Turning a mule into a race horse.

Murph_D wrote: »

Jaypers. The drama indeed. Don't sweat it - it was a good thing you did and the vast majority can see that plainly.

Back to business, 3:37 marathon, why not? No bother to you if you can stay injury free. And by at least one measure that's now your marathon training pace whether you believe it or not. Much easier than a sub-20 5k, if you ask me! Keep up the good work.

Jesus I don't know Murph - both seem equally far far away at this point

It's scary for me to look at some of the times McMillan is predicting now off the recent improvements. It's quite mind blowing for me tbh. It wasn't so long ago that a 30 min 5k was a massive struggle and marathons were 5 hours plus ! I think the point made about McMillan in particular not factoring in the stamina / endurance level not being in synch to speed improvements at lower paces is valid so I will be taking it a little more conservatively than it predicts.

davedanon wrote: »

I don't know if it's relevant to you, or if you know this, but McMillan's predictions are based on the assumption that you've trained properly for the predicted distance.

Yeah Dave but I think to be properly trained for his predictions it would need to be coming off a very experienced base in the first place ?

Cheers DR

Normally get a half mile to mile brisk walk in before starting off. The plan only had the 1 mile warmup in it but I do take your point for sure about extra warmup time before speed work.

kit3 wrote: »

The main thing that strikes me PM is how far you've come in the last few months - odds on at the moment for the 'inspiration of the year' award - great stuff !

Very nice message to wake up to - thanks !

Ha though - Don't think we have one of them here and I'm sure there are more inspiring people on the board than me. To be fair there's not too much inspiring about getting rewarded for effort made. Would apply that to nearly everyone here! But thanks again all the same. It's never a bad thing when others can see your progress too.

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

PM,

Just catching up here.

I gotta agree with this. The fundraiser was a great event and there was a lot of good banter around it and indeed the day itself.

There's enough ****eology on here already without people now wondering/speculating who's part of this "clique".

You did a good thing, and no matter what you do in life you'll always come across curmudgeons and begrudges so just better to ignore it and not give it oxygen.

Anyway best of luck with your training you're improving consistently over the last few months.

TbL

Agreed !

It would die down if people stopped talking about it lol

You still out of action - how's the healing going ?

Monday


6 miles easy in solidarity with the women running the mini marathon. Was out at the same time as the race and the wind absolutely battered me. Easy effort but pace varied wildly depending on the wind. Would not have liked to have been hitting 10k race pace at all. Next to impossible.

6 @ 9:30 avg

Tuesday - Hill Session

1.5 Miles warmup 9:55
Hills - 6 x 2min @5k pace with jog back recovery (3-3.5 min)
1 Mile CD 9:53

Last hill session of the plan and a big step up from the last session which was 75 second repeats. Knowing that it was 2 min I went looking for closer to 5k pace splits rather than an all out burst and hang on (last hill repeats avg out at 6:15/6:20 pace) which you can get away with for 75 seconds but not for 120 ! Got tougher as time went on.

6:49, 6:47, 6:44, 6:44, 6:50, 6:41

Needed a couple of minutes composing myself before knocking out the 1 mile cool down. That last rep in particular was a real stomach churner.

Just shy of 6 miles in total.

Myles Splitz wrote: »

Looks like a very tough session fair play.

Surprised to see you hold 5k pace for these reps.

I would have thought this sort of session would be a 5k type session but on effort rather than holding same paces you have on flat you have done previously so no wonder you felt it was a stomach churner.

Target races coming up?

I would try and take it very handy for 3-4 days after a session like that if your training plan/coach allows it.

Cheers

Might have to look again at 5k target pace but in all seriousness it's quite possible I was aiming too fast verus what the session was designed for.

Easy miles tomorrow and a rest day up next so recovery should be sorted.

Goal race is Docklands 5k in 16 days.

Tuesday

5 easy miles. 9:20 avg pace. Slightly faster than normal easy pace but was very much easy effort.

Wednesday
1 Easy, 5 x 3 Min@5K Pace with 3 min jog recovery, 1 Easy cool down

Tough tough tough. Roasting hot and near over heating at the end of the easy warm up :pac: A real struggle to finish these reps on target. Not too worried due to the weather conditions. Would expect things to be tougher. Didn't help myself either by landing in under target for 3 and 4.

9:32 easy.
3 min @ 5k pace / 3 min easy - 6:57, 9:34, 6:55, 9:37, 6:46, 9:20, 6:41, 9:28, 6:55
9:38 easy cool down

Friday

4 miles nice and easy ahead of the beer mile on Saturday.

Saturday
Beer Mile Debut 9:47

Cross posting report ....

Turned up to the beer mile last night and got met with a very happy Hannibal Smith handing me a comedy skirt to wear and an equally happy Dr Q with a special Arsenal jersey which he took great delight in making me wear with an added bonus of it mocking the Irish as a nation as it had a tribute to Thierry Henry on the back. :mad: Still - it saved the blushes of everyone that no Mankini was involved so happyish days all round.

Zero training done for this. Drank one brooklyn and two mooseheads over the last week to pick a beer I could drink taste wise. Skulled some diet coke too on Friday but that was it. I've a goal race this Thursday so kept the focus on that.

Beer miles are a great leveler. I went into this genuinely expecting to be at the very back of the field. Lined up at the back and cracked open the first beer. Went down ok. The leaders had downed theirs and were off before I was a quarter of the way through mine. WTF ! Lashed into mine anyway and took off surprisingly with half the field still drinking their beers. Gave it socks for the first 300m and was also surprised that nobody passed me out in the run. This was great ! My plan had been all along to ease off for the last 100m to come in not too out of breath and ready to down the next beer.

This worked quite well for beer 2. First half went down quite well but then a rogue belch from nowhere hit me and I nearly spewed. Slow down slow down - how embarrassing to spew on beer 2 ! Lap 2 went ok. Managed to get great symmetry and was doing a little belch every 4 steps. Feeling ok and running well.

Beer 3 is where it started to go a bit wrong. Longest beer here for sure and the closest I got to a penalty lap for sure. That said everyone around me seemed to be in the same boat bar the top 3 lads who were flying around like machines. Got a couple of places here on this lap. Chivito was at a near stand still God help him at that stage and went past him here. Like I said beer miles are a great leveler - passing him out on a track isn't on the normal agenda at all !

Got lapped by Thirstywork2 at this stage on his way to second place. No great shame in that Arrived into beer 4 with the trusted slow down strategy continuing to work well. 4th beer wasn't quite as bad as 3. Adrian522 took off ahead of me and I downed the last of my beer and decided to focus on him. Caught him half way round (didn't realise he was after injuring his hand at the time) and went past him. Was expecting him to come back at me as we hit the final bend. The last 150m were the only parts of the run that were beer mile uncomfortable. Was balancing out running flat out for a decent time / holding off Adrian with not puking all over the place too.

Dug in and crossed the finish in 9:47. PB over 400m too mid beer mile debut isn't too shabby Really happy with that.


The Arsenal jersey came off immediately but kept it close by in case of after event puking as it would have made a great towel. :pac:

The evidence ...





Aftermath

Went into Sinnots afterwards. Fell backwards off a ledge and landed on my tail bone. Fell home at 3am. So much for focusing on the feckin goal race on Thursday. :rolleyes:

Sunday
Rest day