Jarric Runs the Year Out

[Jarric]

Jarric Runs the Year Out

 

Ok, I'm writing this on mobile, because it's more important to have a challenge then for it to be well presented.

 

A couple of weeks aho I signed up to Nuclear Oblivion, a 12km lapped obstacle course in just about half a year's time. If I can complete 3 laps in 8.5 hours I'd qualify as an age group competitor for the obstacle course racing world championships. If I complete 4 laps I qualify as a pro. Unsurprisingly, therefore, I need to get running!

 

I'll be running this challenge for 5 weeks, to take me right up to 30th December.

 

Run! - 15XP

What it says on the tin really. The plan is to run 125 miles over the course of this challenge. I'd really like some advice from everyone as to how this stacks up as a plan, but here's what I'm thinking to start:

 

Tuesdays:

1: 1 mile slow, 4 miles fast, 1 mile slow

2: 5 mins slow, 4 x fast miles with 2m slow breaks, 5 mins slow

3: 1 mile slow, 4 miles fast, 1 mile slow

4: 1/2 mile slow, fast mile, slow mile, fast mile, slow mile, fast mile, 1/2 mile slow

5: Christmas Day (maybe Parkrun (5k))

 

Thursdays: 5 miles slow, 5 x 20sec intervals with 2min rest

 

Weekend:

5k on whatever day I do bouldering, long run on the other day.

Long runs will be 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14 miles respectively.

The 12 mile run will be done as 6 miles steady, 4 miles fast, 2 miles steady

 

Pullups! - 10XP

Last challenge I had a goal of GTG pullups using my pullup bar on the kitchen door every time I wanted to enter the kitchen. The goal is the same this time, except I must hit a minimum of 10 pullups every day. I'll also be doing front lever pullups as much as I can.

 

I trialed this in zero week and hit 87 pullups for the week, which seems respectable.

 

Eat Accountably! - 10XP

I know what real food is, so mostly that is what I shall eat. It is Christmas time though, so I'll also have parties and meals ojt and that kind of stuff. There's no limit on variances this time, because I don't think that will work this month, but every variance I eat I need to list jn my journal and post about here. If it's not worth posting about it's not worth eating.

 

Budget! - 10XP

Extra XP for this one as it's Christmas - stick to my £50 weekly budget. This is going to be really tough but I want to make an honest attempt at it.

 

Well I think that's about it - I'm sure I'll think of plenty of stuff I forgot about tomorrow, but I need to run in the morning (and I get to try out my new running shoes), so I need to get to bed!

[jonfirestar]

For some reason my phone is refusing to quote you this morning. Your running plan looks good. 

 

The only thing I have to say is to make sure that your weekend 5k is at a slow recovery effort, especially if it is coming the day after your long run. 

 

You don’t really need to think about this now but you also might want to think about expanding on your interval workouts in the same way you have done for your tempo workouts. Maybe swap one for  hill repeats, or longer intervals of 200-400m, or something like 1-2 minuets at max effort. 

[Mr_Willes]

10 hours ago, Jarric said:

Ok, I'm writing this on mobile, because it's more important to have a challenge then for it to be well presented.

 

 

That what was i was thinking!

 

Good to see you again my friend!

 

 

[Jarric]

4 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

For some reason my phone is refusing to quote you this morning. Your running plan looks good. 

 

The only thing I have to say is to make sure that your weekend 5k is at a slow recovery effort, especially if it is coming the day after your long run. 

 

You don’t really need to think about this now but you also might want to think about expanding on your interval workouts in the same way you have done for your tempo workouts. Maybe swap one for  hill repeats, or longer intervals of 200-400m, or something like 1-2 minuets at max effort. 

 

Cheers dude. With the 5k if it's Saturday it'll be Parkrun, which is hard to run slow when it's a big group event but I can at least give myself permission not to push for a PR every week! If I'm 5king Sunday after a long run Saturday and bouldering Sunday morning I'm certain it will be a slow one though!

 

So for the intervals, two questions. Firstly, how do you structure hill repeats - do you literally run up the same hill and walk back down it over and over again? And what kind of times/distances do you have for work and rest? Secondly for longer intervals, would you suggest still starting with a few slow miles as I am at the moment, followed by 1-2 miles of intervals, or would you go straight intervals from the start?

 

 

3 hours ago, Mr_Willes said:

 

 

That what was i was thinking!

 

Good to see you again my friend!

 

 

 

Oo, does this mean there's a new Mr_Willes challenge.

 

*goes searching*

 

*runs back*

 

HOLY SHIT THERE'S A NEW MR_WILLES CHALLENGE!

[Jarric]

W1D1 - Monday

I had crossfit in the morning yesterday, we did bench and then were working on muscle-up progressions. I can't do muscle ups, but I'm starting to think that if I can get dips down I might be able to get to them pretty quickly - it was a fun session. I did miss a few of my GTG pullups immediately afterwards, given that amongst other things crossfit involved 5 sets of max-rep pullups, but I still ended up with 12 for the day.

 

In the evening I wrote this challenge! Other than that I cooked a chilli-type-thing and mostly watched TV and chilled.

 

This morning I went out for my run - the plan was 1 mile warmup, 4 miles fast, 1 mile cooldown. Actual splits were:

1: 10:46

2: 10:10

3: 9:32 **

4: 9:43

5: 9:54

6: 10:23

 

It's probably worth pointing out that miles 2 and 5 are mostly off-road, and the others are mostly on-road. I'm pretty happy with that though, I was worried I was going too slowly at the time but that's not too bad. My new shows felt ok too; a little bit of rubbing on the ball of my foot which I hope will stop as they break in, and a bit of slipping at the heal which I hope I can stop with some better lacing.

 

Tonight is D&D night, which should be good  

[jonfirestar]

2 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Cheers dude. With the 5k if it's Saturday it'll be Parkrun, which is hard to run slow when it's a big group event but I can at least give myself permission not to push for a PR every week! If I'm 5king Sunday after a long run Saturday and bouldering Sunday morning I'm certain it will be a slow one though!

 

 I figured that was the case. I'd even go so far to say that if you know that a given week is a parkrun week to then switch out the tempo run from Tuesday instead. Although you know how you are feeling and recovering better than me just stay on the right side of that line. 

 

4 minutes ago, Jarric said:

 

So for the intervals, two questions. Firstly, how do you structure hill repeats - do you literally run up the same hill and walk back down it over and over again? And what kind of times/distances do you have for work and rest?

1. Yes  

2. It varies. 

 

Right now I'm doing my hill repeats on the treadmill but all over the summer I was using real hills. I would literally run up the hill and then walk or jog back down and repeat. I happen to have a couple of good options for doing these and so it would vary. 30 seconds, 60 seconds to 4+ reps. The rest is normally how long it takes to get back down the hill  

 

I also would do long repeats when training for MvL which were 2-5 minutes uphill and then jog back down. Again the rest being how long I can get back down the hill. I did these in a phonomonaly high volume during that training (like a 9 mile run with 7 miles of it just being hill repeats. I won't be doing that for Oblivion, I don't think it's necessary). 

 

Obviously on the treadmill I can control the variables much better. The work/rest I did this week were 0:30/2:30 x6

 

13 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Secondly for longer intervals, would you suggest still starting with a few slow miles as I am at the moment, followed by 1-2 miles of intervals, or would you go straight intervals from the start?

Yes. For both of these I'd recommend a mile or so slow before going into it. Not least because it'll help ensure that you are warmed up properly. It's even perfectly fine to break it up further. Say 1 miles slow. 3 repeats, 1 mile slow, 3 repeats, 1 mile cool down. etc. That gets more appealing when the volume gets really high. 

[Charlie_Quinn]

Hello other Oblivion buddy! 

 

1 hour ago, Jarric said:

So for the intervals, two questions. Firstly, how do you structure hill repeats - do you literally run up the same hill and walk back down it over and over again?

 

Unless you're lucky enough to live somewhere with rolling hills, yes. It's boring as hell and you get really weird looks from people walking their dogs!

[starpuck]

I really like the approach and the plan Jarric!  You've got this.    Your running always amazes me.

 

[jonfirestar]

1 hour ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

It's boring as hell and you get really weird looks from people walking their dogs!

 

One time there were some workmen digging up the road opposite where I was turning around at the bottom of the hill. I spent over 90 minutes running up and down the hill that morning. Those were some weird looks! 

 

Everytime I do a hill repeat workout I get Monty Python stuck in my head! 

 

 

[Broba Fett]

Greetings buddy.  Good to see you still at it.  

 

[iatetheyeti]

Following along for sure

[Jarric]

23 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

 

 I figured that was the case. I'd even go so far to say that if you know that a given week is a parkrun week to then switch out the tempo run from Tuesday instead. Although you know how you are feeling and recovering better than me just stay on the right side of that line. 

 

1. Yes  

2. It varies. 

 

Right now I'm doing my hill repeats on the treadmill but all over the summer I was using real hills. I would literally run up the hill and then walk or jog back down and repeat. I happen to have a couple of good options for doing these and so it would vary. 30 seconds, 60 seconds to 4+ reps. The rest is normally how long it takes to get back down the hill  

 

I also would do long repeats when training for MvL which were 2-5 minutes uphill and then jog back down. Again the rest being how long I can get back down the hill. I did these in a phonomonaly high volume during that training (like a 9 mile run with 7 miles of it just being hill repeats. I won't be doing that for Oblivion, I don't think it's necessary). 

 

Obviously on the treadmill I can control the variables much better. The work/rest I did this week were 0:30/2:30 x6

 

Yes. For both of these I'd recommend a mile or so slow before going into it. Not least because it'll help ensure that you are warmed up properly. It's even perfectly fine to break it up further. Say 1 miles slow. 3 repeats, 1 mile slow, 3 repeats, 1 mile cool down. etc. That gets more appealing when the volume gets really high. 

 

Cheers for the advice man. I've moved the tempo run to Tuesday this challenge because I find it easier to get up on Tuesdays than Thursdays, and I want to find out if that's because of the day of the week or because I'm looking forward to getting up and doing 5 easy miles and a couple of sprints more than I'm looking forward to a tempo workout.

 

I will have to have a think about how I fit intervals/hill repeats into my training going forward (though I suppose there's not immediate rush I certainly do need to get faster over distance).

 

 

21 hours ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

Hello other Oblivion buddy! 

 

 

Unless you're lucky enough to live somewhere with rolling hills, yes. It's boring as hell and you get really weird looks from people walking their dogs!

 

Hello fellow lunatic  .

 

Actually I'm pretty blessed with hills around here. Just for fun, here's some elevation profiles from my watch. My last long run:

 

 

Yesterday's morning run:

 

My last Parkrun (does this count as hill repeats?  )

 

 

20 hours ago, Starpuck said:

I really like the approach and the plan Jarric!  You've got this.    Your running always amazes me.

 

 

 

I've actually never seen the video this comes from - that needs to change!

 

Also, hi! You could totally get to a similar level of running if you keep at it (and if you really want to spend a few hours a week doing it). Just keep slow and keep going.

 

36 minutes ago, Broba Fett said:

Greetings buddy.  Good to see you still at it.  

 

 

Dude! Good to see you! Glad you're back around these parts; I'll be looking up your challenge soon.

 

15 minutes ago, iatetheyeti said:

Following along for sure

 

Great to have you Yeti  

[Jarric]

I got so excited saying hi to everyone I nearly forgot to update.

 

Last night I had my first variance for the challenge - at D&D we brought some chocolate fingers for everyone, and I had at least my fair share of those. So one variance reported for the challenge. I need to put together a bujo tracker for this challenge and log that there too, don't let me forget!

 

Pullups were done - I wasn't in enough to hit 10 from GTG so I had to get the last couple before bed.

 

This morning I had Crossfit:

Warmup was bear crawls, crab walks and broad jumps

Strength work was deadlifts - I hit 122.5kg (~245#) for 5 reps; that's a new absolute max as well as a new 5RM, and it felt pretty heavy

The WOD was 75 seconds max distance row; I got 357m

I actually the heaviest deadlift and the best distance row in the class, but that has more to do with who turned up this morning than my ability (it's certainly not the norm).

 

I have also had another variance this morning - a rather excellent mince pie at work as a morning snack. I don't know why but I've been insanely hungry the last couple of days; trying to fill that gap at the moment with more fruit rather than more junk.

 

In other news, my legs have been niggling yesterday and today - I'm a little worried but hopefully it's nothing. I'll keep monitoring closely.

 

Tonight is snooker, tomorrow morning is another 6 miles for my running total!

[Charlie_Quinn]

8 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Just for fun, here's some elevation profiles from my watch.

 

I have the complete opposite problem. Just for fun, here's the elevation profile from the run I did on Sunday

 

Not surprising I got a PB, huh!

TBF, this race was billed as 'fast and flat.' There are some steep hills around in my local area, they just aren't long enough to do a decent hill session on

 

2 minutes ago, Jarric said:

In other news, my legs have been niggling yesterday and today - I'm a little worried but hopefully it's nothing. I'll keep monitoring closely.

 

I'm sure I don't have to tell you this but, PLEASE STRETCH! 

[jonfirestar]

15 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Actually I'm pretty blessed with hills around here. Just for fun, here's some elevation profiles from my watch. My last long run:

 

 

Oh let's play along  I'm also pretty lucky with my access to hills but I need to go outside of town to get to the really good ones.  No guesses as to why the second half of this run really sucked.

The first half is the Thames Path  That flat route goes for at least 20 miles. The second part is going into the Chilterns along the Chiltern Way. 

 

Just because I can  If I keep going along that hilly route it gets kinda crazy. Obviously the distance in this next one is a bit insane but so is the elevation profile! 

 

So I get to pick between no hills and all the hills. With nothing in between! Your Parkrun are small hills (it's looped right? so it is the same hill?) but they certainly could count as hill repeats! 

[starpuck]

50 minutes ago, jonfirestar said:

Just because I can  If I keep going along that hilly route it gets kinda crazy. Obviously the distance in this next one is a bit insane but so is the elevation profile! 

 

 

Is there a section in this run, right about here ^ where you jump off a cliff lol????

 

 

[jonfirestar]

9 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

Is there a section in this run, right about here ^ where you jump off a cliff lol????

 

It feels like it's a cliff when you are trying to climb the darn thing! But no. It's not at all it's actually this hill:

 

 

The hill loses everything in translation to a photo but I really liked that view  The trail goes down until it's about level with the river and then straight up, climbing a couple of hundred feet in about 0.1 of a mile. It is without a doubt the most vicious hill I've found around me. Going down it is actually really hard and slow because it is far too steep to run (at last for me). 

[TimovieMan]

3 hours ago, Jarric said:

Tonight is snooker

[Jarric]

6 hours ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

 

I have the complete opposite problem. Just for fun, here's the elevation profile from the run I did on Sunday

 

Not surprising I got a PB, huh!

TBF, this race was billed as 'fast and flat.' There are some steep hills around in my local area, they just aren't long enough to do a decent hill session on

 

 

I'm sure I don't have to tell you this but, PLEASE STRETCH! 

 

...so that was on a treadmill, right?

 

I promise to stretch - it's easy to remember when you hurt!

 

6 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

Oh let's play along  I'm also pretty lucky with my access to hills but I need to go outside of town to get to the really good ones.  No guesses as to why the second half of this run really sucked.

The first half is the Thames Path  That flat route goes for at least 20 miles. The second part is going into the Chilterns along the Chiltern Way. 

 

Just because I can  If I keep going along that hilly route it gets kinda crazy. Obviously the distance in this next one is a bit insane but so is the elevation profile! 

 

So I get to pick between no hills and all the hills. With nothing in between! Your Parkrun are small hills (it's looped right? so it is the same hill?) but they certainly could count as hill repeats! 

 

I'll have to do a run over the downs sometime soon so we can compare with the Chilterns!

 

And what I'm hearing there is that my Parkrun counts as hill repeats so I don't need a separate hill session...? (It is indeed a lapped course up and down one hill)

 

3 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

 

Oo, a fellow snooker fan? Do you play?

[TimovieMan]

59 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Oo, a fellow snooker fan? Do you play?

A fan, mostly.

 

I play occasionally, but I'm pretty bad at it. Best I've ever done is potting 5 balls in a row, or a break of 18.  

[jonfirestar]

1 hour ago, Jarric said:

I'll have to do a run over the downs sometime soon so we can compare with the Chilterns!

I'd love to run over the South Downs one day but I think I'm a long way away from talking myself into the South Downs 100! 

 

1 hour ago, Jarric said:

And what I'm hearing there is that my Parkrun counts as hill repeats so I don't need a separate hill session...? (It is indeed a lapped course up and down one hill)

I mean, for the purposes of being able to run Oblivion, yeah. The profile you do your running on isn't dissimilar to Oblivion and you probably don't need to do seperate hill sessions. If you were looking at a 50k with a crazy amount of elevation I'd tell you that you'd want to do dedicated hill work but you aren't training for a race like that (although the 200m per lap at Nuclear will soon add up! ) 

 

They still have their benefits and I'm still looking at transitioning onto much hillier races after Oblivion. 

 

[Jarric]

15 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

A fan, mostly.

 

I play occasionally, but I'm pretty bad at it. Best I've ever done is potting 5 balls in a row, or a break of 18.  

 

Depends on your frame of reference (no pun intended), a 5 ball break is pretty hard to achieve for most people. One of the leagues I play in registers any break over 30 for the high break prize at the end of the year, and out of 40-50 players across the whole season there's usually only 2-3 registered breaks, so I'm not playing at a particularly high level either.

 

 

15 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

I'd love to run over the South Downs one day but I think I'm a long way away from talking myself into the South Downs 100! 

 

I mean, for the purposes of being able to run Oblivion, yeah. The profile you do your running on isn't dissimilar to Oblivion and you probably don't need to do seperate hill sessions. If you were looking at a 50k with a crazy amount of elevation I'd tell you that you'd want to do dedicated hill work but you aren't training for a race like that (although the 200m per lap at Nuclear will soon add up! ) 

 

They still have their benefits and I'm still looking at transitioning onto much hillier races after Oblivion. 

 

 

You should definitely do some running on the downs if you get the chance. If I were doing the whole South Downs Way though I'd do it as a 5 day hike  .

 

In that case I think I might stick without the hill sessions (though I will look at different interval sessions) - I'll just make sure to get some time going across or over the downs and otherwise stick to my normal hilly routes. As you say Oblivion is pretty much flat, so that shouldn't be a problem.

[Jarric]

Last night was snooker, which means quite a lot of sitting around watching other people play whilst waiting for your frame. The bench seats were low and crappy and my legs and hips were killing me by the time I got to play. I have several theories on what might be going on with them, not least that I have a cold and everything aches so I might just be being a wimp, but I'll keep monitoring it. Work have agreed to get me a new office chair at least, though it won't arrive for another 3 weeks.

 

I did win my snooker match, which was nice, and as a team we won 3-2. I had some of the food at snooker, but left the pizza alone so no variances there. It was a long long night though, I got home at 10 to midnight which did not set me up well for today. Also got in 12 pullups.

 

This morning I hit snooze a few times, I can't work out if I needed that or I was just using my late night last night as an excuse, but either way I was up half an hour late. The running plan was for 5 miles plus 5 sprints, which I cut to 3 miles plus 5 sprints given the shortage of time. It went like this (showing paces for each section):

 

Mile 1: 10:23

Mile 2: 10:37

Mile 3: 10:08

20s sprint: 09:13 forgot I was supposed to sprint and missed it

2m rest: 11:51

20s sprint: 7:05

2m rest: 11:24

20s sprint: 7:01

2m rest: 10:18

20s sprint: 05:36

2m rest: 10:52

20s sprint: 07:19

 

With a bit of a walk home that came to 4.1 miles.

 

Tonight I'm heading up to London for a gig (seeing New Roses supported by The Departed). It'll be a late one, so I need to be fairly sensible drink wise to make sure I get up for Crossfit tomorrow.

[Jarric]

So having said that my new office chair would take 3 weeks to arrive, it actually turned up after about 5 hours, which is nice. It's actually just about big enough for me as well, which is nicer!

 

Aaaanyway, the gig was really good fun last night, I went with my Dad and sister, and it was particularly great to see sister because I haven't been out for a drink with her in years. I had 5 pints in the end, but I was done drinking at 20 past 10 so by the time I'd had some water on the way home and got back at 1am I was pretty sober and pretty ready for bed. Blew my budget for the week with the train to London and drinks out. Hit my 10 pullups.

 

I did question whether going to Crossfit on 5 hours sleep was a great idea, but I did it anyway. I also questioned whether squats and yoke carry were a good idea with niggly legs, but I did those too! Got to 3 sets of 5 at 75kg (~165#) on the squats, which is about my body weight. They were ugly as anything and definitely need work, but at least they went up. The yoke carry was 100ft in under 20 seconds, with the highest possible load. I just about got 125kg (~275#) within the time cap, but I was a couple of seconds over on 145kg (~319#).

 

This morning I turned down cake that a colleague brought in for his birthday, and then immediately said yes to some rocky road which was a very good use of a variance.

 

Tonight I will be having some much needed rest and sleep, tomorrow will be long run (10 miles) in the morning and house cleaning, and Sunday is bouldering, log splitting, lunch with my parents and at some point I need to fit a 5k run in there too.

[jonfirestar]

56 minutes ago, Jarric said:

I did question whether going to Crossfit on 5 hours sleep was a great idea, but I did it anyway.

 

I've never let only 5 hours of sleep put me off of a workout yet  Your niggly legs though are a different matter. How are they feeling today?