Take Your Lumps Like a Man, Private Twinkle Toes!!!

dintbo · 13-03-2016 7:18am

Ososlo wrote: »

Best of luck in the morning! At least you'll get to have a lie in compared to your normal super early 5am runs!!!

Thanks very much Ososlo. A later start than normal for me, but my body clock still had me awake at 5

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Real steady progress here! How's the knee? How'd the 5k go??

Cheers Dubgal, slow and steady all the way. The knee has been fine thanks. It can get a little whingy on the day of a tough session running up hills, so I reckon its just mother nature's way of reminding me about stick to a regular S&C routine. As for the 5k, well the phrase 'skin of my teeth comes to mind'. Report to follow

dintbo · 13-03-2016 8:01am

Saturday 12th: Johnstown parkrun 19:59 PB.

I had decided last weekend to have a crack at a sub 20 parkrun before the first of the 10k races I'm doing in a couple of weeks. Up until now, my PB had been 20:24, and had been that way since late June. Time for a change. I hadn't been to Johnstown in a good while, but had heard about the increase in numbers. As it's a three lapped course with some narrow paths and tight bends, I figured it might get a little tricky around the third lap overlapping people, but I still wanted to run a steady start and try up the pace for the last lap. This is how I want to run in Roslare, so this was the time to practise.

Lap 1: A quick glance around the start and it seemed there were a few fast runner around today. I knew there would be at least two ladies finishing well ahead of me, when I saw both Jackie Carthy and Ciara Wilson (current and past course record holders respectively). 1, 2, 3 and we were off. I was happy to line up in the third row and used the slightly slow start to keep control on the pace from the start. I've tried the fast burst beginnings before, but I always misjudge how long I can hold it for and burn out about half way through the race. I gradually made my up the field to around 12th or 13th position by the time we got to the other side of the lake. Soon after this I passed a runner who is usually two or three places ahead of me in this run, so had to have a quick check to make sure I wasn't pushing too much early on. All felt good and as it turned out looking at the results he must have been running easy or maybe MP. By the end of the first lap I was following, but not getting any closer to a runner in a blue and white top. This would not change.

Lap 2: Very little of note here. I don't think I passed anyone. I was just following the runner ahead of me. A few times during this lap I started to feel the pinch, but that's gonna happen so control the breathing and keep going. A quick check of the time as I finished the second lap told me it was gonna be close, so it was time to push.

Lap 3: I wasn't sure if I was going any faster to be honest but I had risen the effort levels about as far as they were willing to go. A couple of time I thought I was gaining on my buddy in the blue and white, but if I was, he pulled away again.We both passed another runner who was struggling a little on his third lap. I have been in that boat many times so I could feel his pain. I was right about lapping people as well. I really doesn't bother me as I do believe parkrun should be for everyone who shows up, but it definitely did slow me down in places. Maybe those small slow downs meant I could push at the very last hill though, so who knows if it really made any difference to my finishing time. As I crossed the finish line I thought I had hit the button. As it turned out I hadn't and the buzz I felt was the auto lap registering the end of mile 3. I knew I had a PB and I knew I was close to the 20:00 but I wasn't sure if I had managed to dip under or not. I was delighted to see the 19:59 when I checked the results.

I was also happy to see the Strava miles times. My Garmin, like any others I've seen, measure this course short so the paces aren't very accurate. But with mile times of 6:42, 6:43, 6:33 I knew I had followed the plan pretty well. After my stupid start in the Ferrycarrig 5 this was important to me. I was also a little surprised to see I only got the second and third fastest in the top results for the Johnstown strava segment. A quick bit of investigating told me my fastest one was the day of my previous PB. The next three were from yesterday. On the day of my previous PB I had slowed during the second lap and even more drastically during the third which is only my 15th fastest. Slower starts definitely suit me better. This should become my mantra