Wednesday 27 January 2010

22miles in 12 hours, well almost

Did a session of 400's yesterday, not at the track but on a stretch of cycle path that is exactly 400m's long that we discovered last week. Now if anyone from the Netherlands ever happens upon this blog and wonders why you would have a cycle path only 400m long, the only reasonable explanation I can come up with is to accommodate runners who can't be bothered making the long trip to the track!
Anyway it went pretty well with 10 in an average time of around 69secs. Only did 8 last week and was absolutely wrecked doing the last one although I did a hard run the day prior to it. Managed to get out early this morning and had 11miles done by 7.00am although I'm feeling pretty sore and tired now. Have a race friday and Sunday so doing the old front load the week trick to bank mileage.
Tuesday: 3.7warmup + 10x400 in 69 with 85sec recovery + 3.5warmdown
Wed:11.1miles @ 7.25 HR149

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Injuries, bad performances & excuses

Since my last post I picked up an achilles tendon injury which meant I only managed 20miles or so in the week leading up to the Munster XC. This included missing a round of the 3K series in midleton. Not ideal preperation but I thought the rest might be a help. Turned out it was n't with one of my worst performances ever which seems to be the story of my XC season. Started well which was probably a bit foolhardy & was in the top 15 for the first lap and a half. Just went back ward after this though and after one of my club mates passed me for the final team spot things went from bad to worse & I ended up in 39th place in the end.
Got back on the horse last week and managed to get 60 miles in and set a new PB for 4miles on Sunday covering the distance in 21.40. Was hoping to break 21.30 but my excuse was that I inadvertently did almost 10 miles on saturday as I got a bit lost while doing a 6 mile run! Still my splits were pertty good with my slowest mile being 5.30.
Did another 5miles Sunday evening & managed to squeeze in 10 last evening so even though my achilles is still not right, I'm getting back into routine.
Sunday:AM Warmup:2miles Race: 4miles Warmdown 3miles
PM: 5miles
Monday: 10.26miles @ 6.49 HR145

Monday 11 January 2010

Snow let up

Finished off the week with some easy runs and a hill session. The hill session was the first in a long time out in Welshtown. I had forgotton how tough it is out there. Felt like I was going badly but looking at my times compared to previous sessions it was n't so bad at all. Just need to get out there more often!
Thurs: 10.7miles @ 7.37 HR134
Fri: 8.5miles @7.21 HR140
Sat: Hills
Weekly total: 75.5miles
Long run yesterday, back in Welshtown. With the munster XC (weather permitting) next sunday, did 12miles although the last few miles got a bit hot dipping below 7min/miling for the last few which is brisk on that terrain. Ground is covered in snow today so getting out this evening may be difficult...
Sun:12.2 @ 7.15 HR148

Thursday 7 January 2010

Slow Down - Ice!

I'm really starting to get ticked off with the weather, tuesday night headed to the track for a session only to find it frozen for the third consecutive time. Ended up doing an hour at a crawl, really felt crappy. Have a bit of a cold but maybe it was the Delayed onset Muscle Soreness after Sundays exertions. Went to CBS last night to get some sort of speed work done & after warming up hummed and hawed about what to do as the ground was completely frozen so kinda dangerous in the dark. After resisting the urge to go home ended up running 3 sides of the pitch as I've seen one of the other lads doing. Did the first one in 94 secs so said I'd aim for 90 for the remainder. Did just that with one 91 & a few 89's & 88's towards the end. There's a little short sharp hill in the middle but I was still a wee bit dissappointed with distance covered - 0.28miles or roughly 450metres. No wonder I was able to do 12!
Tuesday: 7.1miles @ 8.32 HR122
Wednes: Warmup:2miles 12x90secs with 80sec recovery Warmdown: 4miles

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Beat the sun(down)

Managed to get out of work early yesterday so's to get as much of my run as possible done in daylight. While it was pitch black by the end, I did n't have to hit the light on my watch untill about 6 miles or so, happy days. Although I was on grass the ground was pretty frozen so made for a fast pace.
Tues: 8.5miles @ 7.06 HR143

Monday 4 January 2010

New Years Resolution

Gonna post more regularly, yadayadayada...
Anyways goals for 2010:
3K: sub 9.30 (road) sub 9.15 (track)
5K -Sub16 (road), sub 15.50 (track)
10K. Break 34minutes (yes I know thats 1.45 off my PB!)
5miles: Sub 27minutes
10miles: Sub 57minutes
Half: sub 75
Full: Not even gonna go there!
Won't bother with performance based goals as they rely more on other people to a certain degree.
Anyway onto training: Got a lot done over Christmas despite having a stag party & wedding to contend with. Managed 70miles last week although only managed a tempo run in terms of quality.
Started this week with a double doing nearly 2 hours yesterday morning & another 40minutes yesterday evening. Probably more than what was ideal but with the threat of bad weather later in the week, decided to try and bank some miles:
Sun: AM: 15.4miles @ 7.09 HR 144
       PM: 6.1miles @ 7.19 HR 145