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

annapr

Delighted for you Adrian, really well done. Your splits were really consistent almost all the way to the end.

Congrats and enjoy the afterglow (or hangover) !

Murph_D

Congrats, Adrian, superbly executed. Delighted for you after your long wait and your patience in the face of the various setbacks over the past two years. Very well done.

Wubble Wubble

That's a brilliant result, and a great place to get it. All the training finally paid off. Congrats!

aquinn

Absolutely delighted for you Adrian. Such a deserved result and super race report. Thank you and congratulations.

I hope you're recovering well.

AuldManKing

Superbly executed race - well deserved from all the hours you put in.

adrian522

donnacha wrote: »

Well done Adrian! Delighted for you. Enjoy the celebratory beers.

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Great stuff Adrian great race enjoy the celebrations.

Firedance wrote: »

Absolutely delighted for you Adrian enjoy the very well deserved celebrations!!

hillsiderunner wrote: »

You must be delighted with that, I think. Congratulations!

El Caballo wrote: »

Well done man, great to see and well deserved. Enjoy the beers!

annapr wrote: »

You sure did! Fair play to you for not giving up and hope you are enjoying the beers!!!!!

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

These beers better be fairly good.

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Great stuff A. Big PB apparently. Berlin is as good a spot as any to enjoy celebration beers!

tailgunner wrote: »

Well done today, sorry I didn't get to meet up after. My legs are in a bad way and I couldn't face trucking across town again! Have a good night.

No worries Tailgunner, hope you had a good night in any case!

yaboya1 wrote: »

Congratulations Adrian.
Very well raced.
Well done.
Enjoy the Steins

Ososlo wrote: »

Brilliant time Adrian! Really looking forward to hearing all about it!

yaboya1 wrote: »

So you ran an extra kilometre and still annihilated your pre-race target?
Excellent. Looks like it was worth waiting the extra year for after all


Congratulations on a brilliantly executed pb. Tremendous performance.

Well I don't think I ran an extra KM, I'm pretty sure the course is accurately measured just the Garmin wasn't accurate at all as you can see if you zoom in on the map on strava. GPS is all over the place.

Just a note that we are much better off learning to run by feel than being 100% reliant on the watch all the time (Don't tell Dubgal I said that).

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Well done Adrian super report and great result. Congrats.

chickey2 wrote: »

Very well done! Worth waiting for.

laura_ac3 wrote: »

Congrats! Big pb and brilliant to get such a good result after 2 years of focus, great improvement.

tailgunner wrote: »

Very well executed race, well done. Congrats on the big PB.

Firedance wrote: »

Great report you trained smart and ran very well, absolutely delighted you achieved your goal

tang1 wrote: »

Huge well done Adrian and throughly deserved after your year of injury last year. Well executed race. You can enjoy a few IPA's of a Sunday evening now watching the NFL.

Thanks B, yeah quite looking forward to that to be honest.

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Well done.

great training cycle that merited the result.

Onwards and upwards!

TbL

Kennyg71 wrote: »

Well done, great report and really well executed race.

sideswipe wrote: »

Well done Adrian, injury ghosts of Berlin 2015 well and truly vanquished!! Great report, enjoy the recovery.

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Congratulations!!! Delighted for you. Such a great and well-deserved result. Feet up now

jake1970 wrote: »

Well done Adrian great racing, congrats on the PB.

Singer wrote: »

Brilliant stuff Adrian, great report and a pretty sweet PB. Very clear it meant a lot to you, and you can be very proud of the result. Anything you'd do differently with training/buildup/the race itself?

Thanks. For the training I thought it went pretty much bang on target. I don't think I'd change anything. I would have liked a bit more mileage coming into the plan and I'd have liked to be faster over 5-10k in the first half of the year but I don't think that was possible in this case.

The week of the race I was a bit sick so I'd be a bit more careful of that next time, I'd also be lot more strict on not spending time on my feet the day
before, maybe head out earlier on Friday and get the number picked up then.

The race itself, I ran a 56 second positive split. I'd love to have gone even or slightly negative but that is really "ideal world" stuff. I'd a 3 min positive split last time out.

annapr wrote: »

Delighted for you Adrian, really well done. Your splits were really consistent almost all the way to the end.

Congrats and enjoy the afterglow (or hangover) !

Murph_D wrote: »

Congrats, Adrian, superbly executed. Delighted for you after your long wait and your patience in the face of the various setbacks over the past two years. Very well done.

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

That's a brilliant result, and a great place to get it. All the training finally paid off. Congrats!

aquinn wrote: »

Absolutely delighted for you Adrian. Such a deserved result and super race report. Thank you and congratulations.

I hope you're recovering well.

AuldManKing wrote: »

Superbly executed race - well deserved from all the hours you put in.

Really big thanks to everyone posting above. It does make a big difference on the day to know that people are rooting for you and delighted to hit the target on the day.

adrian522

The plan for recovery is to use the P&D recovery plan. It's a 5 week plan and the first run on it is the Wednesday after the marathon.

I wasn't really ready to run by Wednesday so pushed it out to yesterday.

I'll also be incorporating part of the TRR theory to recovery. Gear on, about to head out the door, ask myself "Is this a F**king stupid idea?" If yes, gear off and back to the couch.

Anyway plan looks a bit like this currently but is likely to change depending how I'm feeling on a given day:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lbGUNR3GdkgJKtDXeqD4T5XDBZa5tm0YVVIVHENPwM/edit#gid=0

Thursday

4 Miles @ 9:39 m/m

Legs were still very sore on Wednesday but felt good by Thursday so went out for this jog. It was fine but a few aches here and there and lots of flashbacks to the race as I went around around. Very pleasant jog all in all.

Days Running|24/30
Sessions|3
Long Runs|3
Races|3
PB's|1

Month|2013|2014|2015|2016
January|7|0|191|73.5
February|10|53|196|104.1
March|7|111|207.9|70
April|26|154|165.2|74.9
May|69|121|219.7|128.6
June|75|93|257.4|183.2
July|67|212|151.2|236.4
August|101|233|132.7|279.7
September|85|261|31.6|191.2
October|4|179|63.6|
November|13|28|17.5|
December|6|163|21|
Total|471.2|1606.2|1654.8|1343.7

All in all a good month. Tapered well, hit up the Lakes 10K and a parkrun and gave full effort in both.

Arrived at the start line fresh and ready to go and gave a good account of myself on race day. Expect the mileage to drop off over the next month or so but hopefully get to November in good shape and ready to set more targets and go again.

Duanington

Well done again A - a really well executed race which wasn't surprising at all given your training. Congrats on a smashing PB, great to meet you over there too - enjoy the recovery

Younganne

Congrats on the brilliant PB Adrian, truly deserved after the solid training cycle. Great report, enjoy the recovery.

adrian522

I haven't posted in a while. I've been away on holidays but kept up the easy pace runs over that time.

I've been following the P&D recovery schedule. This is the last week of that 5 week schedule.

Runs have been as follows:

Week 1: 2 runs - 9 Miles Total.
Week 2: 4 Runs - 25.5 Miles
Week 3: 5 Runs - 31 Miles
Week 4: 3 Runs - 25 Miles

I missed a few runs due to illness there in week 4. This week I've logged 14 miles over 2 runs thus far, and hope to finish up this session with a 12 mile long run at the weekend though it will probably have to be Saturday given I'll be standing on a street corner for 5+ hours on Sunday.

Hopefully get to introduce some sessions from next week. I've no races planned but maybe do the BHAA CC on November 19th if all goes well until then.

Plan to give this a crack then in late November:

https://www.clublasanta.co.uk/event/28th-international-running-challenge/

But we will have to wait and see how the body responds to the training between now and then!

adrian522

Been a bit sick recently so not much running. I did 6 Miles on Friday.

I gave Saturday a miss because I wasn't feeling great but still managed to go to the Rugby in the RDS followed by a few pints. (I wasn't that sick obviously)

Sunday, I did the stewarding at the marathon. The junction I was on was a bit of a mess at times as they were allowing buses down by bushy park so there was a bit of diverting runners to the other side of the road resulting in a really sharp bend. Anyway that was fine but gave the pub a miss afterwards and didn't venture out that night. Monday I spent on the couch mainly and yesterday again after work wasn't feeling the love.

Would love to get back into it tonight but I may end up taking another day off. No rush back really, no pressing deadlines or specific plan, I'd like to be properly healthy before going back running.

In other news 2 new pairs of runners arrived this week.

One of these and one of these

Days Running|17/31
Sessions|0
Long Runs|1
Races|0
PB's|0

Month|2013|2014|2015|2016
January|7|0|191|73.5
February|10|53|196|104.1
March|7|111|207.9|70
April|26|154|165.2|74.9
May|69|121|219.7|128.6
June|75|93|257.4|183.2
July|67|212|151.2|236.4
August|101|233|132.7|279.7
September|85|261|31.6|191.2
October|4|179|63.6|106.6
November|13|28|17.5|
December|6|163|21|
Total|471.2|1606.2|1654.8|1450

Bungy Girl

New shoes! Cool

adrian522

Wednesday

6.2 Miles @ 8:50 m/m

Back at it with an easy-ish run on Wednesday evening. Wasn't feeling great beforehand but glad I got the run done as it went well.


Thursday

Tempo - 5.5 Miles @ 7:51 m/m

Back to the club on Thursday evening. Tempo lap done. Started quite slow but picked it up gradually with each mile being faster than the previous one. Good fun. 8:55/8:02/7:47/7:34/7:14/(7:17)

Friday

5 Miles @ 9:11 m/m

Something of a recovery run at lunchtime. Great weather and knew I wouldn't get anything done later so got it out of the way at lunchtime.

Saturday

6.2 Miles @ 8:36 m/m

A few drinks on Friday night had me missing the XC session on Saturday morning. Instead I headed out for a run into work to pick up my bike from work. Very enjoyable run, so much so that I forgot where I was supposed to be going and had to readjust the route half way through. I guess this was faster than I intended it to be but I was enjoying it so just went with it.

Sunday

10.1 Miles @ 8:20 m/m

Continuing a theme this was too quick really. Quickly fell off the group I started out with but kept a decent pace going. I was thinking of doing 12 instead of 10 but I was talked out of that by one of the others. Good enjoyable run, great weather too.

Looking at this run, (about 82 mins for 10 Miles) comparing to Mullingar 10 Mile (80:08) and Ballycotton (81:38) from earlier this year is pretty eye opening. This felt like a good hard effort but nothing to crazy.

Total for the week is 33.1 Miles.

adrian522

Monday

Rest Day - Planned.

Tuesday - Club Session

Session was planned to be 2 x 800m, 2 x 600m, 2 x 400m, 1 x 1 Mile. But the mile loop was deemed to be too dangerous for a time trial so instead it was another 2 x 600m.

First proper speed session in quite a while. It went well, I put the effort in and didn't feel any ill effects or niggles. I'm not convinced the distances are bang on and going in one direction is certainly quicker than coming back but for what it is worth (i.e. Not much) here are the times:

Dist|Time|Pace
800m|3:11|6:35
800m|3:02|6:09
600m|2:21|6:21
600m|2:12|5:58
400m|1:29|6:11
400m|1:22|5:37
600m|2:24|6:34
600m|2:18|6:14

Wednesday

Rest - Unplanned. Just to much to do in the evening. Was too late by the time I would have been ready. No run.

Thursday

Club Session - Hills and Sprints

This session involves a hill sprint, and a flat sprint and I managed 8 of each. I had planned to hold back a little on this one but ended up going pretty much all out. It was a good session and the hill sprints were expecially good. Got through 8 reps in all which is quite impressive for a first hill session in about a year.

Friday

5.3 Miles @ 9:38

Recovery run. I was feeling the effects of the club sessio the previous night. Kept it nice and slow and as a recovery run it served its purpose.

Saturday

6 Miles @ 8:44 m/m

I'd originally intended on doing the club session on Saturday morning but I could feel I took a while to get over the Thursday session so took it ewasy on Saturday instead. Nice run in and around Bushy Park.

Sunday

12.8 Miles @ 8:40 m/m

Long run around Kilkenny yesterday. Nice morning for it, shorts an T-shirt weather. I went "On-empty" for this. The run started ok, probably a bit quick at times. Very scenic route. For the last few miles I was feeling the effects of going that little bit quick and also of not having eaten anything. Got through it in the end but the last few miles were a bit of a struggle.

adrian522

Monday

5 Miles @ 9:16 m/m

Just some easy miles on Monday evening, don't rember much about it to be honest.

Tuesday

Alsaa 3000m

Went out to Alsaa on Tuesday evening for their winter league 3k. Ended up being more of a training run sort of effort than all out race effort. The track isn't in the best of shape and I was slipping a bit in my racing flats but good to get it done. Finish time 12:26.

Wednesday

Rest

Thursday

Club session

Went down to the club session. Didn't go flat out on this, more like a steady effort. Session was 3 mins hard/2 mins steady/2 mins easy/1 hard/1min easy. Repeat.

Good fun on a pretty cold night!

Friday

Unscheduled Rest day. Fecking work, missed my run, nearly caused me to miss today's race too. Feckers.

Saturday

Irish Life BHAA XC 6k


First ever XC race. Laced up the spikes and headed over towards Santry for the second time this week.

Race went well, good fun and nice morning for it. I ended up doing the 6K in just under 27 mins to finish in 123rd place.

Job done I guess. I'll certainly do more of these BHAA XC races. Not sure about the championship races though.

Bungy Girl

Great to see you earlier! Congrats on your XC debut. Don't know if you heard but the one in December has been cancelled

adrian522

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Great to see you earlier! Congrats on your XC debut. Don't know if you heard but the one in December has been cancelled

Oh really? That the one in Tymon? We were wondering why they were handing out flyers for the one in January!

Bungy Girl

adrian522 wrote: »

Oh really? That the one in Tymon? We were wondering why they were handing out flyers for the one in January!

There was one in Marlay Park scheduled for mid-December and they've had to cancel it. They announced it today at the prize giving. Unfortunate, because it was always a good one close to Xmas.

Duanington

Bungy Girl wrote: »

There was one in Marlay Park scheduled for mid-December and they've had to cancel it. They announced it today at the prize giving. Unfortunate, because it was always a good one close to Xmas.

Damn - I was hoping to run that one.

Nice work Adrian by the way :-)

adrian522

Thanks, there's always the Dublin Intermediate on December 4th.

adrian522

Sorry for the lack of updates but not much been happening. Except for the below!

Sunday November 20th: 8.7 Miles @ 8:20 m/m


This was the day after the XC race in Santry. Wasn't mad about doing a long run but wanted more than a recovery run. Had a cold run around Tymon, settling on 8 Miles as a compromise.

Following Week:

Monday - 6.2 Miles @ 9:02 M/m

Tuesday - Club Session - Hills and Sprints

This is the usual Hills and Sprints session, 8 reps involving 8 Hills and 8 Flat Sprints. Fun session.

Wednesday - 5 Miles @ 8:56


Thursday - Club Session, 3 x 1.5 Miles @ Tempo

Took this one fairly easy with the reps being about 7:30 pace.

Friday/Saturday - Off.

adrian522

It's going to be difficult to put this into words but this was a whole lot of fun even if the body took a bit of a battering in the process.

The Challenge:

Description Here Basically it is 4 races on consecutive days, none of which seem to be measured properly and all are pretty challeniging in their own right.

In order there is a 10K (Flat, more or less), 13K (Very Hilly, mostly uphill first half, mostly downhill second half), 5K (on the beach, very tough and slow going in places due to the soft sand), 21K (Tough, a good bit of uphill at the start, pretty much downhill/flat from there but the terrain isn't great for running on).

There is a team aspect to this with 3 to score from each team. I got assigned to our clubs 4th team. The overall results are dictated by your overall time.

Sunday - 5.9 Miles @ 7:15 m/m

Slow start to this, pretty much jogged around the track to start before picking up as the race went on. Didn't seem to have a whole lot in the tank (not a good sign). Told myself I was holding back for the races to come. Overall a good start I guess. The course wasn't great underfoot and it was very windy but good to get the first one over with.

I'll need to finish this later

adrian522

Monday - 13K Ridge Run

This one is a tough run. It was hot and sunny, and the first half is pretty much all uphill. The second half is almost all downhill. I'd been told there was a fairly severe climb, only thing was I thought I had that done when I turned a corner only to realise I was looking at the severe climb. About a 20% gradient. It's pretty much slowing to a walk for this bit.

In any case once that was done it was time to let the hand brake off. I still had plenty in the tank so I decided to empty the tank. I overtook a lot of people on the way down, people I wouldn't have been expecting to be beating.

It took a fair bit out of me (and with 2 more races still to go) but I was feeling good and had a really enjoyable run. Best race of the week for me.

Total of 8.4 Miles @ 7:42 m/m

Tuesday

Race 3: 5k Beach run

Well this was no craic. Not a fan of 5k's in general and it's even less fun. Pretty deep soft sand at times but ok for other stretches this was a tough race. My legs were feeling the effects of the previous 2 days and just didn't respond to the request to pick up the pace at times.

It's a bad sign when your last mile is the slowest but I didn't have too much more to give. Actually did the mountain run, nearly 3 times as far at a faster pace.


3 Miles @ 7:45 m/m

Wednesday

Race 4 - 21K

The last race was one that most people just wanted to get over with. Given the way previous races had gone there was a lot of smack talk on Tuesday night. For example 5 of us were separated by just mins after nearly 30K of racing. At the sharp end there was some money bets getting made from people who should know better!

Anyway, we started on time and the plan was to take it easy enough for the first 5 miles, after which the worst of the terrain would be in the rear view mirror and mostly downhill finish.

Again the uphill surprised my by how steep it was. I didn't take it as easy as I should have but arrived at the top of the hill in decent shape. I wasn't feeling as good as on the ridge run but had enough to pick up the pace and start picking people off.

As the race went on I managed (more or less) to maintain my pace and pus on towards the finish. The race was long, coming in at around 13.5 miles. In any case I was glad to see the track for the last 300 meters.

Works out as a 4 min PB if counting this as a half (which I am).

I was taken on the line by a clubmate, but all in all was happy with the run and the challenge in general. It was harder to get through than I thought it would be and was looking forward to a few days recovery before heading home.

Again a faster pace than the 5K race.

13.5 Miles @ 7:21m/m

adrian522

Thursday

Day Off, hangover etc.

Friday

AM - 4 Miles @ 9:41 m/m Nice and easy recovery run.

Later in the AM - 400m Relay - 79 Seconds

PM - Cycle - 23.2 Miles, scenic cycle, good fun.

Later in the PM - Impromtu Beer mile - No stats for this, but it was neither a mile nor was the beer of the required volume or regulation but just a bit of fun. There's a video of this up on the club facebook if anyone wants a look.

Saturday

Repeat of the ridge run


The idea here was to do the ridge run from earlier in the week, but enjoy the views a bit more. Unfortunately the weather didn't play ball as it was proper Irish weather, wet and windy. Still a nice run though.

Total of 6.9 Miles @ 9:30 m/m.

Sunday - Off, went to watch the Dublin Intermediate XC, glad I decided against running this. 3 of our girls and 2 of our lads raced this after doing all the races in La Santa.

Monday - 6 Miles @ 8:17 Just an easy run at lunch time.

Tuesday - Club Session

Nothing too major here, Tempo Lap, 2.5 miles @ 7:04 m/m followed by some sprints. Ate a load of cake afterwards, all for charity of course.

Wednesday - Off.

adrian522

Better late than never.

Days Running|23/30
Sessions|6
Long Runs|2
Races|5
PB's|1

Month|2013|2014|2015|2016
January|7|0|191|73.5
February|10|53|196|104.1
March|7|111|207.9|70
April|26|154|165.2|74.9
May|69|121|219.7|128.6
June|75|93|257.4|183.2
July|67|212|151.2|236.4
August|101|233|132.7|279.7
September|85|261|31.6|191.2
October|4|179|63.6|106.6
November|13|28|17.5|154.9
December|6|163|21|
Total|471.2|1606.2|1654.8|1604.9

adrian522

Wednesday - Off.

Thursday - Club Session

Wasn't really in the form for a spped session. We'd done sprints on Tuesday but went through with it nonetheless. Kept it to 2 sets which I felt was plenty:

2 Sets of:

1 - 800m
1 - 600m
2 - 400m

Total for the session was 5.7 Miles.


Friday - 5.1 Miles @ 8:53 m/m

Squeezed in a few easy miles between finishing work and going out for drinks.

Saturday

After very little sleep I was up from 7:30 feeling none too energetic. I was stewarding the Aware 10K then went for food in the PP Visitors center, then got some sleep.

Stubbornness got the better of me and I went out for 7 miles and an easy pace. Glad to get it done.

7.2 Miles @ 9:05 m/m

Sunday

In no mood for getting up for the club run, I instead went for a 12 mile run on my own in the afternoon. Good pace and felt ok.

12.2 @ 8:26 m/m

40.4 Miles for the week, surpassing my total for 2015 with a few weeks to spare.

adrian522

Not a great training week....

Monday

Off- Rest Day

Tuesday - Club Session


Hills and Sprints. Good session from what I can remember, got through 8 reps of this (which 8 hills and 8 flat sprints). 6.7 Miles in total.

Wednesday - 6.1 Miles @ 8:52

Late enough heading out and it was a bit of a struggle from what I remember.

Thursday - Club Session

This is the Fartlek lap, 1 min hard 1 min easy. The plan was to do 3 laps but called it a day after 2 laps. I guess I could have done another one but I'm thinking this is enough intensity for 1 week. 6.3 Miles for the session.

Friday - 5 Miles @ 8:58 m/m

Got a few miles in at lunchtime, knowing I'd Christmas drinks to go to in the evening. Was quite sluggish but good to get them in at all.

Saturday

Off day. Normally after a few drinks I can get a few miles in the following evening but Saturday was a complete no go. Barely stirred from the sofa all day.

Sunday - 6.5 Miles @ 9:09

No long run yesterday. Spent most of the day setting up/stewarding/tidy up of the Tymon Meet & Train. After bringing the last of the things back to Bushy Park a few of us got a few miles in. Was nice to salvage something from the weekend in terms of running but I guess I'll have to write this one off as a "Recovery week".

Total 30.8 Miles.

adrian522

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - 5.5 Miles Tempo (7:25 m/m)

Ballyboden lap with the club. Nice run to get in before Christmas and faster than the last time I ran it, so some sign of progress.

Wednesday - 5.9 Miles @ 8:39 m/m

Got this run in at lunchtime on Wednesday, remember nothing about it but strava tells me it happened.

Thursday - 7.3 Miles @ 8:58 m/m

No chance to get out for this until late enough. I do enjoy these late night runs but sleep doesn't come easily afterwards. Nice run though.

Friday - Rest

I say rest, what I mean is I spent the evening drinking.

Saturday

Tymon Parkrun - 3.1 Miles @ 6:51 m/m

Good blowout before Christmas. Pretty hungover/dehydrated but good effort nonetheless. Wasn't ever in danger of threatening the PB but solid effort.

Sunday - 12 Miles @ 9:01 m/m

Up early on Christmas morning for this. Probably a bit much to be doing the day after the parkrun but it was enjoyable for the most part and I'd some calories that needed burning off. Planned to take 2 easy days after this.

Total for the week was 38.7 Miles.

Monday - 5.2 Miles @ 8:56

Just some easy miles with the brother. I think they were easier for me than they were for him though!

Tuesday - Rest

Realt Dearg Sec

adrian522 wrote: »

Monday - 5.2 Miles @ 8:56

Just some easy miles with the brother. I think they were easier for me than they were for him though!

]

I resent that remark.

adrian522

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

I resent that remark.

You're the one who originally made it.