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
I love it when a plan comes together
Comments
-
-
Sorry to hear you were disappointed but I agree with ososlo, write up a report anyway! It might help you understand what (if anything) went wrong and what you can learn from it. Stuff like weather you can't control but at least you can understand the impact it may have and adjust your expectations.
Don't make me relive it!!!!
0 -
Hannibal Smith wrote: »Don't make me relive it!!!!
Hey HS, we've all had days like that, don't beat yourself up too much on it. I had a brilliant 10k (for me... certainly not for most people here!) followed by a crappy 5k 2 weeks later, when I thought I would still be brilliant.
couldn't agree more with others above saying to write the report... it will help you think it through, and learn for the next time. Even if you don't want to post it here... although we'd love to read it too
Don't be embarrassed about your times either... the only person you're competing against is yourself ! (and maybe the aul' wan at 7k for a bit
) 0 -
Healthy Heart 10k Run Good Friday 3rd April 2015 1:03:55
10k background:-
WMM 2013 - 1:14 (or something like that) - in a walk/run attempt
MORUN 2013 - 58 mins. Also walk/run. Ran till about 6k and it all got scrappy after that
WMM 2014 - 1:03 - I got advice on here to slow down to cover the distance, so i slowed down everything...but i still stopped at about 6k
MORUN 2014 - 1:04:48 - I didnt give a hoot about the time...i finally cracked the stopping business, pulled out everything i had and kept going.
The reason I'm including the above is to show that although there are better time finishes than than the 1:04 mo run, that was the first 10k i actually ran completely, so i have since counted that as my pb. I could easily go out every race and give it total socks, but i'll blow up at 6k. Which in turn means i slightly beat that 1:04 yesterday. That doesnt mean i dont pull the 58 min out of the drawer when i need to get up the pecking order in the WMM :pac:
Anyhow onwards to yesterday.
The Race
My boys were on a sleep over with the grandparents, so the morning got off to a beautiful stress free start. I arrived in plenty of time, got my number went back to the car pinned it on. I got a great little wrist bag in Aldi a few weeks ago to put my car key in, so out that on, got my hat and gloves and was totally chilled. There was still about an hour to go and i could have stayed in the heat, but the MC, who was from Athletics Ireland i think, was giving great tips and advice so i decided to go down and have a listen.
10:55 there was a lady doing warm up exercises with the 5kers, so i watched and before long they were off. There werent many out yesterday, but those that were were fairly serious fit looking folk. It was great to see the lads at the front getting ready to take off.
Then there was just us 10kers left. I looked around at the competition. There were legs and hips moving in ways god did not intend and if the 5kers looked fit, these people looked like olympians. i looked around to see if i could see anyone of my level (i think in my head im still a big massive lump) and when none were visible i started to wonder whether i would come in last. But I didnt freak out. I though if you do, you do. No one here is going to think any less of you and someone has to bring up the rear. I went for a little warm up jog, threw in a few strides and before long we were lining up doing our warm up. It was all great crack and I was so ready.
1-5k
I started off well ran with the crowd for a bit. My legs felt tired, but i know they always do and it'll take them a bit to warm up. First km sailed by. I knew there was a slope coming up so i thought, don't freak about your legs, keep going till the slope and you can gain a bit of time there and take the pressure off them a bit. Then this one appeared out of no where. Do you ever see some one in a race, whos running just annoys you?. She was teetering a long on her toes with her hands waving around and i thought no, not having that, so i got passed her.
These first 3k were going so well, i flew down the slope over took loads of people and was really going well. At least i thought i was
We had been warned before we started that parts of the course were covered by about an inch of water, so after the beautiful downhill, came the lake and all of a sudden the teetering princess was ahead of me again. How the hell can you run like that and be a head of me...i guess that should have been my first warning. Anyhow there were stewards pointing to the shallowest part of the water so we all had to run single file threw it. Princess was before me and boy did she yelp
Got threw that, feet soaked and i thought, groaning to myself about having to do it a second time. Who's the princess now :P
I was prepared and ready for the hill. Its a slow creature that sucks the living out of your legs, but ive done it 4 times before. I leaned in lifted my knees and got up there. The recovery after was tough so i concentrated on getting my breathing down and lungs relaxed and then cracked on. My legs were getting a bit tired and i know this always happend just as i get to 5k, so i looked out over the fields awwing at a little rabbit in the distance. Till his owner came a long and put his lead on to bring him home. It was actually a dog
. I looked at my watch somewhere here and i saw it was 28 mins and i thought if i peg it now i could get a 5k pb. And then i started arguing with myself. If you do that, youll eff up the next 5k. But if you dont fight in a race when do you fight. But if you end up needing to stop you will die! Anyhow by the time I was finished it was 30 mins on the effing watch and i missed me chance.
6-10k
The turn back on to the main road, my legs felt better so i decided to run for the corner, the wind was in my face and the corner got further snd further away, but i battled through it and really felt great.
I was totally alone. There was a crowd a head and a crowd behind but i was totally by myself. I picked up as much pace as i could against the wind and the crowd ahead got closer. I turned at the corner and got my breath back. It was then i thought, come on youve spent the first lap 'conserving' your energy, you have to do something now. So i picked a lampost. Ran for it. Recovered. Picked a tree. Ran for it. Recovered. This was about 7k and i looked up and could see all the finishers on their last km on the higher path. I felt like one of the passengers on the lower deck of the titanic watching all the posh people queue up for their life boats. My lungs felt sore, my legs felt sore and my spirit was no where to be seen :pac: I thought just wait till you get to the slope, use gravity again and you'll be grand.
Older lady shuffled passed me. If she was shuffling i must have been crawling! I thought ill get her on the slope. But nope. Her steady pace was carrying her. Got to the lake and as we waded through i had her, but there was no stopping her. I thought chill. Ill get her on the hill. Looked at my watch it was 8km and the time was 49 mins. My heart sank. It was slower than raheny...no chance of getting under 60 mins now. I had caught up with the group ahead. I took the hill fairly well, was a little knocked out but thought i was okay, but i was out of steam. Tried speeding up...couldnt manage it. Then ac/dcs thunderstruck came on and that carried me along.
The group got away from me again and really took off. I never saw them again.
This guy overtook me and actually stopped at the water station for a drink and a chat...wtf???!!!! So i moved on knowing he was going to be behind me at some stage and good god if he beat me that would be soul destroying. Old lady was ahead and there was another woman a head that i thought...i'll at least catch her. i tried and tried but the engine would not kick in. I know full well its down to motivation rather than strength at this stage and i kept repeating to myself that this is the last km and is hunting territory. i have a target on my back and i have to move. White t shirt woman is getting closer, can i catch her? But what if i blow up now so close to the finish? Dont try catch her...just keep running. Just as i was getting to the finish, water station stopper guy was on my feckin shoulder! I knew i was being hunted! I sprinted for my life to laughing from the stewards. Myself and the other guy hugged and he used a few expletives because he'd just about caught me
All in all the running was a hard slog. One of those, am i seriously doing this for fun. Ultimately i feel that ive fought so hard on the training that i have no fight left. I spoke to others after who found it tough too...one guy said there was no air and thats exactly how it felt. But then everyone else was running in the same conditions so its no excuse.
I am so disappointed. Im going to finish the plan and then i'll decide if running is still for me. I could stay a lowly fun runner and just be happy with that and take up something else. If im not getting faster, theres no point making a misery of it all. I used tom love the buzz of it all. Now its something I have to do.
Two good things from yesterday. First was I was well able for it. It wasnt as hard as the morun. Second when i got to my parents, my dad said, 'think back to 2 years ago youd never have been able for 1km. I think its a fantastic achievement'. Only positive thing hes ever said about running
Sorry for the length of it 0 -
Great report, and don't even think about giving up!!!!! You were early in your training cycle for this 10k, just think of it as a benchmark. Your Dad is right.
My bet is that you'll see a big improvement if you stay consistent, especially now that you've got the pacing figured out!
Loved your description of the princess, hope you at least splashed her going through the water 0 -
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
Bungy Girl wrote: »+1 to all the comments above. I think it's brilliant what your dad said, and lovely that you were able to raise money for a cause close to you.
Just one question from me - do you think that the effort of pacing and trying to get it right is taking up a lot of your energy on race day ?
Hiya BG.
Effort of pacing? I'm not really sure. Up until morun 2014 the effort to keep going and not stop was taking a lot of energy. Keeping up a pace is all fairly new and I thought I had it cracked with the progression runs. I know I can keep up a speedy pace for 3km because I've done it in training and it was knowing that that got me to speed up at all. But I hadn't the confidence To do it for 3km yesterday. Hmmmm I'm learning lots about yesterday's run by typing stuff out today lol.
When I ran with chickey a couple of weeks ago we went by her heart rate monitor and when I got home and looked at my watch and I kept the same pace for the entire run. That was 13km I think. So I know I can do it. I honestly think the fighting in training (which was down to my own stupid fault and nothing to do with the plan) just drained me. I need that motivation and confidence to get moving and keep moving. Maybe the more races I do the more I'll get that.
I think the fact the run was sponsored by the heart foundation helped a lot with my dad 0 -
Advertisement
-
-
Did you click on your name in the results from yesterday?
If you do you will see the pace on each 'lap'. On the 10k the first 'lap' wasn't actually 5k (because you started at the end of the furze rd so it was well short of a full lap).
The first lap was 4.8k and the 2nd 5.2k I think. If you check out the leaders, all of them ran the 2nd lap 2 minutes or so slower than the first as a consequence, so maybe you actually paced it better than you think?
Lol for a minute there I thought you were saying I could knock 2 mins off me first lap :pac: I might actually post up my splits and you can see. Ive nothing to hide now 0 -
Hannibal Smith wrote: »Lol for a minute there I thought you were saying I could knock 2 mins off me first lap :pac: I might actually post up my splits and you can see. Ive nothing to hide now
that's the spirit... full disclosure 0 -
Hannibal Smith wrote: »Lol for a minute there I thought you were saying I could knock 2 mins off me first lap :pac: I might actually post up my splits and you can see. Ive nothing to hide now
I'll admit to cheating here
Let's just say that the lady who finished in 1:03;55 ran the 2nd lap 1 second/km faster than the first lap and gained 3 positions according to the results on PT
If that's you, it's pretty perfect pacing.0 -
-
-
Hannibal, I know my running style isn't perfect but I've been working on my form over the months and I really feel I've made some improvements. When I'm in a race situation running a bit faster I don't pay as much attention to how I'm running and I end up rising up on my toes without meaning to. The only reason I flap my hands is because I'm nervous. I'm not sure who you are because I passed out quite a few people during the race but I hope I didn't splash you too badly when I was going though the water.
Brilliant report as always!. Also way too early to be deciding running's not for you 0 -
hillsiderunner wrote: »Hannibal, I know my running style isn't perfect but I've been working on my form over the months and I really feel I've made some improvements. When I'm in a race situation running a bit faster I don't pay as much attention to how I'm running and I end up rising up on my toes without meaning to. The only reason I flap my hands is because I'm nervous. I'm not sure who you are because I passed out quite a few people during the race but I hope I didn't splash you too badly when I was going though the water
You're doing great!
(She did actually splash me a bit
) 0 -
-
-
Advertisement
-
:-)
Only just reading your report now. I reckon if you stick with the plan but at the revised paces you'll see great improvements. I slowed down hugely when I started the heart rate monitoring but it really works, it just takes patience.
I wish I'd paid the extra few quid and paid Santa for a watch with a heart rate monitor. I just go breathing. What I thought was 4 counts for breathing in for easy, I've upped to 5 and if my legs hurt I slow even further. 0 -
Tues 8 April - 9k easy
How amazing is it out there!!!! Left the aul uaireadoir at home and went by effort. It was beautiful. Ran with a smile on me chops. Myself and this other girl crossed paths a couple of times and gave each other big smiley waves each time. Reminded me of the Boots spring ad
Got the bike out this morning and cycled to work for the first time since December. Now I can see the success of the plan...I flew...not a bit out of breath when I got there!
Some sort of alteration thingy me bob tomorrow... Not gonna lie it took a couple of reads to figure out lol but I think I got there
How do people generally tackle how to judge a change of pace in a training run? I think my watch only sets a virtual pace for the entire run, don't think I can set more than that.0 -
Hannibal Smith wrote: »Tues 8 April - 9k easy
How amazing is it out there!!!! Left the aul uaireadoir at home and went by effort. It was beautiful. Ran with a smile on me chops. Myself and this other girl crossed paths a couple of times and gave each other big smiley waves each time. Reminded me of the Boots spring ad
Got the bike out this morning and cycled to work for the first time since December. Now I can see the success of the plan...I flew...not a bit out of breath when I got there!
Some sort of alteration thingy me bob tomorrow... Not gonna lie it took a couple of reads to figure out lol but I think I got there
How do people generally tackle how to judge a change of pace in a training run? I think my watch only sets a virtual pace for the entire run, don't think I can set more than that.
I was wondering about that for you - why you weren't using the watch to guide paces. What exact watch do you have ?0 -
-
NetwerkErrer wrote: »Fartlek!?
Post up the run there and we'll have a gawk.
you're out of touch with the new alteration thingy training methods, NE! 0 -
Pacing Mule wrote: »I was wondering about that for you - why you weren't using the watch to guide paces. What exact watch do you have ?
I'll have you know its the worlds finest pocket watch! Haahaa no, its a garmin forerunner 10 I think. Whichever is the cheapest one. I am in such a rush to get out the door in the evenings that I haven't time to mess about with the settings...so I have it set on distance laps measuring in kms. So...I head out..warm up...and mark my easy pace and go from there.
Since the whole too fast a pace debacle, I knew the easy run had to be 7min per km so I just kept an eye on my watch and did the mental math dividing the distance by 7 every time I glanced at the watch to make sure I was sticking to it.
I'm gonna be booted off here for being so lame aren't I?NetwerkErrer wrote: »Fartlek!?
Post up the run there and we'll have a gawk.
Lol. It says 8k alteration run. 7 mins easy with 3 mins at 10k. Which sounds straight forward enough...but came with instructions of (pace increases at 7, 17, 27, 37 min etc and slow back down to easy at 10, 20, 30, 40 etc) which threw me a littleyou're out of touch with the new alteration thingy training methods, NE!
That's nothing, I'm doing it all in teetering princess mode! No ones gonna catch me! 0 -
-
-
Pacing Mule wrote: »Take a read of this ......
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/08/garmin-forerunner-watch.html
You should be able to get your watch to show you your current paces.
Just about to read the link thanks. The green one is mine!
But just to say, it does show me my current pace alright, but what I want to set two virtual paces within the same run. So say I set the virtual pace now at 7 mins. When I change to the 10k pace it'll beep like crazy at me. What I was hoping for was to set the easy pace at 7 and the 10k at whatever McMillan tells me to make sure I'm in range, which would teach me the correct level to work at so eventually I would go by feel. How does everyone else do it?
I'll have a look at the link now.0 -
Advertisement
-
Hannibal Smith wrote: »Just about to read the link thanks. The green one is mine!
But just to say, it does show me my current pace alright, but what I want to set two virtual paces within the same run. So say I set the virtual pace now at 7 mins. When I change to the 10k pace it'll beep like crazy at me. What I was hoping for was to set the easy pace at 7 and the 10k at whatever McMillan tells me to make sure I'm in range, which would teach me the correct level to work at so eventually I would go by feel. How does everyone else do it?
I'll have a look at the link now.
you can set different paces for different laps....0
Advertisement