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The Middle Ground
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Then tested positive for COVID! All advice in that regard welcome. I'm sure that it could be worse!
But some people just seem to experience regular cold symptoms, if that's the case for you I don't see why you couldn't do some light running.
Just back from 2k running with walk breaks, keeping the HR at 100 or below. Legs a bit wobbly and lower back tender. Just feels like I'm full of a cold. Early days though!
Dr Dan, thanks, it's been 20 months since I had a good crack at one so pent up fitness. It's all progress for you so don't be chasing numbers per month just build it up bit by bit.
Muss, yes it puts me in the mix for sure. I ran a half in August, so about 6 weeks out from Berlin. It was ruined by being 28c but there's no way I'd have run 1.16 then regardless. Mcmillan calculator has me at 2.40.24 then fetch has 2.45.
Hitting hmp in training for extended periods shouldn't be anything but hard, so if you are beating it like that then it sounds like you are fitter than that pace.
I've got 3 x 5k at hmp Friday, off 1k steady. Feeling a bit sick thinking about it. Lewis has put up my schedule for March and he gives pace recommendations for things. Suddenly they've gone from 5.50s to 5.35-5.45. That also makes me feel sick!
6m recovery Monday and light spun class effort then yesterday was a mini session of 5 x 2k at mara pace off 45s light jog. Came out 6.13mm for 6.7m
That gave me 231m for February, being my highest ever Feb. Decent given I had a long weekend away and a race I tapered for.
12m easy over lunch to kick March off, which all being well will be my biggest ever month.
I missed your last post Dan, sounds like you're moving in the right direction.
DT sounds like you've recovered well from Wokingham.
I'm flying to USA today, so moved my long run to yesterday. I did 24km at 4:47min/km average, so that was a pretty hard long run for me. Legs felt good after, a bit tired but that's pretty much it. Woke up this morning feeling surprisingly fresh. Hoping to get out for a 5k shakeout when I arrive, and then I'll just have to see what state I wake up in tomorrow. I'd love to get 90 mins or so in, but I won't hammer myself to get it in.
How long are you away for? Decent long run yesterday so I would keep it easy for a few days particularly given the change of time zones. Probably hit you more on your return! Take care!
You continue to go well DT!
Will take a COVID test tomorrow.
Muss, is that for work? You seem to get a lot of business travel in. Hope you were able to get out.
Big session Friday of 3 x 5k. Came in 10.6m at 5.55mm average pace. 10m pb in there as well.
Popped to parkrun Saturday morning, jogged round with a clubmate, comfortably and progressively for 19.05 and 4th place. Up and out then for 21 today. 74m for week which is very slightly my highest ever.
I've succumbed to a cold, nothing more than streaming nose so won't let it derail anything.
I feel fine and hopefully the negative test is around the corner. Will only be doing very easy short runs for the next week.
Going east is the real killer, hopefully breaking up the return mitigates some of the stress to the system, because I have a tough work week when I get back, too. I'll stock up on OTC melatonin while I'm here!
Legs felt dreadful after the flight, I think more down to cabin pressure and prolonged sitting than after effects from the long run. Went for 5k shakeout after I dropped off my stuff, quite pleasant in the end.
15km this morning, as I woke at 5:30am and knew I wouldn't get back to sleep. Came out decently as 5:10min/km at 143bpm average. I'm in Berkeley California, and ran down to the bay area, so could see San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. Nice weather and light.
DT, that 10 mile PB is reasonably fresh, too! You are in great shape. That's a similar pace that you just raced your half, though, so surprised that that session was the 10 mile PB, rather than your half!
Yes, here for work. I'm doing an unusual amount of travel abroad this year, normally it's just round UK.
I suspect the cold will last longer than it should given my heavy training phase.
Melatonin sounds a good shout, Muss. That could prove useful for me with a classic 'red eye' flight home from Boston and ambitions to run London 3 days later.
Do you just buy tablets from a supermarket like you'd buy nytol here?
The half was definitely also a 10m pb, by a far bigger margin. It's not hugely mad to run a 10m pb in a half, running a sub 60, 10m in training though I find bizarre. When I first started club running I was told that the mark of a good club runner was a sub 60, 10m. Back then I couldnt even run sub 40 pace for 3 mins in intervals, but aspired to one day achieve it. To now knock it out in a training run in a 75m week seems weird.
Next 4 weeks in my schedule look pretty big with a 20m race in 2 weeks then culminating in midland Rd relays before I taper. I'll end up with a long leg for sure following last weekends performance. Whilst my marathons have previously opened a few eyes at the club, other distances haven't. Suddenly the best runners are asking questions and I'm being put on the longer and most competitive legs of Welsh castles as opposed the leg I wanted which presented my best chance of Vet yellow stage winner Jersey.
Glad to hear the C19 has subsided Alehouse - I wasn't keen to attempt anything for 10+ days when I had it at Xmas.
Mus - sounds like you've been doing some good run tourism!
DT - looking forward to hearing about the 20m and relays!
Good week last week aside from skipping my club swim (date night with Mrs D) - even did a parkrun at threshold (22:38) and clocked my best mileage week since the summer. This week was deliberately back-loaded as I spotted the snowy weather coming in and knew it would screw commuting. Worked out well as cycled in on Thurs, left bike in office, ran back, then ran in this morning in the snow, and will cycle back soon on the now clear roads ... couldn't have planned it better. Need a good run weekend again although I'm predicting parkrun will be cancelled (-8degC predicted at 7am) but we'll see.
Alehouse, hope you are now well recovered and survived the ice and snow so far?
Dr Dan, our local parkrun called it around midday. Sons footy also called off and a rest day scheduled. I'm finding very difficult to find good reason not to have beers!
That parkrun sounds very positive progress. Building up well.
I'm at the pointy end now with 5 weeks today being my flight to Boston.
Cold was a nuisance Monday and Tuesday but cleared quickly afterwards. 6m recovery Monday then 5 x 8 mins off 1k float at 6.40s. Struggled to hit paces as felt crap but still banked 8.5m at 6.05 mm and another 4m in wu and cd.
A very hilly and snowy 14 Wednesday then 7m and spin yesterday.
Today was a staple session of 10m at 160bpm, which I hadn't done in ages. I have a lot of data that tells me what this comes out as is ballpark mara pace come race day. Averaged 6.01mm for bang on 160. 30.12 first half then 29.58 second half. 13m with wu and cd.
Hilly 23m planned sunday
That's a very promising 10 miler, DT.
No snow or ice here, yet about 10 miles away it is a foot deep!
I am being very cautious and I think it is likely to be a couple of weeks before I am ready to train properly. Up to 19 minutes here today... plus walk breaks to keep the HR down.
Sensible to take it slowly Alehouse.
No parkrun as predicted but I did 15 miles Z1 on Sunday which went well enough... better than kast time fir sure! Had a "refuelling" weekend but back on the diet now. Just bike commuting today and hopefully will run off the bike commute tomorrow.
Mainly started decently, but I slightly overdid a 3x3km workout in hotter temps than I've been used to and with stiff winds. A recovery run the next day went ok, but I then ended up doing about 15 miles of walking, including a pretty hilly hike - which made for over 20 miles covered on foot. That really took it out of me and the next day I attempted a treadmill run (LA is very frustrating to run around), but I only managed 30 mins in an unpleasantly hot and humid gym before calling it quits and then felt quite run down for the rest of the day.
The next day on to NY, where I arrived just before midnight, with the clocks going forward overnight. I decided I'd wait to see how I felt in the morning about running - which turned out to be not great, since I'd had a couple of beers in a bar and stayed up quite late. I reluctantly decided to abandon my plan of a central park lap, although later in the day I felt really up for it, but just didn't really have time. Annoying to essentially miss 3 days and about 40km of distance, but the rest seems to have done me some good.
The brief stopover in NY also seemed to help with return jetlag - I've slept through the night decently, and am just finding myself get very tired early evening.
Training has been decent since returning. 10k easy, 16k steady (which felt excellent on very fresh legs), 10 easy, and today's workout 4k, 3k, 2k, 1k. Starting out slower than HMP and finishing at around 10km effort, 16km all in. Last long run on Sunday, and then I'll do my last big session mid next week - I really like 10km alternating between over and under half marathon pace.
Alehouse, hopefully you've progressed things along?
Muss, states sounds like it was a good trip. That's a decent session that k cut down. Was that continuous or a float between each block?
23m went well Sunday, giving me 75m for highest week ever. This week was going nicely building into tomorrow's 20m race session, with perfect conditions forecast. 6m Monday, hilly 14 Tuesday, then 3 x 2m Wednesday.
Then walking to pub Wednesday evening to watch footy I noticed some soreness in left upper quad. Assumed I'd wake Thursday and it'd be fine. It was largely so did my 6m run but from about 3m in it started tightening. Felt fine afterwards and today so did the scheduled 5m but it was tight and sore straightaway. Completed the 5 and didn't get worse. Bit sore this evening so spoke with Lewis and agreed tomorrow's 20 isn't worth risk, and to take weekend off and see how it is Monday. Frustrated as was looking forward to it as a trial run and big session. Plus, based on last year's results, the 2.04 I was planning would have got me 3rd place.
So as it stands I've not actually missed a training run but feel like it's all ruined! Looking back I missed a few days at just after this stage before Berlin for a calf issue so hopefully that's all it'll be.
Mus - sounds like you've come out of a disruptive patch really well. Hard work training when routines are disturbed.
Had a tough day Wednesday when I got overly cold on the bike (car MOT, so lots of faffing around in lycra) and then had a good but hard club swim at 8pm. Was utterly drained on Thursday and my HRV had tanked, so go the bus to work (almost unheard of). Bike commute Fri and did parkrun today as a 3 x 1K interval session, with 2 x 7:51/mi for the recoveries... went well and ended up as 1s faster than the last one at threshold (22:36 and 3rd in age cat). Proper 5K race Wed night, so let's see if I can get closer to 22.
First off, good to see a few old familiar faces. DT, Alehouse, Dr Dan. Hello to everyone else too. And a mention to DT who I see from Facebook and was a similar standard to me a decade ago, who has pushed on and persevered with some outstanding PBs over the last few years. Very inspirational.
Why am I posting now? Well I was at the Eastleigh 10k supporting a few colleagues this morning as the start / finish is around a mile from where I live. An event which maintains a great reputation as a PB course but no longer one in the local Hampshire Road Race League for a number of years now (silly really because the chap who runs the race and others locally and very successfully isn’t affiliated to a local running club). Was good to see my colleagues run well anyway. It’s 10 years ago this year that I ran my 10k PB there in under 39 minutes.
I took 3 mins jog between each rep - I don't think I would have completed that session without.
Today I did 23.5km as my last long run. Have ended up with some calf tightness, so may have to ease back on my plans for next week.
Good going Dan, sub 22 should definitely be possible. How do you monitor HRV?
And stick around!
Good going Dan! The times will drop over the coming months I'm sure. As will the weight!
Nice and easy now, Muss!
Hope all is ok, DT!
Still struggling post Covid but some improvement. Now up to around 4k with only a couple of walk breaks to drop the HR. Will be continuing with this sort of pattern for a good while yet I suspect.
Found the data from a run a few weeks ago on the same course:
Feb 24 ave pace 6:23, ave HR 109 no walk breaks
Mar 20, ave pace 7:04, ave HR 108 with walk breaks
So 40 seconds per km down for a similar HR...and that's ignoring the walk breaks. Not sure what this proves apart from COVID has had an effect!
Mus - I use the HRV4 Training app on my phone. It's reputed to be far superior than the wearables.
Hang in there alehouse... it will come back!
I did 17 miles Sunday on fatigued legs from Saturday's 3 x 1K sesh. But it went well enough. Mon-Wed was recovery bike commuting with a 1500m swim Mon and a 5K race Wed night. Cold and breezy and I went off too fast (followed a clubmate) but held it together in the end for 21:54 to scrape a 70% age grade by 1s. Two of my kids ran as well which made it a fun evening.
Alehouse, hope the recovery continues?
Muss, hope the calf is OK?
Wjh, great to hear from you, been a while since you've been here. I'd say stick around for a bit of accountability and general training based chat to stay motivated. Hopefully you can make the comeback stick.
Is you're brother still smashing about races?
I've been ridiculously busy with work and life this week and kept a low profile as was in a state of angst about leg. Did my 6m run Monday and it felt OK. Tuesday I did a 13m mlr as scheduled and it was OK until 10.5m when upper quad went really tight. Bit sore in evening but woke Wednesday and was fine. Session then yesterday off 4 x 10 min at hmp off 4 min float at 6.50s. Pretty windy and didn't force paces but 9.1m in 6.09mm average and 12 in total. Spin and 6m recovery today and feeling better again.
Big run tomorrow as off to Bristol Saturday night for mates 50th. If I bank tomorrow I've just easy 6m runs Saturday and Sunday so that's this week ticked off and just one more before taper to survive.
Back to Dr Dan's point though, since this schedule started on 01 November I've only missed 3 scheduled runs, 1 of which I'll claw back Saturday as that was last Sundays 6m. So in scheme of things I can't complain.
Weighed this morning on my fitbit scales, which over weigh by circa 1.5lb, at 10,3, lightest I've seen.
Long Leg on the Rd relays to look forward to next Saturday as well.
Great 5k Dan, and good training too! How did your kids do?
Hope things are continuing to improve alehouse.
Good week DT, glad the quad problem was just a minor setback. How were the relays?
Calf took a couple of days to settle down, but feels completely normal now. Low key week, 60k with the longest run being 16km hilly steady run yesterday. A shame to skip the big session I had planned, as now I'm effectively doing a two week taper which is more than I've taken before. My girlfriend has a cold, and I'm definitely feeling the slightest of sniffles, though I'm hopeful I'll manage to avoid it going full blown.
The weather looks reasonably windy and rainy for Sunday, and I also have to work in the afternoon. Both of those things are making the standard doubts and urge to wimp out a bit stronger. The last few weeks have been tough from a work perspective, so I'm not feeling as fired up as I'd like. I have an easier week (at least until Saturday), so hopefully I can find some motivation from somewhere!
I think the road relays are this Saturday, 1st April. Say hello to Sutton Park for me, DT; I won't be the only one who has a love/hate relationship with the place!
All sound good, Dan!
Wondering if I am recovering from Covid! First tested positive 5 weeks ago today, and it certainly hasn't been the best five weeks of running, although I believe today represents progress, I hope: decided to run a local parkrun on the way home from work to give me some idea of where I stand. Not the easiest of courses due to over 2k of stony river bank, plus wet and windy. Anyway, managed five kms without a stop (that's progress) and kept the HR below 120. Time 32:30. Last week I wouldn't have managed 5k without walk breaks and all my running was slower than 7 minutes per km. However five weeks ago I would have run comfortably under 30 minutes for the same effort, so still some way to go. I am going to continue with the very low HR approach for some time: I bumped into one of my consultant friends yesterday whilst we were both running and he agrees that that is the way to go for now.
WJH? Hope there is some consistent consistency going on!
Not disappointed with 60km, that's actually exactly the volume I was aiming for. The only thing I would have wanted to do more of it earlier in the week and harder, rather than later in the week and easier as I did it.
7, 10, 8, 6.5km so far this week. Will do 5km tomorrow and rest on Saturday. Would have had a massage, but things are a bit tight (financially rather than physically, though that too!) at the moment, so I've had to make do with foam rolling.
Weather looks more promising for Sunday now, and I've got my head around what I need to do at work and the logistics of coming home etc. Will be interesting having to get my work stuff assembled at the same time as race stuff on Saturday night!
Still unsure about pacing. The pace calculators I've looked at give 1:25:xx as a target based on my 5 and 10km times, but holding 4:04min/km sounds ambitious to me. For sure I have hit that kind of effort in HM sessions, but I've also felt like I've been overcooking it at slower paces! Will probably start off at 4:10s and see what happens.