Eye of the Tiger Beer.

annapr

Yes, I noticed you were on our rectangle . Those hares are impressive alright, airport might need to introduce some foxes too

Singer

A crappy running week, convenience runs weren't as convenient and I lacked the motivation to make up for it- two hangovers and some interrupted sleep due to bringing the elder child to Temple St. until 4AM on Tuesday night didn't help (nothing serious - he put some foam in his ear, casually told us about it a few hours later - it still isn't out though, returning to hospital on Thursday). Felt racked with negativity all weekend (tracking marathoners and reading race reports etc. all weekend didn't help ), but then just did a decent run on fresh legs and all is well with the world again.

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
4th April|10.4 miles|8'34|Run commute. Made my life every so slightly less mundane by going a slightly different route (up through Beaumont).
5th April|5 miles|9'05|Working a little late, so no run commute Got out later on for a few slow miles around Swords.
6th April|8.7 miles|8'27|A meh run commute home in the wind.
7th April|2.3 miles|11'04|Some slow miles around St. Stephen's Green with a co-worker.
10th April|16.1 miles|7'57|Fresh legs, so did a fast enough LSR. I was expecting to be battered by the wind and rain, but it didn't really happen so kept the pace and effort up a little. Went out to DCU with detours via River Valley, the Airport and Ballymun, and then straight back to Swords. Felt good the whole way.


Total: 42.7 miles

Next week: Must try harder.

Mrs Mc

It's a new week B we all have those meh weeks it's the getting back into it is the hardest but at least with the brighter evenings it's s little easier. Hope mojo comes back and foam comes out !!! Kids ya gotta love their curiosity hope all goes well.

Bungy Girl

Nothing quite like Temple St in the early hours of the morning. And on a school night too. Hope he's feeling better - and less curious - soon.

Singer

Mrs Mc wrote: »

It's a new week B we all have those meh weeks it's the getting back into it is the hardest but at least with the brighter evenings it's s little easier. Hope mojo comes back and foam comes out !!! Kids ya gotta love their curiosity hope all goes well.

I had a surprisingly enjoyable run home in the pissings of rain this evening, so it looks like the mojo's back already

Bungy Girl wrote: »

Nothing quite like Temple St in the early hours of the morning. And on a school night too. Hope he's feeling better - and less curious - soon.

I felt like an imposter in Temple St. that late with a not actually very ill kid. He made the most out of it anyway, stuffing himself with sweets and generally entertaining/annoying the assorted kids and parents also stuck hanging around.

annapr

That week doesn't look too bad, all things considered... Where's the foam now? :eek: still in there?

Singer

annapr wrote: »

Where's the foam now? :eek: still in there?

The foam has remained stoic in the face of medical intervention The feckin' eejit is in for a procedure on Wednesday - a general anesthetic to keep him still enough to get the bloody foam out, and an inspection of the eardrum to make sure it's undamaged. The farce of it makes it a little less stressful than it otherwise should be

annapr

Singer wrote: »

The foam has remained stoic in the face of medical intervention The feckin' eejit is in for a procedure on Wednesday - a general anesthetic to keep him still enough to get the bloody foam out, and an inspection of the eardrum to make sure it's undamaged. The farce of it makes it a little less stressful than it otherwise should be

Jaysis..... Boys! :eek:

On the plus side, you'll have a family story to embarrass him with for decades

Dubgal72

Ye-ikes, just catching up here. Foam?! That's a novel one. The boy will go far

Singer

A good week. Actually, a really good week. Ok, a great week I did some fast intervals, made my Parkrun debut and had my longest run since DCM. Oh and I broke my weekly mileage record :cool:

So, a mini race report for the Parkrun. Myles did a very interesting post on the graduates thread which got me thinking about running more races. As it happens, my foam-loving son has just started doing some drama classes just down the road from Malahide Castle on Saturday morning, so I might have a new Saturday morning routine that involves a parkrun! It probably won't happen every week but it should be do-able to drop in every few weeks. I tapered for this by running loads all week and made sure I was in great condition by having a few glasses of wine the night before. A PB was never on the cards, the minimum I wanted was to do it at 10k pace, and maybe push the time as close to 20:00 as I could. I jogged a half mile to the start and stood around waiting for things to start. I took some survey that was taking place and shuffled down towards the start sign. I placed myself politely enough near the front, but it was actually nowhere near the front as it appeared to be, as people just start on either side of the path on the grass. Once the race timed run started it was a bit of a melee, it was very crowded as all the side runners converged onto the path. Things settled down and I took to the grass for a bit to pass some people, and then went back to the path once I was in a bit of space. The plan was definitely not to go out hard and hang on, more like find a comfortably uncomfortable pace and try and stick with it the whole way. I'm pretty familiar with Malahide Castle, but I didn't know the course route so I didn't really have any race plan. My Garmin's time was all over the place when I looked at it, so I reckoned it was being useless due to tree cover. After about 2k I was no longer overtaking people and just behind a group of 3 runners, so from here it was just a case of catching up with them and maintaining pace. The run through the forest bit was fun. The 4th km was a bit tiring, but nowhere near as devastating as during the MSB 5k. The last km was mostly uphill to the finish, and naturally upped the effort as the end came. Caught my breath for a minute after finishing (I was near death after the MSB 5k), and went to cheer folks on their way to the end for a few minutes, then jogged back home. Happy with the time - I knew it wasn't a PB effort, and that's fine.

Time: 20:10 (22nd out of 349)

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
April 11th|10 miles|8'23|It was pissing rain and the pavements were full of puddles, and I didn't care. I stuck on an album from my youth (Siamese Dream) and splashed my way home, and had a great time. A pointlessly enjoyable run.
April 12th|10 miles|8'05|Ditched the run commute (I think I had a late meeting), so went out after watching the Champions League. Went out to Malahide, and did 3 x 1 miles at 10kish pace (splits were 6'43, 6'28 and 6'37).
April 13th|10.1 miles|8'43|An easy run commute home. Nothing of interest.
April 15th|10.4 miles|8'37|Another run commute I guess?
April 16th|7.6 miles|?|Warmup, Parkrun as above and jog home
April 17th|17.7 miles|8'27|Longest run since DCM. Went the long way to Kinsealy which has a bit of a hill, then went alongside Malahide Castle and down into Malahide village, out to Portmarnock and back to Swords. Felt a little stiff at the end but not destroyed, the chocolate milk after my shower went down better than usual.


Total: 66.1 miles

Next week: There's some trail runners in work and I eventually gave in, joined IMRA and was all ready to run up Bray Head this Wednesday... but I'll be tending to a post-procedure 5 year old instead So, nothing exciting planned. More weeks like this week would be great!

Mrs Mc

Did they get the foam out of his ear ???

Singer

Another mini-race report!

The kid's ear was finally fixed on Wednesday, so I was able to get out to the IMRA Bray Head race. There's a trail runner in the office who's done plenty of IMRA races (JC), and another runner was over from the states (MW), so worst case it'd be a nice work social event. I'd never done anything remotely like this before, other than running around Howth on my own and a few hill sprints now and then. I fished out my oldest runners ready to sacrifice to the mud gods (a pair of Brooks Ravenna that I did DCM and most of my runner last summer in last year) and headed across the city on the DART. Got there in plenty of time to get registered and changed, then strolled up to the hill, bumping into a couple of people I knew who were also doing the race.

I had no real race plan other than not injuring myself - I'm a bit faster than JC on the road, but he runs a lot of hills, so I reckoned roughly keeping pace with him would be a decent workout. MW's a far better runner and I didn't expect to see much of him on the course. People started gathering into their starting positions, so we strolled up, and ended up about two thirds back. The race director said a few words, and without much fanfare the race began. The start was up a steep path, and it was a bit crowded. We started to overtake a lot of people, and that continued as the terrain turned into a steep uphill forest trail. I has loads of fun hopping around and jumping over things, and I was keeping pace with JC. Eventually the climb caused everybody to slow to a walk, and I used my hands a few times to do a bit of scrambling up. There was the odd flatish place to stretch the legs, but it was mostly slow to the top of Bray Head. I touched the cross, tried to get a look at the view of a fraction of a second, and then set off on a downhill section on towards the second hill. I was noticeably a bit slow here, got overtaken a bit and JC started to get away from me. Getting used to running fast downhill on trails was tough, and I was a bit conscious that my runners were pretty unsuited to the surface and had a few mild stumbles. We started climbing again as the path went along the cliffs - another completely amazing view that I couldn't really take in due to trying to stay on my feet and staying focussed on where JC was. I caught up with him a little, and then lost him a bit once there was another big hill to scramble up to the top of the second hill.

After touching the thing at the top, there was another steep downhill, and once again I lost a few places due to being uncomfortable to running at speed. Once things levelled off I was able to get up a few positions where the surface was good, and then on the uphill to the first hill I was able to catch back up with JC. The steep downhill on Bray Head was completely insane and exhilarating. I guess it was fun, but I wasn't able to really enjoy as I was concentrating so hard on not plummeting down the hill. About two thirds of the way down I lost control for a few seconds, but managed to stabilise myself with a machine-gun like cadence. This spooked me a little and I lost a few places on the downhill once again. Once we made it to the path I was able to make up a few of the places, and the dash down to the finish was great fun.

Result: 81st out of 211 in 0:35:36, 1 second behind JC

Overall this was great fun. It was pretty well organised, though there was apparently some confusion about the route down. The beautiful weather helped a lot, and the post-run beers watching the football went down pretty well too I might well look at doing a few more of these races over the summer.

There are some nice pics on the IMRA site:
https://www.imra.ie/photos/view/id/116570/ (looking over to the second hill)
https://www.imra.ie/photos/view/id/116997/ (trying to stay upright)
https://www.imra.ie/photos/view/id/117401 (top of the second hill)

annapr

That's gas, you look like a natural :pac: And happier than I've seen you heading up the swords road... But the backpack....??

Singer

annapr wrote: »

That's gas, you look like a natural :pac: And happier than I've seen you heading up the swords road... But the backpack....??

The race rules stipulated you needed to bring a jacket, so I brought along a relatively large North Face jacket that's too big to tie around my waist. Everybody else appeared to either ignore this or bring along a super-light running jacket that they could stick in their pocket or whatever. Anyway, I'm well used to running with a bag

Bungy Girl

Well done in Bray. Yis got a great evening for it. Used to do the IMRA races (pre-kid) and loved them but you do need trail shoes to prevent yourself going splat. And to switch off your brain for the downhill

Mrs Mc

Great pics B doesn't even look like it's taking anything out of you !

Singer

Another good week, this week and last have felt like another step up. The Boyne 10k is coming up this weekend, which I hope to PB and set a time to compare against some hopefully more 10k focussed training for the Fingal 10k in July.

Boyne 10k goals: A = < 42:00, B = < 43:00, C = PB. A lot depends on how awful the hill at 7k is and obviously the weather on the day.

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
18th April|8.9 miles|9'09|Easy run commute home, periodically checking the Boston tracker & thread.
19th April|10 miles|7'57|I apparently did a faster run commute. I don't remember much about it.
20th April|3.6 miles|9'43|IMRA race on Bray Head, race review above
21st April|8.7 miles|8'24|In St. Luke's for a checkup, so brought along my running gear and followed the DCM 15 route from Rathgar back into town. A little sore and stiff from the previous evening's racing, but the adrenalin from marathon flashbacks made it pretty good fun. I sprinted up "Heartbreak Hill" for the laugh, it's really not that bad when you haven't got 22 miles in the legs Finished up outside McGrattens, obviously.
22nd April|9 miles|8'48|Another run commute. Quads were sore and legs stiff all day.
23rd April|7.5 miles|7'18|I was reading this 10k workout article, and decided to give the session described a go. I dropped the foam-free kid off at gymnastics, and made my way up to Collins Avenue, where I reckoned there could be a relatively undisturbed 2 mile loop in the DCU area. First two miles (6'37, 6'34) went fine, took a 5 minute cooldown as per the session description, then did the next two (6'41, 6'37) - it got a little tough in the second one but I was feeling confident about the third. I then checked my watch and only had 15 minutes before the kid had to be picked up - so I did another fast mile down the Swords Road (6'39), kept going into the grounds of the school, did a lap of a football field and then did a quick cooldown. So, the session was ruined by a basic planning error (not enough time!). Despite that I think it was a good confidence booster going into next week's race. During this session my Garmin noted a 10k time of 43:46, which is only slightly higher than my 10k race PB (though I ran faster 10ks in last year's Race Series 10 Mile and of course in my suicidally paced HM).
24th April|13.6 miles|7'59|Did a long lap around Swords, taking in most of the Fingal 10k route, "The Valley" and Holywell.


Total: 61.6 miles

Next week: Glorious taper and racing on Sunday

Singer

Boyne 10k Chip: 41:16

Race report to follow after obligatory PB beers

This Fat Girl Runs

Congrats on the PB!

Have you eaten?

Mrs Mc

Nice one B congrats on pb.

Murph_D

Well done, B, you continue to impress.

annapr

Singer wrote: »

Boyne 10k Chip: 41:16

Race report to follow after obligatory PB beers

Well done Singer, smashed your target!

Dubgal72

:cool: well done! Enjoy

Singer

So, the Boyne 10k. My 3rd 10k, and as with basically every serious run I've done since, I was expecting a PB.

I arrived ludicrously early in Drogheda, parking near enough to the start and picked up my race number and goodie bag well over an hour before the race. I picked up my number, went back to the car and faffed around on my phone for a bit, got dressed into a singlet and race shorts (with a sacrificial long sleeve t-shirt) and made my way to the race start. I did a bit of a warm up around the town, and got a feel for what the first km. A small bit of digging around the previous year's results reckoned my target time would be in the first 100 or so finishers, so I tried to place myself accordingly in the start. I tied my long sleeve t-shirt to a railing, and lined up. A few minutes before the start, it drizzled a fair bit. I was feeling a little annoyed and uncomfortable, but ready to go. A friend of mine from work showed up on the side and we wished each other well wishes. I couldn't hear anything of the commentary from the start, and pretty much on time the race began.

Mile 1: 6:28

I started fairly slowly, despite reasonable placement there were a lot of slower runners around me. I didn't get too stressed and passed a lot of people once the roads started to open up. I was a little worried that my runners would slip and not provide enough grip, but when running fast I didn't notice any problems. The road out of the town was quite up and down, I was making pace on the flats and uphills and passing a lot of people in general, however I was being passed a lot on the downhills.

Mile 2: 6:31

Lots of downhills here, and I was overtaken by a lot of folks. 6:45 or so was my target overall split, at this stage I was very conscious that I might be overdoing things, so I held back a little. I was comfortable enough, breathing was getting a little laboured but generally doing fine.

Mile 3: 6:34

Up and down a bit here, the most dramatic part being an uphill drag towards a 180 before a plunge down towards the Boyne. It was clear that the race was very well marshalled, all the potholes and other dangerous road features were spraypainted so they were easy to avoid. I headed over the Boyne happy with my time. I grabbed a bottle of water, poured a bit over myself and took a sup, then threw it at a bin and missed wildly. There was a man walking a dog beside the bin, when I shouted "****e" he responded with "you were pretty close!". It fortunately didn't end up in the canal.

Mile 4: 6:43

When I passed 5k I did a quick check of my watch and it was <20:00 (Strava disagrees, but I reckon the 180 threw it out). At this stage I was pretty much on my own, and when heading down under the M1 and beside the canal I tried to speed up and catch a few runners ahead of me, but I was very aware that there was a killer hill coming up. The noise of the cars going over the M1 freaked me out a few times, I was convinced there were cars bearing down on me. I was very much on my own here.

Mile 5: 7:17

One of my uncles is in a local club, and when I turned the corner towards the big climb uphill he gave me a great shout-out which helped for a few seconds... but OMG this hill was tough. My watch reckoned I was doing 7:40 or so, and it was just generally awful. My running stance moved from a confident stride to a miserable skulk up the hill. The support was pretty great here, there was music, jellies and water all over the place, though I ignored it all.

Mile 6: 6:27

Once over the hill of doom, a glorious downhill was next. I slowly sped up as I got over the exhaustion of the hill, and sped down towards Drogheda town. I wasn't expecting to go off the road, the race course ended up taking in a bit of a park beside the Boyne, which included a short but sharp hill, then across a bridge, and finally up the hill into Drogheda town.

... (6:24 pace)

Battled up the hill, then attempted something like a sprint finish, but failed badly. I was overtaken by a few here, just about jogging over the line in the end, and immediately grabbing a barrier to flunk over and get my breath together. I found my long-sleeve t-shirt, grabbed a banana and water, and headed back up the street, providing a little encouragement to random runners and waited for my friend to finish before meeting up with her, and headed back south to Swords.

Chip: 41:16
Gun: 41:29
Position: 85/1534

Overall - I'm totally delighted with this time. It was a very tough course. I think I suffer a bit from hills (both up and down), but that should be fixable. I reckon sub-40 in the Fingal 10k might still be do-able if everything goes really well between now and July.

diego_b

Well done B!

denis b

Well done Brian. Great race and report. Just as well it wasnt't a biathlon or you'd have shot up the spectators!!

Kennyg71

Well done on PB, great racing.

Singer

Not too much running to report on last week, other than what's documented in the post-PB pints race report above :rolleyes:

I had a bit of a fall on Saturday, about 200 metres from my house. I've had a few near misses while wearing my Nike Frees, the toe bit is a bit lower than other runners and is easier to catch on uneven surfaces. Just as I was finishing up my run I clipped something, staggered on for a couple of steps but couldn't recover and went flying on my knees and hands. My right leg got badly grazed it's getting better already, antiseptic spray-on plasters are great. It obviously didn't affect me too badly yesterday

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
26th April|6.6 miles|8'22|Malahide and back.
27th April|10 miles|8'17|A run commute.
30th April|4.4 miles|8'00|An afternoon run around Swords with some strides. Fell, as above.
1st May|7.1 miles|-|Warm up and 10k race


Total: 28.2 miles
April total: 213 miles

Next week: Get the milage up again, start procrastinating about following a 10k plan and getting out to the Boards run on Sunday!

jake1970

Well done B, congrats on the PB.

FBOT01

Great going yesterday, B. Sounds like you pretty much left it all out there and got the PB you deserved. Roll on Fingal 10k.....