Quickbeam me to the finish line

quickbeam

Couldn't tell you to be honest.

I found this though which was for this year's route (ie, the last time it was ran). I presume next year's will be the the same, or very similar: http://rahenyshamrock.ie/?p=1095

gypsylee

Well done on your sub 30 Parkrun. Its a great feeling to finally get under that 30 minute mark. No stopping you now.

leesider77

Well done on your PB quickbeam! Great to meet up.

I'll be expecting you northside for some parkrun tourism in the new year. But definitely see you in Raheny.

ariana`

Well done again QB. Really well deserved.

scotindublin

It is a fair course....with a bit of a hill the last mile or so and an uphill section in St Anne's Park unless the route has reverted to taking in the shore round.

Very popular event and famous for one of the best goodie bags out there.

Rururun wrote: »

You’ve inspired me and I booked In to Raheny!
Do u know is it a hard course or nice and flat?? I should have checked this before booking!

quickbeam

scotindublin wrote: »

... and famous for one of the best goodie bags out there.

What do you get?

quickbeam

I've a confession to make. Parkrun details updated after I received the email. Still a PB but no longer sub 30. Will have to aim for that another day though I might take this week's easy enough and conserve energy for Jingle Bells.

Baby75

quickbeam wrote: »

I've a confession to make. Parkrun details updated after I received the email. Still a PB but no longer sub 30. Will have to aim for that another day though I might take this week's easy enough and conserve energy for Jingle Bells.

Ah do not worry it is within your grasp

scotindublin

Enough sweets to turn you diabetic! Also a nice Plaque which makes a change from getting a medal.

quickbeam wrote: »

What do you get?

quickbeam

For posterity, if not for interest, here's my week (fairly uneventful):

Monday - 3.85km @ 6:53
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - 3.82km @ 6:53
Thursday - rest
Friday - 7.38km @ 7:04
Saturday - Parkrun in 31:25.
Sunday - plan to rest

Grand total of 20.05km for the week!

I had intended to up the mileage this week, and continue to do so until I'm back to 20km+ distances, enough that I could do a HM anyway. But I found the motivation quite low this week. Monday's conditions were perfect, except I felt a bit tired. Maybe because of the Parkrun push I'd done the previous Saturday?? Wednesday was the day of lots of rain. Friday, I'd aimed for 10km, but ended up doing just two circuits of a planned 3 circuit route due to the freezing temperatures. Was happy enough that at least Parkrun wasn't going to be my longest of the week.

Today's Parkrun, as I mentioned already I wasn't going to push it too hard after last week, save my strength for Jingle Bells next week. It was freezing too. The legs felt like lead. So taking all that in to account I was actually rather pleased with my time.

Even if the distances aren't huge, I feel it's a good thing to at least get out for some sort of run three times mid-week. It's the routine I've built up and I think if I break that routine it'll be even harder to get back in to it when I start to train for some of the longer races that are coming up early next year. So, that's my plan for next week - get out Monday, Wednesday and Friday, go as far as I feel like energy-depending and weather-depending, but don't worry too much about the distances either if they're not increasing massively. Do what I can - some exercise is better than no exercise, eh?

Baby75

That was not a bad week at all, more consistent than mine

I only got out twice

Kellygirl

4 runs is great and no point forcing the distance if you aren’t up for it yet. Will only put you off I think. Once you have a race to train for you’ll be motivated again.

quickbeam

Another week down:

Monday - 5.10km @ 6:44km - legs felt leaden and I felt slow, so was surprised that this was actually a PB, by over 30 seconds.

Tuesday - rest

Wednesday - 5.14km @ 6:45km

Thursday - rest

Friday - 5.15km @ 6:39km - another PB on the course, knocked a whole three seconds off!! All of the above are the same circuit, but distances are just what the watch recorded. Fridays recorded longest but quickest, hence a decent pace difference, even if only three seconds overall between it and Monday's.

Saturday - Jingle Bells 5km
Was flupping freezing waiting around, but grand, perfect even, once I got going. I started in the 25+ minute area, ahead of the walkers, but I found a lot of those ahead of me were a lot slower than me (and it's not often I say that!!) so found it hard to get a pace going. I looked at my watch at 1km and could have nearly cried as the average pace was 6:34, well outside what I needed if I wanted that PB. I continued on and things started to thin out along Chesterfield and Ordinance Survey, so I picked things up and saw my average pace drop steadily. By about the half way mark, I thought I was actually still in with a chance of getting that PB if I kept up the pace, and with the downhills I thought that very possible. I pushed on hard. It felt like I was on skates or something and I was passing people out all over the place. The only time people passed me out was in the last 100m during the uphill to the finish line, but I'd clawed back enough time that my pace was under 6 minutes and I felt confident of getting my PB. I stopped the watch at 29:35. Absolutely delighted with that!!! Though I'm still waiting on my official time. My first sub-30 minute 5km!!! My splits: 6:34, 6:11, 5:55, 5:39; 5:16. I've never seen a pace that low on my results before!! Overall, pace of 5:55. Great event! Really enjoyed it! Elated with the result!!

Sunday - planned rest.

20.39km for the week.

I've some musings about my future - how to motivate myself to do longer distances again; how to manage proper training (as I'm from the school of C25K and HH which don't really involve proper training); whether to join a club or not. But I'll gather those thoughts and post about them another time. For the moment we'll leave it with the elation of a sub-30 min 5km race!

Wubble Wubble

Congrats on the PB! Sorry I missed you afterwards.

scotindublin

Brilliant time today delighted to hear you got your sub 30....it was lovely morning for a run.....about as nice as it could be at this time of year.

Take some time to savour that PB!!

Baby75

Well done huge congrats on your PB enjoy the great feeling, you did fantastic sounds like you paced your self brilliantly well done again

Sunny Dayz

Congrats on your pb, that’s a great milestone. Those km splits look great!

ariana`

Well done QB. Great PB and a great milestone to break the 30 min barrier, congrats!

quickbeam

So, now that I have my sub 30 min 5km I'd like to work on getting the same in my local Parkrun. It doesn't have to beat the JB time (yet!) but just be sub 30.

I had little by way of planning done for JB except to run as fast as I could. I certainly hadn't planned to do negative splits like I ended up doing due to congestion. But it seemed to work out well that way as it happened. Though who knows if I'd have done better or worse with even splits.

My question is, for Parkrun should I try for sub 30 by running even splits or by emulating JB and running negative splits? My Parkrun is fairly flat but obviously doesn't have the long downhill advantage that JB had.

I'd assume even splits are the answer but just wanted to check others' opinion.

Sheep1978

Probably not much in it but I would say the first half of your parkrun is slightly tougher with the loop up toward peregrines clubhouse included in it

TFBubendorfer

Congrats on the sub-30!

To be honest my own best 5k times all came by starting out fast and then hanging on for dear life and digging deep into the pain cave. I would not recommend that strategy for any longer races but for a 5k it might just about work.

Whatever you choose to do, your sub-30 parkrun is more or less a given!

ariana`

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

Congrats on the sub-30!

To be honest my own best 5k times all came by starting out fast and then hanging on for dear life and digging deep into the pain cave. I would not recommend that strategy for any longer races but for a 5k it might just about work.

Whatever you choose to do, your sub-30 parkrun is more or less a given!

I've just spent a few minutes looking back at a few of my better 5 k times and it seems this is my approach too :cool:

You can do it QB, we're all behind you

quickbeam

Thanks everyone. Just four more this year to get the result. Fingers crossed!!

Kellygirl

My Parkrun PBs are the same as the others said - usually a very fast first km and then I settle into a pace. Ours is very narrow at the start and congested so it’s easier to start up the front and then I go as fast as I can until the field spreads out a bit. I don’t find it easy though and legs can be like jelly at the end.

Baby75

I actually prefer to start a little slower and try and increase my pace I feel more comfortable , I have ran 5k where I went out all guns blazing ( for me )but I had to dig deep and it was disheartening having club mates I had passed pass me again as I slowed down, I got a PB though so I did run it faster, by a couple of seconds! but I think if I reversed the splits I would have got the same time but less pain

I guess you will figure it out which suits you better!

denis b

Really enjoyed that report QB. Brilliant finish and well raced. I am from a slightly different school and prefer to pace the 5km (each, very much to their own). I tend to be pace +5 secs for the first 2km and then on pace for the 3rd before running as hard as I can for the last 2kms. I freely admit to not being particularly brave in the pain department at times. Do enjoy whatever you decide and hold onto the post JB glow to carry you through.

leesider77

Belated congrats on the PB quickbeam.
I'm reading these 5km strategies with interest. I always start off slow and get faster - maybe Im just holding onto my old 5km insecurities where all I wanted was to complete it in one piece. Think I may need to push myself a bit more.

Annie get your Run

quickbeam wrote: »

So, now that I have my sub 30 min 5km I'd like to work on getting the same in my local Parkrun. It doesn't have to beat the JB time (yet!) but just be sub 30.

I had little by way of planning done for JB except to run as fast as I could. I certainly hadn't planned to do negative splits like I ended up doing due to congestion. But it seemed to work out well that way as it happened. Though who knows if I'd have done better or worse with even splits.

My question is, for Parkrun should I try for sub 30 by running even splits or by emulating JB and running negative splits? My Parkrun is fairly flat but obviously doesn't have the long downhill advantage that JB had.

I'd assume even splits are the answer but just wanted to check others' opinion.

Huge congrats on the sub 30 quickbeam! For what it's worth, when I ran a sub 25 at JB 2 years ago I went out the following week and ran pretty much the same time at my local parkrun. You'll have no bother doing it, you know now you can run sub 30, your times will start tumbling. Jingle Bells isn't as 'easy' a course as it's sometimes made out to be so your time there is not that far off any other flat 5K course (in my experience anyway ). Look forward to hearing how you get on!

Another option might be to get someone to pace you! I'm with the 'start conservatively and push on later' crew but you will find out yourself which works better for you.

Huzzah!

You have four parkruns to go; you can try all of the strategies and report back

gypsylee

Congrats on your PB. Great result. Good luck with the parkruns.