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Eye of the Tiger Beer.
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A return to normality with a bang/whimper. After flying in on Wednesday I did my second run over 10k in a month (the other being the SF marathon). It went fine at the time, but something went weird with my upper leg/lower something and it was painful for afterwards, including later on that night when trying to get to sleep/trying to get the children to sleep (both of which were totally futile activities). I also somehow got a painful blister on the exact same spot as the blister that plagued me back in December/January - what a run! A nice kick in the teeth after psyching myself up to plunge back into training. A commute home the next day was fine, but the next day was not so fine as accumulated fatigue kicked in. I intended on doing a parkrun on Saturday morning but completely slept through my alarm, so did a 5k tempo later on that night. The pace wasn't great at all, barely under 7 minute miles. I didn't push myself to the death though it was hard enough and it was good to get something faster than easy pace done in a long long time. Sunday's long run was a Frank Duffy recce linked above, despite the pace it wasn't easy at all. Last week TFB said something along the lines of "it's amazing how much fitness you lose in three weeks" which felt ominous at the time, and now I can empathise with a lot! Somewhere around mile 5 I was checking my bearings on my phone and a lad driving a car in running gear stopped and asked me which way the race went, so I wasn't the only person doing a recce
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
21st August|4 miles|8:32|A humid post-lunch pre-flight job around the neighbourhood in Chicagoland. Somehow my relatives live around actual hills!
22nd August|6.6 miles|8:41|Post-dinner post-flight jog to and from Malahide. Run went ok, but post-run revealed some problems as above.
23rd August|10 miles|8:49|Commute!
24th August|4.5 miles|9:32|Aborted commute! Jetlag is usually bad enough, but children with jetlag is even worse. Two nights of broken sleep meant that I was fairly wrecked by the end of the work day, and I pulled the plug as it really wasn't enjoyable. Not finishing the run put me in an even worse mood
25th August|7.1 miles|8:02|Including 5k tempo as above
26th August|13.6 miles|8:49|"Long" run including Frank Duffy recce
Total: 46.1 miles. A few more miles would have been nice, but it feels like I'm starting from scratch. Good thing there isn't any races coming up or anything...
Next week: Show back up at the club, hopefully start to regain some fitness, run every day, don't drink alcohol, don't make a b0ll0x of pacing parkrun, don't f!ck up Frank Duffy. Time-wise, who knows. Sub-70 would be challenging.0 -
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Race report!!!
Frank Duffy 10 Mile - 1:11:06
I went for sub-70 and couldn't hold the pace. The end.
...
Ok, I'll write a little bit more
Having done an entire 10 days or so training for this, expectations were pretty damn low. It was hard to guess what I could realistically run it in, and there was no chance of a PB unless some sort of sensational and inexplicable seismic event happened that transformed the course into an entirely downhill affair. Yesterday's heroic parkrun victory was effectively at sub-70 pace, and it felt comfortable enough at the time. At this stage I'm experienced enough to know when to pull back, and I would have no shame in coming in at whatever time as long as I had pushed myself on the day and had a good workout.
I strolled over to Main St. from my gaff with my better half and co-worker/clubmate Cormac in tow, and dropped a bag into the bagdrop. I love walking down Main. St. etc on race day, it's a great buzz seeing Swords taken over by the setup of the race series. I parted with my better half at the portaloos, wishing eachother good luck and I did a short warmup with Cormac. We jumped in with about 10 minutes to the start. My watch was weirdly and annoyingly going in and out of sync with the GPS satellites, it might be trying to tell me to get a new watch.
The start 6:46, 7:02, 6:56
The start wasn't mad crowded where I was, and the early left turn was not messy. I did have a job to do before too long, stick to the left hand side before the Pavilions to give my parents and two boys a high five as we ran past our road The bypass was predictably boring with lots of people running all over the place and not following the race line. Slightly too fast on the first mile but with a good downhill section so I don't think I did myself damage. After the turn off into the countryside Clicker went past and we exchanged well wishes, I advised him to get going as he was obviously going to run a lot faster than me on the day. The highlight of the race happened around here, somebody had dropped a half-full water bottle and without changing my stride I perfectly chipped it into the verge on the side. It could have easily gone flying into the ditch, or spun off my foot and clattered the back of a fellow runner, but not this time - it was a completely perfect chip and came to a rest perfectly on the side verge. I hope somebody saw it.
The middle 7:03, 7:12, 7:08
This part is pretty much copied and pasted from the "Dummies guide to writing a race report". After the first third of the race or so things started getting a bit tough - It was warm and I definitely noticed being warmer than expected. I'd settled into a small gang of runners who were going for sub-70 - there was a group being mostly led by a few Clonliffe folks and one of them was the ring leader and presumably not racing, as he was full of encouragement and advice for the other Clonliffe runners around. I didn't participate in the chats, but was definitely part of the gang and appreciated the setup. When we turned back towards Swords I was able to slot in behind a few runners which helped keep the (not very strong) wind out of my face. I think I went over the 6 mile mark 2 seconds over target, but pretty sure I'd finish a good bit slower as I was starting to feel pretty tired.
The end 7:07, 7:09, 7:28, 7:13
I kept with the Clonliffe folks for as long as I could, but ended up letting them go around 7.5 mile mark. I was just tired. I wasn't completely destroyed, nowhere near the red zone of serious races, but I couldn't push myself that hard as I've experienced very little of that recently. The last two miles involved lots of people streaming past me and it was good to get back to the familiar territory of the outskirts of Swords. I was pretty happy to finish and tellingly recovered very quickly.
Overall, I did close to what I could have on the day, and I would have been a lot slower a week ago. I don't feel like I did an all-out race today, as I didn't dip into the well of despair and I don't have any post-race aches or pains. It's a poor time, but that's what not running does to you. Onwards.
The rest of the week:
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
27th August|9 miles|9:00|A commute home
28th August|9.6 miles|?|Cru W session with the marathoners. Didn't go well, though I did maintain the W for each rep. (1:45, 1:57, 1:52, 1:56, 1:49), (1:51, 2:03, 1:57, 2:01, 1:55), (1:55, 2:04, 2:02, 2:06, 1:54)
29th August|9.1 miles|8:56|Another commute home
30th August|10.3 miles|8:48|Late jaunt out to Portmarnock along the coast. Great route.
31st August|4.9 miles|9:32|A very enjoyable lunch run with a co-worker.
1st September|5.5 miles|?|Rivervalley parkrun in 20:40 and a small w/u & c/d. Finished first, breaching the pacers code.
2nd September|10.9 miles|?|Race and warmup, as above.
Total: 59.7 miles
Next week: Similar, but with a long run (2.5 hours?)0 -
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Only just found this log recently and have been hooked; seriously impressive running and improvements over the last few years. The posts are also very entertaining!
Thanks ReeRee! It's always nice to know there's somebody on the other side of this log
I guess if you stop reading near the end of 2017 it looks like I've been consistently improving alright :pac:
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A solid week, though everything is still slow. I decided to run Malahide parkrun hard enough and only got around in 20:29. Not exactly run on fresh legs, but still I've a lonnnnnnnggggg way to go. Between now and DCM will be getting into shape to run around with the 3:20 pacers I guess. The half in two weeks and 3/4 a couple of weeks after that should be interesting distractions between now and then.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
3rd September|9.6 miles|9:00|Recovery commute home. Nothing feeling particularly bad after the race.
4th September|8.2 miles|?|Cru session. I decided to jump in with the regular track session as 10 miles at 10 mile pace two days prior probably meant I had enough tempo type running done recently enough Also I am clearly lacking speed, so keeping things varied this way should help my recovery from all that recent slacking off. Slightly longer session than usual, 5k instead of 4.8k, 5x(600, 200ish jog, 400, 75s rest). Splits were 2:17, 1:34, 2:19, 1:35, 2:21, 1:36, 2:21, 1:32, 2:23, 1:34.
5th September|4.9 miles|9:07|Decided to take an easy day and half do a commute
6th September|5.5 miles|9:00ish|Ran a childcare related errand with a few miles either side.
7th September|10.2 miles|8:37|A grand auld commute. Feeling good after the two days of relatively low amounts of running.
8th September|11.7 miles|?|Malahide parkrun as above, getting there and getting back.
9th September|15.5 miles|8:52|Longest run in a good while. Took it pretty easy around Malahide and Portmarnock. Lots of people out running, must be marathon season
Total: 66.1 miles
Next week: More of the same0 -
Not a great week due to coming down with a cold. Highlights were meeting healy1835 for the first time and writing a fictional race report.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
10th September|9.1 miles|8:50|Commute!
11th September|7.8 miles|?|Marathoners were resting so Cru session was with the regular track folks - 12x400 off 45 seconds: 1:29, 1:26, 1:28, 1:30, 1:29, 1:29, 1:30, 1:31, 1:31, 1:31, 1:31, 1:28. Felt good going in and coming out.
12th September|5 miles|9:21|First day of the cold.
13th September|4.9 miles|8:50|Second day of the cold. Healy introduced himself to me on Griffith Ave!
14th September|5.2 miles|8:46|Third day of the cold.
15th September|9 miles|8:50|Couldn't make parkrun so headed out relatively early, kind of planning to do a session but didn't even start it due to feeling like cr@p. Felt better near the end .
16th September|17.1 miles|8:45ish|A not entirely comfortable and slow long run but it got done. Went from Swords->Malahide->Griffith Ave->Swords Rd->Around Rivervalley and home. Met my old boss half way through and had a natter. Amused myself in the first few miles by drafting the "Kipchoge is a mid-pack runner posting a race report on boards" post in my head
Total: 58.5 miles
Next week: The Dublin half!
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Race report!!!
Going into this race I obviously knew I was nowhere near in PB shape. After a disastrous session on Tuesday I reckoned I had run myself into the ground having taken zero days off for nearly a month mixed with coming off a cold which never helps anything. So I took a couple of days off entirely, and did a few easy miles on Friday with murph_d to prove that my legs still worked. Sub-1:30 was a desirable goal, though in reality given my recent 10 mile race and parkrun exploits I figured out that it was beyond me, and woke up on Saturday morning with the plan of just running a non-terrible race and moving on. This is pretty much what I did and the rest of the report is pretty boring
I arrived at the park at about 8:20 or so and parked immediately across from the place where I hilariously beached my car two years ago. After taking care of bag dropping etc. I did a 15 minute warmup along Chesterfield before hopping into the start area between the 1:30 and 1:40 pacers. I did say that this was boring. I met a couple of folks from the club and we exchange well wishes and whatnot. I wasn't buzzing or nervous or suffering from the usual emotions that occur when you're about to run a race that really matters.
The start (6:57, 6:54, 7:11)
The race started exactly on time, and I started running! Didn't get to excited and just ran along the course. It was pretty busy where I was, though as the 1:30 pacers started pulling away it got a good bit less busier. The first couple of miles are fast with a good downhill, but I was conservative enough. By the time the 4th mile came it was a good bit harder though I was feeling like I was keeping the effort even enough.
The bit that goes uphill and stuff ( 7:19, 7:11, 7:17, 7:10)
I was more than happy to let the 1:30 pacers sail away but kept things going fine. It was nice to get onto Chesterfield and speed things up ever so slightly. I was a bit cautious here, knowing that there was another climb coming soon.
??? (7:27, 7:13, 7:16)
The new diversion up the back of Farmleigh was tough enough, and I started to feel like I was in a race here. I tried to take advantage of the downhill on Tower Road though probably not as much as I should have. I got a nice shout from club people when we got back into the park, which probably doesn't really help but made me feel better at the time
The end bit and all that (7:03, 7:20, 7:24, ...)
Ah, the glorious downhill of Chesterfield. Got a shout from murph_d which was appreciated. I tried to concentrate here and ran strong enough at times. Started to feel a bit wobbly when the uphill started again but pushed through ok enough. The last mile was definitely survival stuff - didn't do great on the climb but recovered slightly and kept things going until the end.
Finished in 1:34:10. A teeny bit disappointed that I didn't finish in 1:33 or so but no complaints about my performance. It was by no means my most focussed race ever, but it's a fair reflection of where I am. So yeh, a boring morning. The race itself was very well organised from my perspective, I'm very fond of the race series and today was yet another excellent race organised by them. I didn't see too many folks afterwards, just clicker, some folks from the club and then some folks from work. The weather was excellent, pretty much perfect race conditions. No excuses other than my lack of fitness 0 -
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Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,427 CMod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 17156
Thanks all
Given how my recent running is going I think I'll jack it in entirely and start writing more!
Wonder if anyone was logging much online back in the days of dial up...and are still at it.Moderator: Television, Psychology and Dublin County North.
CMod: Entertainment
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Couple of weeks to catch up on. I'm sure you're all worried sick
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
17th September|9.1 miles|9:02|A commute I guess
18th September|7 miles|?|A rubbish session in Irishtown with the Cru. Dropped out. Felt pretty flogged, realised that there might be a relationship between running every day for a month and feeling worn out. Decided to take a couple of days off before the HM. The session was supposed to be 8 x 600, the splits were 2:16, 2:24, 2:26, 2:32, 2:42... you can see why I gave up, I'd probably still be running!
21st September|4.1 miles|9:28|A very successful social runch with murph_d. Even got some running gear off him in return for some grub.
22nd September|15.8 miles|?|Dublin HM @ 7:10
23rd September|5.8 miles|9:10|A few around Swords
Total: 41.9 miles
Only thing of note this week was a half-decent marathon type session. I decided to move out my mid-week session for a few weeks to Wednesday evenings. It's what I used to do a couple of years ago and find the extra day off after the Sunday long-run usually makes for a better session. The 3 sessions planned aren't the epic sessions that you'd generally be doing at the end of doing actual marathon training, but they're ones I've done before: 4-3-2-1@MP, 15w/10@MP and 5@HMP (did this last year and it worked out), and then 3 or whatever at MP on the week of DCM (might do that with the club). The 4-3-2-1 went well, I guess. MP should be about 7:30, but felt very comfortable after setting off at 7:20 and locked that in, and sped up for the last two reps. Finally a half-decent session!
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
24th September|10.1 miles|8:56|A commute I guess. I remember this one felt good.
25th September|5 miles|9:07|Short commute
26th September|14.5 miles|7:57|Marathon training kind of session
27th September|4 miles|Slow recovery miles around Swords
28th September|7.6 miles|9:17|Short commute
29th September|5.3 miles|8:40|Headed out the door to go to parkrun but had to return home due to some dramatic personal life stuff. Got back out again later in the morning, did 6 strides at the end.
30th September|16.7 miles|Kind of long run from the city to Swords via the Phoenix Park.
Total: 63.4 miles
September total: 246 miles
Next week: 3/4 marathon on Sunday. Will probably run it easy enough with a faster finish. Will give 10 miles @MP a go on Wednesday, and will endeavour to take a day off at some stage.0 -
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An interesting week. A few days running feck all and generally slacking off. The midweek session was again pushed to late on Wednesday, but it didn't work out too well this time. 15 with 10@MP was the plan. I definitely felt tired going out and by the end of mile 9 I was either going to have to slow down or making a lot of effort, so I just stopped and jogged home MP splits were 7:26, 7:26, 7:24, 7:23, 7:22, 7:28, 7:25, 7:31, 7:34.
So the 3/4 marathon! I did this 2 years ago at the very end of my highest ever milage week, and had a great run other than further aggravating a calf problem that resulted in DCM being a complete disaster. Despite that I was looking forward to it, getting in at least one proper long run before Dublin is probably a good idea :pac:
The general plan was to relax and enjoy it, and maybe speed up near the end if I was feeling good. The relaxing even extended to a few glasses of wine the night before. I got down with plenty of time to collect my number etc. It was cold enough with a blustery wind, so I hid in the car for a few minutes getting changed very slowly before doing a short warmup with a clubmate who happened to be parked right beside me. Here's the interesting bit - I treated myself to a pair of my pal Kipchoge's runners and wore them for the first time today. Their bounce was immediately noticeable and I fairly effortlessly got off to an ok start with my watch showing around 8 minute miles and feeling like it was an easy pace. I continued to warm up in the next few miles and clicked into a steady pace. I kept having to slow myself down, any time I increased the effort because of a hill or it being windy I started running around 7:3x.
After 10 miles or so the effort levels increased a bit, but I was still running fine, overtaking some slowing down folks. After 16 I let myself go up to marathon pace, only slowing down in mile 17 to stop for some juice and jellies (one of the lads volunteering here said "nice runners"). I got a nice shout from a lady who volunteers at my local parkrun near the end, and finished feeling great. I got a load of watermelon and oranges into me, and strolled back to the car park with my club mate, bumping into AMK on the way and had a bit of a natter before he continued with his warm-down. After driving home I barely felt like I had done a long run at all, no aches or pains. Got tired as the day went on though (maybe the wine ).
Time: 2:31:50 (over 5 minutes slower than 2016)
Quarter marathon splits: 0:51:33, 0:50:46, 0:49:30
Mile splits: 8:04, 7:56, 7:49, 7:51, 7:50, 7:53, 7:44, 7:45, 7:50, 7:47, 7:41, 7:45, 7:50, 7:50, 7:35, 7:19, 7:31, 7:18, 7:25, (7:17)
So... either I'm fitter than I thought I was or those fancy Nike runners really are good. Almost, maybe, kinda puts a PB attempt into play (3:14:11 - 7:24/mile)... nah, that'd be silly.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
1st October|9.1 miles|8:56|A regular commute
2nd October|3.5 miles|9:14|Was visiting in the Mater after work and brought my gear along for a few miles after. But I forgot to bring running shoes, so I ended up doing a the miles in a pair of Crocs slipons (the type that look like shoes, not the normal looking Crocs). I was a little worried about slipping or hurting myself, but it was totally fine. Good to know it worked out
3rd October|13.1 miles|8:02|9 miles @ MP
4th October|2.4 miles|9:21|Just ran to the bus. Felt tired.
5th October|4.4 miles|9ish|More commuting to the bus running.
6th October|9.1 miles|?|Pacing 22 minutes at Rivervalley parkrun. Comfortable enough and good fun with the Rivervalley crew. Didn't finish first this time so a better pacing experience
7th October|20.6 miles|?|Warm up and a 3/4 marathon
Total: 62.5 miles
Next week: Might give that 10 miles @ MP a go again. And maybe a day off.0 -
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You'd think that because I wasn't entirely yolo-ing this long race that it'd be a bit easier... On Tuesday I did an ok taper-session at the club, replacing the prescribed MP pace with HMP (not that I was ever following their plan), a similar enough run to what I did last year and I recalled that it helped make MP feel that bit easier. I took it easy on Wednesday, and was busy travelling, conferencing, post-conferencing and going to a gig on Thursday so I didn't bother running. I did an easy run on Friday morning with the vague intention of doing another one once I got home, but I started feeling a bit cr@ppy. This rapidly descended into classic gastroenteritis symptoms, which extended all the way to Saturday afternoon or so, leaving me feeling pretty wiped until I started eating properly again earlier today. Not exactly classic pre-marathon prep, but at least it happened this week and hopefully I've lost some weight Given that so far I've been the only one in the household being very friendly to the toilet it was probably a bout of food poisoning from something I ate in London. Anyway, I got out for a cautious run earlier and it went grand, though with running 3 miles in 5 days it really should!
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
15th October|9.3 miles|9:04|A commute
16th October|8.7 miles|?|Cru session - 2 x 15 mins@HMP off 2 mins (7:08, 6:59).
19th October|3 miles|9:14|Groggy plod around Shoreditch.
21st October|13.1 miles|8:25|Nice run out to Portmarnock along the usual route
Total: 34.2 miles
Next week: An easy mid-week session and some strides on Saturday with a bit of easy running and maybe a day off or two. Oh, and DCM.0 -
You'd think that because I wasn't entirely yolo-ing this long race that it'd be a bit easier... On Tuesday I did an ok taper-session at the club, replacing the prescribed MP pace with HMP (not that I was ever following their plan), a similar enough run to what I did last year and I recalled that it helped make MP feel that bit easier. I took it easy on Wednesday, and was busy travelling, conferencing, post-conferencing and going to a gig on Thursday so I didn't bother running. I did an easy run on Friday morning with the vague intention of doing another one once I got home, but I started feeling a bit cr@ppy. This rapidly descended into classic gastroenteritis symptoms, which extended all the way to Saturday afternoon or so, leaving me feeling pretty wiped until I started eating properly again earlier today. Not exactly classic pre-marathon prep, but at least it happened this week and hopefully I've lost some weight Given that so far I've been the only one in the household being very friendly to the toilet it was probably a bout of food poisoning from something I ate in London. Anyway, I got out for a cautious run earlier and it went grand, though with running 3 miles in 5 days it really should!
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
15th October|9.3 miles|9:04|A commute
16th October|8.7 miles|?|Cru session - 2 x 15 mins@HMP off 2 mins (7:08, 6:59).
19th October|3 miles|9:14|Groggy plod around Shoreditch.
21st October|13.1 miles|8:25|Nice run out to Portmarnock along the usual route
Total: 34.2 miles
Next week: An easy mid-week session and some strides on Saturday with a bit of easy running and maybe a day off or two. Oh, and DCM.
I came down with an awful dose the week before DCM last year. Seemed to make no difference to me on race day (other than possibly being a few pounds lighter!). Maybe it's good sign? Also make sure to rehydrate.
Edit: Best of luck on Sunday too by the way!0 -
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OOnegative wrote: »Best of luck Sunday B, have no doubt you will PB, you have an innate talent of pulling out great results off interrupted preparation. Hope it goes well. See you for a pint later hopefully.
Or in some cases, none at all
Good luck B. Hopefully I'll catch up with you Sunday.0
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