Against Method.

Sacksian wrote: »

Shoot me if I post in this log next weekend and I’ve run only one session in 7 days of running.

Hold your fire!

Monday - 8.8miles @ 7:55
Tuesday - 7.5miles @ 8:05 inc. 6 x 8-10s HS off jog back
Wednesday - 10+ miles for the day including session.

5 x Khyber Hill (921m) off jog-back AVG 3:23

Club coach recommended this hill session for mid-week. My first time doing a full Khyber session since 2014!

For those who don’t know it, the Khyber Road is a long - but not ridiculously steep - hill (closed to traffic by bollards at the bottom and top) in the middle of the Phoenix Park.

For some reason, I have the exact distance in my head as 921m. Now, while it’s definitely not ridiculously steep, it does go on a bit and if you’re struggling by the time you get to 600m, the suffering increases because it kicks up again until 800m. It then levels out for the last stretch.

The way we’re instructed to do the session is to be able to kick in the last 100m or so i.e. when you’ve already been running uphill for 800m. It’s very hard to pull this off because you’re generally willing it to end from 500m.

It’s one of those deceptively tough sessions that gets better with repetition.

I set off for the first one at a relaxed pace and was quite happy to do it in 3:24. A little bit harder on the second only produced a 3:23. A little bit harder again and a 3:21. At this stage, I was conscious that I wasn’t able to kick in the last stretch on any of the reps. It was definitely tough, but still felt controlled and I wasn’t worried about managing the 5.

Fourth was 3:25 and the fifth 3:20. I tried to take the first 800m a little easier on the last one so that I could kick at the end but I wasn’t really able to shift gears. For me, the ‘kick’ is a state of mind - a subtle relaxation where you just open up and your legs take over. I’ve noticed in recent weeks that it’s just not there at the moment in sessions but that’s probably a function of the increased mileage and lack of attention to speed.

Average was 3:23 for the 5 reps. In 2013, I did 4 reps at an average of 3:11 - albeit with a pacer, flats and a strong tail-wind but I’d like to do it again in a couple of weeks and see if I can get closer to an average or 3:16 or so - even sub 3:20 would be good.

Thursday - 7.7miles @ 7:53 (fatigued from yesterday, but the good sort of fatigue).

Friday - 7.7miles @ 8:04 (glute DOMS from Wednesday’s session kicking in)

Saturday - 8.3m inc 12 x 300m “snappy” off 180-200m jog

54/55/55/55/56/54/56/54/55/55/55/50
Avg: 54.88

On the Polo Grounds - grass, but good conditions.

Instructions here were to sacrifice a bit of quantity for quality. The 10k and marathon lads did 14-16 300s and the more track-oriented among us did 10-12.

Good consistency and nice to be able to open up on the last rep. Jog recovery was between 60s-80s.

Always hard to gauge these grass sessions against times on the track, but I know 9 x 49-50s on the track with 60s standing recovery is good 1500m shape for me so 12@55 on grass is a bit away from that - but it's another session heading in that direction.

As with previous sessions, I’m doing well strength-wise, just lacking a bit on the speed/speed endurance end of things at the moment.

Sunday 11miles @7:52

61miles for the week (7th 60 mile week in the last 8 weeks).

Next week: density + intensity ups again, with probably a geansaí load of short-hills on Tuesday (15+ if I can manage it) and - if I can walk after Tuesday - something easy/short on Thursday before the session on Saturday.

Race targets and calendar are starting to take shape!

Another week down, a race entered and a mileage milestone.

Monday - the week started with a bit of worry about the knee. It was bugging me sitting down on Sunday and I was still conscious of it on Monday morning so I did my now standard niggle symptom check.

If I get an emerging niggle, I try to think about things that I’ve started doing habitually than I hadn’t done before: surfaces, gait, mileage, new exercises, etc, but also day-to-day changes like different working environments and seating. One of the biggest differences in recent months has been the concentration on keeping my cadence high (to avoid right leg calf injury). And that led me to figuring out that I had been working muscles and striking the ground in a slightly different way on my left leg than I would with a lower cadence, essentially forcing a different pattern than I’m used to and creating a bit of overload. So, I tried a couple of days of lower cadence running and, amazingly, that seemed to do the trick.

For the first lower cadence day, I decided to cycle up to the Park for my Monday run, thus avoiding concrete for the whole run. 6.8miles @ 7:53min/m.

Tuesday - back to the standard 8.8 @8:04

Wednesday 13+ miles inc. Session of 10mins @marhr (effort) / 2km / 1km / 5 x 400 off approximately 3mins /2mins /2mins and 1min between 400s.

10 mins @6:13 approx
~2km @3:30/k
~1km @3:11
5 x 400m @ 82,76,79,79,71

Had hoped to do this on Tuesday but the weather conditions put paid to that so planned to do it on the club track Wednesday. Primarily because it means I can get an accurate distance and also because, well, it’s a chance to run on the track.

Unfortunately, by the time I arrived down to the club on Wednesday morning, the archer that practices on the track infield was setting up and while he offered to share the track with me, there’s something about doing laps of the track while arrows are being fired at 150mph out of my line of sight that doesn’t sit entirely comfortably with me. So, I declined.

As I head off, I’m thinking about the various different sessions I could substitute for the planned one but by the time I get to the Polos, I’ve decided the simplest thing would be to do the session as originally intended.

It turns out pretty well. The pace is a bit more uneven because of the surface and conditions and I’m a bit off the pace for the 2k bits and the 400s are all over the place (a combination of headwinds and the fitness group’s lack of Polo track etiquette parking their prams on the track!).

It’s not exactly what I was looking for (in terms of an accurate measured distance or the desired pace on the 2ks or 400s) but it’s a good workout, I feel strong and in control. It’s 6 miles at 6:20 pace and I feel good going home.

I also manage to get an entry for the Graded 1500m on the 22nd in Morton.

Thursday - 8.8 @ 7:51
Friday - 8.8 @7:38

Saturday - SESSION 3 x (3min/2min/1min off 1 min jog then 30s snappy) and 2mins jog between sets

I’m knackered by Saturday. Sleep has not been good since Tuesday, but I know if I can get through the next two days then I can put a cap on this block, satisfied that I am in about as good shape as I could have hoped coming out of lockdown.

Today’s Polo ground session is a bit different. Instead of the usual distance intervals, the work/recovery sessions are dictated by the coach’s whistle. A set is: 1 minute on - 1 minute off - 2 minutes on - 1 minute off - 3 minutes on - 1 minute off - 30s snappy - 2minutes off. And we go on/off at the coach’s whistle.

The track-focused folk like myself and a few others will do 3 sets, whereas the hardier bucks with their eye on 10000m or half-marathons will do 4. It’s the type of session I really like, where you can run it anyway you like - either hit the ‘on’ sections hard and ‘jog’ the off sections or keep it reasonably one-paced, minimising the gap between the work/recovery sections.

Having someone faster than you to run with also helps - and I’m blessed to have a 4 flat 1500m guy and the Dublin intermediate xc champ to run with in my group! I feel good and, apart from misjudging when I should have started surging on the final 3min section, I’m picking up pace throughout the session and taking a lot of the longer reps out.

Most of the work sections are in around 5 flat pace and we end up with about 5.7miles in 35minutes, just a smidge over 6min/mile pace average - which is good going for me when about 15 minutes of that 35 minutes is recovery jogging.

But, consistent with previous sessions, I’m blown out of the water on the snappy 30s sections by the other guys. And the takeout for me is the same as previous weeks - I’m definitely stronger than recent years but off the pace. I don’t know what that will mean in a 1500m race but we’ll find out in 10 days.

Sunday was 11.9miles @7:44 to bring me up to a total of 70miles for the week! Which is twice the mileage I averaged for the marathons I did when I started running. And a weekly volume total I never thought I’d reach, even at the start of lockdown. I won’t be keeping it up but it’s good to know I can hit it doing two good sessions and a nice long run.

So, the plan for next week is to drop the miles a (good) bit, do something fast (or faster) midweek and whatever next weekend’s session involves.

The long-term conundrum is one that I think faces everyone who ups mileage - how much speed do you have to sacrifice to be competitive over longer distances. Being able to hold a decent pace over a longer distance is a great feeling, but straining to run quick intervals is not.

pconn062 wrote: »

For the sake of discussion, I have a question for you! You seem to do your easy mileage much slower than other guys of your ability with similar PB's. Even I would run 10-20 secs on average quicker than you I would say on easy days, without pushing the pace.

Everyone runs their easy days quicker than me! And you're running a bit more than 10-20s faster than me on your long runs these days!!

I think there are a lot of factors to it. I'm taking the opportunity to ramble here, P so excuse the length of the post!

Because of previous injuries, I've been making a big effort to pay attention to my cadence on easy runs, particularly when I'm running on concrete. It means I don't run that freely (and I don't enjoy running on concrete). It's a bit of a chore, to be honest but it means I'm injury free at the moment.

The surface could also be a factor, I run everything on grass and trails.

And higher mileage definitely plays a part. I just go at whatever pace my legs want to go at and, honestly, I'm actually surprised at how quick some of my easy days are! In 2018-19, when I was running strictly by hr and doing decent mileage, my easy days were closer to 8:30 most of the time. So, to my mind, my easy runs are quite speedy these days by comparison!

The time I run at is a factor as well - I'm really f*cking old and it takes me a couple of miles to warm up when I'm out the door at 7 these days. I see a lot of guys doing low- or sub-7s out the gate and that's never going to be me. Unless I'm very fit and I then drop mileage, my opening pace is always about 8min/m and sometimes closer to 9min/m.

It's possibly a bit of a hangover from when I did a lot of training by hr when I really had to warm up very gently to keep the hr low. But I don't mind runs turning progressive if it's not going to impact sessions/recovery. When I ran less, and when I started running, almost every run was progressive, which was fine because I wasn't running every day and the runs were relatively short.

So, the easy run pace would definitely pick up if I dropped the mileage and intensity a bit but I know if I do that, I'll find it harder to get the mileage back up for xc so my intention is to keep it - within reason - at a good level through the track season. That's the intention, whether or not I'll succeed is another matter!

pconn062 wrote: »

I am looking at my own easy pace and wondering is it too fast, even though it feels easy and heart rate suggests the same.

Ultimately, I think that easy pace is very individual. I look at some people's easy pace and think "why is their easy pace" so much faster than mine?! And then I look at the guys who are the guts of 2min faster than me over 5k and wonder why is my easy pace only 30s slower than theirs!!

There's a guy in the club whose easy pace is generally over 8 and often in the 8:30s and there'll be 9minute miles in there too - and I suspect he'll dip under 15mins for 5k this year. And he can rip off 45s 300s when he needs to. There are other guys I know who've taken big leaps after actively deciding to increase their easy pace. It really depends...and which is why I sometimes think that it's very important for everyone to figure out what works for them, and what approach (or environment) will get them out the door consistently - whether that's consistently once a week or twice a day - and sustainably.

There are people who will tell you Kipchoge does his recovery at 9min/mile and there are other runners who never run slower than 6:** but realistically the only thing about easy pace that matters is that it's not too fast to impact on recovery or sessions and not too slow to impact on biomechanics/efficiency.

For me, sustainability in training is often about intensity, I'll get injured or sick if I push it too much so I try to err on the side of caution - especially with the Sunday long runs.

If you're not feeling tired and you're hitting your paces in sessions, you're probably fine. Last week was a big week for me and I was having trouble sleeping - which I'm presuming is partly to do with the training volume. I wasn't that pushed about going out today either. Little things like that tell me that I might be a little bit on the edge, so I just have to navigate those periods without getting struck down.

I'm generally more of an under-cooker than an over-cooker but I have messed up a few races in recent years by just tipping over the edge in terms of training intensity in the final week where I was flying in training and just needed to sit the last session out. Magness is good on this in The Science of Running on st/ft tapers.

TLDR; I like easy runs to be very easy mainly because I am lazy, but also because I am old.

UNPOPULAR RUNNING OPINION:

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A RECOVERY RUN.

I will provide no evidence to support this claim.

I think this is the third week in a row where I’ve barely scraped over 50miles for the week. Without a conscious focus on easy mileage, there were a couple of times this week where I had to drag myself out the door or force myself to tag on another few minutes or miles.

Were it not for public commitments to discipline and application like this log (and a 3-4 month running streak), I think this week could easily have been in the low 30s. Maybe that would have been better.

I had the feeling there was an achilles niggle brewing this week (which more likely stemmed from excessive phone usage than excessive training). Things are a bit creakier at the start of runs so I have to keep an eye on it as this is the way my achilles problems have developed in previous seasons.

Monday - 52mins @7:33 easy
Tuesday - club session: 13 x 200m on/off on the Polo Grounds

One of my favourite sessions is 20 x 200m off 100m in/around mile pace on the track, so this looked much handier than that on that. Even if the combination of grass and wind meant it didn’t really seem that way.

We were doing it on laps of the Polo Ground, so there were 3 x 200s on odd laps and 2 x 200 on even laps, I was given 5 laps, so 13 x 200 (3/2/3/2/3). Mostly 36s, which is a little off mile pace and I probably could have done another couple of laps but finished off with a 34s and a 30s last 200 to make it a quality last lap. As usual, nice to have Josh pacing me around - he did the full 20 at that pace.

Wednesday - 39mins @7:40 easy.

Thursday - Experimental strides! 10 x 120-ish strides off walk-back.
(7 miles for the day)
I’d seen these suggested in a Lydiard training manual a while back as a ‘leg speed’ drill. He described it like this:

Find an area that is nearly flat but with a gradual decline and about 120 to 150 meters long. Warm-up for at least 15 minutes and then, run over the course ten times as follows, with a three minute interval. Do not rush through this training and realize that it is important to have a full three minute interval. Each time during the run, think of moving the legs as fast as possible and do not be conscious of stride length. Keep as relaxed as possible in the upper body. The same action can be obtained by going down stairs one at a time as fast as possible. You will find that the legs do not seem to move fast enough. So run with a normal stride, thinking of only one thing: MOVING THE LEGS FAST. This way, it is possible to overcome viscosity in the leg muscles and develop fine speed. After the tenth repetition, cool down for at least 15 minutes

So, I did 5 concentrating on stride length + 5 of the Lydiard-style concentrating on stride rate.

Friday - 19mins @7:27. Purely for the purposes of maintaining my streak.

Saturday - had to get out early so missed the club session and did a fairly perfunctory continuous run made up of 20mins w/up - 20 mins steady - 3mins jog recovery - 4 x 30s hills off jog back - and then home. Ended up around 9miles @7:39 pace.

Sunday - 84mins @7:52 . A no-fun trudge.

Logging this now, I’m conscious that the paces on my easy days are a little faster and I suspect that’s contributing to the creakiness.

I’ve also entered the 1500m at National Seniors. I’ve only done one National Seniors before in 2016, where I ran my second fastest 800m, so I’m hoping it can inspire me to a 1500m pb this year.

The problem with the 1500m at nationals is that the heats are usually ridiculously tactical. At indoors this year, the first heat was stupidly slow for the first 1300m so just the first 4 qualified and the fastest time qualifiers came from the second heat. Which meant that a guy who has a pb of 3:47 ran 4:09 to finish 5th in the very tactical first heat (less than 3/10ths of a second separating 1st from 5th) and didn’t qualify.

If I’m in the first heat, it might be hard for me to run a pb in a tactical heat. If I’m in a later heat, I stand a chance of getting dragged around.

Ok.

Monday 60mins @ 8:09
Tuesday 39mins @ 8:04

Wednesday (SESSION)
6:52 @ 6:43 inc 15mins @MarHR/6:10 (3mins jog) / 8mins @LTHR/5:43 (3mins jog)

Planned to do 6 x 1min on/off at the end but cut session short due to “gastrointestinal” “issues”.

4 years ago, I did a similar session with 10mins @ MarHR and 6mins @LTHR a week before running 4:14 for 1500m so I thought I’d keep the sessions before next week’s race fairly closely matched. I added a bit of extra distance to both the MarHR and LTHR sections because I’m fitter now (although older and so probably not as fast!). Did these on the road around the OS/Furze loop. It’s straightforward and flat, although ideally you have the wind behind you on the OS rather than the Furze (which I didn’t today).

First run in the Brooks Hyperion Tempo. Running feels very easy in them. They get you up on your toes. I felt like they had transferrable benefits to my form in other shoes after my first run with them. They just seemed to make me more fluid. I’m not really sure what to make of them.

They’re not light enough for a 5k or anything faster but I’d say I could do a very decent half-marathon in them. They don’t have a plate but if they’re any indication of what the plate shoes can do, I really can understand how people are running the times they are in the Nike shoes. However, based on my limited experience with the Hyperion Tempo, I suspect the benefits you get are - to some extent - a function of your running style. I don’t think they’ll give the same benefit to everyone.

Thursday - 38mins @ 8:01

Friday - 43mins @ 7:16 - accidentally progressive, starting with an 8:20 mile and with the last 2 miles around 6:45.

Wore the Hyperion again to protect the achilles. I could wear them everyday.

Saturday (SESSION)
5 x (400m / 100m jog / 400m snappier) 85s active between sets

Polo Grounds were in Polo use for once so we were on the Garda Loop. It’s a 1000 yard trail loop directly across the road from the Polo Grounds. Love this loop, first half of it’s uphill so you get a chance to open up on the second half when you get the downhill back. It’s not the most even underfoot and you’re generally running into the wind on the way up so it’s a bit of strength work at the same time.

Splits

(77-33s jog recovery-75)
(76-38s jog recovery-73)
(76-41s jog recovery-73)
(76-44s jog recovery-71)
(78-42s jog recovery-72)

Sunday - 41mins @ 7:55

Another week down. 40-odd miles for the week. Emerged unscathed and it’s the first week under 50 miles since the first week in April. I don’t have a lot of pace work or under-distance speed work done. But I’m reasonably healthy and I’ve got a lot of miles in.

1500m on Saturday. The worst case scenario, which really would be a pain in the arse, would be running the same 1500m race that I’ve run about 10 times since 2016. Which is 800m in 2:15 and then run steadily to a 4:14/15/16 finish.

What I want to do is to get to 800m in 2:13 and have enough strength, and be close enough to someone else to get around the last 700m in less than 1:59. It doesn’t seem impossible and yet I haven’t managed to do it in the last 10 or so 1500m races.

There’s still the possibility of a mile race before the season’s over - I don’t think the National Masters is going to happen, unfortunately - but I would love to go into the mile race off a good race next weekend.

Next week will probably be 20mins @MarHR on Tuesday w/ an easy 6 x 200 afterwards - don’t care about times or recoveries.

Friday I’ll do 2 x 100m and some drills.

Race on Saturday.

I’ll probably run everyday but I doubt I’ll get up to much more than 30 miles for the week.

Weekly report to follow tomorrow but race execution didn't go to plan, despite being set up perfectly, but small consolation of the world's smallest pb of 0.06 seconds. Finished 9th of 12 in 4:14.00 (would it really have killed them to round me down to 4:13.99?!) in a heat won by Seán Tobin in 3:58.15.

Finished very, very strongly so there's definitely another couple of seconds out there.

Really enjoyed it tonight. Even if I never figure out the 1500m, it's great to be fit and uninjured!

Mile race to come next month - I'd like a few seconds off my pb, please.

Dubh Geannain wrote: »

Well done on the PB. Was it windy?

The race is around the 1:22 mark below. It was a great finish to the race too.

https://youtu.be/IP87zUhatwU

Windy on the home straight, with a good tail wind on the back straight - I didn't think it was a massive problem at the time, although it probably did mean I was a bit cautious in overtaking the last guy between 600m-700m when we turned into the home straight. Which is when I lost touch with the main group and the gap opened. You can see in the video how much he had started slowing down even before I overtook him, so he was moving farther and farther away from the group before I went round. I think that error was probably worth a second (or two!).

In the end, I ran just over 36 miles this week.

Monday was 31mins in the rain @8:10 inc 6 x 8s hill sprints in the People’s Flower Gardens in the Phoenix Park.

Tuesday was a session starting with 3k @MHR (just under mar hr) - 11mins30s approx 6:10 pace.

Followed by a shoe test of 3 x 200m off 100m walk in my old pair of spikes (which I’d run my 1500m + 3000m pbs in) and a new pair of spikes (which I’ve never worn before, but are v2 of my old pair of spikes - Saucony Endorphins).

Old shoes:

32.49
32.06
31.05

New shoes:

30.19
30.33
29.76

So, even though some of it was psychological and some of it was probably due to having warmed up on the first 3 reps, I had to go with the new spikes…

Wednesday

DOMS - 33mins @7:49

Thursday

Bad DOMS - 35mins @ 8:05

Yoga with Adriene…

Friday

29mins @8:15 with two tentative hill sprints.

More Yoga with Adriene…

But I was starting to feel quite good.

Saturday AM

12mins @9:00m

Legs were starting to feel light here.

Running late -

Truncated warm-up

Race - National Seniors Championships 1500m Heat 1 - 9th (of 12) - 4:14.00

I probably should be disappointed. I didn't really run the race I had planned to run. Was set up perfectly at 600 but didn’t go around the guy who finished last quickly enough (as you can see in the video above) and ended up getting a bit detached from the group by 800.

Had no clue what time I had run until I got home but I knew I had left a couple of seconds on the track due to the slow 500-900m section. After the race, I heard one guy say that we went through the first lap in around 64 and slowed right down. There were no splits being called but I caught a glimpse of the clock on 3:0* after I passed 1100m and I knew I had a reasonable last lap (particularly the last 200m). So, I knew it was possible - but unlikely - that I might have squeezed out a pb. Found out when I got home that I had ran the world's smallest pb (of 0.06 seconds!). My old pb was from the first graded race of 2016 (during / or after which I tore my achilles and missed the entire summer - so it was nice to finally put that to bed).

I reckon the splits for me were probably around 65.* / 69.* / 68.*/51 or something like that.

I wasn’t doubled over at the finish line but, in contrast to previous races, on the way home and afterwards I just felt pleased with how I was feeling - being fit and uninjured, being able to run national seniors and not embarrass myself against guys (some more than) half my age. And taking those few places in the home straight - from guys with faster pbs than me - has convinced me that 4:10 is not a pipe-dream, even if it’s not going to happen this year - will need an IMC race. I feel like I’m closer to figuring out the 1500m.

So, even acknowledging that I could have run quicker and even if I never figure out how to run the 1500m properly, I really enjoyed being out there racing and I still love the track!

Also, first race in my new Endorphin 2s with a pb.

Home from race 27mins @ 8:06

Sunday

Very enjoyable 49mins @7:56

----

Still a mile race to come and I'm looking forward to reviewing the whole summer's training. There are things I did right and things I got wrong. On the whole, though, very happy with how I navigated a couple of sketchy moments with niggles to keep the training on the road and get a decent run at Nationals in. I can't remember the last time I was as fit as I am although the hard part is going to be sustaining it, without getting ill or injured. I have some ideas already!

Dubh Geannain wrote: »

That's super time on the last 800. Congrats again and best of luck in the mile.

Cheers - looking forward to seeing you out on the track next year!