Tempo-Cruise

Morning run with 5min wu, 10 min at a tempo pace, 5 min cruise, 10 min tempo, cool down.
Nice little morning session that adds a little more structure than just get out and run.

Total Time (h:m:s) 0:41:19 6:05 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 0:40:50 6:01 pace
Distance (km) 6.77
Moving Speed (kph) 10.0 avg. 15.6 max.
Elevation Gain (m) +100 / -99
Avg. Heart Rate 152 bpm Zone 2.7
Temperature (°C) 3°C avg. 3°C high

Core

Standard core strength set again this morning.
Notice that the lunges and squats do actually leave my legs tired/sore.

Must be working then!

Birthday Bike

Today was my Birthday (36 argg) and my lovley wife arranged for me old mucker Andy to come over and drag me out on a bike ride.

Mud was the word for the day, but the rain held off and Big Grins were had by all!

Top
...and a chicken casserole to round out the day.

Total Time (h:m:s) 2:44:37 6:00 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 2:08:05 4:40 pace
Distance (km) 27.41
Moving Speed (kph) 12.8 avg. 39.3 max.
Elevation Gain (m) +319 / -317
Avg. Heart Rate 132 bpm Zone 3.1

Slow pace and high average HR shows just how much mud there was :-)

Snow run (honest)

We had an unexpected dump of snow last night which of course brought the country to a standstill. Though we also got a bit of rain later it froze up so that there was still a good bit of snow and ice on the ground come morning.

Fairly slippy footing made for short strides and slow going at times, but good fun.

Total Time (h:m:s) 2:08:33 6:44 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 2:02:03 6:24 pace
Distance (km) 19.05
Moving Speed (kph) 9.4 avg. 18.2 max.
Elevation Gain (m) +207 / -207
Avg. Heart Rate 145 bpm Zone 1.8
Temperature (°C) 2.5°C avg. 3°C high

Core strength sess

This morning I did the standard core strength sesssion.

This was in spite of the great excuses I thought of this morning as to why it was a much better idea to stay in my bed.

Hill Interval

Because the Connamarha run is so hilly I needed to see if I can build a bit of hill work into my standard routine in flat old Tetbury. To this end I will be working a few hill intervals into my weekly sessions.

This was my first try out as a morning run, so I am still experimenting with it.
The session inviolved a 5 min warm up, followed by 5 hill intervals on Gumstool hill, followed by a long run out/warm down.



For the next time out I will make it 2 sets of five intervals, and maybe mix the hills.

Rory's Lurgy

After the pretty poor run on the weekend the source of my troubles became clear, my snotty little boy had passed on his cold. Though nothing major its still enough to enforce a bit of rest if I am being sensible. Therefore I took the 7th 8th and 9th as rest days which seems to have done the trick.

Winter training sucks!

Bobbins Run

Weather was smashing this morning. It was fozen hard and there was in fact a lot of ice on the roads and paths, which made footing interesting.

The aim was to run for two hours at 6-5:30 pace. As it was I struggled to run for two hours at all. I felt really heavy and slow today. Legs felt tired and just generally felt rubbish. Either I am over training or I am get holding off a cold, my money is on the latter.




Total Time (h:m:s) 1:55:47 6:40 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 1:53:20 6:32 pace (stopped for a wee!)
Distance (km) 17.34
Moving Speed (kph) 9.2 avg. 15.6 max.
Elevation Gain (m) +195 / -186

My chest strap for the HRM has gone walkabout, but I will see if I can find it and get a base pulse in the morning. Tomorrow was slated for core stability, but I am going to knock that on the head and just do some streatching to see if I can shake this off a bit.

On the plus side;
1. Smashing cold bright morning frost morning run
2. Two hours running is still two hours running, most people couldnt manage that even when they are feeling tip top!

P.S I will have to post a photo of myself in my cold weather kit as I look more than vaguely ridiculous.

40 min run, but feeling a bit flat.

This was intended to be a 40 min run with a fast mid section, as it was I could only really muster a fairly even pace. Again the weather was pretty yuck ( although it did brighten up nicely just after my run!).
I feel like I an fending off a bit of a cold, as Rory is streaming with snots. Also my neck/shoulder on the right side has given me a lot of jip today, though the run actually served to loosen it out a bit.

Total Time (h:m:s) 0:37:07 5:58 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 0:37:00 5:57 pace (40 as it took a few mins for the watch to find the sats)
Distance (km) 6.21
Moving Speed (kph) 10.1 avg. 15.4 max.
Elevation Gain (m) +74 / -68

Temperature (°C) 5.7°C avg. 6°C high
Wind Speed ( kph) SSW 11.7 avg. SSW 14.8 max.
(and WET!!)

Bit of rest!

Friday was taken as a bit of a rest day. The only thing I did do was to get a morning weight which was a reasonable 86.4 Kg. I will set up a chart but the target weight I have in mind for the start of April was 82Kg. I am on a bit of a low/medium GI diet at the mo, so I will see how doable that is!

mmmm..cold wet and dark.

Morning running in the pure cold dark is just super!
As ever its not so bad once you actually get out of the house and on the road.
This run is just out to the limits of the street lights on a couple of the roads around town and is just right for 40 mins. I will use this as a base session for a warm up /Quick / cool down session.

Total Time (h:m:s) 0:41:13 6:02 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 0:40:59 6:00 pace
Distance (km) 6.82
Moving Speed (kph) 10.0 avg. 14.1 max.
Elevation Gain (m) +80 / -80
Temperature (°C) -1°C avg. -1°C high
Wind Speed ( kph) ENE 29.6 avg. ENE 29.6 max.

Lets go 2008!

Righto!
The start of a new year and a new rase lined up. Its action stations go!.
A good bit of prep work has been done in November and December so I should have maintained the good base fitness I developed in training for Dublin.
I have done a couple of nice winter runs, with some frosty mornings.



But now I have to face the prospect of training in the dark,wet mornings and evenings (yuch). People running London face the same problem of winter training. So I have just been spoiled up till now.

On Saturday I did a half marathon run and I even got out for a good run with Brian Brown on New Years morning which served nicely in shifting the hangover I seem to have acquired.

Total Time (h:m:s) 0:40:09 5:56 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 0:40:03 5:56 pace
Distance (km) 6.75
Moving Speed (kph) 10.1 avg. 17.2 max.
Elevation Gain (m) +74 / -69
Avg. Heart Rate 152 bpm Zone 2.9

This morning I did 40 min of my standard core strength set.

Session
Warm up:
20 knee blocks
20 knee block + kick
2 X 10 side kicks
General rotations

Core:
30 raised leg crunches (legs on ball)
2 X 30 sec side plank over ball
30 sit and twist standard situps
2 X 20 side crunches
30 sec front plank over ball
30 crunches on ball
2 X 30 sec side plank over ball
30 sec front plank over ball
30 leg lifts
10 roll ups on ball
15 Hyper extensions on ball

Legs:
20 deep lunges
20 squats (feet shoulder width apart)
2 x 30 calf raises

Chest/Arms:
3 X 10 press up
2 X 10 Fly press + 10 Benchpress
20 Bicept Curl

Stretch

Metrics:
I need to set some baseline measures again to monitor progress.
1. Measure of HR to produce 5 min/km pace on flat
2. Timed mile
3. Resting pulse
4. Estimation of AT
5. Weight %BF and BMI

Current measure:
87.3 Kg
24.8% BF
27.6 BMI

So... overweight, but it was Christmas.
Tomorrow, the morning run.

Disaster!

I have written this retrospectively as I was just too hacked off to write it at the time but long story short. I missed the race due to illness. I was flattened with a mighty cold and the days I had booked off as holiday for the race were actually spent in bed sick! Gutted!

Marc O (the brother) ran it and did something like 4:45. He blew up at the 20 mile mark, struggled on to the 23rd mile jogging but had to walk it in from 23. He puts this down to simply being under trained for the event.

Since then I have kept tipping away at training getting back to running after illness only on the 17th of November, and I still felt poorly. The runs have been 40 min to 1:30 and of an easy mixed pace.

With the Christmas break I have ramped it up a little bit and reintroduced a bit of structure. I have done a bit of work on core strength and I have also got out an done a half marathon distance, which felt nice and easy. I have signed up for the full marathon out in Conamaragh.

I will update the training log and plan to prep for this race at the start of April.