Eye of the Tiger Beer.

annapr · 02-05-2016 1:32pm

I thought for a minute the fall was related to the post-PB beers.

Sure look at all those Kenyans falling and getting up and winning races with bloody knees and banged heads, no bother to ya.

jamule · 02-05-2016 2:17pm

Singer wrote: »

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.

I ran most of the race beside you, passed you in the sprint to the line.

i seen you throw the bottle towards the bin and was laughing to myself as it sailed towards the canal, I of course managed to get it in the canal!

Chartsengrafs · 02-05-2016 2:22pm

Flunking over a barrier at the finish: a sign of an honest effort! Well done, sounds a tough course.

Singer · 03-05-2016 12:21am

jamule wrote: »

I ran most of the race beside you, passed you in the sprint to the line.

i seen you throw the bottle towards the bin and was laughing to myself as it sailed towards the canal, I of course managed to get it in the canal!

Nice running! Not quite so nice throwing though :pac:

Hope you enjoyed the race. Looking at Strava's Flyby I definitely wasn't hallucinating losing a few places at the end, I gotta work on my finishing kick!

Singer · 08-05-2016 2:28pm

Good enough milage this week, though no long-long run. A little tired at the start of the week from the 10k race, I was starting to get a little concerned that it was all very mono-paced until I squeezed in an opportunistic Parkrun!

As I've mentioned before, the 5 year old has started speech and drama in Malahide at 9AM, which is handy timing for the Malahide parkrun. As is now tradition, I prepped for this by being mildly hungover, and not having slept well due to the 2 year old suffering from a bout of tonsillitis. I also woke up around 8.15, so was rushing around and barely got breakfast and coffee into me before speeding down to Malahide. I was still feeling quite groggy and was entertaining just doing an easy run along the coast, but I convinced myself to head down. I tried to do a few strides, but they weren't really happening. As folks were gathering for the pre-run announcements it started to piddle rain. After a few rounds of applause for various trivia, we were off. The numbers were seriously down compared to the other time I was there, I guess the rainclouds and Darkness Into Light kept folks away. I had lined up a lot closer to the start this time, and there was no melee and chaos. I got into a fairly good position at the back of a pack. Pace was good, but I wasn't trying to totally wreck myself, and I slowly overtook a few people. My left lace untied itself somewhere around here, but I just ploughed on, it wasn't making any difference. Once we went into the woods I knew my watch would be useless for pace, so I just paced myself according to those around me. As we were getting up to the cricket club I started to get a slight stitch and held back a little. On the hill up beside the club I was overtaken, but once we turned the corner and the finish-line was visible I checked my watch, saw that sub-20 was pretty close, so tore past him and finished in 19:50. I caught my breath and jogged back to Malahide pick up the kid. I'm pretty happy I can knock out a hungover sub-20 and not at 100% effort, I would have killed for that 6 months ago

- "Oh, there's the Lufthansa, must be late today..."
May 7th|4.6 miles|?|Parkrun and some warmup/warmdown.
May 7th|6.2 miles|8'47|Jog around the environs of D9/D5 while the kid's at gym.
May 8th|10.6 miles|9'10|A nice boards.ie meetup canal run! This was very enjoyable, nattering away made the miles fly by and the first time I've been running in what feels like summer (i.e. I was sweating a lot!). Some pretty nice pancakes in Enfield afterwards too. Hopefully there'll be a few more of these over the summer.

Total: 63.5 miles (it's tempting to do another double later to get it to 70 for the week

- but I'll be a little sensible and take it easy later on).

Next week: There's a chance I might make the 2 mile Clonliffe Harriers race in Santry on Tuesday, not too upset if I don't.

Singer · 15-05-2016 7:07pm

Not an amazing week. Didn't make the Clonliffe 2, milage on the lower side, no real sessions, a bit mono-paced. Thursday wasn't planned to be a rest day, I had a late meeting in work which meant I couldn't run home, and my wife ended up going out that night. That said, I did a faster run commute (edging towards PMP) and the long run was nice and fast.

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
10th May|10.2 miles|7'55|Warm and windy runmute, not amazingly comfortable but legs were fresh after a rest day.
11th May|9 miles|8'23|A regular run commute. Nothing interesting.
13th May|10.1 miles|7'45|Fastest ever run commute. I did have PB beers that night (ok, they were just beers)
14th May|7 miles|8'25|Suffering a bit from the beers, so dropped the kid at Malahide and went for a run to Portmarnock and back, taking in some of the beach on the way. Utterly glorious morning to be out running. Parkrun wouldn't have been too much fun.
15th May|15 miles|7'56|This was good. A few slower miles at the start, then kept it quick enough or until the last 2. I took a drink along for the first time this year, it was warm but there was a nice cooling breeze in the second half as I approached Malahide. Route was out to Santry, down to Coolock, past Clare Hall, into Malahide and back to Swords along the estuary.

Weekly total: 51.5 miles

Next week: I'm taking part in the Dublin Staff Relay 5k in The Phoenix Park on Thursday. My work is sending along 3 teams, though we're not being competitive at all and just mixing up folks randomly across the teams. It's mostly an opportunity to go knacker drinking in the park after work with a bit of running thrown in, I don't think the course or setup is worth trying to PB on or anything, hopefully the weather will hold up

Other than that, the usual run commutes etc.

annapr · 15-05-2016 10:56pm

We're doing the Staff Relay too... Half our team have never run 5k before so we could be there till midnight!!

. Might see you there!

Singer · 16-05-2016 9:16pm

annapr wrote: »

We're doing the Staff Relay too... Half our team have never run 5k before so we could be there till midnight!! . Might see you there!

Oh nice! Yeh, my gang has some 5k newbs in it too. I'll hold back on telling them to go out hard, hang on, battle through 3-4k and speed up to the finish...

Singer · 22-05-2016 7:50pm

Interesting enough week, with a race, a timed run and a decent long run (longest since DCM).

First up was the Staff Relay 5k in the Phoenix Park on Thursday. I didn't really have too high expectations of this race, the course is looked a little tough for a 5k with a load of hills between 3-4k, and some zigzagging around tents. It was also going to be the first time I've run a commercial race, breaking my snobby run of races organised by clubs etc. Got there without too much time before things started. I was third up on my team, we just chose people randomly across three teams. As it happens my team got the best runner in work (3:05 in last year's DCM, though he claims to have not really run since(!)), and a couple of 5k newbs. After the relay started I got dressed into running gear and stood around chatting. After the second runner started 3 of us headed over to the handover point. My 5k newb teammate surprised me by showing up a few minutes before I expected! I took the baton and tore down a short hill and joined the path. At this stage my quads started burning! I hadn't actually warmed up at all, and now my legs were telling me through the medium of pain how stupid this was. I'd never felt this kind of pain before other than the day after the marathon, but I kept going reckoning it'd wear off, which it did after a km or so, though my quads were a bit achy throughout. Flew down Khyber and was overtaking a lot of people, turned up towards the S bends and got hit by a stiff breeze. Felt like I was going backwards at times, and my pace definitely slumped. I was overtaken my a whippet thin auld lad on the hill up to the hospital who looked very comfortable, and then on next hill I heard some footsteps approaching and an orange-topped runner pulled up beside me. We ran together for a bit (as in overtaking lots of people together), but once we were on the exposed field running into the wind he pulled ahead. The run through the tents was a bit of a laugh, I got a few shout-outs including some from this parish. Handed the baton off and stopped my watch at 19:53. Drank some beer, cheered on some co-workers and eventually bumped into annapr and BG, we had a quick chat about this and that. Eventually strolled down through the park while sipping on some cans to Ryans where I had a couple of pints before heading home. Overall a great evening, the race was organised better than I expected (despite being short

), there was a good atmosphere and it's not every day I can knacker drink in a park on a nice enough summer evening while getting some running in.

I headed out to Malahide Parkrun again as I was in Malahide with the older kid. Devoid of a hangover for once on a Saturday morning, I was looking forward to this. The start was a bit messy, there was a false start which meant I wasn't very well positioned by the time everybody lined back up. Once things got underway I made my way up the field and got into a decent enough pace. My quads again ached a little, but nowhere near the pain on Thursday. The obvious target a few places ahead of me was a guy pushing a buggy

By the time we headed into the forest I was pretty isolated, nobody particularly close ahead or behind. I made up some ground and eventually overtook another runner. Just as were at the bottom of the cricket ground around 3.5k in I went past the buggy, past another runner and started to make ground on another. Once we were heading up the hill towards the end he switched gears and went way ahead. I kept my position until the end, finishing 8th in 19:51. I was a little disappointed with the time as I thought I had run a lot better than the last time I was there (where I finished 1 second faster). Caught my breath, briefly chatted with the guy who finished behind me, and jogged back to pick up the kid from drama.

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
16th May|9.1 miles|8'49|Easy run home.
17th May|10 miles|7'40|My fast run home of the week, this got very sweaty in the heat. I was also carrying two laptops in my bag which didn't help. Passed 1000 miles for the year on the way up the Swords Road

18th May|9 miles|8'56|Nice and easy home...
19th May|2.9 miles|6'43|Slightly under 5k in slightly under 20.
21st May|5.3 miles|?|Malahide Parkrun and jogging to/back the Grand Hotel.
22nd May|18.1 miles|8'14|A very enjoyable run in the sunshine and rain. Inspired by The Muppet's LSR earlier in the day, I decided to go up the estuary and see if it was possible to get the Newbridge House on foot (it's not, there's a narrow fast road that's impossible to run on). I took the long way to the estuary via Malahide, then afterwards swung around the Fingal 10k course and then stretched out the run home to get to 18. The last couple of miles were a bit taxing, but otherwise felt great throughout.

Total: 54.6 miles.

Next week: Just keep running!

annapr · 22-05-2016 8:12pm

You're just casually cranking out sub-20 5ks these days... No bother to you!

Found out after the relays that one of our colleagues on another team actually WON DCM in his day! Some range of runners...

The Muppet · 22-05-2016 8:17pm

Singer wrote: »

Interesting enough week, with a race, a timed run and a decent long run (longest since DCM).

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes

22nd May|18.1 miles|8'14|A very enjoyable run in the sunshine and rain. Inspired by The Muppet's LSR earlier in the day, I decided to go up the estuary and see if it was possible to get the Newbridge House on foot (it's not, there's a narrow fast road that's impossible to run on). I took the long way to the estuary via Malahide, then afterwards swung around the Fingal 10k course and then stretched out the run home to get to 18. The last couple of miles were a bit taxing, but otherwise felt great throughout.

Total: 54.6 miles.

Next week: Just keep running!

Wow that's some Run B. was the tide out? Its years since I was down there but I definitely walked along the estuary from swords to kilcrea admittedly many moons ago. if you went straigh on where you turned up towards the hearse road I think theres road just around that corner. The tide would have to be out though

I work out that direction so If it was possible it would open up a runmute option for me, I hoped to get to the kilcrea gate of newbridge and then to Donabate station through the park but the tide was right up to that big wall this morning so there was no way of getting any further.

Singer · 22-05-2016 9:00pm

annapr wrote: »

You're just casually cranking out sub-20 5ks these days... No bother to you!

They're just Planned 10k Pace training runs... :pac:

Singer · 22-05-2016 9:11pm

The Muppet wrote: »

Wow that's some Run B. was the tide out? Its years since I was down there but I definitely walked along the estuary from swords to kilcrea admittedly many moons ago. if you went straigh on where you turned up towards the hearse road I think theres road just around that corner. The tide would have to be out though

I work out that direction so If it was possible it would open up a runmute option for me, I hoped to get to the kilcrea gate of newbridge and then to Donabate station through the park but the tide was right up to that big wall this morning so there was no way of getting any further.

Yeh, tide was in, no way of getting past without getting very wet. It was good fun running in new places, and the country roads were nice for a change of scenery. I hope the proposed cycle/walk lane between Malahide and Newbridge House sees the light of day, it'd open up a load of new routes.

Mrs Mc · 22-05-2016 10:18pm

You and your cans !! Hope you had some food !:D

denis b · 23-05-2016 10:15am

Singer wrote: »

They're just Planned 10k Pace training runs... :pac:

With ya on that. Great practice.

Singer · 27-05-2016 10:48pm

I am injured. I mentioned here feeling some pain last week during the relay. It repeated a few times, but mostly went away as I ran it off. Today on my run into work I felt soreness in both thighs from the start of my run, however my left thigh was constantly sore throughout. I hoped the pain would go away once I stopped running, but it didn't. It's now aching me all the time. I think my body is trying to tell me something

Kennyg71 · 27-05-2016 10:58pm

Sorry to hear that B, you have been doing some impressive stuff of late
but caution definitely way to go, hope it all sorts it's self out, think S&C
really important as well.

The Muppet · 27-05-2016 11:06pm

Really sorry to read that . Hope it heals quickly for you.

This Fat Girl Runs · 27-05-2016 11:14pm

Sorry to hear that. You're doing the right thing and you've a wicked base built up which will do you good when you get back to running. Which will be soon, I hope!

diego_b · 27-05-2016 11:15pm

Yikes hope a bit of rest sorts that out B!

Murph_D · 27-05-2016 11:17pm

Ouch. Have it looked at if you can. You've had a good spell, but maybe not enough rest and recovery built in among all those sub-20s you've been running. Hopefully it's nothing much.

Maximus Alexander · 28-05-2016 12:04am

Terrible news, hope it heals up nice and quickly for you.

Dubgal72 · 28-05-2016 1:29am

Singer. I am signing in - langers - especially to talk to you. Fwck Dr Google. See an expert. Tomorrow. (or Monday. Monday will do) It won't be as bad as Dr Google says.

Dubgal72 · 28-05-2016 1:30am

And yes, listen to your body

annapr · 28-05-2016 8:37am

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Singer. I am signing in - langers - especially to talk to you. Fwck Dr Google. See an expert. Tomorrow. (or Monday. Monday will do) It won't be as bad as Dr Google says.

Lol... Although to be fair to Dr Google, it's recommending rest so that's sensible.

Hope it clears up quickly for you, B. The rest won't do you any harm anyway.

denis b · 28-05-2016 9:26am

Sorry to hear that B and hope it just amounts to a mid cycle rest and recovery period of a week or two. Would definitely recommend a visit to the doctor etc and might not be a bad idea to get your bloods checked. You've been working hard and consistently for a long time. Take care.

Singer · 28-05-2016 10:11am

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Singer. I am signing in - langers - especially to talk to you. Fwck Dr Google. See an expert. Tomorrow. (or Monday. Monday will do) It won't be as bad as Dr Google says.

How could I ignore this level of dedication

- I've booked myself into a local physio this morning!

Thanks all for the well wishes. I was feeling very sorry for myself last night (especially after the obligatory Friday beers), but it's (likely) just a minor thing that I need to be sensible with

Now, what to do with all this time...

Singer · 28-05-2016 1:16pm

It's a groin strain! It's not bad, and I should be able to run again in a few days. I won't be rushing back too quickly though.

Mrs Mc · 28-05-2016 2:51pm

Well that's better news than you expected rest up now and do what you're told

Murph_D · 28-05-2016 2:58pm

Not too bad. Used to get them in my football days. They can be persistent enough though so do what you're told.

Eye of the Tiger Beer.

Comments