10 days out LT test.

Monday, 25th November, 2013 - 7.4km Easy Run (5:03/km)

This was initially very relaxed and when I saw it hit 5:5x by the end of the first km it jumped me into action and up the effort. Second km was around 5:13/km and felt grand so I maintained it around the 5:00/km Easy pace for the rest of the run and ended up with about 4 sets of strides. I’m going to add this aspect into all easy and recovery runs in future to see if it helps with my running economy/form.

Tuesday, 26th November, 2013 – 11.9km Easy Run (5:16/km)

Met up with Anto and his mate Tom after work for this run. They were looking for an hour long run so that tied in with my 11.9km loop perfectly. Fairly handy run that went by pretty quickly due to the company. Anto seemed to speed things up towards the end but it was still grand.

All done and dusted in plenty of time to have dinner before settling down to watch the Gunners easily beat Marseille. Nice!

Wednesday, 27th November, 2013 - 7.4km Recovery Run (5:35/km)

I was seriously tempted to head to Raheny and do the inaugural race in their Winter Series – a 3 mile race of 3 x 1mile laps – but had originally planned a Tempo run on Thurs evening. So, rather than put the tempo run in jeopardy I decided to stay local and do a recovery run instead. Threw in about 7 strides at the end but kept them easy enough that I would still be fresh for tomorrow.

I used my blue Kayanos for this run and could feel little niggles throughout the gentle run so when I got home I checked the soles and sure enough they were well worn. So, straight to the ‘I may need them sometime, but not now’ pile with them. I am now left to my orange pair (with probably just 200km left on them) and a pair I got off Philip which have plenty of running left yet. Probably soon time to start looking again for a new pair when the sales start.

Thursday, 28th November, 2013 – 10.5km with 9.2km @ LT (4:20/km)
I was advised by Stephen yesterday to ignore the 3 mile race in Raheny in order to focus on this LT test. The objective was to hit 4:20/km for 40 mins. This would suggest that I was back in shape for a decent attempt next weekend. The important factor to monitor was the average HR to see if it went stratospheric like last Saturday. I was pretty confident that wouldn’t happen but I was still eager to see what the numbers were like.

I drove to the Coast Road so as to do the session along the bike/pedestrian lane which is perfect for this sort of run – dead flat, good surface, decent lighting and not too busy. I started with a 1km warm-up and before I knew it I was off doing the faster stuff. The first few kms were grand with my HR taking a little time to hit the mid 150’s which was the expected range. After 3.6km I reached the end of the path and had to turn around. I was a little faster than required to this point and the turnaround gave me a 4:13/km split which in part was due to the GPS getting confused as it always does when doing a 180 degree turn. There was now a decent breeze in my face but thankfully it wasn’t too strong. If anything it was useful to keep me at a nice cool temperature as it was an unseasonably mild evening.

Greyed section is the LT segment.

The next couple of kms were dropping closer to the late 4:2x’s, so I reckon the breeze was costing me about 5 seconds per km. Soon I was back in a bit of shelter and the pace upped again. Around this time I found myself getting lazy mentally so had to change it up a gear for the last 15mins. The final couple of kms were back again to the earlier splits and when it came to stopping the watch I was back on the goal pace of 4:20/km.

It was only when I got home that I checked the HR properly and I was very happy to see it average out at 154bpm with a max of 161bpm which was only hit for a very short period of time.

So, according to Jack Daniels I was right in at the correct pace with a HR on the very low end of the range…test passed with flying colours!

Week 47 Summary (so far):

RTW: 4 from 4 days

DTW: 37.2 km

DTY: 3,618.2 km

Stook 10 miler

Monday, 11th November, 2013 - 11.9km LT Effort Run (4:36/km)

I wasn’t sure what was going to be on the cards this evening given how I felt after the MP run and the LSR last week so I went out with a general plan to assess after the first 500m. Thankfully things felt well by that stage so I pushed on over the next couple of kms. With Stook 10 miler (where I intend to run @ MP pace with a few easy miles before and recovery miles afterwards) on next Sunday I wanted to get the fast run out of the way as early as possible this week. So, as the first couple of kms got a little faster I was soon in LT effort territory. Even though the legs were feeling pretty decent they were still somewhat lagging in speed with residual from the past month, so the paces were about 10 seconds off where I’d expect them to be.

After 7.5km I turned North onto the Swords Rd though so decided to ease back and ‘recover’ - as much as one could hope to recover - on the next uphill km. Once that was over I was back on the relatively flat Collins Avenue and then upped the effort back to LT for the next 3km (mainly slightly uphill) before finishing with a recovery 400m to the apartment.

So, quite happy with this run as it indicates I’m getting back towards where I should be and hopefully from next week I’ll be pushing on improving once more. Only 4 weeks til Lanzarote so only two weeks of actual training left with a two week taper after that.

Won’t feel it now!

Tuesday, 12th November, 2013 - 13.6km Mountain Night-time Run

I met up with Felim this evening after work for a night time run up in the Dublin Mountains. We did a number of these as group runs last year and once you have a good head torch, suitable clothing and can navigate the terrain then it’s great fun.

Tonight’s run was Seefingan, located South east of Tallaght. I volunteered at this race during the IMRA Leinster League and it was the worst possible decision given we were all eaten alive with the worst case of midges I have ever witnessed! This evening though was a dry cold evening so we weren’t expecting too many of those critters tonight.

I parked the car at an entrance to a trail and we set off from there for the top of Seefin initially. The first km was grand as it was along a fire road without too much of an elevation gain. We eventually came to the start of the trail proper which turned out to be a feint outline where the main feature was the mountain waters streaming down. On our way to the start point Felim had mentioned that a good portion would be on road and given that it hadn’t ained much in the last few days I figured I’d wear road runners rather than trail shoes. Big mistake! My feet were constantly losing traction going up this section and combined with the steep incline I was slowed to a hike from quite early on.

Eventually we got to the top of Seefin where there was a pretty cool burial chamber at the main cairn. After a few minutes of poking around here we moved onwards for Seefingan which was not very far away but we had to dip down into a col before climbing back up to the summit. Again the ground was wet and mucky so the pace was pretty relaxed around here too. After about 10 minutes we got to the top and once again paused for a while to take in the view. Felim’s plan was to hit across to Kippure from here (very evident with its illuminated masts) but I figured it would be even wetter and more miserable from my perspective at least. And, me being such a moaner at this stage I felt Felim wouldn’t much relish me whinging all the way to there and back to the car! So instead, we decided to traverse North to Corrig and then Seachan before making our way out to the small road we’d driven down earlier.

Standing atop what we believed was the main summit we made for the peak in the distance. Unfortunately we were actually about 100m West of the true peak where there was a trail leading between the mountains (see map above). And, what we thought was Corrig actually turned out to be Seachan instead. All this meant that we dropped off the mountainside too far leading us to skirt the boundary of Kilbride rifle range to the West! The terrain around here was a little rough so progress was slow but after 20mins of hiking we discovered our mistake(s) and started to climb back up towards the real Corrig. Eventually we got there but not before we were enveloped with low cloud for 5 minutes.

Once we got to Corrig peak we followed the trail across to Seachan which was straightforward enough. Then we chose our route to drop down to the main road along the forest boundary. This trail coincided with a small stream and I reckon I fell about 5 times coming down this 15 minute track. Thankfully nothing serious though as Felim struggled to refrain from laughing at me because he knew he has a freakish record of twisting ankles himself and that he was running on borrowed time!

We finally reached the main road and at last we were on firm footing. A twenty minute run later and we were back at the car all in two pieces. Then the expected happened. While still in touching distance of the car Felim managed to roll his ankle!

Good to be back out doing night time mountain runs but I don’t think I’ll be back to do this particular run again! And will definitely be wearing the Innov8s in future!

Wednesday & Thursday, 13th & 14th November, 2013 - Rest Day

A very busy real life meant that I failed to get out for a run on either Wednesday or Thursday unfortunately. Hopefully though the busy period is now over and normality will be resumed…

Friday, 15th November, 2013 - 7.4km LT Run (4:32/km)

I was off to the Ireland v Latvia match in the evening so had to get a quick run in beforehand. I took this a bit literally though and ended up running another LT run. I was feeling good at the beginning so after opening with a 4:41km I pushed on for LT pace. 7km later I ended up with 4:24/km as the average. Not bad considering the slower first km and the Swords Road hill to contend with.

The match itself was pretty decent in that Ireland retained possession well with much fewer long balls being hacked upfield. Still a depressing lack of real cutting edge amongst the strikers though and Poland on Tuesday will be a far tougher test.

Saturday, 16th November, 2013 - Rest Day

Took another rest day for a number of reasons, one of which was the 10 mile race tomorrow.

Sunday, 17th November, 2013 - 16.3km Stook 10 mile race (4:34/km) with an 8km (5:04/km) warm-up

Woke up this morning and really didn’t want to leave my bed. I was even considering a DNS for a short while before coming to my senses and got in my car. Arrived in Dungravan, Co. Kilkenny at 10:45am and registered/picked up my number. Got chatting to Johnny briefly and then it was time for my pre-race miles.

I headed out on the course which is a figure of 8 loop and managed to get the first 5km loop completed before heading out on the larger loop for a mile before returning to the village to clock up 8km in total. I had been wearing too many layers – long sleeve t-shirt, short sleeved t-shirt and a light jacket with gloves – so I got rid of the sweaty layers and threw on a fresh short sleeved t-shirt and felt much better.

Before we got underway I ran into a few familiar faces including Gary, Dominic and Kate at the start area. Myself and Kate had similar goal paces so we decided to run together for the first while at least. Around this time Shortstuff from boards made herself known and it was good to meet another boardsie in real life! Not long later we were away.

I was using my course knowledge from my warm up to good effect and so knew when to push on and take advantage of the downhills and when to hang back with uphills. This seemed to allow myself and Kate easy passage through 10-15 runners on the first 5km loop as they seemed to get caught out by an over enthusiatic start. Before long we were back through the village for the start of the second loop. I was averaging marathon pace but unfortunately because the terrain was so undulating the effort was more like a typical 10 mile race.

Course profile

Things remained steady until we reached 5.5 miles. Johnny had me pre-warned that miles 6-8 were all uphill and that 6-7 in particular was the roughest. So, around 5.5 miles we came upon the start of an uphill and seeing as there was no immediate sign of an easing off I commented to Kate to be prepared for 2 miles of this. Almost immediately she began to ease off in order to allow herself to get up and over the climb. I pushed on a bit in front of her at this stage and kept focusing on those in front of me as targets to catch and pass. Progress was minimal initially but by 500m of climbing people were beginning to fade and I started to row them in. A couple of guys stopped to a walk around the 7 mile marker and in total I reckon I passed about 8 people on the climb. There was a female KCH runner about 30m up the road and she had been the same distance ahead since the first 500m. I kept trying to close the gap little by little but she had the match of me all the way up the climb.

The end of the 'flying mile'!

Eventually we reached the high point of the course where there was a big gang of locals offering vociferous support which was very welcome. I gave them a big thumbs up as I turned the corner and started to lengthen my stride. 200m later and we reached the start of mile 9 where the ‘flying mile’ began. This was a one mile section that was all steeply downhill. The organisers laid on timing mats to calculate our mile split. Seeing as the tough part was done and we only had 2 miles left I decided to throw caution to the wind and legged it along this section. I think the five miles before the race started to catch up with me here though and my form/control was pretty wayward for large parts. I just about managed to prevent myself from falling over but before I knew it the mile was done (later found out it was 6:02 (3:45/km)). As soon as I was over the mat I eased back to a more sustainable pace for the last mile.

One of the guys that I had passed on the flying mile managed to pass me again on the last 300m running in to the line. I might possibly have held him off if I tried but I was just happy enough to be finishing up. Passed under the gantry in 74:10 which I was very happy with considering the route was even hillier than I’d expected and the five miles beforehand. I ended up with marathon pace average (4:34/km) but a 10 miler average heart rate of 156bpm with a max of 167bpm. Of course the draw of the after race spread on offer in the community centre combined with the thrashing I gave my legs on the last two miles meant that I reneged on the recovery miles afterwards. I was disappointed with myself for this as I needed a 20+ miler but I reasoned I might end up doing the legs more damage if I went out for more. Not sure if it was the wise decision or just simply the popular decision...

Week 46 Summary (so far):

RTW: 4 from 7 days

DTW: 57.2 km

DTY: 3,521.0 km

Steady as she goes...

Monday, 2nd Spetember, 2013 – Rest Day

Really bad night's sleep last night so I was tired all day. Then settled down to watch Mesut Ozil's transfer to Arsenal break through so decided to allow myself a rest day all things considered as it was only gonna be a short recovery run anyways!

Tuesday, 3rd Spetember, 2013 – 17.2km Easy with 2 x 5km @ LT (4:23/km)

2 x 5km @ LT

Felt fresh for this run which was important as it was a very warm evening and I had "2 x 20 mins @ LT" on the menu. After a first warm-up km I started into the real stuff and thankfully it went quite well. Once more armed with my HRM I maintained consistent effort all the way but in sections the pace seemed to fall off according to the Garmin. I felt it was kept steady though so was writing it off as the tree cover affecting the readings. The first LT segment was completed in 21:45 as I decided to round it up to 5km instead.

An easy 1km recovery and I was away again for the second segment which had similar, yet more pronounced issues with the pace. Once more I stretched it out to 5km which came in at 22:05 this time, 20secs slower than first segment. Regardless, happy overall with the perceived effort and it was definitely an important run. 

Only downside was that my left hamstring which had appeared to have resolved itself, again reared it's head towards the end of the faster stuff (I stopped at Military Hill about 800m after the end of the second LT segment to stretch the leg and that seemed to help for a short while) so will need to keep an eye on this again. :-( 

LT Pace

Wednesday, 4th Spetember, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:18/km)
One of those evenings where it was pretty late before I had a chance to go out and was beginning to feel very lazy. Somehow managed to show a bit of resolve in the end though and get 7.4km in at an easy pace that got slightly faster as the run progressed, finishing in sub 5min/km pace. Hamstring was fairly dormant tonight but I'm sure it'll announce itself again during tomorrow evening's MP session.

Week 36 Summary (So far):

RTW: 2 from 3 days

DTW: 24.6 km

DTY: 2,837.7 km
Chicago - 38 days (5 weeks, 4 days)

Better than expected LT session

Monday, 25th August, 2013 – Rest Day
I got home from work this evening but felt really tired after spending too long in the pub yesterday celebrating the win! Somehow managed to get through work but I was good for nothing by evening time. I'll try and regain an extra easy run later in the week.

Tuesday, 26th August, 2013 – 13.2km LT Run (8km @ 4:20/km)

I still felt tired after work but knew that I had to get a session done this evening regardless. The plan called for 2 x 15min LT segments in a 13km run. I used the first km to loosen out and didn't actually feel too bad once I got going. Started into the first LT segment and decided to do 3km rather than 15 mins. This went pretty well. I used the recovery period to cross a couple of junctions and after 0.86km I started the next LT segment. However, due to crappy footpaths, busy roads and undulating terrain I was too easily distracted and ended up doing a 4:08 km which was 12 secs too fast. I felt like I was putting too much effort into it also so decided to ease back at the end of that km, let the lactic acid wash away and restart on a quieter, more suitable road. Thankfully this worked and I threw another 3kms around Artane and Kilmore but parts of these were into a Northerly breeze and this slowed the av pace. Still though, I was happy that the effort was at the required level. Then, halfway home I decided to throw in one final km to round it off at 8km in total for a good end to a session I nearly backed out of. Definitely a positive run, although I did feel a tweak in my left glute which needs watching.

LT summary for the year.

Wednesday, 27th August, 2013 – 8.0km Recovery Run (5:19/km)

Another slow recovery run in store this evening but even as I took my first steps the tweaked glute was causing me to limp-run for the first 500m. Slowly it began too loosen out and by halfway things appeared much better. I ended up adding on a little extra towards the end as I finished feeling looser and the evening was perfect for a run. Hope the tweak doesn't return to affect tomorrows MLR with MP session...

In other news, I recently bought a new HRM from Garmin. It failed to pair with my 310xt though so when I emailed Garmin.com for advice they ended up sending me out another new HRM and said I could keep the first one. After some more issues with the new HRM I eventually managed to get it paired and it worked fine for this evening's run. Afterwards I checked out the original HRM and hey presto - it too works! Happy days!

Week 35 Summary (so far):

RTW: 2 from 3 days

DTW: 21.2km

DTY: 2,743.2km
New, functioning HRM monitors: 2
Chicago - 46 days (6wks, 4days)

Battling the breeze...

Monday, 19th August, 2013 – 8.8km LT Run (4:24/km)

I called over to Raheny to watch my footie team play a game this evening. Headed off at half time to go for a run along the seafront towards Howth. Today called for gentle running but after yesterdays easy/recovery run I felt I was feeling up to tomorrow's planned LT run. 

So, after only 400m of a warm-up I upped the pace to 4:20/km. I'm still living in a HRM-less world so I was working off pace and effort. This was feeling pretty decent for most of the way until I realised there was probably a good breeze on my back. And so it was proven when I turned around at the Sutton end of the seafront and straight into what was actually quite a strong breeze. I knew this was gonna mess up my average pace but that was OK as I was maintaining the effort. The return journey had a much higher average pace but once I got to my final km I reached a bit of shelter and the pace dropped to 4:14/km which proved that I had kept to a steady effort the whole way.

Very happy with this run as I felt good for all 8km @ LT effort. If I can get to a level of 12km @ LT before the Athlone HM then I'll be relatively pleased. Got back to the match in time for the last 10 mins of the game, just after our keeper got his 2nd yellow. Game ended up 3-3 and 10 v 9 players!

Tuesday, 20th August, 2013 – 11.9km Recovery Run (5:25/km)

Still a little tired after the LT session last night so lucky that the schedule called for a no brainer recovery run. I had contemplated just doing a 7km version but figured I'd get the extra 5km as per plan. However, I think these 11.9km recovery runs are in junk mile territory. I don't think they benefited me much/at all for the first half of the year. In fact the extra 5km probably only leaves me a bit tired again for the next session thereby undoing all the good work! So, I think in future I'll keep recover runs to no longer than my 7.4km loop and keep the recovery days very easy. For my easy runs I will still run the 11.9km loops though as they are proper training rather than recovery sessions.

Wednesday, 21st August, 2013 – 17.2km MLR Run with 9km @ MP (MP Pace: 4:34/km)

I was off work today so for this run I went to Clontarf seafront. I was a bit wary of the strong breeze at the beginning, combined with the fact I still felt a bit stiff from Monday evening. After a 1km warm up I started into the MP kms. I tried to maintain it between 4:30-4:35 and was pretty successful all the way to the Sutton end of the seafront. However, as expected (and like Monday night, only worse!) the wind was very stiff when I changed direction. I finished out the km I was on before easing back to recovery pace. I tried another km @ MP later but that was at a higher intensity and only 4:46/km pace so I just jogged back to the car, which in itself was crappy enough! The weather was very warm too with the car thermo reading 22deg before and after the run and my sweaty t-shirt verified this!

All said though I was reasonably happy with the 9km I managed to get in. Building blocks and all that! Plus, I managed to get in for pacing the Dublin HM for 1:40 on September 23rd. I was gonna be running it at MP anyways (Late 1:30's) so getting the 1:40 pacer job is pretty much perfect for me.

Week 34 Summary (So far):

RTW: 3 from 3 days

DTW: 37.9km

DTY: 2,668.9km
Chicago - 53 days (7wks, 4days)

Enniscorthy Half Marathon

Friday 24th May 2013 – 17.2km Easy Run (5:13/km)
An easy run along the seafront in Clontarf. A little bit tired towards the end from the faster stuff earlier this week.

Saturday 25th May 2013 – Rest Day
Took a rest day this evening to allow me be a bit fresher for the Half Marathon tomorrow.

Sunday 26th May 2013 (morning) – 21.1km Enniscorthy Half Marathon (4:22/km)
I’d managed to get a free entry for this race from Alan & Orna (thanks again!) who were doing pacing duties. I had originally planned to go West and do the Moy HM but I figured this would be just as good, closer and cheaper. It was a lovely sunny morning which meant the chances were it was going to get hotter later which would mean a tough day on a hilly course. 

I ran into my two sponsors beforehand and with them were Johnny, Matt (both pacers also) and Barry (who was also aiming for 1:30).

We made our way to the start line and the race started just after 10:05am. Immediately there was almost a pile-up as a guy to my right tripped up on the starting mat and half fell to the ground. Luckily he was up and moving again before anyone else had fallen over him, but not a great beginning!

Race Start with Barry in blue (& me in grey!).

The first half of the race contained the majority of the hills and while most of them were a manageable gradient I was maxing out my effort trying to keep with the 4:17/km pace. This was confirmed with my av HR consistently being around 163bpm for the first half of the race. Given my LT HR lies around 158bpm I knew there’d be payback later on. By the 6km mark I was beginning to drift off the back of the pacing group and over the course of the next few miles I tried to limit the gap as much as I could. Unfortunately though, every time we went uphill they gained extra time on me and by the halfway point they were approximately 200m ahead of me.

Around this time I was going through a tough patch mentally, debating if I shouldn’t just ease off the pace altogether given it was plainly obvious this wasn’t a PB course. I stuck with the effort though and happily the next couple of kms were reasonably flat so I managed to exorcise the demons in time for the next hill.

I managed to close the gap and 
pass this guy over the next 100m!

There were only a couple of short hills in the final 6km but the one just before we emerged onto the N11 really slowed me down. I probably wouldn’t even notice it on an easy run but where it came and the fact that I was maxed out meant pure misery. Once on the N11 it was pretty flat for a mile and a half before we passed over the last drag and then it was downhill/flat to the finish. I had been passed by a couple of runners at the start of the N11 and they had created a gap of about 30m on me while I was struggling along. However, once we were over the last incline I was slowly catching the second guy again and made it my goal to reel him in over the final km. Eventually, with about 400m to go I managed to get by him as I was on the opposite bank of the river from the finish line. It was only then that I realised the lead guy was only another 40m ahead at this stage and fading. I kept up the pressure and by the time I rounded the final bridge and beginning the 200m run-in to the line he was still about 20m ahead. Yet I was getting faster and he was slowing so I went into overdrive once more to keep the legs turning over and managed to nab in front of him with about 15m remaining. I was hoping that he’d not have enough time to react and didn’t dare turn to see his reaction as I passed by. Simply kept the legs pumping and I was over the line in 1:33:31 – 42 seconds slower than my PB from Bohermeen but a much tougher course and conditions.

I think judging by my HR data it was definitely a PB effort if not quite a PB result. Disappointed not to grab the PB but I’ll put it down as a really good training session for the bigger picture of Portumna. Hopefully the sub 90 will come in the Athlone Flatline half marathon in September, if not before.

Sunday 26th May 2013 (afternoon) – 4.1km Recovery Run (5:19/km)
I called into the Phoenix Park on my way back home to go for a leg loosener after the race and the drive back up. I was pretty stiff starting off but after the 4km things were much better and the legs had loosened out nicely.

Week 20 Summary:

RTW: 6 from 7 days

DTW: 72.5km

DTY: 1,705.2km

Mallow 10 miler

Monday, 18^th March – 16.2km Mallow 10 Miler (4:25/km)

After going against plan and enjoying my Paddy’s Day in the pubs of Killarney I still managed to wake early Monday morning in lots of time for getting to Mallow. Thankfully the legs were still good so it looked like recovery was top notch from both the marathon as well as the drinking!

Bohermeen Half Marathon

Sunday, 3rd March – 21.1km HM Race with 2km w/u
Last night I was in Croker to watch a pretty good game as the Dubs (boo!) beat Mayo. During the course of the evening I was prepared to allow myself 2-3 drinks but as is the way on these occasions this eventually stretched out to 5 pints of Guinness. However, seeing that I was home by just a little after 10pm I was ok with my excesses as I was still 14 hours from race start.

Time to crank it up

Monday, 25th February – 11.8km Recovery Run with 10 x strides
A very easy recovery run this evening. Felt great for first couple of kms but slowly I started feeling the weekend’s running hit me as the run progressed. It’s only now that I’m learning the real worth of a properly slow (5:4x/km) recovery run and not a 5:15/km ‘easy’ run!
I was feeling like it was a read plod for the middle section so I threw in 10 sets of strides towards the end just to change things up and to ward off the boredom. It seemed to work well so I think I’ll do similarly for future runs.

Chicago here I come!

Monday, 18th February – 11.5km Progression run
My legs were still a little achy from Saturday but not wanting to be too lazy I decided to throw 9 sets of strides at them after 1km of this run. Rather than measure distance or time on the watch I simply counted my way through ‘one 1000, two 1000, three 1000…’ all the way to ‘twenty 1000’. This roughly equates to 20 seconds and avoids me having to keep looking at my watch in the dark (helping me to avoid tripping and falling…again!).

Treading water

Mon, Feb 11th - 8.9km Recovery Run
Another recovery run just to ease the legs back into it after the CPHT. Felt like I was plodding a fair bit in parts. Beginning to think the issue with right groin is causing the tenderness in left quad by over-compensating during footfall.

Analysis – LT Interval

So, last night was my third LT intervals night and that threw up a chance at comparing sessions to see how I’m coming along.

Faster, longer, better.

Mon, 21st Jan – 8.0km Recovery Run
This started out as a recovery run but as the kms passed by I was feeling fresh so kept upping the pace until I hit ‘Easy pace’ for the last 1.5km. I had to hold myself back in the end as I knew the LT intervals were up tomorrow.

Tue, 22nd Jan – 27.1km LT Intervals with 5 x 2km
I was dreading this for most of the day. I had decided to up the number of reps from four to five x 2km intervals so I knew it was going to be pretty tough. After a few kms of warm-up I started into the first rep. Once again the main issue was getting the HR up to the correct range of 155bpm. These cold evenings help keep the HR lower than normal as the body doesn’t need to process as much excess heat as on a balmy summer’s evening (not that we’d ever have the problem either!).

Parklife.

Sat, 19th Jan – Malahide Parkrun 5k 

The weather this morning was only a little better so when I turned up in Malahide I was expecting plenty of flooded pathways. I managed a nice easy 2.8km warm-up en-route to the race start and within a few minutes we were off for the race proper. 

More LT intervals

Tue, 15th Jan – 21.1km LT Intervals with 4 x 2km

LT interval session #2 was due this evening and a chance to stretch the legs properly with a bit of speed. The plan was 18km with 5 w/u – 4 x 2km @ LT – 5 c/d. As the evening was bitterly cold again I went with the leggings to help keep me warm during the first 5km of a warm-up. Bit of a misnomer there really as to stay warm I ended up running quicker than I really ought to have. 

Regaining belief.

Monday, 7th January  - 17.7km LT Intervals with 8 x 1km.
The new week began with bringing Tuesday's LT run forward a day seeing as I was feeling significantly fresher than Sunday. A couple of easy kms and then I started into the interval sessions. I had decided on 8 intervals of 1,000m as a purely arbitrary number with a similarly arbitrary 500m recovery in between.

Scraping away the rust.

Wednesday, 2nd January  - 8.0km recovery run.
I failed to get out on New Year's Day due to being tired and a little hungover from the night before in Galway. So my 2013 running started back on the 2nd - still a day earlier than last year so already I'm up! Just managed a recovery paced run as I wanted to ease gently back into it. For some unknown reason the run failed to save onto the Garmin correctly...not a good omen for the new year!