Speed or distance?
Comments
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Well done on a great race, on my list to do next year, sounded like a great atmosphere!
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Thanks E. I think you'd enjoy it and Sonia was there at the finish line for a good while after chatting to runners and getting in photos.
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Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 8 of 16
Apr 4th - Apr 10th
Mon 4th
5mi Easy - The usual Monday loop on grass at a pedestrian 9.59/mile with avg HR of 132. Felt fine after the previous day's race with no niggles to report. All good and uneventful.
Tue 5th
5mi Easy - Was travelling so wasn't sure I'd get a run in but brought my gear just in case I got a window. Moved the planned intervals to Wednesday and brought forward one of the easy days. Thought I'd try Strava's suggested routes feature for the first time to find out it doesn't really work very well unless you already know where you're going. Wandered up and down local housing estates instead and found a sports field with lots of pitches so did a couple of laps of that. 9.13/mile with avg of 134 bpm.
Wed 6th
Had planned to do the intervals session today but woke up with an ache in my right ankle joint. The concrete footpaths I used on the previous day with their rises and drops for car entry were probably the reason. Decided to bin the session and give it a chance to rest.
Thu 7th
Another unplanned rest day.
Fri 8th
6mi Easy. Half on track and half on road at 9.06/mile and avg HR of 138. The soft track always makes it easier to go a bit faster for same effort. Ankle ache has not returned.
Sat 9th
6mi. Did 3mi easy before parkrun and parkrun was meant to be easy too but pushed on after the first km for no particular reason. Not an all out effort but into uncomfortably hard territory. HR for those miles seems a touch high for pace achieved. Overall 8.17/mile at avg 150bpm.
Sun 10th
Unplanned rest day. Miserable day with wind and rain. I'm not really a run-in-the-rain runner if I can avoid it so today's 10 miler got canned.
So this week didn't really go to plan with two sessions missed and 22 of the planned 42 miles run. Not ideal but we'll move on. Hopefully some good recovery happened and still not injured.
22 miles for the week.
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Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 9 of 16
Apr 11th - Apr 17th
Mon 11th
7mi Easy - Another somewhat miserable wet day but I didn't want to miss another run so stuck on the jacket, gloves, cap, buff........and the rain stopped about 20 meters into the run. Couldn't really face 7 miles worth of loops on the grass track so took to the road instead. Avg pace of 9.47/mile with avg HR of 146bpm. Even with 200m of elevation that seems high. Run felt a bit sluggish as well.
Tue 12th
Intervals - 12x400 @5k pace with 50-100% recovery. Intervals came in at 1.42, 1.43, 1.43, 1.43, 1.41, 1.42, 1.42, 1.43, 1.43, 1.45, 1.43 and 1.42. I was very happy with how these worked out. This is the last speed interval session on the plan for me and was the best executed. Maybe I'm finally getting a handle on how to do them. Approx a 1 mile warm up and 3 mile cool down to bring the session to almost 9.5 miles.
Wed 13th
Race - Cork BHAA PwC Anthony Reidy Memorial 5k
Report to follow
Thu 14th
After two sessions it seemed prudent to push today's planned tempo forward and swap it for an easy run instead. The day got away from me and it was after dark before I got out and drizzling. 5 miles at 9.43/mile with avg HR of 132. An enjoyable enough canter which the rain didn't spoil as it was mild enough.
Fri 15th
Yet another day which got away from me and by the time I got out it was too late to do the tempo so another of the easy runs got swapped in instead. 6 miles @ 9.10/mile with avg HR at 132 on fairly flat road. All good and comfortable.
Sat 16th
So I eventually got around to the much delayed tempo. I also realised I'd been making a mistake determining what my tempo pace should be. If anyone has the book I'd been using race results and the table 6.1 "Race Equivalency Chart" to determine what goal half marathon time I should be targeting. Then I was using table 3.5 "Pace Chart for Various Training Intensities" and taking the tempo pace listed. Those paces are not HM pace though and are too slow to hit the goal times. I should have been using the Tempo Pace Chart on page 93. Those tempo runs did seem a little on the easy side at the time. At least now I know why. Anyways onwards.
My Mallow 10 mile result suggested a 1.37 half marathon goal seemed justified at the moment. The tempo pace chart had a 7.29 pace for 1.38 HM and 7.19 pace for 1.36 HM so I went with 7.25 pace for the tempo miles. I was trying to time my run so that the tempo section would coincide with parkrun start or preferably just very shortly after the start. In the end I started a couple of minutes later. The splits came in as 7.14, 7.33, 7.18, 7.21 and 8.10. The last split was slow because I'd paused my watch at the end of the parkrun thinking I'd done the 5 miles when I was actually about .10 of a mile short. The last split would have probably ended up the fastest if I'd recorded it correctly as it included a sprint finish. It's probably not a good idea to mix tempo runs and parkrun as it's too easy to get caught up and forget the purpose of the session. However the pace was relatively comfortable even though the HR was into the mid 160's for the tempo miles.
Sun 17th
10mi long run. Spent most of a showery morning to afternoon marshalling with the cycling club for the 3rd stage of the Ras Mumhan which our club was hosting. It was evening before I got out for this run and the day had cleared up nicely with some evening sunshine although it had gotten cooler. A nice tip around the National Park at 9.27/mile with avg HR of 135. My planned loop turned out to be 11 mile in total rather than the planned 10 but no harm done.
Just over 51 miles for the week
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Race - Cork BHAA PwC Anthony Reidy Memorial 5k
I'd noticed that Cork BHAA had 3 5ks lined up for the middle of April, May and June on the Centre Park Road/Monahan Road circuit. This is a pancake flat 5k route with no sharp turns so ideal for getting a good 5k time and I would be able to compare progression from month to month (assuming that there is progression). I've since learned that there may possibly be some variation in the route between each 5k but, hopefully, it shouldn't add much elevation in any case.
I arrived in Cork and parked up over an hour before the start and popped into 1 Albert Quay to register and collect a number. Since it was a lovely evening I opted to change into my lucky club vest instead of the t-shirt and made my way down to the start area. The Marina Market is a new addition to the area since I was last here and seems to be a warehouse converted into a food mall with lots of stalls and, very handily for me, toilets!
The actual start has been moved to Kennedy Park which allowed for the large crowd of well over 500 to congregate. The course was marked in miles rather than kms as the organisers said we'd get confused with two many markers on a two lap course which seemed to be a somewhat weak argument. Anyhow it suited me as again I forgot to switch the watch to kms. With such a large crowd the start felt slow (although strava disagrees) and congested. It took a little while to dodge around people and find a bit of open ground. After that it was just a matter of trying to maintain the pace. A look at the watch showed an average pace of 6.44/mile. I figured I'd try and hold that and settled in. The road surface was rough in a few places which was surprising.
The first mile came in and still on 6.44 average so happy with that. At my limit for sure but no warning bells going off. I started inching up and getting a few places further ahead. Into the second mile and I was now catching a few that were starting to tire. Along here I got boxed in as the runner in front was slowing down and the runners to my right were keeping pace with him. I had to slow down and let the cul-de-sac move ahead before exiting and passing all three of them. A bit annoying. Into the last mile and average pace had dropped very slightly to 6.45. I was having a few ding-dongs here with some other runners as we exchanged places. As I slowly overtook one lad another guy came up strongly to overtake me and move back inside whereupon he promptly stopped dead with less than a half mile to go after over-cooking it that little bit too much.
Checked the watch before the turn for home and saw that the average pace was back up to 6.44/mi. Average pace was the only thing I looked at on the watch during the race. I could now see the clock at the finish line showing 20:35 or something. I didn't feel like I had any finishing kick (again, strava disagrees). The line was still a ways away and all I wanted was sub 21. I glued my eyes to the clock and the line was getting closer but the clock was ticking on. Finally over just before it ticked on to 21. The watch said 20.56 while the official result gave me another couple of seconds off to make it 20.54 which would be my second fastest 5k time with the other being a parkrun from December 2019 when I was about 20 lbs lighter. Splits came in at 6.43, 6.45, 6.45 and 6.10 for the final 0.11 of a mile.
Very pleased with that result and made my way back to 1 Albert Quay for post-race tea/coffee and snacks. Nice to see this coming back to races. A few chats and I made off for home, happy out. Great to be back snapping at the heels of 5K PB times.
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Excellent run there D, looked good on strava so nice to see the detail. You're clearly in good form to be getting down to those sort of 5K times. Racing regularly seems to be working well for you.
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Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 10 of 16
Apr 18th - Apr 24th
This week marks the switch from speed workouts to strength workouts on the plan. Since I still need to compress an 18 week plan into 16 weeks I select to skip week 11 on the plan and jump to week 12. This week has the first of the three 14 mile runs on the plan. I'd kinda like to do all three so this is a good candidate week to drop. Another modification this week is that I'm bringing the long run forward to Thursday as I'm racing on the Sunday. This means that the 6 mile tempo run is dropped.
Mon 18th
5 mile easy @ 9.12/mile and avg HR of 134. Dodging sporadic April showers for this one but still managed to get caught about 30 minutes in. At least the wind was to my back by then so not so bad.
Tue 19th
The first of the strength runs (given that I'd skipped the previous week of the plan). 4x 1.5 mile @PHMP +10 with 800 jog recovery. Worked out from the 1.5mi repeats pace chart that I should be targeting 10.50 per repeat. I planned to get most of this done on the track. Got in just over two miles warmup plus some warmup drills as part of club training and set off for the first interval. This came in at 10.44. The second came in the same at 10.44. Into the third rep and I just didn't have enough energy to get back up to pace after the recovery. The closest I could get was about 30s/mi off pace. Tried to recover it but couldn't and then pulled up. Not sure there was a point in continuing the session if I couldn't hit pace. Not quite sure what went wrong. The hour long cycle earlier that morning in zone 2 perhaps was the culprit although I probably also didn't really comprehend how tough the session would be. Not too long ago the pace for that session would have been my 5k pace and now I was going to run 10k at the pace (albeit with recoveries). Hopefully next week's strength session works out better.
Wed 20th
Rest Day.
Thu 21st
14 mile long run. Did this around a local, somewhat hilly route (just over 300m elevation) at 9.40/mi and avg HR of 139. It's been quite a while since I did a 2 hour plus run. All went fine plodding around listening to tunes. Reasonably enjoyable run.
Fri 22nd
5mi Easy @ 10.04/mile with avg HR of 130. In contrast to the previous day at the start of this run I felt like an old tool that had been left abandoned outdoors over the winter and was being used again for the first time in Spring while coated with rust. It took a while to get the legs moving in something that resembled a run. The sun was out but the morning was still chilly and at no point was I comfortable. Glad to get back to the car and have it done.
Sat 23rd
6 mi Easy. Incorporated the parkrun with this. Thankfully moving a lot more freely than the previous day. Averaged 9.29/mi and avg HR of 139. Finished the last 250m of the parkrun in a sprint finish to pretend I'd been running at that pace all along. Don't think I fooled anyone.
Sun 24th
Kerry County Senior and Master's Championships - 3000m
I wasn't planning to enter this and had been thinking of doing a 5 miler supporting a neighbouring club. Still not sure why I changed my mind but glad I did.
I haven't raced on track before or raced the 3k distance so both would be firsts. I would have used the alphaflys but discovered the day before that they were not allowed on track.
There's not a lot to report on the race itself. The Senior and Masters 3000m were meant to be separate events but they ran them as one on the day. I probably should have done a lot more in terms of warmup pre-race but I wasn't entirely sure if it was going to start early due to amalgamating the two races or not. My ambitions were fairly modest - don't finish last! A quick look around at my fellow competitors on the start line and any wildly optimistic hopes of a medal were quickly dashed. I decided to target a St Brendan's runner who had finished slightly ahead of me at last months County 5k. We were called to order, instructed that the signal would be "Get set, gun fired" and with the crack of the gun we were off on the first of the seven and a half laps of the track. I set off pretty fast which lasted for a third of a mile. Unfortunately there was still approximately 1 and two thirds of a mile remaining. The runners quickly settled into their respective positions before the 100 metres mark. My St Brendans rival was ahead but I was too gassed to even think of trying to close the gap. I didn't catch anyone and wasn't caught by anyone behind. I did get lapped by a few of the faster runners in the last lap or two. I finished in 12.19 - about 8 seconds slower than what the tinman calculator predicted. I think I did ease up slightly in the last couple of laps before rallying for a sprint finish. There was nobody close enough ahead that I could realistically try to catch nor was there anyone close behind putting me under pressure.
After I got my breath back I hung around at the finish chatting with some of the other runners while we waited for the medals to be handed out. I was surprised to be handed a bronze medal for 3rd Over-50.
Overall it was an enjoyable afternoon. Good to see @diego_b from these parts doing so well and heading home with a nice haul of medals from his events. The day was sunny and cool but a little windy so reasonable conditions for running and our club seemed to be by far the best represented at the event. And they also seemed to be doing very well and winning lots of events with the senior men taking home the Quill Cup. A great day for the club.
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Well done on the 3K there D, in previous editions they used to run men/women/masters/seniors/juniors and anyone else seemingly capable of running in the same 3K race. Nice to see the numbers growing at the event and very well done to your club on the well earned cup. Munster T&F is on Monday June 6th in MTU Cork...be a grand warm down after a half marathon...
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Thanks D.
I think perhaps I've been riding my luck a bit and the Munsters might be pushing it a bit far. I'm told that's when the competition gets serious! I may hang around post HM to support though.
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For running it does tbh, I've done the Munster Road Race a few times depending on what part of the province it's in but that would be accessible enough. On the track though running wise it goes up a few notches, I think it's just the 800m I did back in 2019 in Templemore. Was last in the race of course (got my 800m pb that day) but would have been probably 15 seconds behind the next slowest finisher. Part of the reason I do the throwing events is so I can compete at the higher levels of competitions as I enjoy them and the numbers are low in each age group all the way up to national level surprisingly enough!
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Noticing your comment there about HM tempo pace - I had noticed that myself about the Hanson book, there are a couple of errors like that here and there, no doubt as the book is based on the Marathon method - the 'tempo' pace you'd noticed was a bit easy is because it's marathon pace. Good catch anyway - better to find out now than later.
Well done on the county bronze.
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You know I think I saw that comment in the Hanson's thread way back when I read it first a good while back. Of course, naturally, I forgot all about it then after 🙈 🙈
I do have both books and they're very similar alright. The main reason I'm using the Hanson Half Plan is to see if suits me and, if so, I'll give the full marathon plan a whirl later in the year. So far, so good!
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Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 11 of 16*
Apr 25th - May 1st
I've added an asterisk this week as I can't really call it a week of training following the Hanson plan as will become clear. The reason being is that cycling training has begun because I've a week's cycling holiday in a few weeks and I really need to get some training in for that. With only so much glycogen and time available in a week something has to give.
Mon 25th
Plan: 7mi easy
Actual: 5mi at 9.25/mi and avg HR of 135. I wore my Adidas Adizero Adios 5 for the previous day's 3000m. I like these for fast running but they have very little cushioning and sure enough the Achilles on both feet felt tender on the morning of this run. I considered cancelling the session but decided something is better than nothing. Orignally planned to do 3 miles, which stretched to 4 and then to 5. Probably could have done the 7 but not worth risking it. This was the first proper sweaty workout in a while. The weather is changing.
Tue 26th
Plan: 3x2 mi @ PHMP +10 with 800 recovery
I was a bit nervous about this one as I had bombed out on the strength repeats last week and I really didn't want a repeat of that. Current HM goal time is 1:37 and the 2 Mile repeats pace chart has 14:38 for a 1.38HM and 14:18 for a 1.36HM so I went with the time of 14:28 as the target time for these repeats. I switched to road for these rather than the track (probably a better idea to do them on road anyways). After a two mile warmup the first rep came in at 14.26. I'd planned for the second rep to have the most downhill of the route in case I was struggling. Second rep came in at 14.21. The final rep was on slightly rougher road and I'd used up all the downhill. It came in a slightly more sluggish 14.36. Finished off the session with a 3 mile cooldown and pretty happy with how that went.
Wed 27th
Plan: Rest day
Actual: Nearly 10 mile and 5 hours of hillwalking.
Thu 28th
Plan: 6 mi Tempo
Actual: 38 mi cycle.
Watch said I hadn't recovered from the day before so decided to bring forward one of the easy runs and then decided to do a 60k cycle instead of the easy run. (This is getting complicated)
Fri 29th
Plan: 6mi Tempo
Actual: Nada. Busy day and this one slipped away from me. A bit annoyed about that actually.
Sat 30th
Plan: 5/6 mi Easy
Actual: 3 mi moderate at 7.35/mi with avg HR of 148. Since I hadn't run in a couple of days I was trying to figure out what way I was going to run this as I was running it. Settled into a moderate pace of just under 8 minute miles for the first couple of laps and was thinking that this feels harder and more sluggish than it really should. I'd oiled up the joints by the third lap and started picking off those ahead until one of the lads who usually runs easy enough but is capable of a lot faster reacted and we had a race over the last km to the finish. He won but, in my defence, he is half my age.
The afternoon consisted of a 100k cycle with the club which was partly the reason of less running in the morning. This actually went pretty well and I didn't have a repeat of the bonk I had when I ran/cycled on the same day a couple of weeks previously.
Sun 1st
Plan: 10mi Easy
Actual: Nada.
Watch was saying I had something like 30 hour recovery after the cycle. I listened to the watch and perhaps I shouldn't have. It's tricky to judge how to balance recovery when combining running and cycling and getting it wrong leads to an unpleasant day on the bike and less than stellar runs. If anyone knows a good source for advice on this then I'm all ears. A coach who has experience on combining the two disciplines might be a good investment for a while.
As of today there's about 2 and a half weeks until the cycling holiday so the asterisk will remain on the plan until then. The week's cycling will also bugger up the plan. The rough plan at the moment is to try to get at least 2 SOS sessions in and sacrifice one easy day and one SOS day to cycling. I'm not sure what will happen on holiday but that week is going to be fairly shot. Maybe try just doing a couple of SOS sessions and let the cycling take care of the easy days? Dunno. Will have to make it up on the fly.
A mere 20 miles for the week
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Very jealous of the cycling holiday. Canaries? Girona? Alps?
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Not quite that exotic - Majorca. (Alps would definitely kill me 😄)
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I knew I forgot a destination :) That's going to be a lovely week. No pictures on Strava please - jealousy and envy will be through the roof :D Enjoy!
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Understandable and that's fair enough. I'll just post them to the RW group instead 😝
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Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 12 of 16*
May 2nd - May 8th
Mon 2nd
Plan: 5mi Easy
Actual: 5mi Easy @9.15/mi and avg HR of 135. It was a bit late in the evening when I got out for this and was finishing up just after sundown. Pleasant and uneventful and mostly on the flat.
Tue 3rd
Plan: 2x3mi strength repeats @ PHMP +10 with 800 recovery
Going by the 3mi repeats pace chart in the book the target for these was 21.42 (based off a goal HM of 1.37). The book has a time for 1.38 and 1.36 so I just took halfway between those two. I'm getting a little better at judging these and not stressing too much if the pace seems too slow at the start of the repeats as I find I ease into it. The first 3 miles came in at 21.33 with the second a couple of seconds slower than goal pace at 21.46. Happy enough with that and happy to have the toughest of the strength repeats done.
Wed 4th
Plan: Rest
Actual: Rest
Thu 5th
Plan: 7mi Tempo
Actual: 25 mile cycle with the club
Fri 6th
Plan: 5mi Easy
Actual: 6mi Easy @9.59/mi with avg HR of 134 over hilly terrain. I had toyed with the idea of doing the 7mi tempo instead as I haven't done the tempo runs for a few weeks. However that would mean two back-to-back sessions so I stayed with the easy run.
Sat 7th
Plan: 14mi Long (brought forward from the Sunday)
Actual: 14mi @9.04/mi with avg HR of 146. A friend had an entry for the Dingle Half Marathon that she couldn't use and kindly offered it to me. I have my own entry for the September edition (rolled over for a couple of years now) so I decided to do it as my long run. The rough plan was to do it in zone 2 and take lots of photos and just chill. Despite Slea Head being about 15 miles from me as the crow flies this was only my second time being there. The first was last March when our cycling club took a spin out there. When cycling in a bunch you don't get as much chance to take close note of the hills but when running you know all about them. This is definitely a very hilly route with the worst coming at about mile 11. I had faffed about for a bit up to this keeping HR in zone 2 (albeit at the upper limits) and the 2 hour pacers had gone past while I'd stopped taking photos. I upped the pace to catch them but the hills didn't make it easy and while I could see the balloon it wasn't coming any closer. The road eventually levelled off as I caught them and there was a welcome bit of downhill to the finish and I crossed in 1.59.10. It seemed to be a particularly warm day with little by way of breeze or perhaps it just felt that way with the amount of climbing. Still, a good day out. We had Minnie Mouse, a stormtrooper and Gandalf all out on the course supporting us along with a huge cheer from the Colaiste Ide students as we passed them.
One thing of note though - the course doesn't loop back to the start point and buses are laid on to bring the runners back to Dingle. There is also a bag drop but the latest time for putting your bag on the bus was 15 minutes before the start of the race. I saw a few running the half with bags on their back having arrived a little later and having missed the cut off time. That can't have been too pleasant.
Sun 8th
Plan: 6mi Easy
Actual: 5mi Very Easy @ 10.26/mi and avg HR of 125. A very casual plod around the park keeping the HR low. The quads were feeling it a bit from the day before and it wasn't the most enjoyable run but got it done and dusted.
Followed up the afternoon with a 32mi cycle with a bunch of newcomers to the cycling club. A very low intensity cycle and an enjoyable spin to round off the week.
42 miles for the week
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Nice way to do the Dingle Half, it's a race I love doing and was sorry to miss it this year. I have an entry for the September edition as well. That hill at 11 miles is a killer, the mile before it though is probably one of my favourite miles in any race from a scenic point of view as you wind away around the Slea Head....the vista is something else as it all opens up.
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Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 13 of 16*
May 9th - May 15th
Mon 9th
Plan: 7mi Easy
Actual: 7mi Easy @10.30/mi with avg HR of 134. I made the mistake on this run of doing it too soon after a heavy meal. Thus it was quite an unpleasant run. The usual route I tend to take for my 7 mile runs is about 7.5 miles in total but this time I stopped as soon as the 7 mile completed and walked the rest. I was done.
And that was it for the running this week. I woke up with ankle pain the following morning. I've been having off/on ankle niggles on both ankles for the whole training block. They haven't had much impact on my running as usually they're of the order of 1 to 1.5 out of 10 but they jumped a couple of notches this morning. Initially I decided to take 3 days off but then extended it to the week.
I did a few cycles instead - 15 miles, 53 miles and 32 miles.
I have a 5k race next week so that should give me an indication of where I'm at. Targets may need to be revised.
7 miles for the week.
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Sorry to hear that and unfortunate timing, interesting you've been having them in both ankles though...have you been to a physio with it?
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Thanks D. I confess to being somewhat cynical of physios as my experiences so far have not been stellar. I go in with problem A, get diagnosed with problem B, treated for problem B and then problem A gets fixed mainly with the passage of time. I probably just haven't met the right physio yet and, no doubt, I'm not the perfect patient either.
To be more specific, the left foot is more of a tight Achilles problem but hasn't been a showstopper on this block. The right foot is more a joint issue. Both come and go and usually feel pretty minor. I suspect the hills of Dingle exacerbated the right foot last week. It's just a matter of trying to find the balance between resting it and running with it at the moment and I'm happy to err on the side of caution.
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Great job man!!
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Indeed it can be a challenge to get a good one, I'd always recommend a physio who deals with runners (ideally a runner themself) so if you are looking for one I'd recommend Derek Griffin in the Bons in Tralee. Derek has kept me on the road on more than one occasion. Funnilyy enough the last issue I attended him was back end of 2020/early 2021 was an Achilles issue. Of course rehab with anything will take time and unfortunately patience.
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Thanks D, that sounds like a great recommendation. He's definitely qualified enough! With very sparse running for the last couple of weeks (details below) the Achilles and ankle are no longer complaining but I know they'll both come back when volume goes up again so I'll sort out an appointment after the HM. Many thanks!
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Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 14 of 16*
May 16th - May 22nd
Sat 21st
3mi Easy. Got my not parkrun in at 9.45/mi and avg HR of 132 running on sand.
3 miles total for the week!
130 miles cycling for the week.
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Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 15 of 16*
May 23rd - May 29th
Mon 23rd
3mi Easy. Similar run to Saturdays except on path this time instead of sand. 9.14/mi with avg HR of 141. Had planned doing 5mi but heat and humidity encouraged me to cap it at 3.
Sat 28th
6mi Moderate. 8.03/mi with avg HR of 151. I've somewhat prided myself on keeping the easy runs easy and not going into the 8 minute avg band for the vast majority of them. Back home after a somewhat frustrating cycling holiday and felt like an oil tanker starting off this run. It turned into an unplanned progression run and even though pace didn't get down to where I'd like it to be and HR was higher than I'd like it was still a confidence booster somehow that maybe there's still some running fitness there after so much runs being missed.
Quads still suffering from heavy DOMS however.
Sun 29th
10mi Long Run. 8.57/mi with avg HR of 148. Slightly too fast and slightly too high of a HR. DOMS in the quads still apparent. However this wasn't too bad of a run. Nice to be back running again and getting a bit of enjoyment from it.
20 miles total for the week!
122 miles cycling for the week.
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Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 16 of 16
May 30th - June 4th
Mon 30th
The plan stipulated 5 miles easy but I took this off to give the quads a chance to recover from the DOMs.
Tue 31st
5mi Easy @ 9.29/mi and avg HR of 142. HR still a little higher than I would like for the effort level.
Followed this up in the evening with a 60mi bike ride which is more than probably inadvisable on race week but it did have the effect of loosening out the quads.
Wed 1st June
Rest day
Thu 2nd June
6mi Easy @ 9.39/mi over hilly terrain. This felt good and HR was dropping a bit to average out at 138bpm. Quads feeling good.
Fri 3rd June
6mi Easy @ 9.20/mi again over hilly terrain with an avg HR of 139. All good.
Sat 5th June
3mi Very Easy @ 10.00/mi with avg HR of 126bpm. The last run in this block for me. Running mojo has been coming back to me over the last week most likely as a result of the decrease in running mileage over the last few weeks.
I've had a look back at my stats over the last 16 weeks in terms of mileage and comparing them with the same period in 2019 when I last ran the Cork HM:
So, about 80% more running and 20% less cycling this time around. The last result in Cork in 2019 was 1.42:10. Current HM PB is 1.38:13 from Charleville in 2019. It's difficult to know how much the derailment of the last few weeks of the plan will affect things. I was on course for 1:37:00 all going well. I'm not sure that's a runner now but I think sub 1.40:00 should be attainable and will start with the 1.40:00 pacers on the day and take things from there.
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Sounds like a sensible plan to me D, best of luck with it and looking forward to seeing how you go.
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Race Report - Cork City Half Marathon
Result: 1.38:17 - Chip Time
I had an early start in the morning leaving the house shortly after 7. After parking near Barrack St I caught part of the marathon as it snaked down the South Mall as I strolled over to City Hall. With the forecast changing multiple times during the week the weather decided to be wet on the day. I figured I'd rather be too cold than too hot so decided to just stick with the vest rather than t-shirt and left the arm-warmers and buff in my bag. Really glad I didn't wear them. I hung around with the Sanctuary Runners for a while as I'd been told there would be a group photo for the HM SR runners at 9 but that didn't transpire. I went to drop my bag, met J and had a chat. Met M then shortly after who was doing the relay and heard about his holiday woes which started when his holiday was cancelled when he and his wife were queueing at the departure gate.
Eventually I ventured out of City Hall to find that the drizzle had abated and made my way down to the start line about 15 minutes before the start. I lined up behind the 1.40 marker, didn't do much by way of warmup other than a few jumps and stretches and without too much fuss we were away. The pacers seemed to take off relatively fast for 1.40 pace with us going at about 7.13/mi. I went around them in the first half mile as it was getting a bit crowded and there was clearer road ahead. I didn't see them for the rest of the race. I tried to settle into a comfortable effort but that wasn't really possible so I settled for comfortably uncomfortable and that's how it stayed until the end. I picked out a Milstreet AC runner who I knew about 200m up ahead as a target to reel in. He'd generally pass me in the local parkruns when he was doing them a few months back and I'd gotten satisfaction passing him in the Mallow 10. However, after two miles I was getting no closer. Bummer, he must have spent the last month training properly, unlike me. I felt parched from the off so picked up a water bottle at the 2m mark and took a slug. The marathon website was full of green suggestions this year - one of which was to pour any unused water over yourself. This makes it easier to clear up the bottles apparently. I did this but missed my head and just poured it all down my front. Now my race number was soaked and my vest was glued to me. Not a great idea, oops. First three miles came in at 7.14, 7.14 and 7.23.
Into the 4th mile and we were heading out down the South link heading for the turn-off for Turners Cross. Another runner asks me how many kms we have done. I do some miles to kms guesswork and suggest we have 5 and a half kms done. I assure him we have the back of the race broken and it's all downhill from here. He agrees. I, of course, lied as the steepest part of the course is just ahead going up the turnoff towards Turners Cross. I've no idea why people decide to power up this. Whatever they gain is going to be lost by going too deep. It's steep but short. As we push on down towards the turn for Musgrave Park I finally catch up with my Milstreet AC nemesis and push past him. I pick a new target - a couple of Watergrasshill runners another 200m up ahead. They look nimble enough and are easily visible with their orange tops. I'm feeling the drags a bit now and looking for a bit of downhill which thankfully arrives as we turn into Tramore Road. It doesn't last for long though as we turn again up Conolly Road, which for me was the toughest drag of the day. I record my slowest mile here - 7.40 for mile 6. It eventually levels off and we get a bit of downhill back and mile 7 turns out to be my quickest of the day at 7.12/mi. This surprised me as I wasn't feeling too great at that point and the quads were pinging a little. The two Watergrasshill runners had simply disappeared by this point. I suspect they got a taxi. They did look like smart, experienced runners! I was joined by a runner in a pink top who seemed to be going at a similar pace to me. I'd expected to find the hills at Farranlea to be a bit tougher than they turned out to be. They weren't that bad although I did slow up a bit for them. J passed me here going like a freight train. He explained at the finish that he'd stayed with the 1.40 pacers for 10k and was looking for them to thank them. I don't know why - they had only held him up! Pink top was a bit lighter than me on the drags so she took off as we joined Model Farm Road and was gone up the road.
Onto Inchigaggin lane and I recognise a few familiar faces from Ballincollig AC manning the water station. There is a slight downhill gradient here or at least it appears so. I get a "Welcome to Cork" shoutout from M from Ballincollig parkrun as I turn onto the Carrigrohane straight. As usual I focus on the traffic lights in the distance and try to drag them closer. And, as usual, when I get closer I realise that there's another set of traffic lights even further on. It's just sooooo long. I get a very enthusiastic shoutout from C as I pass here and I can't help but laugh. It's a good distraction. Just before the end of the strait I catch up with and pass Pink Top. Next we're onto the Mardyke and not too far from home now. Mile times are varying but the average is staying at around 7.25/mi. I'm thinking that maybe the 1.37 target might be possible. I try to do the maths but fail miserably but the possibility urges me to keep pushing. I grab a bottle from the water station in Fitzgerald Park and pour it on my quads and then down my back. It appears to help. We cross the bridge and past the 12 mile marker. Just a mile and a bit to go. On the banks of the Lee walkway I get passed by two young lads that started the half alongside me. They're finishing strong and I try to go with them. I just about hang on but I feel I'm losing strength and slowing. However mile 13 turns out to be my second fastest mile at 7.13. And finally we're over the line.
It's not until the following day that the chip times are released. 1.38.17 is within 4 seconds of my PB so I'm more than happy with that. Checking my strava today I see it's been over a month since I last ran at planned half marathon pace and with the last three weeks of the plan being a bit of a write-off I cannot complain about that result. Probably more than I deserved really.
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