Just like starting over:The quest for a sub 18 5k

Thursday 17th May: Rest

Rest from running but done a good core workout and the physio exercises

10 exercises with 3x15 reps.

Friday 18th May: 3.7 mile @9:15 avg pace

Had a very short window as had a work function on in the evening that didn't finish until midnight.

Had 30 minutes or so to run so threw on the gear and got a nice handy run in.

Saturday 19th May: 5 mile with 3x1mile @racepace with 4 mins rest (Max HR: 167)

Had a busy day painting fences and after 6 hours painting the last thing I wanted to do was a session but couldn't think of a good reason not to get out.

Started with a 1 mile warm-up and lots of stretching.

First mile wasn't too bad - I didn't have a time in mind - just wanted to work hard without pushing too much and running out of juice.
6:06

Second mile started ok but was definitely feeling it in the legs over the last two laps and was delighted when the mile beeped on the watch:
6:05

Last mile was hurting from the word go and considered throwing in the towel a few times as the quads were on fire but would have been annoyed if I pulled up. 6:05

Another mile cooldown before another stretch. Iced the knee as a precaution afterwards
Delighted with this and the toughest session in a long long time.

Sunday 20th May: 6.4 mile @ 8:51 avg pace (Avg HR: 145)

Went out first thing for this. Plan had me down for a 60 minuted progression run. That plan went out the window as the quads were in absolute bits from the word go. Only progression involved was getting slower every mile!!!

Still happy enough to get miles in tired legs

Weekly total: 22.3 miles

Monday 21st May: 4 mile easy @ 8:58 (35:56) Avg HR 146

Plan had 35 minutes easy running which suited fine as legs still had some residual DOMS from the weekends speedwork. Headed up to local football pitch, turned on a podcast and zoned out. Plenty of stretching afterwards and the physio exercises for the knee


Tuesday 22nd May: 4 mile easy @ 8:53 (35:33) Avg HR 134
Mirror image of Monday's run - same place, same time etc..


Got up at 6 am and got a core workout:
50 x single leg squats
3 x 45 sec wall sits
50 x pushups (20,15,15)
50 x situps
50 x crunches
50 x raised crunches
100 x side crunches
50 x raised arm crunches
50 x bicycles
50 x leg raises
50 x flutter kicks
50 x ankle touches
60 second plank


Wednesday 23rd: 3x (90sec @ 5k, 1 min rest , 3 mins @ 5k pace, 4 min rest) Max HR: 156


Another 6 am rise for a core workout - same as yesterdays without the wallsit and one legged squats


As I had an evening meeting with work, I had to squash this in by leaving office a wee bit early and getting down to the track.



It was 20 degrees and very warm but at least there was a bit of a breeze.


Started out with a gentle 1 mile warm-up before getting into the reps. Tried to keep good form and not to overcook it and surprised myself by really enjoying this and wasn't as tired as I expected afterwards


Paces were as follows:
90sec - 6:04; 3mins - 6:05
5:55; 6:06
6:07; 6:08


Another mile cool down for a total of 4.4mile

AuldManKing wrote: »

That core workout is hard core. Very impressive.

Is this an assigned plan or just something your doing yourself?

Did you build up to it the volume you posted?

I started doing a fair bit of core work before Christmas just to feel like I was doing something when I couldn't run. I've been doing it fairly consistently since.

It's something I came up with myself when the circuits class I was doing came to an end based on the exercises that we were doing there. I'm trying to do it at least 3 days a week and find it's helping.

I had been doing various 30 day challenges but they never really worked for me as I'd usually miss a few days and then abandon them.

On volume I started at 30 reps of each exercises and am building up slowly but it's fairly ad-hoc.

I've started to catch up with the logs here and it's great to see the training your are knocking out - it's very impressive. Are you sure you aren't going full time pro??

Monday 28th May: 4.4 miles @ 9:09 avg pace

Started the day with an early core and physio workout before work - blows the cobwebs away. 50 reps of each.

Got out after work for a nice gentle 40 minute run. Kept the pace real handy.

Tuesday 29th May: 3.7 miles with 10x 30sec hard, 60 sec easy.

Knowing I had a busy day planned and it would be a scorcher, decided to get out early for this and set the alarm for 5:45. Headed to the pitch track and it was 17 degrees already!!

Done an easy 1 mile warm-up and a few stretches before getting into this.

I really enjoyed it as it was over fairly quickly and the 30 seconds flew by.

Done another 1 mile cool down before heading home for the breakfast.

Wednesday 30th May: 5 mile @ 8:47 avg pace

Went with one of the lads from the club while the young lad was at training. Nice route around town and miles whizzed by.

Usual core routine in the morning: (50 reps)

Thursday 31st May Rest

A welcome complete rest day!!

Friday 1st June: 8.4 mile @ 8:19 avg pace

Started the day with a core workout but ran out of time so only 35 reps of each.

Had planned a hillier route with two of the lads from the club but the thunder and lightning meant we changed our plan and stayed around town. Tough run as it was very warm and heavy and a fairly tough route. Still enjoyed it.

Saturday 2nd June: 5.2 miles with 6 x 800mtrs/ with 2 mins rest

Plan said to run each one 1-2 seconds quicker. I knew that would be very difficult to judge and wanted to make sure the first wasn't too hot.

Done a nice and easy one mile warm-up and a decent stretch and then the heavens opened. It was literally a cloudburst that kept up for the entire workout and the clothes were stuck to me. The training got completely waterlogged and slippier with every lap but was soaked to the skin so kept going.

Times for what they are worth were as follows:
3:20
3:13
3:08
3:06
3:06
3:08

Happy enough with this as by the last two reps I was slipping on the corners and it was like a steeplechase in places with the amount of standing water on the track.

Managed a one mile cool down before having to wrap a few beach towels around me in order not to destroy the car!!

Wettest I've ever been but it got done!!

Sunday 3rd June: 3.3 miles @ 9:10 avg pace

Legs were tired and I could feel the fatigue in the knees so decided to play it safe today and call Friday's run my long run. Was up very early to head to Dublin anyway so would have been a squeeze to get this done. Went out after the dinner and headed down to the gaa pitch and zoned out for 30 minutes. Legs feeling heavy and dead but am taking that as a sign of a good hard weeks work!!

Weekly Total: 30 miles.

Thursday 7th June: Rest

Planned rest day. Ended up going to a table quiz and a few pints were had!!


Friday 8th June: Rest

Was fairly tired but had planned to get out in the evening but the lightning storm meant I canned the idea of getting out.


Saturday 9th June: 5 mile with 20min progression run M to HM pace

The family were heading off to Kerry without me. I had a manic day planned so decided to head for the pitch when they were leaving straight after breakfast.


Started with a 1 mile warm-up and that felt a struggle so was starting to dread the 20 minutes. I should have put more thought into checking my marathon pace but decided to go on feel. I probably should have been aiming for 7 - 7:15 and worked down to 6:45 or so.


First mile came in at 6:48 pace and was starting to feel it. Was tempted to can the run after 10 minutes and then after 2 mile. 2nd mile came in at 6:56 so gritted the teeth and decided to stick it out. It took a lot to keep going. 3rd mile came in at 6:51 and was happy enough with that. Finished with a very slow final mile.


I made this a lot harder than I should have and paced it poorly but will consider it a decent workout and hopefully it will stand to me and bring me on.


Spent most of the rest of the day digging holes at the local school to install balance beams so felt justified in skipping the core work!!!



Spent 6 hours in the car then to travel to Aughrim to see a very one sided game but a lovely scenic drive!!


Sunday 10th: 9 mile LSR @ 8:21 avg pace

It seemed like a good idea when I was sitting in the sun in Aughrim to plan a run for very early on Sunday.



Woke up feeling creaky but met one of the lads from the club and we hit the forest trails for this. Legs were dead for first few miles but got better the longer we went on and we ended up quickening the pace over the last few miles. Last mile came in @ 7:31.


Enjoyed this run and happy to notice that the long runs are getting easier.



Spent a few hours putting together a street party and playing football for a few hours with the kids so no energy for a core workout.



Total weekly mileage: 29.53 miles

Tuesday 12th June: 4 mile with 12x 30 secs with 60 sec recovery

Set the alarm for 5:30 and hit the local pitch for this. Generally I try to avoid doing speedwork early but figured this was a manageable one even for 6am.


Started with a 1 mile warm-up and then into the 12x30 seconds. They surprisingly flew by and really enjoyed this. Too short a time to get really uncomfortable and the 1 min jog recovery felt generous.



Another 1 mile cool-down finished it out nicely


Wednesday 13th June: 6.3 miles @ 7:54 avg pace


Started off the day with a 6am core session as well as the physio exercises.



Went out with two of the lads from the club while the kids were training. I had no idea of the route but was told it was "testing"!! I had a fair idea that this meant lots of hills and sure enough that's how it worked out. The lads were setting the pace and I just clung on.


A nice tough run with plenty of hills!!


Thursday 14th June: Rest

Decided to do a Friday evening 5k with one of the lads from the club so made sure this was a very restful day and done feck all!!!


Friday 15th June: 5 mile including Clones 5K

One of the lads from the club was doing this so I decided to tag along. I figured it would be a useful exercise exactly half way through my 5k plan. I wanted to get as close to 19:00 as possible but wasn't putting myself under pressure.


We got up to Clones with plenty of time to warm-up and it was the perfect evening for running. Race started bang on time with just over 100 lined up. It was part of the County Monaghan Distance league so vast majority of runners were wearing club vests so was expected plenty of company around the course.


I was chatting to a local before the race who gave me a good run down on the course, so I knew the 1st km would be a quick downhill so focussed on keeping with a decent group and not going off too hard. Settled into the back of a group of around 7 and was happy with that over the 1st km. 3:39


Second km had a few sharp hills on it and by this stage it was clear that some in the group had gone out too hard and were struggling. By the time we hit the 2k mark there was four of us left in the group working together and I was happy with my position. 3:54

Next km was fairly uneventful with the group staying together and no-one making a move really. 3:50



4th km had a few hills on it but was expecting this. One of the group was struggling and we dropped him early on in this km. About 3.5 km in we hit a fairly long sharp hill and the two guys with me made a move. I kept with them but was really finding this a chore. Was pleasantly surprised when we hit the 4km mark as really didn't expect it to come so soon with my focus being on hanging on to the other two. 4:00

Was happy where I was at the 4km mark and felt I could push on a bit and get a decent time but a combination of lack of miles in the legs and a stitch turned this into a horrendous slog!! I was quickly dropped by the two guys with me as I tried to work out the stitch and was soon passed by the guy we had dropped earlier. Tried to latch onto him but the stitch meant that wasn't really an option. The focus was now on just trying to get home and was counting down the metres. Kept telling myself only two laps of the track, 1 lap, 1/2 lap to go. Felt I was slowing significantly and wasn't surprised to hear footsteps gaining on me with 200mtrs to go. Not a lot I could do as he glided past me. Seen it was my clubmate that I travelled up with so gave him a shout of encouragement to keep going. He shouted at me to keep up. Told him to keep going as I was struggling badly.



Got into the last 100mtrs and could see the finish line from a fair bit out and heard footsteps behind me again. Decided that I really didn't want to get passed again so put the boot down and the stitch seemed to go (lesson for the future!!). There was a lot of people lined up on the home straight and they were shouting encouragement for all the runners. I got a buzz from this and realised I could catch my clubmate if I got the finger out. Managed to catch him on the line but had no idea which of us got it.


19:26 and later found out I pipped clubmate by 0.1 of a second.


Stood against the rails with the legs like jelly and felt like I was going to throw up and at that moment realised how much I missed racing 5ks and that feeling at the end after you gave it all.


There was an impressive spread afterwards and after a bit of reflection, I was happy enough with how the race went. I gained 15 seconds on my comeback 5k on a tricky course and hopefully with more work over the rest of the plan will give sub 19 a good bash on the 14th July.


Onwards and upwards

Saturday 16th June: 3 mile easy @ 8:45 avg pace


A very handy run around football pitch. Legs were tired and heavy


Sunday 17th June: 10 mile LSR @ 8:20 avg pace

Longest run since the comeback from injury. Perfect conditions for a long run and just ran around Cavan town. Got tired over last few miles but another milestone under the belt and legs felt fine and no worries with knee.


Weekly Total: 32.3 miles

Friday 6th July - Monday 9th July: rest while travelling home/ allowing the body recover.

Tuesday 10th July: 4 mile @ 8:34 avg pace

Gentle run around the local pitch to see how I was feeling and if I could run at the weekend - result was inconclusive!!

Wednesday 11th July: 4.2 mile with 10mins @ 6:50 avg pace

Can't remember what I was attempting here :pac: but suffice to say the conclusion was that goal race was in the bin and a trip to the doctors was in order to clear chest infection.

Thursday 12th July - Tuesday 17th July:
More rest :rolleyes: as I waited for the chest infection to clear up.

Wednesday 18th July: 3.75 miles @ 8:08 avg pace
Easy run with a few lads from the club. A few of us were roped into playing a football match the following evening so the run for me was to make sure the chest infection had cleared up. The run felt good and I gave myself the all clear to play the match

Thursday 19th July: Football match - was flying and enjoying this until early in the second half when challenging for a 50/50 ball I overstretched and pulled up with a quad injury. Could barely walk off the pitch - I knew straight away my goose was cooked!! Quad was very sore afterwards even after a lot of icing.

Friday 20th July - Monday 23rd July:
More rest and icing the quad.

Monday 30th July: 3.5 miles @ 9:18 avg pace
Started the day with a 6am core workout - 50 reps of the usual stuff along with the physio exercises.


Got out the door then straight after work and ran from the house. Kept the pace nice and handy. Body was tired and achey!!


Tuesday 31st July: 5.65 miles @ 7:59 avg pace

Met two of the lads from the club for a late evening run around town. Was happy enough to slot in behind the two lads and try and keep up with them. Just about managed that!!



Wednesday 1st August 5x 3mins @ goal 5kpace with 2mins rest

Was wrecked this morning so had to push this back. Day and weather went against me so ended up doing this straight after work. Not ideal as I was tired and hungry and I knew this would be a toughie. After all the rain and remembering how slippy the track was at local pitch, I decided to do this at the other gaa pitch. The track around this is a lot rougher and has a hill on one side that is short but sharp and track is about 500 metres. I always find it harder to monitor the pace and effort for speed work but it doesn't get slippy. (I think that's enough excuses :pac::pac: )


Anyhow started out with a handy 9min warm up run and a few stretches before getting stuck in.



Splits were as follows:

6:01
6:11
6:07
5:58
6:23

I'm putting 2 and 3 down to having taking in the hill twice but happy with the first four. The fifth wasn't pretty as I was running on empty and even though I knew the pace was slipping from halfway through, there was nothing left in the tank.



A tough session and needed 5 mins sitting time before I attempted a cool down lap.



Total: 5 mile

Tuesday 7th August: 4.3 miles @ 8:54 avg pace

Started the day with an 6am core workout (50 reps of usual stuff)


Got out for a run with one of the lads from the club in the evening. Time was short so stuck to an urban route. Miles flew by with the chat.


Wednesday 8th August: 5.5 miles with 10x400 w/200mtr jog recovery


Went down to the local gaa pitch track for this just after breakfast.


Started out with a 1 mile warm up and plenty of stretching before the 400's.


Target for them was 1:29


Splits were as follows:
1:28
1:29
1:29
1:28
1:28
1:27 1:30 break aka pit stop after this

1:26
1:26 Walked recovery after this.
1:30
1:30


Once again I ran out of juice on this. Was badly in need a toilet break from the 3rd rep and held on as long as I could but finally had to go after the 6th rep. It was tough to get going again and needed to walk the recovery after 8 reps. Stubborness kept me going and was glad to finish this. Wasn't keeping a close eye on splits so delighted with the consistency and that there wasn't a bit tail off.


Finished with a mile cool down before a quick shower and off to work!!

OOnegative wrote: »

Well done in Castlepollard last night, it tells you where you are fitness wise J. We know you are way faster.

Sorry I missed this until now!! That was my slowest 5k race ever so hopefully that's not where I am fitness wise or I'm taking up tiddlywinks :pac::pac::D.


I aggravated the quad over the weekend but had already committed to doing Castlepollard as was taxing someone there. Decided to do it as a tempo run as I had a 4 mile tempo run on the plan. The quad didn't like it when I tried to speed up so didn't overly push it.

Didn't realise I had left this so long




Thursday 9th August: 4 mile @ 8:55 avg pace

6 am run around the local football pitch


Friday 10th August: 5 mile @ 9:08 avg pace

Same time and place as previous day.


Friday/Saturday/ Sunday:



Worked 16 hour days each day and walked over 15 miles each day. Followed by a late night session wrote these days off. Managed to aggravate the quad injury too!!:mad:


Monday 13th August: 4 mile @ 8:50 avg pace


Had the day off work to make up for working all weekend. Caught up on sleep and then went down to the pitch for a few mile. The main purpose was to see how bad the quad was. Thankfully there was no real issue although I didn't push it too much.


Tuesday 14th August: 2.55 mile @ 8:27 avg pace


Was committed to Castlepollard so went for a wee exploratory run to see if the quad was up to the faster stuff. Went reasonably well and no reason not to run Castlepollard


Wednesday 15th August: 5.5mile incl Castlepollard 5k- 20:20 something or other.


Quad wasn't up to speedy stuff so turned this into the tempo run that was on the plan. Not the most comfortable or enjoyable 5k I ever done.


Took the rest of the week off to let the quad and body recover.


Monday 20th August: 4.8 mile @ 9:20 avg pace

Started the day with a 6am core routine - 50 reps of usual stuff.


Followed up with this run with one of the lads from the club.

Felt fresh after the break and not too much complaint from the quad.


Tuesday 21st August: 4 mile @ 8:29 avg pace

A very rare lunchtime run - enjoyed this.


Wednesday 22nd August: 4.4 mile @ 7:42 avg pace including 12 minutes tempo


A toughie with one of the lads from the club. Nice to have company and kept me honest on the tempo bit.


Also fitted in the 50 reps of the core routine


Thursday 23rd August: rest


Friday 24th August: 4.55 mile @ 8:50 avg pace

6 am run around the local pitch


Saturday 25th August: 4 mile including 8x200mtrs with 200mtrs recovery

Spent the day at Tayto Park so was proud of myself for sticking to the plan - even if it did mean running at 9pm after a long day with lots of walking.


Happy with the consistency of these - all were either 39 or 40seconds


Sunday 26th August: 8.4 mile @ 8:39 avg pace

Early morning long run around forest trails with one of the lads from the club in the rain.


Weekly total: 30.15 miles with 2 core workouts - a decent first week back

Saturday 1st September: 6.5 mile incl loop the lakes 7km race:


A few obligatory excuses to thrown in first :P
Body was in bits as I had spent the week doing manual labour, I got home from the pub at 2am and got 4 hours broken sleep, headed to this straight from football training intending to run with the young lad who then bailed on me, the course is a pig of a course.



Anyhow all excuses out of the way. This wasn't really on the agenda but was for a great cause and running buddy was doing it. Decided before the start to try and stay with him for as long as possible and see where that took me. Answer was 1 and a bit miles and then I died a death and it became a real slog to get home in one piece.



Splits were as follows: (watch was on miles)
6:16
6:46
7:18
7:52
1:42 for last bit (6:59 pace)


Total 29:54
The splits tell the tale of how the race went and felt!


Sunday 2nd September: 9mile LSR @ 9:09 avg pace

Joined running buddy for the second half of his 3 hour long run around the forest trails. The legs weren't too bad after the race and livened up after the first few miles.


Weekly Total: 34.2 miles

Thursday 6th September: Rest Day

Friday 7th September: 5.1 miles @ 8:06 avg pace

Easy run around Cavan town with one of the lads from the club. He set the pace, which was faster than my easy pace of late, so I just went with and no issues.

Saturday 8th September: 4 miles @ 9:02 avg pace

This was a real tick box exercise!!

Was up at 6am and spent the day volunteering at a Triathlon event. They even let me marshall the mount/dismount line which was great craic altogether!!

It was lashing rain when I got home, hungry and tired with a ceiling to paint. So had something to eat and painted the ceiling and then decided to go for a run at the pitch in the lashing rain. Pace was very slow but in a perverse way I enjoyed this but not fully sure why I headed out

Sunday 9th September: 1 hour easy, 30mins at HM pace.

Being off plan, I decided to join running buddy for this which meant a 6:30 am start when my body was craving sleep!!

We headed off on a very hilly route for the easy hours bit in the rain and legs were dreading the HM bit and I really was struggling to see myself getting 5 minutes at HM pace, nevermind 30 minutes.

The 30 minutes came around way to quick and the first mile was all about easing into it and trying to control the form and breathing - my mantra was that I should be able to keep the effort and pace for 90 minutes. 2nd mile was a lot easier and I found my groove! Unfortunately that didn't last and I died a slow death over the next two miles and even told running buddy to plough on alone after 23 minutes. He didn't hear me correctly and I managed to get back to him over last few minutes.

Was in bits after this but delighted to get the 30 minutes done - had a good laugh after as running buddy thought I was shouting at him not to get too far away from me!!

Still it shows how much of the hurt/ want to stop is in the head as the pace never really dropped over the last few miles even though I felt it had significantly dropped away. Average Pace for the HM bit was 7:11 which is about right in terms of my HM pace at the minute:

Total: 6.7 miles @ 9:14 avg pace; 4.2 miles @ 7:11 avg pace

Weekly total: 36.55 miles (biggest mileage in a long while)

Also stepped on the scales for the first time in a while and happy to see a 4lb weight loss - all going in the right direction!!

Monday 17th September: 3.4mile @ 9:11 avg pace

Very easy recovery run around the local pitch.


Tuesday 18th September: 6 mile with 10x400 w/200 jog recovery


This was a rare late evening session. Was trying to find reasons to put it off but couldn't come up with a decent excuse so just got out the door for it.


Started off with a nice and handy warm-up and a few stretches.


I was loosing the light at the pitch so decided to ignore the watch and just run on feel alone and try and keep the effort up and form good.


The reps flew by and felt nice and relaxed throughout.



I never checked the watch but thinking about it on the cool down I felt I was probably slower than the target 5:55 per mile pace.


Was nicely surprised when I checked later on that the pace was quicker than that.


Splits were:
5:53
5:42
5:47
5:42
5:44
5:39
5:42
5:43
5:45
5:52


Finished off with a nice and easy cool down to take it to 6 miles.


Wednesday 19th September: 5 mile@ 8:21 avg pace

Done this with one of the lads from the club when the young lad was doing athletics training. Stuck to the roads around town examining the damage from the storm.


Enjoyed this and legs felt fresh!

Monday 24th September: 3.5 miles @ 8:48 avg pace

Usual Monday evening recovery run around the pitch

Tuesday 25th September: 5.13 miles @ 8:57 avg pace

Late evening run with running buddy around town

Wednesday 26th September: 6 mile @ 8:09 avg pace

Usual Wednesday evening run with one of the lads from the club while young lad was at athletics training

Thursday 27th September: Rest
Was due to do speedwork but an emergency popped up so had to reschedule and ended up not getting out.

Friday 28th September: 6 mile with 4 mile @ goal 5k pace +15min per mile

Events nearly conspired against me again but eventually got away from work and decided to do this at the track before I went home.

To be honest I was dreading it and felt that there was no way I can do it but decided to give it a go anyway!!

Done a nice and easy warm-up mile before starting into it. The head and body quickly got into the right space and the laps ticked by. It definitely got tougher over the last mile but always felt in control and even felt as if I could have added on a few more miles!! A nice one for the confidence!!

Splits for the faster miles: 6:22; 6:20;6:15; 6:16

Saturday 29th September: 3.25 mile @ 8:28 avg pace

A nice and handy recovery run.

Sunday 30th September 6 mile including masters xcountry

County masters cross country day and was looking forward to this. I always enjoy the cross country when I'm fit and field was in great condition with plenty of long grass and very little mud.

For various reasons the field was very thin and had a feeling I would be out on my own for most of this!!

That proved to be the case quicker than expected as first guy (usually at 16XX 5k runner) shot off into the distance leaving the pack behind. I made a half hearted attempt to keep him in sight which meant that I was left on my own soon afterwards. The chasing pack were well behind and making no attempts to chase me down. So this ended up being a 5 lap tempo run for me on my own. I had zero chance of catching the quy ahead of me and he was long gone in the distance but tried to hold a decent pace and keep myself honest.

Managed to do this and finished the last mile as the quickest of the three and got home in second place. However, it was more of a decent workout than a race.

Done a few km cool down with one of the lads from the club.

Weekly total: 27.88 miles

September total mileage: 149 miles
A good month's work and some endurance and form is starting to come back!!

Monday 1st October: 3mile recovery @ 8:55 avg pace

Obligatory Monday recovery run from the house down to local pitch, few laps and back.


Tuesday 2nd October: 7.5 miles including 6x1km @ 10km effort

First run with new runners that arrived today - usually break them in but old ones were in bits so took the risk of changing straight away for this.



Done this with my marathon training running buddy as it nearly synced with my planned run of 5 x 1mile. It was later than planned when we got out to the forest park and knew we might be struggling for light over the last few.


Started with a 15 minute warm-up @ 8:45 pace, some stretches and then the fun stuff. There was plenty of rolling hills and trails so had roughly 4min kms in my head as a rough target but deliberately avoided looking at the watch and ran off feel and keeping each other honest. 90sec recoveries between the kms with 3mins between 3 and 4.


Splits were:
3:54
3:53
3:53
4:02
4:05
4:13


Last two were pretty much in darkness with visibility an issue so had to take it handy in places.


Happy with this nice and honest workout.


Wednesday 3rd: Rest

Thursday 4th: 5.4miles @ 8:38 avg pace

A late evening run with head torches with two of the lads from the club. Enjoyed this.


Friday 5th: 4 mile with 8x200 w/ 200 recoveries

One of the lads for the club joined me for this which meant it flew by and he made me work harder than I would have on my own!


Splits: 37;38;39;39;37;39;39;38


Saturday 6th: 5.2miles @ 8:38 avg pace

Run with running buddy around the gaa pitch while the kids had football training.


Sunday 7th: 10mile LSR @ 8:28 avg pace

Solo long run around town. Body felt a bit creaky to start with but soon hit my stride.


Weekly total: 35.1 miles

A decent enough week but need to start getting the mileage up to about 40 a week consistently,

Monday 15th October: 4.1 miles @ 8:57 avg pace

Usual Monday evening straight after work recovery run.


Tuesday 16th October: 6.2 mile incl 6x5mins @ threshold pace with 1 min jog recovery



Headed out with running buddy for this one off his plan.


Started with a 10 minute warm-up. I didn't have the session programmed on the watch so no splits apart from last 2. First couple were probably a bit on the quick side and was feeling it. Lost running buddy after the 4th as he was having stomach issues so done the last two solo and managed to somehow hang on and see them out. Splits for those were 6:18 and 6:21.



Didn't do a cooldown as running buddy was in the car waiting and didn't want him waiting around for me.


Happy with this - a nice tough honest run.


Wednesday 17th October: 6 mile @ 8:16

Another run that is becoming routine. Done this with one of the lads from the club while the young lads were doing athletics training. Another enjoyable run.


Thursday 18th October: 5 mile @ 9:42 avg pace


This was a strange one to say the least!! Had initially planned a rest day but got a call from running buddy for company on his planned session. I checked my plan and had a 6 mile tempo planned for Friday which I thought I could do some of with running buddy's planned session. We were planning on a 2 mile easy to start but when we stopped to stretch after 1 mile I was feeling light headed. Said nothing and decided to start into the tempo run after we hit 2 miles but was feeling fairly crap so decided to can the run and just turn it into an easy run to get back to the car. Still felt like crap and ended up stopping on the way home for lucozade.


Friday 19th: Rest


Saturday 20th: 8 mile including 6 tempo @ 7:01 avg pace

Was dreading this to be honest and nearly talked myself out of it a few times. Not helped that I had to do it first thing.



Thankfully I found my groove early on and once I got the first two miles done, I wasn't really struggling at all. Was still gasping for breath once I finished the six miles but absolutely delighted to have nailed this.


Sunday 21st: 11 mile LSR@ 8:30

Spent the rest of my Saturday between an under 9s blitz (including reffing a game) and then spreading topsoil on the school pitch so was zonked this morning and legs were tired and sore starting out.


A bit of life returned to the legs after a few mile and this flew by. First run I've done in a long time that it rained the whole way through.



Weekly total: 40.3 mile!! Yay finally crossed the 40 mile a wee mark for first time since last May!! :P