Three runs over 23, 28th and 30 May 2013

I did another 5km easy Thursday 23 May, with first one 30sec speed run, then 4x20sec with 30 rest with people from work.

I missed the ParkRun on the weekend, slept in.

Did a run on Tuesday 28 - 5km easy plus 1km at sub 4min/km pace. Then 6x 20 speed with a 30sec walk rest. Ran with people from work

Finally I did a fairly fast 5km at 4min30 average pace - with a 4:12 last 1km. I then did 5x20 sec fast with a 30 sec walk rest. I then did one 200 fast  with Andrew from work.

The regular speedy runs are certainly getting easier. I may step it up a gear, do some 300's and 400's once a week

Tuesday 21 May 2013, easy 5km with 10x30 speed after

Did an easy 5km again today, about 27 minutes or so. Then did 10x30 speed with 30 second rest.

Ran again with a few fellows from work. Slightly younger than I am but quite fit. They sure can hang in there for the speed work, and don't seem to be suffering.  But they do pull out earlier, so me the old dog can work a little harder !!

These ones I managed to hold the pace much better than the last ones. Still no-where near as fit as I need to be aerobically. I can make gains on aerobic fitness with shorter faster running, but it really does not feel as effortless as it does when I have a lot of mileage done.  I am making progress with fitness, and will see how fast I can get without resorting to high mileage.

Parkrun 5km, Saturday 25th May 2013

I had a reasonably hard week, zapped my muscles a little. Thursday we went to a trivia night. I had a few beers and that always seems to sap my running abilities somewhat.

The race - Got there late, missed the start by about 30 seconds. Took off fastish, 4:10's for the first 2km, then slower. Managed 21:41 by my watch, which is not too bad considering I was not fresh at all. A meagre improvement from the last one.

5km easy plus 10x30 with 30 sec walk rest

I ran with a couple of fellows from work on Thursday, 16 May. Nice easy 5km of about 5:35 pace I think.

I then did 10x30sec fast, with 30 seconds walk rest. It sure does stack up doing these with a shorter rest. I know that in the later stages of the training for my first marathon in 2010 I was able to go as fast but jogged the 30 second rest periods.

One of the fellows, Andrew, did 5 of the 10 speed runs with me. He followed very closely, so effectively matched my pace, and hung in there really well. I know he's not doing as much running as me, but he did so well. Some people are just born runners I guess, it takes me at least a few weeks to build to where I am now  :)

Anyway, it feels really obvious that I am making gains in fitness. There is the Goodwill Bridge that I run across and it is feeling completely easy to cross now compared to a month ago. Injuries are good, few niggles but nothing bad. Just normal soreness from working a little harder.

Race 5km Saturday (Tomorrow)  not sure if I will be fresh enough to go well, but I am looking forward to it..

Approximately 11kms easy, Monday 13 May and a speed run Tuesday 14

I did a much needed 11km run last night. No watch, no tech to track it what so-ever. I did a sort of breathing exercise where I tried to achieve a pace that allowed me to breath comfortably in and out over about 4 strides.

This is by far the longest run I have done this year, and I am feeling it today  a pleasant tiredness in the muscles. I felt the first signs of cramp after I finished, walked the dog and that was relieved.

I also did a 1min10sec fast, 1min walk speed session today. The legs were certainly not up to the usual pace today, but it was good to do something. Only did 4 of the reps, starting at 3:40 pace, slowing to 3:51 and 3:57, then did a couple of faster ones in the 3:30 range. I turned around and reset the watch for 30 second reps with a 1min walk. Did 6 of them, all 3:22 pace or quicker.

These types of speed sessions _should_ contribute a little to my ability to hold a 4min pace run but I still really need to get some long runs done over a good couple of months to make any significant improvements I think.

Legs are sore, day off from running tomorrow. Then I plan an easy run Thursday of about 6km, rest Friday and a 5km race Saturday. Not sure what I am capable of right now, but I should be better than 21:50 now.

Thursday 9 May another 1min speed, 1min rest session

I did another speed like session today. This time I managed to do 1x1min at around 3:30 pace with 1min walk rest. I then did 9 x 30 at around 3:15 pace .

I felt that it was 'easier' today but the Garmin recordings show I was pretty much at a similar pace to the ones I did on Tuesday. I was a little tired on Tuesday having done a race Saturday and Sunday.

I felt a whole lot better today and did a lot more repetitions, yet I don't feel that its smashed me as much. I doubt that I have improved that much in two days, so perhaps I have managed to recover a little and felt better today.

I am going to do much more speed workouts for the next month or so, at least one a week like this. 3:30 pace feels like a nice loping along speed, I need to train myself so that I can maintain it. I will build up gradually so that I can do 1min @3:30 with a walk rest of 1 minute, and cover 10kms. Then drop the rest periods back a little. I think at some stage I will eventually capable of 3km, 5km at 3:30 .. And then 10km at 3:30 pace !!

Slightly harder run today, 5 x 1min fast with 1min walk, and 8 x 30sec fast with 1min walk

Decided to up the intensity a little with 5x1min fast, 1 min rest, and then 8x 30 with 1 min rest.

For the first lot 1min fast with 1min rest, all of them were about 3:30 pace with one at 3:44,  I was blocked by walkers on the pathway. The second lot 8x30's I went a little faster - slowest 3:28 pace, and fastest 3:06 pace.

I find this sort of running exhilarating and energising. Of course it zaps muscles in a totally different way to easy pace longer distance. But that is why I do it. I want to be able run 3:30 pace over long distance. I need strength to do it, as well as gobs of aerobic conditioning. The only way to build the strength is to run fast frequently. Used carefully I can build up to be capable of sustained 3:30 pace over say, 5km and more. I am WAY off that but I want to try.

I also need to balance the need to remain doing relatively low km's to avoid regressing injury wise. Hence speed focus really has to be a priority until I am in the clear and able to run the long distances safely.

Anyway it was a good run, very enjoyable.

Saturday Park Run 4th May 2013 and Sunday Brisbane Road Runners 7km

I did a pretty easy 5km race at ParkRun Wynnum Staurday. Ended up with time of 24:34 or so. I was feeling a little tired from the last week of running, so decided to run with a mate of mine. I took off fast at about 1km to go, probably a sub 4min/km for that one. Passed maybe 15 people in that last 1km and finished fairly fresh. It was good for me to have done that, I felt energised all day as a result.

Went to my sister's birthday lunch at 11:30AM, then band practice at 2PM.. Then vegetated watching TV for the rest of the day.

Sunday I did the Brisbane Road Runners 7km 'club championship'  race with our dog MAX. Christine was a track marshall for the event so we had to be there at about 5:30AM - up around 4:30AM. It made for a long day.

MAX is a bugger to run with. I hung back to keep out of everyone's way, but he gets excited and wants to run away ahead everyone. So at the start and for the first 2km or so we are almost sprinting. Then he gets into a slump.. the course is out for 1km, back, then out and back for 2.5  for a total of 7km's.  As we hit the 2km mark, we approach the start gate where Christine is, and the turn point is about 100 mteres past there. So MAX decides where we should be heading is where Christine is.. Its a struggle to keep him on course.. Then once we get around the turn point and head toward the start gate - to go past it for the next 2.5km out and back stage, he starts sprinting again.  And once we are past where Christine is, he wants to stop and go back to where she is.

The next 2.5km out are a big struggle, I am fresh but MAX wants to stop and sniff rather than run now. Except for the occasional encounter with dogs being walked or out jogging, where he sprints to get to them and then wants to stop and play..  Anyway, I stop a few times to let him niff absolutely nothing, get him water etc.. We finish at about 36mins which is pretty darned slow. Its clear why I don't particularly like running with him these days. I am out for a RUN  not to buggerise about !!

Anyway, I had resigned myself to the fact that the run was going to be as it turned out to be, so I could enjoy it a bit. Next run Tuesday. Easy 5km, but I want to see if anyone wants to do some hills.

Tuesday 30 April and Thursday 2 May runs

I stacked a bit of fatigue up for Tuesday's run. I did an unplanned 9km at a fastish pace Sunday 28th. It was the fastest longer run as well as the longest run I have done this year.  I also did a gym session, very very easy on Tuesday morning that included a little bit of leg work.

So I set myself up to be tired and sluggish. Turned out 'ok'  though, did a reasonably easy 4.5km with the last 800 metres or so at sub 4min/km pace .

I also ran today, another 5km's at easy pace plus 5 x 30seconds fast with 30 seconds rest between. The 5km run before hand sets up a level of fatigue that makes these sorts of runs a little harder than when you are fresh. That plus the fact I was still feeling the effects of the extra Sunday run even on the fourth day following it!!  Its amazing how well the body adapts to consistent training, when I was at a peak of endurance fitness, I would recover well from 30km+ Sunday runs and do 50min runs mid week at paces much faster than I am capable of doing now.

Am still tempted to start doing real distances again, but will instead throw in a few extra high intensity running. ie :

run for 20 seconds FAST, jog for 20 seconds. Do that for as long as I can, likely _maybe_ 20 mins max. Do that once a week in addition to my 5km Tuesday, and Thursday and the races Sunday.

In all I am in pretty good shape, heels are really good, no sign of the chronic problems I have suffered for the last two years. It is in fact a real pleasure now to just run easy with NO pain at all - even at warm up there are no problems -  with a huge bonus of no issues in normal walking around either. Gee its hard not to dive in and get into it hard again. Discipline!! I must have discipline!!