Michelinman to Superman

G-Money

maria74 wrote: »

I have recently started running witha friend and it has made a HUGE difference, in terms of motivation, pacing, encouragement etc. So if you know someone in a club already it makes it easier just go an join. What have you got to loose?

One other thing. I got in touch with a few clubs. One of them told me they are starting a Womens Mini-Marathon training programme and it would be suitable for me. He said it would be mostly women doing it but men are welcome too. Does that seem right?

RayCun

Sure why not? If they're going at the right pace, and the right distance...

Birdsong

G-Money wrote: »

One other thing. I got in touch with a few clubs. One of them told me they are starting a Womens Mini-Marathon training programme and it would be suitable for me. He said it would be mostly women doing it but men are welcome too. Does that seem right?

Am in a running club, and lots of men start off training with the women, and move along to the mens section when they are ready. There are some men who always run with the womens section cos the pace is right for them.

You will automatically have a social support from people at your own level, you can meet outside the club for a run on a saturday with people who run at your pace.

G-Money

I guess you's are right. I just found it a bit funny when he said they have a women's mini marathon training programme starting and I'd be welcome to join that.

G-Money

I hadn't done any training since last Sunday, the 3rd of April. At the start of the week I felt like I was coming down with some sort of cold or flu. I was feeling really tired and was sneezing a lot and felt very sleepy and groggy and didn't have much energy. So I decided to rest for a few days ahead of the Great Ireland Run. As the week went on, I started to feel better but still wasn't that well.

I decided to head out and do a few kilometres this morning ahead of the race tomorrow. I didn't want to leave it much longer so I headed out and did 5 kilometres this morning. It surprised me how easy I found it, I was expecting it to be much tougher than it was.

I could have went faster and further today but I didn't want to push too hard. I wanted to leave something in the tank for the 10k tomorrow.

Seeing I was feeling sick this week, I didn't head down to Rathfarnham AC. Although from talking to my mate, their training sessions sound pretty hard and I don't think they have a seperate group for the slower runners so I'm not sure it's suitable. I might still go check it out but by the sounds of it, I'll have to join a different club.

5k - 43 mins, 04 seconds

Avg Heart Rate: 167bpm
Max Heart Rate: 183 bpm

Avg Pace: 8:32 min/km
Best Pace: 6:35 min/km


Splits:

8:28
8:39
8:36
8:32
8:29

maria74

Best of luck for tomorow, am not exactly looking forward to it myself...but am looking forward to the finish line and the feeling that comes after crossing it!!:)

G-Money

maria74 wrote: »

Best of luck for tomorow, am not exactly looking forward to it myself...but am looking forward to the finish line and the feeling that comes after crossing it!!:)

I have to admit I kind of am looking forward to it. I'm starting to get a tiny bit nervous now but it's mostly like an excited nervousness. Although I will tell you something. I have an awful urge to go out to my local niteclub tonight and have a skin-full. I won't though!

Bally8

Best of luck tomorrow G-Money. You said you dont eat anything for 3 hrs before a race, why is that? I would eat porridge on the morning of a race and a banana and sometimes a bagel then about 1.5 hrs before the start I would eat another banana. I read somewhere that they fuel 90 mins of exercise.

G-Money

Thanks.

I find that if I leave it too soon, I get a stitch in my side. I will have a decent bowl of porridge oats/muesli tomorrow morning just before I leave so I should be grand.

outforarun

Best of luck tomorrow. I was in the Park this morning and seeing all the barriers made me want to be running it tomorrow. Enjoy.

metamorphosis

Best of luck with the 10k at 1!

Oryx

Hope your run went well, looking forward to your report on it

G-Money

Not long back, but f*** me gently, that was tough! Finished in 1hr 33 mins.

Full race report to follow. I'm starving now so I have to get some food in.

G-Money

Today was the Great Ireland Run, a 10k fun run held in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. I've never done 10k in training so I knew this was going to be a bit of a stretch. I'd been a bit under the weather all week so I did no training at all, apart from a relatively easy 5k yesterday morning.

I ended up taking the Luas from the Red Cow as far as Heuston so it was good to see some other runners there also waiting. I was surprised at how long of a walk it was from Heuston to the start line, but thankfully I managed to make it in plenty of time, no jogging required; unlike the Dunboyne 4 miler a few weeks ago.

I found the baggage drop and left my bag there and headed for the start line. I was in the pink "wave" but I started to push forward a bit before the start. I basically kept going forward until I couldn't see any more pink waved people.

The start seemed to take a long time to happen. I reckon I was standing around for at least half an hour and I was getting a bit restless, as I just wanted to get going. I drank about half a litre of water on the start line but was wishing I had brought more as it was blisteringly hot. I started out easy enough and again did my best to ignore everyone passing me by.

I found the first kilometre ok but not fantastic. Once I got to about 2k though it got a tiny bit easier but not much. I could tell I was sort of talking myself out of it from an early point but I tried to ignore it. I had my headphones with me so it was good to have music to listen to. It was funny, I re-jigged my playlist the other day as I knew it wasn't long enough to get me around the 10k. So I was going along and then two songs by Ash came on - Coming Around Again, and Carnal Love. I had to do my best not to start singing, especially to the song Carnal Love. I didn't think it would be too good to be singing out loud "It's Carnal Love.... I'm thinking of" while I'm running along with some attractive females

I decided I was going to keep jogging until the 5k and then see how I was. Although as I got there I knew I was going to walk quite a bit of it. I figured I was going to have to stop anyway to get a drink of water so it was handy enough. Plus I knew just around the corner was that nasty Military road and I knew it would be a nightmare.

I was glad I walked it as it was tough. Quite a few people passed me by on Military Road but I wasn't too bothered. I walked then from the water station through to about 8.5k. I felt ok-ish but wanted to save myself for the last kilometre. Once I passed the 8.5k mark I started jogging again and kept going until I got past the 9km mark. I walked a tiny bit more then started jogging again about 300 metres from the finish and put the hammer down a bit. There were a few people ahead of me that I wanted to pass so I was glad I held something in reserve.

I got to the finish and wasn't feeling too bad, but I wasn't feeling fantastic either. My legs were very tired and my feet were quite sore which surprised me as I haven't had that yet in training. I think I must have seemed a bit p******d off with the way I ripped my timing chip off my shoe but I was just quite tired.

I grabbed my finishers pack and headed back towards the baggage drop area to get my bag. I was grateful for the bottle of Powerade in the bag as I couldn't see any water stations at the finish, or the start for that matter, even though the organisers said there would be some there.

I ended up taking the shuttle bus down Chesterfield avenue was my legs were wrecked and I was really tired. I finally got onto the Luas then and back to the Red Cow and it was a relief to get into the car and head home.

My finishing time was 1hr 33 minutes which isn't too bad considering I walked about 3km of it. Ok, I know for a lot of people that's a really slow time, but seeing I reckoned my best time would be about 86 minutes with no walking, I don't think it was too bad.

I have to admit though, once I got home and thought about the race I was thinking "How on earth am I going to do the half marathon in September as it will be double that distance". I got home and sat down on the couch and was feeling fairly wrecked, although I perked up then quite quickly after that. Although now that I've had dinner, I'm really starting to feel sleepy,

So that's my first 10k done and it was f*******g tough going. The weather was nice, but almost too nice. I was kind of wishing for a slightly overcast cooler day, but sure you've no control over these things.

Bally8

Well done g-money. I hear it was a scorcher out there. These 10ks get addictive!

G-Money

Bally8 wrote: »

Well done g-money. I hear it was a scorcher out there. These 10ks get addictive!

Thanks.

As for the 10k's getting addictive... I'm not so sure about that!

G-Money

No running for me today, I think I've earned a well deserved break. My legs are still feeling surprisingly tired today and overall I'm a bit stiff after yesterday. Got a nasty blister too so I've picked up a packet of those Compede blister patches. Let's see if they make it go away any faster.

I'm still debating with myself about joining a running club. I think I've ruled out Rathfarnham AC as it sounds like their training is quite tough and aimed at intermediate to advanced runners. A friend of mine is a member there and he told me the training they were doing last Tuesday. All I can say is that I'd still be there now trying to finish it all.

So I think that leaves Dundrum AC or Sportsworld.

RayCun

There's no substitute for going along and talking to them in person.

G-Money

RayCun wrote: »

There's no substitute for going along and talking to them in person.

You could be right. Might pop down tomorrow to have a chat.

maria74

Well done!
It was so hard in that heat and the waiting around for the pinks to start definatly didn't help!
I think that was a great time, especially considering walking 3k!

G-Money

Thanks, yeah I was a bit surprised at doing it in 1hr 33 minutes. My 5k times are usually around the 40-43 minute mark so if you double that, my finishing time jogging/running would have been around the 86 minute mark.

Here are my split times:

8:23
8:19
8:26
8:20
9:17
10:55
10:28
10:08
9:27
8:39


I am actually still feeling the effects a little from the race. Still a bit tired and the legs are still a bit stiff and tired too. I reckon I'm still not hydrated enough either!

Oryx

You can see a hilly section there in those splits.

You might find this handy in predicting your times, it isnt a case of doubling your 5k time to find you estimated 10k time.

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm

Well done on your first race, dont lose your momentum now, a few short easy runs this week should be ok for you!

G-Money

Yeah, I'll head out for an easy few 3, or 4k later in the week.

I got an email from the Great Ireland run crowd today which has pictures that I can purchase, with various options like getting one of them set on a certificate etc. I wasn't going to get them but now I'm thinking it might be nice to have one of me as I am now and my current time and then perhaps one this time next year showing a hopefully huge improvement, both in terms of weight and time it took to complete.

G-Money

Today was my first run since the Great Ireland Run last Sunday. I was surprised that I was still tired a day or two after the GIR but by Wednesday I was pretty much back to normal. I had thought about heading out for a run earlier this week but I decided to leave it until the weekend.

I went out this morning and did 5k although I half had an eye on doing 7k. However I decided to just head out and see how I felt and do at least 2 or 3k. I went to my local park as I didn't feel like going too far from home so I just did a few laps there. It went ok and I think I went out a bit faster than normal. I had my Garmin on but I was really just using it to track the distance and I wasn't worried about speed so much. I just decided to run/jog based on how I felt.

The run went ok but my left knee is nagging at me a little bit. It's not that bad, just a bit annoying, but I guess these aches and pains are just part of running. My left ankle is a bit sore too and it was after the race last Sunday. Perhaps I should have rested a few more days but it was fast approaching a week since I'd been out so I didn't want to leave it too much longer.

5k - 41 minutes, 07 seconds.

Avg Pace: 8:10 min/km
Best Pace: 6:52 min/km

Avg Heart Rate: 166bpm
Max Heart Rate: 180bpm


Splits

8:17
8:09
8:05
8:09
8:09

G-Money

Just been out to the shops and the knee and ankle are giving me jip. Hopefully a few days rest will allow the niggles to go away although perhaps I shouldn't have done the 5K this morning. Grrrrrrr.

maria74

rest up and take it easy, hopefully will pass with rest.

G-Money

maria74 wrote: »

rest up and take it easy, hopefully will pass with rest.

I'm sure they will, I know it's just a couple of niggles.

I really need to get a handle on my weight loss and actually achieve it. It's holding me back in many ways, not least when it comes to running. It's making me very slow and I'm sure these niggles wouldn't be as common if I wasn't so heavy.

Seeing I'm off the road now for a few days or a week to get rid of these niggles, my food intake is going to be even more important. So I'm starting to control my eating from today. I eat far too much and also eat the wrong type of stuff too. I weighed out what a normal portion of rice should be last night (about 50g uncooked) and I'm usually eating about three times that amount, and that's just the rice element of a dinner. That's just one example of where I'm overdoing it.

So starting today I'm going to stop that overeating and get back on the straight and narrow. They say weight-loss is something like 70% diet, 30% exercise so being off the road temporarily really shouldn't obstruct me from losing weight in the meantime.

I'm going to try and not go to extreme's and deny myself absolutely everything as when it's too strict, I find it even harder to stick to I think. But it's allowing the odd treat not to become a regular and every day/every meal treat that can also be difficult for me.

G-Money

I'm getting quite restless now and find myself wanting to get back out training. I've cleaned up and improved my diet a lot since Monday so I want to jog a bit to speed up the weight loss.

I think I might give it another couple of days and then head out and do maybe 3k to see how the ankle and knee are. They're not really sore, just nagging at me a bit. Hard to know whether to just ignore it or rest up until there's no discomfort or pain at all.

Oryx

Can you cross train at anything else, G-money?

G-Money

Oryx wrote: »

Can you cross train at anything else, G-money?

I don't think so. I'm not a member of a gym and I don't plan on re-joining one anytime soon. Also I don't have a bike and I can't swim.

I think possibly a few days more rest is all that's needed. It's nothing serious anyway.