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Confessions of a never has been.....
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UnrealDuanington wrote: »04.11.2018
Thursday
9 miles all easy around St Anne's
Enjoyed this, stuck to the grass and was lost in a world of my own for most of it
Friday
WFH again today, had company for the first run of the day with the youngest jumping on her bike for it.
5.6 miles nice and easy
PM - out again with Abbs on the bike, just over 5 miles nice and easy again
Saturday
Easy stuff on the grass again, legs feeling a bit meh from solid week so I ran a few strides to wake them up a tad. nice and controlled and pertty short.
6 easy miles
Sunday
Dublin Senior XC – Santry
Got a call from the club during the week asking if I’d tog out for this, initially I laughed to be honest because the standard has been so high in previous years but with so many from the club running well in DCM last week, we had most of our senior lads out recovering – not much point in being in a club if you can’t help out every now and then so I agreed to give it a lash.
Headed over to Santry with plenty of time to spare, caight the under 19s race ( wow, some serious talent there) , did a couple of laps of the course with some clubmates then watched the women’s race ( wow, some serious talent there).
Ran a few strides and did a few drills before the start of the men’s race, settled on not going out like a spacer and get swallowed up. Looking around the starting area, there were a lot of lads that I see for 20 seconds or so at the start of road races and a lot of clubs had obviously targeted this one, knowing that clubs line Raheny had so many running the marathon last week.
The ground was in good nick but this was still a cross country race, a couple of nasty drags at the back of the course with a nice stretch through the start\finish area, there were a couple of softer spots that would pull away at the legs int the latter stages.
In my mind, I knew there were a couple of people I could target over the 2nd half of the race but I wouldn’t worry if they got away from me over the first half, 10k is a long way to go over the grass and there would be a big drop off in pace as the race went on.
Slightly ahead of schedule, we lined up and we were off...I resisted the urge to charge to the front of the group and settled in towards the back of the pack, the pace felt good as we charged through the start\finish area, plenty of trees around here, the ground was hard but just about warranted the spikes.
Down the slope towards the Airport end of the field and there was a big enough drop down a hill and a sharp left, struggling to remember much about this on the first lap but I do remember that I wasn’t far from the very back of the group.
Through the ditches and a left swerve back up the drag, I remember thinking how this was going to hurt people later on and would get harder each time we passed it ( 7 times) – steady as she goes, D – let them go and hold this pace. I knew we were flying along pace-wise but there was a temptation to go after a few lads ahead that I had to resist for a bit. Up the drag, plenty of club support here, bit of a winding stretch to the top of the course, turn left and more twisting and turning back towards the start\finish area.
“ 6 laps to go lads” – Jaysus
Back through the start\finish area and down the drop towards the airport end and the left turn into the ditches, the watch beeped, I didn’t look
Mile 1 – 5.39
Through the ditches, swung the left and started working up the drag, a couple of heads came back to me here without me having to dig in too much but it was still very early days. I’d made a little bit of progress through the field but was probably sitting just outside the scoring positions (6) for the club. The coaches and club members along this tough stretch were giving great support and telling us where we were in the field, I think one or two knew exactly what I was doing too because there was plenty of reassurance that I was moving well and starting to pick people off. Through the trees and the winding stretch back towards the start\finish area again
“5 laps to go lads” .....
Through the crowd and down towards the airport end, another couple of runners were coming back to me now and the field was really starting to spread out, down the drop, through the ditches and left back up to start the drags towards the top of the route.
Mile 2 – 5.50
The drag hurt a little more this time and sure enough, it slowed a few people up ahead that I had my eye on. Rather than pushing up through the drag just yet, I held my pace, focused on form and turning the legs over, it did the trick and got me a couple of places further up the field.
Coaches and clubmates were giving great shouts of encouragement as we ran towards the top of the route, a sharp left, over a footpath and I could hear the gap back to the next runner behind me had opened, sometimes its the little things in XC that give you confidence. Another couple of sharp lefts, back towards the trees and the start\finish area...
“4 laps to go lads”...f*ck
We were well and truly into the thick of this now and it was hurting, 4 more laps of this? It felt like we’d run the 10k already and the self pity was starting to set in! I regained focus on the way down to the ditches and the left turn, steadied myself for the climb back up but this time, I pushed a little harder, sensing the slowing runners ahead. Jaysus this was really hurting but the momentum was with me and I knew the lads ahead were slowing with the drag.
It didn’t go un-noticed on the sideline that I’d pulled alongside our 6th scorer now and a couple of lads that I know are mid 34 10k men, do I stay or push on? Stay or push on....I dug in just a little more at the top of the route and took a few places wide on a bend, sharp left into the twisting section headed back to the start\finish area.
“ 3 laps to go”....ah here
3 laps? Have I got 3 laps left in me? Surely I cannot hold on to this for another 3 laps?....Focus, D – everyone is hurting here, get on with the job.
Heading out of the start\finish area and the support was great here again, down to the ditches, sharp left, nobody near me here really – a couple of runners up ahead though so I set a target of catching them before the end of this lap.
Mile 3 – 5.52
Up the drag, had to drive the legs a bit here and it stung, focused on form and turnover, shifting the legs as quick as I could do avoid that side to side thing I do when I’m wrecked. That hurt, the lungs weren’t thanking me and neither were the legs
The lads were coming back now though, 1 Crusaders and 1 Donore, two lads I’ve seen before at BHAA stuff and I know they’re strong runners. I drew level and the end of the first drag and took them both on the 2nd drag, great shouts from the club crew here, they were loving it and I could see our next scorer up ahead. I was gassing out though, the Crusaders lad had responded when I went by and was tucking in just behind me. Left turn, over the path, his footsteps a second or two behind, I drove the legs a little coming back towards the start\finish area, trying to get a gap going but he followed me and was sticking to me like glue
“2 laps to go lads” – I wonder to these things ever get called off mid-race?
Our next scorer was coming back a little to me and by the time we had gone through the start\finish area, the crowd were telling me that I was picking people off, I could feel the form slipping a little here and tried to focus on getting that right, breathing right and turning the legs over well. Down to the ditches, left turn, start of the drag and I felt like death heading back up the drag, drove the legs though and made a bit of a gap on Crusader, closing in a little more on my clubmate.
Mile 4 – 5.56
Great support again, people were obviously responding to just how wiped out we all looked, I’ve never run 10k over cross country and this was burning every sinew in my body, I was chasing people, people were chasing me, people on the sideline were roaring at me to push on, to drive it home....all I wanted was a cup of tea.
Top of the course, winding section, sharp left, sharp right, over the path, footsteps close behind, clubmate just about level.
“ 1 lap to go lads” – right, one last push for another place or 2, D
Down to the ditches, great support on the way, I’m hurting like fock now, driving the legs up the drag, moved past my clubmate and immediately focus on another runner ahead. Crusaders is still with me though, staying close and I can hear him hurting too
Mile 5 – 6.03
Huge roars of approval from the club crowd as I emerge over the top of the drag, I know we’re well into the last mile now and I’m pushing again, driving into the corners and not letting up coming out, while the surface was perfect today, there are so many turns over most xc courses that it pulls away at the legs and you just lose so much energy from each stride with no bounce back from the ground.
Over a path, footsteps are 3\4 seconds away now, be relentless now D, don’t let up...I don’t ...it’s taking everything I have but I don’t, through the trees...past lap count man who says “ last 300”
Less than a lap of Irishtown, I start to wind it up and I know I’ve lost him, I can’t catch the lad ahead but I want to make sure I don’t slip up here, big shout from the crowd as I finish, ears back, arms pumpng, legs turning over very well.
Mile 6 – 5.54
Last bit – 5.05 pace
35.49 for the 10k, 5th scorer for the team
I stopped the watch, thought I heard the timekeeper say 39 and thought, jaysus that wasn’t bad for 10k on the grass. Happy enough with myself, I walk through the finishing chute, catch my breath and start chatting to the lads.
The usual talk started up about some having the course long, some having it slightly short. “Its cross country though, I’ll check mine” – couldn’t believe it when I saw the time, its a PB for me over the distance and while my watch did actually show that route was just under the full 10k, I’m reliably informed that it was actually measured to the full 10k.
Anyway, the time is not the important part of xc races, its all about positioning. I ran well today, wasn’t out of my league despite the quality field and came through the field very well over the 2nd half and made 5th scorer for the team, not sure exactly where I finished overall though.
That was about as tough a race as I’ve run this year, maybe the national inters aside - looks like we just missed out on 3rd position but the signs are good going into the winter
Just over 10 miles all in today with warmup\down – bringing the week to just under 70. Really good week.0 -
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Well done! I actually got to put a face to your username from the sidelines - my brother is a clubmate of yours (he had chickened out
) and I realised who you were from his cheering you on! You did great, we had been watching your battle with the other two lads from your club, especially considering you hadn't been feeling the best. Looked an absolute beast of a race to be honest. 0 -
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Well done! I actually got to put a face to your username from the sidelines - my brother is a clubmate of yours (he had chickened out) and I realised who you were from his cheering you on! You did great, we had been watching your battle with the other two lads from your club, especially considering you hadn't been feeling the best. Looked an absolute beast of a race to be honest.
Thank you ! Hmmm, there were a few names from the club that I was surprised didn't line up ( currently comparing those against people I spotted on the sideline to figure out your brother's identity !) - to be fair, its a fairly intimidating race to take part in. The two lads are great, really strong runners, the slower course probably helped me nip by them0 -
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Friday
Crazy early start to work today, planned on running with one of the lads from the office at 7 am, forgot the gear
Got out instead later that evening with the youngest on her bike for company, ran 7 very easy miles with some strides thrown in with some focus on form etc
Saturday
A few easy miles around the PP with AMK, FBOT and Murph before they headed off to run jingle bells, I did some supporting, had some chats with heaps of boardsies then headed off with AMK for a few more easy miles
Lovely stuff
7.2 miles
Sunday
Dublin Intermediate XC (8k), 16th
Another weekend, another cross country race. This would be the last one of the current set and while I had only planned on running 2 XC races over the course of the last 4 weeks, the 2 snr races were just opportunities that I wasn’t going to turn down. ( they also still fit in with the overall plan)
Really wasn’t feeling the love for this one if I’m honest, the week had been crazy, the nationals last week with the long run the day after had left me feeling like I was pinned right up against that line of pushing hard and being stupid. It’s a tricky one to get right because the truth is, there really isn’t a distinct line as such, its more of a hazy spectrum….Wednesday’s session was tough going, legs like concrete and a tough day too ( wind), the easy stuff is always very easy but even after 10 hours sleep on Saturday night, I was tired – that’s a tell tale sign for me, I do have a down week planned next week to absorb the racing and miles and to let the body recover before another set of tough weeks to ramp up towards Seville.
Anyway, after feeling sorry for myself for long enough, I got into the car and got myself over to Tymon, met the lads, got changed and headed for a loop of the course. It was in pretty good nick but it was probably the most technical course I’d come across yet, lots of sharp turns, sharp drops and even sharper climbs, the odd chicane and a very sneaky sweeping bend on a gradual drag. The surface was soft but holding up well to be fair…there were also a couple of sections with wood chip\mulch that would definitely slow things down for everyone as the race wore on.
Overall, this was shaping up to be another old school xc course, 2 or 3 sections in particular were going to hurt like hell over the 2nd half of the race so I knew it would silly to go out too hard.
Ran a couple of miles warmup with the lads from the club and with Gosh who used to frequent these parts, we’d a decent team out but I knew from talking to other people that a couple of clubs were targeting this and had a red circle around the date on the calendar for months now, I’d seen the finishing list from last year and this field looked a lot bigger which confirmed that clubs were fielding bigger teams this year ( we had 6 runners). Said a quick hello to RayCun and a few others from around the place and got myself ready to rock.
Before long we were off, starting out on some high ground, good surface and off through some hedges, before dropping sharply and to the right down a natural chute onto a playing field ( GAA? Can’t remember now!)
I found it manic at the start, really crowded and slightly more frantic than usual, maybe people were rushing to get down that through that gap into the playing fields for a bit of space. Anyway, I held position despite the shouts from DH on the sideline to attack the race. Surface didn’t feel quite as sturdy on the playing fields as it had during the warmup, its amazing how quickly it can start to cut up once you put a few dozen lads to work on it!
Around the playing fields we went, I was sitting just behind Ian, in 4th position for the club and working hard. A sweeping bend at the end of the field and we were coming back towards the gap we had come down through, this was going to be the first of the really sharp climbs so I moved forward a couple of places to give myself some room to attack it. The climb is actually gradual enough to start with, into a chicane at first but then there’s a sharp right, and straight into a nasty climb but its over before you know it…running on high ground again, sweeping left before another sharp right and a longer but less steep hill….turning left, still running just behind Ian and its down a huge drop, the kind of drop that is hard to keep your footing on but down we go and I tried not to overcook it this time, focusing on transitioning into a smooth stride once we get to the bottom.
We get a good view of the leaders from here as we run around another open field, we’re mid-pack, plenty ahead and plenty behind but lots of work to do, this course is tough and we’re not even 1 lap in. Looping the field, we run across the mulch section which does indeed slow us down, before darting left and up another sharp climb and into a nice straight towards the finish area.
Mile 1: 5.56
The support is great on the course, it’s one of the things that I relish when running for the club but Jaysis it hurts to respond to it ! We sweep by the finish area, taking a wide left turn and up the discrete drag to the higher ground. 1 lap down and 3 to go…
Back through the gap again, the course has already started to cut up noticeably, some great shouts from the sidelines here as we head for the entrance to the playing field, Ian and myself are running side by side and starting to take a few places, he leads the charge down into the sharp drop into the playing fields then I moved ahead to take some of the workload as we skipped past some bodies on the way around the field. The ground had softened quite a bit at the back of the field and 1 or 2 lads are obviously struggling in it, I pushed on, feeling the pinch but knowing that we can’t really ease up at all here. Ian moved ahead again before the chicane and led the charge up the sharp climb for the second time. I scrambled up after him, great shouts of encouragement from the crowd here.
There really was no time to catch your breath at all before swinging around a couple of bends and taking another steep climb, the surface was muddy here now and I was glad of the spikes. Side by side with Ian by the time we hit the top, I took a big, beautiful gasp of air before we darted back down the crazily steep drop onto the open field again. Gradually, gaps were starting to appear in front of us, I’d take a place….push on, then Ian would do the same, this was seriously tough going but we were starting to make some progress. Over the mulch again, up the sharp climb to the finishing straight, it was nice to open up the stride here, once again we had great support from the crowd and were pushing each other on nicely.
Mile 2: 5.53
Around the back of the finishing area, up the sneaky drag and we were back on higher ground again, keeping the stride opened up and making ground on the group ahead. I noticed a couple of very strong runners in the group but also spotted that they were a little closer now, down the chute we went, over the mulch and onto the playing fields, I think I moved ahead of Ian around here and kept pushing on, spotted a gap between 2 very strong Brother’s Pearse lads and went through it, I had to keep the legs kicking as I did so because I knew at least one of them would come after me.
Mile 3: 5.53
Coming back through the chicane and fighting my way back up that horrible little climb, I could tell from the shouts of the crowd that I’d put a bit of a gap between myself and the 2 lads, I could also see our 2nd place runner up ahead and told myself that he had to be the target now.
Left, sharp right, up another steep climb, left, down the big drop and I was alongside our number 2 now, I urged him to stay with me as I went by, kicking my way around the bend, could I keep this going for another mile or so? I doubted it at the time but I was encouraged by moving into 2nd for our team and hoped that the lads would come after me. Running over the mulch felt like running through quicksand this time, the 4 foot climb at the end, felt like 24 foot but when I made the climb, the support was there and waiting, people were shouting at me telling me what I already knew, I was making very good ground and taking a lot of good scalps in the process.
Mile 4: 5.53
Coming up the drag to the higher ground, I was responding to shouts directed at other club runners “ move past him now”, “you’ll take him before the next turn”…..each shout brought a response and I refused to be passed each time, in doing so it obviously brought me closer to the runner ahead.
Things were very spread out heading around the playing field, I went wide around a bend to kick past a crusaders athlete, he was blowing hard but I was struck at how f*cked I sounded compared to him !
Back to the chicane and I almost had to use my hands to get me up over the climb, it stung the quads but there was no time to relax at the top, I knew our 1st scorer was ahead and I knew there was at least another 2\3 places we could take before the end.
I caught another Brother’s Pearse runner on the steep, mucky climb and stayed ahead of him as we shot down the sharp drop into the open field. I moved in just behind our first scorer as we rounded that field, drew alongside on the manky mulch and by the time we got to the top of the climb, back to the support, I could smell the finish line, I didn’t know where I was going to get it from but knew I’d have to be quick to get home first.
I didn’t wait around and just went with it, ears back, got myself into the racing line and chased after the lad ahead ( Sportsworld I think), he had a good gap on us but I was closing it. It was really taking everything I had to keep this up, heart racing, lungs and legs burning but I couldn’t catch him ultimately, he had too much of a gap on us and was finishing well himself.
I crossed the line and sucked in lots of glorious air 😊
.9 mile at 5.40 pace
8k in 28.4
We finished 5th overall, beaten well by the teams above to be fair, BP had a fantastic race, really pushing at the pointy end of things and working that 4th man spot really well too. There’ll be other days for us I’m sure.
On a personal note, I was delighted with the run, I worked hard from start to finish and never really let up on the effort levels, I was confident I would finish strong with the tough course but surprised myself a little by just how many places I made up over the last 1.5 miles or so.
That’s the end of cross country for a few weeks for me, I may run a couple of races in January but only if I can make them work with some more marathon specific sessions in the week, time to be a little selfish.
Warmdown etc brought the week to a close with 70 miles and a lot of quality0 -
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Swashbuckler wrote: »Some day I'll figure out the secret.
Great going . Serious grit and determination man. Always impressive.
You've shown that in spades yourself plenty of times over the course of the year P0 -
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