Sunrise Running

Feb 12
Yoga 30 mins sun salutation sequences

Movement
Mindfulness

I needed both

Feb 15
14.01k Steasy @5:00 |HRR 62-75%
S&C: Plyometrics 33 mins | HRR 63-82%

I drew a line under last week. A solid one. Despite 73k and a good workout I felt it was a failure. I felt dejected by the end. Fatigued. I almost threw in the towel. I took my first day off yesterday, overdue really. Nutella heart shaped american pancakes kinda day I had battled with the will to go out and do an easy run, a long run, a session, a double long run session, a marathon, nothing.....

The night before I just ran, to do something. 5K became an hour, then 90 mins, figuring out the stresses, sorting them and figuring out why they were dragging me down. Sometimes running serves just that purpose. No metrics, no targets, just run, feel the air and allow the body and mind breathe...

Hit a lockdown low on Friday evening. The end of a long week, the final meeting. Presenting mode, under pressure, my little girl arrived with a pretty pose and song. Excited for so many things the end of week brings... Daddy done, Mommy home, family hot chocolates. Her sheer excited yell shocked me out of it. Told her I couldn't talk now with just a look. Her excitement dissolved to tears instantly thinking she was being bold. My heart in my stomach, I tried to wrap up, almost too upset myself to continue. The dozen leaders in front of me understood, they really did. The lowest moment of the week was soon followed by the highest moment of the week as my two youngest after I hugged them to bits, happily helped me make brown bread

So with that week down I started a new one with a lovely mild spring day run around the countryside. It was a bit more effort than easy but I just ran as I felt, in a tee shirt!

We have a 2 week skipping challenge going in work. So 8 minutes of whipping my ankles and calves cramping badly, I started a workout.

3 Rounds of 60s/15s on/off. It was tough. I averaged 63% HRR and banked 2 threshold minutes (the burpees shot the heart rate up).

Burpees with push up (16 reps per round)
Mountain climbers
16kg Kettlebell snatch (16-18 reps per round)
30 inch box jump (15 reps per round)
12kg slam ball russian twists (20 twists over and back per round)
Plank with reach

2021
346/2,600 miles (557/4,200 km)
1,035/10,000 press ups | 405/2,000 pull ups
43/44 days active | 41 Run | 6 Row | 16 S&C | 5 Yoga

Feb 17
12.52k @5:16 | HRR 58-65%
S&C: Skipping & Mobility

DOMs today. Glutes mainly. 2 days of S&C sessions after a week of it is the culprit. Good though, the DOMs tell you exactly which muscles got the workout.

Easy day today. I was passed on a trail and felt my effort creep up. Quickly shut it down. This had to be the easiest run of the week. Mild Spring day, caught under 2 showers.

Later some skipping rope and long yoga poses. Lent day 1. Want to be <80kg by end of March.

2021
363/2,600 miles (586/4,200 km)
1,085/10,000 press ups | 430/2,000 pull ups
45/46 days active | 42 Run | 6 Row | 18 S&C | 5 Yoga

Feb 19
Yoga 24 mins | Yoga with Adrienne "Breathe" Day 5/30
S&C: 24 mins skipping rope | HRR 52-64%
19.16k inc 6x20s strides & 6x1500m LT off 2' | HRR 74-86%

Firstly, enjoyed the Yoga this morning. Really hit the spot to wake the body up and feel loose and taller The skipping was a break from meetings and quite aerobic. Who knew, skipping is a workout! My feet burned.

The main course was the workout. Thankfully the rain stopped by the time I got out but the roads were wet and dirty. My Saucony Speeds are no longer clean white. I felt a bit sluggish on the warm up, cursing the wind. The strides were zippy but my form was sluggish. Energy was not great.

The workout numbers look good and on target. In fact bang on. 23 threshold minutes banked The numbers don't tell how it felt though. It felt rough. 1500m felt long. All of the reps started into a headwind too and I struggled. The pace was there but I felt as though I was working too hard. I switched the watch to heart rate for 2 reps and that checked out in the right zone. I just felt like I was working harder than the numbers were telling me. By rep 5 I was starting to fade and the last rep was not great.

Maybe it was the wind, maybe it was just a long workout at 5 secs faster than I've been doing shorter LT workouts. It was a solid workout, just took more out of me than expected.

6x1500m off 2' jog
Target 3:54 range 3:49-3:59
dist|time|pace|in range
1500m|5:49|3:53|Yes
1500m|5:48|3:53|Yes
1500m|5:51|3:54|Yes
1500m|5:44|3:50|Yes
1500m|5:46|3:51|Yes
1500m|5:54|3:56|Yes


2021
384/2,600 miles (620/4,200 km)
1,185/10,000 press ups | 470/2,000 pull ups
47/48 days active | 44 Run | 6 Row | 19 S&C | 6 Yoga

Feb 20
10.2k Easy | HRR 63-73%

Slightly reluctant evening miles but got them done. Legs ache, especially calves. Putting it down to 2 hours of skipping rope this week. Foam rolled before and after. No knots, just DOMs.

Feb 21 - First Long Run of the Year
Yoga 30 mins | Yoga with Adrienne "Breathe" Day 6/30... Core
23.32k @4:24 inc 3x3k @MP | HRR 74-84%

Fueled with non chocolate pancakes, I executed the first long run of 2021. While I was at it I clocked 1hr 33 and change for a half marathon :eek: Quickest I've gone since summer 2019.

Wore the Saucony Speeds for this. Jury still out, not sure they are for the long run but I'll try again. Perhaps the sweet spot is 10k. I was tempted to break out the NB Fuelcell TCs for this but I'll leave those until I'm focused on longer stuff.

Calves and hip flexors a bit tight but felt decent setting out on glorious sunny spring day. I decided to do some tempo stuff to keep it interesting. In each of the first 5k I ended with 3k at HM to MP effort.

Rep 1, 3k @4:14
Rep 2, 3k @4:07 - tailwind
Rep 3, 3k @4:09 - headwind

I maintained a steady pace on the 2k between the reps and a 7min mile pace for the last 5k home. At times I felt a rhythm and the "right" spot to land on the Speeds and they felt better. Particularly holding a steady cadence and pace. Other times, long stints into the wind was tiring. It was a lumpy enough route too.

The body was fatigued for a finish. Overall heavier week and first long run, so not surprising. Still, it was a solid one to begin with. Nothing like the inspirational LRs that Healy, AMK, Zico etc are executing :eek: I'm happy with this as an end to a solid week.

110.5k over 8hrs40 running (11.5hrs total) with 53 threshold minutes banked This week I need to pay attention to recovery between workouts.

2021
395/2,600 miles (643/4,200 km)
1,185/10,000 press ups | 470/2,000 pull ups
48/49 days active | 45 Run | 6 Row | 19 S&C | 7 Yoga

healy1835 wrote: »

That's a great effort for a first long run of the year. You've really hit the ground running after your little spell on the sidelines.

Thanks J. It was the bones of 5 months on the sidelines. The work I did on the rower kept some fitness so the engine was ready to come back. Some LR again from you today, you are in some shape!

March 1: 10.67k Easy @5:02 & Pilates 27 min
March 2: Workout 6x20s strides & 7x800m off 90s

Mondays run was easy but I felt flat. It was laboured at best. First run in the Nike Infinity React Flyknit and they are awful. Remind me of my least favourite shoe of the last 3 years, the Adidas solardrive. I guess they serve the purpose of purely easy runs. The react foam is squishy and unresponsive. You just land with a splat on a super wide outsole. I couldn't imagine trying strides in these. Years since I've done pilates and it was core core core

A bit more pep in the step for the workout yesterday. I warmed up and did some strides en route to Mary Immaculate college for these. It has an astro turf track around a pitch that my sub3 running buddy uses. Its a bit lumpy and the corners of the pitch are tight turns but its cleaner than the industrial estate. You just have to avoid balls and people :rolleyes: There was a huge bunch of teens playing rounders on the pitch and it was generally very busy.

I maintained a controlled effort at my 5k pace for the first few reps but was blowing. It was much harder work than I remember the actual 5k. I managed to flick a ball up and boot it back onto the pitch during a recovery so aerobically I was recovering well Again I thought I had 2 minutes but it was actually 90 secs :rolleyes:

For the second last rep 2 GAA lads emerged chasing each other around for a few laps. At 3:37 pace I very slowly closed the gap on them :eek: The final rep was just running harder than 5k pace. More like mile pace.

It was good work overall but mentally and physically I just feel a little "off" this week.

I wore the Endorphin speeds for this one and felt better in them. With the workout done I maintained a steady pace for the bones of 15 mins home and this is really where I connected with the Speeds. "Steady" was aerobic and controlled.. at 4:12 pace :eek: Basically most of the cool down was at my marathon pace and it felt sweet, like I could keep running. I even considered a few more km.

Back on the Fitness Pal App for a couple of weeks just to manage macros and sugar intake.

7x800mm off 90s jog
Target 3:43 range 3:38-3:48
dist|time|pace|in range
800m|2:56|3:41|Yes
800m|2:56|3:41|Yes
800m|2:56|3:40|Yes
800m|2:54|3:38|Yes
800m|2:55|3:40|Yes
800m|2:53|3:37|No
800m|2:44|3:26|No


2021
470/2,600 miles (756/4,200 km)
1,225/10,000 press ups | 470/2,000 pull ups
59/61 days active | 54 Run | 6 Row | 19 S&C | 8 Yoga/Pilates

BP 10K Plan Week 0

Mon 8 Mar
7k @5:34, recovery plod

Legs felt banjaxed from the weekend. Completely reluctant run but served its purpose to A) put more miles on the Nike Infinity Reacts and Get blood flowing after a day of sitting in a chair.

Tue 9 Mar
12.6k @5:20, horrible easy run

Reluctant again. I'll explain further below. The rain and wind were not exactly inviting by the time I emerged into the darkness. I had a shin splint on my right leg from playing soccer with the kids at the weekend and within minutes a stitch in my side for running too soon after a meal :rolleyes: Coupled with the wind and my rubbish mental state, I hated every minute of this. It was just meh, laboured meh. To make it even worse, I got back home soaked, to realised I had somehow paused my watch midst run. Everything about this one sucked

Wed 10 Mar
15.33k inc Monaghetti Fartlek

Thank you Healy1835 and thank you rain! Healy1835 for getting that thread going and I spent any time between meetings listening to my favourite tunes The rain, for telling me to not wear the Endorphin Speeds. Horizontal rain and I hadn't yet tested the Speeds on wet ground. I'm sure they are fine but they are also my first stack height kinda shoe and I wasn't risking slipping or going over my ankle again.

Instead I wore the Adizero 4 and had a blast. With all the cushioning lately I had forgotton what a lovely shoe this is. The Continental rubber outsole was awesome in the wet conditions. In much better mood I just grinned into the savage gnarly wind and got this done. A fun short fartlek that I used to test out the planned interval pace.

A Monaghetti Fartlek is 2x90s, 4x60s, 4x30s, 4x15s all with equal rests. It went by in a flash and I banked 13 minutes of threshold work. I tried to avoid the headwind as it was almost gale force. However some reps were easy and some were very hard. Overall I enjoyed it and got a good flavour of the kind of effort I'll be at for the next few sets of interval workouts.

Pace range target was 3:31-3:37
2x 90s - 3:28, 3:30
4x 60s - 3:31, 3:34, 3:32, 3:34
4x 30s - 3:26, 3:36, 3:37, 3:42
4x 15s - 3:21, 3:25, 3:28, 3:14


The mojo has been up and down the last couple of weeks. A few life things and running a little aimlessly. I fell off S&C, stayed up later and slept worse. After the 5k TT in January I was basically plugging in a 5k workout and a 10k type longer intervals most weeks. It felt like looking into the fridge feeling hungry, no dinner plan and no shopping done. You get takeway or eat cornflakes and feel kinda meh afterwards. Thats how I felt setting up a weeks training and trundling through it.

At the weekend I did an unplanned, ad hoc 8k tempo at avg 3:53 pace, with a max of 89% HRR. It surprised me. I assumed that, pushing another 2k into the red zone and dealing with the pain, I am close to 39 minute 10k. The goal became clear. Sub 38 would be a lifetime PR. Furthermore getting into that shape would likely have me near 5k PR fitness too.

I considered coaching. I did some research but decided its not the right time. I subsequently bought a Ben Parkes 10k plan. I like his attitude and I just needed some 10k simple specific structure. So, I start an 8 week 10k plan next week with a target to go sub 38 at the end of it. This week I'm testing the interval, goal and tempo paces as well as resetting my nutrition

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Good man. Some sort of medium/long term structure is needed. It's very hard to wing it on a week by week basis.
Good luck with the plan. Can't beat the 10k distance!

Thanks P and I agree. I've always trained to a goal and there is a longer term Marathon one. This 8 week block will hopefully leave me in new territory, with a few weeks to bridge to a marathon block.

Annie get your Run wrote: »

I think there's mojos missing across the country, hope you get back on the s & c and maybe we can do a strength challenge for one of the challenges

You know its coming... :):D I just need you or Bungy Girl or ReeReeG to come up with the idea

BP 10K Plan Week 0

Thu 11 Mar
13.52k @5:19 | HRR 54-64%

Darkness, wind, rain, cold cold wind chill. Miserable weather. It was a case of getting out the door and putting one foot in front of the other. Ran completely on feel with the watch covered. More reluctant miles in the bank.

Fri 12 Mar
15.96k inc 3k Tempo & 2k LT | HRR 70-89%

My last makey uppy workout for a while The purpose of this was to test out how the "Tempo" and "LT/Goal" paces felt. It was also a chance to see how the Endorphin Speeds fared in the rain. Another gnarly day, cold enough to see my breath. Pouring rain had me soaked 2km into the "warm up". I ran an extra km to no avail of feeling warmer. The wind was strong too and my intended loop of the Industrial Estate was going to be tough in parts. Edit: The Speeds were a little slippy on wet tarmac, ok otherwise. Grip not as good as Adidas Continental outsole, but then what else is?

Part 1: 3km Tempo, target 3:47-3:54. Actual 3:52, 3:48, 3:49.
I found this harder than the tempo at the weekend. Running through puddles and grimacing into the wind. A couple of other runners out making faces at the wind and horizontal rain. I managed to hit the splits on this section but the conditions sucked.

Part 2: 2km LT/Goal Pace, target 3:37-3:44. Actual 3:33, 3:39.
I took a full 5 minutes to recover and started this with the wind behind me. I started too hard, at interval pace instead of goal pace. By the time I completed the first km I was into the headwind for the rest and had to work very hard. Got it done which is the main thing. Garmin told me I posted a 5:43 mile which is 8 secs shy of my Boards mile TT. No wonder why I was wheezing. Happy enough to execute what I intended. A few steady metronome kms home in 4:34, 4:34, 4:34.

Between the 2 workouts this week I now have a flavour of the paces I will train at for the next 8 weeks. Its all faster than I've trained before so its not going to be easy. The focus is simple, execute the workouts and recover between them. I did 2 days of intermittent fasting too this week as a trial, so it is likely I was a bit low on fuel. The fast itself was fine and something think Ill adopt periodically more to curb the evening snacking habit that anything else.