From minutes to miles

annapr wrote: »

Good luck with the new plan, Laura, do you have a target time in mind for the 10k?

Enjoy West Cork, I'm sure you'll find some lovely hills there for training runs.

Thanks Anna, hope you're on the mend. No target time yet, I think I'll see how the training goes first. McMillan was giving me 53/54 based on bohermeen but I might hope to take more off that based on more training. I'm doing the tallaght 5k and terenure 5 mile in May so they should give me an idea of where I'm at.

kit3 wrote: »

Sounds like an interesting plan Laura - how long is it ?

Hi kit, it's 12 weeks. There's 11 weeks to the race so I'll tweak it to skip a week. It's 4/5 days of specific running and there's a mix of some tempo runs, hills, strides and intervals along with recovery, longer runs and easy. Some of the stuff I haven't done before so it looks challenging but not scary!! There's loads of plans for base building, 5ks up to half marathon distance with different plans for lower to higher mileage week people, and explanations of all the different types of runs. I'm sure it's nothing revolutionary for people who've seen this stuff before but it seems like a good next step for me anyway.

Saturday 4th: 6 miles @ 9:54 w/ 6 x 12 sec hills & 6 x 100 metre strides, average HR 156bpm

So I started my new plan with the first day calling for an easy run but with hill repeats and strides to add an element of speed. I'm back to using mileage, not times, for my runs but I'm going to continue working off HR for pretty much most of the different types of runs on the plan. The only tweak I might make is that most weeks call for two "endurance" runs which are classed as being similar but a bit more effort than the easier general aerobic runs. My initial feeling of looking at the plan is that it leaves me light on those easy runs, so I might swap some in for some of the second endurance runs. But that's just an idea at this stage, I'm sure I'll know more as the plan progresses. I headed out early-ish taking in the Bull Wall before heading to St. Anne's for the hill repeats. I then headed into the park for a quick loop around. Having initially planned to be well home before 9:30 I knew I was running late when I noticed people in all colours and day-glo emerging from various areas of the park heading towards the parkrun. Coming in the opposite direction was Duanington on his warm up, a quick chat and I left him to it and then passed Murph_D on the other side of the avenue also getting ready. Continued home then to hit the road Cork/Kerry direction for a few days away.

9:56
9:37
9:55
10:48 (hills with ample jog recovery between each)
9:43
9:25 (strides)

Sunday 5th: 5 miles @ 10:09, average HR 160bpm

The plan called for 8 miles but navigating this around holiday activities, general relaxing and our location on the road out to the Healy Pass (ie hills, hills and some more hills) meant I was hoping for 6 in reality. After a lovely bit of touring in the car and hiking I got back to our charming wagon caravan and headed back out. I normally don't like running on roads but this was barely a road and was in the literal middle of nowhere so I felt happy enough. Off I went up on what could kindly be described as "undulating" - mostly uphill at first and any downhill respite was tinged with a "what goes down, must come up" on an out and back course. I walked one small bit after a mile on a severely steep switchback (even going back down it was horrible) and the whole run was tough enough due to the profile. So not quite an "easy" run and the HR doesn't reflect what was happening in reality - lots of ups and downs, very rarely stayed consistent. It was something different though and great scenery. I called it at 5 as I ran out of quiet road and had already looped back on some to drag it out.

10:25, 10:11, 9:36, 10:12, 10:19

Monday 6th: Rest.

Technically rest but there was some more hiking. Down along the Beara Way right on the peninsula following the cliffs. Fantastic.

Tuesday 7th: 3 miles @ 10:28, average HR 159bpm

Back to the OH's family so on to a usual loop of the town. After the first half mile I knew the legs were still suffering from the previous few days so I said I'd ease off and keep this more like a recovery run. Try as I might though I couldn't keep the HR down and consistent. I've gotten good lately at finding a rhythm at the right HR and keeping it without too much checking of the watch, but today as soon as I took my eye off it it was going wandering. Maybe it was the heat. So even though the HR effort wasn't as easy as I hoped initially I'm hoping the slower pace still loosened out the legs.

10:13, 10:40, 10:29

Wednesday 8th: Lactate threshold intervals

7 miles inc 3 x 8 mins LT intervals with 3 mins recovery

So my understanding of these LT intervals is that it's like a tempo run but broken down into intervals instead. With one aim being that with the recoveries it allows you to do more at that pace without increasing injury risk/allows you to do more etc. (Someone please correct me if I've got that wrong....I'm on a learning curve here).

3 miles easy @ 10:19
8:34
8:35
8:40
0.63 miles c/d @ 10:35

The recoveries then were very easy jogged at 11 m/m pace.

This was tough but satisfying. The first two average paces were very consistent with a slight drop on the third. There wasn't a drop in effort/HR really, and it wasn't that far off so not too unhappy. Depending which way I was heading I was either facing into beaming and warm sunshine or into the wind - I looked some state when I returned and I was sporting a nice rosy (ie sunburnt) face at dinner then

Thursday 8th: 9 miles @ 9:57, average HR 158bpm

Up earlier than I would have liked - we have a wedding today so this morning or possibly tired and maybe hungover tomorrow were my two options. Lovely morning but I'm getting fed of doing the same loops around the town!! I suspect the average HR should be higher, it seemed a bit erratic at times and my effort felt more than I think it should for that average. But this is my endurance run on the plan which has a slightly higher HR band so I'd say I was still in that but higher than the 157bpm. I remember something similar happening a while ago so I think the strap might need to be tightened again.

Good luck to all doing the K-Club or Great Ireland Run this weekend!

annapr wrote: »

Laura, sounds like you had same bug as me... it was a bad dose! Glad you're getting back to normal. Only upside for me was I lost a couple of pounds in a few days

I'd say it was. I know, I'm the same - not sure it was worth it though

Saturday 18th: Lactate threshold intervals
8 miles inc 10 mins x 2 & 8 mins x 1 @ LT

Lovely bright day but windy. I found this session tough last week so I was little bit nervous about doing it again with longer times on two of the intervals. Did the warm up through St. Anne's so I could do the intervals on the stretch along the seafront. The recoveries were 3 mins very easy

3 miles easy @ 10:04
10 mins @ 8:04
10 mins @ 8:11
8 mins @ 8:41
1.02 miles @ 10:55

At first glance it looks like the wheels fell off for the last, but not quite. As I was doing the first interval the HR reading, which had been fine throughout the 3 mile warm up, started going haywire. Dropping to easier than recovery, going back up, dropping again. So I just ignored it and said I'd run at something that felt "comfortable" hard. I was surprised to see 7:xx on the lap pace every time I glanced at my watch, as I kept expecting it to settle into something more accurate as the 10 mins passed. Well into 7 minutes of the interval it was still showing high 7:xx's. As much as I wanted to keep it there I knew I was going too fast for the purpose of the session especially compared to my times last week. I was only on the first rep and I didn't want to ruin the whole session for the sake of one good rep in one bit of training. So I eased off a bit. The second rep was kind of the same, I only followed the HR for the second half when it had settled. The first bit was done by feel which was again probably a bit too fast. The final interval then was done by HR which was back to normal and is closer to the pace from last week!!

Not the most consistent of times but the effort and pace in the first two is reassuring from an overall training perspective. One of my goals starting the year was a sub 25 minute 5k. The Tallaght 5k in a few weeks might be a bit too soon for that but hopefully this is a sign training is going in the right direction and that sort of time mightn't be too far away.

Sunday 19th: 9 miles @ 9:58, average HR 161bpm

I thought I'd feel stiffer after the previous day but I was ok, this was one of those runs where it just felt like a breeze. Effort and legs felt good, and the sun was shining. I passed people gathering for the National Road Relays in Raheny as I was heading for home. In the door, grabbed a jumper and headed back out to enjoy the sunshine and watch a great event. Brilliant to see such good running right up close and nice to meet a few people from around these parts again.

31 miles done for the week so not too bad overall.

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Can't imagine the sub 25 being too far away based on that! Great pace on those intervals. Tallaght's pretty flat I hear, it's looking good, just sayin'

Raging to have missed the relays, I go up to watch them every year. Still, I suppose the sun and the beach are a comfort to me....;)

Thanks, yeah I was surprised by them, never seen those 7:xx paces much before :eek: if I don't manage it at Tallaght I might target another one after this plan has finished when I've done Dunshaughlin.

I know G, it's terrible. Away on holidays with sun, the beach, nice food and drink, relaxing away from normal life - I really feel for you :rolleyes: great to hear of your warm weather training by the way, good to keep the legs ticking over!