The main thing is keeping the main thing, the main thing

AuldManKing

Friday: 3.7m with 6x20s strides.

Saturday: Clane 10k

I signed up for this race late for a number of reasons;

* There was a 5m tempo scheduled on my plan.
* I dislike 10k's.
* I wanted to get a tough race in prior to Jingle Bells
* I dislike 10k's.

Made it to clane early enough and done about 1.8m with strides, thinking that I hadn't a clue about the course and had not done any race prep or course mapping etc. I felt a bit of a stitch during the warm up, but thought nothing of it.
I made the decision to wear a Skin under my vest for the 1st time ever as it was baltic out!!

Anyway - I lined up at the start line and was set off by Brian C - who was also running it.

After about 200m I found myself in 5th place as the other 4 set off.

We were running into a headwind and the course was a bit bumpy for the 1st few miles - not hills as such - just a bit lumpy. You'd notice it with the breeze.
Mile 1 beeped in 5.53 - I wasn't really watching my watch - it wasn't going to be a PB race and it was going to be just about keeping the effort honest.
Towards the end of mile 2 we turned left onto the Maynooth road where mile 2 beeped at 5.55 - I was quite happy with that. I glanced behind me on the turn and could see noone - I looked ahead and could see noone - so was relying on the stewards to tell me where to go!

Most of the 3rd mile was into a breeze and it was tough, so I allowed myself time to relax - this was a race - I wasn't going to PB - I wasn't going to catch the guy in front and there was no one behind me.................

And this cost me €26

Anyway - I got over that point and kept moving. Mile 3 beeped at 6.09 - I wasn't bothered as we had turned into a bit of the run that was either downhill or had a tailwind - 'cos it felt easier for the effort.

I could see the person in 4th up ahead - he was also on his own, but was a good bit ahead.
Mile 4 beeped at 5.55.

As Mile 4 ended, we turned right and again into the headwind and what seemed like a steady incline. I felt the stitch come back with a vengeance. $hit - why am I getting a stitch I was wondering - thinking then about the effort into the wind and the various bumps.
I thought about the times I had done a 4m tempo run recently at a faster pace and tried to increase the pace to get a different feeling. I was digging my fingers under my ribcage but it wouldn't go away. I then stopped for about 10-15 secs to stretch it out and really pump my fingers into my side - it seemed to do the trick as the stitch went away. I glanced behind me and could see 6th place catching me.

"there's no F@cking way he's passing me at this stage" I thought - "I've been 5th from the start and I'll finish 5th".

I got going again and felt that I had someone to race as he was close - this gave me a different impetuous.
However Mile 5 beeped at 6.26 as a result of the stitch.

As i turned into the last mile - this was obviously the 5k route as I could see a lot of walkers and dogs ahead of me........in large groups.

I kept calling out 'Coming through' as I zig zagged around the masses and avoided dogs leashes, some young lad annoyingly tried to race me for a couple of hundred meters - it took all my civil manners not to tell him where to go................

As I approached the end of this road, I could see a choice of turns - with a steward buried into his phone - 'Which way' I shouted! - thankfully a guy doing his warm down told me (turns out he's on my strava, a friend of DD's and won the 5k) and I kept going.
Mile 6 beeped in 5.55

I was approaching the clubhouse and knew it was nearly over - a steward told me there was a guy gaining on me, so I found an extra gear and ran the last 0.2m at 5.19 pace for a time of 37.28 and I kept 5th place.

I wasn't too enthused about the time after the race - I expected to run under 37 mins, but the mile with the stitch coast me - as did running the entire 10k solo!!
So with some hindsight, I'm quite happy with this as it was a tough day weather wise and the course wasn't great but overall the effort is exactly what I wanted.

Another 1.8m cool down I set off for home.

Sunday: 12m long run - good group out from the club and I enjoyed running with them for about 6-7m before 2 of us went off and picked it up slightly.

12m at 7.55 pace.

53m for the week.

Swashbuckler

No harm in a race like that every now and then to keep you sharp. Stringing some nice consistency together.

AuldManKing

Monday: In the PP for this and my headlamp died while on the lumpy side of the park. Beautiful to run in the moonlight.

7.7m

Tuesday: Session: 5x1km (400m)

Ran from Whites Road at Farmleigh to the exit of the park at St Marys. Started the 1k reps there.
I hadn't realised until midway through the 2nd rep that I wasn't recovered from the weekend. The effort was certainly more than 5k effort.

On the 4th rep, I could feel my calf start to twitch with cramp - something that hasn't happened during a session. So I cut that rep short to 800m.
Took a Little more recovery and chanced the last rep - it went very well and was the fastest of the evening.

Reps were:
5.28 (3.23)
5.38 (3.30)
5.25 (3.25)
5.41 (3.41)
5.23 (3.21)

3.5m back to the car. Knackered.

9.3m total.

Wednesday: An early start (7.10am) listening to Tommy Hughes on RunnerBeans Podcast - a great story I must say.

8.8m at 8.15 pace

Thurs: Rest day

Friday: Session - 8m progression from MP+20s - reducing by 5-10secs each mile.

I was really looking fwd to this, due to the early run on Wed and Thursday off - my legs felt fantastic.

I planned a similar route to the last couple of times I done this - and added on a piece due to the additional mile (7mile 2 weeks ago).

1st 3 miles went ok on the 4th mile I was starting to feel like I was working a bit as I was going up the North Road.
Turned up to the CK gate and back down to the Furze and OS road before going back down Chesterfield to finish.
Was holding on by the end - its certainly a great session.

Progression miles: 6.49/6.43/6.35/6.29/6.23/6.15/6.10/6.01

11.6m @ 7.01 pace

Sat: Due to a party on Sat evening and work travel - I needed to get my long run done on Sat - that would allow me to do a session on Monday before heading to the airport.

Ran down the Canal - got a bit lost in Cabra before going back over the lumpy side of the Phoenix Park and heading home.

15.14m @ 7.59

Back out again later in the day with the dog for an hour - active recovery rocks.

Sunday: Just a few recovery miles and done some hill sprints and strides as I've been somewhat neglecting these recently.

5.5m

59m for the week.


Reading the other logs and texting with Johnny - To do or Not Do Raheny................

Keeping the main thing the main thing?? - I actually don't know what the main thing is leading up to the spring of 2020!!

Is it to get a good 10m result?
Is it to race more before Manchester Marathon (oh yes - I signed up for this )
Is it the Marathon itself (I dont think so?)

Questions to be asked of myself to figure it out.

However, the main thing for 2020 is known: Berlin Marathon

MY BAD

If you're registered for Trim I'd probably leave it at that, but you did both of them last year in solid times... I think you'll be in sub 60 shape for Trim. Would a hard effort in Raheny cost you a sub 60? I think you know yourself what you are capable of doing.

Murph_D

Lost in Cabra! That’s no joke.

AuldManKing

Mellow Yellow 26.2 wrote: »

If you're registered for Trim I'd probably leave it at that, but you did both of them last year in solid times... I think you'll be in sub 60 shape for Trim. Would a hard effort in Raheny cost you a sub 60? I think you know yourself what you are capable of doing.

I'm doing the John Tracey 10m in Dungarvan this year - so want to give it a good rattle.
Not too sure I'll be in sub 60 shape this side of summer - and there in lies the dilemma.

I'm confident of getting a PB in both races, but doing Raheny will certainly hinder any chance of getting close to it.
So its a case of 'is a PB enough in both races' or 'do I want to give the JT10m socks and chase a solid PB' (Be it sub 60 or not).

I think its the latter.......................but I do love Raheny!!

healy1835

AuldManKing wrote: »

Reading the other logs and texting with Johnny - To do or Not Do Raheny................

Keeping the main thing the main thing?? - I actually don't know what the main thing is leading up to the spring of 2020!!

Is it to get a good 10m result?
Is it to race more before Manchester Marathon (oh yes - I signed up for this )
Is it the Marathon itself (I dont think so?)

Questions to be asked of myself to figure it out.

However, the main thing for 2020 is known: Berlin Marathon

I'm in a fairly similar spot to yourself AMK as you know. The 10 mile distance is one that I feel I haven't produced the sort of time I'm capable of running so that's why I think I'll leave Raheny this year, safe in the knowledge that I had a good outing there last year and not running this year should put me in a good position to run well in Trim.
What that will look like I'm not too sure, but after running under 48mins twice in two 8 mile tempos in the DCM block, I'm not going to shy away from going for a fast time.
Berlin (or Amsterdam) will be my main target next year, but Manchester will be a stepping stone to hopefully a big day on the continent next Autumn. You're in a slightly different spot than me in that your Rotterdam Marathon performance was a really consistent and well ran race, a big confidence booster for running well in Berlin. My DCM (& Race Series Half), while I was delighted with the performances and times, was a cautious race, with a decent negative split. I won't break 2:50 in Manchester or 2:45 in Berlin running that kind of race.

AuldManKing

Playing catch up here;

Monday: Session: 3x5mins + 2x2mins @5k pace (Original was 3x1mile)

Ran down to the acres for this one and done 3-4 strides. Started off the 1st rep - feeling ok, but a bit tired due to Saturdays long run.
I made the decision on the fly to change this to 3x5mins - it fits better I think in my mind running for time than distance - its a bit strange as its only 30 secs difference

2nd rep went ok - was dodging mucky puddles at this stage.
On the 3rd rep, I was going into the breeze and my time was going backwards. I stopped to reset myself for 10-20 seconds and tried to run the rest of the rep as relaxed as I could - the difference was amazing. Something I need to be more conscious of - forcing the pace vrs being controlled.

Due to stopping on the 3rd rep - I punished myself by doing 2x2mins at 5k pace - trying to run them relaxed.

All paces were around 5.30 pace - the knowledge that it will be extremley unlikely that I'll hold this pace for a full 5k is valuable, especially at the start where I'll need to go carefully.

7.8m total

Tuesday-Thurs: No running - visiting Suppliers in Amsterdam and Belgium - wined and dined to the hilt.

Friday: Got home around mid-day and I had a 5m tempo on the plan and I thought about leaving it til the Saturday - but that wouldn't suit either, so I just went and done it as a 5x1m T (off 1 min).

I didn't force the reps.
1st rep was the slowest at 6.12 - but the rest were around the 6.05/mile mark.
Wasn't a bad session given the weather as it was pi$$ing down - 1st 3 reps were mostly up the North Road/Chesterfield.

I wore a new pair of Hokas for this and on the last mile rep my achilles was screaming at me - I later found out that they are 5mm drop as opposed to my usual 10-12mm.

10.4m total

Sat: 8m - following Spurs' great victory with the Mighty Jose.

Sunday: Club Run - due to the PP being in an absolute state, we ventured down to Phisboro and up the Canal, with another lap of the PP. Started with a good group and by mile 5 or so was just me & Sarah.
I picked it up for the last 3 miles despite being extremely fatigued.

15m @ 7.36 pace.

A mighty 41m for the week.

Monday: Down to the PP and back - lashing bl00dy rain...........AGAIN.
7.2m @ 8.20 pace

Tuesday: Still very fatigued from the previous weeks escapades and the running since - I was regretting doing the long run and pick upbut hey ho.
I left the session until Wednesday and went on a lunchtime run down the canal and back via the PP.
6x20s strides to finish.

7.2miles

Wednesday: Session-4x(800@5k/400@3k) off 1min/2min

Ran the 3m down to the Conyngham road and used the footpath for this - I was actually dreading it but it turned out ok.

The 800's were at 5:30 pace - 1 min walk - 400's at 5.20 pace - 2mins jog and repeatx4.
3m cool down.

Main takeaways from this:

I HATE 5k training:)

Thursday: About 12-13 hours after my session - I'm up and out again on Thursday morning - 7m at 8.25pace.
Fairly tired, but a rest day on Friday to look fwd to.

In other news:

* Got my old man time entry for Berlin 2020 - looking fwd to that.

* Sorted a new'ish plan for Manchester - helps with 10m/HM races prior as well. (well - its tempos initially then MP onwards....simple really)

* Entered into Raheny (still to decide if I'll run it).

* Entered into Bohermeen as a race.

* Might do Mullingar HM on 17th March as a session.

Up to date.

MY BAD

AuldManKing wrote: »

I HATE 5k training:)

scotindublin

Those 800s on Conyngham are tough. You may know this already but on the footpath on the Park Side of the road across from Donore every 100m is marked out on the footpath; the start point is at one of the poles just after the bus stop. They are marked up to 1 mile.

Some more faded than others but might be useful at some stage.

C



Ran the 3m down to the Conyngham road and used the footpath for this - I was actually dreading it but it turned out ok.

The 800's were at 5:30 pace - 1 min walk - 400's at 5.20 pace - 2mins jog and repeatx4.
3m cool down.

Main takeaways from this:[/quote]

AuldManKing

scotindublin wrote: »

Those 800s on Conyngham are tough. You may know this already but on the footpath on the Park Side of the road across from Donore every 100m is marked out on the footpath; the start point is at one of the poles just after the bus stop. They are marked up to 1 mile.

Some more faded than others but might be useful at some stage.

C

[/QUOTE]

Yep - thats were I do them! Starting at the 1600 mark beside the bus stop!

AuldManKing

Friday: Zilch - Nada - Nothing - except a family night in town for my younger girls 17th!.......thats a 1 and a 7. My youngest is 17 ....... jeez.

Saturday: Session - The plan had an 8m progression - but due to the fatigue, I reckoned I'd get to 5 miles before canning it.
My alternate plan was do to 4 or 5 mile progression, then make it over to the Acres and do the Jingle bells loop as a progressive Tempo.

I done a 2 mile warm up and started off on the Progression - I got to 4 miles in 6:50/6:40/6:28/6:20 before stopping and doing 1 mile steady (7.03 pace) and then starting the split pace on the JB route.
1st 5min took me to the corner of the Furze road (6.08 pace) - I took 1 min static rest, then off again.
2nd 5 min took me to just before the corner of the Glen (6.02 pace). Again - another 1 min recovery.
3rd and final segment took me down into the glen and out on the hill, to recover on the downhill (5.50 pace).

I was happy enough with this - the 3rd segment gave me pause for thought as the incline out of the glen will be tough at 5k pace - but its 90 seconds long - so in the overall scheme of things, not too bad.

12.2 miles at 7.12 pace total

Finished November with 229 miles.

Sunday: Up early'ish with 'good legs' for a change and down to meet whoever turned up at the club run. only a few of us today and I was going to keep it easy to manage the fatigue.
Kept the pace easy and let my usual running buddy off on her own, resisting the urge to go faster.

Pace was nice and the legs felt great during and after.

10.6m at 8.16 pace.

54m for the week.

AuldManKing

Interesting reading some other logs this evening as it hits with some of my own thoughts recently.

I've been 'guilty' of singling out races in the past as goal races and then running terribly in a few of them.

When I think to some of the recent 5ks that I've just turned up and ran vrs those I've trained for - the difference is about 4-7 seconds.
Is that worth the specific training, the additional sacrifice, the worrying before hand?? I dont know.

For next weeks Jingle bells - it'll be a great learning experience for me, I ran the Bob Heffernan in May off Marathon training and some makey uppy sessions and ran 17:35. My PB is only 10 seconds faster.
I've trained specifically for this race next week - so I'm keen to see how I go and if specific training yields results or is it more about giving it a season of specific training with some build up races? (which I'm less likely to do as I dont enjoy 5k training).

I think next year, I'll target a time period - rather than a specific race and look to peak for that time period and race a few times within a 6-7 week window.

OOnegative

If my Half PB is better than yours, *you’re doing something wrong!!

*were i meant to say.

OOnegative

Best of luck Saturday Alan, run well man!!

AuldManKing

Monday: 2nd Dec. Rest Day - unscheduled - very tired this evening.

Tuesday: 7.4miles with some strides at the end

Wed: 4x200/2x400/800/2x400/4x200

The usual race week workout - controlled on the 200's & 400's - they felt hard even though just running 5.30 pace.
I worked hard on the 800 and the next set of 400's and 200's were fine.
Felt very tired afterwards.

8.2m total

Thursday: Felt knackered today - legs felt like they had ran a hard race the day previous.
The race week workout has never left me feeling like that previously. - I've definitely ran it harder and felt fine the next day.

No run - walked the dog for an hour as active recovery.

Friday: 4.2m with strides - legs feeling reasonably ok today.

Saturday: Jingle Bells 5k
So, for the last 8-9 weeks, I've been following a 5k specific plan - topping out at 58 miles some weeks.
My Tuesday sessions have all been very 5k specific - 4800/5000 in length and all at Goal race pace. 5.30's.
This was in the hope that with a small fade - I'd run somewhere in the 17.1x and get a PB (current PB is 17.24).

I felt very confident of "at least" getting a PB - and a felt I had a small chance of dipping under 17 on the right conditions.
My last few 5k's have been off the back of Marathon or 10k training and in recent months have been in the 17.27-17.47 area - so the optimism was based on the fact that 5k specific training would get me at least a PB.

Made it down to the PP in good time and done a warm up with some club mates - done some solo strides and made it to the start line, just behind Mellow Yellow and beside OP & Rob B - JH was a few rows behind - rookie. Had a quick word with Evan Scully - we had similar targets.

Set off and the crowd went charging off - I kept it sensible. Approaching the 1st turn, I checked the watch and seen 5.35 - $hit - I was also feeling under pressure at that pace. Normally in 5k's the 1st mile looks after itself in a reasonably comfortable 5.30 (before $hit hits the fan) - this time it was hitting the fan a lot earlier.
Keep it together I was saying.
I resisted the urge very early on to feign an injury..........sure nobody would know it was fake - its so early in the race..... the internal voice said.
I threw that voice away and kept going - coming to the Furze, we turned into a headwind. Mile 1 beeped at 5.31 and I was working for it.
I think MY, OP, Rob and Healy all came past me early on the Furze Road. Its as if they all planned to do it together to knock the stuffing out of my confidence
Then Evan comes floating by - not wearing green or pink runner btw. He ran a great race.

I think I caught 1 or 2 of them before they passed me again.

As we came to the end of the Furze, I knew we had a short downhill and then the longer downhill of the Glen. I'd use this to try to recover somewhat and try to make a burst in the last km. Mile 2 beeped 5.42 - but at this stage, I'd given up looking at the watch, this was racing - catch the lads in front.

Down the Glen as hard - its nearly too steep. Then the turn and theres a flat bit before the uphill - then the slight turn where you can see the end of the Glen but its a steeper climb.
The Glen uphill is only 200 right foots - about 90seconds long - my OCD made me measure it. So I knew it was manageable and didn't let it bother me in advance.
But by Jaysus did it bother me on Saturday - it felt like I was climbing Kilimanjaro.
At the end of it, my legs were in bits - 1km left - all downhill and I had nothing - no zip, no speed, nothing.
My quads were sore too - my immediate thought was that I need to do more S&C. Imagine thinking that in the last KM of a 5k!

I was getting passed on all angles now - I'd no idea of pace, but it felt like I was doing 7 min miles. I could still see the lads in front, but the gap was insurmountable - just get home Alan. keep moving.

Mile 3 was 5.45 - not terrible - but on a downhill, it should have been faster.
We came to the last bit and that last piece when you leave the road seems like forever! I could see the clock and my fears of recording an 18+ time subsided as the clock was still in 'good' territory.

I tried to burst but had very little.

Crossed the line recording 17.33.

I was initially disappointed as it was 10 seconds away from a PB and 20 seconds away from where I thought I'd be.

But looking back on it - its only a race, there's more important things out there - more on that maybe in a later post if I have the nerve.

The 'after race chats' are the best part of these things - I ignored the club mates initially and went looking for my race buddies - at one stage, me, Healy, MY, OP and Donal (OFAR) were in a little group swapping war stories. At least I had beaten Donal (he didn't run it )
Great lads, all of them and a nice little parish we have with ourselves here on d'interweb.

Made my way to the club mates for the photo and warm down.

Great day all in all.

Sunday: Woke up not wanting to do the long run - I was slightly hungover from the night before (didn't actually drink much - its just really impacting me lately) and decided to go out and see how I felt.
After 4m, I was feeling tired, but better than at the start. The rain and wind were a pain, but went with it.

I had a series of Podcasts lined up - but Blindboys chat with Richie Sadlier was just amazing. Downloaded his podcast as a result.

15.2m at 8.05 pace.

43m for the week.


Marathon Training starts tomorrow. Bring it on. But need to watch this fatigue I've been feeling recently.

OOnegative

Not like you to be fatigued Alan, normally bouncing around like Zebedee!!

Swashbuckler

OOnegative wrote:

Not like you to be fatigued Alan, normally bouncing around like Zebedee!!

He's not able for this 5k stuff. Soft marathon runner. Anything faster than tempo and these lads get awful tired.

AuldManKing

Quite right - the 5k stuff is very hard on the body - another couple of weeks at it and I'd probably start breaking down. Seriously!
The 'Auldman' tag is certainly coming to the fore recently!!

I'm going to do a post (when I get a chance) on my recent experiment of training for a 5k and how that performance differed to when I ran 5ks with not so specific training.
I think that there are valuable learnings for me in terms of pointing out weaknesses that I have and how I may need to adapt sessions in my Marathon plan.

AuldManKing

Monday: 7m down to the park and back - nice recovery pace today.

7m @ 8.36 pace

Tuesday: 1st Marathon Session - the 1st few weeks of the build up will be from JD - plenty of tempos in there before I transition to the NAZ Plan for last 9 weeks or so.

Todays session was 8mE/3mT/ 3min rec /2mT/ 2mE : I had to cut the initial 8m to 5m as I had to pick my daughter up after her exams.

I found the 1st m of the tempo pace difficult, but settled into it and could have done more. Holding T pace at 6:10's for now.

3mT in 18:32 / 2mT in 12.18

11.5m total.

Wednesday: In amsterdam for the day with work - home late and tired, so took a rest day - dont want to burn the embers too early.

Thursday: Road closures in Castleknock due to a serious accident where a runner was knocked down led to Traffic bedlam getting home from work.
Parked in the PP and set off on a bit of a different loop - fairly wet and a bit tired today - set off for 10m but left it at 8.7m and managed to get home after 8 - again due to the mad traffic.

Found out that the guy in question was a new club member, real nice guy too - a real wake up call to be careful, even if you are wearing the right gear - those in the cars can veer off and mount the path as happened here.

8.7m @ 8.07 pace

I'm in Germany next week, so will be taking next week as a down week. Decent session to be done this weekend though.

MY BAD

AuldManKing wrote: »

Found out that the guy in question was a new club member, real nice guy too - a real wake up call to be careful, even if you are wearing the right gear - those in the cars can veer off and mount the path as happened here.

This. High viz, bright colours, lights all essential. But just because you've a right of way, theres no point been dead right. This time of year especially you need to be very alert to your surroundings and do your best to avoid busy roads, and roads with fast moving cars.

Evan Scully

AuldManKing wrote: »

Monday: 2nd Dec. Rest Day - unscheduled - very tired this evening.

Tuesday: 7.4miles with some strides at the end

Wed: 4x200/2x400/800/2x400/4x200

The usual race week workout - controlled on the 200's & 400's - they felt hard even though just running 5.30 pace.
I worked hard on the 800 and the next set of 400's and 200's were fine.
Felt very tired afterwards.

8.2m total

Thursday: Felt knackered today - legs felt like they had ran a hard race the day previous.
The race week workout has never left me feeling like that previously. - I've definitely ran it harder and felt fine the next day.

No run - walked the dog for an hour as active recovery.

Friday: 4.2m with strides - legs feeling reasonably ok today.

Saturday: Jingle Bells 5k
So, for the last 8-9 weeks, I've been following a 5k specific plan - topping out at 58 miles some weeks.
My Tuesday sessions have all been very 5k specific - 4800/5000 in length and all at Goal race pace. 5.30's.
This was in the hope that with a small fade - I'd run somewhere in the 17.1x and get a PB (current PB is 17.24).

I felt very confident of "at least" getting a PB - and a felt I had a small chance of dipping under 17 on the right conditions.
My last few 5k's have been off the back of Marathon or 10k training and in recent months have been in the 17.27-17.47 area - so the optimism was based on the fact that 5k specific training would get me at least a PB.

Made it down to the PP in good time and done a warm up with some club mates - done some solo strides and made it to the start line, just behind Mellow Yellow and beside OP & Rob B - JH was a few rows behind - rookie. Had a quick word with Evan Scully - we had similar targets.

Set off and the crowd went charging off - I kept it sensible. Approaching the 1st turn, I checked the watch and seen 5.35 - $hit - I was also feeling under pressure at that pace. Normally in 5k's the 1st mile looks after itself in a reasonably comfortable 5.30 (before $hit hits the fan) - this time it was hitting the fan a lot earlier.
Keep it together I was saying.
I resisted the urge very early on to feign an injury..........sure nobody would know it was fake - its so early in the race..... the internal voice said.
I threw that voice away and kept going - coming to the Furze, we turned into a headwind. Mile 1 beeped at 5.31 and I was working for it.
I think MY, OP, Rob and Healy all came past me early on the Furze Road. Its as if they all planned to do it together to knock the stuffing out of my confidence
Then Evan comes floating by - not wearing green or pink runner btw. He ran a great race.

I think I caught 1 or 2 of them before they passed me again.

As we came to the end of the Furze, I knew we had a short downhill and then the longer downhill of the Glen. I'd use this to try to recover somewhat and try to make a burst in the last km. Mile 2 beeped 5.42 - but at this stage, I'd given up looking at the watch, this was racing - catch the lads in front.

Down the Glen as hard - its nearly too steep. Then the turn and theres a flat bit before the uphill - then the slight turn where you can see the end of the Glen but its a steeper climb.
The Glen uphill is only 200 right foots - about 90seconds long - my OCD made me measure it. So I knew it was manageable and didn't let it bother me in advance.
But by Jaysus did it bother me on Saturday - it felt like I was climbing Kilimanjaro.
At the end of it, my legs were in bits - 1km left - all downhill and I had nothing - no zip, no speed, nothing.
My quads were sore too - my immediate thought was that I need to do more S&C. Imagine thinking that in the last KM of a 5k!

I was getting passed on all angles now - I'd no idea of pace, but it felt like I was doing 7 min miles. I could still see the lads in front, but the gap was insurmountable - just get home Alan. keep moving.

Mile 3 was 5.45 - not terrible - but on a downhill, it should have been faster.
We came to the last bit and that last piece when you leave the road seems like forever! I could see the clock and my fears of recording an 18+ time subsided as the clock was still in 'good' territory.

I tried to burst but had very little.

Crossed the line recording 17.33.

I was initially disappointed as it was 10 seconds away from a PB and 20 seconds away from where I thought I'd be.

But looking back on it - its only a race, there's more important things out there - more on that maybe in a later post if I have the nerve.

The 'after race chats' are the best part of these things - I ignored the club mates initially and went looking for my race buddies - at one stage, me, Healy, MY, OP and Donal (OFAR) were in a little group swapping war stories. At least I had beaten Donal (he didn't run it )
Great lads, all of them and a nice little parish we have with ourselves here on d'interweb.

Made my way to the club mates for the photo and warm down.

Great day all in all.

Sunday: Woke up not wanting to do the long run - I was slightly hungover from the night before (didn't actually drink much - its just really impacting me lately) and decided to go out and see how I felt.
After 4m, I was feeling tired, but better than at the start. The rain and wind were a pain, but went with it.

I had a series of Podcasts lined up - but Blindboys chat with Richie Sadlier was just amazing. Downloaded his podcast as a result.

15.2m at 8.05 pace.

43m for the week.


Marathon Training starts tomorrow. Bring it on. But need to watch this fatigue I've been feeling recently.

Maybe the traction in the said bright green and pink shoes isn’t great!!
5ks are tricky to get right and you have to be 100% up for it or it won’t happen. I’ve learned that you just know 5k pace isn’t going to feel good at any stage. We expect it to feel like a marathon were it’ll feel comfortable until the latter stages.
I’d say do another 5k before the end of the year and you’ll PB. Takes a few in a row to learn for to hurt that bit extra.

AuldManKing

Friday: An easy paced run to the bottom of the Khyber and then done 5x12sec hill sprints on the gravel path to the left of the Khyber (looking up the road) - its a steeper hill than my usual one. Then a run back to the car and 6x20s strides.

6.6miles

Saturday: Long run with stuff.
My glutes were a bit tired from the hill sprints - so I know they were more effective than the ones I done previously at the Furry Glen. The wind was also blowing - nothing to do with the glute region............

The plan had 1E/6MP/1E/6MP/2E. - I was going to change the 6 to a 5 in both MP reps.

Done a 2m warm up:
The 1st set of 5m was hard. From mile 1 it was hard, the wind was tough but it was also harder than it should have been with a tail wind. I guess next time I should run to effort or at a 'steady pace' rather than MP if I find it tough.

1st 5m MP varied from 6.42 to 6.27 - depending on the wind.
10mins easy recovery.
2nd set - only done 3m initially as I was suffering 6.28/6.30/6.35
3mins recovery.
1m MP - 6.35

The last mile at MP felt like tempo pace, so I called it and decided enough was enough. Didn't want to force the last mile.

3.5m cool down.

16miles long run with 9 at MP - not a bad morning's work

Sunday: Recovery pace - 5.2m around Porterstown - 8.26/mile

55m for the week and also crossed over 2500 miles for the year.


Monday: Flew to Dresden with work - I have the running gear, but am probably going to take a few days off, there will be long work meetings, plenty of wine & beer had, so the last thing I want is to feel buried with fatigue when I get back.

But I did do a 25min S&C routine - I googled S&C for runners and who pops up on youtube, but Mr Scully. (I had no thera bands though)

AuldManKing

Tues/Wed/Thurs: Nada - zilch. Some great Pilsners though.

Friday: 13.1m - down to the PP but my headlamp batteries went, so went out of the park and tagged on some additional miles. Enjoyable run.
Had a trio of Scullion podcasts to catch up on.

Sat: Through NAZ Elite social media, I discovered the Rich Roll Podcasts - wow - so much in there! - Listened to Part of Scott Faubles Podcast. A great Listen.

6.9 miles inc 7x200m at 5k pace halfway through.

Sunday: This was the MSB annual XC handicap race - about 6miles of hurt. Great way to spend a Sunday after being on the pi$$ for a few days. Who needs shopping anyway??

I totally miscalculated the start times - thinking that some of the 'less experienced' people would show up for the 11am start, giving me an 11.20 start time - I only got a 1m WU (thought I'd get 3m!!).

Anyway - the race was a good race - a Handicap race like this is a great leveller. For the 1st 2 laps (4x1.5m laps) I was wondering how I'd catch people, then on the 3rd lap I caught someone - ok - I wont come last so.

2 people had started after me - so I had to be careful of them, plus those I passed.

Caught a few more people and probably in hindsight could have thrown in a faster 600m finish to catch a few more, but I wouldn't have caught the 1st Master and knew I wouldn't get the fastest time prize, so just happy to run it in.

Fairly happy with this performance - doing this a few years now and my slowest mile was 6.32 - versus a few 6.40's and 6.50's in previous years. Plus the fact I wasn't passed was good.

5.9m at 6.26 pace.

4 days OFF and 28m for the week.

AuldManKing

Monday 23rd: Decided to do the long run today after the previous days XC.
Met a former clubmate, now a CRU (AJ) for about 8 miles and then threw in a bit more for a fairly good 17.5m (7.52 pace)

Tuesday: A good group of 11 from the club were out for this one - pace was a bit high in places given the last 2 days escapades, but got through it ok.

8.7 at 7.40 pace

Wednesday: The annual carb load, protein indulgent, resveratrol supplementation day.

Thursday:up early enough - out for 12 miles at 7.50 pace - felt quite good actually. Theres somethng in that wine!

Friday Session day - Planned session was 3m/2m/1m at Tempo with 3mins/2mins recovery.

Despite the Stephens day pints - I had Planned to do these in Porterstown, but there were too many dog walkers, so ran from Porterstown down to the park. A lot of Downhills here - so some of the pace was slightly higher than tempo.
Was tiring in the last mile - but got through it - one of those runs were you are just happy to grind out.

2m WU
3mT: 6.11 / 6.00 / 6.11
2mT: 5.56 / 6.16
1mT: 6.12
2m CD

10.4m total.

Saturday: Long run day - I wanted to bring my long run in by 1 day as I was away on Sunday. Met up with AJ again in the PP and was joined by a few from MSB for the first few miles.
We left the park for the 2nd part of the run and rejoined it with 4 to go.

Was very tired by the end of the run and needed to do some stretches later in the day & also walk the dog as I think I would have seized up.

Also, notable that I couldn't eat for an hour after the run - just took some milk to get something into me. A shower and 4 mugs of tea sorted me out.

Edit: I hadn't planned on doing 20 - 17 was the target, but turned 'left' in the park with AJ rather than 'right' towards the car to support her run.

No gels - just a sip of water.
20m at 7.53 pace (last 10 slightly faster than the 1st 10 bu 15-20 secs/mile) - No last mile slog.

Sunday: 4 recovery miles at 8.40 pace - wore the HR monitor - trying to keep the HR in the 120's

Finished the week on 73 pints miles - a good return for the festive period.

Monday 30th: Back early enough from an overnighter, Ran to the park - 5x10s hill sprints + 6x20s strides

6.8 miles

AuldManKing

For no reason whatsoever, I just reread my Rotterdam RACE REPORT.........dum de dum dum dum...........

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057074895&page=210

OOnegative

AuldManKing wrote: »

For no reason whatsoever, I just reread my Rotterdam RACE REPORT.........dum de dum dum dum...........

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057074895&page=210

You’d want to vote for it so!!

shotgunmcos

OOnegative wrote: »

You’d want to vote for it so!!

Eh voting for oneself? Should class as -1

AuldManKing

OOnegative wrote: »

You’d want to vote for it so!!

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Eh voting for oneself? Should class as -1

Vote for what - no idea what you are talking about.


I just thought it was a class report, one of the best last year and worth re-posting on my log. No idea what you are talking about with voting.................:rolleyes:

AuldManKing

Better update this thing tomorrow