Copied over from Exiled - obviously could only copy my own posts…
Since all the cool kids have a H&F log…
42 year old male. Played sport (soccer and gaelic football) until my mid-to-late 20s. Hated running. Only races I ever ran in school were the annual 100 metres sprint on sports days which consisted every year of me panting Don’t finish last, Don’t finish last, Don’t finish last, Fuuuuck.
Started doing weight training in my late 20s. Did that for about 10 years and eventually got bored/few injuries and slowly gave up. Around that time, a couple of friends talked themselves into signing up for a half marathon and asked me if I was interested. LOL No. I happened to mention it to my brother and he also laughed, saying there was no way I could run a half marathon. Is that right? I signed up for it that evening and went for my first run - a 5k walk/run effort where the walk part took up about 4.9km. Of course, my two buddies never ran the race. They didn’t have an arsehole brother to give them the necessary push. Trained solidly for 3 months and ran 1:39 for the first half. Became completely obsessed by it. Read every book and listened to every podcast on the subject. Bored the balls off everyone.
I slowly started chipping away at my times. Between 2014 and 2018, I averaged about 2000 miles a year. Current PBs:
5k - 17:57
10k - 37:39
Half-Marathon: 1:23
Marathon: 3:01
The last PB was set towards the end of 2017. 2018 was a bit of a meh year. Trained really hard for a June marathon, only to have a crap second half and finished in 3:05. I got a bit lazy and then picked up a stress fracture in Nov/Dec. Didn’t rest it properly and injured it again in Jan. Took 3 months off completely. Started back easy running at the end of April and in the past couple of weeks feel like I’m able to push myself again. Would love either a 5k/10k PB before the end of the year.
Hoping that this log will keep me honest.
2 Likes
Friday 12th July 2019
I started doing some speed work about 4 weeks ago. Mainly 200 metre and 400 metre reps (with 45sec/90sec rest). Last week I also did a 3x1mile session (90sec rest). Yesterday, I decided to do a 5k time trial on my own to get an idea of where I am at the moment.
Session: 1.25 mile warm/up, 5k in 20:00, 1.25 mile warm/down.
Pretty happy with that. I thought I might have managed around 19:45 but it’s a good start and gives me a target to chip away at over the coming weeks. Conditions were quite good. It’s been fairly warm/humid here all week, but was a bit cooler yesterday evening. I did the session about an hour after getting home from work. Always find sessions that bit harder after sitting at a desk all day (I usually try and get up and walk about a bit but somehow yesterday I forgot). I need to figure out a proper training plan but right now I’m just sort of making it up as I go along.
Starting is definitely the hardest part. If you can find someone to run with you, it’s so much easier. Also, if you’re starting from scratch, I’d suggest something like a couch-to-5k program. There’s a million of them out there, but here’s one that a popular Irish TV show uses every January.
ot.rte.ie/get-involved-2/5k-2/
I think the main reason people give up after a couple of weeks is that they try to do too much too soon. You should never be arriving home completely wrecked after a run (at least for the first few months). Your running pace should be comfortable enough that you could maintain some sort of conversation, even if that means the pace seems really slow. As you get fitter, you’ll be able to run faster and talk at the same time.
Good luck with it. Running is brilliant. As much for the head as for the body.
Saturday 13th July 2019
5 miles @ 8:33/mile. An easy run after yesterday evening’s hard run. So nice running on a weekend morning.
It’s always good to get out for a run - no matter how slow or how short the distance. And feel free to post your runs in here. Otherwise I could very well end up talking to myself (which is ok too). Even if you don’t document your runs here, record them on paper so that you can look back and see your progress. That really helped me with motivation in the beginning. Just make sure to take it handy enough for the first few weeks. Give yourself a day or two off between runs as your body gets used to the new stress.
Sunday 14th July 2019
11 miles @ 8:45/mile
Nice and easy long run. Usually run this a little faster, but did it with gf who was recovering from hard run yesterday. First time I’ve run 6 consecutive days in about nine months.
Perfect weather.
Total miles for week: 35
Monday 15th July 2019
Rest Day
Tuesday 16th July 2019
1.25 mile warm-up, 12x400 metres (with 90 sec rest), 1.25 mile warm-down.
Average pace for the reps was 84.25 secs which is on the slow side of where I think I should be right now. Started off slow. The first rep was 86.25 secs, but managed to increase the pace as the session went on. Last rep was 81.00 secs. This is always a tough session but it’s one that really helps with my 5k time. Conditions were quite humid which might have affected the pace.
Wednesday 17th July 2019
5 miles recovery run @ 8:46/mile.
Legs felt very tired - presumably from yesterday’s speed session so happy to take it fairly handy.
Thursday 18th July 2019
6.25 miles @ 8:12/mile
One of those days where the hardest step is the first one. Got home from work and just wanted to veg out and do nothing. Luckily, I had promised to run with my gf this evening so had to go. Once the first mile was out of the way, I felt great. Returned home with way more energy than when I started.
Friday 19th July 2019
1 mile w/u, 5x1km with 90sec rest, 1 mile w/d.
Mad weather here today. Fairly warm but windy with the occasional heavy rain shower. Sneaked out of work a little early and tried to time the run to avoid the worst of it. All good for the first four of the 1km reps then the sheets of rain started. We get a fair bit of rain but rarely is it really heavy and this was really really heavy. Felt like I was running into a wall of water. So much if it that it seemed to suck up all the air. I sped past this elderly lady out walking her dog. She was rooted to the spot looking up at the sky as if it was the end of the world. No doubt she thought I was equally bonkers. Anyway glad to get it done. Average pace for the kms was 3:48/km or roughly 6:04/mile pace. This time last year, I was doing these at 3:30/km so still a fair bit to go.
Saturday 20th July 2019
4 miles Recovery @ 8:46/mile
Short easy run. Plan for tomorrow is to tag along with gf for 12 miles @ her marathon pace (7:25/mile). Not sure I’m able for that yet so we’ll see how it goes.
Sunday 21st July 2019
6 miles @ 7:20/mile and 5 miles@ 8:39/mile.
GF had stomach issues after 6 miles so had to reduce the pace. On the plus side, the first six miles felt fairly comfortable but think I would have struggled to maintain it for the full twelve. Overall though, a very solid week so definitely heading in the right direction.
Total miles for week: 37.75 miles.
Monday 22nd July 2019
Rest Day.
Tuesday 23rd July 2019
2 mile w/u, 4x200m (w/200m jog recovery), 8x400m(w/400m jog rec), 4x200m(w/200m jog rec), 1 mile w/d.
Tough, tough session. Went out too fast on the first set of 200 metre reps which meant the 400 metre reps quickly became torture. Went out at 8pm which is later than normal. Very warm evening. Every midge within a 2 mile radius seemed to get attracted to my sweaty forehead. By the end of the session, my face looked like the front grille of a car after a long drive. There must have been dozens of the bastards squashed to my skin. To top it all off, on the slow death march-like jog home we met a couple who my gf knows and hadn’t seen in ages. So of course we had to stop to chat. The woman visibly recoiled when she saw the small swarm of flies gathering around my head as I tried to pick their dead cousins off my face. Oh well.
Average times for the session: the 200m reps in 39.2 secs and 400m reps in 87.7secs.
Wednesday 24th July 2019
4 miles Recovery @ 8:34/mile.
Thursday 25th July 2019
Unplanned rest day. Didn’t get home from work until 10pm and wasn’t motivated enough to get out. The plan had been to do 7 miles easy.
Friday 26th July 2019
1 mile w/u, 5k time trial, 1 mile w/d
Repeat of the session from two weeks ago where I ran 5k in 20:00. This time I managed 19:24. Conditions were fairly good - a lot cooler than recently but there was a bit of wind. Really wasn’t fancying it during the warm up mile. I remember hearing John Treacy - he won silver in the marathon in the LA Olympics in 1984 - say that anytime he felt crap during the warm up for a race, he knew he was going to run well. Seems to happen to me a lot too. The 5k is such a horrible distance to race, it’s basically pain the whole time. With longer distances such as half and full marathon, 75% of the race is usually fairly comfortable and it’s only the last bit where you really suffer. With the 5k, I always feel like I’m suffering from the start.
The kms were: 3:45, 4:07, 3:48, 4:00, 3:44. It’s a 2km loop with the first km flat/downhill and the second km flat/uphill (and into a bit of wind). Therefore, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th kms are always the fastest. In the past, it’s the 4th km where I tend to lose a lot of time but happy enough that it was actually faster than the 2nd km. The fact that the last km was the fastest is a good sign too imo.
Saturday 27th July 2019
7 miles @ 8:38/mile
Nice Saturday afternoon run with an old running buddy who’s coming back from a long term injury. First mile was 9:15 and gradually upped the pace after that. Last mile at 7:57.
Did you xfer everything by hand? If so, awesome!
I hurt my foot and ankle running last time and took a few days off. Yesterday I did some stairs though. We have a very big sand hill near our house with a big stairway next to it. People come from all over town to exercise walking up either the sand or stairs.
Yeah - I transferred them by hand. There wasn’t that many posts.
Do you know how you hurt your foot (e.g. landed awkwardly) or do you think it was caused by something else - your running shoes, doing too much too soon etc? Injuries are the worst - especially when you’re trying to build the habit of running regularly.
Don’t know how it hurt, but it’s extremely minor. I’m not going to run if my feet, knees or whatever hurt at all. For one, I want it to heal. For two, I do construction stuff and don’t want to have to limp along a roof carrying solar panels.
Totally agree. Running on any sort of injury is daft. Of course, I don’t always follow my own advice.