Tales of a Tortoise

Concerned2

Nules10 wrote: »

I drive a half hour into the Phoenix Park to meet up with the boards crowd to do my LSR's on a saturday. You should definitely join us when you move up.... then that way you get to run with the dodgy city crowd rather than away from them There is a thread in the main forum of the when and where of these sessions not sure if you have seen it.

I'd love to joint the Sunday crowd for the LSR's but I'm only going to be in the capital from Monday's to Friday's I'm not really scared of ye city folk either , sure I lived up there for a number of years & survived it ok :pac:

Nules10

ahh thats a pity you won't be around for some of the runs. Guess you will just have to continue talking to yourself so

Concerned2

I was really looking forward to the streets of Galway race as its the only race I've ran a couple of times before so it would be pretty obvious if all the training I've done in the last year has actually made me any quicker ! My PB for 8k was done in this race 2 years ago & was a very soft pb of 37:30. Sub 35 mins here was 1 of my 3 main goals for the year but I would have been happy enough with sub 36.
This year the weather wasn't near as nice as 2009 or 2010 but it was a lot better than what was forecasted. It only made 1 tiny shower during the race & there was only a small breeze. It was also slightly cool but that made for near ideal racing conditions.
There is always such a large crowd for this race its very hard to decide where to position yourself at the start , I shuffled up past about 3/4 of the people there & nervously waited for the gun to go. Even starting that far up once the race got underway I had to dodge & weave around some really slow people. The first 1/2 K felt really slow but when I checked the Garmin it told me I was going around 6:40 min/mile pace which I couldn't possibly sustain for the race. I kept this pace for the first K & I made a mental note to try to keep each K under 7 min/miles. I managed to hold sub 7/min miles under the 5th K which had a small bit of a drag & was straight into the wind. I was too tired at this stage to calculate if I could get under 35 mins so I just tried to hold a good effort for the last 3 k. I was very suprised to see 34:xx on the clock when I turned the final corner & I crossed the line a very tired but happy turtoise in 34:30 (a PB by a whole 3 mins ). I finished 261st out of about 1900 which is more than 200 places higher than last year. If I improve by the same amount in the next 12 months I should be on the first page of the results :pac:

Distance|Time|Avg Pace|Avg Hr|Max Hr|Best Pace
.63|4:15|6:43|161|167|5:53
.64|4:27|6:57|169|172|5:51
.62|4:14|6:50|170|173|6:12
.61|4:12|6:54|168|171|6:17
.63|4:31|7:14|170|172|6:38
.63|4:21|6:57|168|170|6:14
.62|4:18|6:59|170|172|6:28
.61|4:08|6:43|170|173|5:36

Nules10

Brilliant... well done. You will have no problem running away from the headbangers when you come to Dublin

BrokenMan

Well deserved for all the work you put in.

Looking at your splits you seemed to pace it perfectly and had a bit in the tank for a fast last K. Always a good sign.

slowsteady

Well done, Concerned2. It's always good to get a good result after putting in the work. Give you a boost on the way to Dublin.

Concerned2

Thanks guys for the encouraging posts . Its great when you get some reward for months of solid training. I'm not sure how I'll be able to motivate myself when the PB's start to dry up

Concerned2

Week 11 of my marathon plan. Todays session was 1/2 mile w/up followed by 5 reps of 1 mile @ 10k pace & 400 meters easy inbetween. I was up shortly after 6 this morning to get the session done before work. 10k pace for me is 7:03 min/miles which is'nt too much fun first thing in the morning! The intervals came out as follows

1) 7:00 min/mile , avg hr 151 , max hr 161
2) 7:02 min/mile , avg hr 161 , max hr 166
3) 7:01 min/mile , avg hr 162 , max hr 169
4) 7:03 min/mile , avg hr 165 , max hr 170
5) 7:03 min/mile , avg hr 166 , max hr 170

Total distance covered was 6.65 miles. Not the most painfull session on my training plan but the legs were still pretty heavy by the last rep.

Concerned2

2 run of the mill type runs to log ...
10/08 5 easy miles @ 9:05 min/miles , avg hr was 133 with a max of 159. I was very lucky with the weather as it was a very dark grey evening but it didn't start to rain until a few mins after I got home. It then proceeded to pour....

12/08 Another 5 easy miles. I had eaten dinner shortly before I went out for the run so I had to plod really easily to avoid a stitch. Avg pace was 9:39 min/miles , avg hr was 136 with a max of 151.


Month|No. of Runs|Miles Run
January|17|83.93
February|3|15.85
March|21|110.73
April|22|129.88
May|18|102.78
June|22|119.45
July|21|130.65
Aug|6|34.52
Total|130|728.53

Concerned2

I've been working up in Dublin for the past 2 weeks living out of a suitcase so I havn't had a chance to update my log. I'm entering this from Bewleys using the crappy hotel internet & I'm dog tired so I'm not going to fill in the details of my log from the last 2 weeks. Todays session was supposed to be 2 miles @ 10k pace (7:03 min/miles) followed by 4 miles @ percieved marathon pace (around 8:03 min/miles) . I jogged from the hotel down to Sean Moore park & jogged around the outskirts of the park to see would it be suitable for my session & decided against doing a second lap as the back of the park looked pretty dodgy ! Instead I did clocked up the mileage doing a number of reps back & forth along the strand road. There is a lovely stretch there about 3/4 mile long by the sea which is mobbed with people young & old walking & running. When I started into my 10k paced 2 miles I had no trouble with people getting in my way as I resembled a rabid dog, it's 1 of the advantages of usually training in the sticks where only the cows get a scare from my awful running form. At least I didn't resort to grunting as that might have lead to an arrest :P The 4 miles at marathon pace wasn't too bad but I've had some form of shin splints for the past 2 months & I can't seem to shake them. I still havn't paid the entry for the Dublin marathon as I'm not convinced the legs will stand up to 26 miles of pounding , I have an 18 miler on the plan for this weekend & I think if I can make it through that run in half decent shape the marathon may be just possible.
Stats from my run today were
2 miles @ 7:01 min/mile , avg hr was 160 with a max of 170
4 miles @ 7:56 min/mile , avg hr was 159 with a max of 167

Total mileage including w/up & cooldown was 8.9 miles.