New runireland blogger THURSDAY, 12 APRIL 2012
Was it as good for you as it was for me?….intervals!!!
Running intervals and calculating HRM (A beginners guide!!!)
Hope to do 1 mile warmup and then ½ mile at 3.25 pace. 2 minute recovery and then repeat ½ mile run again. Might do 3 in total (if I can manage it!!!). 2 mile jog home. I need to replace my heart monitor as the last one i dropped while doing the Rome marathon. (It was that kind of day!!) I am probably running my runs in the incorrect pace zones especially recovery and long runs. From what I gather the idea is that running at the correct pace will eventually lead to your heart rate dropping and your heart becoming more efficient. Also running long runs at correct pace aids recovery which in turns allows you to go running more often etc etc. See below table from Pfitz
April 11th- Running intervals
Wednesday morning-Still off work. Left house at 8.00 am. Rang 1.2 miles to the Railway road at approx 8.00 pace. Ran ½ mile with 2 minute recovery. Conscious to keep the effort all the way through. Ran another ½ mile with 2 minute recovery. Did 3 more of these. The last one was the toughest as at that stage I was facing a small pull on the Cork road hard shoulder. Jogged the last 2 miles back home at 8.30-9.00 pace. Feel quite fresh afterwards. I was quite happy with how my workout went. I was apprehensive as how it would go and I was happy to see i could complete a set of 5 with reasonably even splits. Will do another set of 5 next week. I might keep at 5 for a few weeks. Not too sure how I while progress after that. The idea is that within 4 weeks i should my speed increase and my recovery improve. In otherwords my aerobic capacity improves as my heart, lungs and muscles are able to adapt.
Around mid-day the left ankle was feeling a bit tender but nothing serious. Spent a couple of hours driving that day and walking around Mahon Point and that didn’t help matters.
Around 5pm I jogged a recovery 3 miles around the park. A “friend” of mine is interested in starting running so I am trying to help them get started on a 5K plan.It suits me to use it as a recovery session. (Total miles for the day 9.2) Splits for ½ mile were as follows (6.40 pace, 6.34 pace, 6.30 pace, 6.38 pace, 6.50 pace)
April 12th
Got up and out the door at 8.15 am. Hummed and hawed as I tend to do about weather to go out of not. Of course I ended up going out!! I tend to under go this type of struggle a lot – usually if running 3-4 days in a row or after a long day at work. More often than not I end up running . I am sure this struggle is part of all training cycles for runners of all abilities. Did 7 miles. Legs were heavy for the first 4 miles but felt strong for the last 3 miles. Ran at 7.51 pace. Ran up Love Lane and back down (1.7 miles). Did 2 ½ laps of town park (under 1.5 miles). Then ran up and down to railway rd and back home (4 miles). Felt v fresh again but probably a mile too long and slighty too fast. (total miles for the day 7)
The mission should you choose to accept it….
is to run 3.29 in Dublin Marathon
Monday April 9th-On Easter holidays.
29 weeks to Dublin. Seems like a very long build up but have decided to follow Pfitzinger’s 18week/ 70 mile plan. Will need 9-11 weeks to build base up to starting point of 45-51 miles. My goal is to achieve a sub 3.30 goal in Dublin marathon on 29th October. A tough but a achievable task. This will be my 5th marathon. I did Dublin 2010 in my target goal of a sub 4 (3.58.30). In retrospect I could have shaved 5 minutes of my time but I was very happy with my time. My second marathon was Cork in June 2011. I followed the same plan as before and aimed for a 3.50 but fell somewhat short at 3.53.04. I was happy in completing my second marathon in so far as I knew I could complete the distance, running a max of 40 miles (20 and 22 mile runs) and doing no speedwork. I was disappointed in that I had no second gear just a ernest plod of 8.50 pace.
I knew I needed to work on different aspects of my marathon training and in the summer of 2011 purchased Pfitzinger’s Advanced Marathoning. The book arrived just before I started training for Dublin 2011 (marathon number 3). I wasn’t too sure about being able to do some of LT and VO2 max workouts partly out of fear and partly out of laziness. The schedules look intimidating first time out. I did however lock into the marathon pace running. That proved a massive boost to my running. In warm up races I hit 1.44 In Dingle half marathon (a 13 minute improvement), 1.39 in Charleville HM and a very satisfying 1.58 in 15 mile Cork to Cobh (the last 5 miles were at 7.30 pace). In Dublin i hit my best marathon time ever (3.40.51). The effort proved very taxing though and at miles 16 -18 and 23-25 I didn’t think I would make it. 6 weeks later with very little training I ran 1.41 in a very tough Clonakilty half marathon.
Next shot was Rome marathon on 18th March 2012. Took it very easy in training building up base slowly. Whatever it was I didn’t have the heart to follow Pfitz’s book.In mind and body Dublin 2011 took a lot of me and I targeted Rome as a sub 4, certainly not a PB. My form in road races (belgooly 4, bandon 5 and most awful of all Dungarvan 10) wasn’t improving (none under sub 7 average) and the fog wasn’t lifting from my head. However in the last 7 weeks to the race I hit a serious golden patch (3 weeks of 50 plus miles peaking at a 57 mile week- a record). In training i ran 20 miles in 2.45 and 23 miles in 3.10. I revised my target and decided to give the 3.30 a shot. In retrospect I knew this was daft as on the day a combination of factors killed me. There was stuff I had no control over (cobblestones and heat) but the stuff I had control over I didn’t do well at all (flat garmin, no hat, getting there late). This was my worse prepared race ever and my worse performance in terms of running (walking the last 3 K). I finished in 3.52.XX but should have had a 3.45.
Anyway have decided to follow Pfitz’s schedule as best as I can. I was also interested by Thomas Bubendorfer’s successful use of the book when getting a sub 3.30 in 2006 after falling short 4 other times. His blog and others are worth reading. If anything their race reports are well worth a read. Mine won’t be as dramatic.
April 10th
Base 11 I did 19.7 miles in a week. Took it very easy. Base 10 was 33 miles in that week. My long run was 11 miles in new route (Colmanswell). I was out of shape but was happy with getting the miles up on my legs. Base 9 did 3 miles in town park on Monday. On Tuesday I ran 2 laps of Doneraile park (10km) in a modest pace (8.31). I am conscious of the need to explore new routes. I was stuck on the same old run in Charleville town and Mayfield so will run some routes around Fortlands, Bally hea, Doneraile park, Colmans well. Might even go up the ballyhoura mountains sometime.Also need to use my gym membership more- treadmill and pool useful for recovery runs and cross training.
Hope to do 1 mile warmup and then ½ mile at 3.25 pace. 2 minute recovery and then repeat ½ mile run again. Might do 3 in total (if I can manage it!!!). 2 mile jog home. I need to replace my heart monitor as the last one i dropped while doing the Rome marathon. (It was that kind of day!!) I am probably running my runs in the incorrect pace zones especially recovery and long runs. From what I gather the idea is that running at the correct pace will eventually lead to your heart rate dropping and your heart becoming more efficient. Also running long runs at correct pace aids recovery which in turns allows you to go running more often etc etc. See below table from Pfitz
April 11th- Running intervals
Wednesday morning-Still off work. Left house at 8.00 am. Rang 1.2 miles to the Railway road at approx 8.00 pace. Ran ½ mile with 2 minute recovery. Conscious to keep the effort all the way through. Ran another ½ mile with 2 minute recovery. Did 3 more of these. The last one was the toughest as at that stage I was facing a small pull on the Cork road hard shoulder. Jogged the last 2 miles back home at 8.30-9.00 pace. Feel quite fresh afterwards. I was quite happy with how my workout went. I was apprehensive as how it would go and I was happy to see i could complete a set of 5 with reasonably even splits. Will do another set of 5 next week. I might keep at 5 for a few weeks. Not too sure how I while progress after that. The idea is that within 4 weeks i should my speed increase and my recovery improve. In otherwords my aerobic capacity improves as my heart, lungs and muscles are able to adapt.
Around mid-day the left ankle was feeling a bit tender but nothing serious. Spent a couple of hours driving that day and walking around Mahon Point and that didn’t help matters.
Around 5pm I jogged a recovery 3 miles around the park. A “friend” of mine is interested in starting running so I am trying to help them get started on a 5K plan.It suits me to use it as a recovery session. (Total miles for the day 9.2) Splits for ½ mile were as follows (6.40 pace, 6.34 pace, 6.30 pace, 6.38 pace, 6.50 pace)
April 12th
Got up and out the door at 8.15 am. Hummed and hawed as I tend to do about weather to go out of not. Of course I ended up going out!! I tend to under go this type of struggle a lot – usually if running 3-4 days in a row or after a long day at work. More often than not I end up running . I am sure this struggle is part of all training cycles for runners of all abilities. Did 7 miles. Legs were heavy for the first 4 miles but felt strong for the last 3 miles. Ran at 7.51 pace. Ran up Love Lane and back down (1.7 miles). Did 2 ½ laps of town park (under 1.5 miles). Then ran up and down to railway rd and back home (4 miles). Felt v fresh again but probably a mile too long and slighty too fast. (total miles for the day 7)
The mission should you choose to accept it….
is to run 3.29 in Dublin Marathon
Monday April 9th-On Easter holidays.
29 weeks to Dublin. Seems like a very long build up but have decided to follow Pfitzinger’s 18week/ 70 mile plan. Will need 9-11 weeks to build base up to starting point of 45-51 miles. My goal is to achieve a sub 3.30 goal in Dublin marathon on 29th October. A tough but a achievable task. This will be my 5th marathon. I did Dublin 2010 in my target goal of a sub 4 (3.58.30). In retrospect I could have shaved 5 minutes of my time but I was very happy with my time. My second marathon was Cork in June 2011. I followed the same plan as before and aimed for a 3.50 but fell somewhat short at 3.53.04. I was happy in completing my second marathon in so far as I knew I could complete the distance, running a max of 40 miles (20 and 22 mile runs) and doing no speedwork. I was disappointed in that I had no second gear just a ernest plod of 8.50 pace.
I knew I needed to work on different aspects of my marathon training and in the summer of 2011 purchased Pfitzinger’s Advanced Marathoning. The book arrived just before I started training for Dublin 2011 (marathon number 3). I wasn’t too sure about being able to do some of LT and VO2 max workouts partly out of fear and partly out of laziness. The schedules look intimidating first time out. I did however lock into the marathon pace running. That proved a massive boost to my running. In warm up races I hit 1.44 In Dingle half marathon (a 13 minute improvement), 1.39 in Charleville HM and a very satisfying 1.58 in 15 mile Cork to Cobh (the last 5 miles were at 7.30 pace). In Dublin i hit my best marathon time ever (3.40.51). The effort proved very taxing though and at miles 16 -18 and 23-25 I didn’t think I would make it. 6 weeks later with very little training I ran 1.41 in a very tough Clonakilty half marathon.
Next shot was Rome marathon on 18th March 2012. Took it very easy in training building up base slowly. Whatever it was I didn’t have the heart to follow Pfitz’s book.In mind and body Dublin 2011 took a lot of me and I targeted Rome as a sub 4, certainly not a PB. My form in road races (belgooly 4, bandon 5 and most awful of all Dungarvan 10) wasn’t improving (none under sub 7 average) and the fog wasn’t lifting from my head. However in the last 7 weeks to the race I hit a serious golden patch (3 weeks of 50 plus miles peaking at a 57 mile week- a record). In training i ran 20 miles in 2.45 and 23 miles in 3.10. I revised my target and decided to give the 3.30 a shot. In retrospect I knew this was daft as on the day a combination of factors killed me. There was stuff I had no control over (cobblestones and heat) but the stuff I had control over I didn’t do well at all (flat garmin, no hat, getting there late). This was my worse prepared race ever and my worse performance in terms of running (walking the last 3 K). I finished in 3.52.XX but should have had a 3.45.
Anyway have decided to follow Pfitz’s schedule as best as I can. I was also interested by Thomas Bubendorfer’s successful use of the book when getting a sub 3.30 in 2006 after falling short 4 other times. His blog and others are worth reading. If anything their race reports are well worth a read. Mine won’t be as dramatic.
April 10th
Base 11 I did 19.7 miles in a week. Took it very easy. Base 10 was 33 miles in that week. My long run was 11 miles in new route (Colmanswell). I was out of shape but was happy with getting the miles up on my legs. Base 9 did 3 miles in town park on Monday. On Tuesday I ran 2 laps of Doneraile park (10km) in a modest pace (8.31). I am conscious of the need to explore new routes. I was stuck on the same old run in Charleville town and Mayfield so will run some routes around Fortlands, Bally hea, Doneraile park, Colmans well. Might even go up the ballyhoura mountains sometime.Also need to use my gym membership more- treadmill and pool useful for recovery runs and cross training.
