Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Off the Fence....and looking to go sub 3 hrs
-
13-01-2014 2:11am#1
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Friday 24/01/14:
5.97m @ 09:08 avg pace (Recovery)
Another early dark, cold and wet one before breakfast. OH thinks I have lost the plot as I hit the road at 5am for this one. Dropped my daughter to the airport for 4:30am and sure seen as I was up anyway why wouldn’t I go running?
Felt a bit like “D’Unbelievables” having dinner at 8:30am to get a jump on the day!! Not a lot else to say about this one other than job done.
Saturday 25/01/14:
Rest Day
Headed up to Parkrun (St Anne’s) to lend a bit of support and help out if needed. Witnessed Aoife Talty cruise home in 17:04 to be the 1st woman to cross the line in overall 1st place at St Anne’s Parkrun. It was a pity Krusty hadn’t picked this week to make his play for the full house of Dublin Parkruns would have made for an interesting morning's racing!
I had plans to do a couple of miles and a few strides in advance of Sunday’s race but walking the dog is about as energetic as I got.
Sunday 26/01/14:
2.5m wu @ 08:20 avg pace
5.07m @ 06:07 avg pace (06:05, 06:17, 06:15, 06:03, 06:01, 00:18)
This was my fourth time running the Raheny 5 but my first heading to the start line with anymore than 4 weeks training under the belt. The last few years I have taken November and December off after DCM and only went back running after the excesses of Christmas. This year I decided to run through and have been putting in some of my largest mileage weeks ever since early December as part of the P&D program which I am doing for Connemara.
So the afternoon started with a couple of miles warm-up before watching some very good and well attended underage races. I then said good luck to OH who was also running and met up with Ferris B for a final warm-up with a few strides. I was in a good place and had a clear plan to run 06:20 avg pace and give myself plenty of scope to hit my sub 32:00 target. Ferris B said he would be happy with sub 33:00 but knowing him pretty well at this stage I expected him to be keeping me company for most if not all of the way around.
Ferris B lined up a little back from me in a feeble attempt to tell himself that he wasn’t going to go all out
After the hustle and bustle of the started I settled in for 06:05 Mile 1. A little quicker than planned but knew a windy Howth Road would slow that down. Made a tactical decision to stay in behind a couple of big lads on the Howth Road to conserve energy and keep the show on the road. The beep went at 06:17 for mile 2. At this stage I knew Ferris B was on his way up to me as I could hear the gap between the shout outs for each of us from mutual friends getting shorter. He popped up on my shoulder at about half way....I think his greeting was “will you ever move your @ss! You should be pushing it a harder.....” He was probably right but I looked at the watch and I was still in my planned zoned so had no plan to push the boat out just yet. Mile 3 was 06:15. With only 2 to go I knew I had plenty in me to do the sub 32:00 so when Ferris B pushed on I decided to stick with him. On the last 3 occasions that I have hit Watermill Road in this race it has taken more out of me than I had to give but not this time, I had plenty in the bag for it this year.....pushed on up the hill with Mile 4 showing 06:03. Kept it nice and steady for the next ¾ mile picking off bodies as I went. When I hit the second last bend I wound it up a bit and had 3 more lads in my sights that I thought I could take before the line. I was passed watching the watch at this stage. As I passed to the second of these he decided to kick on and try to hold me off. We went toe to toe to the line and happily my toe got there first......watch said 30:59 and I was a very happy camper.
Linked up with OH, Ferris B, Killerz and a few others from St Anne’s Parkrun for a cuppa in the GAA club afterwards followed by the obligatory pint.....well OH and Ferris B had the pint I had the car keys:)
The official time turned out to be 30:57 so sub 31 and 03:23 shaved off my PB was a good days work. I would have to say that I probably owe 30 secs to Ferris B for pushing me on during miles 4 and 5 and I definitely owe the 3 secs under 31:00 to the guy who decided to race me down the finishing straight:D
Great event yet again. Well run and supported. Fair play to all who took part whether as volunteer, runner, walker or supporter. Thanks.
While I was 15 miles short on programme this week as a result of a mini taper for Sunday it was a good week with the first job on the list done for this year..........next up Ballycotton.
Week = 50.8m
MTD = 220.0m
YTD = 220.0m0 -
Ferris B said he would be happy with sub 33:00 but knowing him pretty well at this stage I expected him to be keeping me company for most if not all of the way around.
I must get you do my race predictions for me in future!;)
What's this crack of nicking my phrases for your race report. Mine was out first. I smell plagiarism.
Nice run btw.0 -
I must get you do my race predictions for me in future!;)
If I remember correctly I have done that before and was pretty accurate:cool:What's this crack of nicking my phrases for your race report. Mine was out first. I smell plagiarism.
Didn't notice. Your report must have just made such a good impression. Sorry:DNice run btw.
Cheers.0 -
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
Thursday 13/02/14:
11.79m @ 07:31 avg pace (LT w/7@HMP)
Very windy one today. I took the long way to the coast with a 3m wu with a plan to run the first 4m of my 7m tempo with the wind. Tempo target was sub 06:55 and apart from a little heel tapping from the wind and a short rain shower the run out to Sutton was uneventful. I didn’t push to take full advantage of the wind as I knew that I still had to come back. Turned at the end of the cycle track and stuck the head down. Effort level jumped considerably in mile 5 but found a rhythm after that and actually enjoyed the challenge of holding the pace into the wind.
Tempo splits were:
06:53
06:54
06:52
06:53
06:58
06:54
06:50
Finished with 1.79m cd @ avg pace 08:45
These are still the sessions that I find the toughest and if I do plan to go sub 3hr later in the year I will have to work hard on them to get the pace considerably lower.....but that is a job for the next training cycle.
Friday 14/02/14:
6.28m @ 11:18 avg pace (Recovery)
OH was struggling to get her Jantastic Runs in this week and had a 10k to do at some stage over the weekend. Given the night that was in it I offered to head out with her for a romantic run in the rain.....as we passed 1014 Restaurant opposite the Bullwall we could see the jealousy on the faces of the patrons as they looked up at us from their steak dinners With 10k in the bag we could then sit down for a guilt free steak dinner followed by chocolate pudding! That is two very early morning runs and one on Valentine,s night for OH to keep her 100% Jantastic record.......don’t repeat this out loud but she may be catching the bug!!
Saturday 15/02/14:
22.20m @ 08:04 avg pace (Long)
After last week's disaster I decided that pre-breakfast was not an option this week so with a target start time of 8am I had breakfast at 6am and took in a hour of the Winter Olympics before hitting the road. Drove out to Howth and parked up at Sutton Church with 3 assaults on the head planned during this run.
Got straight to it and headed up and over the summit coming back down along the old tram path.....much more gentle decent that the road into the village. Back down to Sutton Cross and out through Baldoyle, Donaghmeade, Kilbarrack before heading back to Howth for climb no 2. Stopped off at the car on the way by to grab a quick drink and to dump the headphone, radio, hat and gloves....Dublin was now awake and so was I.
The 2nd climb started at mile 13 and as this was a progression run the target pace had dropped from sub 08:30 to sub 08:15 at this stage. No problem on climb no 2 and came back down the tram path again. Looped around for climb no 3 which started at mile 19. Target pace had again dropped and this time I had to climb at sub 08:00. Again all went according to plan. Didn’t go all the way to the summit this time as it would have taken me to 24miles and I was happy to stick to the planned distance of 22m......also was on the dancing run at 11:15 so the clock was ticking. Overall I was very pleased with this session and legs felt pretty good throughout...........however, note to self - steak, wedges, onions, choc pud, etc the night before a long run is not to be recommended - suffered badly from about mile 5 onwards with stomach cramps +.:(
Session breakdown was as follows:
8m @ 08:16 avg pace
7m @ 08:05 avg pace
7m @ 07:51 avg pace
With 3 decent climbs in the mix this will hopefully stand me in good stead for Connemara....program moves into Race Preparation cycle from Monday so 7 weeks and counting now!!
After taking care of my dancing run duties and a quick shower I finished off my running week by heading to Donadea to lend my support. Arrived just in time to see Gary O’Hanlon cross the line in 2:59 and looking very comfortable indeed for a man that had just run 50k in difficult conditions with mixed weather and soft ground in places. There was an excellent atmosphere around the event and if I am ever to go beyond the 26.2 mile mark this would certainly feature on the agenda......seemed like a well run event in a lovely setting and fair play to the organisers, volunteers, supporters and of course, the runners for making it happen.
On the trip home I questioned the wisdom of heading along to support as before I went I was feeling good with a nice 22m long run under the belt for the day....I went away feeling about 9miles short:D
Sunday 16/02/14:
Rest day............0 -
-
-
Monday 17/02/14:
8.78m @ 07:55 avg pace (VO2 Max w/5x600 RI 60secs)
I generally like Monday runs as more often than not I have a spring in my step after my rest day on Sunday. I kicked off with a nice easy wu 3.7m wu @ 08:34 avg pace. I started my intervals out past the Causeway and heading towards Sutton direction. No wind to speak of for a change. Did 4 reps in this direction then 1 back before heading up to me Mammy’s for dinner.....2.68m cd @ 08:17 avg pace. Target pace for the intervals was sub 06:00 and I was there or thereabouts. For some reason I found it very difficult to concentrate during the intervals and kept falling off the pace midway......I felt physically fine but the mind just kept switching off The splits were as below.
1 – 02:17 (06:00 pace)
2 – 02:17 (06:01 pace)
3 – 02:15 (05:56 pace)
4 – 02:17 (06:01 pace)
5 – 02:14 (05:54 pace)
A bit disappointed with this session as I didn’t get the usual buzz that I like after an interval session. The schedule has one of these sessions in each of the next 6 weeks so hopefully I can get into it more next week.
Tuesday 18/02/14:
14.01m @ 08:19 avg pace (Med-Long)
Did the first 7m @ 08:35 avg pace with Ferris B. He was on his first outing after his exploits in Donadea on Saturday and was in better shape than me today. Legs were very stiff in particular around my hips in the early stages. A previous niggle in my right shoulder has raised its head again over the last few days.....might be time for my semi-annual stretching session:)
After Ferris B jumped ship, I went back into my normal progression run mode. Did next 3m @ 08:13 avg pace and then finished off with 4m @ 07:54 avg pace. When I upped the pace my left hamstring tighten up badly and even considered backing off at one point. Recovery day tomorrow so hopefully that will sort the little niggles I felt today......not feeling it at the moment so will need to just grind it out and keep the faith for a few days. Ballycotton is just over two weeks away now. Nearly time to look at a race strategy for that:eek:0 -
-
Advertisement
-
Advertisement