Confessions of a never has been.....

Duanington

OOnegative wrote: »

Jeez I was in pain reading that D, super stuff again from you & fantastic racing. To run a strong PB like that after the episode you have been through shows how tough & determined SOB you are. No manhug for the Claw.......

Thanks B - I was all hugged out after AQuinn and L !

Duanington

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Excellent report. I particularly relate to your internal dialog while racing haha.

Very interesting to see just how far to the limit you pushed yourself. Made me consider my own effort levels when racing.. Food for thought. Thanks. . Great read and well done on the pb.

So what happens when you eventually catch up with coach? Do you guys swap roles then?.

Cheers P - Its a very fine line obviously but I'm a fairly certain that fear is one of the biggest obstacles to progression in this game, it paid off yesterday thankfully!

Coach has years on me and is unfortunately still getting better\stronger!

Duanington

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Delighted for you D!!! They have rebuilt you.....!

Thanks AM - still a WIP :cool:

Duanington

Murph_D wrote: »

Awesome. Great report and a great race, D!

Thanks D - and thanks for the support yesterday

Duanington

hot buttered scones wrote: »

Great running and great determination there. Congrats on the PB and on the return to form.

Thanks M

Duanington

ariana` wrote: »

Wow a great read, well done on racing your guts out.

Thanks A

Duanington

aquinn wrote: »

Absolutely brilliant. Delighted for you.

Great to see you at the end and thanks for the support.

Thanks A - great to see you back racing, keep up the good work

Duanington

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Brilliant run and report. Some going for the "latest run in the comeback series".

Thanks WW - its the longest comeback in the history of comebacks at this stage !

Duanington

Mulberry wrote: »

Well done on giving it absolutely everything, a very brave race, fantastic stuff.

Thanks Mulberry, paid off this time !

Duanington

FBOT01 wrote: »

Great race D and well deserved result. What is it they say "Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard!!" but when you have both you get results like you had yesterday. Onwards and upwards. Great report too.

Thanks M - I even recovered from seeing the look of horror on your face when you saw me at mile 2...it confirmed what I suspected :pac:

AuldManKing

wasn't a bad old run in fairness................must have a word with the missus, all I get is grief.

Mrs Mc

Great stuff D a great pb and report and great to see you back on form again.

Duanington

AuldManKing wrote: »

wasn't a bad old run in fairness................must have a word with the missus, all I get is grief.

That's almost a compliment A, I'll take it !

Ah she knows her stuff, sure she was wondering what all the fuss was about when I was standing there sobbing into my tea.

Duanington

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Great stuff D a great pb and report and great to see you back on form again.

Thanks A - and thanks for the support on the course :-)

Duanington

04.02.2018


Monday

Long run night again, straight out from work, 4 miles to home, ditched the backpack and carried on with the run. Headed back down the coast and went up St Lawrence’s road, back down the Howth Road, before heading back up the Malahide road.
There are plenty of good drags around the coast if you look hard enough, the drawback is that you are running on concrete 
Legs tired a little over the last 2\3 miles and to be honest, while I enjoyed this run, I was glad it was done at 13.1 miles
(7.37 pace)

Tuesday

Nipped out to Ringsend park on my lunch to run some very easy stuff on the grass there, 4\5 loops did the trick, very enjoyable run

5.1 miles @ 8.35 pace

Wednesday

Lunchtime was out with regards to running and I had to make a dinner at 7.30 which meant I had to get out the door from work at 5 to squeeze in my session.

Plan was for:

2x800 (5.45 pace), 4x1 mile (6 min pace), 2x800 ( 5.45 pace. All off 2 minutes active recovery

I decided to chance my arm with the track at Irishtown for this, plan was to run there, run the session then run home. I honestly couldn’t think of anywhere else to run this on the way home anyway.

Thankfully I had no problem getting a lane when I got to the track, so got the rest of a warmup sorted ( taking note of the strong wind blowing down the straights) then got started.

The 2x800s came and went, blew a bit too hard, worked a little too hard into the wind but these were straightforward enough.

The 4x1 miles felt good, the wind on the straights was tough to run into and nice to run with, I was very focused on staying in control and not overcooking these. I did check the watch every lap or so just to monitor the pace and had to adjust every now and then.

The last 2x800s were tough, a couple of people had started working on the track so maybe their presence made me work that little bit harder or maybe because I was tiring rapidly, I worked harder? Either way...I worked too hard!

A really good session, worked hard throughout and the wind provided some extra resistance but to be honest, I felt in control all the way..tough but good. A bit more volume in there than there has been in recent weeks which added some fatigue but I managed that well.

Ran a mile or so very easy to finish up and took the offer of a lift home, picked up some good tips on recovery fuel along the way too ;-)

Splits:
800s (pace) 5.36, 5.37
Miles (pace 5.52, 5.53, 5.53, 5.53
800s (pace) 5.17, 5.19


Thursday

St Anne’s with FBOT for an easy hour or so, mostly on the grass, good chats, good run.

Friday

Another easy hour, after work this time. Ran to the house from work and tagged on another couple of miles along the coast.

7.2 easy miles

Saturday

BHAA Garda XC ( Phoenix Park)

Another XC race that myself and L had looked at as one which would provide a tough, honest workout on the way through to Berlin. I knew the loop used on this one and it’s up there with the toughest around really, plenty of hills to go up and down which would hopefully test the strength and dip into the hurt reserve.

Jumped onboard DNS bus with Murph and FBOT to arrive nice and early at race HQ, got registered nice and early and after hanging around for a bit we jogged our way over to the park in the strong baltic breeze for a “warmup”. Given that we were all still freezing after the warmup, we did another....then another little bit...still freezing.

Met up with a few other familiar faces, including a few lads from work who had come out to run ( one of whom is a very handy runner who I pipped to the post in Tymon) then we got ourselves lined up for the off.

After a short delay in the starting area, we were off. The course was basically 1 shorter loop, down towards the magazine fort, into the rumbling hills there, back up alongside the Khyber through the forest, first of climbing that horrible hill then darting back down through the muck in the forest, sharp left and back towards the magazine forts.
Then it’s into two longer loops were instead of taking the sharp left, its a sharp right, up a steep climb and all the way up the long drag to the top of the Khyber, left around the forest and all the way back to the magazine fort.

I got off to a reasonable start, felt a little crowded at first but after a couple of hundred metres, there was a lot more room to move and I settled into a group from there. The surface along the first 600 metres or so was great to be fair, when we took the sharp left at the magazine fort it got a lot softer and I found myself skipping around people here, keen not to let it slow the momentum too much.
We plunged into the muck on the first steep climb down to the bottom of the first hill and the field almost ground to a halt when we were faced with that first climb back out, the wind was very apparent here too so I didn’t overcook it here but did kick a little and allowed myself to pass another couple of bodies. By the time I got to the top, I was blowing hard and regretting that kick a little!

Support here was great and we moved into the trees over the mud and roots, slip sliding our way down along by the Khyber. I was holding position steady now, moving well but blowing a little harder than I had been in Tymon, can’t say I was filled with confidence as we took the last climb into the end of the first loop

I was keen to take advantage of the good surface along the start\finish area so did open the stride up here and made some ground up but I was starting to feel the effort by the time we got to the magazine fort again and Gosh skipped by me pretty effortlessly, taking a couple of runners with him.
I didn’t panic though, kept pushing on without going nuts, I knew we had some big hills to go and wasn’t going to burn myself out just yet ( plus he's a quality runner who has quality speed!). Back down to the bottom of the hills through the muck, sharp left and up we went again, f*ck that hurt...I kicked a little again, making up a couple of places and resisted the urge to ease up at the top, “keep the legs working D”.

Back down through the trees, it was pretty slippy here and I was glad of the spikes now, sharp right instead of the left and again I made up a place or two here. Into the wind and up that drag beside the Khyber, this was tough going now. I could feel the beginnings of a stitch but the legs felt ok, no burning or no real fatigue yet...maybe they were numb with the cold!

Left off the Khyber, heading back towards the fort and with the wind at our backs now the pace really started to lift, I instinctively opened the stride up a bit and closed down a group ahead with G and another runner I recognised.

Going by the start\finish area, starting the last loop, I was working very hard, moving very well so when workmate when by me I did briefly thing that would be the last I’d see of him but we exchanged a muffled word of encouragement and down we went back down to the muddy depths of the hills by the fort.

By the time we reached the climb back out, I noticed that I had closed the gap on workmate so I decided to kick on up by him and another runner, really pumping the legs now to make up the ground up the hill but also blowing like a madman as a result. By the time we got to the top, I’d closed on G too, I could see him slip sliding his way up through the muck and didn’t seem to be getting much purchase. Into the forest and I had gone back out to the front of our group.

I pushed on down the drop along the edge of the tree line, took the sharp right and really focused on turning the legs over going up that sharp decent, a few back markers must have heard me because they turned in unison and stepped aside to let me pass, I was playing a very simple game now, focusing on lifting and moving my legs, no dragging, no slacking, lift fast and push! ( sounds simple but xc really is simple!)

I could hear the group behind me chasing me up the pass so I was really keen to get some more ground between us by the time we turned out onto the flat stretch. As soon as I got to the turn, I accelerated into it, forcing my legs to respond, skipped across the path and pushed on by a runner.

The surface here is such a relief to the legs so I really went for it from here, opening the tap up and seeing what was left.
This is a bruising course with the climbs and drops, the wind and the cold but the finish really is fantastic, the surface is soft but flat and full of bounce, letting you see what's left.
I couldn’t hear anyone behind me but could see a Drogheda runner about 50 yards ahead so pumped the arms and went after him, legs were starting to burn now, lungs were flat out too, I put the squeeze on and tried to ignore the knowledge that there was nobody behind me ( which was hard because the supporters were telling me as much !) but ultimately couldn’t catch the runner ahead, crossed the line in just over 24 minutes for 16th place and yet another quality workout.

Splits:
6.08
6.13
5.56
5.55

Watched the lads finish up and went for warm down jog back down to race HQ, some really solid runs in the group today and everyone seemed happy with their lot.
Plenty of tay and cakes to aid the recovery and a little bit of champion recovery food in the car on the way home, not good enough for MurphD apparently.

Sunday

Out this evening for some very easy miles along the coast, perfect evening for it with crisp air and no breeze. Bumped into FBOT and KennyG for a bit but to avoid overdoing the miles today, I skipped off early and headed for home

Plenty of core work to add to a very good week this week, 58 miles all in

OOnegative

Need a cigar to keep that Murph lad happy by all accounts, great weeks running as per usual and top performance on the mud D.

Swashbuckler

It sounds like heaven and hell all in one. Fantastic running. Sounds like a different level of pain and effort altogether. I either forgot or didn't know you were targeting Berlin. Any time in mind or too early to say?

Duanington

OOnegative wrote: »

Need a cigar to keep that Murph lad happy by all accounts, great weeks running as per usual and top performance on the mud D.

Thanks B, half expected to see you at this one

Duanington

Swashbuckler wrote: »

It sounds like heaven and hell all in one. Fantastic running. Sounds like a different level of pain and effort altogether. I either forgot or didn't know you were targeting Berlin. Any time in mind or too early to say?

Yeah, probably just straighforward hell during and a bit of heaven on reflection P.

Well I'm down fro the Berlin half in April and then the full in September, working towards a shot at sub 1.20 in the half and its too early to say for the full just yet ( I'll answer that one first week in Sept! :P

OOnegative

Duanington wrote: »

Thanks B, half expected to see you at this one

Not when i’m living in Holland D.

Wubble Wubble

Well done there DD, excellent run and report. Nice to meet you beforehand.

OOnegative

I see your down for playing in the mud again tomorrow D, have a great race. Run well!!

OOnegative

Top 30 in a National race is a massive achievement, plus knowing the caliber of some those you left in your wake makes it even better. Very well done DD.

adrian522

Great stuff, Thanks also for the support in the masters race!

Duanington

Monday

Long day at the office and I was tired getting out for this one, kept the pace right down to start with and it picked up naturally as the system woke up.

7.3 miles easy

Tuesday

Not such a long day at the office but still a little jaded getting out and heading for home. Had company for the second half of the run which brightened things up nicely.

7.6 miles easy

Wednesday

I’m involved in the running group in work ( naturally) and had setup a lunch-time track session for the group to take part in with some coaches from Dublin clubs. I’d been looking forward to this and I’d agreed with L that we’d work with whatever session came our way today and adjust the week accordingly ( I had a feeling the volume would be light enough given it was our first time doing this kind of thing anyway). Jogged our way from the office down to Irishtown and after some dynamic drills, we broke up into groups. Myself and 2 other lads putting our hands up for some slightly more intense stuff than the rest of the group.

The session as it turned out was 3x300s, 600, 3x300s, 600 – all off 60 seconds. Not a lot of volume but I ran this much quicker than I normally would, chasing around the track after a sub 2.40 marathon man. Was feeling it in the legs by the last 600 but delighted with the session after.

3x300s: 58, 61, 61
600: 1.57
3x300s: 60, 57, 58
600: 1.57

Jogged back to the office and then ran home very easy later on in the day just to flush out the legs a little


Thursday

10 easy miles around St Anne’s, stayed mainly on the grass for this and was sluggish for the first half of the run, not sure if I was fighting off one of the multiple bugs in the house at the moment or if it was the hangover from the faster stuff on the track but it took until mile 7\8 before I felt I got going here

10.1 easy miles

Friday

Run home from work, added a little bit – 7.2 easy miles, a little less sluggish than the previous day

Saturday

Made my way down to Parkrun to jog around the course, left it too late and missed the start but I latched onto Yaboya for a bit towards the end of his first lap, thought better of sticking with him as he was bombing along at 6 minute pace….backed off and jogged the rest then ran a mile or so with the rest of DNS crew on their warmdown.
5 easy miles

Sunday

National Intermediate XC Championships - 28th place, (4th scorer for Dublin - county bronze

Woke up Sunday morning and I just was not looking forward to this, I can’t quite put my finger on why to be honest. The weather was bad ( I was staying in Athlone overnight at a family do) and I knew the course would be crap but I’m not sure if it was that or if it was just a touch of old fashioned pre race nerves but if I had received word that the race was off, I’d have been pretty content to get stuck into a bit more breakfast and put the feet up in front of the TV for the day. Part of the reason for jumping in on these races though was to take me out of my comfort zone a little and I knew once I got out into the thick of things, I’d be grand …or at least I’d have no choice but to get on with it!

Arrived down to Clarinbridge nice and early, watched some of the Men’s masters race and the Inter women ( missed the masters women), the place was a mess to be honest, the route itself actually looked fine in terms of elevation, a couple of drags but no long climbs to speak of…..the ground was destroyed though, people were really struggling to run at all, it was almost farcical – I saw a few fallers and couple of people in a pretty bad way at the end of the masters race.

Got my number, made my way over to the Raheny tent ( yeah right !) and got ready for a warmup. It turns out that we were way down on numbers for our Inter team because of illness so before we even got going, we all knew that we only had 3 of the required 4 runners to field a team. I had no idea what to expect from the race really, I knew there would be a good standard for sure but 5 miles across the churned up mud was going to be a pretty draining affair for everyone involved.

After a bit of a warmup, we lined up in the starting area and before any real delay, we were off.

The next 2\3 minutes were a bit bizarre to be honest, there was nothing to run on, it was just slop everywhere, we wound our way around a couple of bends, nobody knew what line to take because the shortest route was naturally the thickest mud, I went wide once or twice but found I was losing too much ground so decided to just stick to the inside and plough through it as best I could.

The effort levels were right up already and we were less than half of a mile in. Heading up the slight incline, there was a slight improvement in the surface but it was oh so slight. There were plenty of moans and groans from runners around me already so I was very aware that I was not the only one that felt like I was trying to run knee deep through an oil spill.

Around the loop at the top of the incline and it was relentless, the pace was shockingly slow but the effort levels were rising… little hills felt like monstrous climbs, I could feel a stitch coming on as I made my way back down towards the start\finish area. Lots of Raheny support along this stretch and it did help a little , I was a good bit back from the business end of things and the other two Raheny lads too but I wasn’t concerned at all at this stage, coming into the end of the first mile, I knew this was going to be a long tough slog.

Back around to the worst section on the course, it was just crazy muddy here, I was struggling to get any grip at all and noticed a couple of shoeless people ahead of me, probably not the worst idea in the world as it felt like I had my own weight in mud caked onto my spikes. It’s a bit of a blur now but I do remember thinking that I was pushing a little too hard given how long we still had to run in this stuff, I didn’t exactly ease off but I did try to control the breathing a bit more and stopped trying to make up any places.

We made our way back up the incline and once I found a stretch of surface ( can’t call it grass!) that allowed me to lengthen my stride just a little and move around a group. I settled back into position and worked my way through a chicane before we headed back down along the straight with all the support there. Again, lots of encouraging shouts from clubmates here but this was hurting like nothing before, the ground here was a mess but at least it was a straight, it was surreal because I knew the pace was pedestrian and yet here we were, busting a gut, managing stitches, pumping the arms, driving the legs and getting nowhere fast.

Back around for the third lap and somebody is shouting “two to go lads, two to go”….ugh, 2 more to go !

Back in through the worst section and I was working hard just to hold some kind of form and keep everything moving, people were starting to drop off now and a runner went out on his ear just ahead, he got up, laughed and got going again – it was all he could do in fairness to him. I moved drew level with R from our club here and we worked our way up the incline, around the chicanes before pushing I pushed on a little back down the straight, lots and lots of support here from all corners and people were now telling us that we were in the scoring for the county, which should have been great but I didn’t care at the time !

The field had become totally spread out by the time we entered the worst part of the course for the last time, I was basically on my own, trying to keep pushing and drive through the discomfort, nobody immediately behind me but I had worked my way through the field quite a bit over the last lap and was now starting to make up some ground on a few runners I knew were a lot quicker than me over the road.

Up the incline for the last time and the support was great, I moved up a couple of places here, headed into the chicane at the top, held position until we hit the straight and I moved by a couple of more people. I was really fighting here to put in some kind of surge for the last 400 metres or so – it wasn’t much in terms of pace but it was certainly enough to take a few scalps, into the last 200 and I was going toe for toe with a lad from Celbridge, I moved ahead, he responded, I moved ahead again and he responded. We almost crawled around onto the finishing straight and there was just no kick there at all, I couldn’t get either foot out of the mud quick enough so it was just a case of keeping everything pumping and trudging my way right through to the finish, he nipped in ahead of me just before the line, fair play to him. I was spent, stopped the watch, 28th position and congratulated the clubs first finisher ( who ended up with no shoes at all!).

No 4th runner meant no team for the club unfortunately but I did finish high enough up the field to score for Dublin ( 4th scorer from 6) and helped secure bronze. The other two lads from the club both finished in the top 6 too so all was not lost. A really tough race, right up there with the toughest I’ve ever done but also very satisfying in that I was in and around some quality runners and took some scalps that I wouldn’t have expected to, mud is a great leveler.

The scene at the finish line immediately after finishing was throwback to the old Witness days in Punchestown….people lying flat out in the mud, some bent over puking, some wrapped in tin foil ( it was freezing !)…carnage!
I was tired, sore, stiff, cold and starving by the end, a beaten man !

I hung around a bit to applaud some more finishers before heading off to collect my medal with the club and hit the road for home.

This was a race of attrition really, a day for just digging in, working hard and forgetting about speed or pace…. and one I won’t forget in a hurry.

OOnegative

Sounds like you enjoyed it D!! A National medal to boot, serious stuff, well done again.

Wubble Wubble

Great report, seems like it was a real battle for all who took it on. Having to go around the long lap four times after hundreds of others had churned it up hardly helped! Congrats on the bronze. Recover well.

Swashbuckler

As always, belter of a race. Well done on the medal.

Annie get your Run

Brilliant report DD, and wowsers, that sounds damn tough, fair play for fighting it out, taking those scalps and winning a county medal :cool:

Singer

Savage race and report. Classic cross country stuff