Festina lente

tired...

Monday - easy 5 miles home

Tuesday - 5 back into work
then in the evening I went up to join the club session, but OH had the car so I had to run up - 6/7k there through Tymon (stepping on a bit of wood and twisting my ankle on the way).
Session was 3 x (1k @ MP, 1k @ HMP, 1k @ 10k), with two minutes recovery. I was the only one in the front group with a watch so had to use it, and abandon plans to take it a bit easier after the weekend. Hard to get it right anyway on the loop we used, which was a drag uphill and into the wind for the first half and a faster second half. Paces were still a bit slow but I wasn't bothered - (4:08, 3:55, 3:52), (4:06, 3:58, 3:45), (4:05, 3:55, 3:43)
Followed by a tired run home - with a diversion to the shop at the end for a Coke

Monday - recovery runs, about 6k each, morning and late afternoon

Ran with the kid in the morning. We walked around the corner to the small park then started running, and he took off :pac: Tried to go with him but I was just too tired and creaky after the weekend so I cut lots of corners to catch up and get dropped, catch up and get dropped. He stopped after about ten minutes, and I continued on with my slow jog.

Tuesday - 6k very easy at lunch

PM - club session again. This time I was able to drive to the meeting point, so just a mile ish warmup and cooldown from there.
Session was 5 x mile over a hilly route (the hill opposite the Speaker Connolly in Firhouse). Not hugely hilly really, Strava says only about 4m up? But we do that three times in the loop, each time it's enough to suck the energy from your legs. Each loop just over 6 minutes, recovery about 3 minutes.

Wednesday - 6k easy at lunch again

PM - ran home from work, about 10 miles. Fairly tired run, but I want to get in these midweek longer runs after sessions.

That said, I was reading in the sub 3 thread something from T-runner (I think?) about how you should feel a little undertrained rather than at your limit, and I don't think I'm leaving much breathing room at the moment. So I'll keep Thursdays and Fridays easy and relatively short, just the runmutes with no added distance.

Thursday - 5 miles easy into work

RayCun wrote: »

That said, I was reading in the sub 3 thread something from T-runner (I think?) about how you should feel a little undertrained rather than at your limit, and I don't think I'm leaving much breathing room at the moment.

I think I make a habit of saying this about a week late... :pac:

Thursday PM - ran back home, about 8k again, finishing with strides

Friday morning - ran back into work, another 8k

Saturday - arranged to meet a couple of the guys for long run + marathon pace miles where we'd usually do the tempo. But I got up, I was tired, my feet were sore, so I jogged down to meet them just to let them know I wouldn't be joining them, and back home.

Sunday - day off (except for the four hours at a water station :rolleyes: )

today - easy 6k jog

plan for the coming few weeks is to drop some double days -
easy Monday
session Tuesday
mlr wednesday
Thursday will be double runmutes, strictly transport
easy Friday
session/race Saturday
long run Sunday, with stuff

Monday - 6k very easy at lunchtime

Tuesday - 8 x 600m intervals, 1.40 recovery
First thing in the morning again, and again I couldn't be bothered thinking of something more complicated so just built on last week's session.
All between 2:01 and 2:06, slowest was the fifth, running out of steam but refocused for the last three.

Killerz wrote: »

Thanks for the shout out BTW!

I don't think we've ever met, but you posted about the orange shorts

Tullamore Half - 1:23:23

Organisation for this race is great - parking, nice -tshirt, plenty of marshalls, four water stations, nice finish on the track and lots of food afterwards.

Met up with a few clubmates before the start, including P who I do a fair amount of long runs and tempos with, and would be going for a similar time.

Start was out on the main road, running past the entrance to the stadium, and fairly flat. Didn't notice the drag in the second k but P moved ahead, then I caught and passed him on the downhill in the third as we got to the ring road outside town, and we stuck together again on the fourth as we headed out to the suburbs. Pace for this section was about 3:52/53, about on target.

And then we got out of town, and it seemed like hill after hill... Strava says nothing major, but Strava is not to be trusted. P moved away, the other runners around moved ahead, and the next 6k were a long slog, interrupted only by the sounds of other runners catching and passing me :rolleyes:

Finally got to 10k - in 39:44 :eek: - and the top of the course. There was some downhill in the next few ks, and at least people stopped passing me, but though I closed the gap on people ahead and the long line of people in front compressed, I don't think I actually passed anyone. The next 5k took about 19:20 - but were all downhill.

Once the road started climbing again, even by only a couple of metres, pace went through the floor again. I wasn't getting completely left behind this time, some of the others were obviously feeling it too, but I was losing ground.

Eventually got to the roundabout back into town, k20 was downhill and I got some speed up again, and finally started passing a couple of people, and managed to maintain it in the last flat km, and get someone else on the track. 54th in the end (a minute behind P).

Overall a pretty poor performance. I was destroyed by the hills in the first half, coping much worse than everyone else in the race, and never really recovered. Time to revise marathon expectations, think about a pace of about 4:05 rather than 4 even. Also have to get back into an exercise regime because it has completely fallen away in the last month or two and my hips are aching.

Yeah, while 'happy' would be stretching it, I take some satisfaction in the fact that I kept working on the drag, even if my pace was going to ****.

AuldManKing wrote: »

Ray is 'P' 'P FitzP'??

No, P D

coogy wrote: »

Still a very impressive time, what were you aiming for?

a couple of minutes faster - I ran 1:21:2x in Waterford last year, expected about the same here

healy1835 wrote: »

Are you running the Race Series Half?

No, can't make that date, otherwise I'd have done that and the Frank Duffy instead of Mullingar and Tullamore. Next race is the Lakes 10k, then the marathon.

healy1835 wrote: »

Yeah i wasnt expecting to see your name in the results cause I knew you were doing Dublin. Did you have to change anything in your training due to the 10 Miler and Half being earlier in the block?

Not really - if anything, it's better to have them earlier in the block rather than in the last 6-8 weeks. The Magness marathon plan has a half marathon in the middle, pre-competition, phase of training, maybe even a little further from the marathon than Tullamore. The idea is that you get more marathon-specific the closer you get, and the last 8-10 weeks have more marathon pace work than tempo/half-marathon pace work.

I'm not really following Magness at this stage, I'm fitting things around weekend runs with the club and a longer midweek run. But the general idea of longer intervals and tempos, and more MP running, as the marathon gets closer wouldn't change whether the half was in August or September.

Friday - didn't get out at all - couldn't run in, company meeting at lunch, bloated with pizza and cake afterwards...:rolleyes:

Saturday - Lakes 10k - 38:00
More blah. Not a mess like last year's race, but I was slower at every stage this year. Numbers in the race seemed to be down, and the start was a bit odd, very loosely packed, as if we were all standing in our usual places, leaving space for people who weren't there. Started a bit too relaxed, about 500m down the road I was behind a few people from Kilcoole and realised it was too slow, picked it up a bit to go through the first k in 3:39. A couple of the Kilcoole guys then went by, and I drifted along for the next few k - 3:40, 3:42, 3:53 - not really in it and struggling, not so much with the pace as with the thoughts of continuing at that pace. Got a second wind around 5k, partly copping on, partly realizing it wasn't getting harder, and sped up a bit, 3:44, and 3:40.
Then the hill - a Rathfarnham runner passed me at the bottom of the hill, I wasn't trying to follow, just to get up in reasonable shape, 4:19 for that km. Next few k I ran ok, but not racing anyone, there was no-one behind me and the gap on the guys in front wasn't closing - 3:37, 3:42, 3:45.

So, another race about the same standard as Mullingar and Tullamore, I'm slower across the board than I was at the start of the year. What's changed? Supplementary work has more or less disappeared, mileage has remained steady instead of increasing, and I'm working my training around group runs on the weekend rather than following a plan. Changing job at the start of the year is responsible for the first two, it is more demanding, leaving me less energy, but I'll just have to plan better and put more effort in. The group runs I'd like to keep up, but maybe after the marathon see if the rest of the week needs to change.

Sunday - long run. Started off with a group of six, easy run to Phoenix park via Chapelizod. At the Chapelizod gate, three of the guys turned back and we started a marathon pace section - along the road to the main park entrance, in and around the roundabout to the gardai, through Lords walk, up to the Castleknock gate, and back down and out as far as Islandbridge, 8 miles. This went surprisingly well. It took a bit of effort to settle in to marathon pace outside the park, then coming in there was a bit of climbing and though the effort went up the pace stayed steady - I won't be running that fast through the park in the race - and then the long gradual downhill was fairly easy, overall we were a good bit ahead of pace. Afterwards I had no appetite for running back through Chapelizod, I took the shorter route home through Inchicore, but though it felt slow my pace was fine.

Monday - 10k in to work

Tuesday - 3 x 1600 with 3 minutes recovery
On the way into work again. First rep one direction around Eamonn Ceannt park, second rep the other way, third rep leaving the park and back on the commute route. Did a few strides to warm up this time and got off to a better start, 5:48 (3:37 pace) for the first interval. Couple of minutes walk and a minute jog before the second one. I misread my watch on this - thought I had a minute left and pushed on, looked again to see how I hadn't finished yet and saw that there was another minute to go . 5:49 (3:38) for that. Walk/jog recovery again. Last rep has a fair bit of downhill, though also a gate to go through, so was faster - 5:39 (3:32).

5k easy recovery at lunch.

Wednesday - long day in work, then a longish run home, just under 20k. Over to Clonskeagh and the marathon route again. This time, instead of turning into UCD at the top of Fosters Avenue, I continued on the marathon route as far as the flyover before cutting through the college. Added less than a km to the route, I thought it would be more. Next time will do two of those laps.

Thursday - easy in and out of work, about 8k each way

Friday - easy in

Garmin is annoying me again, getting even harder to charge it. Might have to splash out on a new one soon...