A Runners log : Patience and Consistency

Seres · 25-11-2011 10:16PM

friday 25th Nov

10*700 @2.34 , 90 sec recovery

2.34 was based on the assumption that would be on the road but broke off early from work to do them on grass , last time i did these on grass i was @4min/km pace at best and they were 500m*10 . I went a bit soft on myself then . i decided to hit for 3.55-4min/km pace and see how i was , The session didnt go so well 2.42-2.45 target time range

9.46km/50.24min

R1 :2.45/3.56min/km
R2 :2.40/2.40
r3 : 3.51/2.42
r4 :2.40/3.48
r5 :2.45/3.56min/km
r6 :2.44/3.52
r7 :2.44/3.55
r8 :2.49/4.01
r9 : 2.50/4.02
r10 :2.46/3.57

They didnt feel very tough aerobically , i wasnt very out of breath . stomach started to really bother me at 7th rep and even though i felt the session was in control the pain dominated the rest of the session . hope its nothing to worry bout. Reps 8 & 9 were crap . Besides that though there was something else a miss with the session , my mojo . The reps on grass are a totally different animal to the road . not too happy with how that session went . The next big one is Tuesday : 10*600@2.04-2.06 pace , will focus on that now

Seres · 28-11-2011 02:06PM

Saturday

Planned rest day .

Sunday 27th Nov

70min easy grass : nearly didnt get this one in. Nice to get the headspace at the weekend.

Monday

35min easy with strides

Seres · 30-11-2011 09:43AM

Tuesday 29th Nov 2011

10.42km/55min : 10*600@ 2.04-2.06 pace

Was feelin a bit nervous bout this session cause it was the last big session before the race and i wanted to give it a good rattle . To take a bit of pressure off myself, to relax and not to use up energy i decided to set the targets based on the last session (8*600m @ 2.04-2.06) . I had hit 4 within range two weeks ago so i felt if i did 5 within the pace range that was progression , added to the fact that i was aiming to do 10 instead of 8 this time round . Splits as follows

2.04/2.04/2.03/2.05/2.04/2.05/2.10/2.09/2.06/2.08

Got 7 within targets which im pleased with . Two curve balls in the middle there of 2.09 &2.10 , but mildly in my defense a van came while i was on the 2.10 rep and i had to pull in on grass verge to let him pass , still prob would not have hit target though . What worked for me this time was that during the session at 4 into it i said to myself that i would allow an easier one , so knowing i had the option of that bit of respite at some point in the session kept me goin . I managed to push it off from reps 4-6 but just as it happened unplanned 7 and 8 went a bit awol.

Back and hammer have been feeling surprisingly good lately .

Startin to think bout race now , looking forward to it but would be nice to know the quality of the field that will be there on the day

shotgunmcos · 30-11-2011 10:06AM

Hi seres, just catching up with your log, a belated well done on your XC race it sounded like a thriller. Your report had me immersed in the mud with you too, fantastic stuff. Lovin' this log

Best of luck for the next race!

Seres · 03-12-2011 01:39PM

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Hi seres, just catching up with your log, a belated well done on your XC race it sounded like a thriller. Your report had me immersed in the mud with you too, fantastic stuff. Lovin' this log

Best of luck for the next race!

Thanks , was a tough course

Wednesday

easy 35

Thursday/Firday

No running , Friday slipped away from me . Always feel really gulity if i miss a days running even if only easy day . Think its the first 5 day week this program so not to worry

Saturday

10*400m @ 88 sec ( if on road) , 90 sec rest

Decided to aim for 3.50-3.55 pace for theses based on past grass speed work so target range was 1.30-1.34

50.55min/8km

1.36/1.32/1.32/1.36/1.31/1.28/1.33/1.32/1.30/1.31

Nice session except for 2 all in target range .

Did on local pitch

Have neglected the core work and stretching this week and could feel it today on the hamstring so focus on stretching and core this ev and morro

Have been thinkin bout race next sunday . It will be short , fast and painful . I have got to go out fully flamed . I tend to go out slow sometimes and bulid but i will be out of the game if i pursue this strategy . I will draw off the positves from my training to ensure that im feelin confident at the start line and whatever happens happens , im gonna risk this one !

Seres · 05-12-2011 03:55PM

Sunday

30min easy on football pitch: was absolutely freezing when the wind and rain hit . Time to stop been a hard chaw and take out the winter training gear

Monday

30min easy : another cold one , pilates tonight , ham and back stiff , the results of no stretching/core work last week (despite my promises Sat )
Had an assigment to do and that took up extra time
Will be race focused all week so bed early/stretching/core are on the agenda

Seres · 07-12-2011 05:26PM

Tuesday

Rest & Dry Needling : not as good as job as before , Hamstring is a bit stiff

Wednesday

6*600 @ 54-56sec, 90sec recovery

5km : 31.33 min

70/56/59/55/58/53

Was too complacent goin into session , wasnt really alert and on my toes . The 1st/3rd/5th were against a savage head wind , but there is no excuse for the brutal first rep.
Nervous anticipation for the race sunday , really looking forward to it . Nothing like the feeling, kids forget bought santa for a buzz ! Obsession is in full swing now , had a dream i missed it last night !!

Seres · 08-12-2011 02:26PM

Thursday

easy 35 : Ham and Glutes are tender and tight . Headin into physio later for another loosening up session , told her to get out her biggest needles for the job , she can borrow some from the vet down the road , he has them for the horses !!

dna_leri · 09-12-2011 09:52AM

Hi Seres,

Hope you are in great shape for Sunday and can give it your best shot.
Looking forward to your race report.
Good luck!

pgibbo · 09-12-2011 10:00AM

Good luck this weekend

Seres · 09-12-2011 11:18AM

dna_leri wrote: »

Hi Seres,

Hope you are in great shape for Sunday and can give it your best shot.
Looking forward to your race report.
Good luck!

Thanks If i run a smart race and dont leave anything out on the course ill be happy .

bart simpson · 09-12-2011 08:42PM

best of look in your race at the weekend

RacoonQueen · 09-12-2011 08:45PM

Good luck on Sunday. Might pop out to watch this. Enjoy.

Seres · 09-12-2011 08:58PM

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Good luck on Sunday. Might pop out to watch this. Enjoy.

holler if you see me , it will be much appreciated

Krusty_Clown · 09-12-2011 09:34PM

Best of luck on Sunday Seres.

I should have chased down the leading women more
The negativities i brought to the race affected my confidence to push on
On many an occasion i was goin to let the 4th lady take off even though i never really felt threatened by her ability to beat me in this race

^ Remember this ^ ?!

Seres · 09-12-2011 11:48PM

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Best of luck on Sunday Seres.

^ Remember this ^ ?!

Thanks KC, will lock that in the memory to regurgitate when the bite comes on , im gonna go for it , will be tough as hell but sure ive nothing to lose !

BTH · 10-12-2011 02:53PM

Best of luck Seres. Where is the race on??

Seres · 10-12-2011 03:16PM

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

Best of luck Seres. Where is the race on??

Thanks very much , on in the Curragh in Kildare , Army Camp

bart simpson · 10-12-2011 03:44PM

Seres wrote: »

Thanks KC, will lock that in the memory to regurgitate when the bite comes on , im gonna go for it , will be tough as hell but sure ive nothing to lose !

start regurgitating before the bite comes and the bite might come later in the race

Seres · 10-12-2011 05:01PM

bart simpson wrote: »

start regurgitating before the bite comes and the bite might come later in the race

The bite is gonna come hard and fast and ill have to do alot of convincing myself not to give up .

25min easy with strides : bit of tightness in the ham but i tend to focus alot on these things coming up to a race
Alot of senarios of what will happen have gone through my head . None of them will prob come up , so i will prepare my for the unexpected!

Seres · 13-12-2011 01:06PM

Sunday 11 Dec 2011

National Novice XC Championships

I was hoping for a top ten finish here but when i saw the size of the field i knew that wasnt gonna happen . Race was 3km so i knew it was gonna be fast . Had planned to go out fairly hard to get a good position and see how i could work up the placing from there .Had arrived bout 1.15 , early enough in order to watch some of the races . Some of the kids are quality , they kill the field and its so hard to know by the physic which ones are good or not . I did a alot of jogging around and felt a bit nervous. Normally i do alot of spacing and the last 20minutes is a big rush to do warm up , stretch , change gear and get to the start . On this occasion i was surprising organised The Curragh is a very flat dry course ,Sunday started out cold wet and windy but by the time the race kicked off the conditions were perfect . I was in one of the outer pens cause i was entered as an individual . The race started bang on time with 2 1500m laps to do . The women went out like there was a bomb scare in the pens and i struggled with the pace . I was well down the field in the 40s bout half way through the first last . Could see a few people ahead of me that i didnt expect to see ahead of me at any stage . The first 800m was not nice then i started to get into a rhythm and started passing people .At 1500m i was 26th position . There was alot of work to do but a few people on the course were giving me my postion . At bout 800 out i had managed to pull back to 16th , caught the girl ahead but i knew the next group of women wouldnt be caught they were too far ahead and i had too little time and energy to do so . There was alot of people shouting encouragement to the girl that was behind me so i hit the floor bout 300m to go to make sure she wouldnt catch me . Finished in 15th in a field of 150 women . time of 12.07. I was wrecked at the end

Cons

Maybe i started a bit slow , faster start might have got me a better position
A recent race would have sharpened me up
Think i used up a bit too much nervous energy before the start of the race
I had no idea of the athletes taking part , could have helped in tailing people further up the field

Pros

100% effort, felt my performance improved as the race went on , was wrecked at the end
Was pleased with the second lap , pulled back the field very well
Reassessed my targets to top 15 during the race which i managed to get
Ran fairly consistent pace the whole way through
I have gone from finishing an endurance training program of 21k in September to training for 3km for 2 months so i have to make an allowance for that
I feel even more motivated now than ever for 2012 , can wait .

I enjoyed the race , gonna take with me the positives of the race and will build on it for the Nat XC intermediate in Feb 2012 , excited bout this race already !!

bart simpson · 13-12-2011 01:19PM

Seres wrote: »

Sunday 11 Dec 2011

National Novice XC Championships

I was hoping for a top ten finish here but when i saw the size of the field i knew that wasnt gonna happen . Race was 3km so i knew it was gonna be fast . Had planned to go out fairly hard to get a good position and see how i could work up the placing from there .Had arrived bout 1.15 , early enough in order to watch some of the races . Some of the kids are quality , they kill the field and its so hard to know by the physic which ones are good or not . I did a alot of jogging around and felt a bit nervous. Normally i do alot of spacing and the last 20minutes is a big rush to do warm up , stretch , change gear and get to the start . On this occasion i was surprising organised The Curragh is a very flat dry course ,Sunday started out cold wet and windy but by the time the race kicked off the conditions were perfect . I was in one of the outer pens cause i was entered as an individual . The race started bang on time with 2 1500m laps to do . The women went out like there was a bomb scare in the pens and i struggled with the pace . I was well down the field in the 40s bout half way through the first last . Could see a few people ahead of me that i didnt expect to see ahead of me at any stage . The first 800m was not nice then i started to get into a rhythm and started passing people .At 1500m i was 26th position . There was alot of work to do but a few people on the course were giving me my postion . At bout 800 out i had managed to pull back to 16th , caught the girl ahead but i knew the next group of women wouldnt be caught they were too far ahead and i had too little time and energy to do so . There was alot of people shouting encouragement to the girl that was behind me so i hit the floor bout 300m to go to make sure she wouldnt catch me . Finished in 15th in a field of 150 women . time of 12.07. I was wrecked at the end

Cons
Maybe i started a bit slow , faster start might have got me a better position

A recent race would have sharpened me up

Think i used up a bit too much nervous energy before the start of the race

I had no idea of the athletes taking part , could have helped in tailing people further up the field

Pros
100% effort, felt my performance improved as the race went on , was wrecked at the end

Was pleased with the second lap , pulled back the field very well

Reassessed my targets to top 15 during the race which i managed to get

Ran fairly consistent pace the whole way through

I have gone from finishing an endurance training program of 21k in September to training for 3km for 2 months so i have to make an allowance for that

I feel even more motivated now than ever for 2012 , can wait .

I enjoyed the race , gonna take with me the positives of the race and will build on it for the Nat XC intermediate in Feb 2012 , excited bout this race already !!

well with "pros" like 1, 4 and 6 you would have to be happy

well done seres

Seres · 13-12-2011 02:14PM

bart simpson wrote: »

well with "pros" like 1, 4 and 6 you would have to be happy well done seres

Thanks Bart , i am pretty pleased i gave it everything , the expectations were probably a bit high for the occasion but 10s faster would have got me sub12min and top ten so that will be the target the next time

shotgunmcos · 13-12-2011 04:07PM

Well done seres, that was great racing and thanks for another thrilling report. I watched the europeans at the weekened and they basically sprint from the trap for 200m flat out to establish position. Fair play to you for pulling back so many in the second lap, that took guts. A faster start might get you up there for the fight next time

pgibbo · 13-12-2011 04:34PM

Fair play Seres. Cracking stuff and great experience too by the sounds of it. Well done :cool:

Seres · 13-12-2011 05:34PM

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Well done seres, that was great racing and thanks for another thrilling report. I watched the europeans at the weekened and they basically sprint from the trap for 200m flat out to establish position. Fair play to you for pulling back so many in the second lap, that took guts. A faster start might get you up there for the fight next time

thanks ya gonna work on the start , am a bit of a slow starter in races which leaves alot of ground work to do then. It was bedlam at the start , im not really into elbowing and jostling to get a position but i confess to using the elbow as weaponary on this occasion .

Today

35min easy : Bitter cold with a savage wind ,togged out in all the winter gear for the first time this season , glutes feel sore from the race , legs felt grand , no heaviness

Seres · 15-12-2011 02:01PM

wednesday 14th

Garmin wasnt charged so i didnt bother doing the session : what a lame excuse but its the week after an A goal race so .... although i had to do alot of convincing myself that i shouldnt feel guilty

Thursday 15th Dec

5*400 @ 88 sec , 90sec rest

89/90/80/90 : garmin memory read full half way thru session so had to reset as a result one rep was not recorded on the garmin (i ended up doin 580m , kept waiting for the watch to beep)

Very pathetic weekd training developing here

Glutes are sore since race day , surprisingly Hammer is fine ?!

As usual i have a list as long as my arm of new year resolutions two of which are (in order of priority) sort out injury once and for all and drop 2kg ( not that im overweight at all but this will improve speed )

Seres · 20-12-2011 04:31PM

Friday 16th/Sat 17th

No Training : Could have run if i really wanted to be decided an easy week was okay

Sunday 18th Dec

5km race : Sligo

Had planned to tackle my pb of 18.40 but a small field and a strong headwind at times didnt help
Roads were terrible and against the will of the family i went anyway!!
Very casual set up to the race but nice festive atmosphere all the same .
Started off ahead of everyone , pulled back and waited for a few to catch on . A Group of 5 lads took off , i let them go , one broke away and it was a group of 4 ahead . From the outset i was running alone , first 2.5km was chasing down the group. Caught two that had slowed up passed them but i could catch the two battling up ahead . Came in with plenty of fuel in the engine @ 19.14 , 1st lady , 4th person . Enjoyable race , not too tough although would have been nice to be running with someone or a group .

Next week or two i just plan to run as i please , lots of nice easy runs to keep the head clear over xmas . I could take time off completely but i need to run !

Monday

No Running

Tuesday

40min steady : very mild , lovely lunchtime run .

bart simpson · 20-12-2011 04:44PM

Seres wrote: »

Friday 16th/Sat 17th

No Training : Could have run if i really wanted to be decided an easy week was okay

Sunday 18th Dec

5km race : Sligo

Had planned to tackle my pb of 18.40 but a small field and a strong headwind at times didnt help
Roads were terrible and against the will of the family i went anyway!!
Very casual set up to the race but nice festive atmosphere all the same .
Started off ahead of everyone , pulled back and waited for a few to catch on . A Group of 5 lads took off , i let them go , one broke away and it was a group of 4 ahead . From the outset i was running alone , first 2.5km was chasing down the group. Caught two that had slowed up passed them but i could catch the two battling up ahead . Came in with plenty of fuel in the engine @ 19.14 , 1st lady , 4th person . Enjoyable race , not too tough although would have been nice to be running with someone or a group .

Next week or two i just plan to run as i please , lots of nice easy runs to keep the head clear over xmas . I could take time off completely but i need to run !

Monday

No Running

Tuesday

40min steady : very mild , lovely lunchtime run .

fair play on finishing first, must be a great feeling to be first in a race

Seres · 20-12-2011 05:47PM

bart simpson wrote: »

fair play on finishing first, must be a great feeling to be first in a race

First race i won was the best . Also nice to win a race but i would have a fair idea how i will get by the field of runners before the race starts . Honestly speaking i get great satisfaction out of nailing a really good challenging performance on the back of a hard training program

A Runners log : Patience and Consistency

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