If... the Unforgiving Minute

After the 3K in Athlone I rested on Thursday, then kept it easy with 4 miles on Friday and 10 miles on Saturday 20th. On Sunday I did 4x150m in about 21s with full recovery, which is around 400m pace. With limited time I did the session on a nice stretch of forest trail.

Monday again was a recovery run of 4 miles.

Tuesday: I went back to the same forest track as Sunday for another session. With all the rain, I now had a stream flowing across the path which gave an extra hurdle challenge.
Plan was: 500m(1ml), 150m(800m), 400m(1mi), 100m(400m), 300m(1mi), 100(400m) [3']
It looks a long complicated session but actually was 500-400-300m at mile pace, followed by 150m at 800 pace or 100m at 400 pace with 3 min intervals. I simplified it further by changing the 150 to 130m at 400 pace to avoid the diverted stream.
Given the conditions, times were not going to be important but I still clocked them anyway. 500m 1:30; 130m 22.5s; 400m 1:10; 100m 15s; 300m 49.5s; 100m 15s.

Wednesday: I did 10 easy miles on the trails.

Friday: Goal Mile in 5:10. The last few years I have done the goal mile on the track but mostly ended up in a solo time trial. In the hope of more competition, this year I went to a different one on the roads in Rosses Point going from the golf club to the beach car park and back. However there was only one other guy likely to push the pace and he has not been in serious training recently so there was no chance of me breaking 5 mins. I let the kids lead it out for the first quarter, then 2 of us took up the running. I took the lead at the turn and tried to push it a bit on the way back but I was on my own and did not dig deep. It was still a decent workout.

Saturday: Another 10 easy miles on the trails.

I have diverted from coach Steve's plan the last few weeks but I will try to get back on track next week.

Quick Review of the year just gone.

Started with 2nd place in the indoor masters 800m which I was disappointed with. Upped my mileage after that which helped me score a 10K PB in April 36:23 but not much else.

I ran an outdoors 800m PB 2:04.7 in June which is still 2s off my indoor PB. I won the M45 400m in September despite racing like an idiot. Only did 4 track races in total for the summer.

Did 4x 5Ks - only one under 17 mins at the end of November.
Finished with a 3K indoors - only a PB because I never did one before.
Overall a pretty average year.

Spring and Autumn mileage were higher than other years but I have done fewer weights sessions. I am now following Magness' 800m plan for a March peak. After that I will consider the next steps, although I have mapped out a few plans for the coming years.

Finished the week with one of my favourite sessions.
Plan was 3x4x200m w/ 75sec rest and 4min rest, 800m pace

Conditions were good - no wind and fairly dry track.
As usual I did the first set in flats - in 2:02.7 pace.
Spikes made the difference on the tight bends on this 330m track (!) and the 2nd and 3rd sets were 2:00.4 and 2:00.2.
Kept the recoveries pretty much to plan averaging 77s and 4 mins between sets.

Last time I did these was in June when I averaged 2:03.7 one week before running 2:04.7
I won’t read too much into one session but it gives me a bit of confidence.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

The 10k?!

What is WMA%? Is it World Masters Athletics record % or something similar?

The one really out of step is the 800m - or conversely the rest of them are out of step with this distance. I think that is just a factor of where I have focused my training. There is a general downward trend for longer distances, except 5K which I also trained for prior to setting that PB, and I have not come close to since. So really it tells me nothing except that I do better at distances that I train for.

WMA% is the World Masters Athletics Age-grade % taken from this table:
http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup06.html

It is similar to the age-grading used by Parkrun as explained here:
http://support.parkrun.com/hc/en-us/articles/200565263-What-is-age-grading-

I was pretty tired this week and was tempted to scale back Thursday's session.
I thought about it again when I felt a cramp at the top of my right calf after warm-up but it did not get any worse.
Plan was 3x (600m(3K=1:54), 300m(1mi=52.5), 300m(800=46.5)) [2', 4']
Times were:
1. 1:55, 52.1, 49.5
2. 1:54, 51.7, 48.8
3. 1:54, 49.6, 47.6
The 3K pace was good, the mile pace a bit quick and the final 300 at 800 pace was a bit slow each time but on a wet and windy track with no lights, I'll take that.

Rest day Friday, glad of it, before I clock up some mileage for the weekend.

ECOLII wrote: »

Great session how are you finding the Magness stuff so far?

In general I am enjoying it. I like the variety of sessions and the variety within the sessions like the 3K to 800m paces in one workout, although sometimes they can be a bit too complicated for me to get right.

I did a few of these pre-comp workouts last year but from here on they are mostly new so should be fun. Always hard to do pace sessions at this time of the year but good for mental strength.

I see you are following the 1500/mile plan. I will be watching with interest. Any ideas of your target 1500m time?

The last two weeks have not been great for training and the log reads more like a weather report but I have got back on track in the last few days.

Only one real session was done last week. On Tuesday 13th, the plan called for 3x3x300m at 800m pace. That was not going to happen in the snow and ice. I did a weights session instead and had doms until Thursday when I attempted the 300s. By now the storm force winds had cleared the snow. I did the 300s on the path around the football pitch with the wind mostly at my back and a sharp turn midway. They were around mile pace with 90s recovery and 4 min between sets.

I got 10 miles in icy conditions on Friday and another 6 on Saturday on the trails. I pulled out of my track session on Sunday and repeated the weights session, this time without any doms - it's amazing how quickly the body adapts to stress.

This looks like a planned easy week on paper - 1st session was "9x150m at just faster than mile pace w/ 150m walk". Mile pace is 26s per 150m - I did them on a straight stretch of compacted gravel, starting at 25s, working down to 22s. I walked back the first one then changed to a jog back.

One difference in the Magness plan from what I am used to is that not all sessions are hard days. I always associated sessions with a hard effort and easy/recovery days were at a slower pace. Steve includes a few sessions at faster pace but with lower number of reps and good recovery so the result is an easyish workout.

Thursday was "250,200,150,100m w/ 5-8min rest, 400m pace". First bit of speed-work in a few weeks. With a 56s 400m time, it's easy to workout the target paces - 35,28,21,14s. Conditions were relatively good - just a bit of wind against me in the first 2 reps and with me for the last 2. Times were 35.6, 28.0, 20.1, 13.6s. Faster in the end but still keeping it controlled (just). Recoveries were 6-7 mins - so a real sprinters session.

Just looking ahead on the Magness 800m plan to see what's in store over the next weeks and I see in a few weeks' time he has 3x(400,400) w/ 75sec rest and 5min rest for the first session of the week but he does not say what pace these are at.

I thought first of all these are at 800m pace but surely not 3 split 800s at race pace ??
Looking at similar sessions in this phase, they are mostly multi-pace so maybe they are 1st 400m at mile pace and 2nd 400m at 800m pace?

There is another session 2 weeks later with 2-3x(600,200) w/ 75sec rest and 5min.
That one I could believe is 600m at race pace followed by 200m kick, at least for 2 reps, but 3 reps, phew.

I am working off the Kindle edition which has a few typos. Does anyone have the hard copy and could you check if it is the same?
If not what do you think this session should be, 4 weeks out from a target race with another race planned at the end of the week.

ECOLII wrote: »

I'll check when I get home and have access to it. Looking at them sessions though compared to the ones I am doing in the comp phase of the 1500m plan they seem to be target race pace (that 6/2 session looks like the one on 1500 plan except has slightly longer recoveries so imagine it would be a higher pace? Although even saying that those sessions look really tough off those recoveries

Thanks ecolii.

Looks like an equally cryptic session in wk1 of the 1500m competition phase plan: 3x(500,300 w/ 60sec rest) w/ 4min b/t sets but no pace specified (in my version).

Oregano_State wrote: »

To me, for the 400/400 session it would only make sense to me as worthwhile if the second 400 in each set was supposed to be quicker than the first.

For you, D, I would try something like 68-72 for the first, then 60-64 for the second. Maybe go conservatively on the first set, and take it from there.

I could be completely off the mark. I would say though, that prescribing sessions without percentage effort or similar is a bit pointless!

Thanks guys for the input.

OS - I think you are right. The paces you suggest are spot on for my mile/800m which feels right to me. I will probably go for that as a more suitable for me.

Even the 2 x 600,200 w/75s and 5mins rest would be too much. In the past I would have done 2x600m but failed to hold race pace for the 2nd one.

I might try and contact Steve Magness see if he gives his opinion.