Glad to be back

There is nothing like running

After some easy runs over the early days of the month I decided to add some stress. Started with a 2 Mile Tempo Run @ 7:14 pace. I initially thought this should not be too taxing as I had ran one of these in early November where I just about got up to threshold. After a couple of weeks off running its surprising how quick you lose the ability to cruise. I struggled for the first mile and I was 7:25 at the turnabout. It was slightly uphill so I upped the pace to try and peg back some time for the second mile. It really felt like 5K pace and the average HR reading of 177 had me well above the 163 averaged last November. The one positive I got was that I got into a rhythm for the last half mile and it felt easier even though I was touching 6:50 pace at times.

Perfect Day

My first long run in ages and I turned out to the best run ever. I decided to do 13 mile with a bit of extra speed rather then plod along for 16-18 miles. Went for 8:30 pace as I reckon my MP is around 3:30 mark at the moment. Saturday afternoon was an ideal day for it, dry no breeze and a little nip in the air. I really enjoyed every step of it and upped the pace to 8 min miles for the last 2 miles.

What a plonker

Intervals penciled in for last night. Plan was 3*1600 @ 6:40-6:50 pace. Miserable evening to be doing these, cold wet and windy a completely different day to Saturday, and a complete balls up of a session. Basically I went out way too fast on the first one that by the time I passed 400M mark I was inside the pace for 400M intervals. I decided there and then to hit the lap button and switch to 12*400 with 75 second recovery. The next 2 followed the same pattern going out too quick for the early part and dying for the last 100M. After this Ennis track where also doing their interval session and I found it much easier to slot in behind the guys doing 90 sec laps and just let them slowly drift away. They where doing 1600 reps so if I had stuck to my original plan I would have made life a lot easier for myself. Running intervals in a group is a hell of a lot easier then doing it solo but as I will be doing a 9 day cycle the times that they will coincide will be few and far apart.
Even though I made a complete hash of the session, I was well stiff and sore this morning. I have not done any track work in over a year and it showed with my waddle like a duck walk as I went about my daily chores today. Anyway 2 days of recovery and Cross train should allow my body to recover for the next session a Tempo run of some description.



January 8th
          8.25 Miles Easy Run 1:12:53 @ 8:51 pace, HR 142 

January 10th  
          6 Miles 2 Miles Fast Tempo 14:25 @ 7:13 pace, HR 177 with 2 Mile WU/WD

January 13th
         13 Miles Long Run 1:49:41 @ 8:25 pace, HR 151 

January 16th
         4.4 Miles 12*400M of 75 sec Recovery @ 1:34 (1:30 to 1:36) with  WU/WD