Thursday, 21st February – 11.8km Easy run
Another cold evening to put the dread in me before braving leaving the apartment but once out and about I was well insulated with cap and gloves and, as ever, the reality was nowhere near what I had imagined.
I started off at a reasonable clip just to keep Jack Frost at bay but by the first km I had noticed my HR was happily tipping along at 140bpm (Max end of recovery run range) and yet my pace was around 5:10/km. So, from there onwards I kept the odd eye on those two stats to measure where I am currently fitness-wise.
The route itself was just the usual main avenues in the locality so a few inclines – both up and down – but nothing serious at all. Over the course of the next few kms the HR pretty much stayed steady, just varying by a couple of beats either side, but the pace actually came closer to 5:00/km.
During the final 3km – when mentally I was on the run-in to home – the effort required seemed to increase a tad but I was happy enough to go with whatever was needed. Got home in 11.8km/142bpm (Including customary HR spike at the beginning) for an average moving pace of 5:04/km. I was very happy with this as the stats appear to coincide with my easy runs back in Autumn when I was at the peak of my fitness so hopefully it’s a good sign of things to come for the next 7 weeks! Legs were probably a tiny little bit too taxed for this pace so still a smidgen of residual tiredness from last weekend but sure you’d expect that!
Friday, 22nd February - 20.5km LSR with 6km @ MP
I met up with Philip in Leixlip for this run as we had agreed to run along the Royal Canal for am LSR. This was my first time along this stretch so I didn’t know what the surface would be like. The first section skirting between the two Leixlip rail stations was on a well packed trail surface. However, the further away from Leixlip we ran the surface got grassier and less defined. Thankfully it was still very dry and pretty smooth apart from some tractor tyre markings. Then after a while we passed Clonsilla Station and the surface briefly got much improved to a tarred path. Unfortunately though, this soon deteriorated into a very muddy trail with lots of tree roots across the path. It was here where we decided to turn back to Leixlip, having already ran approximately 11km.
On the outward journey we had managed to keep the pace at around 4:55/km as prescribed in our general plan hatched between us. Now on the return journey we were to run at my MP/Philip’s Easy pace of 4:40/km. This was a little tricky given the slightly uneven terrain but the first few kms passed reasonably well although I noted my MP HR threshold of 150bpm being exceeded pretty quickly. Then after 5.5km (16km overall) of the quick stuff I started to wane. It’s been a tough week of running already and this was my first MP session so by the end of 6km @ MP I eased back to our previous pace and jogged it back to the car for a distance of 20.5km. To be honest it was a bit of an awakening as to how much work is left to be done but still I foresee a huge few weeks of improvement coming up.
When I checked the data afterwards my av HR for the 20.5km was 150bpm, so in hindsight not too surprising I got whacked so quickly at MP. Effectively that was a Half marathon at marathon effort, if not quite marathon pace. Good, enjoyable route and we've already made plans to begin at Connolly Station in the City Centre and run out to Maynooth some time soon.
Saturday, 23rd February – 5km Malahide Parkrun with 2km w/u and 5.6km c/d
I did an easy 2km warm-up on my way from the car to the race start but I did notice the legs were a little bit heavy which wasn't going to bode well for a fast time in today’s Parkrun. This was my fourth Parkrun but the last two I did as LT sessions whereas today I intended running for a fast time. I knew I had done no VO2 Max stuff for a long time (October?) so I’d be a way off from any PB form today for sure. My first Parkrun was 20:40 so the hope was to get home in sub 21 today and use that as a benchmark going forward.
There seemed a large crowd out today despite the attempted snow fall just before race start. I decided to keep the jacket at this stage as it felt just a bit too nippy for my liking. Once the race was going there was the usual jostling for position before the first corner when things began to string out. I kept a steady pace for the first 500m but then just began to squeeze up the effort ever so slightly from there onwards. I passed several people at this stage and by the 1km marker I was up to full speed. I consolidated my position for the next km and conserved a tiny bit of energy on the slight uphills to store for later. This was reflected in a slowish split of 4:17. When I saw this I pushed on a bit harder again and the time started coming down very slowly. Around this point I realised my left lace had opened so I tried to ignore it for 500m but the shoe was slowly becoming looser so I made the executive decision that I’d have to stop and tie it. With the gloves on my hands this was a trickier project than I’d anticipated so with a bit of fumbling I was back running again but I had lost about 15 secs and about 6 places!
For the remainder of the race I was trying to chase down one of the Race Directors (Michael/Plodder) of Parkrun who initially advised me about my loose lacer but then went past me as I was tieing it! With him as the hare I managed to keep focused but instead of catching him he probably made about another 5-8 seconds on me by race finish! The last km was feeling a bit tough but there was nothing for it at that stage but grit the teeth and plough on to the finish where I recorded a time of 21:24. I was a little surprised with it being so slow but as outlined earlier there were a few reasons which pointed towards this and then having to tie my lace certainly didn't help. Anyways, not too bothered as this is the first of many VO2 sessions I have planned for the next 6 weeks or so and it’s only by the end of this cycle that I will really know where I stand.
Summary: Malahide Parkrun 5km: 21:24
Week 8 Summary (so far):
RTW: 6 from 6 days
DTW: 79.4km
DTY: 611.4 km
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