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If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.
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Charleville HM report
Going to get this out of the way and put it behind me and try not to dwell too much on it. It had to happen sometime but my streak of PBs has come to an end. Now at 9 races but 8 PBs this year.
Woke up and had a good breakfast, shower and got on the road feeling great and feeling strong. Got to Charleville, parked and met a few people. Weather seemed good with even a bit of drizzle on the way down. It was 15 degrees at 8am so I thought drizzle would be nice during the race. Dumped my bag in bag drop and headed for a warm up. Remembered my pacebands were in the car so went back to the multistory for them and came out to continue my warm up - watch told me I had done a mile in 7:24. Must have been the multistory made the gps go wonky but slight panic. In my wisdom I had made 3 pacebands. I was wearing sub 1:50 and had put 1:51 and 1:52 in my pocket just in case :rolleyes:
Anyway, lined up behind the 1:50 pacers mainly as I was chatting to one of them who I know. They were going to be doing 8:21 and I felt that was really doable but planned to hang back at the start anyway. Race started before I knew it and we were off. The start was a nice decline but narrow so I couldn’t pull back as much as I wanted and the pace was fast. I held back as much as I could seeing 7:50 on the watch at one stage but felt slow. I let the pacers pull away straight away. Pace felt fine but I noticed I was starting to sweat very quickly and I worried I was working too hard even though I didn’t feel like it. Checked my heart rate and it was 17x and thought that was a bit high for a few mins in. Hopefully just nerves. Passed the 1 mile marked at 8:06 and the field was spreading out so pulled back aiming for 8:25. My next 3 miles were 8:23; 8:24; 8:28 and heart rate was now up in the 180s. I was dripping in sweat and sipping away at my tailwind and took water to pour over me at 3 miles. Didn’t help. I was bang on for 1:49:30.
I pulled the pace back and hoped if I ran a bit slower then I would cool down. Mile 5 came in at 9:09 and I wasn’t feeling any better so pulled in back further and miles 6 was 9:39. These felt like a drag and I thought the course was supposed to be flat but I realise now that they were a small drag - enough to be felt when I wasn’t on top form anyway. I had put a caffeine gel in my pocket just in case I didn’t like the tailwind or carrying the bottles so I decided to take it while running through Kilmallock. Whether it was just mental or not I got a boost and miles 7 and 8 were 8:55 and 8:39. I was feeling ok and the paceband was saying I was 3 mins behind at those miles. The 1:55 pacers passed a bit after and I stuck with them for a bit but started struggling again and dropped back. I tore off the paceband and just gave up on any hope of a pb and just plodded along. Miles 10-12 were 9:54; 9:56; 9:43. The ambulance passed a couple of times during this part with the sirens on and could hear sirens up ahead too.
As I started into mile 13 the 2 hour pacers passed. Well I could definitely stick with this crowd and go sub 2 hr at least. Then one of the pacers said “we’re on for 1:59:30 ... for anybody that started long side us that is” ... and I stopped and walked and threw my toys out of the pram for a minute or so. A girl passed me and I started running behind her and kept going until the end. She collapsed at the finish line. It was really strange as one second she was fine and I looked away looking for my friend and then looked back and people were running to her and holding her up. I went over the finish line in 2:00:45 or something - not really bothered what it was and haven’t checked the official results.
Initially I was upset but as I spoke to others who had pulled out or been much slower than they wanted I realised I wasn’t alone. Walking to get my bag I had to go round a few people being dealt with by medics.
So if I was to analyse - yes my first mile was too fast. I’d planned on it being 8:25-35 not 8:06. Maybe 1:50 was too big a drop in PB for me - funnily enough I still don’t think it is and if it had been a cold day I think I would have got closer to it. I’ll just blame the weather
DCM next .... hmmmm I won’t let today derail me too much as I know I’m well capable of more than today but I do need to think hard over the next few weeks how I want to run it - I do not want it to be a slog fest though and would get more enjoyment out of breezing over the finish line a few minutes slower than crawling over it in bits. Still leaves me with the question what to aim for but sure we’ll see how training goes for the next while.
Oh and my eldest got a 3 min PB in junior parkrun and is delighted with himself so I gave him my Charleville medal. I’ll wear the top alright though.0 -
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Bluesquare wrote: »Is it not always raining in cork though ? Well apart from the June bank holiday weekend ! The tropical south.
Interested to know what that HM course is like - been talking about it for a few years but haven’t got around to it yet !
I’m planning to front load just in case . I’ll do the longer MP session on Tuesday , And see how it goes .
Seems to be always raining right now :rolleyes:
The HM course in Galway? It’s 2 and a bit laps of the 10k course so 3 laps with a bit extra for the double up. I did the 10k in 2016. It’s flat and runs out along the water and back again in a kind of loop. Was very nice in clear blue skies in 2016. On a windy rainy day it could be a different kettle of fish 0 -
Nice week K. You're flying through the trainingBluesquare wrote: »Great week ! One big one left ! Hope that hurricane doesn’t mess with the mileage !
What's this about a hurricane :eek:?0 -
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It’s all coming together...
Monday 30th Sep: 10min Easy; 60 min 9-9:10 pace
8.07 miles: pace miles were 8:56, 9:02, 8:53, 8:53, 8:55, 8:58, 9:07
I loved this run - it was perfect. Pouring rain and windy but that seems to help me and stuck to the pitches so not going through too much mud. I realise the paces were a little fast but they didn’t feel it. It just felt right.
This run brought me to 180.8 miles for September- highest mileage I’ve ever done in a month.
Wednesday: 2M Easy; 8x1min moderate hills at CV
CV pace 7:45-55: 7:20; 7:17; 7:35; 7:22; 7:28; 7:25; 7:52; 7:47
Running in the sun - wow! It was actually really cold but I warmed up once I started the hill repeats. I’m not good at pacing myself on the hills so I went out way too hot - 6 times :rolleyes: I was wrecked at the top each time but I finally got the last 2 right.
Thursday: 45 mins recovery: 4.59miles @ 9:50 min mile
Storm Lorenzo was making it’s presence felt so normal service resumed. I’d arranged to meet a friend and I nearly bailed but we decided we’d just go for it. We felt like kids running through puddles in pouring rain and howling wind - it was great fun I ignored pace and just had fun.
Saturday: Run Galway Bay 10k + HM Double up
2M Easy; 4M 9-9:10; 3M Easy; 5M 8:50-9:00; 1M Easy; 4M 8:50-9:00
Had a plan A (above), B and C for this as similar sessions a few weeks ago hadn’t worked out. My easy pace is officially 9:45-10:15 though I often run slower for easy days but I decided that I was very much sticking to prescribed paces for this one. Also 10:15 is the pace for the first mile in DCM on my 4:10 paceband so I decided I’d do the 1st mile of Galway at that pace too and see how I felt.
Browneyes and I carbloaded very well on Friday and got up and had a good breakfast before strolling down to the start line. It was, yet again pouring rain but all my best runs seem to be in rain now so that was ok. We queued for bag drop and proceeded to be late for the 10k start but not like we were racing it anyway. Joined in the back of the race and we started nice and slowly behind all the walkers. We ambled along and I felt fresh as a daisy as we passed out the hoards. After 2 miles I left Browneyes to start into my 9-9:10 stuff and the pace was just right again like last Monday. It felt so good passing out all these people and felt like I was putting in no effort at all. The wind was quite strong when we turned back along the prom and it was comical going out the causeway. I had to hold my hat to stop it blowing off. Gave Browneyes a High 5 as we passed each other on the causeway and then I was back at the start ready to start into my second lap. My paces were 9:04; 9:04; 8:48; 8:48. The 10k people finished here and I went on and started chatting to another guy doing the Double Up. I was back doing easy at this stage for 3 miles. We started chatting to a couple doing the same race and the 4 of us had some good chats and laughs for a while.
I was back heading into the wind when I had to pick up the pace to 8:50-9:00. This was all fine. Paces were 9:00; 8:48; 8:48; 8:39; 8:44. The Half Marathon started as I was heading back and I could see them flying along. I headed into the back of them and started passing people out again. There was a short loop to be done here so next thing they were all coming back against me. Browneyes flew past me here on the tempo part of her run and I caught up with her then as she went back to easy and I finished out my 5 miles. I had 1M easy to do and found it hard to slow right down. C reminded me a few times that we were doing 9:30 so I pulled back to try get as much as a breather as possible. C ran on ahead to catch up with Baby75 as we’d just passed her husband who shouted that she was only a few seconds ahead. I had been taking Maurten gels every 30 mins and my 4th one was one of the new caffeine gels. I took that round the start of the easy mile I think.
As I picked up into the last 4 8:50-9min miles I caught up with C and N and had a little chat but kept going. I was buzzing. A few mins later my stomach cramped and I thought I was in trouble and reacting to the caffeine gel. I panicked a bit and started checking for hotels to run to the loo if need be. I knew the portaloos were another while off. The feeling passed though and I got back to focusing on my running. I was definitely feeling the pace a little more but I remember seeing 3 miles to go and thinking no way am I going to slow down now. The wind seemed to have changed direction so I had it against me for the first couple of miles this time and I slowed a bit on the one hilly part but I had no problem picking it up again. I was due to take another caffeine gel with 20 mins to go. Seemed pointless in terms of energy and I didn’t need it but I took it anyway to see how my stomach would react ... no bother luckily. My miles were 8:55, 9:02, 8:55 and 8:41. I could have kept going at the end but deliberately slowed to cool down pace for the last .38 mile. I was over the moon going through the finish line though. It felt like DCM 17 when I had a ball the whole way round. I just loved it, even when the rain was so heavy it was stinging. That just made me feel strong
It took my coach and Ariana to point out that my average pace for the whole run was 9:11 - 4 hour marathon pace practically. That definitely throws up a few questions about DCM now. I had thought 4:10 was doable. My coach was saying last week that I’d be well able for 4:05 and now I’ve run close to 4 hour pace for the guts of 20miles.
Thing is Galway is a flat course and yes it was a bit windy but often that was side on rather than head on. Sure I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t start playing with pacebands and dithering left, right and centre at this point
38.3 miles for the week and so begins Taper Time. Woohoo!0 -
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