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Confessions of a never has been.....
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Duanington wrote: »Not as well as planned B - 17.46 or so ( waiting for the official time), I didn't really perform to be honest, let time slip in the middle section. No real excuses other than that. I'll do a report later at some stage
Jaysus, you're starting to sound like me
17:44 for 18th place is a great run.0 -
AuldManKing wrote: »Jaysus, you're starting to sound like me
17:44 for 18th place is a great run.
Your negativity is rubbing off on me!0 -
AuldManKing wrote: »Jaysus, you're starting to sound like me
17:44 for 18th place is a great run.
Not when he probably could have gone 17:24;)
To be fair, A, he is probably just hustling for next week so even if he offers you a handicap don't do it
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Duanington wrote: »08.05.2016
Monday
A nice and easy run around St Anne's park - kept the effort down and resisted the urge to get a few more miles in.
5.3 miles @ 8ish
Stretching and pressups afterwards
Tuesday
Usual long run after work, had a mental day in the office and didn't get a whole load of sleep the night before but I enjoyed this one right until around the 12 mile mark, felt slightly tired over the last 2. Nice mixture of flat, rolling and trails along this route.
14 miles @ 7.51 min\miles
Stretching \ core afterwards
Wednesday
AM - RUnmute with the extra distance done around St Anne's, can't remember anything about this one
5 miles @ 8ish pace
PM - as above, runmute with extras around St Anne's, mental day at the office and I remember zip about this!
Weights\stretching after
Thursday
Plan was for a reduced session today with the 5k race on Saturday;
8x400s @ 128-1.30 ( 90 sec recovery)
Headed down to St Anne's to run this as usual, I toyed with the idea of running it on the grass but stuck with the Rose Garden. I was a little rushed for this with meetings for most of the day but I juggled a few things around to make sure I'd get a decent warmup done too ( with a few strides)
Pacing for the reps was all over the shop, I don't know if it was the new runners or what but I felt very relaxed on each one and way overcooked a couple of the reps, happy enough with the rest.
1.20
1.28
1.27
1.27
1.25
1.22
1.26
1.28
7.5 miles for the lot
Stretching\core afterwards
Friday
A very easy day - 2.5 very slow miles late on Friday night to keep a bit of blood in the legs :-)
Saturday - Leixlip, Le Cheile 5k road race
Coming into this race, I have trained well, putting a very consistent string of training together, working hard when I needed to and taking it easy when required too.
The 5k distance is something that I’ve never really nailed to be honest, I bagged a small PB in the MSB race in March but felt that I didn’t quite work hard enough in sections that day, possibly leaving some valuable seconds out on the course.
I set aside the month of April to really focus on training, having consulted with L we decided that having put in some strong performances over various race distances, I would benefit more from focusing back on some aerobic work – striking the balance between quality training and racing is tricky at times and I’ve gotten it wrong in the past.
Le Cheile was the to be the first race effort since the battle for Clontarf 10 miler in late March, a flat course, a decent field of runners would hopefully help me to a strong performance.
I arrived in Leixlip with bags of time to spare really, just in time for the heavens to open ! Quick registration, used the facilities and I headed back to the car to chill out for a bit. I wasn’t feeling the love for this one to be honest, the phone had been hopping all night with problems in work and sleep this week probably wasn’t what it should\could have been – I thought about starting the car up and heading for home and warm tea but copped on and just got out to get started on my warmup.
Warmup done ( in the lashing rain, nothing warm about it), I headed over to the track to listen to the pre race instructions...something about a lap of the track to finish, coming onto the track through a fence, crossing a grass verge ( with a sharp turn) and starting out on the road.
I was none the wiser to be honest so I just followed the crowd out to the starting point on the main road !
After a brief wait, we were off (gun start). I started a couple of rows from the front and for once traffic wasn’t an issue at all, we had a good downhill start passing by the sports centre on the main road at a decent pace. I passed a couple of groups before settling in with a couple of Tallaght\Celbridge runners as we turned left towards the railway flyover. Up and over the bridge, a quick look at the watch and all was well.
KM 1 – 3.34
On we sped towards a left hand turn, rounding the bend and moving back up onto the footpath for a bit, it all felt very flat here, I felt strong and knew I was working but was probably checking the watch a little too often to be honest ( which I rarely do). The field was thinning out nicely with people around me and in front of me seemingly moving at a pace that felt about right. The watched beeped for the 2nd kilometre and I was a little surprised.
KM2 – 3.33
A quick systems check approaching the halfway point didn’t tell me a lot, I was breathing heavy, moving well, working hard – this felt like a good 5k race and yet, something didn’t feel quite right. I was starting to sense that the pace was short of where it should be, I was in amongst a tight enough group, the roads weren’t closed so we were up and down from the road to the footpath and back again ,
I’d have to hurt a bit more if I wanted a PB but two problems presented themselves, firstly, there wasn’t a whole lot of room to start passing people and secondly, I wasn’t actually sure if I had the fight in my stomach to move up a gear or two – hadn’t I been working as hard as I could and still hadn’t gone under 3.30 (km) pace?
Before I knew it the watched beeped and we had gone through the 3rd KM mark, a quick look at the watch told me that a PB was just about gone and I’d left it too late, I think at this point I caved in or switched off mentally.
KM 3 – 3.37
I can’t remember a whole lot about the 4th KM to be honest, up and down footpaths, it felt almost downhill and yet I never felt capable of upping the pace at all, we had a sharp left turn at the end of a long road which brought us back onto the main road out of Leixlip and I knew the finish wasn’t far ahead.
Rather than taking the turn on the road, the route actually brought us under a few low hanging trees, through a winding footpath and around a bus stop ...before moving out onto the road. I could see the 4km marker ahead and I really felt like I was hanging on now but decided there and then to make sure I ran a fast last km and salvage something from the day.
KM 4 – 3.40
Something clicked in my head as we moved past the 4k marker, we had a small drag ahead but once we got over that, I knew it wasn’t far to go, the road ahead was straight - some runners staying on the path but I moved to the outside onto the road and started to work my way up through the effort levels.
By the time I got to the top of the drag, I’d gone past a couple of runners and was running alongside a lad from Celbridge, racing down the happy side of the bridge!. I could see the leading lady about 50m ahead in a group with a Tallaght runner and focused on reeling them in.
The race finished on the club track and to get there we would have to take a sharp left off the road, through a fence then run across some wet grass ( with another couple of sharp turns).
Once I went through the fence, I was running solo and took the couple of turns on the grass with all the grace of a drunken giraffe cross country skiing , I was convinced I would slide into the poor marshall actually!
Grass negotiated and I was on the track, leading lady was 20m ahead in a small group, tracks really are a great way to finish any race and while I knew I had less than a 400m rep to go now, my lungs were bursting out of my chest. I kept digging in though, pushing myself way out of my comfort zone, the track was wet and a little slippy but I was making good ground and passed the group with about 50m to go.
The lad from Tallaght went with me and made a surge about 10m from the line, I didn’t have it to go with him, I think when I saw the clock, I just lost the motivation to be honest.
KM 5 – 3.16
Over the line for an official time of 17.44
Bumped into and TRR who shared my disappointment (even though his ambitions and result were a lot loftier than mine!) and after catching up with one or two other people, I nipped off for a warmdown out along the first couple of k of the race route.
I mulled over what had gone wrong for me during the race – I was in good shape, I knew that, work had been mental this week and sleep was not what it could have been, the route was fair but not exactly fast with all of ups and downs from footpaths\road, conditions were wet alright but there was no real wind to deal with - the bottom line was that I didn’t work hard enough for at least 3 of the 5 K , for whatever reason.
Running a 3.16 split after a 3.40 split probably sums it all up, I really didn’t execute the race well, I knew at halfway that I wasn’t on track and yet I settled into a group, yes the course was tight at that stage but I should have backed myself a bit earlier and had the bottle\focus to move into the pain zone.
I spent a bit of time agreeing target splits with myself for the race in the days leading up to it but I never really went after them on the day for some reason, I never even thought about them after the first one.
5ks are a tough nut to crack for me but while my overall feeling from the race is one of disappointment, there are positives to take from it, the last K in particular. I’m training very well at the moment and still moving in the right direction, there’ll be other 5ks to race and hopefully I’ll have the mental strength to match the physical strength that I know I’m building
Light weights and stretching later in the day
6.5 miles for the lot
Sunday
Up and at it early this morning with a grey and misty start to the day, no sign of the amazing day of sunshine that was to come our way later in the day.
Felt tired enough to start with but settled into this nicely, picking a bumpy enough route to see how the legs felt, all was well thankfully.
Did a good weights\core session later
9 miles @ 8.05
Not the week I wanted but it does set me up well for Terenure next week at the same time, I'll set my stall out to hang onto AMKfor as long as I can and I should be fine :-)
FYP
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16.05.2016
Monday
Had to swap things around at short notice due to a change in plans on Tuesday so decided to run my long run commando for the first time ( no watch ) .
I know any amount of 14 mile routes by this stage so went back to an old one that I haven't used in quite a while with St Anne's, Donaghmede, Raheny all on the menu. Good run, felt a little tired towards the end
Pressups\stretching after
14.5 miles @ 8ish
Tuesday
7 easy miles on the cards and I used my runmute as always to get this length of run in, taking in some additional stuff around St Anne's
I was definitely a little more tired than usual on this run, obviously from the long run the night before but possibly also a combination of training racing over the past few days.
Core\light weights after
7 miles @ 8ish
Wednesday
AM - run into work, 5 easy miles and feeling much better than the previous run .
PM - run home from work with extra miles around St Anne's, no memory of this one !
Thursday
Session day:
2 miles easy 2x200, 2x400, 800, 2x400, 2x200 w/ 2 min rec, 2 miles easy
I love this session, I've done it before in the run up to a race and its testing without leaving any residual tiredness in the legs the following day, I'm assuming because of the 2 minute recoveries. Made my way down to sunny St Anne's for this one, the rose garden was busy so I abandoned it after the first set of 400s and ran the rest around the field near the playground.
Splits were
200s: 38, 38
400s: 1.23, 1.23
800 ( it was actually 600
) : 1.57
400s: 1.21, 1.21
200s: 41, 40
Very warm after this one, had a lie down on the grass for myself for a minute before heading off to warm down. Messed the distance up on the 800 but no big deal really.
Core and stretching after
7.8 miles for the lot
Friday
Usual run home from work, 5 miles nice and easy. Another glorious day of sunshine but it did have me wondering how I would fare out on Sunday if the temps were up a little. Gave the planned weights session a miss to let the body rest up a bit
Saturday:
Off out nice and early for 3 easy miles with some race paced strides thrown in, felt sluggish and tired which is usually a good sign for me the day before a race !.
Sunday
Terenure 5 mile
Terenure presented me with race number 2 ( of 2!) of my mini racing block that we’ve built into my schedule this month and a chance to put to test the efforts in training of the past couple of months since Raheny. Training is going well, last week’s less than perfect 5k performance was fading into the distance and I had been looking forward to racing again over 5 miles.
I’d roped my two sisters into running the race too so the day started off with me collecting them from opposite sides of the city before making our way over to Terenure and getting parked up ahead of the masses arriving. I’m usually wayyy too early for races according to others but I was only too delighted to see FBOT and Mrs Mc arrive “on time” too – made me feel all normal again
After doing my customary stroll around the starting area and taking in the atmosphere, I headed off for a warmup , meeting up with FBOT for a couple of easy miles with a few strides for good measure. By the time we got back down to the starting area, the crowd had really thickened, the sun was starting to heat up and the samba band were in full swing ( great addition by the way, well done Sportsworld). We took our place in the starting area, close enough to the front without being stupid.
AMK joined us, we all exchanged excuses and it turns out FBOT’s was the only realistic one. Sub 29 was a realistic target for me, my PB from January and training since then suggested as much. I haven’t had that feel good factor from a race\performance since February ( Enniscorthy – 10k) so I was probably due one of those days where it all comes together too.
Without any real delay we were off, through the starting pen and heading on up the road towards bushy park. There was a small bit of congestion to deal with for the first 200 metres or so but once we turned out onto Templeogue road, things were moving well. I was struck by the large crowd that had gathered at the turn actually, great support here. Myself and FBOT were running side by side, pace felt good, effort felt right, a quick check of the watch – you idiot D, you didn’t start the watch ! I had actually planned on checking splits but not checking in between, that plan was out the window now, I’d just switch it to pace and keep an eye on that ( a mistake on my part, I should have just kept to the original plan, I’d only missed the first k and was thrown by that for some reason). It took me a minute or two to refocus but when I did, I felt good again and moved on up the field which began to really thin out pretty quickly actually. We took the sharp left before Terenure village and headed down past the Garda Station where the wind made its presence known, I was a little isolated here and tried to move up into a group ahead for a little shelter.
I could see Gosh123 and his clubmates up ahead in their loop the loop singlets, their group looked like it was beginning to break up a little as we turned left onto Fortfield road, I was starting to feel a tad overcooked here and knew that we had a long drag ahead of us too – things were starting to feel a bit too uncomfortable for this stage in the race. I saw a couple of Raheny lads up ahead, both of whom are probably running similar times to me over the past 6 months so they became my marker for the duration of the drag up Wainsford road. By the time we reached the end, I was struggling, I was overheating, breathing too heavily for the pace I was moving at and I just felt a lack of strength\energy in my legs. This was one of those moments where you call into question your rationale for racing !
Turning back onto Templeogue road, there was an even bigger crowd gathered to roar encouragement at us as we moved along Bushy Park – think I heard Murph give a shout out hear, I think I managed a thumbs up in response , I think.
The Raheny lads pulled away from me a little coming down Templogue Road , I wasn’t moving well now at all, I knew sub 29 was gone and didn’t have the mental strength to refocus on a PB. I was just going to try to hang on for as long as I could. Thoughts of easing off were coming thick and fast now, f*ck it, I’ll hang on and see if things improve over the last mile.
Turning left before Terenure village for the 2nd time was painful, this was onto a downhill stretch but I just didn’t have the energy to take advantage like I have done before. I was clinging onto the back of a small group of lads that nipped by as I took the corner.
Checked the watch, wished I hadn’t
Halfway down this stretch, a few singlets came back to me and I took some small comfort from that but it didn’t last long, I was hurting bad and knew I’d blown another PB chance. 2nd left from home and the support was great here, lots of encouragement but it was wasted on me, I was in no man’s land taking the last turn, I could hear a gathering of runners behind me and those ahead were too far to catch .
I dug deep to muster up a push for the last 500 metres or so and in fairness I did manage to up the pace, I didn’t want to get passed on the final stretch, it was too little too late but the legs responded well.
The finishing line appeared up ahead, thank f*ck ! Another surge to kill off any chance of being passed, the legs responded thankfully and I crossed over the line for an official time of 29.34
Splits are ( messed up because I started the watch late)
Mile 1: 5.46 ( flying mile, watch started on the fly)
Mile 2: 5.57
Mile 3: 5.54
Mile 4: 6.05
Mile 5 ( or rather .4 of a mile): 5.53 (pace)
Met up with Gosh123, AMK, FBOT and MrsMc afterwards, mixed emotions all around it seemed! Missed a few others that were around the place but I couldn’t hang around for too long unfortunately. I met up with my sisters who both ran really well and will hopefully kick on from here and then set off for a warm down before heading back to the car.
Verdict: A tough day at the office, I started pretty well but started to feel a lack of strength in my legs from about the 2 mile mark. I faded badly over the 4th mile and recovered a little towards the end. On reflection, it’s a solid run though, running fast on warm days never sits well with me and perhaps more importantly, I KNOW it doesn’t sit well with me, possibly making it a maybe a bigger issue than it should.
The course was good, lots of long straights to run on and the organization was spot on, the samba band was a bonus, adding to an already festive atmosphere around the start\finish .
I'll have 1, maybe 2 more cracks at the shorter stuff now before attention turns fully toward Berlin0 -
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You knuckled down well D to git it out but a decent PB like your 5m one doesn't leave much margin when any one of the planets moves out of alignment. You just need to keep doing what you are doing so when they are aligned you can take advantage.
Also would have been interesting to see the result if you'd run naked (i.e. sans watch....easy there TbL) just on effort when you realised that you had forgotten to start the watch.
Forgot to ask why you weren't sporting your club singlet yesterday??
True words M - I think there's a PB there alright but you're right, a lot went right for me on the day in Raheny and I think I'll need a lot to go right for me to beat that.
Interesting re running without the watch, I actually thought about it for a second or two before starting it but bottled it - might try it in St Anne's over the summer :-)
Haven't ordered the singlet yet - must do better 0 -
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Well done D a tough day at the office for a lot out there doesn't help in the post race analysis tho a lot of talk about ditching the watches on boards these days definately seems to mess with the positivity racing. Keep up the good work
Thanks A - its so easy to get distracted by the watch alright, I'm going to ditch it completely for a parkrun over the summer, well worth giving that a go ;-)0 -
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You weren't far off your PB, D.. 17 seconds? and was this your second 5 mile race ever? (I cheated, i looked back at your Raheny report)... you have 100% sub-30... not bad at all! Well done.
LOL - I love this positive attitude A - you're right ! We can't PB in every race, sometimes you've got to just grit your teeth and keep on moving. Keep the consistency, patience and hard work up and the rest tends to take care of itself 0 -
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19.05.2016
Monday
4 easy miles on the cards today - brought the gear to work and ran home. Legs were a little heavy and stiff, nothing too bad though thankfully. Really enjoyed this run, kept the effort down and resisted the temptation to tag on a few more.
4.1 miles @ 8ish
Tuesday
Back to long run night and this week I remember the watch :-)
We've a lot going on at home this week so this one was wedged in between meetings and family stuff, using the runmute to get some of the run in as always.
Ran most of this in and around St Anne's park and really enjoyed it. Possibly a little more tired than usual towards the end.
15.1 miles @ 8.03 min\miles
Wednesday
AM - 6 miles in and around St Anne's - busy morning but was working from home so nipped out between meetings again.
6 miles @ 8.11 min\miles
PM - another one squeezed in later in the day, 4.5 miles in and around....yes, you guessed it, St Anne's !
Legs felt a tad tired on this so spent some time stretching them out later in the day together with some core work
Thursday
Back to session day and the plan was for a rough enough looking 10x800s in 2.50-2.56 with 2 min recoveries ( thank God)
Decided to change things up a little and head to St Anne's for this - BUT, I didn't head to the rose Garden, I opted for the GAA pitches with the new path going in around on one side. The grass would be a little slippy from the morning rain but with the new tarmac begging to be used, I thought there'd be no harm in using mixed terrain for this.
Reps worked out as :
2.46
2.56
2.52
2.50
2.48
2.53
2.52
2.54
2.58
????
Things got a little fuzzy after the 4th rep and while I was sure I did the ten, it turns out I did 9 reps. Pacing wasn't great on 1 or 2 but overall this was a tough bastid of a session that really tugged at the legs towards the end...and the mind actually. I felt like packing it in about 100 metres into several of these to be honest but glad I didn't, even if I was one short
Good warmup ( with strides) and a decent warmdown brought the total to 10.8 miles.
weights, core and stretching after0 -
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Duanington wrote: »Thanks A - can I program them into the basic forerunner 10 ? I always assumed it was too crappy for that craic
it is, anna has a fancy smancy watch (same as mine) you can't program the 10 - you need to upgrade :pac:
ps super session!0
...ENJOY!!! 
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