A busy end of July & early August. Holidays, work travel.
Last night was my first outing on H10/10 this year. A lumpy kinda exposed course. First TT since the beginning of July too.
I'll admit it was hard. I prefer to TT with a visor rather than sunnies as the vis is better; the sweat dripping off my nose is not.
It's not a fast course, so a half-respectable 25:02 (ouch) was the result. The usual "if I'd known I'd have broken 25..." followed.
In other news I have been running again for 4 or so weeks. It was a bit 'interesting' to begin with but the body has settled back in to the groove. Plus over 100 eccentric heel raises/drops each day. Building calf strength.
It's great to be out there again. This week I have increased to 26km/week spread over 4 days. Following a Finke/Daniels/Pfitzinger 3 week hold followed by 1.5km/day increase.
Long run is now a huge 10km. Looking forward to getting some miles under my belt then hitting the track end of Sep/early Oct.
Happy days.
Showing posts with label Short Run. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Short Run. Show all posts
Friday, 9 August 2013
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Running man - learning from mistakes.
I'm back running (again, I think).
Four weeks off, complete with ~100 daily calf raises has helped. My first 3 km back was not pretty. It took a long time, the heat notwithstanding. A few days later I followed it up with a 6km. Sunday, in the heat I did 10km. This actually took forever, and I wished I'd had water. I hadn't run that far with water since starting running. It was a hot day though. Weekly total some 20 km.
Both Pfitzinger and Daniels (I believe) recommend holding distance for 3 weeks before adding a maximum of 1 mile (1.6 km) per weekly running day (3 days = 3 miles, etc). My achilles injury really means baby steps and I'll keep this in mind. It may even be more than 3 weeks.
Daniels also recommends maintaining this weekly mileage when adding a day. Whether 3, 4 or 5 days a week running he recommends a 1, 2, 3 split. Normal, or hard runs are a distance of 2/2 (i.e. 1). Easy runs are 1/2 and long are 3/2. So for a normal run of 10 km an easy run would be 5km and a long run would be 15km. Regardless of weekly distance this ratio is maintained.
As I'm returning to running I wasn't sure what my weekly distance would be. Perhaps I should have averaged my mid-week (4.5km average). What I should not have done was my 10km run. It still hurt yesterday. This morning's 5 km certainly didn't help. My comeback plan calls for a 6km on Thursday but we'll see how that feels. I may reduce the Sunday distance. We're camping with my running club this weekend and my focus will be on fun rather than run.
Watch this space.
Four weeks off, complete with ~100 daily calf raises has helped. My first 3 km back was not pretty. It took a long time, the heat notwithstanding. A few days later I followed it up with a 6km. Sunday, in the heat I did 10km. This actually took forever, and I wished I'd had water. I hadn't run that far with water since starting running. It was a hot day though. Weekly total some 20 km.
Both Pfitzinger and Daniels (I believe) recommend holding distance for 3 weeks before adding a maximum of 1 mile (1.6 km) per weekly running day (3 days = 3 miles, etc). My achilles injury really means baby steps and I'll keep this in mind. It may even be more than 3 weeks.
Daniels also recommends maintaining this weekly mileage when adding a day. Whether 3, 4 or 5 days a week running he recommends a 1, 2, 3 split. Normal, or hard runs are a distance of 2/2 (i.e. 1). Easy runs are 1/2 and long are 3/2. So for a normal run of 10 km an easy run would be 5km and a long run would be 15km. Regardless of weekly distance this ratio is maintained.
As I'm returning to running I wasn't sure what my weekly distance would be. Perhaps I should have averaged my mid-week (4.5km average). What I should not have done was my 10km run. It still hurt yesterday. This morning's 5 km certainly didn't help. My comeback plan calls for a 6km on Thursday but we'll see how that feels. I may reduce the Sunday distance. We're camping with my running club this weekend and my focus will be on fun rather than run.
Watch this space.
Saturday, 25 May 2013
Random Update
It's been another busy week for me. After flying out to Germany early Tuesday morning, then sitting in the back of a car for 1000 miles, I got home in to Heathrow Friday evening. Apparently I was lucky to get back home after the interesting day at Heathrow. Once through security in Frankfurt I wandered up to the earlier flight and managed to get on. Happy days.
So back to the 8 days in California
Day 5 was an early climb with flattish finish. 20 second and 30 second power record.
Day 6 was the Time Trial. Ouch. Scraped a 15 minute power record. I wasn't looking to set a 20 minute one, that's for sure!
Day 7 was the biggy, the Queen stage. over 1h30 long it took a lot of effort, and on one of the sunniest days for months! 30 second, 60 & 90 minute power bests.
Day 8 was the final day, circuits with sprint finished. A good effort but the legs were hurting so managed to finish, but with no panache or style. No bests either.
Back to last week:
I managed a 7km run in Austria along the river Inn, then Thursday night I did a few lengths in the hotel pool. It was a 15m pool but arm time is arm time. The run was strange. After 2 days sat in the car for 4-5 hours a piece my quads were sore, and both cramped on the run. So much so I had to walk for a bit. Then some unfamiliar geography caused me to do some XC running to get back over the river Inn to Austria.
My kit is packed up ready for tomorrow's triathlon. Qualifier for the 2014 European championships. Looking forward to it.
So back to the 8 days in California
Day 5 was an early climb with flattish finish. 20 second and 30 second power record.
Day 6 was the Time Trial. Ouch. Scraped a 15 minute power record. I wasn't looking to set a 20 minute one, that's for sure!
Day 7 was the biggy, the Queen stage. over 1h30 long it took a lot of effort, and on one of the sunniest days for months! 30 second, 60 & 90 minute power bests.
Day 8 was the final day, circuits with sprint finished. A good effort but the legs were hurting so managed to finish, but with no panache or style. No bests either.
Back to last week:
I managed a 7km run in Austria along the river Inn, then Thursday night I did a few lengths in the hotel pool. It was a 15m pool but arm time is arm time. The run was strange. After 2 days sat in the car for 4-5 hours a piece my quads were sore, and both cramped on the run. So much so I had to walk for a bit. Then some unfamiliar geography caused me to do some XC running to get back over the river Inn to Austria.
My kit is packed up ready for tomorrow's triathlon. Qualifier for the 2014 European championships. Looking forward to it.
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Shinfield 10km race report
Landed back home on Satruday morning. Rain and traffic on the M25 - welcome home! Family were very glad to see me, and the kids were trying to break in to my suitcase to see if I'd brought them anything.
Usual Saturday afternoon at the in-laws for tea and cake, followed by a very early night. Sunday was a local Christening followed by a quick 4km run to test out the new ASICS.
Monday was the bank holiday 10km at Shinfield - very local to me. I'd signed up before I flew out to the US. I thought it would be good to benchmark where I am for that distance. I've not run a 10km race since last July, when I was on the back of Ironman, so it hurt. I PB'd the year before (2011) at 46:04 so was looking for some improvement.
What I came away with was a healthy respect for the 10km distance...
For my warmup I cycled to the event - about 10km away, then did some running with a few pick ups to get going. Much like Horst my legs felt heavy. The sun was beating down and I felt very warm.
I started about 3 or 4 rows back, and saw a sign saying 40-50 minutes. There was not room to move forward to the sub 40 rows, though the start was like a cross country start.
The hooter went and I was over the line 5s afterwards. There were a lot of people trying to get moving and on the first corner I got barged and flew out of the pack, being caught by a fellow runner. Thanks for keeping me upright.
First km was fairly speedy, then we turned on to a gravel track with a slight incline. By the 2km sign my Garmin was beeping way in advance. I was pegging at 4 minutes/km and hoping to get some time in the bag for the second half Unfortunately I hit the 5km sign at 20 minutes exactly. Not good for my goal. From this point onwards the Garmin beeped earlier and earlier and the pace dropped more and more. Throughout I was neck and neck with a guy who was had been employing a run/walk strategy since 1km. He was hurting from the go and hanging on.
The last km was downhill and we put in a sprint. Despite my best efforts I did not overtake him, but gained a place outright and crossed the line at the same time as a female.
Due to the vagaries of the Gun vs Chip timing used in running races I placed better than the run/walker even though I finished after him; he'd taken longer between the start & finish lines. I also finished ahead of the 3rd female. The quality in a running race is often higher than a triathlon or duathlon.
Splits were: 3:43, 3:59, 3:58, 4:02, 4:13, 4:23, 4:12, 4:19, 4:27, 3:56, 0:02
I came in at 41:13 chip time and 69th of 691. A great PB by 4m53s, but not near the sub 40 I was after. Obviously this is because my run mileage has been extremely poor of late - just ticking over for the Europeans. Last week in the US didn't help either. Mental attitude is also another factor; perhaps I didn't want a sub 40.
Still, Yateley 10km series coming up, so a chance to redeem myself.
Tonight's recovery was a tri club chaingang :)
Usual Saturday afternoon at the in-laws for tea and cake, followed by a very early night. Sunday was a local Christening followed by a quick 4km run to test out the new ASICS.
Monday was the bank holiday 10km at Shinfield - very local to me. I'd signed up before I flew out to the US. I thought it would be good to benchmark where I am for that distance. I've not run a 10km race since last July, when I was on the back of Ironman, so it hurt. I PB'd the year before (2011) at 46:04 so was looking for some improvement.
What I came away with was a healthy respect for the 10km distance...
For my warmup I cycled to the event - about 10km away, then did some running with a few pick ups to get going. Much like Horst my legs felt heavy. The sun was beating down and I felt very warm.
I started about 3 or 4 rows back, and saw a sign saying 40-50 minutes. There was not room to move forward to the sub 40 rows, though the start was like a cross country start.
The hooter went and I was over the line 5s afterwards. There were a lot of people trying to get moving and on the first corner I got barged and flew out of the pack, being caught by a fellow runner. Thanks for keeping me upright.
First km was fairly speedy, then we turned on to a gravel track with a slight incline. By the 2km sign my Garmin was beeping way in advance. I was pegging at 4 minutes/km and hoping to get some time in the bag for the second half Unfortunately I hit the 5km sign at 20 minutes exactly. Not good for my goal. From this point onwards the Garmin beeped earlier and earlier and the pace dropped more and more. Throughout I was neck and neck with a guy who was had been employing a run/walk strategy since 1km. He was hurting from the go and hanging on.
The last km was downhill and we put in a sprint. Despite my best efforts I did not overtake him, but gained a place outright and crossed the line at the same time as a female.
Due to the vagaries of the Gun vs Chip timing used in running races I placed better than the run/walker even though I finished after him; he'd taken longer between the start & finish lines. I also finished ahead of the 3rd female. The quality in a running race is often higher than a triathlon or duathlon.
Splits were: 3:43, 3:59, 3:58, 4:02, 4:13, 4:23, 4:12, 4:19, 4:27, 3:56, 0:02
I came in at 41:13 chip time and 69th of 691. A great PB by 4m53s, but not near the sub 40 I was after. Obviously this is because my run mileage has been extremely poor of late - just ticking over for the Europeans. Last week in the US didn't help either. Mental attitude is also another factor; perhaps I didn't want a sub 40.
Still, Yateley 10km series coming up, so a chance to redeem myself.
Tonight's recovery was a tri club chaingang :)
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Local run
Yesterday I returned my bike and ran back to the hotel. Achilles seemed ok but I found it hard to run with the backpack.
I ran tonight with Tri-Valley Triathlon. It was a bike/run session, but I did a run warmup - 4km on a rolling out and back course. Rolling as in ~140m loss out & ~140m gain on the way back! I followed this up with the brick that everyone else was doing.
30 minutes - 3 x (8.5 minutes easy + 1.5m race pace). Unsure what the easy pace was but for the race pace hit ~3:55/km.
After a 10oz rib eye steak at lunch I had a huge sandwich and a slice of cake this evening. Happy days.
I ran tonight with Tri-Valley Triathlon. It was a bike/run session, but I did a run warmup - 4km on a rolling out and back course. Rolling as in ~140m loss out & ~140m gain on the way back! I followed this up with the brick that everyone else was doing.
30 minutes - 3 x (8.5 minutes easy + 1.5m race pace). Unsure what the easy pace was but for the race pace hit ~3:55/km.
After a 10oz rib eye steak at lunch I had a huge sandwich and a slice of cake this evening. Happy days.
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Weekly update
It's Sunday evening so time to catch up on the week since my last post.
Wednesday was the start of the tri-club's track-brick sessions. After a good warm up and some drills I did 3 reps of 6 min bike and 800m track. Each bike rep was high cadence and the 3 800m reps were very well paced. Slightly slower than my usual 800m target but taken easier as I'd raced at the weekend.
Thursday saw an hour on the turbo riding Sufferfest's Fight Club on TrainerRoad. A good session especially with the sprint intervals within each interval rep. I'm not a big fan of big-gear low-cadence work, but it must be done to build strength!
Friday was a warm, sunny lunch time easy run, with some added pick-ups to keep me race-pace aware. Some trail, some road and some very muddy XC section. My XC shoes had only just dried after Marlow!
Saturday morning a parcel arrived in the post for me. It was the flag and stickers that Sufferfest had donated to me. Thanks Sufferfest!
My wife and I knew we had a busy weekend ahead of us. Both children had parties to go to plus the usual visit to the in-laws for cake. Normally I'd cycle over with a long detour though the logistics for the children meant that I'd not do it this week. That, and with the weekend weather forecast looking grim I'd planned to ride Sufferfest's new video, Blender. However I thought I should get outside and took the opportunity to ride my rarely-used MTB. I knew that Swinley Forest was being reworked in to a trail centre so I decided to take a snowy look.
Once my daughter had been collected I cycled over to Swinley with a friendand we spend an hour and a half trying out the new trails. The trail work is very impressive with some good surfaces and a noticeable lack of surface water despite the waterlogged forestry all around. A quick cup of Bovril and flapjack in the cafe, then a further hour rolling around Swinley before heading home for a warm cup of tea.
A really enjoyable session and back in the nick of time; we arrived just as my daughter was being dropped home.
This morning I left the family to their lie-in and headed out with a few friends from my running club. We ran deep wet muddy XC trails and climbed a few hills before heading back in to woodland trails and more mud. We parted ways after about an hour and I did another 30 minutes on my own whilst they went of for some longer mileage. Even though it was cold and lightly snowing it was a good run. I'm so lucky to have such a vast amount of running and cycling terrain on my doorstep.
I got home to find that my wife had baked a lovely cake, ideal recovery food from a run. I also found out that my son's couple of red spots had turned in to full blown chicken pox overnight. Unfortunately for him he would not be going to any party today, and had unwittingly jeopardised my daughters own birthday party scheduled for this week. Other than being very itchy he doesn't appear to be suffering and still tore round the house like a barbarian all afternoon.
Another good week of family fun and 9 hours quality training.
Wednesday was the start of the tri-club's track-brick sessions. After a good warm up and some drills I did 3 reps of 6 min bike and 800m track. Each bike rep was high cadence and the 3 800m reps were very well paced. Slightly slower than my usual 800m target but taken easier as I'd raced at the weekend.
Thursday saw an hour on the turbo riding Sufferfest's Fight Club on TrainerRoad. A good session especially with the sprint intervals within each interval rep. I'm not a big fan of big-gear low-cadence work, but it must be done to build strength!
Friday was a warm, sunny lunch time easy run, with some added pick-ups to keep me race-pace aware. Some trail, some road and some very muddy XC section. My XC shoes had only just dried after Marlow!
Saturday morning a parcel arrived in the post for me. It was the flag and stickers that Sufferfest had donated to me. Thanks Sufferfest!
My wife and I knew we had a busy weekend ahead of us. Both children had parties to go to plus the usual visit to the in-laws for cake. Normally I'd cycle over with a long detour though the logistics for the children meant that I'd not do it this week. That, and with the weekend weather forecast looking grim I'd planned to ride Sufferfest's new video, Blender. However I thought I should get outside and took the opportunity to ride my rarely-used MTB. I knew that Swinley Forest was being reworked in to a trail centre so I decided to take a snowy look.
Once my daughter had been collected I cycled over to Swinley with a friendand we spend an hour and a half trying out the new trails. The trail work is very impressive with some good surfaces and a noticeable lack of surface water despite the waterlogged forestry all around. A quick cup of Bovril and flapjack in the cafe, then a further hour rolling around Swinley before heading home for a warm cup of tea.
A really enjoyable session and back in the nick of time; we arrived just as my daughter was being dropped home.
This morning I left the family to their lie-in and headed out with a few friends from my running club. We ran deep wet muddy XC trails and climbed a few hills before heading back in to woodland trails and more mud. We parted ways after about an hour and I did another 30 minutes on my own whilst they went of for some longer mileage. Even though it was cold and lightly snowing it was a good run. I'm so lucky to have such a vast amount of running and cycling terrain on my doorstep.
I got home to find that my wife had baked a lovely cake, ideal recovery food from a run. I also found out that my son's couple of red spots had turned in to full blown chicken pox overnight. Unfortunately for him he would not be going to any party today, and had unwittingly jeopardised my daughters own birthday party scheduled for this week. Other than being very itchy he doesn't appear to be suffering and still tore round the house like a barbarian all afternoon.
Another good week of family fun and 9 hours quality training.
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Parkrun PB
Today I should have been at Althorp. Though due to waterlogging it has been postponed, so I went to Reading parkrun instead. I cycled there and back to get some bike miles in too.
In a related vein, Reading parkrun is currently on detachment to Dinton Pastures due to waterlogging of the Reading parkrun course! Dinton is a lollypop shaped course; a small out leg, 2 loops around some lakes then a return along the out leg to the finish chute.
I was in the lead for a couple of hundred metres so tempered my pace and slipped back 3 places. Shortly before the first km mark I was overtaken again and I latched on to his heels. I crossed the line 5th at 19:22. A new PB.
In a related vein, Reading parkrun is currently on detachment to Dinton Pastures due to waterlogging of the Reading parkrun course! Dinton is a lollypop shaped course; a small out leg, 2 loops around some lakes then a return along the out leg to the finish chute.
I was in the lead for a couple of hundred metres so tempered my pace and slipped back 3 places. Shortly before the first km mark I was overtaken again and I latched on to his heels. I crossed the line 5th at 19:22. A new PB.
Sunday, 27 January 2013
Long ride, short run
Today I rode the Marlow duathlon bike course, with a couple of friends from my running club, Finch Coasters.
We rode there via White Waltham, Maidenhead, Pinkeys Green and descended Winterfold Hill. One rider felt under the weather at Maidenhead so went back. The two of us continued round the 25km duathlon course.
Coffee and Cake was had at the cafe at Higginson Park, then the return journey started. Up the big hill towards Maidenhead and then through Bray and back home. A good 90km bike ride.
When I got home I changed shoes and went for a quick 1.5km run at race pace to see how the legs would cope for the next weekend. The short run felt strong. Looking good for the first duathlon of the year next weekend!
We rode there via White Waltham, Maidenhead, Pinkeys Green and descended Winterfold Hill. One rider felt under the weather at Maidenhead so went back. The two of us continued round the 25km duathlon course.
Coffee and Cake was had at the cafe at Higginson Park, then the return journey started. Up the big hill towards Maidenhead and then through Bray and back home. A good 90km bike ride.
When I got home I changed shoes and went for a quick 1.5km run at race pace to see how the legs would cope for the next weekend. The short run felt strong. Looking good for the first duathlon of the year next weekend!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)