Sex-charged fop blew my junk TV quiz

[Konstantin]

March stats

11 Runs
Mileage - 84.5 (av 7.04)
Speed 6 - 55%
Long - 2 - 18%
Long run mileage - 37 - 44%

Enjoy - 3.79
Effort - 5.67
Events - 1
PBs - 1

[Konstantin]

Sat
Tempo run. 11 miles, 2 miles at speed up hill (7.28/mile) and 2.5 downhill (6.47/mile)

Mon
10 x 400 m at speed. Average 5.29/mile off av 2:17 rest.

Wed
Aimed for 4 x 1m off a short rest. The idea here was to approach race speed, although this is difficult as the flattest mile around here is still pretty hilly. Found I was doing 6:51, 6:52 which is race pace, so felt good, and did a fifth. Average 6:55/m off av 1:32 rest. Target pace is 6:52/mile so happy there.

Fri
Pack of cards (A high, 99reps)
Leg throws (abs), clap press up, dorsal raises, pull ups.
Soon found I wasn't going to get the pull upsdone so halved these cards.

Sat
Caffeine experiment - drink some 1 hour before starting the Tempo run. It ended up 35ish mins before.
Ran 2 miles @7:21/mile uphill and 3miles @ 6:36 mile downhill (easy bit inbetween). Faster than before and did an extra half mile down. My warm down speed was a lot faster too.

Great run. I'll repeat the caffeine and aim for 2m up and 3.5 down next week.

[Mr. Cleetus]

good work on the tempo run. Do you have a track to do your short stuff on or do you just do it on the road/trail?

Do you normally have any/much caffeine?

[Konstantin]

good work on the tempo run. Do you have a track to do your short stuff on or do you just do it on the road/trail?

Thanks - the tempo run is something I've never approached as part of training, but is central to it now. I have no track available for short stuff. There is a track available for rent locally but it's concrete and 200m. I have measured courses using my Garmin and they have to do. The area where I live is very hilly and what I call 'flat' still undulates. On road I have a 400m, 800m, 200m and 100m course, and on a field I have 100m and 200m. Around the pond I have 400m and 800m.

Do you normally have any/much caffeine?

Since I started working on my own my caffeine use has climbed sharply. I now have about 3 cups of tea a month. Before that I used to drink about one cup of tea a year. I have had 2 cups of coffee in my life. I just don't really like that stuff. I've tried caffeine before races about 4 times and it's difficult to tell if it helps because there's a load more preperation going on, but I felt the experiment on Saturday indicated it helped, so think I'll use it a bit more.

Do you use it Mr C?

[Konstantin]

Mon
Hillsprints: 10 x 45s, 2 x 1 min, 3 x 20s. Didn't feel that sharp. Later ones were better.

Thurs
Early sessions: 20 x 200m. Average of 42.0 seconds, mean 45 secs rest (5.41/mile pace)

Sat
Tempo run. Aimed to take the uphill pace a shade quicker and make the downhill run longer.
Uphill pace 7:15/mile (from 7.28 last week). Downhill I did 3.5 miles @ 6.38/mile (from 3m @ 6.36/mile last week). Overall tempo pace 6:51 which is overall HM target pace. Satisfied with this run and my overall routine.

More clap press ups - 2971 for the year now.

[Konstantin]

Mon
800m intervals, fast off a long rest. I did 8 off an average rest of 2:27 and averaged 3:04, 5:58/mile. Pleased with this.

Tues
Little bit of plyometrics

Thurs
New session - .33 miles off a short (30s) rest aiming for race speed (6.51/mile) or better. I averaged 2:12 off a mean rest of 32s. Mean of the interval paces was 6.42/mile

Sat
Tempo run. Conditions were not ideal - I went camping the night before and slept badly, and the day was really hot. I went about 4pm and the unreliable car thermometer had us at 21C. The route was out of direct sulight most of the time but it was still warm. [/excuses]

Did 2 miles uphill aiming at 7:18/mile (3:39/half).
3:42, 3:44, 3:44, 3:44, total around 7:25/mile

Down hill (3:5 miles) aiming for race pace 6:51/mile, 3:25/half, although I usually exced this pace comfortably. Struggled to hold it:
3:29, 3:24, 3:25, 3:21, 3:26, 3:24, 3:17
6:47/m average.

Felt a lot slower and it was the first time I've done this and failed to improve.

[Mr. Cleetus]

Well done on the two interval sessions.

I have tried various things with caffeine in the past - except really overloading on it. I have pretty bad GI/digestion issues, especially during longer racing, so I am pretty careful with it. I do drink some coffee everyday, but not much. Certainly if I get it right with caffeine I notice it - I've thought I've good success with High 5 energy source extreme in the past. Are you getting the caffeine from Tea? I wonder if there is enough there to have much effect.

[Konstantin]

That crossed my mind too, but I stew two tea bags in one cup, wring them out into the cup and down it (yuk!) Based on what I've read I think I'm getting a reasonable amount, and I'm not used to it so reckon I'll feel it more. I have noticed that it makes me want to pee so reckon it does have some effect.

[Konstantin]

Mon
1:40 intervals off a 1:40 rest. I did it on the moorland track that goes alongside the tor and as a result the first ones involved height gain. I didn't seem to get the speed and intensity, but did more - 15.

Wed
400 m intervals off a longer rest. I messed up the recording of the first two, but the others averaged 1:28 off a mean 1:59 rest. 5:48/mile average.

Fri
Tempo run. Aimed to do that tricky uphill bit at 7:10/mile, downhill extend deyond 3.5 miles at race pace or faster (6:51/mile).
Uphill: averaged 7:03/mile, felt damn good. Gotta think about my stride length, when I think about pace I shorten my stride.
Downhill. Like a train. Half mile splits should have been 3:25, they were coming out 3:15. Fired way ahead of the reminder beeps on the sat nav and came in with 3.5 miles at 6:32/mile. Tempo section averaged 6:38/mile. Fantastic run, felt great, fast and fun. I'm da man!

[Mr. Cleetus]

I've (now) done some more reading on caffeine, and I reckon you're correct, it certainly looks like you could be getting some benefit from the amount of caffeine in tea. There's probably not a whole lot less than in the very short espressos I usually have - interesting!

Well done on your tempo run. It's great when you have runs like that for your confidence, eh?!

[Konstantin]

I think so, it looks as if I'm getting a fairly decent dose in there. I've never experimented with using it before an interval sesion and think I should do so.

That Tempo run made me feel like I could do anything!!

Sunday

Cycled as a warm up to my lake interval site and did 400s. I found it really strange changing to the running motion but it was OK.

Did 11 x 400m off a walking rest, mean 1:59.
I averaged 1:27, 5:28/mile. It rained heavily during it, which was good because it kept other people off my path, but I did get pretty wet.

Got home to find my wife and son cooking a serious vegan chocolate cake!

Mon/Tues/Wed

I caught a cold, felt lethargic, didn't train.

Thurs

Went out to run and see what happens. Speed trining was out of the question, I struggled round 4.66 miles @ 9:55/mile - but was glad I did it.

Sat
Not 100% but still up for the Tempo run.
Uphill 2 miles, half mile splits 3.39, 3.36, 3.39, 3.44. 7:19/mile overall.
Downhill aimined for 3 miles only, race pace (6:52/mile) only.
Half mile splits 3:29, 3:26, 3:25, 3:23, 3:20, 3:10. 6:44/mile average, but I sped up loads at the end and struggledearly on. Considering I was still off that was an OK session but next week I want to be doing 7:03/m for 2 m uphill and 6:40/mile for 4 miles downhill.

[baldy]

I think so, it looks as if I'm getting a fairly decent dose in there. I've never experimented with using it before an interval sesion and think I should do so.

If you want to play around with caffeine you might as well just buy the caffeine tablets, they are really cheap, available from supermarkets and its easier to dose it. With two tea bags you have no idea how much you are getting and you dont even like tea.

As an experiment you can also try redbull, which also has taurine in it and for some people gives more of a kick than caffeine.

An espresso shot is a thing of beauty though, so might be worth acquiring the taste for coffee

[ninearms]

I'd be surprised if a cup of tea had any effect whatsoever - the recommendation for improving performance in endurance athletes is 3-9mg of caffeine per kilo of bodyweight.

As Baldy says, if you're interested in trying out how caffeine works for you Tesco caffeine tabs are cheap as chips (3 for 2 at the moment) and 50mg a pop.

Some good info here.

[Konstantin]

I'd never even heard about caffeine tablets so thanks for the pointer. I'll try the supermarket and see how that works out.

Now I am wondering about the amount I'm getting from tea, although remember that I'm using two tea bags and not removing them after 30 seconds like people normally do. Even so, maybe I'm getting 100mg for my 73kg bw, which isn't 3-9mg/kg, is it? Lets give tabs a whirl.

I've never been keen on red bull after I heard how many countries banned it, but may give it a try. Then again that South Park episode put me right off caffeine and now I'm a user.

[gms]

Looks like you have been busy. Training looks good!