Run in the Dark training Q&A

Online training Q&A Monday Sept 16th from 8-9pm on the Run in the Dark FB page.

Training Diary 29th July – 4th Aug 2013

Monday July 29^th. HRV= 55 White.

Hoping for higher as legs feeling good but I’ll take it easy today and keep it Aerobic.  Easy lunchtime run of 8K with low heart rate.  Legs feeling a bit lethargic and I’m guessing it’s an after effect of yesterday’s session.

Plan for tomorrow is a running commute.

Tuesday July 30^th. HRV=60 White.

Expected higher but then again the last few days have been of a higher intensity even though the volume has been lower.  Departed the house at my usual time and because I’m not working on my 24-hr pacing I just went by feel with an easy start and letting the run evolve.  Picked it up after 2K and locked into a heart rate at the upper end of my aerobic zone which meant steady on the flat, slowing on the climbs and picking it up on the downs.  Finished at my usual spot and was surprised to see I was almost 20 minutes faster than recent running commutes.  It’s good to be running natural again but must remember to leave the house later or take a detour and extend the journey.  Average Pace = 3.58K / 6.22 Mile.

Plan for tomorrow is lunchtime Recovery run and a yet to be decided Track session.

Wednesday July 31^st. HRV= 64 White.

A good result after a decent session yesterday.  Easy lunchtime run that ended up a bit faster than planned as I found myself having to push harder to get into the zone.  Probably faster than it should have been and was glad to finish and dodge the rain but legs feeling heavy and that might alter my second run plan.  Decided on a Track session of 5*800M off 5 minute Recovery aiming for 2.40 per rep as this is fast enough to be an effort and it’s easy to monitor the pacing as its 40 seconds per 200M.  Session went ok but my stopwatch started acting up and resetting at random times during some of the laps which had me thinking I was on for an almost effortless 2.15 for 800 but I soon copped on when I hit the final 100M and tried to push it out.  Felt like I could have done another 5 reps but that’s probably because the Recovery was too long relative to the effort.  My split times averaged 2.40 – 2.46

Plan for tomorrow is a running commute.

Thursday August 01^st. HRV= 54 Amber.

Seems the Track session yesterday took a bit more out of me than I realised.  Went back to bed as I think I’d get more of a benefit from delaying this morning’s run until this evening when I’ll be more awake, more rested plus fuelled and hydrated.  Retested after getting home from work and got a score of 70 so I decided to head for the Track and join in with the club’s middle distance session.  Arrived early to do a long slow warm up and could feel some tightness in my right hamstring which was obviously as a result of the 800s yesterday.  Thinking on my feet I extended the warm up and decided to change my plan rather than risking an injury.  Gradually picked up the pace and over the course of 2k I was starting to get my HR elevated to the upper end of my aerobic zone and feeling ok so the plan was now a repeat of last Sunday which was 2K Warm up, 10K steady state and 2k cool down.  Repeating a similar session is a good way of monitoring progress.  Being conscious of the tightness in my hamstring I made sure to stay at a pace that didn’t result in any discomfort and didn’t throw up any reminders.  The session was far from easy as my head wasn’t fully tuned in but I stuck it out aided by the company trackside for the last few K.

Plan for tomorrow will depend on Recovery and I’m prepared for a rest day if required.

Friday August 02^nd. HRV= 63 White.

Much higher than expected but I’ve decided to take it easy and rest the hamstring just to be on the safe side.  Went for a very easy 8K run during lunchtime and left it at that for the day.

Plan for tomorrow is the Parkrun if I wake on time and feel up to it.

Saturday August 03^rd. HRV= 62 White.

Woke before the alarm so it’s Parkrun.  Decided to go for a Training Effect today with my plan being to stay as close to the lead pack at the start and then hold on for as long as possible.  Started as planned but my fast start seemed to be a bit too fast and I found myself leading the race which wasn’t what I wanted.  For a moment I considered falling back but then I thought sure what’s the difference and maybe this could be what I needed. Knowing from most of my other races that I don’t have a sprint finish I thought it best to set a fast even pace from the start to gain what I might lose towards the end so I pushed on a little bit more.  As the first lap finished I had the chance to take a look back and I could see that I’d made a gap of maybe 2 minutes on the next placed runner but I was feeling the pressure and knew I could easily lose that time over the next lap of 2.5K so I tried to maintain what I had gained.  By the 3rd Km I could feel my pace starting to slow but knew I could afford to lose a few seconds and from here until the finish I just tried not to lose too much time.  Finished first with over 1 minute on 2nd place and although it isn’t a PB it’s a big improvement on last week and more proof that my recovery is going well.  Went home for breakfast and then it was off to the hills for a leisurely 10K with 6K of climbing.

http://www.parkrun.ie/griffeen/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=8

Plan for tomorrow is a long run at an easy pace.

Sunday August 04^th. HRV= 58 White.

A good result and met with Aidan (training for a 24-hr race) for a 35K run along the canal at a leisurely pace.  Could have gone longer but think this is a safe distance so soon after the 24-hrs.  Finished the day with an even easier 10K on the Track with 2 others that are in training for a 24-hr and a 48-hr race.  Conversation got a bit boring.

Plan for tomorrow is undecided but I’m thinking a long run or shorter Track Tempo.

Weekly Summary:

Recovery going in the right direction and feel it’s almost time to return to full training.

Training Diary for 24th to 30th June 2013

Monday June 24^th. HRV= 59 White.

A slight improvement and unexpected after the long day yesterday.  Today is yet another long day as the journey home begins.

Plan for tomorrow is a return to training run…

Tuesday June 25^th. HRV=53 White.

Not bad considering I only arrived home at 1:00 am after an action packed day trying to fit in some last minute sightseeing between a train journey to Milan and the flight home. Tried an easy run of 6K before breakfast and found it very tough mentally.  Took it easy for the rest of the morning / afternoon and finished the day with a slightly faster 10K over a hilly route

Plan for tomorrow is to make the most of my last day off before going back to work but depends on recovery.

Wednesday June 26^th. HRV=71 Green.

Back in the game and normal services will resume.  Started the day with an easy 10K to test the legs and prepare for a more intense hilly 13K in the afternoon.  Finished the day with a controlled Fartlek run of just over 5K as part of a coached session with the club.  This consisted of 2*90 seconds, 4*60 seconds, 4*30 seconds and 4*15 seconds with same time as recovery between reps.  Rather than running these as max efforts I stuck with my 5K pace based on my PB.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/333575696

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/333724795

Plan for tomorrow is an early gym session and a lunchtime 10K.

Thursday June 27^th. HRV=68 White.

Easy Gym session of back squats taking a step back but still doing enough to bring on an exercise induced training response and the DOMS.  Skipped the lunchtime run in favour of a later 6* 1 minute interval session in advance of tomorrow’s race which I’ve still to enter.  Session went well and was slightly faster than my race pace as I’m already feeling the effects of this morning’s gym session.  The gym session may seem badly timed being so close to a race but this is a race of lesser importance as I don’t have the luxury of a taper being so close to my next 24-hr Race (22 days).  Signed up for the 5K race before going to bed.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/334107211

I’m expecting my legs to be sore / stiff tomorrow morning so the plan is an easy lunchtime recovery run to prepare for the race.

Friday June 28^th. HRV= 78 White.

A great result and the baseline is heading in the right direction again.  Easy lunchtime run of 5K in just over 25 minutes to loosen out the legs in advance of this evenings race. Not feeling great in advance of the race and I hate just running for the sake of it but will still give it a good shot and hope to go at least sub 19 mins.  Decide to start slightly back from the start to avoid going off too fast and it works.  I settle into a nice pace before the first K passes and running better than expected and from here to 4K I’m making up lots of places and think I was only passed once before the finish line.  Official results give me a 17:56 and an unexpected season’s best.  Don’t think I could have run any faster but I’ve no doubt that I could have maintained the pace for longer.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/334515484

Plan for tomorrow is a local Parkrun in the morning followed by a short Trail Run in the afternoon but as always it will depend on recovery…

Saturday June 29^th. HRV=69 White.

Perfect and I woke before the alarm.  Stuck with the plan and drove to a local Parkrun (5K) with the intention being to run hard for as long as I can and then just hold on for a little bit longer.  Found myself on the start line although I’d planned to position myself a bit further back but didn’t get caught up at the start and let myself settle behind the lead pack and over the first K I fell back to about 20th position by not chasing.  Got comfortable quite quick and was surprised to see my 1K split of 3:33 and kind of guessed it might be hard to sustain so I decided to hold rather than try increase the effort.  My pace did falter by a few seconds but I was also starting to make up places and by the time we started the second of the two laps I was in 6th position with all but the lead runner within reach. On the home stretch I managed to position myself comfortably in 4th position and think I may have relaxed slightly as it was seeming like a good result but then I saw the 3rd placed runner look behind which made me wish I’d kicked a bit more.  Crossed the line in 4th and forgot to stop my watch but the official time has me at 18:25.  Very happy with this result so soon after the last race.  Finished the training day a few hours later with a shorter than usual trail run.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/334670236

Plan for tomorrow is a medium distance long run.

Sunday June 30^th. HRV=56 White.

A great result but legs not feeling great.  Decided to keep the route flat to work on endurance without overdoing it and stayed on the canal for 35.5K in just over 3hrs.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/335223041

Weekly Summary:

A great week and a good return to form after last week.  My base line is moving upwards again and I think the right decisions were made last based on my training volume / intensity and race results for this week.

Training Diary 29th April-5 May 2013

Monday Apr 29^th. HRV= 66 White.

Same as last Monday but after a tougher day.  Skipped the lunchtime run as I’m running to a meeting with the Athletics Association of Ireland after work.  Ran at an easy pace with a slight detour via a running track and did a set of 6*400 at close to my 3K race pace off 60 second recovery.  Felt fatigued after each rep but recovered quickly and finished the session with a distance of 12K.  Delayed after the meeting and missed my train home which meant a later than planned night.  Resisted the temptation to run home by going for a 1hr walk rather than hanging around the train station.

Plan for tomorrow is an early Gym session and an evening race pace run.

Tuesday Apr 30^th. HRV=73 White.

Moving in the right direction.  Early Gym session of 4* Walking Lunges with 10Kg Dumbells, Hanging knee raises and a short Interval session on the Airdyne.  The Airdyne session was 5 minutes of mostly low intensity with the last 15 seconds of each minute being an all out effort.  Evening recovery run of 10.5K working on my race pace and avoiding hills.  Early night.

Plan for tomorrow is a lunchtime run of 40 mins and an evening run of 60+ mins.

Wednesday May 01^st. HRV=81 White.

Signs of recovery and a big improvement on last week which was partly caused by a night out.  Will try keep my score high while making allowances for some short fast sessions and a 5K race on Saturday.  Most sessions from now will be just enough to keep what I’ve got while still allowing recovery from what I’ve done.  Decided to skip the lunchtime opportunity to run and did some pre race shopping.  Easy 7K after work with 6* 1 min @ 5K race pace to finish and then an even easier 5K at Recovery pace with the club’s Couch to 5K crew.  A long day and although the training was easy I’m feeling tired.  Finished the night with a decent serving of Cherry Active.

Plan for tomorrow is an early Gym session and maybe 2 laps of Saturday’s 5k race route.

Thursday May 02^nd. HRV=71 White.

Lower than expected but still ok and an improvement on last week plus my base line is climbing.  Feeling a slight niggle in my lower left leg and that changes my day that was being decided as I was going to bed.  Took it easy in the gym and did mostly stretching and foam rolling with some light upper body work.  Booked a massage for lunchtime and it was torture.  Didn’t think I was as bad but luckily I went and got it sorted before I got the final warning.  Repeated last night’s session of 6*1 minutes after a long warm up and all seems to be ok.

Plan for tomorrow is medium effort 30 minutes or rest.

Friday May 03^rd. HRV= 66 White.

Lower than expected and left leg feeling tender since massage.  Will rest today and don’t mind as I’ve a race tomorrow.  Took delivery of the Team Kit(see it here!) for next weekend and looking forward to trying it out.  Found it hard not to run but managed to resist the temptation and had an early night in the hope of waking before the alarm.

Plan for tomorrow is a 5K and maybe a little bit extra.

Saturday May 04th. HRV= 75 White.

Expected and would have liked a higher score but it’s a slight improvement on yesterday and a big improvement on last week.  Woke well before the alarm and took my time getting up.  Had a quick cup of coffee and went out for a short easy run before breakfast.  Home for breakfast and then took my time getting ready for the race as hosted by my club.  Arrived an hour before the start and relaxed into my usual pre race warm up before lining up just behind the start line.  My goal time was 17:30 with a worst case finish of sub 19 minutes.  Started of at a relaxed pace and this suited as the first Km included the toughest hill on the course and it would be very easy to do too much too soon and pay the price towards the end.  On the descent of the hill I got caught amongst the pack and found it hard to make a break and by the time i did it was straight into a headwind and I’d lost contact with the group up ahead.  I tried to make up some ground and slowly pulled away from my pack but failed to make up the lost ground.  Hitting the last Km I felt very comfortable and tried to get uncomfortable but the extra gear wasn’t there.  Crossed the finish line way off a Personal Best but it’s my fastest 5K this year and I’m not a 5K runner.  Having said that I won my age group category which was a nice surprise and a confidence boost for next week.

Plan for tomorrow is unplanned.

Sunday May 05^th. HRV= 67 Amber.

An excuse to take it easy but it’s a beautiful day outside and a shame to waste it.  Used the opportunity to practice my pacing for next weekend and had a great run.  Took about 10 minutes to get into a rhythm and then I was locked on.  Ran for 1.5hrs and confidence has increased that little bit more.

Plan for tomorrow is a lie in and maybe a pre breakfast easy run followed by an evening interval session of 3-5 *1K.  This is similar to a session I did this far out from the 24-hr race in Poland.

Weekly HRV Summary

Not sure how the Taper is going as there’s always self doubt at this time but on the plus side my base line is creeping upwards.  Felt a slight niggle in my lower left leg towards the middle of the week and a massage to loosen out my legs was a lot more painful than I’d expected.

http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/?p=31929

Preparing to Taper.

Photo by Alan Rowlette.

It's been a tough 2 weeks with a lot of quality sessions including double days, gym sessions and track work but I'm glad to say it all went to plan and I'm now preparing to Taper.  My plan for next week is reduced volume with increased intensity which will include steady runs of up to 1 hour and maybe a track session.
This day last week I ran the Celbridge AC 5K and finished in 18:05,  way off my PB but still a 2 second improvement on the Donadea 5K from 2 weeks earlier and it show's that at least I'm not going backwards with the training.


  

Peaking again. Again.

In anticipation of my next race I'm midway through a 2 week peak which consists of a high volume week at low intensity followed by a lower volume week of higher intensity finishing with a 5K race.  Recovery since the 24-hr race has gone very well and thats one of the benefits of not getting caught up in a race especially when there's a race of more importance so close.  Heart Rate profiles in the attached are not exact as there were quite a few unexplained peaks & troughs.

Saturday.

This run was a recce for  Sunday's run as I needed to work out timing and distance to join up with my club mates doing a shorter trail run as it meant a lift home.

Sunday

Mentally & Physically this was a tough run as I ran it on tired legs following Saturday's run with deadlines to meet.  Very happy with how it went and finished knowing I could have kept going.  I'll decide what I do tomorrow when I wake up.

Donadea 5K.  27/07/12

Attached photo from a recent race thanks to James Shelley of LeCheile AC.  I ran this race during my recovery and was hoping to finish in approx 20 minutes running by feel.  I wasn't sure what to expect so soon after the 24-hr race but after 1K I felt good and stayed steady but didn't get carried away.  Approaching 4K I decided to push a bit and then got caught in a race with another guy and we stayed with each other until the last 400M and I happily crossed the finish line in 18:07.  Not a PB but better than expected and a sign that my recovery has gone well.

Tom Byrne Memorial 5K 2012 / Lucan Harriers

 

 A perfect day for a race and even though I'm still in recovery mode I knew this would be a good one.  The started the day with my usual pre breakfast run and I arrived at the race headquarters well ahead of time to allow time for a warm up and more importantly meet and chat with the usual suspects.  My plan for today came in 3 parts, 1: to run a PB, 2: to run sub 17 min if I started well,  3: sub 18 as fallback.  I hate including a fallback in my race plan as I believe you're either in or you're not and sometimes a fallback plan can give you a mental escape route but my way of preventing the cop out is to declare your plan to those you respect.

On the start line I spotted Eoin Brett from Newbridge AC and he regularly finishes ahead of me so I picked him out as a target and checked out his planned finish time which fitted in with my plan.  We ran together as part of a group with Eoin leading the way up to 2k and I then took the lead to give Eoin a break and we then stayed together up until 3K before splitting up.  I don't know if Eoin fell back or if I pushed on but by 4K I was out on my own and when you're on your own the incentive to push on isn't the same.

I can remember seeing the 4K marker and even though I knew in advance where it was I was thinking to myself that 1K is a long way to go and the voices in my head were telling me to slow down.  I tried to push harder and don't know if I did but when I reached the home stretch on the Lucan Harriers running track it felt like my pace was slowing.  In the distance I could hear my name being called and that pulled the trigger for the final sprint before the bend to the last 100M and I crossed the line in a new PB time of 17:20 which was enough to get me a category win in the O40.

     

During the few days before the race my training included a heavy squatting session that resulted in a bad case of the DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) and I don't think it had cleared by race day which has me thinking that when I can afford to rest and taper I'll really surprise myself.

Photos thank to:
Tony Brennan.
Peter Mooney.

Race Results.

Le Cheile 5K 2012

Not a PB but all things considered I'm happy with the result.  My plan was to run at 10K pace and hold it as long as possible with the aim of finishing in under 18 mins.  Unexpectedly  I finished less than 10 seconds outside my 5K PB without feeling like I'd raced and that's probably because I didn't have the leg turnover to run any faster so soon after my recent 100K and the lack of any race specific speed work.



A selection of photos available from:
Tony Brennan.
Peter Mooney.
James Shelley.

Finished the day with a recovery run practicing my pacing for a 3:15 Marathon.

Clongowes Wood 5K

Rory Mooney, John O'Regan, Peter Mooney.

The Taper has started and that means reduced volume with increased intensity and what better way to start it than with a race.

The inaugural Clongowes Wood 5K took place in the magnificent surrounds of Clongowes Wood College on Sunday April 01st.  A well organised race with a field of almost 500 runners and walkers of all abilities including many familiar faces.  The race was as flat as you'll get with no more than 15M of ascent and race day conditions were perfect so this was the day for a PB but I had gone with a plan!  I was running with one of my trainers 'Kevin Belton' and the plan for today was a 3:30K for a 17:30 finish.  After a fast start I settled into my pace with Kevin slightly ahead and when passing through the first kilometer mark he confirmed our split as 3:30.  The main pack were slightly ahead but rather than get caught in the race we stayed as we were and clocked the same pace going through the second and third marker.  Kevin dropped back ever so slightly as we approached the 4K mark but I maintained the pace nestled into a group of 3 and prepared myself for a sprint finish.  Soon after passing the 4K mark the entrance to the college becomes visible and the final 7-800M from the gate to the finish line is just stunning.  Not knowing how good my kick was I stayed with the pack and waited for the last possible moment and then it happened.  

Sprint finish.

I made up 1 position with the sprint finish and crossed the finish line fairly spent which is always a good way to cross the line.

Crossing the line.

Crossing the finish line in 17:31 for 5th overall and as I later found out, 1st Over 40.  No big deal but it did get me a very impressive prize.

Photos thanks to Peter Mooney and full set of race day photos photos available on Peter Mooney's flickr.

Results