Running with the birds or for the birds?

Marthastew

Saturday June 23rd
Rest Day
I spent the morning flying back from London with the two younger boys and then the evening rejoicing at the return of my oldest son from his three week stay in Irish College.

Sunday June 24th , 1.45 pacer Strawberry Half Marathon
13.09 miles avg pace 7.59
5.01 miles avg pace 8.27

My sister in law was once again very kindly minding our boys so we left them tucked up in bed and headed off to Enniscorthy. The journey down was a great chance to catch up and Mr Stew told me his main goal for the race would be to enjoy himself as he was sort of losing his running mojo (in spite of a PB on Tuesday). I was feeling very tired and a little concerned that I’d be tired from the two races and the trip to London but I hoped that once I got going in the race I’d be fine. Registration was in a lovely hotel and all the volunteers were really helpful and friendly. We met up with some friends and also lots of boardsies and before long it was time to head to the start line.
Glorious sunshiny day and in fact it was already quiet warm at 10am in the morning. I was lucky enough to be pacing with meno again and we were joined by a bunch of lovely pacees. One of the runners introduced himself and said he would stick with me as I was the better looking pacer and who was I to argue with him?;) We let our pacees know that the hills might have us a little behind at times but that we would be bang on-time and settling down to even pace by 9 miles.
Having done quite a few races recently it was quite funny when the gun went off, for a split second I nearly raced off as fast as I could:), the balloon banging in my face reminded me to calm down and we all settled in nice and quickly. The mile markers were all bang on and there were plenty of marshals along the route. Lots of runners from the local club including the guy with me were running and they got lots of support from the locals.
We lost quite a few of our runners to the hills but were left with a nice bunch heading into the last hill at 9 miles and we assured them they’d be on the home stretch before long. I was feeling great throughout the whole run.
Meno did a fantastic job of reminding them to relax on the downhills and distracted them on the uphills, I learnt even more about pacing from him on this run, in that it’s good to remind your pacees all the stuff that you already know (short steps uphill, don’t drink on the uphills etc). The club runner with us was digging deep and kept accidentally running into me, which made me think that pacing is a little like running with your kids;)

With 1K to go we got most of them to push on and we tried to call those that were behind us. Mr Stew was waiting at the Finish Line and he said he couldn’t see me coming and was starting to get worried when he saw the clock say 144.XX, how could he ever doubt me?? I crossed the line at 144.50 (chip time 144.41) with Meno 8 seconds behind me, Job done.

Mr Stew PBed by a few seconds to run 99.XX but more importantly he had a great time running and chatted to lots of people along the way.

Congrats to Claralara on her debut pacing gig, she was ably assisted by woddle and digger, a super team.

A quick cuppa and a sandwich in the hotel (thanks Carol:D) and we headed back home to chill out.


Not content with my 13.09 miles @ marathon pace I popped the dinner in the oven and headed out the door for 5 miles @ 8.27 pace.


I slept really well on Sunday night, tired after a very busy week and happy to have the Stew family all back together under one roof:D

Total miles for the week 58.01

menoscemo

Marthastew wrote: »

Not content with my 13.09 miles @ marathon pace

That's not really going to be your marathon pace though;) If it was, doing a half marathon at that pace at this stage wouldn't possibly be so easy.

Congrats again on a great Job on sunday, you're a real natural at the pacing, no need to be heaping the priase on me

Marthastew

menoscemo wrote: »

That's not really going to be your marathon pace though;) If it was, doing a half marathon at that pace at this stage wouldn't possibly be so easy.

Congrats again on a great Job on sunday, you're a real natural at the pacing, no need to be heaping the priase on me

I've been thinking I might need to reassess my marathon goal but I'm worried it's a bit too early to do so. I'll have a rethink if and when I get that sub 20 5K:D

pistol_75

Well done on the pacing gig Marthastew. Nice to meet you and Mr Stew afterwards and thanks again for the Banana Muffin

Marthastew

pistol_75 wrote: »

Well done on the pacing gig Marthastew. Nice to meet you and Mr Stew afterwards and thanks again for the Banana Muffin

Great to meet you too and we look forward to seeing you at another run again soon.... I'll bring the banana muffins and when RQ gets Triathlons out of her system (best of luck this weekend:D) she'll be back with Chocolate Bikkie cake, Yum!

Nules10

Well done on Sunday ms. And thanks for the muffin always nice to finish a race with something sweet

Marthastew

Nules10 wrote: »

Well done on Sunday ms. And thanks for the muffin always nice to finish a race with something sweet

Well done you too, looking forward to Saturday night. Are you doing the 5 miler? Might see you in there?

Nules10

Yep going to do it thanks to a friend will give it a good lash anyway. But legs still very tired after all my exertions last week. Looking forward to Saturday evening though legs will be grand for that

Aimman

pistol_75 wrote: »

Well done on the pacing gig Marthastew. Nice to meet you and Mr Stew afterwards and thanks again for the Banana Muffin

Banana Muffins? I better lose a few pounds before Portlaoise!

digger2d2

Aimman wrote: »

pistol_75 wrote: »

Well done on the pacing gig Marthastew. Nice to meet you and Mr Stew afterwards and thanks again for the Banana Muffin

Banana Muffins? I better lose a few pounds before Portlaoise!

Aimmo, we could hardly see the start line for all the muffinenniscorthy

Marthastew

hectic busy, busy week and this weekend will be the same so a very quick unembellished round up of a super, super week for me. Off to sunny Spain next week on a well-deserved family break so it'll be a low-mileage week.


Monday June 25th
rest day

Dip in the 40 Foot
45 minute lower body class



Tuesday June 26th
Dip in the 40 Foot
45 minute lower body class
McMillan 5K workout, total miles 10.82
Half hour spinning Class

Wednesday June 27th
Dip in the 40 Foot
GA run, 9.23 miles @ 8.53 pace
Half hour spinning Class

Thursday June 28th
Dip in the 40 Foot
45 minute lower body class
recovery 6.22 miles @ 8.58 pace

Friday June 29th
Dip in the 40 Foot
75 minute hot yoga class
Total miles including warm up and cool down 4.5

St Coca’s 5K race, Garmin time 20.00
Race results 1st Age group (I won €40, woo hoo), 20.03:mad:
Junior Stews; 13 year old 23.25:D and 9 year old 23.09:D

Saturday June 30th
Irish Runner 5 mile race series
2nd Age group 33.37 (missed 1st place by 10 seconds:mad:)

Mr Stew 35.54:D
Total miles for the day (including warm-up and miles added on after) 19.01

Aimman

wow, well done! your getting into the elite status now with your 1st and 2nd places. Don't forget us mear mortals when you are on the podium in London later this month!

RacoonQueen

Well done O, your poor hubby.

Hope you all had a good night last night. Raging I missed it, thought I'd be whacked by the time I showered and ate so just took to the couch, then ended up awake half the night - hyper.

Marthastew

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Well done O, your poor hubby.

Hope you all had a good night last night. Raging I missed it, thought I'd be whacked by the time I showered and ate so just took to the couch, then ended up awake half the night - hyper.

You missed a great night but poor Rachel and Shaz were sick so we'll have to reschedule another night soon and you MUST come:)
Congrats on a super, super Olympic(ish:() Triathlone, I really enjoyed your report. The microphone guy has no clue how close he came to becoming very intimate with his microphone when he asked you your name:D

Marthastew

Sunday July 1st Farmleigh Family Fitness festival
I wasn't too happy when the alarm went off this morning after a great night out with the ART ladies (and digger, who seemed perfectly happy to be surrounded by ladies:)), great chance to catch up and lots of laughs and too many beers, perfect night:D

Into Phoenix Park again to run with the youngest Stew... great fun day out and the sun was shining.

total miles for the week 52.78:(
a lot short of my planned 62 miles but the races tend to mess things up although I still feel as if I'm getting stronger and improving so it's all good:)

Younganne

MS thats great weeks running and Congrats on your 1st & 2nd placings.

Sounds like i missed a great night last night too...definitley have to make the next one, it will have to be a non racing day:D

Emer911

Again, I'm wrecked just catching up on your log! Some running there missus, phew. Congrats on the 1st and 2nd place.

Pity I missed the night out, but I had fun in Clare so I shouldn't complain. And I'm going to miss the next one too, but I'll be on me holliers for that one, so won't complain about that either

Marthastew

July 2nd through 7th

This week P&D was fortunately a step back week but I turned it into somewhat of a Giant Leap back week;) with three non-running days!
A wonderful family break in Barcelona, perfect weather, a little on the cold side for the locals probabaly but perfect for us. We stayed in an apartment with a small pool up in the hills near Parc Guell and crammed a lot into the short stay. The boys are at an age now where they appreciate the sights a bit more and we really enjoyed Gaudi's influence on this city. When we were visting La Sagrada Familia the 13 year old was so inspired that he announced he is going to become an architect:)"Good Luck with trying to find a job" was what I wanted to say to him but I didn't want to destroy his imagination.
I had a really lovely run early on Tuesday morning before the excesses of food and alcohol had had a chance to sink in properly, up early and it was already 24 degrees but lots of shade from the buildings meant it was super to run in. I ran down through the city to the Olympic Village area....
hard to believe it's 20 years ago now, I was working for United Airlines at the time and I ferried lots of Americans to and from there (no sports stars, journalists, people on jollies etc).
Then along the beautiful coast for a while before heading back up home for a total of just over 11 miles:D "Hooray" I thought, "I'll get lots of runs in and be very disciplined and not eat too much....." Aaah, the innoncence of the first day on holidays:) It's like when you eat mostly fruit at the buffet breakfast and by the last day you're making straight for the pastry bar, mainlining pain au chocolats:)

Only two more runs of 4 and 6 miles, equally as enjoyable as the first, early morning and a super chance to explore the city but to be honest I felt the rest would do me good. I say rest but we did a lot of sight-seeing and the day at the waterpark must be worth a few miles.... Not that I went on too many of the scary ones, after the first one my legs were like jelly and I flew up in the air and bumped down so hard that I now have a multi-coloured bruise on my bum (insert smutty joke here:D:D). The boys were laughing at me suggesting that I should go on the slides for the toddlers so I had to pull the "I'll have you know your mother is an Ultra Runner" card;)
I also got a bit of sea swimming in, the water temperature was divine, a lot warmer than the forty foot.
All in all a super family break and I'm sure the rest will have done me good.
On the flight on the way home I was reminded that we're a long way off being parents to highly-cultured boys with a quest for sight-seeing, when asked what the best part of the holiday was they all replied "The waterpark", followed closely by ordering delicous local pastries called fartons

Marthastew

Sunday July 8th
21.01 mile LSR, avg pace 8.59
This run was to make up for the lack of running over the holiday. I ran with Mr Stew for the first 9 miles and we kept it at a nice easy pace and in spite of the rain it was very enjoyable. I dropped back to the house with him grabbed a big glass of water and half a banana and off I went. I found it tough for the next 5 miles and I was tempted to stop to get a drink/snack but I’m hoping to run a few of my longer runs on water alone as it’s supposed to be a better workout. Claralara and digger passed me in the car in Blackrock and this cheered me up and things got better form there on. My last four miles were 8.45, 8.35, 8.15 and 7.55 so I was very happy with the run; penance for the holiday all done and dusted;)

Total miles for the week 42.00:(

Marthastew

Monday July 9th
Happy Birthday to me:D
Dip in the 40 Foot
Recovery run 6.67 miles avg pace 8.47
Breakfast in bed, breakfast in Avoca, the post contained lots of birthday cards and a €50 voucher for Elvery’s for my 2nd place in the 5 mile race series in Phoenix park:)I had a super day and was spoiled rotten by Mr Stew and the boys.

I managed to fit in a run and dip in the sea (brrrr, very cold after the Med) before heading out for birthday drinks. Not quite back on track after the holiday, but it was my birthday.



Tuesday July 10th
45 minute lower body class
Speed session, total miles 10 including warm up and warm down.


I was up bright and early baking Guinness bread for a very important boardsie… Dory Dory was meeting us for a trip up the Sugar Loaf. We were lucky enough to have sort of clear skies and I was very impressed that DD and Mr DD managed to find the car park given the fact it took me about two years to find it when we first moved to Dublin! We were joined by a pal of mine and a special surprise boardsie to give DD an even bigger welcome and it was super, super fun. The time went by way too quickly and apart from the wind the weather was great. Not quite the Appalachian Trail but the DDs were impressed with what Wicklow had to offer.


Meno has been encouraging me to join a running club and I’ve met some of his club mates and they are all really nice but the location just won’t work for us. Mr Stew works in the IFSC so the obvious choice for us would be Crusaders.
My friend who is also running New York and I popped in to check it out, a warm welcome from everyone there and I’m going to bring the boys in tonight to see if they like it. I was dispatched off with the sub 3.30 group who were doing a warm-up and 4 X 7.15 min miles with 60 seconds rest in between followed by a cool down. I really, really enjoyed it, great fun chatting (not as much on the last mile:)) and of course I sped up at the end of each lap to knock a few seconds off my time.
I left there and ran into town to meet up with my sister who was visiting so all in all a great day’s running:)

Wednesday July 11th
BHAA 5K Ringsend
A very late night on Tuesday (but only two glasses of wine) and a busy day meant that I was really hoping for a miracle here, but you never know.....

Great organisation and lovely volunteers and we started ontime.
The course had a lot of twists and turns and there was a section at the start before we entered the park that was a bottleneck where I really slowed down so I never really felt like I got into a good pace. By the time things had spread out and I was overtaking people I pretty much felt that sub 20 was not on, the many, many sins of my holiday were coming to haunt me and with 6.27 for my first mile I really needed a miracle. I didn’t really enjoy the laps of the park and as with all 5Ks I just wanted it over. I was determined to do the best I could on the day and I passed as many as I could but I was also being overtaken at times. I was just about pulling myself together in the hope of a miraculous recovery when the hailstones started and at one stage I had my eyes closed it was so bad. Finally I was into the stadium and I heard my three boys give me a shout so I pushed on and overtook one person before crossing the line with 20.59:( on the clock. I was of course disappointed but it's my own fault; the results won’t come unless I put in the hard work and burning the candle at both ends doesn’t help either.

The boys were so cute telling me that the clock must be wrong and that I did have sub 20 (I had told them we’d get Teddy’s ice-cream on the way home if I did get it:))
Upstairs for a lovely cup of tea and the boys didn’t want to leave as there was custard creams as far as the eyes could see. I chatted with a few friends and the quiz started and I looked up to see the boys standing up front doing their best to win a prize…we won three parking tickets;)
Then it was time for the prizes, I knew I’d be low down as the standard is high at these races but the boys wanted to stay anyway. The winner was called up and I laughed as I had been chatting to him in the line for tea and I had nearly asked him was he happy with his race (I should have asked him).

I was utterly shocked to hear my name called as 2nd in my category and it made the bad run seem not so bad after all:)


I’ve a night out with the girls tomorrow (it would be rude not to have a few drinks and overeat) so after that’s over I’m going to knuckle down and start taking things seriously, Berlin is only just over 11 weeks away:eek::eek:!

menoscemo

Marthastew wrote: »

Meno has been encouraging me to join a running club and I’ve met some of his club mates and they are all really nice but the location just won’t work for us. Mr Stew works in the IFSC so the obvious choice for us would be Crusaders.

You are now the enemy, just like that sportsworld and Knocklyon crew

Intrigued to know who the 'surprise boardsie' is.

jcsmum

Firstly belated happy birthday. Secondly well done on the 5k, your boys sound adorable.
I had to laugh when I saw you did a 21 mile Lsr the day after your hols. Doesn't surprise me you mad thing

The running club who get you will be very lucky....all those prizes!! Ka ching.

shazkea

menoscemo wrote: »

Intrigued to know who the 'surprise boardsie' is.

A person who was probably supposed to be working

shazkea

Great run O, that's brilliant...oh and belated happy birthday too

Younganne

Congrats on another prize and well done. Belated Happy 21st;) Birthday!!

Dory Dory

Awesome job on another category podium finish! Which proves that you're not just another pretty face in the kitchen (that bread and jam are award winning!). And, happy birthday week!!

RubyK

Belated Happy Birthday! Well done on the 21 miler, not the easiest thing to face after a holiday. You're made of strong stuff

Marthastew

Thursday July 12th
Dip in the 40 Foot (surrounded by jellyfish:eek:)
Club session; total miles 8.01 including warm-up, cool down, 4 X 5min intervals @6.45 pace with 2 min recovery jog



I brought the two junior Stews in to try out the club and about 5 minutes after we arrived the heavens opened, I was off with the marathon group at this stage so I did four of the planned fast 5 minutes and cut the session short in case the boys were miserable in the rain. I arrived back to the track to find them having a great time and I did a good few cool-down laps of the track waiting for them to finish. I was tired all day and my left ITB is very tight, probably due to too much speed work.


Friday July 13th
disastrous 8.55 miles @ 9.30 pace
This should have been an easy 6 miles recovery but my friend offered to take the boys so I headed out with the intention of trying to get my miles up close to the P&D schedule, lashing rain, wind and after about two miles in I remembered I hadn’t eaten any breakfast:(, I’m usually not too bad at running on empty in the morning but I’m assuming I overdid it a bit this week so this run was never going to be good.


Saturday July 14th
Rest Day
Late night on Friday with not too many glasses of wine as I was up early on Saturday, I spent a glorious afternoon snoozing on the sofa watching athletics and eating cake. Just what the doctor ordered:)


Sunday July 8th
21.25 mile LSR, avg pace 8.54
Mr Stew and I up bright and early, glorious, glorious run in the sunshine into town, around Ringsend, around Merrion square Park, around Stephen’s Green a few times (where I discovered a new statue of Rabindrath Tagore which is new to the park since last October) and then into Trinity. We stopped briefly and shared a bottle of lucosade sport which was delicious and then headed back home. The Police Officer on duty at the British embassy came out to chastise us for running on the road, telling us that it was dangerous for our “health and safety”:( she is, of course right but it was still early on Sunday with little or no traffic. I’m very careful about when and where I run on the road, Mr Stew on the other hand drives me mad as he appears to have a death wish and thinks he own the road (he’s one of those runners who give the rest of us a bad name), he’s lucky he’s a big guy and is hard to miss.
We picked the pace up over the last 5 miles to bring the average down a bit. On the Rock road we came across two cyclists, one of whom had come off his bike, we ran over to check on them, he was fine, a little in shock but very glad to have had his helmet on as he had gotten a nasty bump to his head.
The last four miles we spent discussing what we would eat when we got home…. We had restricted ourselves to just the lucosade on this run so we were getting tired, thirsty and hungry but before we knew we were home. My left calf was very tight throughout the run and I definitely need to do some work on it.
Another successful long run ticked off before Berlin:)


Total miles for the week 58.64:eek: 10 short of P&D plan:eek:


I plan to stick to P&D as much as possible between now and Berlin and I’m resisting the urge to find another 5K to get sub 20 (I'm hoping Jcsmum will set up a self-help group for us compulsive racers;)) and I’ve decided to wait till the Rathfarnahm 5K in September, the main goal for me is sub 3.30 in Berlin and anything else that happens along the way is a bonus. I’m racing The Bay 10K in August as the start is practically on my door step and also the 10 Mile in the Phoenix Park as I really enjoy racing there in spite of the crowds. I’m delighted to be pacing the Midlands Half Marathon in August and the Dublin Half in September so I’ve a great couple of months lined up in the run up to Berlin.


After that I’m lucky enough to be pacing Dublin Marathon (yippee:D:D:D) and then four days after that I jump on a plane to New York to run my fourth marathon Major. Life is very, very good to me:)

PaulieYifter

What a great schedule you have mapped out.
Sorry I missed you after the 5k the other night - if I'd known you were running I'd have looked out for you - at least I know your plans now!

That was 2 5k races in 8 days for me and I'm finding them strangely addictive if grueling.

Marthastew

PaulieYifter wrote: »

What a great schedule you have mapped out.
Sorry I missed you after the 5k the other night - if I'd known you were running I'd have looked out for you - at least I know your plans now!

That was 2 5k races in 8 days for me and I'm finding them strangely addictive if grueling.

I know what you mean... I'm going through Cold Turkey at the moment and I could tell you at the drop of a hat where and when the next few 5K races are within an hour of Dublin:) It's just so completely different to the fact that you only get one chance with a marathon whereas with the 5K you can realistically try again next week. Multiple 5Ks do not fit in with a martahon plan though so my new mantra is "Must not race 5k":D and even as I type this I'm thinking of Donadea on July 27th.....

What are your plans at the moment? How did you get on in your last two 5Ks?