Often becomes easy when the easy is often..

The spawning of this log reminds me of the time I came up with the name 'Atmos-hire' many moons ago.
I had this mad brainwave about starting up a rent a crowd company that struggling publicans or restaraunt owners would call on on slow nights to fill their venue and get the buzz going. I would bus in a few dozen people, the place would be hopping and word would spread. I'd be rich.

I loved the name so much that I almost ignored the obvious flaws in my plan.

This log is kinda like that. Kinda.

I came up with the thread title the other night in another thread and Murph suggested it would make a good header for a log. I laughed and thought of Atmos-hire, a cool name with no backup.

That was until today.

I feel I ran the race of my life today. The race series 10k.

Even counting DCM last year it's the first time I've felt real tangible effects of hard work and training.

That's likely because I've a point of reference, it being my fifth 10k, but it was a real eye opener, in a good way.

History: Started C25K in Jan 2016. My first race was the Raheny 5 the following year. Was running as stupidly as is expected up to that and cried off until April with a suspected calf or achilles injury.
Got back into things and ran the 10k night run in April in just under 50 mins. Delighted.

Signed up for the series, the marathon and Dunshaughlin 10k.

Signed up to the novices thread and followed the boards plan under the great guidance of Wubble, and others, to all I'm eternally grateful. Ran the marathon of my dreams thanks to all involved here. Careful attention to the advice of veterens was absolutely key to this.

Given today is the reason I decided to start a log, I'll focus on my history of 10ks, starting with Dunshaughlin, as that's in and aroung the time I decided to get serious about training.

Ran Dunshaughlin poorly in terms of strategy and came in in 47:52. Was happy with the pb but it was a slog. Went out way too fast and was in agony for the last couple of miles.

Ran the exact same time at the Fingal 10k but with a vastly different experience, went out easy and built it up, coming home with a kick. Definitely a better strat than Dunshaughlin but no improvement.

Had a bad winter, had big ideas but chest infections in December and February put me out of action for about five weeks. Got things moving again around March and met up with Skyblue in April for the Donadea 10k.
Didn't intend on racing it, didn't set out to. Didn't have a great race either way, faded around 7k but gave it my all and came in with a pb of 46:55. Likely a positive hangover of the previous year's marathon block.

Today felt a whole lot different however to them all.

I've been following a Jack Daniels Q2 plan for the last five weeks. My reading of his methodology is that it's designed to bring your long distance times in line with what your shorter distance times predict. In other words, it works on building endurance. What plan doesn't I suppose, but JD's methods seem to have some magic to them.

I felt so strong today throughout, felt I was pushing it but always felt the confidence that there was plenty in the tank. Have never felt that confidence before.
That pushing it zone was almost always accompanied by an anxiety, a 'wtf are you doing? This can blow up any second!' anxiety. Today that wasn't there, I knocked a minute and 6 seconds off April and although I left nothing out there, and was doubled over afterwards, it felt almost, dare I say it, easy. In terms of endurance.

The plan has me running 6 days a week, three days more than my average.

It's called the Q2 plan because there's two Quality sessions a week, Saturday and Wednesday, you build up your mileage with easy running the rest of the week.
I've settled on 40 mpw.

Q sessions are effectively long runs with stuff. So far mostly some threshold reps mixed in with easy running, and some MP miles. Doing 11 miles before work at 5:30 on a Wednesday morning is the making of you though, getting through them is doing a lot for my discipline. Especially with young kids that like screaming the house down at 2am.

I'm running the first third (six weeks) conservatively, the second third dialled up and the final third at goal paces.

On week five at the moment and currently targetting 3:45 for DCM.

Ran 3:58:08 last year after following a great plan designed to get me around.

Up until today I had anxieties around targeting a 15 minute slice off that. I now feel confident in the plan.

So, after that long winded tl;dr intro, I'll set off into this log, update it as much as I can and hopefully gain something from sharing....