Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Eye of the Tiger Beer.
Comments
-
-
-
This week was entirely focussed on the MSB 5k and breaking 20 minutes, as well as getting over a cold which wasn't going anywhere fast other than into my sinuses. I decided not to do any run commutes(!) and treat this week as a taper week. I took Monday off after an aggressive weekend , and then on Tuesday I really wasn't feeling great so decided to skip running entirely. On Wednesday I did a fast lap around St. Stephen's Green during lunchtime, and on Thursday I felt really strong (and was feeling some guilt) and really couldn't help myself, so did a fast run around the Fingal 10k course. I took Friday off, and did some E-Z miles on Saturday evening, which felt great.
So, race day! I had a pretty bad night's sleep, the kids were restless from about 3.30AM onwards, after which I only got an hour or two's sleep. However I was still feeling good heading into town. As ever I got into town pointlessly early, so strolled around drinking a coffee (mostly to stay warm) and eventually ended up at the fabulous race HQ in the Mansion House to change and drop my bag. I met TFGR when heading out to warm-up, we exchanged well wishes. For pretty much the first time ever I did a proper warm-up, 2 easy laps of St. Stephen's Green, followed by a few minutes of wandering around, and then another lap of the green with some aggressive strides. I met C. at the very end of the strides and we headed into the crowd to get placed for the race - it was very busy by now and I had to do a lot of barging past folks to get into roughly a decent position before the race started. I was quite sweaty and a little light-headed while in the crowd waiting to start, I put it down to the warm-up and general nerves. I couldn't really hear the race announcer, there was a moment of silence and some applause for something or another, and without much further ado the race got started.
0-1km: 3:37
Plan was to go out hard, hang on and see what happens at the end. Without too much ducking and diving I got off to a good start and I was happy with what the watch was saying. I was a bit surprised at the route, the turn down towards Leeson St. was welcome as I was expecting a 180, but meant I probably wasn't running the race line.
1-2km: 3:57
The main thing here was to settle into a decent pace and keep things under 4:00. I got a good shout from denis_b just as things were starting to really hurt. My breathing was becoming laboured and thoughts were starting to become a little bit negative. The downhill towards Baggot St. was definitely welcome, as were the memories of starting DCM here
2-3km: 3:58
Bending around the church and down on the canal I'd settled into a group, including a few kids who'd started around me. There were a few surges, and I mostly kept up, though things were definitely getting really difficult. At one stage I spat out some gooey crap from my mouth and it basically ended up on me. When my watch beeped I knew I was still on track, but still I had lots of terrible thoughts of jogging it in...
3-4km: 4:09
This is the most difficult part of a 5k, and boy did it hurt. My breathing became exceptionally painful sounding, almost to the extent of putting people off around me, and I was very aware that I had slowed down, however I was mostly keeping up with those around me. Just at the end of this I got another very aggressive shout from denis_b which definitely drove me on. I could hear the noise from the finish line and was trying to focus on the not having to run anymore.
4-5km: 3:47
I'm not really sure how I did this pace. There was a mild downhill which helped, but when I turned the corner onto Baggot St. I was definitely not up for sprinting to the end. After Raheny FBOT had described a trick of his inspired by his swimming days which was to completely go for it at the end - this was definitely in mind but I couldn't summon up any real energy to go for it. Folks did start speeding up around me, which did drag me along a bit, and I ended up getting enough energy to go after one or two runners coming into St. Stephen's Green. By the last 50 or so metres I was completely wrecked and slowed down a bit once I saw the time being well under 20:00
Post-race: C. showed up immediately as I went over the line - he finished a couple of minutes before I did with a great PB. I basically collapsed into the railings on the side, ignoring the instructions from the marshals to keep moving on, C. reckoned I was dying at the end After a few minutes I got moving again, introduced myself to Myles and met a few other folks. We headed to the Mansion House again for a cup of coffee, and met up again with TFGR and Myles before splitting off to watch some football and drink some well deserved PB beers
Gross time: 19:39
Chip time: 19:32
VDOT: 51.4 (? - the website I usually use is broken)
So, obviously a good day out. A 35 second PB over the Xmas Cracker 5k back in late December and a reasonably well paced race. This was really tough and there wasn't much more to give. I definitely couldn't have run this without the recent speedwork, though obviously I haven't been doing enough targeted work towards improving my 5k time, it's good evidence that at my level running lots of miles will improve times (no doubt with diminishing returns over time though).
Week report:
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
16th March|3 miles|8'52|A couple of slow laps around St. Stephen's Green, followed by a quick one.
17th March|6.9 miles|7'33|Took advantage of the beautiful weather and ran the Fingal 10k route at a pretty quick pace.
19th March|3.3 miles|9'02|Some slow miles around Swords...
20th March|4.8 miles|?|Warmup 2k, then some strides, then a badass 5k
Total: 18.1 miles (!!!)
Next week: 50 miles would be nice Also, I need to figure out a race plan for the next few months. 0 -
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
Ahhh, back to regular running
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
21st March|10.2 miles|8'59|Legs were a little sore all day from the 5k. Effort and heart rate definitely up for this run commute.
22nd March|8.7 miles|8'35|Kept the effort and HR around the same here, legs were again a little stiff during the day but grand when running.
24th March|2.1 miles|Around 10'00|Slow miles around St. Stephen's Green with co-worker. Garmin went a little zany.
24th March|9 miles|8'38|Yet Another Run Commute
25th March|9.1 miles|8'05|Finally feeling frisky and up for some faster miles, so pushed myself a little while running home.
26th March|7.4 miles|8'53|11 x 30 second hill sprints. Headed down "The Valley" in Swords where there's a nice hill for sprinting. These were pretty tough, near the end of a load of them I felt almost as if it was just the swinging of my arms that were dragging me along. When I got to the top at the last sprint I allowed myself to stop to recover, and a pair of teenagers were passing. As I was wheezing away one of them said "don't worry, you'll get there eventually" This was maybe a bit too intense - I was surprised at feeling tired during the day.
27th March|13.7 miles|8'06|Not a great run. Maybe I had some post-race fatigue without much recovery, or maybe it was because I was out a gig in Vicar St. and pints afterwards the night before, or maybe it was the fast pace I went out at. Anyway for no good reason I went out at around 7'50 and kept that until about 10 miles, when I actually stopped for a couple of minutes as I felt very tired. Jogged back to Swords though it was still tough enough.
Total: 60.5 miles
Next week: I'm only in work 3 days so less opportunities for run commutes!0 -
So... my plan for the year. My target races are the Fingal 10k in late June (home territory :cool:) and DCM. My next race will be the Boyne 10k on May 1st. This gives me a few weeks to do some hillwork (apparently there's a bollox of a hill around 7km
), a few weeks to practice some race-pace running in the meantime and it'll give me a good benchmark to beat.
The thinking behind targeting the Fingal 10k is mostly because it suits me, but also the timing works out - there's 11 weeks in between Fingal and the Boyne race, which is a full plan in Faster Road Racing, and then I'll have 14 weeks for marathon specific training. Any plan though is subject to the whims of convenience of when it suits me to run, so I guess I'll be doing a fair bit of adapting (kind of like last year :pac: :rolleyes:). For DCM, the meno plan looks interesting as a basic structure to build on, though my peak mileage will hopefully be a bit higher.
I'm signed up to do the Race Series 10m and HM - I won't be necessarily targeting them but will do a bit of tapering before them. I'm missing the Irish Runner 5 Miler due to being away at the time - June will actually be a little challenging, I'm out of the country twice and the Euros are on If the Docklands 5k is on this year in June I might use it to see how I'm going, and I might even make my parkrun debut. Also it looks like I'll be showing up to a commercial race soon enough :mad: 
, in work we've entered a couple of teams into the "Dublin Staff Relay" in mid-May, which is on a very tough course around the Phoenix Park, but I reckon the event is more about the knacker drinking than PBs
Very open to ideas and feedback!0 -
-
-
A plan for 2016 on March 30. Are you always this late?
Docklands 5k is scheduled for July 14 this year, unless something unexpected clashes (really hard to schedule with competing events in The Point, Lansdowne, Convention Centre, Grand Canal Theatre etc.).
With your speed I'd mix in some club-type track sessions to the meno plan if you choose it. Worked out well for me last year.
Best of luck with those. Notice you haven't named any target times. 0 -
-
-
Advertisement
-
So... my plan for the year. My target races are the Fingal 10k in late June (home territory :cool:) and DCM. My next race will be the Boyne 10k on May 1st. This gives me a few weeks to do some hillwork (apparently there's a bollox of a hill around 7km ), a few weeks to practice some race-pace running in the meantime and it'll give me a good benchmark to beat.
Just so you know it also ends on a hill, short sharp hill up onto main road, right turn and then slightly uphill to finish. and that hill at 7km goes on for a full km!! 0 -
-
-
Docklands 5k is scheduled for July 14 this year, unless something unexpected clashes (really hard to schedule with competing events in The Point, Lansdowne, Convention Centre, Grand Canal Theatre etc.).
Ah, drat. Looks like that won't probably work for me.With your speed I'd mix in some club-type track sessions to the meno plan if you choose it. Worked out well for me last year.
Yes, but then I'd have to show up to a club againBest of luck with those. Notice you haven't named any target times.
I'll be content with PBs all 'round, and delighted with maintaining my new VDOT high-water mark across one or two races during the summer 0 -
-
-
-
Thanks D, it was pretty tough figuring it all out. Now that it's sorted, I just need to do the training, and start working on my 2016 post-race beverage plan.
I'd suggest you work a bit of food into your post-race beverage plan or at the very least try some water. I know mixing your drink is not generally advise but I think a water chaser could work well for you
One of the 12 week P&D marathon plans would probably be more in line with where you want to be mileagewise than the Meno plan. Just make sure you have the base mileage up before kicking into it. Best of luck with the rest of the year.0 -
So... my plan for the year. My target races are the Fingal 10k in late June (home territory :cool:) and DCM. My next race will be the Boyne 10k on May 1st. This gives me a few weeks to do some hillwork (apparently there's a bollox of a hill around 7km ), a few weeks to practice some race-pace running in the meantime and it'll give me a good benchmark to beat.
The thinking behind targeting the Fingal 10k is mostly because it suits me, but also the timing works out - there's 11 weeks in between Fingal and the Boyne race, which is a full plan in Faster Road Racing, and then I'll have 14 weeks for marathon specific training. Any plan though is subject to the whims of convenience of when it suits me to run, so I guess I'll be doing a fair bit of adapting (kind of like last year :pac: :rolleyes:). For DCM, the meno plan looks interesting as a basic structure to build on, though my peak mileage will hopefully be a bit higher.
I'm signed up to do the Race Series 10m and HM - I won't be necessarily targeting them but will do a bit of tapering before them. I'm missing the Irish Runner 5 Miler due to being away at the time - June will actually be a little challenging, I'm out of the country twice and the Euros are on If the Docklands 5k is on this year in June I might use it to see how I'm going, and I might even make my parkrun debut. Also it looks like I'll be showing up to a commercial race soon enough :mad: , in work we've entered a couple of teams into the "Dublin Staff Relay" in mid-May, which is on a very tough course around the Phoenix Park, but I reckon the event is more about the knacker drinking than PBs
Very open to ideas and feedback!
Best of luck with your plan for the year I am expecting PBs all round from you. Your training plan is very similar to how my training went last year and during the 10k training I got 2 5k PBs, your plan has a tune up race so pick a nice flat course and improve on that 5k PB also.
+1 to what FBOT has said about the P&D 12 week marathon plans, I think that one of them would really suit you. You are currently running 50/60 miles a week so the first plan which goes up to 55miles should be no bother to you and if you would prefer more mileage then the next plan(which FBOT is currently using) is up 70 miles.0 -
Advertisement
-
Along with making important running plans this week (above) I also got some running in. Not an exceptional week by any means mileage-wise, though I did have one excuse - on Wednesday after running home I was cajoled into playing a game of football on a large astro pitch. I think the last game I played was back in July, and it pretty much crippled me, shredding my legs for a few days and contributing to some serious exhaustion. I kind of anticipated the same to happen again, but no harm in playing one game of football every year or so... anyway, it was good fun and pretty competitive over the 90 minutes. I did get a pain in my right thigh so I went in goals for the last 20 minutes or so. I was dreading that it'd be something run impacting, but it was gone by Thursday morning. As expected my legs were in bits, and I was very tired on Thursday. By Saturday the stiffness and pain had mostly gone away. Anyway, I won't play football again until at least November, but it looks like I got away with it
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
28th March|6.1 miles|9'06|Pretty tired and busy all day, headed out at 9 for some slow miles.
29th March|10 miles|7'52|Fast run commute, and threw in three half miles at 7/mile pace. Some practice for making more use of the run commutes
30th March|9.1 miles|8'22|A slower run commute.
31st March|4.7 miles|9'12|Slow miles on crippled legs.
2nd April|7 miles|7'34|In the Griffith Ave. area for kids gymnastics, so did two laps of the "FBOT/annapr square". Kept it fast enough, and did 10 x 30 seconds at 5k pace.
3rd April|14.5 miles|8'20|Ruinous hangover all day, so was kind of expecting a bad run. Turned out it was nothing of the sort, felt like I could have kept going for ages, and didn't feel tired or sore at the end. Maybe I should have gone on further... Went to DCU and back with a bit added on around Swords. Passed close by some gigantic hares at the airport.
Total: 51.6 miles
March total: 212 miles
Next week: More of the same...0
Advertisement