Double Trouble

Ran home again clocking up just under 8 miles, a little faster than the morning (7.75 @7.07min/miles HR136bpm)

On Tuesday morning I made a conscious decision to run a little slower, or a slightly lower effort moreso. Felt grand, but as the day went on I was absolutely knackered. Hadn’t slept well – again! So was glad I only had a few miles to do in the PM. Left work earlyish and was able to complete my run in daylight, which was both a novelty and allowed me to take a slightly more interesting route home, off the tarmac and around a lake. This time the decision to run slower was n’t conscious, but just couldn’t have gone any faster!

AM 8.2miles @7.21 min/mi HR130bpm PM 5.3 @7.24 min/mi HR130bpm.

I was glad not to run this morning but will attempt a Tempo run this evening. I’m sure Sunday is still in my legs so will take it as it comes.

Got out for another 50 minutes on Tuesday evening & followed this with my longest run since the marathon on Wednesday with 90 minutes. Took a while to get going & was fairly shattered at the end but getting back into the swing of things at least & it's beginning to feel like running is part of the routine again.
Managed another double yesterday with a tough 40 minutes in the morning and a more pleasant 40 minutes in the evening.
Tuesday: PM 6.7miles @7.43min/mile HR134
Wednesday: 12.5miles @7.19min/mile HR141
Thursday:AM 5miles @7.52min/mile HR133
              PM 5miles @7.40min/mile HR140

Gold in dem there hills

If there was any negative to take from Sunday, other than where I could have found 5 seconds, it has to be my fade over the last 2 miles. I had felt so comfortable for so much of the race I really didn't think I would die so badly, especially since I've been doing so much endurance work of late.
My personal theory is that it was the hill at 1.5miles that done it. This was the first winter ever I did absolutely no hill work and most of my runs are done on fairly flat ground. My theory gained some weight this morning as I did a hilly hour pre breakfast. I wasn't pushing it but I was still as slow as I've ever been which doesn't add up as my normal runs have become gradually quicker at the same heart rate in the last few weeks. So I guess the solution is easy - do some hills. I don't think I'll do any actual hill sessions but I will try to find hillier routes for at least some of my runs and hopefully it'll have the desired effect.
Finally stepped on the scales this morning and was happy to see 62.1kg. Curious to know what I was Sunday morning, didn't eat too much yesterday and had bagged 30miles in the two days since, but I'm still glad I resisted.
I was surprisingly fresh yesterday morning as I headed out for a dawn run, with at least a small drop of alcohol in my system, although definitely not enough to upset Al or Kay Guy in the unlikely event they should have swung by. I think part of it was the absolutely beautiful morning it was and heading down ballinamona beach for the first time in an age.
Had some power washing to do for the day and this took infinitely more out of me so was fit for bed in the after but as soon as I laced up my runners again I was in flying form again.
Went for the aforementioned hill run this morning and followed this with an ice bath. Always found once the first cold sensation was overcome ice baths are grand, and wondered was the (disputed) benefit diminished. I discovered today that by moving around in the bath made it impossible to get comfortable. Really noticed the difference when I got out so think this is the way forward - no pain, no gain! Went for a recovery run in the evening and felt drained. Psychological perhaps but looking forward to hitting the hay.
Monday AM: 8.2miles @7.21 HR 134
PM: 7.1miles @7 .06 HR 132
Tuesday AM: 8.5miles @7.37 HR 133
PM: 4.8miles @ 7:40 HR 120

Hold da kæft mand!

So finding myself back in Denmark on a Monday morning for the first time in a few weeks I didn't bother with the pre dawn, pre breakfast 13 miler as per the last two weeks. Instead I did 6.5 with 5 more after work. Rather than laziness it was because I had time on my hands the previous 2 weeks. I like to stay on CET when I'm at home so getting up early isn't a problem. Plus now I was able to bring my tempo run back to today, Tuesday, as I had left it until Wednesday the last 2 weeks as I wouldn't subject myself to a tempo the day after a 13 miler especially when it's part of a double.

 So for today's tempo, I had one thing in mind - to get down to 6 minute miling. As last week I had only managed 6.04 (and had to dig deep for that ) it was by no means a certainty. 

After checking the weather I knew I'd have the wind for the first half but said I would definitely go no faster (but possibly slower) than 5.55min/mi to the turning point and rather than try and run as fast as possible for 10K I would hold 6 minute miling for as long as possible if the chance arose, and turn it from a tempo into a longer steady state run.

Sure enough like all good plans, they changed during the run with miles 1 and 2 both in 5.52 and mile 3 in 5.48 for good measure, but in my defense I felt fine and the wind was even stronger than I expected. After turning the average pace dropped to 5.54 but came back to 5.53 as I went down a gradual incline. At this point it usually gets very tough but I eased back slightly and let the pace drop after about 4.5miles At my usual stopping point of 10k I was still at 5.56 and felt reasonable so kept going. I was still heading into the wind and passed two joggers and heard one say " hold da kæft mand" or shut up man, a Danish expression for incredulity. This brought a wry (albeit slightly contorted) smile & inspired me to keep the head down but after a while I decided I had enough wind for now so turned again. Managed to keep going til 8 miles by which the time the pace had dropped to 5.59. Very satisfying and also was good to know that the tired legs had disappeared :) A good confidence builder 12 days out from Ballycotton.

Mon AM 6.6 @ 7.45 HR 129

PM 4.8 @ 7.31 HR 130 

Tues warm up 2.8 @ 7.31

8 @ 5.59 HR 168

Warmdown 3.5 @ 8.22

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

Cry before Dawn

Found myself awake at 4.30am on monday morning due the youngest resident of my household waking up. By the time I got him back to sleep it was only an hour until my 5.45 alarm. Had to choose between getting another hours kip and hoping I'd have sufficient motivation to get out of bed and run or else bite the bullet and head straight out. I choose the latter due to being of the opinion that once is enough in any morning to have to drag myself out of bed. Managed to get an hour in and was still at work by 6.50. The days are definitely getting shorter as I was home before the sun had risen.
Managed another 30minutes monday evening on grass but was knackered but glad I did it as it seemed to help the legs. Did a session yesterday: 6x600's, had n't done 600's before so just followed the other guys for the first few in about 1.56 to 2.00's. Once I got into the rhythm I got the last three in 1.50 to 1.53.
Have a 3k track race tomorrow evening so got my run in this morning to maximise recovery time.
Mon:am:8mile @7.20 HR141
pm:4mile @7.20 HR138
Tue:2.5warmup 6x600 with 200m recovery. 2 mile warmdown
Wed:8.5mile @7.18 HR140

Banteer 5K

Had a sort of mixed end to last week. Did a double on Wednesday with 50 minutes in the morning & 40 in the evening. As a result of this I was going into my tempo run on thursday with legs more tired than usual. And as a result my pace suffered. Managed to hold 5.56 avg pace which was 8 secs a mile slower than last week, but at the same time was still quicker than my first tempo run around a month ago. Had a wedding on friday so got up early to get some miles in but as soon as I started I felt a few niggles so decided to turn right around. Getting soft or getting sense - I haven't decided yet. Was in no state to run on Saturday so decided to head to Banteer for a 5K race on Sunday so that my two days of rest would n't go to waste. Was still not feeling the best after the wedding and was even drifting off in the car on the way down( thankfully I was a passenger). Still though I knew my rested legs would lead to a respectable time but as it panned out they led to a PB. Went through the first mile in 5.09 and felt comfortable - was leading a group with 3 guys in front of us. On one of the sharp turns on the course I lost a bit of concentration and allowed a few lads to get away from me. From here on I was pretty much on my own but managed to reel in one guy in the last 1000m or so. My splits were (5.09/5.13/5.22 & 35secs) giving me a time of 16.19 & 5th place.

Weds: AM:6.8miles @ 7.18 HR137
PM:5.2miles @ 7.52 HR131
Thurs: Warmup: 1.6 5miles tempo @ 5.56 HR166 Cooldown:2.5
Fri: 0.4miles
Total for week:52miles
Sunday: Warmup:2miles 5K Race. Cooldown:1.75

The Early Bird

Despite the weather not being nearly as nice as last monday I still managed to struggle out of bed yesterday morning to run, I hummed and hawed a bit before deciding that the best time to decide whether or not to run was afterwards in the shower. I did the same route as last monday morning but this time even though I could hear the water down at the beach the fog was so thick that I could n't see it. It kinda reminded me of running in the dark in Winter which thankfully is still a few months away. Did 5 miles on grass in the CBS after work which went very well, was banging out 6.45 minute miles without too much effort which was nice. With the Stryker 4 mile on Wednesday, hopefully it'll translate into a good result. Just did a very easy 3 miles this morning in the slight drizzle in the field I used last week (the farmer incidentally had the sense to take in his hay before the rain came) It was nice to see a rather watery sun breaking through the clouds as it rose over Knockadoon head but that was as good as it got on a very dreary 'summers' day! Hadn't ran the day before the last two races but I'm not sure if it makes a difference either way...
Monday: AM:7.6miles @ 6.57 HR141
PM: 5miles @6.46 HR145
Tues: 3miles @ 7.33 HR134

Double the fun

Did a double yesterday, it really was n't difficult to motivate myself to get some miles in before work as even from my bed I could tell it was a glorious morning. Ran down as far as the beach and did a little in the dunes before running home a different road purely for the sake of variety. It was brilliant having the beach to myself although a guy was just getting out to walk his dog as I was leaving. Stopped off again on the way home from work & just did 30 minutes. Am front loading a bit this week so I can rest up for the Shanagarry 5 mile on thursday.
Did "2/3's" of a session on the grass track today - or 8 x 400m. Was happy with how they went as all bar 2 were 72secs or quicker.
Mon:AM:7.6miles @ 7.09 HR140
PM:3.6miles @ 7.07 HR142
Tue: Warmup:2.5miles 8x400m Cooldown:2.8miles