Eye of the Tiger Beer.
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great to hear things are settling - Hope all is well.
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Hope you're all well.
Cycling in town is just frightening.
Thanks very much for your support. Much appreciated.
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Sigh.
Last week I ran decently enough, including a good enough session and a nicely faster parkrun. However I literally self-inflicted an injury that kept me out of running for almost all of this week.
Monday: 9.2 miles @ 8:58 commute
Tuesday: 12 x 400m off 60secs. Strong session, sped up towards the end.
Wednesday: 9.1 miles @ 9:07 commute
Thursday: 4.1 miles @ 9:32 recovery session
Saturday: 8.8 miles including Malahide parkrun @ 21:46. Went out strong enough, got a little disorientated going through half-way thinking I was on for 23 pace, realised a km to go that half-way was way before it used to be due to the course change and ran well towards the end.
I had decided to wear my Vaporflys over, which had been in the shed since the boards 5k time trial back in lockdown. It wasn't long in that I realised they were rubbing excessively against my heels, but just put up with it for the parkrun and run home. I guess they might have warped in the shed, or my feet have grown with my overall bodyweight growth over the last 18 months... either way they manage to scrape a massive amount of skin off the back of my feet, mostly on the left side. I took Sunday off and bandaged them up, and then attempted to run home from work on Monday, which resulted in me getting the bus on Dorset St. due to excessive pain from my left foot. I decided to take a few days off, letting the damn thing heal. It's such a stupid injury, but it was agonising trying to run. I finally got out on Saturday for a couple of miles to and from Rivervalley parkrun where I was volunteering as a steward. On Sunday I strapped myself up with a load of bandages and supported a co-worker doing her first marathon in the Phoenix Park. It was very slow, but also utterly joyous and fun helping her on the last 15k or so. I ended up running a half marathon on the day, the longest I've run in about 15 months. It was great to see loads of other runners doing their marathons and we had a big gang running so it was a lovely day, delightfully finished with a few pints in The Hole in The Wall.
Next week: I'm off work and presumably cavorting around the place so probably not a serious week of running, but after the disaster of last week it'll be great to get back into the swing of things if my feet decide to finally properly heal.
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Happened me during the Summer too, in a rush to get out the door I grabbed a pair of socks that I hadn't worn in ages and it seems for a reason, they were useless and both heels were destroyed. I couldn't get over how long they took to heel and how goddamn sore it was in the meantime. And likewise I was suitably annoyed with myself for such a stupid self inflicted injury.
Good to see you back logging anyhow. Enjoy your week off work.
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Good to see you back pal 👍 sure you missed nothing while you were away 😁
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Not great, not terrible.
The only real highlight of the week was breaking through the 50 mile per week barrier for the first time since I was running around Swords getting weird looks off people in their cul-de-sacs during the first lockdown. The week started a little tentatively as the 2.5 hours I spent on my feet the day before was definitely the longest I'd been on my feet in a long time, and I had some very mild aches and pains as a result, but they cleared up over the course of the week. On Thursday we headed down to the west to visit some friends, so I did a nice tourist jog around Galway on Friday morning sweating the red wine out of my system. After Galway we spent a couple of nights in the middle of nowhere in Offaly, so I drove over to Portumna parkrun after some basic research about options in the area (i.e. reading the https://parkruntourist.com entries). The course is in a forest, so sheltered from any terrible weather the route sounded idiot proof and the parking was easy, so a perfect set of parkrun tourist criteria. I showed up a little later than desired and only got a 10 minute jog on before folks started converging for the briefing. There were only about 25 other runners, and as it happened a club-mate was one of them, so I said hello in the first minute of the run itself. My run wasn't great, I had picked up a cold during the week (not the plague according to an antigen test) and it had started getting chesty that morning. I came in nearly a minute slower than a couple of weeks ago at Malahide, which is fine given that I had a week off and was down with a cold. The course was decent, no real hills but not entirely flat, largely on tarmac and a bit of a Donadea vibe from the location which I guess is to be expected given that the forest is managed by the same crowd.
Monday 25th - 5 miles @ 9:38
Tuesday 26th - 7 miles @ 9:24
Wednesday 27th - 7.8 miles @ 9:07
Thursday 28th - 7 miles @ 9:05
Friday 29th - 6.7 miles @ 9:13
Saturday 30th - 6.4 miles including Portuma parkrun @ 22:37
Sunday 31st - 10 miles @ 9:07
172 miles in October, 4 parkruns, 2 sessions - I'm happy with that. Weight down to 91.7kg. Oh and that stupid gash on my foot is repaired, I did have to wear a covering on it for a few days but it's all good now.
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More miles this week, but only one quality run. Crockmac popped over to Swords on Thursday for a session, so we copied what the Cru had done on Tuesday. Nothing else exciting, other than entering Raheny (will I do it and Trim the week after? Maybe not...) and deciding to enter Boston with my 2019 Dublin marathon time. I have a buffer of 14 minutes 33 seconds, so am optimistic... I've never travelled specifically for a race before (DisneyWorld was a convenient excuse), and Boston is obviously a good one to travel for, and will hopefully give me a bit of motivation and structure. It obviously won't be in PB territory, but Boston isn't record eligible anyway :) The idea of actually leaving Ireland on an airplane is also pretty exciting too!
Monday 1st November Commute home, 9.2 miles at 9:25/mile
Tuesday 2nd November A WFH runch, 7.3 miles at 9:10/mile
Wednesday 3rd November Another commute home, 9.2 miles at 9:46/mile
Thursday 4th November 7.6 miles including 8 x 600m off 200m jog. It was great getting to do a session with another human.
Friday 5th November A run after work, 6.6 miles at 9:33/mile
Saturday 6th November The younger kid was playing GAA in Castleknock, so I took him over and jogged around the Phoenix Park, 8.1 miles at 9:06
Sunday 7th November Hungover in the morning and then tight on time later on, so just a short run 5.1 miles at 9:11/mile
Total: 53.3 miles
Next week: Signing up to Boston, a couple of commutes, hopefully a parkrun and we'll see what else happens.
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Good call on Boston. An awesome experience awaits, regardless of performance. Or at least that was my take. 😉
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The slow grind continues... nothing too interesting happening in terms of niggles, or paces. We were in Gorey for a couple of nights for a family get together in the Amber Springs Hotel, so obviously I popped over to Gorey parkrun, a bit hungover though not catastrophically so. The parkrun is set in a small enough park that you end up doing 3 laps of an outer and inner loop. A lot of tight turns make it a little stop/starty. Plenty of volunteers and a decent enough turnout. Sean Herir was there too and set a course record, I jumped out of his way onto the grass as he was coming down the home straight and I was plodding around my second lap. I was happy with 22:15 as I wasn't exactly in the form to push myself and the second best parkrun time in my little comeback.
I put my name in the hat for Boston as threatened, getting both my credit card and debit card blocked in the process as they attempted to charge zero to the cards which flagged respective security systems. Got the transaction through anyway. Booked 3 refundable nights in a hotel in Boston (Sat - Mon).
Monday 8th November - 9.1 miles at 9:11/mile. A commute.
Tuesday 9th November - 6.1 miles, including 4 x 800 off 90 secs, 4 x 400 off 60 secs. Dropped the kids to gymnastics and jogged over to the Holywell junior parkrun stadium for this. It was very dark which seemed to make sure that the paces weren't very fast.
Wednesday 10th November - 9.1 miles around 9:20, another commute but one of the most incompetent in the hundreds that I've done. I forgot to pack shorts, so ran home in the trousers I was wearing which fortunately were loose enough though they did get very sweaty. Somehow my Apple Watch got confused and paused a few times too.
Thursday 11th November - a late runch to and from Malahide
Friday 12th November - nada
Saturday 13th November - 8.1 miles including Gorey parkrun in 22:15
Sunday 14th November - 10 miles at 8:53 to/from/around Malahide Castle in the afternoon, lovely day for it. Did a couple of faster miles at the end.
Total: 50 miles. Next week is more of the same.
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Good man. Would recommend an extra night in Boston, can’t be rushing to airport after a race like that.
Comeback continues. How did those 800s feel?
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Have ran that Parkrun loop while staying in the Amber Springs myself. It's bloody tough! There's an extended loop that's even tougher too. I'd imagine it's slippy enough underfoot too at this time of year?
Edit: Just took a look at the course page there and it's a new course from when I was there, so disregard the above!
Post edited by healy1835 on0 -
Oh I'm staying the Monday night - flying in Saturday, out on Tuesday and home on Wednesday, presumably this is all good for the expo.
The 800s were totally fine, apart from the first one being slow (3:31, 3:21, 3:25, 3:25). It seems my creaking body takes a bit longer to warm-up these days and I can't just go out at 5k pace after a short jog.
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Yeh, they were talking about it being a "new course" record or something like that. It wasn't slippy, maybe apart from the small bridge. Then again I'm not running fast enough to slip these days :)
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Another decent enough week, though with a session that went off the rails. The undisputed highlight of the week was Malahide parkrun, where I ran into aquinn and mister paul, we had a lovely coffee and natter after parkrun and the world almost seemed normal. Also the parkrun went really well too, I ran 21:20 which is a 25 second improvement on the last time I ran Malahide last month. Felt really in control during the run, kept the pace consistent and pushed well at the end.
Boston have verified my Dublin time, and they announced the cut-off is 0:00, so it is starting to look like I am in and booked flights this week. Starting to think about plans, targets etc. It's 11 weeks from Raheny to Boston, so that'll be the marathon block. Between now and then I'll be keeping the mileage around the 50 mile mark and continue doing the Tuesday 3-5k pace session, and of course parkruns. I haven't really been doing long runs, but they'll need to start showing up at some stage. As a committed Hanson-er I won't be doing 20 mile runs or anything like that, I might take a look at Luke Humphrey's Boston plans (author of the Hanson book). I guess there'll be hills in whatever I do anyway. The only goal of sorts for now is to train for a time faster than my slowest marathon, which seems do-able if all goes well.
The boring stuff:
Monday 15th November - return of the slightly longer commute via Griffith Avenue, which is lovely in autumn. Unfortunately it looks like this was my last commute for a while :( 10.1 miles at 9:07
Tuesday 16th November - the abandoned session. I was doing 3 x (4 x 400 off 60, 45, 15) and 2 mins between sets. Got through the first set, but it was tough. Started the next 400, and I felt utterly drained of strength, a bit weak and my tummy felt weird, so just stopped for a bit and jogged home. I can't think of any similar time like this in the past, but I just knew I couldn't slog it out. Weird. Heart rate was a good bit higher than another session I just looked at, and also didn't seem to drop in the bits in between the reps. 5.4 miles at 9:29
Wednesday 17th November - got the kids to school and went out for 9 miles around Malahide Castle, lovely morning and didn't feel weird. 9 miles at 8:47
Thursday 18th November - got out late for plod around Swords, 6.6 miles at 9:36
Friday 19th November - did a run during lunch around Swords, 5.7 miles at 9:03
Saturday 20th November - To/from and Malahide parkrun in 21:20
Sunday 21st November - ran the Frank Duffy 10 mile course when it was ran in Swords around lunchtime, beautiful crisp weather and the countryside was fab. 10.1 miles in 9:10.
Total: 55.8 miles
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I have fond memories of that 10 Mile Frank Duffy route. I think I asked the question on one of the event pages during your Boards sabbatical and didn't get an answer...why did Fingal lose/let go of the Race Series event??
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sent you a PM with that Plan I mentioned elsewhere.
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Money of course! Closing roads is expensive, I heard that the Fingal race wasn't making money. I think the 10k route in Clondalkin wasn't on as many public roads compared to the Fingal 10k route which was one of the reasons why it went over there. There was meant to be a 4 mile in Swords in 2020 as an additional race in the series which presumably would've had less road closures, but it was never run because of you know what: https://twitter.com/dublinmarathon/status/1232406324807393281
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Congrats on the Boston confirmation (even if it hasn't arrived yet!) I saw the announcement about the 0.00 cutoff, happy days for everyone with the time this year. I suppose the fact that there have been hardly any marathons since 2019 has something to do with it. Yep, hills should be in the training alright, down as well as up! No harm in that abandoned session either, you seem to have bounced back quickly enough.
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A good week - 60 miles, a good session, volunteered at parkrun and an actual long run. With the kids not doing any indoor activities, my Tuesday evening opened up... so for the first time since February 18th 2020 I was back in Irishtown with the Cru. I messaged mister paul beforehand and so we both got over to the club. It was a decent enough night, a bit breezy but not too cold. Not a huge number of people there, but a few familiar faces to say hello to. Because I was driving over from Swords and I hate being late for things I showed up very early, jogging around the pitch on my own from about 6. It was 45 minutes later when the usual dynamic warmup and strides routine kicked off which I had actually forgotten about. The session itself went well, it was great being back running in a group and running on the track. It definitely helped me push a little harder, and the last 400 was basically all out which was loads of fun. No niggles at all, feeling a little tired but also I think I'm feeling a bit of fitness return, in that easy runs are actually starting to feel easy. Picked up a pair of Kipchoge cheaterboots in the Nike sale (€180!) which will probably be put away for Boston.
22nd November - Dropped the kids to school and did some pre-brekkie miles around Malahide Castle - 8.7 miles at 9:07
23rd November - Cru session as above, 9.5 miles including dynamic warmup and strides. Session was 400, 800, 1200, 1200, 800, 400 off 60, 90, 120, 120, 90. (1:32, 3:07, 4:47, 4:45, 3:07, 1:26)
24th November - Got in a few miles in between meetings, did the Malahide estuary loop - 7.4 miles at 9:24
25th November - More morning miles, this time up to Santry and back. Stupid Apple Watch lost its mind and didn't really record anything at first, only noticed while at the airport. 7.3 miles at 9:00ish
26th November - Feckin' freezing loop around Malahide, 6.7 miles at 9:23
27th November - Volunteered at Rivervalley parkrun on timekeeper duty. Was hungover from watching the Toy Show (watching it requires alcohol). The weather was better than I was expecting, but there was no getting away from the cold while hanging around the finish line. Good chats all 'round, loads of lovely folks in my local parkrun. Ran there and back, 5.5 miles at quite slow.
28th November - Good run beyond the Frank Duffy 2018 course on back roads towards the hills on the way to the Naul. If I ever decide to do a hilly 20 miler that's a really nice route, 20 miles would get me to the top of the Naul mountains. This felt great, probably pushing steady pace but wasn't watch watching and just enjoying the peaceful roads and country scenery. Set out to do 13.1 miles at first, but everything was feeling good so just kept going. 15 miles at 8:35
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You're tipping away nicely again. Getting decent mileage and quality in there. Great to see. Singer's back!
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Ha, I'm not sure if I'm "back" back, but I'm giving it a good go anyway :)
This was an ok week. Started off a little low on the miles, but I managed to pick things up and get to 60 miles again. Some very minor interesting things this week: my right glute was noticeably sore and stiff at the start of the week, I completely ignored it and it went away. I managed to rub away a load of skin AGAIN on my left leg, this time caused by new Brooks Ghosts which weren't tied correctly. This is like the fourth time this has happened in the past couple of months. Have I forgotten how to wear running shoes? Maybe my body is just differently shaped nowadays and I'm more susceptible to skin rubbing problems. Speaking of body, my weight is being a bit stubborn, sticking around 91kg, I'm getting diminishing returns on running and weight loss. Maybe I need to actually change my diet a bit in the new year. Got my confirmation of acceptance from Boston which was a pretty cool email to get. Finally in random titbits, I've been trying to run more during the day and running instead of working (pretty much). I can get stuck inside for what seems like forever while working from home, and getting out into daylight definitely helps my mood.
Monday 29th November - Afternoon jog around Malahide Castle, 7.11 miles at 9:19
Tuesday 30th November - Drove over to Irishtown again, windy and rainy so this was a case of getting the session done. Half the club were sunning it up in La Santa, so the rest of us were just doing 400s. Not a huge crowd there 'cos of the travel and grim weather, I got put into a slower group and then missed the start of the session due to having to do a quick wee. I made my way up through the group, catching folks and moving on, which at least made it a bit interesting. 12 x 400 off 45s: 1:32, 1:33, 1:36, 1:34, 1:33, 1:32, 1:33, 1:31, 1:33, 1:34, 1:33, 1:31. Total of 6.5 miles
Wednesday 1st December - Just a few miles around Swords while the younger kid was at GAA. Glute was sore. 4.6 miles at 9:47
Thursday 2nd December - Had a bloods appointment in Beaumont so decided to run there and back. I'm sure the nurse loved taking blood out of a sweaty arm. 13 miles at 9:05 with barely 15 minutes "rest" in Beaumont in the middle.
Friday 3rd December - Dragged myself around Malahide after dinner. 8.3 miles at 9:36
Saturday 4th December - The kid was playing GAA all the way over in Killiney, so I ran around Killiney. It was very cold and windy and I struggled to feel warm. Went up Killiney hill and got some nice views. 6.4 miles at 9:48
Sunday 5th December - Out to Portmarnock and back in the afternoon after putting the dinner on. Had a nicely slow cooked beef bourguignon after I got back. 14 miles at 8:53
Total: 60 miles
November total: 233 miles
Next week: I doubt I'll go to the club on Tuesday because of the storm, so I'll probably do a session on Wednesday evening. Feeling pretty tired so 2 easy days sounds good. Will probably make one of the local parkruns this week. Saturday morning GAA is finishing up which makes parkrun logistics easier for the next while too, so if everything goes to plan I'll run my 100th on the Christmas Day parkrun in Malahide.
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Not the best week of running in recent times, though I guess it was way better than almost every other week this year. The stupid storm, life distractions and feeling tired (maybe related to the life distractions?) meant that I didn't get out during Tuesday and Wednesday. My other half was in hospital getting some treatment on Wednesday so it didn't seem worth pushing to get out... also the weather wasn't exactly encouraging me to get outside. I recall Thursday and Friday's runs not exactly filling me with joy, but they got done. I got a text from mister paul on Saturday morning about a gang doing Malahide parkrun, which I was planning to do anyway! Jogged over and met up with folks in the cross-country-esque starting pen. Gave the parkrun full effort but I didn't feel great, unsurprising having not done anything fast in the previous 2 weeks. mister paul passed me before the first km and moved off well beyond trying to keep up. Probably the highlight of the run was seeing a large set of branches on the course (TBO of these parts might have stumbled a bit on it), and I managed to pick it up and throw it into the forest. I did eventually reel in TBO, barking some encouragement as I passed. Checked my watch for the first time with about a minute to go and was a bit annoyed, finishing 35 seconds slower than a few weeks ago. No a great run, but some lovely cooldown and coffee chats after! Sunday continued my wobbly form as I set out on an exciting loop taking in Coolock and Malahide, but for the first time ever following the Santry River from Santry to Coolock. Running under the M1 was kind of cool, but I got really tired on this run and I felt like crap at the end. In retrospect I had only a coffee that morning before going out, which isn't usually a disaster but I also had a few beers the night before, and so I think I was badly dehydrated. Newb error.
Monday 6th December - Monday morning plod around Malahide and the estuary: 7.4 miles at 9:20/mile
Thursday 9th December - Another morning plod, this time around Swords: 5.6 miles at 9:12/mile
Friday 10th December - Post-dinner jog to and from Malahide: 6.6 miles at 9:21/mile
Saturday 11th December - To, from, and cooldown after Malahide parkrun: 10.7 miles including the parkrun in 20:55
Sunday 12th December - An annoying long-run: Swords to Coolock to Malahide to Swords: 13.39 miles at 8:50/miles
Total: 44 miles
Next week: Try to get to the club. Do a parkrun. Do a long run. Do other runs.
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Join us at St. Anne's next week. Pacers from 19-35 mins!
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Waaaay overdue an update here. Sorry I couldn't make St. Annes' in the end D 'cos of other stuff to do on Saturday (no idea what by now!).
The summary of the last few weeks are - some ok running before Christmas, but my left knee was getting quite niggly, occasionally aching during running and definite aching afterwards, kind of dependent on the way I was walking/sitting/lying down. The takeaway here is that you shouldn't tear your MCL, it is a bad thing to do and can cause problems for years afterwards. Anyway, after parkrun on Christmas day I pretty much took a week off as we travelled over to Disney in Paris, and I was drinking/eating/Disneying around way too much to both with much running. I did like two 5ks jogs. Once we got back I kind of slacked off for another few days, but the last couple of weeks have been solid enough. I'm not getting much faster or losing much weight, progress is so very slow but there are some signs. I'm planning on running my slowest ever Raheny 5 next week, 34:59.99 will do :)
The boring stuff:
Monday 13th December - I was in town to meet a friend, did some work in the (very empty) office and so did a commute home! 9.2 miles at 9:27/mile.
Tuesday 14th December - Irishtown session. 4 x 800 off 90s (3:06, 3:06, 3:11, 3:12) and 4 x 400 off 75s (1:30, 1:30, 1:29, 1:27), this was pretty good.
Wednesday 15th December - An evening jog around Swords, this felt very stiff and niggly. 6.7 miles at 9:53/mile.
Friday 17th December - Another not great evening jog around Swords, 5 miles at 9:47/mile
Saturday 18th December - Rivervalley parkrun in 22:52, not great.
Sunday 19th December - A nice long run out the back roads towards the Naul, 13.3 miles at 9:03
Total: 50 miles
Monday 20th December - Runch around Malahide, 7.5 miles at 9:13
Tuesday 21st December - Crusaders blind 3k time trial. I've never made it to one of these before usually because of going on the pi$$ around Christmas or whatever, so this was new to me. I predicted 12:34, ended up running it a good bit better at 12:08. Was pretty happy with that pace.
Wednesday 22nd December - Just a few miles down the valley, 3.7 miles at 9:38
Thursday 23rd December - another afternoon around Malahide, 7.5 miles at 9:51
Friday 24th December - this time up to the airport, 7.5 miles at 9:39
Saturday 25th December - Malahide parkrun in 21:26 with minimal warmup/cooldown, ran it pretty hard but my tummy was a little weird and uncomfortable.
Sunday 26th December - moderately hungover but brought the older kid to the local GOAL Mile where we managed it in sub-13 pace :)
Total: 38.7 miles
Wednesday December 29th - 3.3 miles to and from the parks from where we were staying at 9:19/mile
Thursday December 30th - 3 miles of a slightly different route at 8:58
Total: 6.3 miles :rollseyes:
Jan 3rd - 9th: 5 easy runs, not worth writing about other than no niggles, Mickey Mouse must have fixed them!
Total: 33.5 miles
Monday 10th January - 5 Swords miles at 9:11
Tuesday 11th January - 7.8 Malahide miles at 9:14
Wednesday 12th January - 6.3 miles at 8:59 dropping a forgotten pencil case into school
Thursday 13th January - 5.6 miles around Swords at 8:42
Friday 14th January - 8.4 miles at 9:26 while one of the kids was at beavers
Saturday 15th January - Finally something not easy. Ran Malahide hard, 21:44. 20 seconds slower than Christmas, but not terrible.
Sunday 16th January - A decent and fast long run with one of the lads from Rivervalley parkrun. We went up into the foothills of the Naul mountains, 13.8 miles at 8:23
Total: 56.7 miles
Monday 17th January - 6.7 slow miles around the Malahide loop at 9:38. Legs felt knackered all day from the weekend's running.
Tuesday 18th January - A session, 12 x 400 off 60 seconds. I ran it in the dark around the Holywell junior parkrun route, and after dinner, so was pretty sluggish. Paces started around 1:45 but were mostly around 1:40 for the rest.
Wednesday 19th January - Runch around Malahide, 7.5 miles at 8:51
Friday 21st January - 8.25 miles at 9:38 while the younger kid was at Beavers. Plodded up to the airport.
Saturday 22nd January - Rivervalley parkrun in 22:01, didn't feel totally all out so happy with that. I was on setup duty so jogged over and around the course. There were some fast lads over from Raheny who were rumoured to be thinking of breaking the course record, but it didn't happen.
Sunday 23rd January - Another early Sunday run, 13.2 miles around Portmarnock and Malahide at 8:32. Felt quite tired towards the end.
Total: 52.5 miles
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Very obviously the running highlight of the week was an ACTUAL RACE with REAL PEOPLE!!! As fun as parkrun and club sessions are, running in an actual race is a lot more fun and a lot more interesting in the whole post-pandemic-but-not-really world we're living in. I was mildly cranky all week, escalating towards being actually cranky over the weekend, and my wife very perceptively spotted race week nerves a mile away. It's not like I was living a monk's life during the week, but there's something about an uncommon running race that lets itself take over my brain for at least a week or two out, and it's a very noticeable trait. It's not like Raheny was going to be a mad PB or anything, quite the opposite - I reckoned that if I ran it well I could come in around 4 minutes slower than I'd run 2 years ago and a minute or two outside my slowest time.
During the week I also worried about what I should wear and run on. I was feeling a little embarrassed about the thought of showing up in a club singlet and in fancy Nike runners and running relatively slowly. I mulled about it a bit, and ended up deciding to just show up in my best gear and run as fast as possible. Everything is relative, and I was sure I was going to give it the best I could give on the day. But also, it's not actually great being snobbish about times and wearing a club singlet and wearing fancy runners and all. Nobody really cares and judging people on those terms is very lame.
So anyway, I showed up to Raheny in my club gear and fancy Nike shoes looking to run as fast as I could on the day. It was wonderful being in the pre-race environment - saying hi to club mates as they strided on by, a few chats with other runners who you haven't seen in 2+ years, shout outs to boards.ie folks of yore and today... I mean this is actually kind of ridiculous and a little overwhelming compared to what we've had to put up with for the last while. Knowing that the start of Raheny was usually quite chaotic, I bobbled on down into the starting area but didn't make too much of an effort to push forward. I ended up close enough to a bunch of normal looking club runner types so started with them.
Mile 1: 6:45/mile
It's been two years since I've run a race, but I remembered enough about not wasting energy at the start. And holy moly were there opportunities to waste energy at the start. I dodged around folks but kept things consistent and tried not to waste any energy here.
Mile 2: 6:47 & Mile 3: 6:37
Things opened up a bit, and I maintained my focus on running the shortest possible line at all times. Generally running through the field here, feeling good and jumping in behind a few larger guys where the wind was blowing. Went over the "mile 3 marker" sub-20 which was optimistic about my time.
Mile 4 6:45 & 5 6:43:
Down towards the park, I noticed that the right turn was no longer cut off with cones and we had a shorter route to go. It felt good to get into the park while exertion levels were increasing. As always, the avenue felt like it was lasting forever, but it did come with the opportunity to give some shoutouts to a load of Cru folks coming through. After turning around I passed the 4 mile mark and noticed that it was ~1/4 miles off, though it didn't put me off.
The last bit: ???
I ran as hard as I could and it was terrible. I was annoyed that the finishing time was clearly over 35 minutes, as I had ran with a sub-7/mile pace goal in mind, and I thought I hadn't gone much slower. My finishing time was 35:18, a good bit off what I thought I had ran. As soon as I looked at Strava it was clear that the distance was longer than planned, and I feel sorry for Raheny for getting it wrong on the day. Overall this was a successful race - pace was better than planned, I worked my way through the field and I was all out at the end. Not a bad return to racing, even if it was 4 minutes a 400 metres longer than last time around :)
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The rest of the week:
Monday January 24th: 7.5 miles at lunchtime at 9:19
Tuesday: Cru session in Irishtown, tough enough - active recoveries are hard: 8x600s off 200m jog: 2:21, 2:23, 2:21, 2:24, 2:24, 2:23, 2:27, 2:21
Wednesday: 5.1 miles at 9:36 partial commute
Friday: 7.8 miles at 9:23 jogging while the younger kid is in Beavers
Saturday: 5.6 early miles at 9:20 before spending the day driving family members around to their weekend activities.
Sunday: 7.2 miles including Raheny 5ish
Total: 43 miles
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Didn't realise you'd be running so was surprised to see you, think you spotted me first (again, this happened before). Great to see so many Cru supporting the race. Very solid stuff for where you are, kudos. And yes, sorry about the 'issue'. 😔
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Well over 100 Cru out there today! Great support for the race, and Susan did a superb job as always on commentary. Very happy with the race itself, honestly part of the fun of running Raheny is giving shoutouts to all the marshalls I know!
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10 weeks left to Boston, and I've decided on a "plan" of sorts. On Tuesday I'll do the marathon session in the club. It's usually around 40 minutes of something or another. I can't say I'm a fan of the sessions on the club plan, but doing them with a group is always good. That then leaves parkrun day as my faster day of the week, and Sunday is the long run. It's lacking all sorts of properties of a great marathon plan, but it is convenient and I can consistently do these things. The purpose of Boston is to get back training regularly, so I'm making things as simple and convenient as possible. I think most runners would do well doing having a tempo-y session, a faster VO2maxy session and a longer run every week along with a bunch of easy running. The important thing is consistency so I'm keeping things logistically simple for now to maximise the previously mentioned consistency. Consistency, consistency, consistency. If I do end up missing stuff, I'll try to do hillier runs to prepare for the Himalayan-esque Boston course. In other news my weight has dropped to 88.8kg, 6 months to the day from weighing in at 98.8kg. I'm happy with this.
January 31st - 5.21 miles @ 10:15/mile post-Raheny run, legs and body very much feeling like they'd just done a serious race and then spent some time in the pub afterwards.
February 1st - My first marathon session in a very long time. This was a 40 minute track run involving a pyramid of 3, 4, 6, 8, 6, 4, 3 minutes at HM pace with a minute not-recovery paced jog in between. I wasn't sure how fast to run this, 7:10-7:15 felt about right. Ended up with a few other runners and the last rep was fast as a result. Overall no problems and enjoyed my first tempo session in like 2 years. Total of 9.75 miles.
February 2nd - 9.1 miles commuting home still feeling the race and session in my legs at 9:50/mile
February 4th - 8.1 miles @ 9:32/mile while the younger kid was at Beavers
February 5th - I was thinking of popping over to Donabate for the new course, but late on Friday a call was put out for volunteers at Rivervalley so I offered to run and scan. I ran parkrun quite slowly in the end, the weather was poxy and maybe feeling Raheny still in my legs, finishing in 23:15 despite a moderate effort, over a minute slower than a few weeks prior. 8.1 miles in total
February 6th - Mildly hungover. The wind was brutal so slowly jogged over to Malahide Castle for shelter. I was just about to head back to home when paulieyifter slowed down to have a chat, so I did another (slow for him!) lap around the park while chatting away. 12.3 miles in total, not exactly a great long run but 2 hours on my feet.
Total: 52.8 miles
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