Is it Now?

Sosa wrote: »

Breaking 40 mins for 10k is one of my targets for 2009 also.
What is your current PB ?
Mine is 41:10 ...so i have a bit to do
Best of luck,i look forward to hearing your time.

I got 40:40 last September in the Pearl Izumi race, without my Garmin, so with a little better pacing I should be close.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Best of luck donothoponpop. Hope you beat the 40 mins!

Cheers Krusty, I'll give it a blast! I've been following your log, and you've put in some great training sessions lately, you put me to shame. If I was a betting man I'd put a few bob on you being a dark horse in this race...

Mon 8 Dec

Well, life and work got in the way of my running for the past few days, so I didn't get out at all. I was real busy working hard to a tight deadline, and I needed to do family stuff with my wife and kids, so something had to give, and in the end I didn't go to the Aware 10k. This followed a "discussion" about how much time I dedicated to running (which I admit is a lot of purely selfish time), but the upshot is I got the green light to go train for the Rotterdam marathon, on condition it is my Last Marathon Eternally. So I'd better make it a good one!
The 10k in sub40 will have to wait until the New Year, but since marathons (and hill running) are my focus, that's no biggie.

10 miles in 90mins, 970meter ascent.
Today I "celebrated" meeting my work deadline by running the Spink route in Glendalough. It's a tough climb after running by the lakes, up the steps of railway sleepers for a long, long, time. Really its just a matter of putting the head down a plugging away, but the views across Glendalough from the top of Spink are truely magnificant, and well worth the effort of the climb. From the sleepers at the top, there's a welcome bit of climb through the path of a small stream, which whetted my appetite for next years upcoming IMRA races. Then the downhill back to the lakes, which goes on and on, and affords you with great views of the mountain you've just scaled. A great run to clear the head, and traverse one of the worlds' nicer contours.:)

Wed 10 Dec

14 miles hillyish forest run, in 1:48. First 7@8:00 pace, second 7@7:20.

I'm really lucky in that I can make free time during the day for training (self-employed), so I took advantage of a couple of frosty hours to get in a medium long run this morning. The roads were very icy, but thankfully I had only a couple of miles until I reached the frozen trail, which was very hard underfood, but at least gave good traction.

Thats my longest run done for this week, feels good to have it out of the way by Wednesday!

16 weeks to go, day 1

I've shifted my P&D <70 18 week schedule about a few days, so that my long run falls on a Wednesday.
Today called for 7.5 miles forest trail run at 7 min/mile, followed by 10x100m strides. The run was great, freezing cold starting off but soon warmed up, but the ground was very icy underfoot, so I found it hard to get traction for the strides. No matter, even when the feet are slipping you get benefit from the strides.

The last few runs have been on mostly frozen trail, and my knee is slightly sore from the harder pounding its been getting. This got me thinking though, and I realized I haven't had a stress related injury in years, which I put down to running 95% of the time on trail. I've noticed too that all the rough terrain has strengthened up my ankles and knees, so that I'm not hurting them through twisting. Also, my paced runs on road are signifigantly faster than when I pace over harder terrain.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I thought it was 7 miles with 10x100m strides, rather then followed by? Not a huge difference, it's just that I had been doing my strides from about mile 4 onwards.

You're right, Advanced Marathoning says that the speedwork sessions should be done towards the end of your general aerobic runs. I actually needed 8m with 10x100m, so I ran 7.5 at a nice pace, and then did the strides, with plenty of recovery between each. Much of a muchness.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Came across this handy site: Road to Boston, where you can just select your P&D program, and an end date, and it'll produce a calendar with all your training needs. Useful!

Thats very handy Krusty, now I'll have a nice printout of my schedule, cheers.

16 wtg day2

12 miles on backroads average 7:26 per mile. Well that recovery run last night worked wonders, I started off this twelve miler hoping to average 8min/mile, but managed the first half about 7:45 or so. Felt I might be struggling at half way (and was listening to my body as yesterdays double is an experiment for me), but it turned out ok, I could blame any struggling on the uphills on this section.
Picked up the pace a tad for the second half, and felt good for the last two at 6:57 and 6:36.

No doubt this is the way to go, starting training on the back of my Dublin marathon. I'm now running much faster (and feeling much better) on my long runs, than at a similar stage on my previous training programs. Lets hope I can maintain this enthusiasm over the Xmas and beyond. Have to say too, I enjoyed this run, and that will be a vital factor over the coming months.

Sosa wrote: »

very interesting pops ...so you did 4.5m @ 10 min pace ...correct ?
I wonder would many others have got benifit from this ?
cant see myself going out twice in one day ...but if it helped !!!
Why not ?

well done,and glad its working out for you.

While I don't mean to be too scientific about this run, it was more like 4.5@9min pace, very much a rainy jog around town killing time while my son was doing his MA class. Most of my recovery runs are run at a faster pace than this- too fast if I am to believe the experts. Anyway, I did it, and felt great this following morning for my 12 miles. I've read that a recovery run should set you up for your next hard session, and that's what it did for me.

16wtg Day5

5 miles recovery run, up a hill in the dark. The headtorch made a reappearance, and I had a wonderful forest climb. Great views from the top, no moon out yet so the stars were vivid. Could easily make out the Milky Way, various constellations. Running back down I turned off the torch for a while and became most aware of my "place" in all this space.
I'm not a religious man by any means, but on some runs I can get very spiritual, and this was one of those runs.

Also, I can't get this run out of my mind. Its much further than I've ever run before, and at night, but who knows;)
http://sites.google.com/a/artoneillchallenge.com/challenge/art-o-neill-running-race

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

A nice evening for running alright. The Art O'Neill run looks interesting. It could blow a hole in your training schedule though as its something you won't have trained for and while you could do it as a very LSR you could suffer in the days and weeks after (and your O.H. won't speak to you for a few days )

Yeah, but its 55k at night! Figure if I slip out the door at midnight, drive to Dublin, run 55k to Glenmalure, get a lift back to my car, drive home in time to make breakfast, she'll never know:)

Sure if she asks where I've been I'll just tell her I'm having an affair... anything but I've sneaked in another marathon:D

I've been knocked out for the past ten days with a nasty cold, so no running at all, which has been very frustrating. Had to miss a few good runs with training partners, which was the worst of all. Still feeling very chesty, so I will ease back into the training schedule over the next few days.

Today, I ran for a couple of miles up the Slieve na Caillaigh hills at Loughcrew, Co. Meath. Nearly four years ago, I climbed to the top of one of these cairns with my brother. We were "high" in more sense than one, and from the top I jokingly pointed to a sister cairn, and said "race you". Without a moments hesitation, he took off down the hill, and I spent the next ten minutes following him through muck, grass, wire fences, as I wheezed up to the high point of the far hill. I was ashamed of how unfit I was, so that little caper became the start of my obsession with running.
As I ran the same course this morning, with only a Christmas hangover for company, I had to marvel at how small the climb seemed now, how short the distance was. It's all relative.

Just a two and a half mile run out today- says something about my lack of weekly mileage that I'm including that half in the total! Still a bit chesty, but this frosty weather is great to run in. I should be fit for a longish run tomorrow.