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Showing posts from August, 2020

Building upwards

Solid week training banked this week.  Very similar to last week but just trying to add a few more miles as I build a speedwork plan up to 40 miles per week! Decent 400m race (for me at this stage) on Monday so lots of confidence for the week. Intervals Friday once I had fully recovered although I was feeling very bleugh - 10 x 60 on and 30 off on the tready.  Felt much better than expected but this was followed by a tired weekend running! Bit of a busy week with lots going on so wasn't 100% focus. At this stage the plan is to keep building on what I am doing. Try and keep slowly adding more speed to the top end and a few extra miles and runs here and there to build economy.  If I can get that 400m to sub 60 seconds then I am really close to the bottom end of where it needs to be! The post session runs are VERY tired and laboured if I am honest. I'm quite enjoying running to feel - mainly 5 miles or so with strides in the middle - but I am 110% battered for a couple of days aft

Hunts AC 400m

Every morning as I get out of bed I prey for good legs and not the solid mahogany ones that I seem to usually get. Today was so-so.  No major aches but the achilles certainly wasn't feeling 100%. As I settle in to my morning routine - 2 pints of water followed by 3 coffees before breakfast things settled down. Managed a nice easy shakeout 5k with some drills.  The best I could say about my legs is they were 'unresponsive'! Headed over to the track pretty late as I just wanted to arrive and crack on with the warm up. It's only a minute or so of effort anyway! Warmed up OK and dare I say felt not too bad considering how I felt on this mornings run. Was in race 1 with the girls from Dereks group. Combined age of the 3 girls was barely over my 45+ years! Got a decent start unlike last weeks 100m and settled in after a hard opening 100m. Tried to relax down the back straight and keep the cadence high. At 200m started feeling good and pushed hard around the bend. Hit the stra

The naked runner

Technically preparing for a run over the past few years includes - * Making sure Garmin is charged * Getting signal before running * Locating HRM strap * Phone has enough charge and spotify playlist has downloaded added songs * Wireless headphones have enough charge * Stryd Power Meter is charged and set up on whichever of the 6 pairs of trainers I am running in today During the run, constantly looking at several data fields and wondering - * Is my Garmin working properly as it feels like 6/mm not 7/mm * Why is my HR at threshold when it's supposed to be an easy pace * Why can't I push my power any higher * Why did I add this song to my playlist. Better stop and skip it And then once finished - * Upload to Garmin, which in turn means checking - * Strava - change title to let everyone know how great I am if pace was ok or how tired I am if pace was shit * Training peaks - where the honest appraisal happens * Fetcheveryone - because I've logged on there for over 10 years and

Just take up gardening

Hunts AC club 100m champs last night.  First track race of the season.  I will preamble this by stating clearly that 100m is not my distance !! Lined up in lane 4 against a bunch of 12 and 13 year old kids including Sawyer, I took my marks. Bang.  We were off.  Well, they were!  I started so slowly I was a good 5m down on the next slowest kid in the first 10m.  At 50m I started to reel back the slower kids but the race was pretty much done. Sawyer boy ran 2nd in an awesome 14.1 against my terrible 15.1 !!  We'll beaten but good fun.   I never imagined the day I couldn't break 15 secs for 100m.  That wasn't far off my 1500m pace back in the day haha Anyways, I did enjoy racing - even if it was horrible.  I'll do better on the longer stuff. Woke up this morning to the usual aches and pains.  Achillies is still not right. Lots of questions when I feel like this about why do I put myself through it !! Why not do the occasional jog when I feel up to it?  Why the obsession of

Speedwork week 2

  2 weeks in to the new plan.  Been a little strange with the weather, both intense heat and incredible rain affecting sessions! Have missed alittle more training volume than I would like - it keeps the weight under control - but sessions have been ok. Reality is I'm either doing really hard sessions OR crazy tired between them! Weeks are build around - Tuesday track work. 3 x (200m,200m,400m) - Friday treadmill intervals. 5 x 2 mins off 60 recovery and Sunday Hills. I'm battered between them and struggling to hit sub 8/mm on runs but i guess as I adapt and get stronger that will come down. Paces are pretty good.  Last track session was 32 avge for the 200m reps and 69 avge for the 400s (67 on the last one).  The 2 min intervals I will keep to 5/mm and add in extra rep and also reduce recovery but for now that's a tough session! Need to do more S&C work and get stronger. Core is still weak but it's in progress! So that's pretty much back up to speed.  Volume is

Back to track

Training After a couple of weeks away it was good to get back to a more normal routine this week. Pretty much nailled a 'full' week for this stage of training. The sessions are key. Everything else now will be easy/recovery/steady depending on how battered I feel!  Having 2 easy days between the main sessions really helps keep the quality up, but I am feeling pretty battered between them.  Hopefully sticking to this stage for a while will help reocvery. Mon - REST Tue - am) shakeout pm) 3 x (200,200,400) Wed - 5 easy Thu - 6 steady Fri - 5 x 2 off 60 recovery (tready) Sat - 8 long easy Sun - hills Tuesday session went well.  Started first set in next% then progressed to spikes for 2nd and 3rd.  Times not amazing but improvement on last time plus I added an extra set.  Eventually I'll add a 4th set but for now it's a good speed workout on the limits!  Roughly 800m pace for the session.  Times were 34,32,70 - 33,33,71 - 35,33,70.  Just getting the legs used to speed again

Running with Coeliac Disease

After a 4 week bout of GI issues (or as my old Dad, rest his soul, would say 'the thrupenny bits') I booked in with the doctor for stool samples and blood tests.  Something wasn't quite right.  If I am honest, something hasn't been 'right' for many years - maybe 20 or so - but I always put this down to running or my awful diet. During the 2 weeks between taking the tests and getting a call from the doctor I tried going gluten free.  Assuming I may be gluten intolerant as the symptoms did loosely seem to match - diarrhoea, fuzzy brain, slightly unwell. Within a couple of days things definitely 'firmed up'.   Happy with my self diagnosis I got used to having to probably avoid gluten, however knowing that I would likely just find it slightly annoying but would probably be able to eat 'some'. The call came back from the doctor that I had actually shown to produce antibodies for Coeliac disease so it was very likely that I have it.  At some stage I wi