Off the Fence....and looking to go sub 3 hrs

Monday - 19/05/2014
4.87m @ 08:26 avg pace (Easy)

Fatigue seems to be leaving the legs at last. This was a nice easy and enjoyable run.

Tuesday - 20/05/2014
8.34m @ 08:08 avg pace (Gen Aerobic - Progression)

Approached this as a sectioned progressive run so broke this into 3 sections 4/2/2 with the plan to run them as <08:30, <08:15 and <08:00. Settled in nicely after the first couple of miles. Another enjoyable run....that's two in a row. Things are looking up.

4m @ 08:24 avg pace
2m @ 08:15 avg pace
2m @ 07:30 avg pace
0.35m cd to home

Wednesday - 21/05/2014
Rest Day

Last week of 5 day running before starting P&D and going back up to 6.

Friday 23/05/2014
Rest Day

Had 6m Recovery in for today but was heading away for the weekend so pushed it back to Saturday....never did the core work last night either. My Bad!

Saturday 24/05/2014
6.16m @ 08:32 avg pace (Recovery)

Put this off a couple of times but eventually I got out about 4:30 after telling myself that I wouldn't enjoy the evening's sport on TV unless I got out to run. Nice pleasant run from Ballykisteen House into Tipp town and back. Footpath all the way was a bonus.

Sunday 25/05/2014
Rest Day

Should have finished the week with 12m MLR but decided to take it as a rest day since it was the last day before kicking off Berlin programme.

Monday 26/05/2014
9.40m @ 07:37 avg pace (LT w/4m @HMP)

And we're off............as I hadn't ran anything much faster than 8min/m for a while now, I decided to use my existing HMP of 06:47 as the pace for this one rather than target HMP of 06:30. Splits broke out as follows:
2.8m wu @ 08:18 avg pace
1m @ 06:47
1m @ 06:46
1m @ 06:52
1m @ 06:41
2.61m cd @ 08:11 avg pace

Felt pretty comfortable throughout and tried to concentrate on keeping my form. I don't know what happened with 3rd mile as I didn't feel like I had slowed down. I knew the 4th mile was a little quicker as I tend to pick up the pace when I know the end is near. Best thing was that I could have kept going.

Saturday 31/05/2014
15.1m @ 07:31 avg pace (Med Long - Progression)

Lovely pre-breakfast run over as far as Merrion Gates and back in through a sleepy Dublin City just starting to stir. Love running through the city at the weekend when it is awakening. Back to St Anne's in time to don the HiVis Jacket and do a bit a scanning @ parkrun. Glad I got out early as it got pretty hot pretty quickly when the morning mist had burnt off. Session broke down as follows:

5m @ 07:46 avg pace
5m @ 07:35 avg pace
5m @ 07:15 avg pace

Monday 02/06/2014
9.08m @ 08:18 avg pace (Gen Aerobic w/8x100m strides)

Nice evening run. Struggled a bit to get strides going but pushed through after the first one.

Tuesday 03/06/2014
12.09m @ 07:49 avg pace (Med Long - Progression)

Ferris B joined me for a few of these. Nice evening. Good run although felt a little harder than last weeks 11 miler along much of the same route.

Wednesday 04/06/2014
5.31m @ 09:14 avg pace (Recovery)

Took in Dollymount on this one which gave my legs a rest from the tarmac and concrete I normally run on.

Thursday 05/06/2014
9m @ 08:03 avg pace (General Aerobic)

Did exactly what it said on the tin. Pretty steady pace through out.

Friday 06/06/2014
4.94m @ 09:04 avg pace (Recovery)

Saturday 07/06/2014
15.3 @ 07:46 avg pace (Long Run w/8@MP)

Program said 16m with 8 @ MP. haven't nailed down what MP is yet but decided that for the 1st MP session of this cycle I would be happy with sub 7min pace.

I was scheduled as RD @ St Anne's parkrun in the morning so decided to leave this til the afternoon and head into the PP to do it. 1st mistake of the day.

As I headed over towards PP the car was telling me that it was 23 degrees outside. Other plans didn't allow me push this back to later in the evening so I just got started. Plan was a loop of the outside of the park and then back to the car for a mouthful of water before doing another loop in the opposite direction. The last 8 miles would be the MP stuff. Mistake number 2 was kicking off too quickly...1st mile was 07:41 into the wind. Anyway got the job done on the first 8 miles @ avg pace 07:56 but it was very warm and I was starting to struggle.

Then came mistake no 3...the direction I choose for the 2nd loop brought me up Chesterfield Ave and then back down the North Road which meant that I would be running up Military Hill and the Upper Glen Road. As I ran up Military Road and on towards the Upper Glen Road my whole right side was paining me...quad, hip, lower back, chest, shoulder right through to my biceps...having a clue why. As the watch hit the 13 mile split I decided that the wheels had come off and that there was no benefit to pushing through with 16 weeks still to go. Pulled up walked for 100m and then jogged in considerable pain back to the car. I downed a litre of water and a bar of chocolate to try to bring back some energy and headed home with my tail between my legs. Was dog sitting in my sisters house so crashed on her couch undisturbed for an hour before getting some sense of normality back. Hip pain lingered longest and it was a few hours later before that subsided. Did a little bit of stretching but very little else for the rest of the evening.

Splits broke out as follows:
8m @ 07:56 avg pace
1m @ 06:57
1m @ 06:59
1m @ 07:02
1m @ 07:02
1m @ 07:16 (wheels came off)
2.3m @ 08:45

Disappointed with how this session finished out but not losing any sleep over it....Sh*t Happens....bad preparation and timing of this run were both factors in its outcome, Fail to prepare, etc.....need to make sure I hit the next one of these sessions better prepared.

Apart from the obviously it wasn't a bad week I got in the programmed miles and managed to pass the 1,000 mile year to date marker:)

yaboya1 wrote: »

Sounds like it wasn't an ideal training weekend for any Berlin runners :P

Self inflicted in both ours cases, P. No harm getting your bad days out of the way early in the cycle

Tuesday 10/06/2014
13m @ 08:02 avg pace (Med Long)

Ferris B joined me for the first 9 of these. Nice run around DNS. A bit humid and sticky out there again this evening.

Note to Self - Small level of pain in Hips and Lower Back again in last couple of miles.

Thursday 12/06/2014

Unplanned Rest Day...life got in the way so I just rolled with it.

Friday 13/06/2014
9m @ 07:26 avg pace (LT w/4 @ HMP)

After missing Thursday's run I pushed everything back by a day. I had thought this was a 9m General Aerobic run with some strides thrown but after reading Ferris B's post I checked the schedule and he was right it said 9m LT w/4 @ HMP

I zipped up the man suits and headed out not sure how things would work out. Car on the way home said temp with 20C which wasn't going to help. After a 3m wu I did the Tempo section along the coast same place as I did the same run 3 weeks ago. The plan was to try to get closer to target HMP of sub 6:30 than PB HMP which is 6:47. I decided to ignore the watch and focus on form and effort to see if I could find the right pace for the first 2 miles and then if I was way off I would revert to watch watching. To my surprise I was nicely on pace for miles 1 & 2 so just kept with that strategy for the remaining 2 miles. Any wind there was, was against me for first 2.5m and with me for last 1.5m. I was working hard for the last 1m but this was more to hold form than anything else. I could feel the body tensing up, the shoulder getting higher and the stride getting shorter. I had to correct this quite a few times so didn't know how this would effect pace.

Session broke down as follows:
| Today | 3 weeks ago
3m wu | 08:02 avg pace | 08:37 avg pace
1m | 06:27 | 06:47
1m | 06:26 | 06:46
1m | 06:20 | 06:52
1m | 06:21 | 06:41
2m cd | 08:31 avg pace | 08:11 avg pace

I was chuffed when I reviewed the stats for this run. Did exactly what I wanted and it was nice to see the improvement since day 1 of the programme 3 weeks ago. This was one of the good day that we all need to keep the show on the road and make the bad days worth it.

Saturday 14/06/2014
5m @ 09:00 avg pace (Recovery)

Mad day today so was delighted to get out for a run this evening. Lovely evening so headed up to St Anne's at teatime to run the perimeter and give the legs the benefit of running on grass. Plenty still going on. In fact more than I would normally expect at that hour of the evening. I am all for people enjoying the fresh air and the beautiful facility that is St Anne's but I was more than stunned to see a couple doing the "deed" on one of the football pitches about 20 yards from the trail I was running.....eyes front and on I went. I hope they finished before the guy walking towards me with his kids got there or he was going to have some serious explaining to do :eek:

6th place in Kilbride this evening. Official 10k time of 38:42....23sec PB. Every little bit helps Report to follow.

yaboya1 wrote: »

I believe there may be a smack-down on the 20th July....?

I am afraid I am away that weekend:( Would have been nice to at least have had a chance to try and keep up with you:pac::pac:

dublin runner wrote: »

I believe that was you I was talking to after

Congrats on the great run

Thanks DR. I am presuming when you said you had a bad race that meant you didn't win but still probably managed a podium finish:D Well done. You can be very hard on yourself sometimes;) Unfortunately no I don't think I met you afterwards. After my little sit down after the finish...us auld men have to do that sometimes...I was chatting to a guy that I recognised from St Anne's parkrun before heading off back to the big smoke. Hopefully, meet you again at some event over the summer.

Killerz wrote: »

Great result last night, FBOT. All the more reason to drink more beer and eat more fried items on your hols!

Cheers J....started as I mean to go on with Beshoffs as part of my post race recovery plan:)

viperlogic wrote: »

Great read FBOT01, I shall be following this thread as I too am on the hunt for a sub 3 (Amsterdam in October). My training log is here

Cheers. Good luck yourself with the sub 3 quest. Amsterdam is supposed to be a decent fast course so if the hard work is done....;) I will keep an eye on your progress over the summer and maybe grab a few tips along the way.