Better give a quick update before the Xmas festivities....
To say there has been a lot going on the past couple of weeks would be an understatement. Between trying to fit in S&C classes when I could, a stag night and a typically busy period for Emma with school there hasn't been a whole lot of time free. There is light at the end of the tunnel though.
In brief the training has been as below:
Mon 9th Dec
3 mile recovery run
Tuesday 10th Dec
Session: 12 Min's tempo @ 10K pace + 6 x 400m
Another good session. Numbers were a bit sparse this week. Pace for the tempo was 7 min mile pace. Was pretty windy and this seemed to pick up further for the 400m as they went on. 6.5 miles in total for the night.
Thursday 12th Dec
8.18 miles easy run
Just the usual few loops of Gormanston, even venturing out towards Stamullen to get a bit of extra distance in.
Tuesday 17th Dec
Session: 18 Min's tempo (10 @ 10K, 8 @ 5K) + 4 x 250m
This was a toughie as again it was basically a solo run with nobody to pace off. Probably started off a bit too quickly and didn't have the pick up required to really hit the 5K pace as I would have liked. The pace was 6:57 for the 10K portion and 6:51 for the 5K portion. Finished off with 4 x 250m at mile pace.
4.84 miles in total.
Thursday 19th Dec
5.15 miles easy run
Had hoped to get down to the club run but didn't work out time wise so just headed out for a loop of Balbriggan. Nice bit of wind and rain but legs felt good which was a bonus.
Sunday 22nd December
Clonliffe Christmas Cracker 5K
Had this race in mind for a blow out before Xmas and although the conditions weren't going to be ideal I decided the night before to do it. Picked up Stuey and headed off to Santry in plenty of time. Got registered, had a chat with Gary and Mark Bermingham and then set off to do our first warm up. This was actually just to try and get warm in the first place as it was Baltic out. With about 15 Min's to the start we stripped off and did a more serious warm up with a few drills and strides. When I went to set my watch I noticed the battery was at 0% so I left it behind in the bag. This was going to be interesting.
The race started with a lap and a bit of the track before heading out of Morton stadium. Was a bit worried about heading off too quickly with no watch to tell me the pace I was running at so settled in behind someone I remembered passing towards the end of the Jingle bells 5K reckoning that would be about right.
I moved past them after about 1K as we turned into Northwood to be greeted by a nice stiff breeze for around the next 1.5K or so along with some icy rain :-( Was trying to find a group to tuck in with but was gradually passing people and trying to work between groups. Noticed then that my lace had opened but tried to ignore it. It got to the point a few minutes later where my runner was becoming loose and I was losing grip. There was nothing for it but to pull over and tie it. Not sure how much time this cost me but enough anyway.
Got back into it and set about making up ground and passing some people for the 2nd time. As we turned onto Ballymun road there was a brief respite from the wind and before long we turned onto Santry avenue to make our way back towards the stadium. I had missed the 3K sign and the field was fairly strung out so I was just trying to keep going and was managing to bridge the gap and overtake a few people in front of me. I thought I could see the left turn in the distance to bring us back to the stadium when one of the volunteers told us there was 1.5K to go. This threw me a bit as I was pretty much flat out at this stage and was running at an effort that wouldn't have lasted for 1.5K. I wondered about easing up a little and maybe did somewhat for a couple of hundred metres but then say the turn so knew we were nearly home.
Got a nice bit of encouragement from Mark just before turning into the stadium with about 300 metres to go on a saturated track. There was only one runner in my sights and I managed to close down and pass him. Crossed the line with 20:50 on the clock which allowing for 5 seconds or so to cross the line I would estimate 20:45 as my finishing time.
This was 14 seconds slower than my PB from 2 weeks ago. Running without the watch hadn't been a disaster. It only really helps in a 5K to get your pace right at the start I suppose. I'm not sure if it would have turned out differently with it or not. Having to stop to tie your lace costs you time and momentum as you have to get up to speed again. This was also a much tougher day than a couple of weeks ago so I suppose I have to be happy with the result. I can't help but feel I might have knocked a few more seconds off the PB without the stoppage. I guess that will have to wait for another day though.
Summary:
Thanks to everyone who has read my blog since I started it up and for the mostly positive feedback you have given me. I wasn't sure about it all at the start but I hope you enjoy my ramblings. I hope everyone has a great Xmas and finds time to put the runners on to work off the excesses. I'll be back with more of my ramblings in early 2014.
Now where did I leave that Marathon Plan............
Monday 23 December 2013
Monday 9 December 2013
Jingle all the way
Thursday 5th December
S&C session and 4.61 miles easy run.
Did my strength and conditioning session a day earlier with the race on Saturday and then headed down to Gormanston later on for a few easy miles to keep the legs ticking over. Having been down there 3 of the last 4 weeks there seems to have been a big drop off in numbers for these runs compared to what I can remember.
Saturday 7th December
Jingle Bells 5K
The club had their Xmas night on Fri night which I debated whether to go to or not with the race the next morning but I did and as usual had a great night. I sipped a few pints along with pints of water and made my exit just before midnight when the dancing was starting to kick-off.
Got to the park in plenty of time and parked near the Castleknock end to give me a nice warm up run to the start and cool down after the race. Met Karen Clarke on the way to the start who was fresh from her Xmas party as well. Did another bit of a warm up with her and Ray and a few strides and took our places at the start.
Wasn't sure how I was feeling to be honest but the plan was to get the pace right for the first mile and not go off too fast. We headed up acres road and turned past the papal cross park towards Chesterfield avenue. We were now running into the wind and slightly uphill as I started to work my way past people and bridge the gaps from group to group. Mile 1 past in 6:53.
Kept working well steadily passing people to the top of Chesterfield avenue and turned the corner onto Ordnance survey which offered a bit more shelter but was more or less into the wind. Noticed the 3K marker and I think the average pace here was around 6:50. Time to start upping it if I could with 2K to go. Mile 2 completed in 6:44.
As we turned onto Upper Glen Road I knew there was a good downhill section towards the end of this so despite hurting I upped the effort as much as I could and worked my way round the corners again picking of people trying to pass as many as I could without really worrying about pace. Hit the downhill section and there was a bit of nip and tuck with a guy from Dunleer who I overtook but then he came past me again before overtook him again. Mile 3 completed in 6:10.
Took the slight turn towards the finish and almost went over into a pothole losing a bit of momentum as a result. Could see the finish now about 100 metres away but it was like the scene where you felt like you were never going to reach it. Managed to hold off those around me with not quite a sprint finish but delighted to cross the line in 20:31. Took a couple of minutes to feel normal again but was thrilled with taking 41 seconds off my PB.
A really well run race by Donore Harriers on the fastest route you could get in the Park. Felt like I ran a good race for me and got the pacing/effort right with the average overall pace being 6:35 per mile.
Finished off with a cool down back to the car carrying my Jingle Bells mug.
Around 7 miles in total for the day.
Sunday 8th December
8.15 miles Easy
Had been out for Emma's birthday on Saturday night so was not feeling too energetic for anything on Sunday. Also had the kid's Xmas party for work on this morning which Charlie really enjoyed but like most 2 year olds he wasn't so sure about Santa.
With the race yesterday I wasn't worried about pace here so just kept the effort easy as I worked my way around Balbriggan. Lovely evening for a run and it helped clear the head ;-)
Summary: Got the mileage back up to an almost respectable level this week along with 3 S&C sessions. Back to healthier eating this week and in the run up to Xmas in general. Can't let this training go to waste although looking forward to a stag night this coming Saturday in town.
S&C session and 4.61 miles easy run.
Did my strength and conditioning session a day earlier with the race on Saturday and then headed down to Gormanston later on for a few easy miles to keep the legs ticking over. Having been down there 3 of the last 4 weeks there seems to have been a big drop off in numbers for these runs compared to what I can remember.
Saturday 7th December
Jingle Bells 5K
The club had their Xmas night on Fri night which I debated whether to go to or not with the race the next morning but I did and as usual had a great night. I sipped a few pints along with pints of water and made my exit just before midnight when the dancing was starting to kick-off.
Got to the park in plenty of time and parked near the Castleknock end to give me a nice warm up run to the start and cool down after the race. Met Karen Clarke on the way to the start who was fresh from her Xmas party as well. Did another bit of a warm up with her and Ray and a few strides and took our places at the start.
Wasn't sure how I was feeling to be honest but the plan was to get the pace right for the first mile and not go off too fast. We headed up acres road and turned past the papal cross park towards Chesterfield avenue. We were now running into the wind and slightly uphill as I started to work my way past people and bridge the gaps from group to group. Mile 1 past in 6:53.
Kept working well steadily passing people to the top of Chesterfield avenue and turned the corner onto Ordnance survey which offered a bit more shelter but was more or less into the wind. Noticed the 3K marker and I think the average pace here was around 6:50. Time to start upping it if I could with 2K to go. Mile 2 completed in 6:44.
As we turned onto Upper Glen Road I knew there was a good downhill section towards the end of this so despite hurting I upped the effort as much as I could and worked my way round the corners again picking of people trying to pass as many as I could without really worrying about pace. Hit the downhill section and there was a bit of nip and tuck with a guy from Dunleer who I overtook but then he came past me again before overtook him again. Mile 3 completed in 6:10.
Took the slight turn towards the finish and almost went over into a pothole losing a bit of momentum as a result. Could see the finish now about 100 metres away but it was like the scene where you felt like you were never going to reach it. Managed to hold off those around me with not quite a sprint finish but delighted to cross the line in 20:31. Took a couple of minutes to feel normal again but was thrilled with taking 41 seconds off my PB.
A really well run race by Donore Harriers on the fastest route you could get in the Park. Felt like I ran a good race for me and got the pacing/effort right with the average overall pace being 6:35 per mile.
Finished off with a cool down back to the car carrying my Jingle Bells mug.
Around 7 miles in total for the day.
Sunday 8th December
8.15 miles Easy
Had been out for Emma's birthday on Saturday night so was not feeling too energetic for anything on Sunday. Also had the kid's Xmas party for work on this morning which Charlie really enjoyed but like most 2 year olds he wasn't so sure about Santa.
With the race yesterday I wasn't worried about pace here so just kept the effort easy as I worked my way around Balbriggan. Lovely evening for a run and it helped clear the head ;-)
Summary: Got the mileage back up to an almost respectable level this week along with 3 S&C sessions. Back to healthier eating this week and in the run up to Xmas in general. Can't let this training go to waste although looking forward to a stag night this coming Saturday in town.
Thursday 5 December 2013
Not too much going on here
So after a few people getting on to me about trying to do too much too soon I eased of a little bit and then had some stuff on like Emma's graduation and work Xmas party and also playing a bit of golf on the weekend for a change. Below is a summary of the training for the past couple of weeks.
18th - 24th November
The running sequence continued for another 4 days this week doing 2 short (3 mile) recovery runs before my training with Tony. These were really slow paced but beneficial. I also did just over 4.5 miles on the Thursday night around the college with the club. The session on Tuesday night was 4x6 mins @ 10K pace w/3 mins recovery. If I remember it was very windy so we had the wind behind on one straight and straight into on the other so it took plenty of effort. The numbers were down a bit as Gary was away but I did these with Rosemary and the paces were (7:25, 7:19, 7:19, 7:21). With warm up and cool down just over 6 miles was covered in total.
Rounded off the weeks training with another Gym session on Friday.
25th - 1st December
Again this week I had my 3 sessions with Tony but Fridays was moved forward to Thursday as I had my work party. I can definitely see that I'm making some progress with these. The intensity is going up steadily but I'm better able to handle most exercises now and not taking as long to recover afterwards.
Not much happening in the way of running with just one short recovery run and the Tuesday night speed session.
The session was 4 sets of 4 mins @ 5K pace, 60 secs recovery, 1 min @ mile pace, 2 mins recovery. This was a toughie adapting to the different paces and not really knowing what mile pace should be. The paces for the 4 min segments were (6:55, 6:47, 6:37, 6:27) and for the 1 min segments were (6:16, 6:21, 6:13, 5:38).
The paces seemed to be improving as we went on which I guess is a good sign but with not much mileage in the legs recently the legs are also probably a bit fresher than they were.
Tuesday 3rd December
Another Tuesday another speed session greeted us on the wind tunnel in Stamullen. When Gary was explaining the session he told us there was 12 mins @ half marathon pace which didn't sound too bad but after a pause he went on with 8 mins @ 10K pace, getting worse and then to rightly finish us off 4 x 2 mins @ 5K pace. There was 3 mins recovery after the 12 & 8 mins and 90 secs between the 2 mins.
I knew if we went off too fast this was going to be a disaster so held the pace steady for the first few laps. I was running with Susan chatting away for the first few laps but as we had to work a bit harder into the wind it stopped soon enough. Gary was calling out the splits trying to get everyone to work to even splits. Finished off the 12 minutes @ 7:22 pace.
After recovery and being told we should be aiming to run the laps 5-10 seconds quicker we set off for the 8 minute portion. Putting in a bit more effort where the wind was behind us and trying to stay controlled into the wind. Wasn't really watching the pace but the splits were quicker as required. Turned out the 8 mins were done @ 6:47 pace which is definitely not my 10K pace.
I was worried then about the last portion and blowing up but again we were encouraged to up the intensity again from the previous 8 mins. Lucky enough I was feeling strong and was able to pick up the pace for each one as it passed. They were completed at (6:22, 5:58, 5:54, 5:36). Was pretty wrecked after the last one but that was pretty much flat to the boards in terms of effort.
Another good session under the belt in terms of speedwork.
Summary: Have a race on Saturday morning over 5K in the Phoenix Park. Not going in with any expectations as this time of year you never really know what the conditions will be like. Going to run it with no watch for a change i.e I won't look at the watch during the race just to see how that goes.
Need to find a way to start upping the miles again as well but I think between myself and Emma there is something on every weekend day/night between now and Xmas. I think there will have to be a few early morning runs thrown in somewhere.
18th - 24th November
The running sequence continued for another 4 days this week doing 2 short (3 mile) recovery runs before my training with Tony. These were really slow paced but beneficial. I also did just over 4.5 miles on the Thursday night around the college with the club. The session on Tuesday night was 4x6 mins @ 10K pace w/3 mins recovery. If I remember it was very windy so we had the wind behind on one straight and straight into on the other so it took plenty of effort. The numbers were down a bit as Gary was away but I did these with Rosemary and the paces were (7:25, 7:19, 7:19, 7:21). With warm up and cool down just over 6 miles was covered in total.
Rounded off the weeks training with another Gym session on Friday.
25th - 1st December
Again this week I had my 3 sessions with Tony but Fridays was moved forward to Thursday as I had my work party. I can definitely see that I'm making some progress with these. The intensity is going up steadily but I'm better able to handle most exercises now and not taking as long to recover afterwards.
Not much happening in the way of running with just one short recovery run and the Tuesday night speed session.
The session was 4 sets of 4 mins @ 5K pace, 60 secs recovery, 1 min @ mile pace, 2 mins recovery. This was a toughie adapting to the different paces and not really knowing what mile pace should be. The paces for the 4 min segments were (6:55, 6:47, 6:37, 6:27) and for the 1 min segments were (6:16, 6:21, 6:13, 5:38).
The paces seemed to be improving as we went on which I guess is a good sign but with not much mileage in the legs recently the legs are also probably a bit fresher than they were.
Tuesday 3rd December
Another Tuesday another speed session greeted us on the wind tunnel in Stamullen. When Gary was explaining the session he told us there was 12 mins @ half marathon pace which didn't sound too bad but after a pause he went on with 8 mins @ 10K pace, getting worse and then to rightly finish us off 4 x 2 mins @ 5K pace. There was 3 mins recovery after the 12 & 8 mins and 90 secs between the 2 mins.
I knew if we went off too fast this was going to be a disaster so held the pace steady for the first few laps. I was running with Susan chatting away for the first few laps but as we had to work a bit harder into the wind it stopped soon enough. Gary was calling out the splits trying to get everyone to work to even splits. Finished off the 12 minutes @ 7:22 pace.
After recovery and being told we should be aiming to run the laps 5-10 seconds quicker we set off for the 8 minute portion. Putting in a bit more effort where the wind was behind us and trying to stay controlled into the wind. Wasn't really watching the pace but the splits were quicker as required. Turned out the 8 mins were done @ 6:47 pace which is definitely not my 10K pace.
I was worried then about the last portion and blowing up but again we were encouraged to up the intensity again from the previous 8 mins. Lucky enough I was feeling strong and was able to pick up the pace for each one as it passed. They were completed at (6:22, 5:58, 5:54, 5:36). Was pretty wrecked after the last one but that was pretty much flat to the boards in terms of effort.
Another good session under the belt in terms of speedwork.
Summary: Have a race on Saturday morning over 5K in the Phoenix Park. Not going in with any expectations as this time of year you never really know what the conditions will be like. Going to run it with no watch for a change i.e I won't look at the watch during the race just to see how that goes.
Need to find a way to start upping the miles again as well but I think between myself and Emma there is something on every weekend day/night between now and Xmas. I think there will have to be a few early morning runs thrown in somewhere.
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