Accidental Marathoner - 2012 DCM 3.30 goal

RunningKing

Bang on, Paulie.
Only wore 2 layers today :-) and was too warm after a mile.

Lets hope it keeps up.

PaulieC

Missed last night's session as the missus was out on a work jollier so I sat in eating chocolate chic cookies .
I am 'working form home' today so that gave me the perfect opportunity to get the session done, with the added benefit of a completely empty track at my disposal. Did a couple mile gentle warmup around the streets and then into the stadium, did a couple of laps and a few good form drills. Funnily enough I felt a bit self-conscious as there were a bank of people in the gym on treadmills looking out and I was the only person on the track. I forgot about them soon enough and got into the session proper, which consisted of 8 x 200m at 5:05 pace with 200m recovery. Basically 8 laps fast and slow. I felt good and I reckon the pace was nearer 4:30 than 5:05. Few more slow laps to warm down and then a lap of the park and home.
Really beautiful day out there, you can really feel the heat in the sun. Felt quite sorry for the labrats on their treadmills as I was leaving. The sun was shining directly in at them through floor to ceiling windows, I'd say they were basted in there...

statss

what's the story with the track in Irishtown Paulie, can you just rock up and run away? I play a bit of ball there, never ran on the track though.

PaulieC

statss wrote: »

what's the story with the track in Irishtown Paulie, can you just rock up and run away? I play a bit of ball there, never ran on the track though.

Pretty much. You have to pay a fiver or something. i'm a member of Crusaders who are the 'anchor tenant' there so I have use of the track and gym included in the membership

PaulieC

F#cking f#ckedy f#cksticks. Lifting a couch today with a mover that really required 4 people to lift and did something to my back. Very sore and stiff and uncomfortable to do anything except stand.
Will have to assess tomorrow morning before deciding on whether to do a 105 minute @ 135 hr run.

Marthastew

PaulieC wrote: »

F#cking f#ckedy f#cksticks. Lifting a couch today with a mover that really required 4 people to lift and did something to my back. Very sore and stiff and uncomfortable to do anything except stand.
Will have to assess tomorrow morning before deciding on whether to do a 105 minute @ 135 hr run.

Well, what did you do? How are you feeling today?

PaulieC

Still sore today. Tried running a bit but found that I had to keep my stomach muscles very stiff to keep the pain out of my back (if that makes sense)so decided that I would be better served by resting it completely and letting it get better instead if potentially making it worse.
Tbh, I never had much sympathy for people with 'bad backs', but not I feel their pain :-)

PaulieC

stupid back. Feels better but every time I think I'm out of the woods I get a nice little reminder that feels like a punch to the kidneys.
Haven't run since Friday and feel like I'm slowly going mad. Even spent an hour last night on Google Earth lustily eyeing a route around Lough Bray and Kippure. Running porn

PaulieC

back in the saddle somewhat. Back is still stiff and a bit sore, but I was going stir-crazy after a week of no running so I did 8 miles on Saturday afternoon. The going was slow and legs and back felt stiff and heavy, but it was nice to get out again and work up a bit of a sweat. It also helped to clear the head after a night out on Friday which went on a bit longer than anticipated.

Went out for something to eat on Saturday evening and ended up going out again and managed to let myself get talked into running in the local GAA club's 5k fundraiser on Sunday afternoon. Got up on Sunday morning feeling like death, a bit better after a cup of tea and some toast, but when getting ready for the race, I threw up . Luckily enough the start was only a 5 minute walk away in Sean Moore park so there was minimal effort involved in getting there. I registered and went off to do a couple of miles warmup, during which I threw up again. Ideal preparation it wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, but when I got back to the start area and had a good look around, I thought to myself that I was in with a chance of winning it. There were the usual GAA club runners, some even wearing football boots :rolleyes: (for better grip in the sand apparently) and a lot of parents of junior members, so I felt reasonably confident.
How wrong I was. Kind of. When we started, I got into second place and it was immediately obvious that today wouldn't be my day for winning. The guy in front just kept getting further and further away and I wasn't able (or willing) to try and catch him. Just after the halfway mark I was passed by the one guy I had known would be a threat. He's an acquaintance of sorts, so we had a few words and then he gradually built up a lead in front of me. The two nights out were really starting to make themselves felt at this point. My mouth was as dry as an arab's sandal, I was having to work hard at not getting sick and just generally felt crap. I thought about stopping a number of times, but the missus and one of the kids and a few other extended family members were waiting at the finish so I knew I had to get there (especially as they see me a s some kind of running god since I did a marathon and a 50k :pac:). The only thing keeping me going was the fact that the leading woman/lady/female was about 10 yards behind me and there was no way I was getting chicked, not on my home ground so to speak. Finally got off the beach and onto solid ground and it was nearly over. I couldn't even manage a sprint finish I was so f*cked. My time was 21:21, which was good enough for 3rd place. The winner did it in just under 19 and 2nd place was 30 seconds ahead of me.
Not wanting to make excuses, but I'm putting my soft time down to 2 nights on the beer, sore back and running on the sand (which applies to all runners). I reckon on a better day I would have been able to give the winner a run for his money. Speaking of money, I was gutted to find out afterwards that there were no prizes. I mean, it's unlikely that I'll ever see the dizzying heights of the podium again, so it would've been nice to get something. But no, all the money was for fundraising. On a brighter note, I was spared that desperate look of pity I usually get from my youngest daughter when I tell her that I no, I didn't win again. 3rd place was a victory in her eyes

PaulieC

Tuesday: 2.5 mile warmup, 10 X 400M @ 5:30-6:00, 2 mile warm down.

Very hot but lots of ladies out running and walking in their lycra, which was nice

PaulieC

lovely, lovely 6 mile urban trail run this evening. Dropped my daughter off at her new school for a getting to know you basketball session for an hour so ran from Donnybrook village up along the Dodder trail up as far as Bushy park (I think). Really nice to run along the river on a mixture of overgrown muddy trails and park paths in the rain. Took it nice and easy with 6 miles coming in at 50 minutes. Great to feel so "in the country" right in the middle of suburbia.

statss

yeah that's a nice loop I do from time to time myself. here's a map for it

http://www.terenure5mile.com/map-series-9-sportsworlds-the-dodder-loop/

PaulieC

plan said 40-45 minutes of easy fartlek, so that's what I did. It was my fisrst time doing 'proper' fartlek, I usually like to know where and when I am going, but it was ok, fun even.
Apart from getting lost in the docks. How did that happen given the place is basically two big long straight roads ? I amaze myself sometimes

belcarra

PaulieC wrote: »

Apart from getting lost in the docks. How did that happen given the place is basically two big long straight roads ? I amaze myself sometimes

That might have been a sub-conscious decision...?:D

PaulieC

belcarra wrote: »

That might have been a sub-conscious decision...?:D

I know what you're thinking, but it's not like the docks of old. Unfortunately.

PaulieC

10.5 miles on Saturday in the lovely afternoon sunshine. Headed out the Royal Canal Path as far as the Ratoath road and back in via Cabra and town. (0 -odd minutes.

Last night was the one session from the plan that I was dreading from the start. Plan said

• 3 miles warmup. Check.
• 3 x 800 @ 6.15 pace. Check. Did these in Sean Moore park
• 4 x 400 @ 6.00 pace. Check. Went over to the stadium for these. I reckon I averaged them at about 5.45 pace
• 5 x 200 @ 5.30 pace. Check. These were more like 4.45 pace.
• 3 miles warmdown. Would you go and f*ck yourself! I was wrecked so I did about a mile and a half.

About 9.7 miles in all, but it was all broken up so didn't really seem as much, but I was pretty done in afterwards and the Achilles/lower calves were singing. Had a banana and a bagel with Philadelphia when I got home and still went to bed hungry.
At least it's done now :P

PaulieC

beautiful easy run along the dodder from Donnybrook to Bushy park. Amazing the difference a week makes. Did the same run at the same time last week and it was cold and raining and windy. Yesterday was warm and sunny. Parts of that trail you'd swear you were I the middle of the country. I like it a lot.

5.5 miles in 48 minutes, whatever pace that is

PaulieC

<blows cobwebs away>

So the bug target race was yesterday, the Kildare 10k. I wasn't feeling confident about achieving my time when I went out for a 3 miles loosener on Saturday afternoon and the legs felt heavy, feet were sore, back was stiff etc. And the wind, well hopefully that would ease off. Up early on Sunday morning and down to the Curragh to meet FITZA who was picking up my race pack. I was plenty early and went in for a walkabout, it was freezing and wet and there was a fierce breeze whipping up the side of the main stand. Looking at the map, I figured that we might get lucky and have no real head-on wind except at only a very small part of the course. As it happened, I was wrong about that :rolleyes:. Anyway, I got my bag and headed back to the car as it was still 45 minutes before the advertised start. There are times when you really, really appreciate heated seats and this was one of them. I got changed and headed back in to warm up. By this stage there were 1000s of people milling around and the rain had stopped. I did a couple of miles warming up and did a few strides and then we were instructed to go to the start. This was my only real complaint about the organization of the race. There are 1256 people listed in the results for the 10k. All of these people had to get from the main stand in the racecourse to the 10k start line, approx. 1k away. Problem was that we were to walk up to the start via the race route which meant that the race could not start until everyone was at the start. I was in the start pen about 8 minutes before the advertised start time of 11:15, after warming up. The start time came and went and still there were streams of people walking up the track.

This wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the seemingly now obligatory 'warm-up' routine. This guy was particularly grating, insisting on calling us 'team' and generally being annoying. I mean how do you think you could get hundreds of people, paced into a starting pen to do high knee on the spot jogging ? GTF. This went on for ages and I lost count of the amount of times he said 'Race will be starting in two minutes'. Longest two minutes of my life :rolleyes:. Anyway, enough moaning! We eventually got started and immediately had to duck and dive around the 'I paid my money and I'll go as slow as I like' crowd. Fortunately there wasn't too many of them. The first mile or so was all about getting up to pace and settling down. Coming up to the first mile marker (I now, it confused me too until I realized it was for the half), I caught up to a bloke in a DDAC singlet. It's always nice to see folks from my old club (albeit many, many moons ago) but I got a mild surprise when I saw it was well known comedian Joe Rooney. I muttered a quick 'c'mon the drogs' and passed him, only to have him fly past my at the small downhill section just before we hit the tarmac. I passed him again as the road leveled off and didn't see him again.

First mile passed in 6:25, which was right on pace. As soon as we hit the road however, things changed. We turned right into a headwind, compounded by a long uphill drag. I tucked inside a couple of blokes to shelter from the wind. We eventually grew to a group of about 10 people, all swapping positions and taking turns at the front, which was no easy task, especially coming up the last hill. We turned off that road at 6k and one of the blokes said to me at least no we'll have the wind behind us. Normally that's how wind works, but of course, this was Ireland after all and I was not surprised to feel the wind in my face again. These three miles really took it out of me and the pace dropped to close to 7:00 per mile and this was where I lost it. The last two miles I picked up the pace again, catching people when going up the small hills and then consolidating on the way down. By this stage I now the sub-40 was gone so too any real motivation for running my balls off for the last while so I just tried not to lose pace and places. This mostly worked, but I was caught by a strong finish by one of the lads that I had passed earlier. Finished in 41:28. F*ck it.

When I got back to the car, I had a look at the splits on my watch. The first/fifth and sixth miles were all good, around 6:25-6:30, but the three miles in the middle was where I lost the time, with those miles coming in around the 6:45-6:50 mark. It was very disappointing not to get the time, but I lay awake last night plotting my comeback (so to speak!). Signing up for the Docklands 10k on 20th June. I know that's a flat course and I'll have local support, so a few more week's speed work and maybe a few races in the meantime and I should be good to go.

On a positive note, I did finish in 21st place out of 1250 people, so I'm kinda happy with that. Also, I was happy enough that I was able to maintain a steady pace to the end. My last 10 attempt was different in that I started off well and just got worse and worse til the end.

When I was leaving to head home, the Half people were being corralled to head out to the start so I had a look out to see if any of the boards pacers were there so I could say hello. It seems however that they were put up in a green room of sorts pre-race, so as not to be mixing with the commoners. Nice work!!

PaulieC

hmmm, that seems like a very long report for a bleedin' 10k...ah well, It makes up for not updating the log for a few weeks

Marthastew

I'm sure if you had arrived at The Green Room and announced you were a proud owner of a Donadea 50K medal you would have been welcomed with open arms;)
Well done, a fantastic run in very tough conditions.
If you're willing to borrow Krusty's girly running gear I could give you my elite entry to The Women's Mini marathon for your comeback;) I'm still recovering after London so sub 40 will have to wait a little longer for me:)

PaulieC

Marthastew wrote: »

If you're willing to borrow Krusty's girly running gear I could give you my elite entry to The Women's Mini marathon for your comeback;)

you just made me recall some of the gruesome sights of last year's WMM. I had suppressed those completely :eek:

Marthastew wrote: »

I'm still recovering after London so sub 40 will have to wait a little longer for me:)

Recovering by doing half-marathons ? Maybe just put your feet up ??