Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

career move

Great session there Adrian and a nice pic to boot

adrian522

Thanks K, enjoyed the session but can't claim credit for the photo!

Pacing Mule

adrian522 wrote: »

Thanks K, enjoyed the session but can't claim credit for the photo!

It would be some selfie stick if thats you in the photo

Murph_D

Nice session, nice job on the numbers today too. Very impressed with event organisation so far!

career move

adrian522 wrote: »

Thanks K, enjoyed the session but can't claim credit for the photo!

Oh I know that. I just meant it's a nice pic of you

adrian522

Murph_D wrote: »

Nice session, nice job on the numbers today too. Very impressed with event organisation so far!

Thanks, hopefully it goes well tomorrow, I think it's good to get a good chunk of numbers handed out yesterday and today, so hopefully it won't be too stressful tomorrow.

I'll probably be sorting numbers again in the morning. Don't have a spot on the course unless someone doesn't show up.

Best of luck tomorrow anyway, last blowout before Cork!

adrian522

Sunday

Easy Pace Run - 6.1 Miles @ 8:56 m/m

After yesterdays session I was quite tired, spent the morning stewarding then came home and fell asleep. Got out in the afternoon for some nice easy miles.

Pretty strong wind, but an enjoyable run, no long run this week, but a race upcoming on Tuesday.

46 Miles this week.

adrian522

Monday

3 Miles Easy with Strides

Just a short leg loosener this evening, the legs still feel stiff from Saturday morning, or maybe my mind is playing tricks.

Hoping the weather improves somewhat in the next 24 hours.

Bungy Girl

Best of luck tomorrow. Best bring an umbrella just in case

Dubgal72

Best of luck Adrian, you've been putting in some hard work, looking forward to seeing the results

annapr

Good luck tomorrow Adrian, the sub-20 is there for you... If the wind/hail/etc cooperates.

Firedance

Good luck Adrian!

Murph_D

All the best.

adrian522

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Best of luck tomorrow. Best bring an umbrella just in case

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Best of luck Adrian, you've been putting in some hard work, looking forward to seeing the results

annapr wrote: »

Good luck tomorrow Adrian, the sub-20 is there for you... If the wind/hail/etc cooperates.

Firedance wrote: »

Good luck Adrian!

Murph_D wrote: »

All the best.

Thnaks all. No idea how I should pace this. Decided to go out fast in Tallaght and got burned towards the end. Maybe a bit more conservative than that with the hope of putting in a faster last mile.

Preparation hasn't been great but I'll give it a good go nonetheless.

Tom Joad

Best of luck tonight Adrian - forecast is for it to be dry anyway. Might see you there

adrian522

Thanks TJ, same to yourself!

Pacing Mule

Hopefully see you later carrying a sub 20 PB

adrian522

20:06. Not in the least bit happy with this. Went out too fast in Tallaght, tried to keep it a bit more controlled here but still pretty much the exact same time.

I think I'm done with 5K's. Marathon training starts Monday.

annapr

Bummer Adrian, you are so close. The weather was a factor tonight by all accounts. You will definitely break that barrier, don't give up yet!

adrian522

The weather was fine to be honest, certainly not an excuse I don't think. Though in fairness a few of us seemed to miss our targets, but then plenty hit their targets too,

Pacing Mule

The wind never really helped at all. The shower of hailstones certainly didn't.

I'm really sorry you missed the golden target but I'm going to throw your own words at you from earlier all be it paraphrased. 5 or 6 seconds is feck all in the greater scheme of things. On a different day with different conditons the same fitness and effort would get you those 6 seconds. You're a 20 min 5ker. Congrats.

Bungy Girl

Pacing Mule wrote: »

5 or 6 seconds is feck all in the greater scheme of things

Couldn't agree more :rolleyes: !

Sorry you're disappointed Adrian, and believe me I know how you feel. No harm to forget about the 5K for while and focus on the marathon training. I bet you'd have taken that time a couple of years ago (or even a year ago ?). Sometimes it's easy to forget just how much progress has been made. You'll get the sub 20, we all know that

laura_ac3

Sorry to see you missed out Adrian. Sometimes it's just not your day. You've made so much progress, with all the hard work you put in you'll get it. Keep an eye on the bigger picture.

Dubgal72

adrian522 wrote: »

20:06. Not in the least bit happy with this. Went out too fast in Tallaght, tried to keep it a bit more controlled here but still pretty much the exact same time.

I think I'm done with 5K's. Marathon training starts Monday.

Hi Adrian, really sorry to hear you didn't crack it...this time...(and I will just draw your attention to your log title here although I suspect the above was written in a fit of despondency?)

I'm curious tho, if this was a goal race, why no taper? That was a serious session on Saturday which would have taken 48 hours min to get out of the legs. I know I seem to be on your back re taper and recovery, it's only because I feel you are selling yourself short when it comes to performing to your absolute best in races and building on the adaptations to be made after. Saying that, plus one to the comments above. You have come a long way in a relatively short time and it's all down to your consistency.

adrian522

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Hi Adrian, really sorry to hear you didn't crack it...this time...(and I will just draw your attention to your log title here although I suspect the above was written in a fit of despondency?)

I'm curious tho, if this was a goal race, why no taper? That was a serious session on Saturday which would have taken 48 hours min to get out of the legs. I know I seem to be on your back re taper and recovery, it's only because I feel you are selling yourself short when it comes to performing to your absolute best in races and building on the adaptations to be made after. Saying that, plus one to the comments above. You have come a long way in a relatively short time and it's all down to your consistency.

It's still far too soon for reasoned analysis. I know you are right, I didn't treat it like a goal race. I knew my preparation wasn't great ( I said this yesterday prior to the race).

Tallaght was really the goal race, but because I so close I thought I could just tick off the sub 20 here on what I thought would be a much more favorable course.

Of course I didn't give the race the respect that it deserves but at the same time I'm not happy with my performance. I was too focused on keeping it relaxed and in control in the first mile and was unable to pick it up in the later miles.

In Tallaght I went out too fast, in Enfield not fast enough. In the MSB race the first mile was fine but the second mile was slow. I just can't put 3 good miles together.

All 3 ended up being within about 30 seconds of one another.

MSB 6:22/6:38/6:20
Tallaght 6:11/6:26/6:58
Enfield 6:27/6:32/6:28

If I was to rate my performance in these races it would be MSB/Tallaght/Enfield. Even though based purely on time it should be the other way around, but I fell for the MSB race I got the most out of myself on the day. I can't really say the same for last night.

In tallaght I got burned by the uphill with 1 mile to go.

adrian522

laura_ac3 wrote: »

Sorry to see you missed out Adrian. Sometimes it's just not your day. You've made so much progress, with all the hard work you put in you'll get it. Keep an eye on the bigger picture.

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Couldn't agree more :rolleyes: !

Sorry you're disappointed Adrian, and believe me I know how you feel. No harm to forget about the 5K for while and focus on the marathon training. I bet you'd have taken that time a couple of years ago (or even a year ago ?). Sometimes it's easy to forget just how much progress has been made. You'll get the sub 20, we all know that

Pacing Mule wrote: »

The wind never really helped at all. The shower of hailstones certainly didn't.

I'm really sorry you missed the golden target but I'm going to throw your own words at you from earlier all be it paraphrased. 5 or 6 seconds is feck all in the greater scheme of things. On a different day with different conditons the same fitness and effort would get you those 6 seconds. You're a 20 min 5ker. Congrats.

annapr wrote: »

Bummer Adrian, you are so close. The weather was a factor tonight by all accounts. You will definitely break that barrier, don't give up yet!

Thanks all. I appreciate the kind words. I think I need to get back to training now and forget about racing for the time being. I've had a few goes at the 5K, I'd need another few weeks training to improve it, but I'm now switching focus to longer stuff. I would have liked the sub 20 5K and sub 42 10K but just missed out on both.

Still good progress on where I was at the start of the year. The main goal for the year is the marathon and that is where my focus will now shift to.

aquinn

20:06. - An incredible time Adrian but sorry that you are disappointed.

Marathon plan looks scary, all the very best, but with all your training you'll be grand.

Thrilled to be finally up-to-date on the log

adrian522

Thanks A, it's a good time but I just feel it I didn't run a very good race last night. Anyway, moving on....

Wednesday

5 Recovery Miles @ 8:51


Nice to get this done at lunchtime. Kept it slow and easy, HR average was 135 (72% of Max).

adrian522

OK Let's Do this, get it out of the way so to speak.

Pre-Race

Driving down from Dublin the weather was all over the place. Heavy rain, hailstones and strong winds, interspresed with period s of very plesant sunshine.

Arrived down with an hour to spare, picked up the number and bumped into Meno, Yaboya1, Pacing Mule and Tom Joad. A Warmup Jog up to the start line and a few strides. Didn't feel great but tried to push out negative thoughts.

Race:

Lined up in what I though was a decent position. Looking behind me prior to the start though I noticed there were a lot more in front than behind me.

The start was pretty congested, even after a few hundred meters I found myself boxed in behind people hoping they'd pushj on so I could squeeze past but no such luck. After about 10 seconds of this I just went around them.

My Garmin was set to tell me average pace and at this stage was reading 7:00 or so. Too slow, much too slow. Picked it up gradually, tried to stick to a plan of keeping it to about 6:20. Managed this and was happy enough to see Mile 1 tick by in 6:27. A bit behind schedule but feeling quite good about things.

In the second mile I'm just trying to pick people off and go past them and pick the next target. I felt OK at this stage but in reality maybe I wasn't working hard enough. The KM markers seemed to go by in just over 4 mins. I tried to push on at this point but was still a bit wary of going too soon. Mile 2 6:32.

Into the third mile and I was struggling to pick up the pace to be honest. I was still passing plenty of runners, occasionally getting stuck behind a group of 2 or 3 and then pushing on where I could. As we got closer to the line I kept trying to pick it up but was working quite hard at this stage.

Mile 3 6:28. Too slow. It seemed like the end would never arrive, we passed a 500m to go sign, around the bend and I could see the finish line. I put the boot down, around the bend but a girl in front of me decided to slow to a walk at this stage so had to around her, then sprinted under the clock as i ticked past 20:05.

Offically 5km in 20:06. 5 second PB, on what should have been a much more favourable course. 180th position out of 419 finishers.

Aftermath:

Met up with the same group as before for a cool down and quick chat before heading for home.

In retrospect I had a tough session on Saturday and was in the pub Sunday night after the Terenure 5 Mile so this shouldn't really be much of a shock but really wanted the sub 20 here.

Positives to take from this are the (relatively) even splits and of course running a PB again (12 races in a row now).

Onwards now, no looking back. Maybe Dunshaughlin for a 10K attempt, but maybe not. If I can't give it a good go with a taper etc there may not be much benefit to that race either.

Firedance

I think the main thing is that we learn from each race, what we did right, what we did wrong (if it applies) and take the lessons into future races. Its your 12th PB in a row and in spite of your disappointment that's a great achievement. Look forward to seeing how the marathon training goes for you now.