Sunday fun, 13 km total plus the Friday gym 'club' run

Ran with the local gym 'running club on Friday morning 5:30AM. This after a late meeting for work that finished midnight. Still, I did it.. I was intending to do an easy run, but because of peer pressure I ended up going faster than I wanted. 4:40 pace for nearly 7km's. So I skipped the Saturday ParKRun.

Sunday, ran 2km easy warmup at about 4:55 pace. Then I did about 5km's total, doing 2min 'fast' at about 3:50 pace and a 1 minute walk rest, the reps ended up 9. Then turned around and went home 6km's. 13 km total and this is the highest mileage day for this year.

I might do this sort of workout every Sunday for a while and see what it does. It felt good to break up the 13km 'long'  run, with the first 2km as warmup and then the intervals. My theory is - If I can do 5km's total, broken up into intervals of 2min at say 3:30 pace, then I am probably going to be able to to 5kms at sub 4min pace with no rests in between!!

The totals for the week, 45kms, is the highest for this year by 15km's. A big jump so its risky. Body seems to be holding up ok right now, 1 hour after it, so I might be able to hold this work load for a while. Last year the weekly mileage was very inconsistent, so I want to do better this year.

Did an easy 5km this morning with MAX the dog and Christine. Christine is getting over a bad cold, so is a bit weak compared to her usual robust self. So she did it tough this morning. She also has not trained much at all this year. She's doing the 10km race too at Gold Coast, so she will have a really hard morning there too. I Am not sure what I will be able to do. Recent 5km races tell me I can expect maybe sub 44 but I have not done much beyond 10kms this year. So I will probably take off fast and fade faster..  

Thursday run at work 27 June 2013

Did a run at work today today with a fellow called Andrew. We did an easy 5km at 5min pace followed by a good honest 10x30 speed session.

Its the first time I have done these 10x30 without a gigantic fade, and I felt brilliant through most of it. I felt a little tired in a couple and took it slightly easier in some, but finished strongly. I certainly did these much easier than I have in the recent past but there is a clear sign that I am handling these runs much better. Fitness is now coming along really well I think. A fairly sudden and distinct improvement I feel.

Today:
5km easy, averaged 5:04 pace and it was certainly very comfortable
10x30's paces in min/km pace:
3:10
3:18
3:22
3:07
3:12
3:06
3:23
3:11
3:22
3:09

I need to eliminate the slow ones, but overall I think its a good session. I feel amazingly not too tired at all after it.

I have a Friday run with a new running group at my local gym, 5:40AM. I will do a super easy 'whatever' they do and make sure I am reasonably fresh for Saturday, I plan another ParkRun and hopefully another improvement on my 5km race pace again. Based on how I feel I am running right now it really should be a bigger improvement than the most recent races. Here is what has been happening for my 5km races this year:



23:56 Sat, Feb 16, 2013 7:02 AM
23:06 Sat, Mar 03, 2013 7:02 AM
22:38 Sat, Apr 20, 2013 7:02 AM
21:50 Sat, Apr 27, 2013 7:02 AM
21:42 Sat, May 18, 2013 7:01 AM
21:25 Sat, Jun 8, 2013 7:01 AM
21:17 Sat, Jun 15, 2013 7:01 AM
21:10 Sun, Jun 23, 2013 7:02 AM

I have omitted some of the blowout runs, I was either hungover or too lazy to go fast in them. 1min and 40 seconds over 4 months. Meh its not good enough. At this rate I need another 3 months to get to where I was last year. That will mean it will happen at the same time last year, around September.

This running caper has taught me something about my body and training. The unavoidable..  The aerobic capacity I need to do my best 5km and 10km races really does need time - 3 months or so - and consistent volume ( weekly mileage). I am hoping all this speed work really will help compensate where I am not doing mileage. I have never done such a lot of speed work as I am doing now, and especially I am doing far more regular 5km races than ever before, so lets see.

ZOMG I won a race!!

I did not do the ParkRun Saturday as I had planned. But I did do the Brisbane Road Runners 5km race Sunday.

I just turned up and they had the Club Championship 10km event on. That meant all the faster runners were in that. So I took off in the 5km race, a 12 year old girl and some fellow were in front of me. The fellow seemed to run out of gas at about 1km - Probably took off too fast, thats my old problem !!.

I hung in for a little while quite close to the girl, but she had the legs I don't have right now :)  She finished about 40 seconds ahead. I did 21:10 or something. A small improvement on the previous 5km ParkRun, so I am happy enough. The BRRC course has a couple of little hills that suck a bit of pace out of me compared to the Wynnum ParkRun, so its ok.

So I won the mens overall but to put it into a proper perspective, of the 10km race participants, I know one bloke that finished 15th and both halves of his 10km were done sub 20 minutes !! So mine was a very soft victory.

Anyhow I got a nice blue mug as a prize and it makes a great cup of tea.. Now I need to win on my own terms - at or near PB times at the very least. I am no-where near my best, but I am gradually improving.

After the BRRC race Sunday, I did 11km on Monday, with 3x30sec fast. The last 1km of the 11 was done at 4:30 pace, and overall it was just under 5min/km pace and reasonably comfortable. Today, Tuesday 25 June, 2013, I did a reasonably swift 5km at about 4:50 pace average, followed by an honest 5x30sec fast.

A few signs that I am making progress with my aerobic fitness, are - my 'comfortable'  pace is coming down, and I can do these speed sessions with minimum fuss now. Comfortable pace was 5:10 or so a few weeks ago, now I think 5min pace is about right for a 10km +  run. I recall when I was doing my marathon training in 2010 that there was a dramatic improvement in my comfortable pace for 10km. It came down to 4:30 or so.

I still have some lofty goals:

- sub 20 5km . Way under!! I have managed 19:59 according to my watch. Not good enough
- Sub 11min for 3km. I did 11min flat last year, I want to go well under 11min this year
- The ancient sub 40 10km goal.
- Sub 90min HM
- Sub 3hr marathon

Its extremely clear to me what I need to do to achieve it. I need to get some consistent mileage done over at least 3 months. Right now, I am injury free. Even the niggly new issues I had this year with my right knee and left knee cap are improving markedly. My heels are simply no problem at all now. I think I said it before, but it really is incredible to think this problem with my heels may well be history.

I am generally a positive person, and right now I have real reasons to be confident about my running. I am making real plans to give a fast marathon a crack next year, but I am still exercising restraint and not building mileage too much. I think my max run for the next few months should be about 15km, I will see how I go when I reach that.

Thursday 20 June 2013 - One of those really great days running!!

Reasonably hard week, last 7 days managed 38kms. Fatigue has stacked up a little. No running yesterday Wednesday 19, but I did a long walk with MAX and some weird excercises at home. That made my rump and hammies hurt quite a lot. Its funny how I can run a fair bit and simply not affect these muscles. But I know for sure I use then because trying to run while not warmed up it was tender.

This morning I did a short walk with MAX, and a short run to hopefully loosen up a bit. Then I did the hard home exercises I did the day before that made me hurt..  Then I did an easy run with Andrew at work from 11:30AM. Ended up doing an easy 6.2km or so, with another 800m at 4min pace. The last part felt great.

I then capped it off with 4 x 30 at 3:09 pace - fairly fast but not real hard - with 30 second rest between.

Now, for some reason this run today felt fantastic, such a pleasure to do. I loosened up and felt warm enough, not overheated. I did not feel like I pushed hard even in the faster sections. And afterward it was such a buzz. I must have triggered something!!

Its funny how these things happen. I was thinking to myself - How and why did it feel so good?  I was thinking I could replicate the weeks and activities leading up to it and see if it happens again.

Tonight I feel a little bit sore, but slightly better than this morning. The best thing is my injuries are really good too, no sign of any problems. Amazing. I am getting really impatient and want to really ramp up the mileage. But I have to be sensible a get myself in the best shape possible with low mileage and keeping the progress going. I really want to be ship shape for a good training program to prepare for a GOOD marathon next year.

I will have a walk and a short run with MAX again Friday morning, and ParkRun Saturday. Hopefully a small improvement there again. I would be pleased with a 21 flat from last weeks 21:17. I may be a little tired though. And Sunday I will probably do either a 5km or a 10km race at Brisbane Road Runners. I have been doing quite a bit of fastish running and a few races, and I feel its paying off.

Have I been running?

I did a really hard week ending with a pretty hard session Monday 10 June. During the week I had a really bad time at work, really busy and stressful. That is continuing this week too, but I feel like I am handling it a bit better right now.  I ended up not running for 5 days, after the hard Mon 10 June run, next one being the ParkRun Saturday 15 June.

The ParkRun was a small improvement from the previous week. This week I have run every day, and feel like I am handling it ok. Did the longest run for the year Sunday, 12.4km and did it at a reasonable pace 5:06min/km.

Saturday through to today, Tuesday,  4 days, 30km's, which is not a bad tally. I need to take care stacking up the distance, but seem to be ok right now. Will do a small run tomorrow morning, 4km or so and then another 7km Thursday.

I have a 10km race at Gold Coast Marathon, 6 July, only 18 days. There is not much I can do to get in good shape for it in such a short time, so I don't expect much. I will finish off this week hard. Next week maybe some easy running stacking up distance again, and the week after take it a little easier. MAYBE I can break 46min but I doubt it !!

Trail run Sunday, easy 3km Monday, 11km Tuesday, easy 3km Web, easy 5km + 5x300 speed Thursday

A reasonably big week this week. Ran Sun, a trail run in Seven Hills reserve. Only 3.2km, and it was tough, lots of hills. Mon, easy with MAX and Christine. Tues, big 11km  it felt pretty hard. Wednesday another easy 3 with MAX and Christine, followed by a couple of 100m sprints. Looks like weekly total will be about 30km if all works out well.

Did an easy 5km today, Thursday plus 5x300. Pace was pretty good too:

3:38
3:18
3:10
3:16
3:07

Always good to see an increase in pace over this sort of run.

What I want is for the improvements I am feeling  to translate into a faster 5km race. Thats altogether different, I need to be able to do good steady 500's and 1km repeats. Maybe if I am fresh I can. I want to do a 5km parkrun Saturday coming up. I will see if I am getting faster, have not done one for a couple of weeks.