The Comeback Trail

drquirky

Absolutely over the moon with this run. I guess my training is finally starting to kick in! After last weeks XC I was pretty pissed off and determined to run a much better race today as I believe my fitness is pretty good right now.

As I was driving up to the race, I realised the organisers weren't wrong when they bragged about a flat course. Dead flat. Decided that since this was a small local race- I was gonna go out and try for a podium finish. Took off in a lead group of 6 which was quickly whittled down to 4.

Splits went:
1 mile 5:34
2 miles 11:13
5k 17:24
4 miles 22:30
5 mile 28:25
10k 35:42
All my splits except the mile were my best times over the respective distances since 1999 eek!!!

Was racing throughout- managed to get into second for a while but was overtaken by 2 lads on the 5th mile and finished 4th. Overall so happy with this. Everything in my training had pointed to a good race or two and it all came together on the day. I think I can use this as a jumping off point to get a good bit lower. My PB from 13 years ago is still a good bit away but this race gave me a lot of confidence that there is still some speed there!

ecoli

drquirky wrote: »

Absolutely over the moon with this run. I guess my training is finally starting to kick in! After last weeks XC I was pretty pissed off and determined to run a much better race today as I believe my fitness is pretty good right now.

As I was driving up to the race, I realised the organisers weren't wrong when they bragged about a flat course. Dead flat. Decided that since this was a small local race- I was gonna go out and try for a podium finish. Took off in a lead group of 6 which was quickly whittled down to 4.

Splits went:
1 mile 5:34
2 miles 11:13
5k 17:24
4 miles 22:30
5 mile 28:25
10k 35:42
All my splits except the mile were my best times over the respective distances since 1999 eek!!!

Was racing throughout- managed to get into second for a while but was overtaken by 2 lads on the 5th mile and finished 4th. Overall so happy with this. Everything in my training had pointed to a good race or two and it all came together on the day. I think I can use this as a jumping off point to get a good bit lower. My PB from 13 years ago is still a good bit away but this race gave me a lot of confidence that there is still some speed there!

Great run you have been going well as of late abd deserved the good result. Agree with you in fact that there is still plenty more to come from yyou time wise and you should be back close enough to your old PBs sooner rather than later

Keep it up

drquirky

Sunday- Off- working all day

Monday- 13 Easy at 7:50 pace- good run headed up Knockmaroon Hill, around Castleknock and through the PP. Felt good - weather kinda sucks right n ow but besides that no complaints.

Tuesday- Tough day at the office! 12x 400 meters at Irishtown Track. This one was doomed from the start. Garmin started acting up during the warm up. GPS crashed on me so ended up using the clock function to get lap times. Not a fan either of doing a workout entirely in lane 3 but Irishtown puts up barriers on lane 1 and 2....lame as I paid a fiver to get in. Really struggled on this one. Legs felt tired and couldn't shift them up a gear. Was shooting for 76/77 but ended up killing myslef for 78/79's. Proud of myself that I made it through as I wanted to quit a good few times..Hopefully this workout stands to me later on.

drquirky

Recovered from that tough session w/ a 5 mile, very easy spin around Dublin 8 last night.

Today- 8 miles steady @ 6:40 pace- felt better than the session on Tuesday- was gonna run hills today but decided against it as I'm a bit tired recently. This was a decent run to do and certainly woke me up a bit.

Think I'll run the XC in Swords on Sat- that is if my OH doesn't go into labor first lol!!!

drquirky

30 mins dead easy w/ a few strides. Gonna race the BHAA XC in Swords tomorrow so taking it very easy!

I picked up a new GPS partially paid for w/ a voucher I was given for X-Mas. Got the Garmin 210- already like it wayyyy better than the 405- no more stupid bezel!!

pconn062

Good luck tomorrow, I've been following your log and will be interesting to see how you fare, I'll be racing up there as well.

drquirky

pconn062 wrote: »

Good luck tomorrow, I've been following your log and will be interesting to see how you fare, I'll be racing up there as well.

Cool man- good luck to you as well!

drquirky

29:14 for the North County Farmers XC- Think I really need to train on grass more as I am very weak in XC right now....kind of frustrating- oh well, I'll keep plugging away! Good race- course was quite slippery- I'm an idiot for wearing 5 mm spikes, nearly fell on me a$% a good few times.

drquirky

Sunday- off

Monday 8.5 miles easy (7:22 pace HR 141)

Tuesday- Met up w/ Ecoli for a session down in Tallaght. 3.1 mile warm up. 3 sets of 5 x 300 w/ 100 meter rest. 400 meter rest after each set. Hit mostly 55's throughout the session with a couple of 53's and 54's early in the set and a 56 late in the last set.

Really good session. I knew I'd be a good bit off Ecoli as he was flying it in 51's but it was great to have someone to follow. The 100 meter rest was very brief in between each 300. I was hitting times that I probably wouldn't have pushed myself through on my own. Great fun.

3.1 mile cool down so good to hit a decent milage day on even w/ the track work.

drquirky

Weds- 5 miles easy through town

Thurs... Tough, tough session today. Met up w/ Ecoli again- was still feeling Tuesday's session in the legs a bit but was great to have the company on warm up etc... 3.1 mile w/u then straight into it. 6 x 800 off 2 min recovery....

2:37
2:37
2:37
2:41
2:42 ( had to rest 2:30 on this one)
2:41

As you can see- I faded pretty badly. This session really didn't look too bad on paper but the 2 min recovery felt very very short half way into it. Glad that I did it as I think it will help me later on. This has been a good solid week of running- I'll hit 50 miles tomorrow so happy about that. Nice easy recovery run tomorrow then tempo on Saturday

brownian

You're on fire, Andy. Nice going.

Running with that ecoli fellow is doing you no end of good - to get fast, run with the fast lads!:)

drquirky

Had a really tough week last week so I'm not gonna be hard on myself. I ran an easy 5 miles on Friday and decided to try a tempo yesterday. That probably wasn't the best idea. Last week went:

Saturday: XC Race

Sunday off

Monday 8.5 miles @ 7:15 pace or thereabouts

Tuesday: Tough session w/ Ecoli

Weds. 5 miles easy

Thursday: tough session w/ Ecoli

Friday: 5 miles easy

Saturday: attempted tempo run ended up as an 8 mile aerobic run

Ok heres what happened. Set off for a 5 mile tempo run and was shooting for 5:55 pace or thereabouts. Did this in the PP. First mile was 5:57 and my shins were feeling really tight and sore. Second mile was 6:07 (mostly uphill) and shins were killing me. Decided not to be stupid and dialed the pace way down thus ending the tempo. Next mile was 7:20 then 7:20 then 7:09 then 6:49. I did the 10k in 42:15- I was really glad that after I dialed the pace down, the legs felt a ton better. I was also really happy that I was able to gradually inch the pace back up and still felt ok. Think its just a bit of tightness as I ran two sessions on the track this week at faster pace than I'm used to. I think I'll take it really easy this week and consolidate my gains. I'm happy that I'm becoming a smarter runner as there was a time when I would have tried to push through the tempo today and have it end badly....

drquirky

What a difference taking it easy for a few days makes!

I was very pissed off about the last 3 reps of my 800m session last Thursday, couple that w/ a crappy attempted tempo and I decided to take decisive action. My body responds well to an easy week every now and then so have decided to cut my milage by 30 percent or so this week.

Took Sunday off, did an easy 8 mile run at 7:40 pace on Monday, took Tueday totally off and did this session today

8 x400 m off 1 min rest.
2 mile w/u
72
74
70
74
71
75
73
75
3mile cool down
Delighted- as my last 400 m session wasn't great either. Decided to cut the amount of reps on this one in keeping with the easy week. Felt much much better in the legs for the recovery time I've taken. I'm gonna run two more easy runs this week and then hopefully race the Garda XC on Saturday. I see that there is a big crew running from boards so that should be a good laugh...

drquirky

Sunday-
1200 ft climb on trails up Bray Head (twice) slow avg pace but good long 13 miler.

No running since as my beautiful daughter was born last night! :D:D:D

Krusty_Clown

Congratulations!!

brownian

Congratulations!

That's your running a bit hogtied, but it's worth it.

Enjoy the parenting, and coming to work to sleep

RayCun

Congratulations! See you at the BHAA XC race next week year

donothoponpop

Congratulations!

Twice up Bray Head is some achievement!



Really meant for your daughter;)

drquirky

Pheewwww....

6 weeks since baby and its been pretty hectic. That being said I am proud that I managed to keep my fitness -for the most part using strategic, quality runs. First couple of weeks I got in max 20 miles a week but managed to run fast and reasonably long when I did. The last 2 weeks I've managed 40 miles a week on 5 days and am delighted with that.

Several things of note: I ran the St. Patrick's Day race (MSB) in City Centre and ran 17:35 off very limited training for a month. Happy with that as it shows I managed to keep a good bit of my fitness. My big goal race is the Mt. Washington Road Race on June 17th. This is a 7.6 mile 5000 ft plus ascent of a mountain at avg 12 percent grade. In order to not embarrass myself I've been doing a good hill ascent every week. I did a 13 mile up and back over Howth Summit a few weeks ago, an ascent of the Spinc at Glendalough 2 weeks ago and a very nice Marlay Park to Three Rock last week on the road. All good and can feel my climbing strength building.

I was toying with the idea of a marathon before Dub but that isn't going to happen. Gonna target DCM as a goal race and hopefully run some good times over the summer in 5k- HM. I've been keeping up with some of the logs and there are some pretty sweet times being run- lots to motivate me....

drquirky

Alright-

Fully back at it now after a good few stops and starts over the last 9 months. I've put in a solid month and a half or so of training and am starting to head back to decent fitness...I've run a couple of Parkruns on the way where I've finished 10th and 7th (last one in 18:20) but didn't really crank it up in either and had a ton left in the tank. I'm running the Jingle Bells this weekend and would like to go around 17:30 cause I feel like the course is lightening fast...


Workouts over the last few weeks have been 8 x 400 in 76 77, a few mile repeats in 5:4x and several tempo runs....Am looking for a plan and will join the club soon as well... Good fun being back out and I finally feel like my fitness is back. This weekend = Jingle Bells on Sat and a 12 or 13 miler on Sunday....

drquirky

17:34 for me at the Jingle Bells yesterday- wish I was in really good shape as that course is made for fast times. Still- not unhappy with where I'm at considering the months off- headed to the park this morning for a decent run- 42 miles this week (my best total in 9 months) lol

drquirky

Sunday 8 in the park w/ Ecoli @ 7:50 pace or so...felt pretty tired but was great to have the company as I slogged through...

Monday- off

Tuesday 4x 1k @ 5:30-5:40 pace w/ 2min recoveries... still building up stamina for the long intervals so kept this to 4- felt strong throughout didn't get exact splits as I had the garmin just running but kept an eye and tried to keep pace smack between 5:30-5:40 the one I did get was a 3:24 for the 2nd interval. Felt good

Joining Tallaght on Thursday night- am hoping there is no elaborate hazing ritual where I have to go out and happy slap someone in order to prove myself:D

ecoli

drquirky wrote: »

Joining Tallaght on Thursday night- am hoping there is no elaborate hazing ritual where I have to go out and happy slap someone in order to prove myself:D

That would be getting off lightly sure tRR had to do his first session in a mankini

(dunno who suffered more in that incidence)

tunguska

drquirky wrote: »

Joining Tallaght on Thursday night-

Will be up there myself on thursday evening. Doing a short session of 200s and 400s if you wanna jump in with us.

RayCun

drquirky wrote: »

Joining Tallaght on Thursday night- am hoping there is no elaborate hazing ritual where I have to go out and happy slap someone in order to prove myself:D

Worse- they make you dress up in this manky red and yellow costume :pac:

drquirky

tunguska wrote: »

Will be up there myself on thursday evening. Doing a short session of 200s and 400s if you wanna jump in with us.

Thanks for the offer Tunguska nowhere near the shape I'd need to be in to hang w/ you though! Actually heading down Tuesday night instead- Ecoli gonna show me around!

drquirky

WEdnesday- 10 miles @ and easy 7:50 pace...legs a bit tired from all the quick running lately so took it down a bit and enjoyed this one.

Thursday: Steady run 6 miles in 40:15 - Good run, atrocious weather. Glad I got that one over with!

drquirky

Friday- 7 miles easy

Saturday session : 2x 1mile (2min rest) 800 (1:30 rest) 400 2 min rest then next set. went 5:41, 2:45, 77 5:40 2:50 80....a woman asked me directions to Heuston Station in the middle of my second mile rep- too funny

Monday: 6 miles easy

Tuesday(am) 4 miles easy

Tuesday (pm) 3 miles wu 8x600 @ 5k pace 2 miles cool down. Good session and finally filled out the club application- guess thsat means I'm in w/ all you Tallaght mafia now...ran most of this w/ Ecoli very consistently 4 to 5 secs behind him per rep- happy enough as felt strong and effort wasn't killing myself.

40+ miles the last 4 weeks and have run 6 days a week for those as well- finally consistency! Also psyched to have done my first 2 a day in 10+ years!

2013 targets:

400 sub60
5k sub 16:30
10k sub 34:30
10mile - race one cause never have
HM sub 77
Maybe a marathon- we'll see

drquirky

Oops- while I've been super consistent with my running- I've been slack with the log! Have been hitting 45/50 mile weeks getting in 7 runs every single week and racing my way back into shape ( the only thing that works for me)
In the last month and a half I've gone from 18:20 to 17:22 in the Tom brennan 5k and just ran 28:24 in the Ferrycarrig 5 mile. Happy with the way things are progressing and feeling like I'm getting stronger w every workout. Have joined Tallaght and have made it down to the track for some sessions w Ecoli.
The plan is to hit sub 17 by February and hopefully run a good 10k in Enniscorthy maybe? Having fun with my running right now and that's the main thing

drquirky

Good session tonight with Ecoli down at the club. 8x1k @ mostly 3:29 w/ first one a bit slow off 40 second recovery. Didn't really wanna do this but felt strong in the middle- I canned it at 8 reps but Ecoli pushed on to 10.

Did a 4 mile run this morning so 14 for the day combined w a 12 mile run on tues and a couple of 6 milers its shaping up to be a good week mileage wise.

Got crazy hungry tonight after the session had to bail to the spar on the cool down lol