Every accomplishment starts with a decision to try

Firedance

Dunboyne BHAA 5 mile, 26th May 2015

This race had been on my mind for a while, having missed Raheny and our own 4 miler due to injury I really wanted to run a race that I competed in last year and improve my time. I've been following an amended version of Clearliers graduate plan since late Feb. Yesterday for some unknown reason I felt very nervous about the race, I don't usually suffer pre race nerves. Anyway, BIG thanks to Bungy Girl I decided on a strategy and felt reasonably ok with what I had to do. It was a beautiful evening for racing and we had a super crowd there for it with some of the top runners turning up (Mick Clohisey won it).

Pre race I did a bit of a warm up, some strides and drills. Met Bungy Girl and Meno walking towards the start, quick chat & a good luck and parted ways. I positioned myself a few rows back from the start as there is no mat.

Mile 1, kept a close eye on the watch here, the start was quite fast and I was doing 8:09 at one stage, reigned it in and was happy enough to see the first mile tick off at 8.35. HR 157

Mile 2, settled into a pace averaging 8.22, observing who was around me and did some positive reinforcement! felt good and am passing a few people one by one. HR 167

Mile 3, 8.26, at this point we reached the start line of our christmas day 2 mile race so I know this road, I've raced it before, I can do this for 2 more miles, keeping the positivity going and amazingly I'm still passing people, this never happens to me in a race. I remember to keep smiling too. HR 170

Mile 4, I'm breathing harder now, I assess things, is there any pain, amazingly not in the body but the breathing is labored, but, I'm on mile 4 and I'm going to prove Mcmillan wrong... 8.40 HR 172

Mile 5, this was tough, breathing is now uncomfortable, picked up a club mate here that I was passing had just enough breath to tell him to come with me, we pushed on, got to the gate of the club house where there's lots of support but I couldn't acknowledge anyone I just focused on getting around the track, feeling ill and very much struggling to keep pace, club mate appeared on my shoulder so I pushed on to sprint over the line 8.48 HR 173

I hadn't seen the clock going over the line and I didn't look at the watch when I stopped it, apparently I spoke to someone at the finish line that I've no recollection of (my old FTG coach who says I was white as a sheet :eek:) I saw BG then who told me I had sub 43 and she confirmed she got her sub 35 target so celebrations all round :-) Its still not a negative split - someday..... but I was reasonably ok for miles 1-3 and could hang on for the last two miles.

This is a nice race, its very flat and its all left hand turns. I'm very happy with that result and can start progressing on from here I hope and start to leave the injury battle behind. The foot is sore this morning but did some stretches and walked the dog so its easing off already. PB buzzs are great, that awful LSR I had a couple of weeks ago was worth the pain :-). Stayed for the prizes, our own Emila Dann won the women's race in I think sub 30! Massive congrats to Bungy Girl on her fantastic PB and getting on the table, very well deserved, and to Meno on his PB, glad you were happier than last week.

avg pace/best pace/max HR

8:36 7:13 164

8:21 7:44 172

8:26 7:27 174

8:41 7:45 175

8:48 7:56 178

Time 42.56, average pace 8.34, best pace 7.13 avg HR 168 max hr 178

adrian522

Well done on the PB, great stuff digging in for the last mile..

Bungy Girl

Firedance wrote: »

I remember to keep smiling too. HR 170

Ah, I knew there was something I forgot to do...

You will look great in your race pics!

Super racing, congrats again. See you in Dunshaughlin

laura_ac3

Congrats on the pb. Seems like you got the pacing improved, great to have a confidence boosting run especially on injury return. Lots more to come.

laura_ac3

Congrats on the pb. Seems like you got the pacing improved, great to have a confidence boosting run especially on injury return. Lots more to come.

hillsiderunner

Great that it was a PB . Guess that means you can start considering yourself mostly-rehabed at last!

JMSE

well done FD on the PB, didnt even see a clock at the end myself, was there one? its gas how when on that last half lap of the track and you hear someone trying to take your hard earned place, we still find the adrenaline to work the legs coz the lungs are clocking out. Great writeup.

Firedance

Dubgal72 wrote: »

That's great! What a very pleasant surprise, well done!!

Thanks A! there was a lot of wand waving going on on that last mile

adrian522 wrote: »

Well done on the PB, great stuff digging in for the last mile..

Thanks Adrian :-)

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Ah, I knew there was something I forgot to do...

You will look great in your race pics!

Super racing, congrats again. See you in Dunshaughlin

ha ha eh no, no such thing as a good race pic! (of me)

laura_ac3 wrote: »

Congrats on the pb. Seems like you got the pacing improved, great to have a confidence boosting run especially on injury return. Lots more to come.

Thanks Laura, its all a learning curve isn't it, every race we do we get that bit better at something else

hillsiderunner wrote: »

Great that it was a PB . Guess that means you can start considering yourself mostly-rehabed at last!

Thanks M! yes I hope so!

JMSE wrote: »

well done FD on the PB, didnt even see a clock at the end myself, was there one? its gas how when on that last half lap of the track and you hear someone trying to take your hard earned place, we still find the adrenaline to work the legs coz the lungs are clocking out. Great writeup.

Thanks J, how did you get on yourself?

Firedance

Wednesday 27th May 3 mile recovery run with the dog, happy to report no ill effects from Tuesday, legs a little tired but foot is fine. Did some foam rolling & stretching too.

Some easy miles for this evening I think and I might take a trip over to Cabinteely park run on Saturday for some gentle hills then I'm off on holidays to Chicago for 2 weeks to see my new niece, can't wait, will bring the runners of course! There are some beautiful runs around the lake there. When I get back I want to look for a plan that will help with 5K and 10K, I'd like to get those times down by the end of the year. If anyone has any suggestions that'd be great :-)

Bungy Girl

Firedance wrote: »

When I get back I want to look for a plan that will help with 5K and 10K, I'd like to get those times down by the end of the year. If anyone has any suggestions that'd be great :-)

Have a read of this. I've also found the Cool Running 10K programmes very good. I followed the beginners one towards the end of last year and just adjusted it a bit because I was doing a hilly goal race (Fat Turkey 10K). For Dunshaughlin I've been following the Intermediate schedule, again with a little bit of tweaking to suit my own mileage levels. You'll find those plans here at the bottom of the article.

Have fun in Chicago!

Ososlo

Great racing FD and massive congrats on the pb! Loads more to come from you this year! The Clearlier Plan has obviously worked very well for you!!

Firedance

Ososlo wrote: »

Great racing FD and massive congrats on the pb! Loads more to come from you this year! The Clearlier Plan has obviously worked very well for you!!

Thanks O :-) it was a,super plan fair play to him I think a few graduates have had success with it

Pacing Mule

Congrats FD. Great to read about PB's That last lap of the track near killed me last year trying to get around it in time !

Firedance

Sat 30th May Cabinteely parkrun 28.41 (garmin time) plan was to go over and enjoy this, I had no illusions of 'racing' but wanted a good workout. Exactly 1 min improvement on my time here from the last outing (garmin times, will see what the official results say later on) without any real extra effort so that's nice.

Just did a splits comparison out of interest

28th March: 9.16, 9.39, 9.19, 9.33(last .1) time 29.42, official time 29.52
30th May: 9.08, 9.19, 8.52, 8.33(last .1) time 28.41. official time in, 28:33

very happy with last mile here, there were two girls a good bit ahead of me going into the last mile and I drew them in closing the gap on the hills then overtook them before the playground :-) At least I could confirm to today's slightly scary race director (not really..) who reminds me of my old form teacher (sorry Meno!!) that I had indeed done better than last time, phew! This parkrun is definitely going on my regular schedule, well done to all the organisers & volunteers.

annapr

Nice progression there from your first one and in the last mile and a bit today!

menoscemo

Delighted the times are in :pac:
Well done today and thanks for the pictures

nop98

Good job FD, would be interesting to see where a full-out attempt might get you? Looking forward to saying hello a next time.

Firedance

nop98 wrote: »

Good job FD, would be interesting to see where a full-out attempt might get you? Looking forward to saying hello a next time.

a cardiac arrest I'd imagine , just seen the photos taken by one of the marshalls who I think may have been KC?

Bungy Girl

Well done FD! Is there a parkrun in Chicago ??

nop98

Firedance wrote: »

a cardiac arrest I'd imagine , just seen the photos taken by one of the marshalls who I think may have been KC?

LOL, maybe not then.. Yes, KC was a marshal at the bottom corner (near Cabinteely village).

hillsiderunner

Now *that's* the way to pace the parkrun. Just aim for 10secs quicker each lap on the next go .

I was flat-out at my parkrun this morning and unfortunately there was a photographer there :rolleyes:; am really hoping I won't feature in any close-ups.

Firedance

hillsiderunner wrote: »

Now *that's* the way to pace the parkrun. Just aim for 10secs quicker each lap on the next go .

I was flat-out at my parkrun this morning and unfortunately there was a photographer there :rolleyes:; am really hoping I won't feature in any close-ups.

yes I saw your log, good going for you on the tougher course, I definitely think the hillier park runs are great training runs, I live in a fairly flat area so I'm trying to incorporate hills at least once a week. I will target this one at race pace for sure later in the summer... I didn't realise the marshal was taking photos until it was too late!! I thought he was just looking at his phone nor did I realise it was Krusty or I'd have bowed said hi

JMSE

Firedance wrote: »

Thanks J, how did you get on yourself?

Hi Fd, only catching up now on this. Did 34.10 by the gun time, wasn't timing it myself. Delighted with it. Was hoping for 35 ish having done 35.50 on my own there in training a week previous. In fact I ran it about 4 times in the 2 weeks up to the race so home turf is nice at times.

Keep it up!!!

Firedance

Sunday 31st May 6 miles @ 10.31, felt quite tired today and this was a bit of a struggle, yesterday still in the legs and didn't sleep very well. Glad to get it out of the way early this morning. Bags packed, dog deposited with my aunt who will spoil him more than I do

Month & Year | Miles
Jan 2015 | 0
Feb 2015 | 50
March 2015 | 85.07
April 2015 | 97.65
May 2015 | 125.7

3 races, 1 x track session, longest run 12 miles

delighted with May's mileage, finally feeling like I'm getting somewhere.

Dunshaughlin is up next and I'll be hoping to see an improvement on my Kclub time - must have a look at mcmillan predictions for 10k, and promptly ignore them :rolleyes:

good luck to everyone racing tomorrow, I really hope the rain stays away..

Bungy Girl

Nice mileage! Have a great trip and get loads of warm weather training in for Dunshaughlin.

Firedance

Wednesday 3rd June.

Warm weather training day 1: 3 miles at 10.45. Did this at 9am and its 20 degrees already - I think it was 7 on Sunday am at home. Hot hot hot. Did a very easy first mile followed by some fartlek then easy last mile. Definitely need to drink more water..

annapr

Enjoy your trip! Are you running by the lake? It's a lovely place to run...I'd say you'd need to be out even earlier!!

Firedance

annapr wrote: »

Enjoy your trip! Are you running by the lake? It's a lovely place to run...I'd say you'd need to be out even earlier!!

No lake runs yet, need to stay close to home for aunty duty will get down to the lake eventually tho and its a few degrees cooler there

Dubgal72

Have a great trip, sounds like you'll be doing a lot of saunas-on-the-run!!

hillsiderunner

Firedance wrote: »

yes I saw your log, good going for you on the tougher course, I definitely think the hillier park runs are great training runs, I live in a fairly flat area so I'm trying to incorporate hills at least once a week. I will target this one at race pace for sure later in the summer... I didn't realise the marshal was taking photos until it was too late!! I thought he was just looking at his phone nor did I realise it was Krusty or I'd have bowed said hi

It turns out that when the 110 photos from Saturday went up on facebook, that I had escaped being caught in any of them. *or* that the photos had been filtered out (the set doesn't have any truly awful photos of anyone really ...)

Hope you're having a great trip & there will be some free time as well as Aunt duties. The weather sounds lovely (except for running).