generation.

In terms of the progression it's a type of session I always found to come easy (as if working into the run helps) but for me it ticks alot of boxes - discipline (holding back each mile so you can accelerate for the next, patience, focus (changing pace each mile) and unknowingly tend to get a decent amount of time at near tempo efforts

My missus has slowly come around, used to get a few passive aggressive remarks around running being top priority long before kids, that changed to encouragement to get out and run over recent months. Too much of a good thing when I am around the house constantly :p

TBF pretty sure I ended first date with my missus by stating "I gotta head off and get my run done" perhaps it's built up resentment since then 🤣

Haha I think the fact we had met about 8 years previously on first go around (Must have made an impression in the Gaeltacht) bought me a lot of good grace 😂

Cheers S

yes certainly been around the block as an athlete and a coach with 20+ years running in terms of PBs they are attached below though 2018 was last time I was near that shape

in terms of the progressions they tend to be a session that comes to me fairly handy although with regards paces it’s important to point out that have only been running 30-40 miles a week and of them it’s only hard run of the week so Definitely running them fresh.

I know from experience in training that once get into full sessions etc will see paces drop back 10-20 sec or so just as the legs are more fatigued despite fitness improvement so I am very much taking paces with a pinch of salt though for now act as good barometer week to week as sign of improving fitness

Cheers,

6 weeks in at this stage and definitely set down better habits. Keeping healthy is generally not a problem. My training tends to be cautious enough in terms of paces etc so generally tend to be low injury risk. The problem in the past has been simple getting the runs done and motivation, burning the candle at both ends with sleep being minimal tended to leave me in a bad place for simply getting out and getting running but the slow build up seems to be helping correct that.

Friday - 6.3 miles easy (8.13 min per mile)

Saturday - 7.4 miles incl 5 miles hilly tempo

Splits: 7.08, 7.06, 7.05, 7.00, 6.54

Sunday - 9 easy (8.27 min per mile)

Total Weekly Mileage 40.7

Friday felt pretty good although probably a little faster than intended. Headed down to the Canal and was tipping along when noticed 2 bikes matching my pace just behind me, after a while realizing they weren't passing decided to peel off for a about a min to let them head on. They stopped further up with what looked like fixing a chain though I could tell when passed them again that there was a bit of devilment as they proceeded to follow me again which got a bit unnerving. In the end they were just winding me up intentionally but given recent events not the most comfortable situation to be in.

Saturday and out on my lunch break from work as the kids were in the grandparents for the afternoon. Into Corkagh and decided to use a hilly loop just shy of 2k. Good rolling hills and a challenging one for a tempo. Effort was relatively high for this one bit a very good session all the same and happy with it. Last mile was downhill so the effort didn't change dramatically.

Sunday and just a box ticking long run felt pretty good for this one and happy to come away with longest run (first 70+ min) in god knows how long

Feb will see a small change to the training with adding a little bit of light turnover work to go with the tempos and hopefully build mileage consistently to 40-50 simply from a few less off days

Tried with the marathon to but you defied expectations there making me surplus to requirements having a coach who is slower than you 😂

January Review

January Targets

Mileage: 150 miles in January - 138.9 miles total

Days run: 27 - 24 days out of 31

Consecutive days run: 21 - Best running streak 11

All targets missed for January but not by a whole amount, take out the 2 days in hospital with the little lad and would have been pretty much on target so happy with how training has gone for now

Feb Targets

Mileage: 180 miles

Days Run 25

Consecutive streak 18

As mentioned a few tweaks to the training going forward. Still very base building focused but aim to put a good bit of tempo work and light turnover

General draft as per below (subject to change over the course of the block somewhat)

Small gains consistently add up, actually came across a great view on this recently

When you break it down down I ran 40 miles last week in order to hit that target I would simply need to average 45 so the equivalent of a mile a day (less even). Realistically though with a few less days off (hopefully) and the nature of the sessions creeping up a little I think this is actually a modest increase that doesn't actually require much in terms of a conscious increase.

Ha definitely a typo was hmming and hawing between 1 min reps and 45 sec, went with the latter (for now haha)

That Fartlek session is a great one and very versatile can be a good 10k session or in this case a good tempo workout just done with a bit of variation so that training not as monotonous and drawing like for like comparisons with sessions too often (wanting to validate improvement by "beating" a previous session

Consecutive days as a target is more a personal mentality target for consistency. In an ideal world want to work towards getting out every day within reason. Not a huge fan of schedule rest days in training overall to be honest. I think a recovery run is more beneficial in forms of active recovery vs passive personally as long as you can put ego aside and run true recovery. At the moment I am running. From a personal standpoint I know that a day off can snowball into 2-3 quite easily so from that perspective its more beneficial to do a shakeout of 30-40 min about a min per mile slower than easy pace vs a complete day off

Saturday - 5.1 mile including 8x15 sec strides (45s jog)

Sunday - Off

Feeling a bit like Jack Bauer with the clock always running at the moment. Saturday had both kids fall asleep in car on way back from Grandparents for the morning, 45 min before the Rugby, wasn’t chasing miles this week either so snuck out when wasn’t missed, wind was cat but glad to get it out of the way and chilled with 2 Rugby matches, The Gaa and Masked singer. Been a long time since had a day like that.

Sunday however all went down the swanny. Herself woke up feeling worse than usual ( sickness has been normal enough last while for different reasons) and after 2 years of avoiding like a game of dodgeball first covid case in the house, tests all around and The oddest combination as myself And eldest came back clear with the youngest coming back positive

From a self isolation it’s nightmare scenario. Youngest too much of a live wire to quarantine with herself (especially with her being symptomatic) but eldest being clear meaning he wouldn’t be able to go up and watch movies with herself so currently living in an N95 mask waiting to inevitably come down with it.

Had tried to get out and stay local (in the estate) with phone on hand for my run when kids went down to sleep but that was short lived as the youngest was having none of sleeping in cot and woke up before had the chance to get out.

Next few days of running will be down to sheer luck and whether the youngest stays down for any length of time in evenings

Thanks P, like I said not the highest of hopes with the youngest being symptomatic and still so young that he is in my arms through the night when not sleeping but sure doing what I can to mitigate chances so all I can do, herself floored with it but seems to be on right trajectory day by day feeling a little better

very similar boats so.. Think there comes a point when have to be a little selfish with time to yourself for your own mental sanity, I made mistake previously of dropping everything at slightest inconvenience to others and ultimately in long term was more detrimental in terms of energy levels etc for being there for kids and family

Haha lucky you, our clock resets in July 😬