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BQ or Bust!
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I agree with the course discussion. This is hands down one of my favourite races because the support through the town is superb - 3 times no less. But I did notice my pace fall off a cliff as we turned into the housing area and for the start of the fourth mile. Took a real effort to try get it back down before the final push for the finish. Having been here a few times now I wasn't surprised so important to bear in mind when returning for this one.
Yes - would definitely have helped to have been in a group at this point of the race, rather than isolated and being picked off. Some headwind too through that part of the course, if I remember correctly. Quite a challenge - I can certainly see why this is a popular race with such a long history! Well done on your own race - look forward to seeing your log rejuvenated.
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Thu 29 Mar
Plan - Speed: 2 sets 5x200 @ 800-mile pace (4 mins j/r btwn sets)
Actual - General aerobic 13.5k
Session swapped out for Tues club session, so just an easy run around East Wall and Clontart with M and C.
Fri 30 Mar
Plan - 6k recovery
Actual - 7k General Aerobic with some strides
Easy around Fairview parkrun course, with five or six strides towards the end.
Sat 31 Mar
Plan - General Aerobic 13k
Actual - Race: K Club 10k
Finally got to do this very well-regarded BHAA event. Singer was joining me so I picked him up on the way over, getting there in plenty of time despite missing an exit or two off the M50, so relaxed was the pre-race vibe. Plenty of familiar faces about. Adrian joined us for a warmup out and back along the last mile of the course. Chats with Mr Wubble too, all ready for his exams and letting us know how little training he'd been doing. 
And we were off.
The course starts at the clubhouse and takes you out of the estate and down the road. After 1.6k, there’s a loop around some minor roads, to be negotiated twice before returning to the salubrious country club surroundings. I ran behind B and A for the congested first km and let them drift ahead once we were out on the road. My strategy, if you could call it that, was to avoid last week’s near-blowup and run around 4:15 pace for the first 7k, then see what might be left at the end. That would give me a decent PB of around a minute if it paid off. So the first few kms were relatively comfortable.
1-4 kms - 4:13 4:10 4:17 4:16
The fifth km, taking you into the second loop, felt slightly more difficult with a bit of headwind - although the conditions were perfect really, so it was probably just the inevitable pinch in the middle third of the race. Trying again to avoid last week’s isolation, I’d fallen in with a group of four runners, all of us in blue singlets (but only one Garda). I made it my business to stay with them this time, most of us taking a turn at the front at some stage, working nicely, passing some flagging runners, not being passed ourselves. On 6k I passed the clubmate who had gone by me in the last mile last week, so either he was having a bad day, or something was working. Glancing at the average pace, I noted I was falling a tiny bit behind the 4:15/k strategy though - should I have left the group behind? It’s not like there was a more likely looking replacement bunch just ahead. I figured this was the place to be for now, and anyway it’s not like I was bursting to break out. A tad conservative, maybe, but so far so good.
5-7 kms - 4:20 4:19 4:20
The bottom of the loop brought the turn into the wind again. A runner in black made a move from behind. Looked impressive. One of the blue group, a Waterstown Warrior, went with him. But they stalled not too far ahead and stopped gaining. I decided not to push until we got to the main road again and the last mile. This was’t long coming, and once we hit this final leg, there was a noticeable ratcheting up of pace, and from behind I could hear plenty of runners encouraging each other to dig in and bring it home (many of these BHAA runners seem to know everyone else by name). I took this as a sign to dig in myself and try not to get passed, although I was definitely starting to run out of steam, with some of the usual discomfort. The gate appeared and once through there was another charge from behind and three or four lads steamed past. But I had something too and, while I didn’t exactly go with them, I would pass at least one of them again before the finish. Wasn’t expecting to be directed off the main route, through a carpark with, according to my watch, less than 500m to go. At the end of the car park, figuring there was the equivalent of one lap of the track to go, I dug in again and found a bit more speed, grinding it out, around another corner - but where was the finish? Could still see some runners quite a way ahead - oops, may have started to empty the tank too soon. Around the roundabout and up the final drag, cursing the endless nature of this final stretch, tank empty now and the last 150m a blur of passing, being passed, and finally over the line and into the chute.
8-10+ kms: 4:33 4:19 4:08 (0:23)
I felt like I’d finished well and that the race had therefore gone pretty much to plan. That would have resulted in a decent PB, so I was surprised, when I caught my breath, so see I’d stopped the watch at 43:19, only four seconds inside my PB, which I had considered pretty soft. So possibly I wasn’t running as well as I felt. There was some talk of the course being long; maybe it was - I clocked 10.14k despite running a good line throughout. No results till Tuesday, apparently. The race is hand-timed so hopefully it will indeed turn out to be a PB. Small as it is, if it sticks I’ll certainly take it!
Previous PB: 43:23 (Fingal 2017)
Target: ~42:00
Actual: 43:19
140th place (of 369)
VDOT: 47.3
Age Grade: 73.7%
Verdict: Performance felt better than result.
Another couple of kms cooldown with B and DD before returning to the clubhouse. Not a great idea to cool down and shower before heading for the legendary spread, which was reduced to hotdogs, black and white pudding, and no tea or coffee left (I'd heard so much about the post-race grub here I figured it would be flowing well into the afternoon). On the plus side though, the changing rooms and shower facilities were top notch. And we did manage to bag a pretzel on the way out the door. Well done BHAA. It's always a pleasure to get another race under the belt.
WTD: 60k (37m)
MTD: 308 (192)
YTD: 753 (468)
After dropping B to Swords, I happened across my clubmate Leo on the N1, ninety eight miles into the Belfast-Dublin ultra - struggling somewhat but in good spirits. Puts my measly 10k into perspective! Selfie time.
Hon Leo!
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FRR 5k Week 6 of 12
Getting towards the halfway point in this 12-week block. I’m feeling good, adjusting to the scaled-up mileage. The endurance stuff has felt especially good - just as well, as I’ll need it later in the year with a truncated marathon prep (always thinking ahead).
Mon 9 Apr
Plan/Actual - Rest day
Tue 10 Apr
Plan - General aerobic 13k
Actual - No running
Club session had to be abandoned when the car had a dead battery. I drive a Smart but it’s not smart enough to turn off the headlights if you leave them on. :rolleyes: Too late by the time I’d taken the train home. Oh well. No harm in an extra rest day.
Wed 11 Apr
Plan - 14k w/ 20 mins @ LT
Actual - 16.1k w/ 20 mins @ LT
While I don’t want to sound overconfident (and mid-plan race results suggest otherwise) I’ve been feeling for a while now that something has clicked, in a good way. Tonight’s LT pace run (4:13/k, 6:47/m) supports this feeling. It was tough, as it should be, but I was never in any doubt about it, feeling very in control of pace and form. Nailed it, in other words. This is extra welcome because I’ve traditionally struggled with tempo stuff, a situation that began to change during last year’s sustained engagement with Hanson. Delighted with this (if you haven’t noticed).
WTD: 16k (10m)
MTD: 108 (67)
YTD: 861 (535)0 -
Look at you casually knocking out 21 min 5Ks in training :cool:. Why would you not be delighted ! (Must take a look at those Hanson plans some time
). Agree that tempos are the business, I only really started to understand them during base building and they really make a massive difference to your fitness. 0 -
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Actual - No running
Club session had to be abandoned when the car had a dead battery. I drive a Smart but it’s not smart enough to turn off the headlights if you leave them on. :rolleyes: Too late by the time I’d taken the train home. Oh well. No harm in an extra rest day.
That would never happen on a bike #justsayin
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FRR 5k Week 8 of 12
Road Relay update:
5:54 for my leg according to the results, 24:00 for the team over the 4+ miles. I reckon the circuit is about 70m long so there’s probably a mile PB in there, but I won’t be claiming it of course. The main thing is that the team improved by more than a minute over last year, and I’m happy to have shaved 23 seconds off my own contribution. We ended up in 5th, which looks much better than last year’s 11th. However there were fewer M50 teams this year, and in fact if we’d run this year’s time last year we’d only have improved by one place. We finished ahead of a couple of the M35 teams, though, which is always a pleasure.
It was a terrific afternoon. Great support on the course. The missus and I had a very pleasant beer and pasta afterwards with AGYR, Laura, BG, Dubgal, and Mr. Dubgal-to-be. Legs were quite sore for a couple of days, more so than any recent race, so the effort levels were definitely high.
The plan is shot to hell at this stage, and that will continue this week. But I’ll keep adapting it around other events, and keep listing plan vs actual, just for the record. It will be interesting to see how effective an on-the-fly-modified FRR 5k plan turns out to be. Hopefully it won’t turn out to be a 4k plan.
Mon 23 Apr
Plan/Actual - Rest day
Legs in bits so happy to stick to the plan. The Monday rest day is one of the few consistencies so far.
Tue 24 Apr
Plan - 14k General aerobic with 2 sets 5x150 strides
Actual - 9k recovery
Legs a bit better today but still some DOMS. Didn’t feel too bad though on this gentle trot along the Clontarf seafront.
Wed 25 Apr
Plan - General aerobic 13k
Actual - AM: 4.7k easy. PM: Graded Meet 800m race.
It wouldn’t have occurred to me to have a shakeout the morning of a track race. I wasn’t even sure I would do the race, given the proximity to the weekend’s exertions (even if it was only a mile) and the soreness afterwards. I asked some advice of Dubgal, who is well versed in such things, and she suggested the morning jog. (Dubgal is sorely missed on boards, certainly by the likes of me).
Graded Meet No. 1: 800m D
I’d actually been looking forward to this for months: the start of a summer project of track racing. Maybe that’s why I made such a balls of tonight - my first ever outdoor track event, save for the ALSAA paced mile (during which I was handed my ass by BG, a theme that would continue tonight, with a different clubmate in the BG role).
I arrived early. Check in was slow, but understandably so as there were more runners taking part than I'd been expecting. Having got the paperwork out of the way, there was still plenty of time to prepare. There were some clubmates around - chatted for a while then got changed and headed through the Demesne for a bit of a warmup, including some dynamic stretching, joining the clubmates when I returned to the stadium for a couple of laps of the perimeter. Said hello to Laura, who had ambled by in the middle of her run and hung around for some (much appreciated) support. Put on the spikes then, and went through some strides and general nervous faffing. I was in the D race, but apparently (according to snippets I heard from fellow warmer uppers) there would be 2 A races, several Bs, a couple of Cs... I began to worry that I’d warmed up too early, but I was wrong - let’s just say that next time I’ll stay closer to the start line and just ask the officials about the schedule. As it happened, I was still obliviously killing time warming up when I happened to be in earshot enough to hear my name and realise that, ****, it's showtime!
Cue rushed namecheck, discarding of extra layer, complete failure to reset watch, barely take position in Lane 2, and the gun goes off.
Shyte - what am I doing here? I’m very new to 800m racing and it strikes me that you need to be mentally prepared, with a clear view of what you are about to do. As I had nearly missed my race, I hadn’t managed to get in that zone for what is only 2.5 mins of racing - a grave error, because you (I?) cannot possibly process the requisite actions/feelings/thoughts within the duration of the race itself, unlike in road races of 5k and above - my comfort zone.
So I think I panicked. Out too fast over the first 200m. The good part about this was - despite myself, and without thinking about it - I’d fulfilled the ‘note to self’ after my last stab at the distance: get out briskly and into to the race from the start. So on the surface it seemed Ok - but in reality my brain had not caught up yet with sudden start, nor the good appropriation of the top end of the field, as I settled into third on the back straight, a few metres behind the leaders. On the surface, I was getting away with it. Through 400m in 1:15 - a number that had been in mind all day.
But what now? Time to up the pace. For the next 200m I was closing on the two lads in front. But this is the part of the race that I think it helps to have visualised, and I didn’t really believe I could actually catch them (I'd thought it would be more likely that I would be in last place, struggling to stay in touch with the pack, like my recent NIA experience). Also, I was all too aware of the footsteps over my shoulder - something that surely should be expected also at this stage of any race. But I am still in third entering the home straight, and then it falls apart. I start to struggle at the same time as my clubmate B makes his move. The last time we were in the same race, at the Trinity track last summer, the shoe was on the other foot and I’d blown him away at the bell. I would have liked to have had a response this time, but I seemed to be tying up or something (not sure, it’s an unfamiliar feeling). I had no response, crossing the line in fourth. I knew immediately that I’d blown it. I didn’t even feel the need to adopt my customary post-race position on the ground, so there was plenty more to give.
So a bit of a fail? There was definitely a better time in me tonight, given my condition at the end of it. The result came in at 2:33.29 - only a second off a PB, but the goal had been a good bit more lofty. Yes, it’s early in the season, and yes, it lays down a marker, but it hasn’t improved on my indoor marker from February. It feels like I am in good shape at the moment and it would have been so much better to mark my Graded Meet debut with a bigger bang.
Having said all that... Really enjoyed taking part, and the whole event was very smoothly run by the officials. Good to hang out with some different clubmates for the evening. It’s a pleasure to race on the beautiful Morton Stadium surface too: the place looked and felt magnificent. If you are in a club and haven’t tried one of these events, I highly recommend that you do.
Splits (approx): 75 78
Previous PB: 2:32.25
Target: 2:29.xx
Official Time: 2:33.29
4th posn / 5
Age grade: 80.4%
VDOT 53.9
Verdict: Error-strewn rookie fail. But some learnings.
WTD: 20k (12m)
MTD: 233 (145)
YTD: 986 (612)0 -
well done on all the recent racing.
I really enjoyed that 800 report and if nothing else, you'll be ready for the next one.:D
Its true there's always something to learn at every race and I reckon that run will definitely stand to you over the summer season. Best of luck with it D!!0 -
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OOnegative wrote: »Good man D, really really admire how you dip your toes in everything from 800m track to 50k ultras and it’s doesn’t phase you in the slightest. I don’t think I could ever run a track race, just pure lack of confidence in myself.AuldManKing wrote: »+1 to this.
Fair play to you - I wouldn't have the balls to do it.
Going out in 75 is some running too. Major kudos.
Are ye kidding me? You both love racing and from what I have seen you would both be in your element. Why don’t you do a 3,000 or 5,000 as a gateway drug?Bungy Girl wrote: »It's an outdoor PB, yes ?
And to be only a second off an indoor PB at this early stage in the track season is something to celebrate. 800s really are tricky to get right (and that 3rd 200 is a b****). A positive split is normal for the distance too. In my experience the more races you do the better you will perform - it's as much to do with getting your head right as your legs.
And I agree. Come baaaaaaaack, Dubgal, we miss you.
What, are you saying I can officially keep the PB streak going?
Cheers, it was certainly an eye opener and I think I’ll be much more comfortable next time out. Tallaght in two weeks, anyone? 0 -
well done on all the recent racing.
I really enjoyed that 800 report and if nothing else, you'll be ready for the next one.:D
Its true there's always something to learn at every race and I reckon that run will definitely stand to you over the summer season. Best of luck with it D!!
Thanks Anne. If there’s one thing my running ‘career’ has taught me is that I’m a slow learner. But a learner nevertheless. 0 -
FRR 5k Week 8 of 12 cont.
Thu 26 Apr
Plan - recovery 11k
Actual - recovery 6.6k
Joined the Mrs for a pleasant recovery around the St. Anne’s perimeter.
Fri 27 Apr
Plan - 7k recovery
Actual - 11.1k easy/recovery
Went to DCU to participate in the RISC study. Interesting hour of strength, balance, and running form tests using motion and inertia sensors. Help them out if you have time, it’s an interesting project conducted by two very affable and conscientious sports science PhD researchers. Followed that with a few more recovery miles around Glasnevin, including a ramble through the Botanic Gardens before being intercepted and politely informed that running is not permitted, as “It’s a garden, not a park”. Fair enough, I know now.
Sat 28 Apr
Plan: 14k inc. tune-up race
Actual: Easy/steady 6.5k inc parkrun pacing (24 mins)
Enjoyed my 100th parkrun on pacer Saturday. There was a good group of 24-min hopefuls, including laura_ac3, Mrs KennyG, a clubmate and maybe a dozen others still in it after the initial shakeout over the first 1-2k, when a few runners always drop off. Managed to keep them mostly together for the rest of the course, and a good few nailed some excellent PBs. None more so than Laura, laser focused from start to end, knocking a whole 30 secs off her PB in a very strong performance. Good workout for me too, and I really got a buzz out of it. Hope Sonia enjoyed her 100th as much as I did mine.
Sun 29 Apr
Plan - Endurance 18k
Actual - Endurance 18.7k @ 5:05 (8.10/m) avg
11+ easy but quite brisk miles out to Raheny and back via the Seafront and East Wall. Late getting out, but a lovely cool night for running.
WTD: 63k (39m)
MTD: 276 (171)
YTD: 1.028 (639)0 -
FRR 5k Week 9 of 12
This week’s goal - stick to the plan. Mostly.
Mon 30 Apr
Plan - Rest day
Actual - 6k recovery
OK, not on the plan but as many people say, a run is often a better recovery than not running and the way my legs were feeling today (sore) I felt they needed a bit of a shake. If there was a pool available, I would have gone for a swim, but there wasn’t, so a couple of gentle laps of the MU campus it was. Maybe 6k too much though, in hindsight.
Total for April: 282 km (175 miles) - 26k behind schedule.
Tue 1 May
Plan - 14k General aerobic
Actual - 15k GA/recovery?
No watch, but mapped out a rough course in the Phoenix Park beforehand and ended up extending it by accident rather than design. Only rough idea of pace but I was tired and it was definitely slower than specified.
Wed 2 May
Plan - VO2: 16k w/ 2 sets 1200, 800, 800 @ 3-5k pace
Actual - 12k as above, but slower: more like 10k pace
I had an idea while warming up that this wouldn’t be easy. It was humid and a bit windy but that wasn’t it - legs and breathing were just heavy from the start. About 500m into the first 1200 I was thinking of calling it a day and just jogging it out. But I managed to complete. Tree cover seemed to be interfering with pace feedback from watch (I know, I know) and as I was doing a session for the first time in these surroundings (the MU South campus, where there are a couple of well paved, not very busy loops) I had little feel for how it should feel, except that it all felt painfully slow.
Splits:
5:03 3:05 3:16
5:08 3:31 3:23
First two 800s were very likely short. In the end the splits were a good bit slower than intended, a reminder that sessions - especially repeats - seem to be a good bit harder on the road than on the track. Wake up call though: might be overdoing it on the racing front, as was helpfully observed afterwards by the ever-wise FBOT.
WTD: 33k (20m)
MTD: 27 (17)
YTD: 1,061 (660)0 -
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