wb 15.12.14

Monday 15th
I definitely have man flu. Not making me feel too bad generally other than early and late when I feel totally congested. As a nod to being sensible I chose not to run today but did do a decent 25mins strength session at Fitness First at lunchtime. Think I've been inspired by listening to a lot of barbellshrugged podcasts recently and want to get back to feeling like my body is functionally strong and healthy. Did press ups, single leg squats, dead lifts and pull ups. I'm planning my training ahead a bit better again now (aiming to plan 4 weeks ahead) and I'm happy I can realistically still hit 40 miles this week with non-running days today and Saturday. It needs to start looking a bit more like marathon training at some point.
Running aside, my personal productivity was firing on all cylinders today which is always satisfying but particularly on a Monday. As I get older I can't help noticing that I take an awful lot of contentment and inner peace from the simple act of a job well done, regardless of the task. Work is good at the moment, long may that continue.

Tuesday 16th
Felt more ill this morning, totally bunged. Boo. As a result the 4.10am 'early run day' alarm punched a bit harder than it normally does. Needed my little flask of black coffee on the train then as I remain increasingly sure that I'm immune to paracetamol. Even with the caffeine, I couldn't see the '5 min' workout happening today so I replanned to switch in Thursday's longer but slower steady run. As it turned out, an hour on the tready at sub 6:30mm proved too arduous as well so I called it at 10k, sweating like a man trying to beat a cold into submission should.  Coming out of the showers, I noted that I looked palid and sick. No surprise there.
Annoying to be behind the week's planned training already but another good day at work followed which softened the blow. And I feel like what I left in the tank today by not ragging myself through another 6km will pay dividends in the next couple of days training as I hopefully start to feel a bit healthier again.

Wednesday 17th
Felt like I was in a slightly desperate mood most of the day. Not a bad mood as such, more anxious. Probably a result of lots on at work, still feeling pretty ill from the cold and Finn being quite a handful at the moment. He’s taken to throwing tantrums that are so ferocious, each one basically leaves my nerves in shreds. It’s a pretty bad feeling, a toddler absolutely laying bare your insecurities around being inadequate as a parent. A totally irrational little person, simultaneously the biggest blessing and biggest challenge in my life. My rendition of ‘let it snow’ is doing a stella job of calming him at bedtime though which is a nice feeling.
As I was working from home today I got my run in late afternoon, which is a time of day when I usually feel pretty good for training. Revised plan for the week was to do a quality session today, whatever I could manage, to then give a reasonable gap before finally having a proper go at parkrun on Saturday. I was curious to see if my recent block of training had brought me on at all so I set out to do 3x 1 mile on the seafront which is normally a pretty honest view of where I am. Conditions were good, my cold didn’t notably bother me during the session and the results were good:

5:36.3 | 5:33.0 | 5:35.5 – av = 5:34.9 (2:30 rests)

I’m pretty sure that’s the fastest average I’ve ever managed for mile reps, so that definitely improved my mood for the remainder of the day. It’s reassuring that the increased emphasis on quality running seems to be bringing some improvement. That last rep was basically hammering it back from the sea front to home with a fair amount of road crossings and people dodging too. Looking forward to justified easy run tomorrow.

Thursday 18th
This was my facebook status update today:

4:10am - get up
2hr 20min commute
7.10am - Run no.1
8:30-5:30 - work
5:50pm - Run no.2
2hr 20min commute
9:05pm - home
"I don't have the time" is a myth.

Friday 19th
Rest day. These are pretty rare. I'll usually do core or get on the wattbike at the gym but after yesterday's efforts I figured full rest was justified (although I don't enjoy doing nothing).

Saturday 20th
My plan to turn up at parkrun fresh & rested almost worked. But another fractious night with Finn meant I'd prepared with 3hrs sleep instead. I bemoaned this fact to my friends Dave & Lucy who had come down for a bit of parkrun tourism and openly decided I didn't have the mental strength to batter it, so would settle on a light tempo run instead. That's how I set off, and the usual tide of overeager starters ran away from me as I settled in and decided I felt pretty good. But the tide started to come back in pretty quickly and I realised that the two young lads who had scampered off in the lead weren't actually getting away. And so it was about 1km in I decided I would try and expend as little energy as possible whilst going for the win. After some shameless drafting and a confident surge to bridge the gap to the now solitary leader, with 1 mile left I pushed on and attempted to run a respectable final mile split (came in at 5:40) which opened the gap I needed to win. All very enjoyable, and a controlled effort. Considering how pedestrian the first 2 miles had felt I figured we'd run around 19 minutes so the time of 18:18 was a surprise. There was lots left in the tank today so I'm excited to try a harder effort at parkrun in the coming weeks.

Sunday 21st
I decided to forgo the usual Sunday Brighton group run and attempt 12 miles on my own so that we could get into town quicker after for a final flurry of Xmas shopping. Early morning was hard as Finn was super grouchy and inconsolable. He was driving us both crazy, I raised my voice with him at one point and then immediately felt shitty for doing it as he just cried more. What a surprise. So, an out and back route to Birling gap in some pissy, bleak weather felt like suitable penance for being a crap dad. It wasn't fun, but the plain hard work of the climbing and the headwind will probably have a decent training effect. Actually, the final 3 miles of downhill and tailwind were fun, dropping a 5:xx mile split into any long run is always good for the soul.
As is so often the case after a decent run, I feel like I was a better dad for the remainder of the day. We had a fun day of Xmas shopping and Finn seeing his little buddies at a family Xmas party later in the day. I fueled myself entirely for the day with sandwiches and party food. And beer, and Port. Athlete. With just one day left in the office (tomorrow!) the Christmas break is tantalisingly close.

Week 4

"The professional knows that ultimately success is out of their control. They work instead on that which they can control directly - improving their technique, showing up for workouts, recovering properly. They know that success shows up when it wants to, so the pro gets their work done and prepares the way for success to appear. 

“You have the right to work only, but not for the results of work” - consciously or unconsciously the professional adopts the advice of the Bhagavad Gita. And as the old adage goes, “the harder I work, the luckier I get.” So yeah, admittedly luck and success does play a part- an unreliable roll that shows up only when it feels like it. We are not in control of the outcome, but are in control of our efforts. So prepare for the worst, and go ahead and allow yourself hope for the best."

Roisin McGettigan - Irish Olympic Steeplechaser

The 4-week break from writing a blog post wasn't intentional. More just a result of me being busier than I was last time I blogged regularly (already by the second sentence, shamelessly if indirectly blaming Finn for my shortfalls), and there not having been too much exciting running performance to update you on.

Its been a strong but unremarkable start to 'the mission' logging 3x 50+ mile weeks on the bounce, before this week carding a less impressive 29 miles as it became a bit of a cutback week. I'd love to say it was the result of a savvy (self) coaching decision, but in fact I drank too much Kronenbourg on Friday night and of course conveniently forgot that I'm at an age now where that has lasting repercussions for about the next 48hrs. Saturdays track session became a big fat zero, and Sunday's long run became a lacklustre 8 miles. My focus on this running lark is usually missile-lock tight but when it breaks periodically, well, it properly breaks.

Anyway, I'm back in the room now and reasonably sober, and on balance it's been a strong 4-week block. Each week has featured a reps session on Tuesday, a 9-mile progression run on the Thursday (a fair amount of near 6-min miling in this each week now) and a long run of 15 miles on the Sunday. If you’re interested you can view the details of my training here. Just click on the ‘TRAINING’ link at the top of the page.

In terms of running a fast 5k, there’s not really been any signs yet. The two parkruns I have done at Eastbourne have both been in wet, windy conditions and ended up as kind of 90% effort tempo runs. Good workouts, but not good races. That said, I’m pretty sure I am in increasing good shape; last week’s treadmill reps were equal with the best session I’ve ever done on the tready and I can only be a couple of weeks away from ending Thursday’s tempo run with a few miles that start with a 5:xx.

So I’m staying patient. It will come if I keep some faith in the training plan. And this month I should get a couple of proper looks at where I am fitness wise as I’m running the Chichester 10k on Feb 9th; and I’m planning to turn up fresh and ready at 9am on a Saturday at least one weekend in February when its not blowing a gale...

Week 1

"I took the toughness and the work ethic that I'd learnt as a child in Gebilay and Djibouti and carried it with me into competitive running. The pain was no big deal. I could handle the pain. If it hurt, it didn't really matter to me. I would keep on running, no matter what."

Mo Farah - excerpt from Twin Ambitions

"I'm in for a fun year then."

My Wife, Lyndsey, on realising the full extent of mission 16:xx last week. Bless her, she is very tolerant. And no, you're not :-)

WEEK 1
M - 6.23M (7:19mm) Treadmill
T - 7.4M inc 6 x 3mins @ 5:45mm average (90 secs rest)
W - R E S T
T - am 9M prog tempo (6:43mm) inc. 4 miles @ 6:26mm | pm 7.2M (8:25mm)
F - R E S T
S - 6M inc Eastbourne parkrun: 18:45, 2nd place, 5:55 / 6:05 / 6:07 / :37
S - 14.64M long run (7:48mm)

WEEKLY TOTAL = 50.8M | 81.7km

Well it's been a solid start. Six runs done, all planned sessions ticked off and a 50 mile week in the bag. But definitely just solid, nothing to get excited about in there. I've got to admit the target feels an awful long way off at the moment, but I guess at this stage that's to be expected. And at the start of the week I was treading carefully to see what energy levels I had as I was still finally getting over the hideous sore throat I had all christmas.

Also, as I'm already rolling out the excuses, the weather has at times been frankly impossible. We've basically had 25+mph winds here all week and as such its quite hard to read too much into the pace of Tuesdays session or of the parkrun - both of which on paper are quite rubbish.

One big positive from this week though; for probably the first time ever I did manage to do two 15-minute core workouts. That's right, two! It's one of those little things I've been thinking for a while I should add-in. The evidence nowadays that it's beneficial for your running is pretty incontrovertible so, good enough for Salazar and Farah et al, good enough for Kevin. It's also nicely highlighted how pathetically weak I am. Not being able to complete 3x 10 press-ups (I got to 8 on the last set. And then did the final 2 after a short rest. What a legend) isn't something I'll be boasting about in gym conversations anytime soon.

Parkrun no 64, Eastbourne - Started off slow because I thought I was being tactical. Finished slow because I couldn't go any faster into the ridiculous headwind. Got out sprinted for the win in the last 50 metres by a 15yr old. Lets leave it at that shall we?

Aims for this coming week are pretty modest, really just to repeat last week and hopefully see some improvement in the finishing pace on Thursday's run. And of course running a bit faster on Saturday would be a good thing. That will be a recurring 'aim' for every week this year I think.

Prologue

This is the picture I posted on fb on New Years day. Its the opening page of my new training diary. It seems apt that I open with it here too.

With any goal or resolution, apparently telling people about it makes you more accountable to it. Yeah I can buy that. Writing here each week about how much progress I have (or haven't) made towards it should also keep me honest.

Although it appears to take the form of a sort of new year's resolution, running sub-17 is far more than that to me. It's something I actually started to think (obsess?) about and work specifically towards at the tail-end of 2012. However after a promising 17:25 run at Brighton parkrun in Jan, from Feb 2013 onwards moving house and becoming a father inevitably meant running was forced to take a back seat. Pesky babies. Such is life and that's ok of course, but thankfully 2014 is looking much calmer. I've had a really consistent spell of training again since August, pretty much averaging 40 miles per week since then and I've used that time to refine what sessions work for me and to get into running habits that fit with my new life of fatherhood and a long commute... which basically boils down to getting up obscenely early and running then.

My thinking behind specifically trying to improve my 5k time isn't just because a PB that starts with a 16: would be a nice thing to have, although it definitely would be. There is also a bigger picture here that I'm thinking of. If I ever want to get down into the 2:4x range for the marathon I think I need to first of all maximise my speed at the shorter distance. Improving your 5k pace should theoretically disseminate down to improvements in your race pace for all the longer race distances. Very basically, if I can make my 5k pace 5:25 miling rather than 5:35mm, then trying to run 6:20 pace for a much longer distance should feel proportionately easier. I believe that logic will play out, 100%. 

One of the big things important to me about this goal is that I tackle it with a training program that I've devised. So much of my running over the past years has been shaped by jumping from one training schedule or marathon build-up to another, copying sessions I've read about, chasing mileage and generally lacking the confidence to stick with any one approach. I'm starting to understand that real progress in distance running comes not from one well-executed training block, but from many weeks, months and even years of consistent running, doing the sessions every week and having that fitness layer-up over time. So the weekly schedule I've settled on now is simple, repeatable, high quality, moderate volume training that I think I can do every week. And I've already been following it loosely since Aug/Sept. I'm looking for my progress to come from the consistency, an accumulation of training, rather than from any single session within it. Consistent with my other delusions of grandeur, I'm calling it The Masterplan - although it is really very basic:

M - Easy Run (6 miles)

T - Treadmill Reps, (600-1600m, total 5km) or 4 mile tempo (alternated each week)

W - Easy Run (6-8 miles)

T - Progressive Tempo Run (9 miles) start steady finish fast

F - REST

S - parkrun

S - Long Run (12-20 miles)

Nothing ground-breaking in there. Easy runs will be kept very easy to allow me to hit Tues and Thurs very hard. Only Tuesday and Saturday are particularly specific to 5km, but I think that is targeted enough. There is a fair amount of aerobic running in there still to start with, in recognition of the fact that much of my early improvement and getting back to the 17:2x area will likely come from that; its no coincidence my current parkrun PB (17:23) came one week before a marathon. But as we get into Spring I expect to introduce more short reps outside (road and/or track) to improve leg speed further.

A final comment for now. The other goal of reaching my 100th parkrun isn't separate from all of this, in fact its very much related to mission 16:xx. Running another 37x parkruns this year will absolutely ensure I give this goal a proper crack. Not all of them will be flat-out efforts, but a lot of them will be. And of course there is the old, but surely very true, adage; 

'If you want to get good at something, do it a lot.'