Its about Time

blockic

Great run good sir! Massive improvement at that distance in such a short period. Well done

davemcmahon

blockic wrote: »

Great run good sir! Massive improvement at that distance in such a short period. Well done

I think he may have a little more. Only the gun times are up

blockic

davemcmahon wrote: »

I think he may have a little more. Only the gun times are up

He's only teasing me so with the first time. What a langer!

RunningKing

Sat 16th March: MSB Road Race

5k in 18:39 (official time) (18:38 Garmin time)

My main aims for this race were:
(1) Achieve my start of year plan of Sub 19 in an official race.
(2) Do a bit better and get somewhere in 18:3X
(3) Run every mile under 6:00 min/mile.

Arrived nice and early at the manison house (what an appropriate place for a King) with my daughter (RunningPrincess???) and got our numbers without too much fus. Quick hello to Meno and the Stews (what a lovely family) and then got ready and off to the start line for a warm up and some stretching. Didn't do an adequate job of either - but felt ok.

Onto the startline about 5-6 rows back, after a few words from the Chairman of the Boards (Eamonn Coughlan - not RayCun), we were off.
I was aware that the 1st mile had a lot of turns (5) - so tried to take the outside line a bit, but found it a bit of slow down/speed up on some of these turns. But the pace was good and quick despite this at 5:53 for the 1st mile.
Mile 2 brought us down the canal, I found my time in the 6:30 range so had to work to get it below 6, didn't feel like any major headwind or anything, so maybe just the buildings interfering?.
Felt comfortable enough at this stage, but at the 3k mark found myself counting the mins to the end - not a good sign. Mile 2 was in 5:59.

Coming into mile 3, again, I knew there were a few sharp turns here, but it kept it interesting. At this stage I was struggling to keep it under 6, again maybe some interference from the buildings, but I also started to feel the burn in the legs at about 2.5 miles. The turn onto Leeson Street and Penbroke street was further away that I had imagined. At that stage there was a group of about 5 of us - all breathing heavy. The watch was moving in the right direction as the lap pace had moved from 6:15 to 6:10. Average pace was good, but the legs were spent. Mile 3 finished at 6:07.

The last 0.1 was one of the hardest I've encountered - dont know if it was just not being prepared or lack of endurance, but had no kick (despite my training for the last kick). There was a lady in front of me on the closing straight, about 2-3 yards - I wanted to catch her, but couldn't, didn't have the energy. The 0.1 took 38 secs (6:03 pace) for a finish time of 18:38 (garmin) - official time of 18:39.

Was delighted with this - I knew the recent fun run of 18:18 was short, so wanted to correct this today. Previous PB was 19:12 so nice to take a chunk of it. - Would have been happier with the Garmin time though in order to hit my race goal!!(edit: scratch that last sentence, official results in)

The ickle un, had a good run - she's been doing a lot of sprint work lately and no distance, so she was happy with 27:46. Its given her the bug to do more distance training.

Met with DaveMcMahon just after his race and he was happy hitting his times, nearly bang on - great racing dave.
Fantastic to see MarthaStew and Mr Stew both getting sub 20 - they were delighted. Even though Mr Stew pipped her on the line, O is claiming an age graded victory in their personal duel!!

Performance of the day I think in the entire race was from Junior Stew. Unbelievable time.

Back into the Mansion House for some coffee and bikkies, met with some people from work who had sub 20's and met with a load of Boardsies again. Great day out I must say.

Now to reset the training paces, revisit my training plan I think - maybe too much going on with it - going to focus more on endurance for the coming 4 weeks in prep for the 2 10ks in April.

Splits today:
Mile 1: 5:53
Mile 2: 5:59
Mile 3: 6:07
Mile .1: 38 secs (6:03 pace)

3.1 miles at average 6:00 - a few short months ago on park runs I would have thought it was impossible for me to run those times.

Position 92/1122 - Only 14 other Over 40's (or older) ahead of me - being 'Old' has some benefits :-)

** Edit **
5m recovery run listening to the Rugby (Holy Sweet Lamb of Jaysus).

Out for copious amounts of beer, wine and food with the most understanding OH in the world! .

Edit 2: 18:39...........get in!

Marthastew

Well done, fantastic result for you, very well deserved with all your hard work. It was great to catch up with the King and his Princess:)
Enjoy the well earned beers, have a few for me;)

beeduybe

Super running. You've made huge improvement over the last few months and I can see you knocking even bigger chunks off that time in the not too distant future.

RedRunner

Well done.Great running. A few well deserved Arthurs tonight:)

Tom Joad

Superb running - enjoyed reading your report too..

davemcmahon

I think you need to edit your report to include your chip time of 18:39. Valuable second over Blockic.

blockic

davemcmahon wrote: »

I think you need to edit your report to include your chip time of 18:39. Valuable second over Blockic.

He has 5 seconds on me now! :mad: ...I must admit I did snigger at the Over 40 category next to your name on the results! Champion Chip are fairly blunt about these things!

RunningKing

davemcmahon wrote: »

I think you need to edit your report to include your chip time of 18:39. Valuable second over Blockic.

Cheers Dave, made my night!

18:39 it is!!

Gavlor

RunningKing wrote: »

Cheers Dave, made my night!

18:39 it is!!

Great stuff! So he's now officially slower than a 35 yr old and a 40yr old

RunningKing

6 miles today in the lashing's of rain - still a few runners in Ph Park - for the day that was in it I wore my leggings with the Green trim.........

6.2 @7.53 pace.

wtd: 32.73m
mtd: 84.78m
ytd: 339.1m

EMPM

Well done RK, 18:39 is a great time and some improvement on 19:12 and great report.

Cleanman

Great running 5k. Keeping all the miles under 6min is great consistency. It won't be long till you're going sub 18 yourself the way your training is going.

RunningKing

Monday 18th
Rest day. I rested.

Tuesday 19th
(1) 4m around porterstown park with the dog. Nothing spectacular, no rain. 8:08 pace.

(2) 30 mins later was out again - dropped the princess off to Donore with her buddy then headed off for the usual loop. Wanted to keep the tempo runs up as I find them beneficial.

M1: 7:25 (inc 0.5 wu)
M2: 6:45 (into the park at park gate street & up Chesterfield Ave)
M3: 6:42
M4: 6:55 (stopped to change Podcast - ran out of MT)
M5: 6:39 (Happy with this one as I hate running up from Farmleigh gate up Whites Road - kept the pace strong)
M6: 6:38 (free wheeled down Knockmaroon)
WD 0.75: 7:47 pace.

6.75m @ 6:58 ave. (total for the day - 10.74)

Wed 20th
Plan called for a 12m run with the last 2 at 10k pace - but time was against me, so had to change plan.
Decided to do an 8-9 mile run that was slower than tempo, but felt strong enough. Legs were a bit tired as well.
Main focus was to develop endurance (without risking injury)

1st 2 miles: 7:58 (easy WU from house to Ph park)
2nd 2 miles: 7:41
3rd 2 miles: 7:13 (again running up Chesterfield - felt very strong - had to keep slowing down)Stopped watch for 90 secs to stretch
4th 2 miles: 7:19 (damn taffic lights! who put them there)
WD 0.64m 8:49

Great run this - could have went faster and longer in later stages.

** might not make the start line of GIR this year, as I now have to travel on the morning of the race. Trying to get some better options, but the travel budget is tight. Waste of €29. On the upside - I hate the course & was dreading it :-) **

Thinking now of doing my 2nd 10k in Dublin Bay Run on May 4th - fairly flat course in Clontarf, a bit on some sand.
http://www.docklandsrun.ie/dublin-bay-run-5k-10k-clontarf/2013/02/

Mrs King is away in Germany until Tuesday, so going to have to be creative in order to get some runs in. Imagine that, leaving me to mind my own children. Cheek!

PaulieC

RunningKing wrote: »

Mrs King is away in Germany until Tuesday, so going to have to be creative in order to get some runs in. Imagine that, leaving me to mind my own children. Cheek!

In the same boat myself. I was going to do either the WW ultra or trail this weekend, but herself is away.

RunningKing

PaulieC wrote: »

In the same boat myself. I was going to do either the WW ultra or trail this weekend, but herself is away.

Sure you may as well take mine?

Gavlor

RunningKing wrote: »

Sure you may as well take mine?

We've finally found a use for blockic!!

Great running by the way

RunningKing

Gavlor wrote: »

We've finally found a use for blockic!!

Great running by the way

Mine could probably babysit him

blockic

RunningKing wrote: »

Mrs King is away in Germany until Tuesday, so going to have to be creative in order to get some runs in. Imagine that, leaving me to mind my own children. Cheek!

Interesting, nice of her to call over! :pac:

RunningKing

Friday 22nd.

6.5 rainsoaked, stingy legged, windswept, puddleladen, muck infested miles in the Phoenix Park.

Quite Enjoyable.

mtd:110.6

career_move

RunningKing wrote: »

Friday 22nd.

6.5 rainsoaked, stingy legged, windswept, puddleladen, muck infested miles in the Phoenix Park.

Quite Enjoyable.

mtd:110.6

Freak :rolleyes:

RunningKing

Sat 23rd.

Only had a narrow window of opportunity this evening for a run.
Went up to Porterstown pitches, nice 1m enclosed loop on paths - great for intervals, without having to make sure the dog was behind me!

Only had time for 8x400 - 200R

Had running princess (she hates that name!) with me,she was going to do 3 laps, the other princess was in her friends house. Done a nice 1 mile warm up with her, I think that was our 1st run together - recorded for posterity on Boards.

1. 82 (5:30)
2. 75 (5:05)
3. 82 (5:34)
4. 79 (5:19)
5. 76 (5:07)
6. 82 (5:32)
7. 77 (5:11)
8. 79 (5:20)

Then decided that rather than a 1m wd, I'd do an 800 interval and a 800m warm down.

1x800: 3:00mins (6:00 pace).

Total: 4:98m @ 8:15 (Time 41:07)

Nice use of time, happy with the splits - had a bit left in the tank.

I was reading recently about keeping your intervals to the suggested times, going faster doesn't really help you. So really tried to control them to the 80 mark.

Nice run - happy with it.

Gavlor

Super running

The king was showing the princess how it's done

RunningKing

Sunday 24th: Wifey still away - So visit to the mother, off to the cinema with the girls and then out for dinner with them. Bought a paper, had a pint in peace. Bliss.

Monday 25th: Managed to get out for a 6m run - was 7:49 pace, but felt like 10k pace with the headwind. 15 Acres is no fun when the wind is gusting like that. Nearly lost the dog down the Furry Glen, but found her sitting waiting for me by the pond!! Tough run in that wind.

Tuesday 26th: Felt like a work out given all the cleaning I was doing - wifey was home Tues night. No running. Didn't mind as had a tough one due Wednesday.

Wednesday 27th: 2x2m + 2x1m

Woke up to a lot of Snow, my 1st thoughts were not about getting to work, or what the girls would do, or my wifes 1st day home - no - "How will I get a decent session done" was 1st and foremost.

Had planned to do it in the morning, but waited til later in the day. Finished meetings (worked at home) about 5ish so set off with the dog to Porterstown.
Conditions weren't too bad - a bit of snow still there and many puddles, still a bit of a wind blowing.

Set off on the warm up lap (7:55 pace) then set off into the 1st 2mile rep. - Wanted to keep them at about 6:20ish - as I wasn't sure about the endurance to keep going.

I knew the 1st rep would feel tough - the 1st one always does.
Took the 5 minutes recovery - but thought it felt very long. Walked half and ran half.

Set off on the 2nd rep and the 1st mile felt ok, then got tangled in a dogs lead on mile 2 (those pesky dogs ) - found the last 0.3 tough, but still felt ok.
Only took 4min recovery (not 5) before starting off again.

The 1 mile rep felt very easy by comparison - but knowing that you'll be stopping after a mile is an aid you won't have on race day!!
The 3 min recovery seemed like forever.
The 2nd mile rep felt comfortable - I wasn't struggling - but it was a bit slow. Need to watch that on race day.


1st 2m rep in 12:39 mins (6:20 pace)
2nd 2m rep in 12:46 mins (6:23 pace)
1st 1m rep in 6:21
2nd 1m rep in 6:25

Great session - really liked it and felt I got benefit from it. Even now, my lungs still feel expanded.

Note to self - If I do a similar workout again, either take shorter recoveries or do it at 6:15 pace.

Got my pack for the GIR on April 14th, but will be on a flight to Prague at this time :-(.

Next race is the KClub 10k on April 20th. Might do a Park Run on Sat 6th as a tune up.

Distance: 8.62 mi
Time: 1:07:08
Avg Pace: 7:48 min/mi

Gavlor

RunningKing wrote: »

Sunday 24th: Wifey still away - So visit to the mother, off to the cinema with the girls and then out for dinner with them. Bought a paper, had a pint in peace. Bliss.

Monday 25th: Managed to get out for a 6m run - was 7:49 pace, but felt like 10k pace with the headwind. 15 Acres is no fun when the wind is gusting like that. Nearly lost the dog down the Furry Glen, but found her sitting waiting for me by the pond!! Tough run in that wind.

Tuesday 26th: Felt like a work out given all the cleaning I was doing - wifey was home Tues night. No running. Didn't mind as had a tough one due Wednesday.

Wednesday 27th: 2x2m + 2x1m

Woke up to a lot of Snow, my 1st thoughts were not about getting to work, or what the girls would do, or my wifes 1st day home - no - "How will I get a decent session done" was 1st and foremost.

Had planned to do it in the morning, but waited til later in the day. Finished meetings (worked at home) about 5ish so set off with the dog to Porterstown.
Conditions weren't too bad - a bit of snow still there and many puddles, still a bit of a wind blowing.

Set off on the warm up lap (7:55 pace) then set off into the 1st 2mile rep. - Wanted to keep them at about 6:20ish - as I wasn't sure about the endurance to keep going.

I knew the 1st rep would feel tough - the 1st one always does.
Took the 5 minutes recovery - but thought it felt very long. Walked half and ran half.

Set off on the 2nd rep and the 1st mile felt ok, then got tangled in a dogs lead on mile 2 (those pesky dogs ) - found the last 0.3 tough, but still felt ok.
Only took 4min recovery (not 5) before starting off again.

The 1 mile rep felt very easy by comparison - but knowing that you'll be stopping after a mile is an aid you won't have on race day!!
The 3 min recovery seemed like forever.
The 2nd mile rep felt comfortable - I wasn't struggling - but it was a bit slow. Need to watch that on race day.


1st 2m rep in 12:39 mins (6:20 pace)
2nd 2m rep in 12:46 mins (6:23 pace)
1st 1m rep in 6:21
2nd 1m rep in 6:25

Great session - really liked it and felt I got benefit from it. Even now, my lungs still feel expanded.

Note to self - If I do a similar workout again, either take shorter recoveries or do it at 6:15 pace.

Got my pack for the GIR on April 14th, but will be on a flight to Prague at this time :-(.

Next race is the KClub 10k on April 20th. Might do a Park Run on Sat 6th as a tune up.

Distance: 8.62 mi
Time: 1:07:08
Avg Pace: 7:48 min/mi

Good session, your poor dog must be wrecked!

I'd reduce the recovery times as opposed to increasing the pace first*. Get comfortable doing your pace without that level of recovery and then up the ante.

*could be 100% wrong about this

RunningKing

have heard that before - maybe I'll do both :-)

Gotta try to keep up with you and J - as it is I'm a lap behind................(but I have a better age grading....)

Gavlor

RunningKing wrote: »

have heard that before - maybe I'll do both :-)

Gotta try to keep up with you and J - as it is I'm a lap behind................(but I have a better age grading....)

I'll happily accept being put in the same category as a 27 yr old!!

RunningKing

Decided to do a 5k time trial today, but was feeling a bit off.
Still, a cup of HTFU went down well.

Finished my training time trial in 18:10.

Ran into a headwind, uphill all the way, on a dodgy stomach.
Did I mention I forgot 1 runner, only ran with 1 running shoe.
Stopped for a pee midway.

Nice run.