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Baby steps
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Nice pics Mick. The one with you in it is good too but would be better if your hairy face and yourself wasn't in it:D. No razors down there in south Wickla?
Oh nice sessions in there too0 -
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Taa guys. Hey road runners, join us up in the hills. Its perfect for racing flats
Its the only way I'll gain time on ye.
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Slogger Jogger wrote: »Taa guys. Hey road runners, join us up in the hills. Its perfect for racing flats
Its the only way I'll gain time on ye.
Stop prosthelytizing! Feck off road runners; keep the hills nice and lonely and goody-bag-free.
Bunch a' self-congratulatory clean-shaven sophisticates.
(Excluding Pronator and Abhainn and anyone else fast who will be part of the Boards WWRelay team)0 -
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Today's run got me back in the mood to run in the hills. Bring on the Glacial lakes.
The beardy look will be gone in a month. I reckon the forthcoming half marathon and the Wickla way trail and then its for dispatchingMust be worth 1/2 a sec a kilometre at least.
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- Mon: 9.43k, 4:51 pace, 173m climb. Easy paced
- Tue: 9.71k, 4:38 pace, 117m climb. Increased pace marginally from yesterday. Still felt easy.
- Wed: 10.39k, 4:34 pace, 164m climb. Torchlit run over trail and road. Fartlek in nature. Pushed pace on and off.
- Thu: 8.39, 4:28 pace,102m climb. Trail loops. Medium intensity.
- Fri: Rested today before race in the morning
- Sat: IMRA Winter League race on Maulin.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154382945
7.91k, 5:59 pace, 490m climb. 1st race of any sort this year. Wanted to test myself with a race before next week’s half marathon, but didn’t want to go all out. Strided out the climbs and didn’t really lose ground to those around me. Made progress on the downhills and had my sights on picking up places on the fireroad finish. However, forgot the sting in the tail of the last climb, which took that chance away. Was very close to Timaay at the end but didn’t have the young lads road speed. Very happy with the race considering. 11th and 1st M40.- Sun: 22.16k, 4:51 pace, 428m climb.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154729904
LSR of sorts on a route that I’ve ran 3 other times in this training block. Kept pace easy and stopped on occasion to take photos. Wanted to cover a half marathon distance but keep the effort low after yesterday’s race, so happy enough with this.
6 running days this week. 70.6k
Will ease the running days over the coming week in the lead up to the half marathon on March 11th.0 -
- Mon: Tired after the weekend, so opted for 30 mins on the Turbo trainer to get the legs going.
- Tue: Comfortable 9k on the treadmill, 4:48 pace
- Wed: 2 runs. 8.75 at 4:34 with Pronator at lunchtime. Then very easy 5.3k on the trails in the evening. 4:54 pace
- Thu: 10.6k hill run at 5:01 pace. Explored a new route which climbs behind Aughrim. Lots of potential up there for further running. I shall go back.
- Fri: 5.47k trail run at 4:39 pace. Easing out the legs.
- Sat: Rested the legs. 30 mins on the Turbo trainer easy enough.
Sun: Debra Ireland Wicklow Mountains Half Marathon.
21.28k at 4:46 pace with 446m of climb. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/156871759
I’ve had a reasonable 10 weeks of training in the lead up to this. Its hard to train on the hard winter nights when the weather is against you so on balance I’m pretty happy with what I’ve managed to do (all things considered work, life, balance and all that).
Felt good this morning and the weather was just brilliant. Couldn’t be better. Having ran this event 2 years ago in a decent time of 1:40ish my hope today was to be there or thereabouts that time. I recognised some familiar faces at the start, the likes of Bernard Fortune and Aengus Burke. Aengus is a quality runner and the route should suit him. Wore my usual inov8s and they worked well on the day. Anyone wearing road shoes would have been slipping and sliding at various stages.
We were ferried to the start by a fleet of buses. The start was delayed as the bus driver didn’t know where the start was. He tried a couple of trail heads before we arrived at the right one. The start was a slightly uphill and I started in a small bunch at the lead. After a few k it had stretched out and Aengus and another runner had moved out a bit. For much of the initial section I ran beside a Sliabh Buithe runner from Ferns that I didn’t recognise but I gathered that it was David Leonard who Rene Borg had mentioned to me. He looked like a good runner. ¼ way in I was probably in 6th place. The underfoot conditions were quite soft and boggy at this stage. Ferns runner lost a shoe in the bog twice in quick succession and this allowed me to move ahead but my momentum was steady if unspectacular. Reached the Wicklow gap where they had a water station. It was around about this time that I first saw Bernard who went past effortlessly as is his want. He told me later though he was suffering. Back pain was causing him some problems. I also found out later that Aengus and 2nd runner had gone astray at the Wicklow gap. It beats me how, but they lost a fair bit of time (unknownst to the rest of us as we hadn’t see them go wrong). Aengus would finish after me but DNFed.
As our race had started late we began to run into the backmarkers of a 10k race that had started at the Wicklow Gap. They were good sports though and moved aside as the faster half marathoners were coming through. As we approached Glendalough and ran along a road the Ferns runner reappeared at my shoulder and moved strongly ahead. The road bit wasn’t filling me with any great love and I lost time here.
We reached Glendalough and another climb up towards trails towards Brockagh beckoned. Whereas 2 years ago I kept the legs turning today I struggled a bit. The unusually warm conditions could have been a factor but I lost time here that I shouldn’t have. Lost another place here too. I fully expected to see Ema Donlon materialise past me on the uphill as she is such a strong uphiller but this didn’t happen. Happily, as the route went around the side of Brockagh my running mojo started to come back and the legs started to move. Only 3k to go. That last 3k went fairly quickly but I was never near enough to challenge for another place. On the run in I saw Bernard Fortune not far ahead so I guess he lost time as I don’t think I gained it. Finished in 1:41:11 by my watch that’s about a minute slower than 2 years back. Results just in and show I'm 5th, just behind Bernard. I know I can do better. My time from 2 years back would have had me 3rd.
Ferns runner David Leonard won in 1:37ish. Thats roughly 2 mins slower than last year's winning time I think. Not sure who was 2nd? Bernard was just pipped into 4th at the line by all accounts.
Ema Donlon was 1st lady home, 2 or so minutes after me. Great result for her.
A great event and glad to see that it was such a success for Debra Ireland who do great work.0 -
Great run today SJ, and good to meet you earlier.0
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I don't have short term objectives so I'm not motivated enough to keep the log regularly updated. Since the Debra race I've been running 6 days out of 7 and ticking over nicely.
Last weekend I ran the imra Wicklow way trail race. At 25k with 800m of climb its a toughy. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/161035448 Still, I was quietly happy with my days work in the hills. 16th place was pretty good considering. The runners above me were all quality. I ran conservatively as I was protecting a few niggles. Despite that I was within a minute of the last time I ran this 2 years ago so a decent result all in.
This week it was a case of trying in vain to shake of DOMs and further niggles exacerbated by the WWT race. Pronator had talked me into doing the bhaa race this weekend as our work had its annual championship race within the bhaa race and each work location could have a team of 3 so I was volunteered to race. I was walking wounded up to yesterday, including having an ache in the lower back [too much sitting hunched over laptops in work]. Some hot rub on the back helped to dispel the discomfort.
bhaa 4 mile race report
This was a step into the unknown for me. A first bhaa race. A first 4 mile race. And it was flat. Got there early and the pre-race logistics went like clockwork. Fair play bhaa volunteers. Met some of my BOI colleagues / foesI haven't been to St Annes Park in ages. I'd forgotten how nice it was here. Really was pleasant and if you lived around here you have a great resource at your doorstep.
My pre race warm up was more of a pre race hobble. I couldn't get going at all and my running gait was pretty awful from accumulated aches. Toed the line nervously near the front more out of stupid optimism that anything else. As a 2 lap race I was hoping to run within myself and still have something left for the 2nd lap.
This was always going to be a challenge for me. I don't do fast training full stop unless you count using gravity running down a hill.
The wide avenue we ran on was perfectly flat and great for avoiding congestion. I started okay but runners gradually started to drift past me in the first half of lap 1. My breathing was controlled and my stride was reasonably okay too. Over the 2nd half of lap 1 I made up a couple of places. I think the shout for 2 mile was 11.28.
Into the 2nd lap. I improved a couple more places and I got to running in a mini group of 4 which reduced to 3 1/4 of the way in. The loop was nice that you could see the faster runners up ahead of you and also look sideways and see those behind you keen to take your place. My 2nd lap was slower, but I was still running reasonably controlled and as we moved from road to the park for the 2nd time I was in a good position tucked in between on my group of 3. When we hit the avenue with c. 500m to go I felt good enough to stride out and move ahead solo mode towards the finish. Finished just ahead of our 3 group.
1st ever 4 miler and a sub 24 min time (47th place). So happy days. Brief warm down with Pronator (8th place!), Joe and Niall from work. Nice relaxed scene afterwards with tea and lots of fruit cake. Yum.
Thanks bhaa. I'll be back.0 -
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Slogger Jogger wrote: »I don't have short term objectives so I'm not motivated enough to keep the log regularly updated. Since the Debra race I've been running 6 days out of 7 and ticking over nicely.
Last weekend I ran the imra Wicklow way trail race. At 25k with 800m of climb its a toughy. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/161035448 Still, I was quietly happy with my days work in the hills. 16th place was pretty good considering. The runners above me were all quality. I ran conservatively as I was protecting a few niggles. Despite that I was within a minute of the last time I ran this 2 years ago so a decent result all in.
This week it was a case of trying in vain to shake of DOMs and further niggles exacerbated by the WWT race. Pronator had talked me into doing the bhaa race this weekend as our work had its annual championship race within the bhaa race and each work location could have a team of 3 so I was volunteered to race. I was walking wounded up to yesterday, including having an ache in the lower back [too much sitting hunched over laptops in work]. Some hot rub on the back helped to dispel the discomfort.
bhaa 4 mile race report
This was a step into the unknown for me. A first bhaa race. A first 4 mile race. And it was flat. Got there early and the pre-race logistics went like clockwork. Fair play bhaa volunteers. Met some of my BOI colleagues / foesI haven't been to St Annes Park in ages. I'd forgotten how nice it was here. Really was pleasant and if you lived around here you have a great resource at your doorstep.
My pre race warm up was more of a pre race hobble. I couldn't get going at all and my running gait was pretty awful from accumulated aches. Toed the line nervously near the front more out of stupid optimism that anything else. As a 2 lap race I was hoping to run within myself and still have something left for the 2nd lap.
This was always going to be a challenge for me. I don't do fast training full stop unless you count using gravity running down a hill.
The wide avenue we ran on was perfectly flat and great for avoiding congestion. I started okay but runners gradually started to drift past me in the first half of lap 1. My breathing was controlled and my stride was reasonably okay too. Over the 2nd half of lap 1 I made up a couple of places. I think the shout for 2 mile was 11.28.
Into the 2nd lap. I improved a couple more places and I got to running in a mini group of 4 which reduced to 3 1/4 of the way in. The loop was nice that you could see the faster runners up ahead of you and also look sideways and see those behind you keen to take your place. My 2nd lap was slower, but I was still running reasonably controlled and as we moved from road to the park for the 2nd time I was in a good position tucked in between on my group of 3. When we hit the avenue with c. 500m to go I felt good enough to stride out and move ahead solo mode towards the finish. Finished just ahead of our 3 group.
1st ever 4 miler and a sub 24 min time (47th place). So happy days. Brief warm down with Pronator (8th place!), Joe and Niall from work. Nice relaxed scene afterwards with tea and lots of fruit cake. Yum.
Thanks bhaa. I'll be back.
Great run yesterday SJ. Just showes that your talents spread beyond the hills. I'll keep you to the fact that you say you will be back for another BHAA race0
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