If... the Unforgiving Minute

Sunday long run was fairly easy as I headed off the main paths and along some of the trails created by the mountain bikers. At one point they have made a boardwalk that joined onto a fallen tree which had been sliced down the middle to make it cycle-able. I got my phone and took some photos for the "photos of where you run" thread. Total run was 1:32 and I guess about 18K with plenty of hills

Did good weights session Monday.

Tuesday was cold and it was windy but the sun was shining at the track too. Not sure if that was the reason but I certainly felt a spring in my step. Might also have had something to do with having a day off work and being well rested.

Did 4x1K in average 3:18 off 2:47 recovery jog. I was straining at the leash from the first, going through 200m in 37s but held it back for 3:20, then 3:18 & 3:20. I did not check my splits on the last and eased into a 3:15.

I decided to finish with 4x150m quick but I misjudged the hurdle marks and did closer to 140m instead. They were all under 19s - nice and consistent. I should be able to push this session up to 5x1K next week.

stmochtas wrote: »

Hi, where is this run in Sligo will be down home this month and it sounds like a nice one to try as part of HM / Warriors training. Cheers

StM,

The run is in Union Wood - I will PM you with more details.

K.

As expected the weekend was not good for running. I joined the 757 crew on Saturday morning for a leisurely 10 mile around Union Wood. I pushed on a bit in the last km to finish strong. Sunday was a write off. I should have got up early on Monday to make up for it and then the evening got taken over by football and home IT problems, only one of which had a good outcome.

Tuesday was the first Fit4Life handicap race over 4K in this years series. The course was the same as I used for my recent tempos so I know the distance is a bit short - 1.9x km per lap. The evening was better than expected with only a light breeze so there was a good turnout for a 2 euro fee. I started off scratch with my regular training partner. My plan was to treat this like a tempo. We kept it fairly steady for the first lap in 6:40, picking off a few back-markers. On the 2nd lap we had to dodge in and out of some of the bigger groups and I lost my pacer. Still the 2nd lap was about 6:30 and I finished nicely in the top half in about 13:10.

I had always planned to do another lap afterwards and managed to convince my buddy to join me. I know we got a few looks for it but there was no point in going home without a decent workout. I could feel a bit of tightness in my right calf during this which I put down to "lactic build-up". This lap was still around 6:30. Including cool-down, total distance was over 11.5K.

I did a bit a stretching as usual before bed but woke up during the night with a cramp in my calf. It still feels a bit tight now but hopefully it will loosen out during the day.

Sunday's long run was windy, and wet by the end, but I felt fairly good throughout. Did first hilly lap of 4.63 km in 22 mins (Av 4:45) and 2nd lap of 3.85 km in 17:46 mins (Av 4:37). Then went off-trail to get a bit of shelter from the rain at about 5 min/km with a few quick loops (four I think) of the MTB trail, pushing it on the last one in 1:56. Could still feel Saturday's weight session in my legs - this weights workout was something I did at the end of last year before my indoor season so I will try to be more consistent with it again.

On Tuesday I was tight for time and it was windy so I changed my planned 5x1K to 16x300m with 100m jog into the wind for recovery. Times were a bit all over the place but averaged 57.4s. Recoveries started off at a brisk 30s but crept up towards 40s by the end. Still a tough session. Straight into a conference call afterwards with a quick "baby-wipe shower".

Thursday found me in Bursa, Turkey. Conditions were similar to what I had left at home - 10-12 degs and windy, but it still felt more comfortable. Fortunately the hotel I was in overlooked a park and I had packed my runners so I had no excuse. I got out as evening was falling, ran through the park and found another one across the road. I kept following my nose as far as I could heading in the general direction of the hills. [The world or euro mountain running champs were held here a few years ago so I knew that was the right direction.] I never really got as far as the serious hills but I got some elevation and a view across the city anyway.

Eventually I made my way back to the park where I started and found it had a proper "jogging track" complete with synthetic surface and I was among other runners here. The track wound its way around the park in a little less than 1km so I could not resist a couple of quick ones to finish off before I headed for some steak and beer. Total 11.7K in 57 mins.

YFlyer wrote: »

6.40 pace is moving for a long run. You must have felt strong.

I think it was all the sitting around I did over the previous few days travel followed by some strength work, the legs were ready for running, like I had done a mini-taper.

Thursday looked like a perfect day for the track but there was a surprisingly strong wind blowing across the track which made a tough session on my own even harder.

Plan was:
200m @ 800 pace (30+)
400m @ 1500 pace (72-)
800m @ 3K pace (2:35)
1K @ 5K pace (3:20)
and back down (is that a pyramid or a ladder?).

I did a good warm-up with leg swings, lunges, drills & strides then hit the following:
200m in 29.1s [3 min rec]
400m in 66s [3 min rec]
800m in 2:30 [3 min rec]
1K in 3:18

I had not done multi-paced intervals in a while and obviously my pacing was off as I went through all of these too fast. The 1K was a struggle and I knew I would not get all the way back through the set so [after 3:30 rec] I skipped the 800m and finished with:
400m in 68s [3 min rec]
200m in 29.8s

I was probably a bit ambitious in my plan at this stage but maybe I can come back to this later.

I ran the third round of the Fit4Life League last night - 2 miles on the racecourse - 2 laps and a bit. The route is similar to that used for the National XC a few years ago with one good hill. There was some surface water in places but not heavy muck. I wore trail shoes instead of spikes and was glad I did as they gave enough traction and I could still run on the edge of the tarmac in the worst places. I'm definitely not a XC runner - give me an indoor track any day, but I suppose it's good for strength. I would have hoped to be around 10:40 for 2 miles but not on this course.

I started off scratch again (20 mins behind the first starters!) with my regular training partner and another guy about 20s in front. I had hoped to catch him early and then finish strong but he set a good pace. My starting partner dropped off a bit on the hill and at the approximate mid-way I clocked 5:34. I pushed it down the hill and finally narrowed the gap on the guy ahead before the final uphill. I went wide on the bend and over-took on the uphill, kicking a little at the crest to make sure. I passed a few of the main pack on the flat and got into a sprint finish with one of the young lads, just staying ahead. Finishing time was 11:04 - fastest on the day but nothing special.

Hopefully these few low-key races have served as a warm-up for my 5K next week and then it's on to the main focus for the year. First I will start with a speed development phase. In the meantime I will do a couple of track sessions to tune up for the 5K based on this http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/articlePages/article/25

Mixed things up again for my long run this week and did 5x 3.7K laps on the trails in Union. First lap was easy, then did 2K in 7:15, jogged for just over a min then 1K in 3:37 and jogged for 2:20. Third lap was similar but slowed a bit on the 2K with 7:28 & 3:31. Picked it up again for the fourth lap with 7:13 & 3:24. The final lap was easy with an extra bit off-trail.

Total about 19K with 9K at average 3:36 pace.
Two hours in the garden later in the day meant I did not need any extra core work.

I stood on a sharp stone halfway through my run and jumped in the air with pain but felt nothing more after that until late in the evening. Still feels sore now, icing it just to be safe.

On Thursday I did an easy run with a few strides. To test my foot, I tried out two potential footwear choices for my Friday 5K race.

In the red corner: My Brooks T5 racing flats normally used for road races and off-track tempos. They weigh about 6oz, have a heel-to-toe drop of about 9 mm, with a firm feel and fit my foot snugly, built on a curved last.

In the blue corner: Puma Faas 300s used for my longer track intervals. They weigh in about 6.5oz, with a 6mm heel-to-toe drop that gets me up on my toes but still nicely cushioned and at a half size smaller than most of my runners are compact and bijou.

I was tempted to use the Pumas with the extra cushioning to protect my foot but maybe with the Brooks I would land more midfoot. I always feel good on the track in the Puma Faas but for the road if it's not broke maybe I should not change it.

I did two sets of 200m in each on both a flat stretch of tarmac and a slight downhill. Result: Foot felt fine in both - so no TKO. Really there was no difference between the shoes but the Brooks had that mythical "responsiveness". The T5's win on points.

Although I prefer racing on Saturdays or Sundays, I thought my preparation for the Ballyshannon 5K was going well. As I left work on Friday, it started bucketing down. Ok so the only thing I could not control was the weather. But a short while later it cleared up again and I had time to spare so I pulled in to a carpark along the lakeshore outside a small town in Northern Ireland. I turned off the car and had a short nap.

15 mins later I was ready to go, but the car was not - I had left the lights on when I stopped and the battery was dead, fcuk. I tried pushing the car down the short incline in the car park to jump start it but there was not enough space to get going. Not the best prep for a race now I thought but at this stage I just needed to get out of here.

I jogged down the road towards the village, hoping to find a garage where maybe I could get someone to call a local breakdown guy - there was not even a petrol station in the town - just two pubs and a video store. Nothing for it but to pick one of the pubs and hope the barman could direct me towards help. There were four lads supping after-work pints at the bar and as soon as I asked one of them volunteered to help me out. He drove me back up the road and luckily had jump leads in his car and got mine going. He would not even take a few quid for a round for the lads - probably knew I only had euros anyway. A quick thanks and I was off. I debated heading home but still had plenty of time so kept going. In Ballyshannon I parked on a hill in case I had not recharged enough. Time now to focus on the race.

Last year I ran 16:50 here after starting with 2x3:30 kms and finishing with 3:12 & 3:10 on the downhill finish. This time the plan was to start harder and still try to hold on. From the start 4 lads went off the front hard. A clubmate of mine was a little way back and then there were 3 or 4 of us in a group. I recognised one of them as a local masters runner who had won a few races in around 17 mins recently - I knew on a good day that he would be around 16:30. The first km was 3:22, good. I dispelled thoughts of my car battery and focused on the job in hand. We had caught my clubmate by now and I hoped he would stay with us but he dropped back.

Second km was 3:18 and now there were 3 in our group. The youngest guy did most of the work along this stretch and I was happy to sit in and take shelter from the wind. I only felt a bit guilty, this was racing and I was feeling ok. My masters competitor was blowing a bit now and at the 3 km mark I moved alongside the group leader. We both looked at each other as I clocked this km at 3:50 - something wrong with that marker position.

By now the 3 leaders were out of sight and went on to finish about 1 min ahead of me. The fourth guy had been spat out the back and joined our group now. We all swapped the lead during this downhill section for a 2:47 split (wrong - probably kms 3 and 4 were 3:25 & 3:13). With 1 km to go I led the group and I guessed they were stringing out behind me but I did not look back. With about 600m to go I sneaked a glance at the bend - they were still in striking distance so I kicked hard ("a half miler's not going to get beaten inside the last 800m"). The finish line seem to take an age to arrive ("don't tell me they moved it from last year") but I had enough in the legs, just.

I stopped my watch at 16:28 (officially 16:29) - a 21s sec PB, overall 4th place and first master - better than I hoped for. Afterwards there was plenty of cake and sandwiches, cash prizes for the category winners (though less than last year). A great runners race for ONLY 8 EURO ! My legs were in bits afterwards, cramps in both my calves, then when I tried to stretch them out my shins cramped, wtf. Still I felt that meant I had left nothing out there and that it was my legs holding me back not my cardio-vascular system, which is fine because speed work starts in earnest next week. Even better, my car started first time and I got home.

I finished my base-strength phase on Sunday with an easy long run of 18.5K in 1:28, which I enjoyed despite the rain. I revised my McMillan paces based on my recent 5K time and it turns out that 4:42 is just at the slow limit of my long run pace.

I use McMillan paces based on my 5K as a guideline for my runs at Easy-to-Tempo paces. My speedwork paces are based on 800m/1500m actuals. Interestingly (for me anyway) my new 5K time predicts an 800m time of 2:08 which is about where I was early season last year. That means that my 5K time is about one year behind my 800m time, which is ok.

I am happy with how the last phase of my training went. In the 10 weeks I did 10 long runs, 10 interval sessions, 3 tempos and 4 races, which I logged here, plus a few more fillers. I also did 33 core or weights workouts in that time, which is a big improvement on the past.

Next up is speed development, which will be mostly focused on improving my 400m pace. Ideally I will run a 400m race or else a time trial at the end. There are also 2 more races in the local league which I am still debating doing. They are slightly incompatible with the speed development but maybe they can act as a bridge to maintain my current aerobic fitness for a while longer. The first one is over 2 miles on Tuesday which if do it, I will try to keep controlled so I am good for speed work on Thursday. I still plan to maintain my weekly long run but I will tag on some hill sprints or a fast finish.

Started speed work this week. Track was wet although little rain fell during the session and the wind had died down. Warm-up was fine, spent a bit more time on leg swings and drills. I used training spikes for the first time in months.

First was 3x30m, from rolling starts, using the relay zone markings off the bend and a slow walk back. Then 2x100m in 13.7 & 13.8 with 3-4 mins recovery. After over 5 mins recovery I finished with 2x200m in 26.9 & 27.9 off 5 mins recovery. In each rep I tried to get out hard from a 3-pt or standing start and then relax. I did not too so well at the relaxing bit, especially in the last one.

Overall I did not feel very fluent and my form and technique needs a lot of work. But it's a start.