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Thanks for the advice regarding not missing the breaks Just Run. It has been taken on board, the last thing I would want is any kind of injury to halt my progress. That's exactly what has happened in the past and then I am back to square one by the time I start all over again.
I finished week 4 today albeit a day late due to a family BBQ on sunday. I have noticed how much stronger I feel when I leave it two days in between runs as opposed to one day so I don't feel it has done me any harm.
Onto week 5 which is run 8 mins walk 2 mins x3 ( and I will be taking the full 2 mins recovery
)
I cant believe that I will be running 8 mins solidly. I am half way in the program and if everything goes to plan in another 4 weeks I SHOULD be able to run for 30 mins non stop...
Anyway, having read the 4 miles here and 7 miles there that you guys are doing and it inspires me to keep going.
Lol at the falling sideways off the bike Just run. Made me instantly remember delboy falling through the hatch of the bar in the yuppie wine bar..
Keep up the good work folks..
Good on you for getting the 4 miler done Thomas, good luck with your park run.
lol Beachball, i must admit i did feel a bit of a 'plonker'...
Well done all - and I won't laugh about falling off the bike Just Run, and sub 23 for 5K sounds a doddle Thomas based on the times you are running in training.
Have had a busy few days - what with decorating, helping my wife with her job at the holiday camp on Friday, Saturday and Monday - have now returned to work to get a rest!!!! Mind painting the kitchen did go a lot faster when I invested in a new roller, rather than the 2" brush I had been using - won't make that mistake again!!!.
Still managed to get out though and did 3.5 miles Saturday, 5 Sunday, 4 Monday and Tuesday and this morning did the 12 times 1 minute with 1 minute walk recovery - each minute section was sub 7 so pleased with that - actually meant to do longer reps this week, but I forgot to set it up on the garmin thingy last night and with not a lot of time in the mornings just went with what was in the memory. Will look to change it in time for next Wednesday as I would like to do 3 minute intervals - Was quite surprised how it went as I felt really tired when I got up - I tend to do the speedwork on a Wednesday as I do a stretching session in the swimming pool on a Tuesday evening when we all go swimming - my wife says I look stupid but I find the warmish water seems to help -
Just Run I do know what you mean about feeling sick before your speed sessions though a familiar feeling although stupid really as I know that once I get started it is fine.
Oh well rest day Friday and another one on Monday something to look forward to.
4.85 miles today in 42:31 / 8:46 avg m/m. Feel good after that, I had a good stretch afterwards and there are no aches or niggles.
The plan is to do 3 miles tomorrow then rest Friday and Parkrun Saturday. I might swap my run tomorrow for some cross-training at the gym, depending on how the legs feel.
Nice pace on the intervals Grendel, fair play to you for getting out on an almost daily basis. I'll be going up to 4 running days out of seven as from next week, feel ready for it now.
Nice running Thomas, would love to be running at sub 9..... one day!
Wednesday 31 August - 5 miles inc speedwork. 4 x 800m @4:17 with 400m jogs
Really pleased with this run, went out a bit late and it was a little dark tonight but stuck at it and glad i did. The first three intervals were a breeze and although the fourth started well the pace was down so i dug deep and pushed to the line in 4:11. The final 400m jog was almost a walk, i was done in. Recovered for the 1 mile warm down though and to be honest that was much easier than expected, felt really strong tonight.
8 miles on Saturday!!!
Week 7.01
Month - 43.04
2011 - 192.09
Thanks Just Run - I really need to look at longer intervals - and you have inspired me to try that - will look to mirror what you did next Wednesday - As far as going out everyday - I feel I need to as it is what I did in the olden days (was going to write golden but olden more appropriate) Also I find if I miss a couple of days it is harder then to get out again - going out the other sunday after a week off was mentally very difficult - so I just need it to be part of a daily routine if that makes sense!!! Also I don't think I have ever enjoyed running for the sake of running - I have always had to have a goal to aim at. I know initially the aim was to lose 3 stone but since I did that 5 mile race in March the goal is to get fitter/quicker within the time frame I have. Don't envy you the 8 mile though!!!
Was expecting a slow difficult run this morning after yesterdays efforts and had mentally accepted I was going to do 3 rather than 4 - but felt really quite good this morning and ended up running 4 - average 9.01 (a bity of a bummer that!!!)
Am not running tomorrow as I need to take my son to my parents as they are lookng after him as wife at work and I have no more holiday left!! (a bit of a panic at the start of the week!! when we realised)
Oh well happy days!!!! Keep up the good work.
I did my 3 miles today on the treadmill at the gym as I was due a weight training session anyway. I think it took about 26 minutes. That was 5 yesterday and 3 today with no ill effects so that's me back up to 4 days a week. Now to just gradually build up the mileage.
Parkrun on Saturday will be about 5 miles including the warm-up etc, so it will come in at around 17 for the week.
I'm back; kept up the running on my trip and have now also made the shift up to 4 days of activity per week. Most of the runs were on the short side and easy, but supplemented by some swimming and cycling, which are things I'm not usually doing back home. It's been a good time to take stock though; I have an x-ray on my spine later this month, and a parkrun to gear up for on the 17th - I rejoin my club in early October too, which'll be nice...
Otherwise, back to reality and a 7k easy tomorrow - my longest distance since April 2010. Thomas, best of luck in the parkrun tomorrow, hope it goes well - your times in training are great, so I think you'll be home and hosed quicker than you think!
(Just Run, thank you for the response and taking the time to link, some very interesting looking races there! I like the website
Good luck with the longer intervals Grendel, i reckon it makes pefect sense to extend them, definately making a difference to my fitness as my slower runs feel so much easier.
Hope the parkrun went well today Thomas? We're doing similar mileage at the moment and i'm upping my efforts to 4 running days as from next week. Really looking forward to it as i'm hoping running more days than not will move me up a level.
Good on you Moonlight, its not always easy to motivate yourself when away on a trip. Another up to 4 days? Must be catching! Hope the x-ray goes well for you.
Saturday 3 September - 8 miles - 1:29:59
Super run! My legs were like concrete by the end but i feel great just 30 minutes after i've finished. Decided that as i felt in such great shape i would take the hilly route (324 feet of elevation over the 2 laps, more than enough for me). This meant making sure my pace stayed slow as its a tough route. Each mile came in around 11 minutes but i wasn't worried about pace, more the time on my feet, and to be honest the first 4 miles were a complete doddle. The next 2 were very comfortable considering i'd now done 10k and then my legs started to get heavy. There was no upping the pace over the last half mile today! Although my legs were getting heavier i still kept the pace nice and even. I am so pleased with my self now!
200 miles up for the year too!
Week 15.01
Month - 8
2011 - 200.09
Parkrun came in at 23:05. Missed my 23:00 target but I'm not disappointed because I started at the back of the pack, getting caught up in a lot of congestion so I think I can knock 30 seconds off that easy. Lesson learnt for next time. I did enjoy it a lot. Great event.
Thomas, well done on your parkrun, glad to hear you enjoyed the event. It's a nice grass-roots initiative really, seems like a bunch of dedicated people helping out the running community overall, I like the atmosphere too. 23:06 is awesome
Had a 7k 'easy' over pavement today, though it really counts as a long run in context. Clocked a handy 41:15 and felt very comfortable, nice pace and very little pain to speak of, pleased as punch. Feeling very confident in my running fitness lately, finally getting back to where I was before the injury. Cycle ride tomorrow, then a run on Monday. Have a good remainder of the weekend all.
Edit: Just Run, just calculated my mileage for August and it's 43 dead - scarily similar!
Well done eveyone on here - 8 miles Just Run - can't even think about that at the moment - And Thomas 23 minutes for the park run as well - really envy you guys as we have not got anything round our way like that - Clacton the last bastion of fat unfit people!! (which is probably a bit unfair as there was a short course and long course triathlon at the weekend)
And Moonlight hope the xrays get to the bottom of the problem.
Had Friday as an enforced rest day as my paresnt were looking after my son - and they don't get up unit 7 so I would have disturbed the household if I got up earlier the same today. I thought I might benefit from the day off saturday but no - felst very lethargic but whether that was down to the humidityt or not - not sure - runners always look for a reason - maybe I just ran cr*p!!!! Sunday was different though - I had planned a 5 - but ended up sailing round 6.2 miles - so I now know that come Southend 10K on the 2nd October I will be able to get in under the hour. Although the 10K has been the target since my 5 mile race in March - I think the real goal is the 5 mile race two weeks after Southend - because as far as I can see from the course profile, the two 5 mile races are similiar so it will be a great way to guage my improvement (if any)
BTW Today is also an enforced rest day for the above but Junior is back to school tomorrow so all back to normal.
Happy days.
Well done on the parkrun Thomas, thats a super time, you'll nail that sub 23 next time for sure.
Moonlight, thats certainly a little scary with our monthly totals being so close...lets see what this month ends up like!
I know how you feel with the 'crap run' Grendel, i get one every now and again, just one of those things i suppose.
Nice easy 2 miles after work tonight. Despite feeling really good my legs were definately a little heavy. Got a long tempo run Wednesday, that should really give me a good sense of where i am fitness wise and how close to a sub 60 10k i am too.
Happy tunning everyone...
Week 2
Month - 10
2011 - 202.09
Have set my Garmin thingy up for tomorrow and am going to have a bash at Just Runs 4 times half mile - used to hate those longer sessions where it was 4 or 5 times a mile or even on a coupled of times 2 times 5K but they do work -
Hoping for better weather for it tomorrow though as this morning was interesting - a very strong wind coming in off the sea. Never quite a head wind but enough to make it slow going - I went from an average of 9:27 minute miling on the way out to just over 8s on the way back -
Oh well will report back on the intervals tomorrow!!!
Have ordered a copy of the competitive runners handbook off Amazon - I used to use it and was the bible at the club i used to belong to -
Happy Running everyone
Had a 4k easy yesterday (22:24), but for some reason found it unusually tough going - wasn't a real battle per se, but I wasn't comfortable by any means. Just one of those poor runs I guess. Finding it difficult to adjust to the new 9 min/mile pace, but shouldn't take too much longer
Good luck chaps
5 miles today. I forget the exact time, I think it was around 44 minutes. I've really settled in to my training more since I slowed my training runs down. I've had no more niggles and I'm feeling fresh.
The plan for this week is:
Monday - rest
Tuesday - 5
Wednesday - 4
Thursday - rest
Friday - 4
Saturday - rest
Sunday - 6
That will be 20 for the week. I'll be back for my 2nd Parkrun on the 24th and my target will be 22:30.
Feel great now though.
Well done for getting out there -
I am the reverse of that up at 5:50 and out the door by 6!!! having taosted my son some waffles first -
The wind was horrendous this morning - but happily I managed to do my 4 times half mile off a 1 minute recovery with a mile warmup and half mile warmdown.
The first half was brilliant - well under 8 minute miles around 6.57 something, but was regretting the 1 minute recovery on the return journey into the wind - but still managed 7:49 pace - decided then that I didn't want to go with the wind on the third - so continued into the wind for the third rep which if anything was hard as part of the course goes slightly up - and into the wind - yep was certainly doubting the the wisdom of only a minute recovery by the end of it which was around 7.52 pace - the last rep running with the wind was almost an anti-climax 6:45 pace felt quite good - and was glad to finish with a very slow half mile jog - glad it was over but felt brilliant by the end of it.
My book arrive yesterday - it is an updated version of the original so looking at the schedules and found it builds in a rest day - will have to read about it as didn't used to do voluntary rest days - in fact used to go to work when quite poorly just so I could justify a run - don't have that level of obsession any more though!! It actually might not be a bad idea to build in a rest day each week
The reason I don't at the moment is that I need to lose another half stone - and the running is a major part of that - along with little or no cheese and low fat stuff. (not helped by going out for a pizza to night whilst my son is in cubs - so we at least feel we have celebrated out 10th wedding anniversary in some way!!!
Run this morning went completely different to how I expected after the reps yesterday - found despite the wind and rain I was flying along - including a 7:43 last mile - does anyone else find that the day after a faster session the pace of your next run tends to be faster than the normal plod - is it a case of some sort of muscle memory? (bet I pay for it tomorrow!!)
BIG WELL DONE on the weight loss Grendel, i have finally dropped a couple of pounds myself Nice to see theres a few of us on here who’ve successfully fought the flab! You really should incorporate a rest day into your schedule though, it won’t harm your weight loss. Why not have a cross training day? A long brisk walk or cycle ride or even a swim? A rest is as good as a run sometimes! (Not that i’m qualified to tell you this but it does sound like good sense). Well done on the intervals by the way. I tend to set off quicker the run following a tempo or speed session, and i definitely pay for it!
Glad you’re feeling good now Thomas, congrats on your weight loss too! Nice to see you’re feeling fresh. I think its important to have a mixture of paces in your training plan, you can’t run flat out every day, you’d soon be on your way to an injury. Nice mileage this week, good luck with the upcoming parkrun. Good on you for getting out the door, you never feel worse for a run in my opinion.
Hope the foots ok Moonlight? You’ll soon adjust to the new 9m/m pace i’m sure. Would love to be running at that pace regularly myself in the near future.
Well, i did my 6 mile tempo run! An 10:40 m/m to warm up followed by four miles at 9:04, 9:13, 9:16, 9:14, followed by a one minute walk as i was cream crackered! Still managed the warm down mile in 11:17 despite the walk break and a total time of 58:47. I am so chuffed! Sub 60 minute 10k hear i come! The mile splits should have been 9:38 so i was well ahead of schedule but the pace felt right so i simply stuck to it.
2 mile easy run tomorrow followed by 8 miles Sunday...
Week 8
Month - 16
2011 - 208.09
Thanks Just Run - I sit in awe of your tempo run so a sub 58 10K should be well within your capability!! remind me when is it?
Once I have my 10K out the way and my 5 mile - I will go onto a proper 10K schedule from the book I have just bought and that does as I said incorporate a rest day - will target a 5 mile race end of March the same one I did this year.
Went out to do an easy 3 mile this morning and it felt quite hard to be honest got home in around 3.26 miles and had almost decided that I might as well make it 4 when the mexican bean burgers I had eaten last night seemed to decide they had been in my digestive tract long enough so I called it a day anyway!!!
Shame really as it was the best morning all week as far as conditions were concerned - oh well happy running everyone.
3.5 miles, including a very hilly 1.5 miles of cross country, in 32:40.
I felt pretty knackered throughout the run, probably due to being up at 4 for work this morning then going straight out a run when I got in from work at 2. I was at the gym last night too so that probably didn't help matters.
Rest day tomorrow before 6 miles on Sunday. That will be my longest run since starting again nearly 2 months ago. I remember how much of a difference long runs made to my fitness the first time round so I look forward to getting in to them again.
Hi Grendel, my 10k is the Taunton 10k on Sunday 25th September. I feel confident i could run around 55 minutes as its a pretty flat course and having 650 people around you sure does carry you along, however, i promised the wife i would run with her and help her achieve her first sub 60 10k so i'll be pacing us for that and if we've any extra energy maybe a final push over the last half mile. I'll be happy just to get a race under my belt as its practically 2 years since i ran in a race.
Had a letter from the organisers of the Colyton Fiver, which runs in November and supports children in need, to say this years event is cancelled. A real shame as its a great 2 lap course, full of fun runners and every penny raised goes to such a good cause. Its back on next year so will be going on my calendar.
Had a nice easy 2 miles after work this afternoon with my wife along the canal. Took it nice and easy after last nights exersions and feel ready for the weekends 8 miles. It'll have to be a Sunday run as my eldest lads football season starts tomorrow so its a fairly early start.
Getting close to a 20 mile week now!
Week 10
Month - 18
2011 - 210.09
Only two weeks to go then Just Run, 3 for me - the Southend 10K is flat too - 3 miles out and then 3 miles back which is quite hard - will be running with my nephew who is 19 he beat me at the 5 miles in march by about 5 minutes - difference is though I only had 3 months training under my belt - have now got 6 months more so have him in my sights.
5 miles this morning which surprised me a bit but when i got back near home found that I was on 4.3 miles so added the extra bit - 6 miles tomorrow so should hit 30 this week
so good luck with your 8 miles tomorrow - don't envy you that one though!!!
Happy running everyone
Just Run, the foot is okay but currently resting for three days in hope of full recovery - not serious though! How is everything feeling with you, no niggles at all?
Grendel, glad to hear about possibly incorporating a rest day or cross-training session, running every day can be dangerous for some, or so I hear/read. Hope it goes well anyway, and here's to another happy 10 years for you too.
Thomas, 6 miles already, awesome. Hope you get through it feeling good.
I was away for a few days, but managed a few runs and then the Norfolk Trailrun (5k) on Thursday. It was set up by the orienteering club in the area, so some seriously rough terrain in the forest including inclines that bordered on ascents at times. There was a marked route through the course, but it was very inefficient and we were encouraged to take shortcuts off the beaten path if possible! Great fun, ran it pretty hard so a good workout too, but glad for the rest now
Moonlight come from a slightly different background - when running everyday was the norm - I do incorporate an element of cross training - swimming once a week - but I suppose I have still got the same mentality from 12 years back -
My former training partner is still churning out sub 30 minute 5 miles etc and that is my goal over the next couple of years - will need to shed about another stone (have not kept my wife in on that one as she thinks to skinny) but understand 12 years on I do need to recognise I am not going to be able to do the 70 to 100 mile weeks for a while!!! (if ever) - but running was a major part of my life for 15 years prior to giving up through unjury and I have suddenly found I want to do it again - this thread and you guys are really keeping me motivated
6 miles in heavy rain this morning in 53:25. Left calf was a little tight for the last mile but apart from that, no problems and I felt like I had plenty left in the tank so that's good.
That leaves me on 18.5 for the week. I had planned 20 but I swapped my 5 on Friday for 3.5 with hills.
Plan for next week:
Mon - rest (gym)
Tue - 5
Wed - 4
Thu - rest (gym)
Fri - 7
Sat - rest
Sun - 4
My days off and shifts usually change week to week so rest days and stuff change each week.
Good luck beating your nephew Grendel, and congrats on a 30 mile week, thats a serious amount of miles. I agree with the motivation this thread gives you, i like the fact that if i post that i’m going to do a run then i bloody well have to do it now!
Moonlight, glad the foot is feeling good. I have the odd niggle, but nothing that doesn’t disappear within a mile of running. My ankle and knee sometimes need a good warm up but i haven’t felt anything remotely like a twinge for weeks (fingers crossed).
Well done on a good weeks running Thomas, you’re half a mile ahead of me this week! I also have 20 miles planned for next week.
Todays run was a real family affair. The wife had a 6 mile run planned and i had 8. We also had a birthday party to attend this afternoon so decided we would run together, take the kids on their bikes and i would add an extra 2 mile loop at 6 miles. We’re very lucky to live just a 5 minute walk from the great western canal, so can relax taking the kids with us. I was a little sceptical at first, fearing moaning kids, punctures, the youngest ending up in the canal etc but they were fantastic, even after putting up with a decent downpour at the 3 mile point so harsh the rain was hitting us sideways. The first 6 miles felt so easy this week, but for whatever reason as soon as i left the wife and kids for my last 2 miles my legs really went. I plodded on and managed a decent surge over the last half mile though and feel pretty damn good!
Week 18
Month - 26
2011 - 218.09