Running away

It's a tough call, I guess what I really want is something on paper but without the accountability aspect. I did have a coach for a bit, but I called it a day when it hit a point where the accountability factor was a negative or an additional stressor in my life (through absolutely no fault of the coach in question I must say, totally on me and my personality). And I've proven I can run consistently without that accountability factor, maybe slightly lower mileage perhaps, but still consistently steady.

I'll read up on Lydiard. And I think you're right about racing and that is what I'll have to do. It will be last minute entries, if any, for a while I think...

Thanks P. There should be an annual award for the person most likely to reply - you'd be a shoe in ☺️

Week 4 of 10 ('til the end of 2022)

Not a super start to this week, I was tired and not sleeping well in the early part of the week but that improved thankfully as the week went on. I've been hoping to race before the end of the year and had taken note of a few upcoming races in the locality - the Border Half was one of them but more recently I had notice 2 10k races in Mayo, one on Nov 20th and one on Dec 4th, I hoped one of them might work out. At the start of this week, the Sunday didn't suit but that changed later in the week, so this week includes an actual race 😄

Monday: Just strength.

Tues: Planned a session but I had the offer of company for an easy run, so I happily took it - 65' easy chatting with friends

Wed: Session + Strength. Limited to 45mins so did 4 * 3' @ CV (8:00, 7:57, 7:54, 7:52) + 4 * 30s hard.

Thurs: Nothing

Fri: Strength + Easy

Sat: Easy

Sun: 9m incl. 10k race @ 7:38min/m - a 2 min race PB (my best 10k effort is still during a 10m TT early last year)

My expectations going into this - an undulating course, potholes, and floods - I was advised to wear my oldest runners!

I did 2 8k races this past Summer and both were awful - the first in June in 39:33 and the second in August in 40:13. Training paces have been fairly comfortable recently, so I wanted to test myself. Going out the door my hubby asked me what I was hoping for (as he always does), my answer to him was that I'd be thrilled with 48-49 but I could as easily come away with 51-52! I really did not know what to expect after the (unexpected) struggle in those 8ks.

This was a looped course, it started at the bottom of a 400m drag to the finish line and then 3 * 2m loops, so that drag would have to be done 4 times. The crowd at the start line was very small (73 I found out after), and we were off without much fanfare. I tore off of course and was halfway up the drag and into the breeze when I realised that the leaders had gone, and I was leading the next pack with open road ahead of me. FFS, this is what always happens me on these runs, I end up on my own when I really could do with a big, tall lad to shelter behind or even just company to keep me motivated later on. Thankfully as the road levelled out, after we passed the finish line for the first time, a few came alongside, and I thought I might have a group. By the time we hit 1k a couple fell back and maybe some went on ahead, but I did have 1 lady just about 10m ahead of me, a lady I recognised, an O65 runner with a lot of street cred on the Irish & European scene in track, cross country and a national marathon team medal winner in her age cat. So, I basically ran the next 8k about 10m or so behind her. I was conscious every so often that I was breathing down her neck (not to mention photo bombing her 😆) and she could be cursing me but at least I wasn't wearing loud slappy shoes 😂 I never looked at the watch once the entire race. I just ran along and clung to the coat tails of my new BFF, total blind faith in her pacing even though I had no clue what time she was aiming for (seems a bit stupid written down, but it felt right at the time). Around 9.2k I passed out my fellow runner. It wasn't a conscious decision, I wasn't feeling in the slightest bit competitive towards her, it happened without me realising it and if I'm honest I instantly regretted it with a moment of panic when I realised I had to commit to pulling ahead now and of course I was about to face into the toughest part of the course for the last 800m, the part where she had extended her lead on me each and every other time before I closed it down again on the more favourable parts of the course 🙄 But I was committed now. As I passed the volunteers at the bottom of the drag for the 4th time, I realised my head was up, something which gave me a bit of satisfaction at the time. I started to count down from 120 (seconds) in my head and went for the finish line with the sun in my eyes blinding me. I was bent over at the finish line for a minute before I could even register the time, 47:39, a PB. 4 seconds ahead of my fellow runner whom I had a lovely chat with afterwards in thanking her for dragging me along. Of course, the splits don't look that impressive at all - I ran a fairly hefty positive split 🙄 but with my track record at 10ks I will take it. All in all, a very satisfying Sunday in November. Thanks for reading.

31 miles for the week.

Thank you! The book I have is the Easy Interval Method by Klaas Lok. It might suit you.

Last week was pretty uneventful, got a decent week of running ticked, happy days. Keeping things simple for the rest of the year and probably into 2023. By simple I mean run when I can, mostly easy, the odd tempo, the odd run with some easy tempo/moderate intervals, maybe some strides or a sprinkling of short faster reps for turnover. The next few weeks will be a bit unpredictable with the festivities, but I'll roll with it, it's great to have a normal Christmas season to be excited about, even school plays are back on the cards - I have one child playing the part of a sheep something which he is very h-a-a-a-apy about, we're flat out practising his lines, who knew a sheep could have so much to say 🤔

Monday: 30mins easy around town while my middle had music, streetlights & footpaths for this, didn't know what to do with myself, found myself getting a bit annoyed hopping up and down off curbs 😆

Tuesday: Very easy hour with some friends, chat time

Wednesday: Gym

Thurs: 30min tempo @ 8:10 approx.

Fri: Rest

Sat: Gym session followed by parkrun @ 7:44min/m - had no real plan for this but I have a very poor track record at running easy at parkrun. Started off easy enough, around 1k I was at marathon effort (just had HR on the watch) so decided to hold that but of course I ended up picking it up unintentionally and doing a progression run - 8:08, 7:42, 7:28, 7:02 (.14). At one stage I wondered what pace I was doing and figured around 26-27mins, so I was very surprised to see my finish time at 24:13. It was the most perfect morning, not a Puff of a breeze on any part of the course. I was sorry after I hadn't planned to go after a parkrun pb, I'm pretty sure I had it in me or close enough. Numbers were low but there were 7 people ahead of me so I'm sure I could have latched on to someone around 22-23mins. An opportunity missed but hardly a big deal.

Sunday: 8m with 3 * 2k easy tempo thrown in to break it up.

Cont'd

Week of Dec 12th

Not much of substance really, lots of easy runs in icy conditions, I had a sore knee for a few days, could be related to wearing trail runners that I'm not used too and also holding a bit of tension while running in poor conditions, but perhaps something to watch. It was my right side, all my niggles over the years have been on my right side.

Monday/Tuesday: didn't do anything 😕

Wednesday: Strength + some easy miles

Thurs: Strength + some more easy miles

Fri: Just a very short easy run

Sat: Nothing

Sun: A thaw finally, thank god. Got out and did 10mile long run including some steady efforts and an LT effort, all using HR. Sweated buckets during this run.

25 miles for the week.

2022 Recap

1584miles for the year, my lowest mileage in 3 years. The 2nd half of the year was lower than the first so I'm on a downward trend it seems😏

3 PBs from 5 races this year - HM in March, 1:45 down from 1:48, 10m in March 1:19 down from 1:26 and 10k in November 47:39 down from 49:40. Also did 2 shocking 8ks in the Summer where my legs were like they were running through treacle and are definitely better off forgotten. I got my Parkrun best down from 23:06 in 2021 to 22:59 in 2022 without doing very many park runs, maybe 2 hard and a small handful of others with my kids.

Those are the metrics but a lot of other things went on this year that the metrics don't show, 6 months of frozen shoulder, Covid, change of jobs, kid starting a new school and a new routine with it and so on.

I'm grateful for every mile I was able to run in 2022 and proud of the races I was able to push myself a little bit to run a distance a bit faster than I had run it before.

Onwards to 2023 and some new goals which I will have to think about 🤔

Happy new year everyone x

Thanks @Kellygirl, @Bluesquare & @coogy 😊

Goals for 2023

I didn't set any goals last year and I don't think it stood me well really.

I got a full report from the LT test in early December, and it included some race times that are achievable with training. There are two that stick in my mind so these will be my goal times for 2023:

• Sub 22min 5k (from 22:42 on the road in 2019 & 22:59 park run in 2022)

I can't see myself specifically targeting 5k but I'm going to be less afraid to throw in the odd hard park run when I have a free Saturday morning and maybe I can work my time down over the course of the year that way, and if a road race pops up then that would be a bonus. It's one I'll keep an eye on but not the priority.

• Sub 1:42 HM (from 1:45:xx in 2022)

This will be the main focus. I have no specific race(s) yet, there's a few races in March that I'd love to do but March is completely tied up with family so I'll be looking a bit further ahead to April or May. Possibly Limerick HM and/or the Dublin race series HM or Charleville in Sept.

Generally speaking I'm hoping to stay injury free, train consistently, keep up the gym/strength work that I started in 2022 and be less afraid to race hard at any distance (except the marathon of course) without specific training. Training wise I'll continue to set my own but I'll aim to plan it on a weekly basis rather than flying by the seat of my pants which I've become guilty of recently! Loosely speaking there will be threshold runs, strides, long runs, some work at CV and some steady/moderate intervals mixed in with easy runs - piece of cake to plan it all out, right, what can possibly go wrong 😅

Thanks to everyone who has contributed here over the last 12 months, I appreciate every post and wish everyone well in their running and life endeavours for the year ahead.