Friday 29 May 2015

Clonliffe 2 miler & Terenure 5 miler

Monday, May 11th: 12.3km Easy Run (5:35/km)
I was out in Malahide Castle this evening getting a recci done for a 5km fundraising run next Sunday. After doing the essentials I ran home from the Cricket Pitch entrance. Turned intoa pretty miserable run with stinging, freezing rain for about 3km of it. Was very happy to be home in the end.

Tuesday, May 12th: Rest Day
Feeling a little tired so took this evening as a rest day. Had my second Pilates class through work today. Definitely going to do more of this in future!

Wednesday, May 13th: 5.1km Easy (4:59/km)
Ran at lunchtime today, in between meetings. Legged it a little bit with the lack of time.

Thursday, May 14th: 6.6km CH: Clonliffe 2 Miler (12:55)
The World's oldest Club race, apparently, this evening. Started off with a lap and a bit of the track before out onto the Swords Road. I managed the pace well here and began to overtake a couple of people who just started too quickly. Continued Northwards and then took the left into the Northwood Estate before taking another left into the demesne. Things were getting tougher now as we climbed the brief hill. Feeling strong still I pushed things on around the remainder of the lap of the park and as we turned for the finish onto the track I tried giving everything. The change of surface to the track meant the legs took some adjusting and a lack of strength meant I was getting quite the kick off the surface as I would have with the solid road. Continued on around and finished in 12:55 which I was happy enough with. All getting very close to PB country at last!

Friday, May 15th: Rest Day
Took today off again as I was a bit tired from last night and with another race coming on Sunday, I needed to refresh a little.

Saturday, May 16th: 7.0km Easy (5:41/km)
Can't remember much about this one apart from the fact it was an easy run taking in a couple of laps of the park.

Sunday, May 17th: 13.1km Terenure 5 Miler (34:25)
This was probably my target race for May yet I was unsure what to really target until the morning of the race. I assessed that on a fair course in Belcarra in April I managed 35:24 over 8k and, given that this would be an extra 50m, I would be doing well to come home sub 34:30. With that I promised myself I’d keep the pace in the range of 4:15 – 4:20/km.

KM 1: 4:09
The first km was relatively free of the usual congestion and before we knew it we were on the road into Terenure village. I recognised I was going a bit fast and halfway through the km I eased off a little. This still clocked 4:04 by the end of the split so given my pre-race planned pace I would surely have been heading for an explosion before too long.

KM2: 4:18
I caught sight of Karen (from the Tallaght race last week) just before we reached the village. She was about 20m up ahead and, knowing that if I could catch her very slowly I’d produce a good time, it became my goal for most of the remaining race. As each marker was passed I began to narrow the gap by a few yards.

As we turned the corner in the village we were met with a drag for about 200m. The little bit of wind was in our face along this stretch but thankfully it was nothing more than a cooling breeze and most runners probably even welcomed it.

KM3: 4:20
With the combination of breeze and gentle incline the pace fell off a little into the third km. I was very accepting of this however and managed to consolidate position until we reached the next turn to the left.

KM4: 4:25
The fourth km is pretty featureless and serves little more than making up the miles for this race. I was catching Karen still, but more than 10m behind her yet. Still though, I felt in control of my running and was tipping along nicely.

KM5: 4:14
This eventually brought us back out onto the Terenure road again and once more we were back onto the fantastic running surface. Probably little more than a placebo effect in reality but it felt like I was running better than ever along this stretch. Pace came back down a little here and yet I still managed to ease back a little with the breeze and incline in my favour.

KM6: 4:11
As we turned the corner in the village for the second and last time I noticed many of those around me were beginning to suffer. In the immediate aftermath of the corner I passed about 4 or 5 people over 10m, all breathing heavily. I put the head down regardless and powered up the gentle incline once more.

KM7: 4:12
With less than two km to go I knew I was in good shape and the main focus now was to maximise my speed to the finish line. I was now only a few metres behind Karen who was still running well. I could tell that everyone around us at this stage was gearing up for a fast finish to the line.

KM8: 4:15
Not long after going past the final km marker I moved past several others including Karen. One of her BP clubmates was sticking to my shoulder however and I was having visions of us racing to the line together. This vision was short-lived however as about 100m later and I managed to drop him. Still though I could make out his club colours through the corner of my eye and sure enough when I managed to look properly there was Karen coming back with a surge over the final 400m! By this stage I was redlining in top gear so I had no answer to her sprint but as the line got closer I could feel the 3m gap narrowing again and she seemed to be slowing a slight bit. Unfortunately though, she stayed on and crossed the line about two strides ahead of me.




I offered her congratulations immediately but neither of us were in much of a state to chat so I continued on through the finishing chute. Once I regained my breath I jogged back out the course in search of my sister Karen (This all gets very confusing!!). I caught her with just over 1km to go and joined her on the run in. She managed to stay ahead of the 50min pacer (Olwyn) and even though we weren’t sure at the time the results later confirmed her as 49:18 or thereabouts. She was well chuffed with that as by all accounts she hasn’t managed to do more than a few runs since the new year!

After chatting to a few more people it was time to head off home for a shower before I had to go to Malahide Castle to help with that charity 5k funrun. Really enjoyed that 5 miler though and think I’m getting back into the groove of these ‘shorter’ races at last.

Week Summary:
RTW: 5 from 7 days
DTW: 44.1km
DTY: 1,001.1

Thursday 28 May 2015

An increase in mileage

Monday, May 4th: 20.0km LSR (5:02/km)
Took the opportunity of the bank holiday to get a long one in down in Raheny. I intended to run along the coast but found myself traipsing around St. Anne's Park initially. Buoyed by the lovely day and the park being quite busy I began to up the tempo. Then I ran past Mick Clohissey a couple of times and this naturally resulted in me doing my best fastest-pace-while-not-breathing-too-heavily while he was jogging slowly for him and still passing me by so, so easily!! Unreal talent and hope he manages to nail down an Olympic marathon qualifier over the next 12 months.

I did manage to get a stretch in along the sea front before returning through St. Anne's. The final 5km was tougher than expected due to the speed of the session up 'til that.

Tuesday, May 5th: Rest Day.
Took today as a rest day. Can't remember too much about it!

Wednesday, May 6th: 7.4km Easy (5:13/km)
An easy run around the regular loop. Feeling refreshed after the rest meant a decent pace was recorded today.

Thursday, May 7th:
 10.3km CH: 8 x 400m @ 85secs
Down in Morton Stadium for a club session. Good solid outing with the final few laps being quite tough, yet I managed to maintain consistency through to the end.

Friday, May 8th: 
 11.9km Easy (5:21/km)
Easy run to recover from last night. Didn't take much as the pace was pretty steady. Finished strongly just for the hell of it!

Saturday, May 9th: 22.1km:
 Hartstown Parkrun (25:16, 5:05/km), and then 16.7km LSR Part 2 (5:32/km)
Paced Roisin around today with the goal of sub 25mins. However, from early on her knee was giving her trouble so we eased off a little bit by mid-way, yet the pace picked up again on the 4th km and by the time we crossed the line we weren't that far away from goal time. Pretty sure she'll nab it easily enough once the knee issue resolves itself.

Afterwards I'd arranged to join JC for the second half of his LSR. So, after chatting for a few mins we ran back to Northwood via the canal to Phibsboro. An enjoyable run in warm conditions.

Sunday, May 10th: 
 8.2km Recovery (5:33/km)
A pretty relaxed recovery run to finish out a good mileage week.

Week Summary:
RTW: 6 from 7 days
DTW: 79.9km
DTY: 957.0

Tuesday 26 May 2015

3,000m race and Tallaght 5k

Monday, Apr 27th: 16.2km LSR (6:01/km)
Myself, Roisin and JC joined together for this run which took in the three parks of DCU's Albert Park, Poppintree Park before finishing in Northwood Demesne. The pace was pretty leisurely for me on this one and finished feeling like I could have gone much further.

Tuesday, Apr 28th: 11.9km CH: 1 Mile – 1km– 1km  1Mile
Club session. Managed this more easily than previous similar session back several weeks ago. Still tough though!

Wednesday, Apr 29th: 4.8km Recovery (5:33/km)
Short recovery run to keep it between the ditches!

Thursday, Apr 30th: 6.3km CH: 3,000m Race (12:00)
3,000m race on the track. First time ever doing a track race (apart from a marathon on Le Cheile’s old grass track in Leixlip and a 24 hr race on Mary Peters’ Track in Belfast!!) I ran in the second race after the fast folk completed theirs. From the off I tucked in behind the leader and was very comfortable for the first couple of laps before a lady runner came past both of us. The other guy was beginning to fade so I went with the lady runner for a few more laps. The pace was beginning to have an effect by lap 5 and the leader began to drift slowly away. Over the course of the second last lap I could hear/feel the pack clsong on me and were only a couple of steps behind now. With 600m remaining they began to ramp things up and within about half a lap I was passed by about 5 others! I was maintaining my pace but they were simply getting faster. I managed to hold position from there to the end though and finished in 12mins flat. Pretty sure there wasn't another second to be found out there though as I was totally spent when crossing the finish line. 

Great event and an eye opener to racing for me, as opposed to time-trialling! Already looking forward to hitting up my next mile 3,000m race!

Friday, May 1st: 7.0km Battery died!
I know I ran but just can’t remember anything about it apart from the fact it was in the park! Recovery pace after last night.
I was feeling a twinge in the right groin ever since the race on Thurs evening, and possibly in sympathy with Roisin’s knee which was giving her jib, we decided it was pointless either of us doing this parkrun. So, after a very short warm-up lap we reverted straight back to the car.

Oh, and the torrential freezing rain may have helped sway our minds!

Sunday, May 3rd: 13.4km Tallaght 5k Race (21:17) and 6.4km Easy(5:17/km).
I went to Tallaght for their 5km race with the hope that I’d give 20mins a serious run for its money. The groin was remaining quiet and the weather 24 hrs later had made a dramatic improvement so things were looking good.

After a 2km warm up I joined in with the field of runners. Without any notification back where I was we were suddenly set off on our way. Immediately I noticed a girl I know called Karen overtake me. I decided I’d try hanging with her as I knew she’d be close to 20mins. It all remained a little tight for the first few hundred metres until we turned the corner towards Tymon Park. We were making nice steady progress and went through the first km in 4:02 which I was very happy about as I’d wanted to ensure I didn’t go off way too quick here.

Towards the end of the second km there was a sharp left turn and a slight drop so I kicked on again past Karen and to forge my own race. How wrong was I! I ran strongly for the remainder of the downhill to the halfway mark of the course but as soon as the incline began to increase upwards I had no response! I trudged on but the legs just would not go any faster. At this point I realised that racing a 3,000m on the previous Thursday probably wasn’t the best prep for this 5k! With about 1km to go Karen went past again and over the course of the final km she took about 80m out of me!

So, while I was hoping to be close to 20mins I ended up crossing the line in 21:17 or thereabouts. Definitely one to write off and forget about!

Week Summary:
RTW: 8 from 7 days
DTW: 61.0km
DTY: 877.1