If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.

tbukela

Brilliant PB, sub 50 is really satisfying. Loads more to come with the great consistent training you're doing.

coogy

Very well done K, you certainly worked for that one!!!

Swashbuckler

Suuuuuuuuub 50!!!!!

Kellygirl

Thanks so much for all comments guys.

So back to my paces question.

I’ve been training on my 24:32 5K paces.

Since then I did a 24:09 5Km and 39:56 5Mile which both gave me identical training paces but I didn’t change to them when setting up my workouts. However, last week I went back through my recent sessions which were all a bit faster than prescribed and turns out I was running them at the paces the more recent races had given me anyway.

Today my 10K is giving me slightly faster paces again.

So what do I train at? My target race is Cork half marathon June Bank Holiday weekend and the advise the last time was stick to the slower paces as it was distance I was changing - something I don’t mind still doing. Will I just take an average of the times and go somewhere in the middle? In all honesty I’m happy with the predicted HM time the slowest training paces give me anyway as 13.1 miles is a lot longer than the 6 today.

As an aside, I’m doing Cobh 10 mile next Sunday - haven’t fully decided if I’m racing it or not but thinking I should give it a bash as I need experience racing. I’m also planning on doing Limerick Half Marathon the May bank holiday weekend to redeem myself after messing it up last year.

eyrie

Some running, well done you!! And the sub 50 to boot. You're really flying it lately K, going from strength to strength.

Re: the paces I have no idea personally but was advised myself to stay with the previous paces, or taking an average of about 3 recent races.

Loads of exciting races coming up for you, nice!

ariana`

Well done again K. Super result and as others have said a very satisfying PB. It's brilliant to see it coming together for you this year and to hear you sounding more confident in yourself

Sunny Dayz

That's a brilliant time, your previous pb has been smashed out of the park!

aloooof

Sub 50 and a huge chunk off the PB, fair play!!

Younganne

congrats on the Sub 50 and a very well run race. Even nicer when unexpected but very well earned, all the training is paying off and making you stronger.

As for paces I would treat the 10m in exactly the same way as you did the 10k race and don't change you training paces for the moment but don't be afraid to push them in the race.

Huzzah!

I've so much to catch up on. I was looking forward to reading your report after seeing the result on Strava. Cracking run. Congrats on the PB!

Kellygirl

Younganne wrote: »

congrats on the Sub 50 and a very well run race. Even nicer when unexpected but very well earned, all the training is paying off and making you stronger.

As for paces I would treat the 10m in exactly the same way as you did the 10k race and don't change you training paces for the moment but don't be afraid to push them in the race.

Thanks. Yeah, I think I’m going to be a bit conservative considering it’s Cobh and some whoppers of hills there. I’ll keep a range of paces in mind to try and stay between in terms of average pace I think.

After Cobh I can re-evaluate my training paces for Cork.

gypsylee

Congrats on a great PB last Sunday. You smashed it! Have a great race on Sunday.

Mr. Guappa

Well done last week, really nice racing. Good luck in Cobh, it's a tough course and one that I wouldn't mind another crack at.

OOnegative

Best of luck in Cobh tomorrow K, run well!!

Kellygirl

Thanks guys. A bit unsure as to how it will go. Struggled through 3 miles last night and gave up. Hoping for the best and I’ll aim to enjoy it anyway.

Huzzah!

Kellygirl wrote: »

Thanks guys. A bit unsure as to how it will go. Struggled through 3 miles last night and gave up. Hoping for the best and I’ll aim to enjoy it anyway.

Put it behind you. Tomorrow is a another day. Best of luck!

eyrie

Kellygirl wrote: »

Thanks guys. A bit unsure as to how it will go. Struggled through 3 miles last night and gave up. Hoping for the best and I’ll aim to enjoy it anyway.

Well, I hope you wake up feeling much better than that tomorrow. In my experience a crappy run or two close to a race doesn't necessarily have any bearing on the race itself (it's just a nice gift to mess with the head instead :rolleyes:) so I hope it works out that way for you too. Good luck tomorrow!!

Kellygirl

Week 7 - Grads HM plan

After the 10km race on Sunday and having a 10 mile race today I had to do a bit of adjusting to review and prepare for today so left out the 2nd session during the week and reduced the mileage a bit.

Monday: 3.10 miles @ 11:24 min mile - recovery run
That evening I took my 5 year old to junior athletics and I have to run beside him so a lap of the track and lots of hopping, skipping and sprints then. He loved it and looking forward to going back tomorrow.

Tuesday: 10x300 @ 1 mile pace with 1 min recovery
I took my 1 mile pace from my predicted 1 mile race time on the tin man calculator and that gave me 7:14 so set a range of 7:09-7:19 on the watch. I was slightly nervous as went to check how Browneyes had done with this session and she called it Holy Fook so I knew I’d some fun ahead!!

There were almighty hailstone showers every 45 mins or so and I waited u til one shower finished and set off keeping my warm up to 10 mins. Booted off way to fast for the first two 300m and tried to be more on target for the next. The ones against the wind were tough and way slower than the others. Was a very tough session. 10 min cool down and back at the car, stretched one leg and the hailstones started so dived into the car well pleased I didn’t get pelted and wet.

Paces 6:07; 6;35; 7:08; 7:18; 7:18; 7:27; 7:35; 7:27; 7:08; 7:25

Wednesday: no running
Thursday: 6:43mile @ 10:18 min mile with a friend
Friday: 3:05 miles @ 10:39 min mile
Had planned 5 miles and had no energy so walked after 3 miles. Hadn’t eaten much during the day so maybe it was that.
Saturday:rest day
Sunday: Sonia O’Sullivan Cobh 10 mile race - report in next post

28.4 miles for the week. Going to rest tomorrow and take it easy for the next couple of days and get back into the plan then. No more racing until Limerick HM - which possibly won’t be racing all out as I’ll save myself for Cork and actually finishing the plan I think!

Kellygirl

Race Report: Sonia O’Sullivan Cobh 10mile race

I’d a soft PB going into this race considering my 10 mile PB (1:31:12) was from last September”s John Buckley 10 mile and I ran 7.5 miles before that to make it a long run for DCM training. So I was fairly confident of a PB today in all honesty even though I was told this wasn’t a PB course. The tin man calculator predicted 1:24:55 so I did hope for sub 1:25 and my goal was to keep my average pace below 8:29 to do that.

It was a stunning morning driving to Cobh with clear blue skies and a bit nippy but my favorite running weather. Met a few friends and people I know so had a short warm up and chats and then I was delighted to see 85 minute pacers and decided to line up with them to keep me in check.

Miles 1-4: 8:15; 8:02; 9:14; 8:57
It was chiptimed so started my watch as we crossed the line and very quickly I felt the pacers were too slow and my watch was showing 8:55 so I toddled off by myself. I knew the first 2 miles were downhill so without going too fast I let gravity do it’s job and just went with it. There was loads of support out which was great. This continued the whole way round. Mile 2 was very steep downhills and windy roads so tried to stick to the race line as much as I could within crowds which hadn’t spread out yet. We were on country roads very quickly where cows clearly had been walking too and leaving their mark :-)

Miles 3 and 4 were where the real challenge started as I knew these were entirely uphill. Mile 3 had the steepest hills and I slowed right down to conserve energy and tried to recover at any chance I got. The 85 min pacers flew past me between mile 3 and 4 and the man beside me said they were doing 7:40 pace. It threw me when they passed me and I reminded myself I’d 6 miles to catch them once the worst hills were over. Mile 4 was tough and hot but we passed good support coming out of mass and got water too. I took two sips and threw the bottle away. My average pace was on track so all ok though the pacers were well gone.

Miles 5-8: 8:10; 8:09; 8:34; 8:20
What goes up must come down and miles 5-6.5 didn’t disappoint. I just let myself go down the hills and before mile 6 I’d caught up with one for the 85 pacers and the main group. I passed them out and not long after saw a lone 85 min pacer in front of me. I reeled him in and stayed beside him. We passed a water station which was on his left and I asked him to grab me a water so I didn’t cut in front of him or a guy we had just passed. He got me the water but said he doesn’t like slowing down or stopping for water as it’s hard to get going again. He said in the 70’s there was no water allowed in 10 mile races so I obviously shouldn’t have asked him to get me a drink He mentioned we must pass 7 mile mark at 1 hour. It was 59:54 and he stopped and I continued on. There was a consistent drag from about 6.5 miles which I was really feeling but not long to go so tried to hold pace and think that there was nearly just a Parkrun to go. The pacer caught up with me a while after at some stage and I commented “you are back again” and he just said that his partner was going way too slow and I let him off. That stage ended with a steep downhill again.

Miles 9 and 10: 8:45; 8:06; 6:56 for (0.11 mile to the end)
I felt a sudden tiredness just as I started into mile 9 and remembered I was carrying a gel and wish I remembered to take it earlier. Decided to take it even though realistically it was too late but maybe it would help with a final push at the end. Mile 9 was probably my hardest mile as it was a constant drag. The road was open and cars going both directions. An eegit wearing earphones was running in the middle of road and caused havoc at one stage with cars behind him and coming towards him. Sonia was on her bike directing traffic as we started into mile 10. I was looking forward to this mile as heard it was a fast one. It was all along the water and closed road again. I hadn’t banked on the Easterly wind coming straight at us. The girl beside me who’d been in front of me for nearly all the race was asking where the hell this had come from. I was going downhill but pushing because of the wind. The second 85 pacer flew past at one stage by himself and his group had disappeared. Eventually the finish line was in front of me and I somehow picked up and managed a sprint, heard my name being called and crossed in 1:25:15.

Afterwards

Turned out one of my friends was 9 seconds behind me and the others came in a few mins later. We got our goody bags and cool mugs and walked up the steepest hill ever back to the race HQ where there was an amazing spread. It was a brilliant race really. Very well organized and a challenging but nice route, though the weather helped there.

Slightly disappointed I didn’t go sub 1:25 and that my 10mile time is slightly out of line with my 5km; 5 mile and 10km times but I’m only on week 7 of the 10km-HM plan so that gives me room for improvement. It’s still a time I thought would be unattainable not that long ago and all in all I’m very happy with all my races lately.

BrownEyes79

Well done again Karen, there’s plenty of time for you to smash 1:25.....2 pbs in 7 days in the middle of training, you’re doing amazing

Kellygirl

Week 7 - part 2 - Grads HM Plan

I had given myself an extra week in the plan as going on hols next week but decided I’d rather finish out week 7 and do the session I’d skipped this week instead.

Monday and Tuesday had to be rest days after the Cobh 10 mile. My quads were in bits after the down hills. I was feeling very guilty not running and spent all of Tuesday in my running gear planning on going for a recovery run but decided it wouldn’t be of benefit and I had a sports massage booked for Wednesday morn anyway. That went well and not that much more torture than normal. I was in quite good shape considering I’d been racing the previous 2 Sunday’s and he told me I could head off for a run after.

Wednesday: 6 miles @ 10:10
I popped over to Rochestown and headed off on the Marina / Blackrock loop route that I love. Been ages since I’ve been there and I’d such a lovely run. The weather was lovely and the tide was out and there was a breeze with a salty sea air kind of smell. It was sooo nice. One of those fab runs. Not sure how to explain the pace. I just wasn’t watching the watch and didn’t feel fast.

Thursday: rest day due to my nephew’s confirmation

Friday: 4x8 mins @ HM pace with 90 second recoveries
I wasn’t quite sure what HM pace to use. Going by the training paces I’ve been following since Christmas my predicted race pace would be 8:39 but I think the 1:53 HM will still be a challenge so I planned my HM pace to be 8:45 which will give me a 1:55 HM. As usual did them slightly too fast and did 8:38; 34; 36 and 36. It was a really nice session and 6.5 miles in total with warm up and cool down. Passed the 400 mile mark for the year too during this run.

Saturday: 2 hours @ 10:37 min mile - 11.31 miles
The plan was 1:45 easy but I’ve Limerick in 4 weeks and am in Lanzarote next weekend so decided to mix the runs around a bit as haven’t done more than 1:45 in ages and races the last two weekends. 2 friends joined me so was slightly faster than easy but it felt fine and I enjoyed the run with company. My legs were tired alright by the end of it.

24 miles for the week.

I’m not expecting to get much running in over in Lanzarote especially if the kids are waking too early so going to do what I can of week 8 this week and fit in what I can over there. Luckily I’ve managed to time it that the long run is only 70 mins so not too hard to achieve hopefully.

Baby75

enjoy the holiday and the sun

Kellygirl

Week 8: HM Grads plan

School Easter holidays so no easy run on the Monday. Got a babysitter on Tuesday and set off for 8x3 mins CV. Did a 1 mile warm up and got a funny pain behind my left knee. Kept going for a very short bit hoping it was just a niggle but as soon as I picked up the pace I felt a sharp pull in my hamstring. I stopped immediately and limped back to the car. I’d no time for physio as was minding kids Wednesday and off to Lanzarote Thursday so had to hope rest would do the trick and forget about week 8 of the plan.

Week 9: HM Grads plan
In Lanzarote and once the leg felt ok I gave it an extra day and then decided on the Sunday to try an easy run. Got up early before the kids woke up and headed off. I was nervous so I just kept running a mile either direction from the hotel and back.no problems but called it a day after 4.2 miles as I thought I felt a twinge behind my knee - I think I imagined it though.

Tuesday: 12x75 seconds CV (8:00-8:11) with 1 min recovery

8:09; 8:00; 8:01; 7:58; 8:07; 8:06; 8:07; 7:58; 7:58; 8:08; 7:57; 7:55;
5.51 miles in total

This was great. Enjoyable warmup and the reps didn’t feel very fast. There’s not a lot of flat parts in Puerto Calero so I picked a part that wasn’t too bad and ran back and forward. There was a random guy dressed in running gear sitting on a wall with a can of beer (oddly enough at 7:15am) who I kept passing in recovery and then shooting past him again for each rep. I wonder what he thought? Nice cool down around the pier admiring the yachts and catamarans and dreaming of another life. Delighted to be back on track.

Wednesday: Very Easy hour -Actual 1 hour trail run / hike

My sister in law said she’d join me. She’s an ultra runner and training for a big race in June. We followed a stunning trail over the cliffs to a little fishing village called Playa Quemada. I used to go Lanzarote diving a few times yearly before kids and used walk to that village to eat. I always remember asking if the fish had been caught that morning and the guy apologizing and saying no, it was during the night. That was fresh enough for me! Anyway, we ran through the village and up a trail the other side and stopped to take some pics. My sister in law continued on to do another hill and I turned back. I followed a dune buggy track back as even though it was lumpy it wasn’t so technical and I could run the whole way. I really enjoyed it. I was so tempted to do the same run again Thursday morning but my quads were sore and didn’t want to tempt fate.

Friday: 4x10mins HM (8:45) with 2 mins off

Paces for each rep:
1: 8:34; 8:22
2: 8:38; 8:05
3: 8:28; 8:30
4: 8:38; 8:20

Got home at midnight the night before and didn’t get to sleep until sometime after 3am due to a 3 year old who wanted to play. Back up at 7:30 to mind my niece so I was shattered. I was also a bit stressed for various reasons and needed a good blow out. This was the perfect run for that and maybe why all my reps were a bit fast. I needed it though.

Saturday: Planned 2 hour long run; Actual 8.41 miles and walked the last few

I felt exhausted this morning but thought I’d be fine once running. That was not to be. I’d no energy from the start. I kept thinking I’d warm up and it would get easier but it didn’t. It started hailstoning at 4 miles or so and I stopped and sheltered behind a wall. Went on a bit then and got to a hill and just started walking. I ran to Ballincollig village then and stopped for chocolate and a drink and hoped that would help. It didn’t. I basically walked the rest of the way to the car then. Maybe it was going too fast yesterday or the fact my quads were still a bit sore from the other day. I think it was a combination of being exhausted and stressed and the late nights etc.

26.7 miles for the week not including the 4.51 miles last Sunday.

Next Sunday I have Limerick Half marathon. It’s not a target race but I am hoping for a pb. My current pb is 1:58:44 so that should be doable. I’d like to do it in 1:56:xx. I do feel this training block has been very disjointed. I’m just finished week 9 and I’ve only had two weeks where I’ve done every run on the plan as well as three weeks where I just did 1 session because of 10km and 10mile races - pbs in both though. I’d a couple of weeks with a calf injury at the start and then week 8 with the hamstring injury. Week 9 wasn’t too bad if I don’t count today. It’s not going as well as the 5-10km block but I have to remember my goals are to chip away at my pbs and hopefully I’ll still do that.

tbukela

Enjoy Limerick tomorrow, you'll do great. The support for the last mile is brilliant, especially the finish.

Huzzah!

Best of luck tomorrow. Run well!

Dealerz2.0

Have a great race tomorrow

Kellygirl

Thanks guys. Weather looking perfect anyway. Just going to take it nice and handy I reckon.

Swashbuckler

Best of luck K

Kellygirl

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Best of luck K

Thanks P. Will be looking forward to hearing how your team get on.

Kellygirl

Week 10 HM Grads Plan

Monday: Easy Hour 5.51 miles @ 10:56

Tuesday: 10,7,3 mins at Threshold to CV with 2 min jog recoveries
I did the 10 and 7 minutes at Threshold (8:22-8:34) and 3rd at CV (8:00-8:11).
4.72 miles in total with warm up and cool down.
10 min rep: 8:25; 8:24
7 min rep: 8:26
3 min rep: 7:55

Stunning morning on the Greenway but flying insects everywhere and I swallowed them and had them all stuck to me when I got back to the car. Gross!

Wednesday: easy hour 6.62 miles @ 10:40

Thursday: Physio
First session I could get since I’d hurt the hamstring. I was right about various niggles and my left leg was all messed up from my hip to my toes but she sorted them all out in a torture session. Still feel it!

Friday: Easy 45 mins: 4.5 miles @ 10:08 including 5x20s strides

Sunday: Great Limerick Run - report to follow

Total miles for the week: 34.6