Send in the Clowns - BAC 10K Challenge

average_runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Wednesday evening: 30 mins core and weights

Thursday: 1 hour Easy. Bored with the usual routes, headed out to Baldonnel Airport. Now I'm no plane-spotter, but I still find it an impressive sight to have these massive compositions of aluminium and steel touching down alongside you with the grace of a butterfly. Whenever you run around Corkagh Park, they are a constant feature, passing overhead every couple of minutes. Planes, helicopters, army, private, commercial, they're always buzzing around the area. Did I see a single plane on my loop of Baldonnel? Did I fnck. Still, it was nice to clock up some quicker miles as the body loosened up from the previous day's long session. 8.58 miles in 60 minutes, @7:04/mile

Friday: 7 miles easy. They closed down my sandwich shop! Once every other week, I get lazy, and don't make myself a healthy lunch in the morning. Instead, I run the 3 miles to Adamstown, grab a Subway sandwich, and run back to work with sandwich in tow. Well no frickin more. It's gone. So instead I had to run the 7 mile round-trip, to the second nearest sandwich shop. Sandwich was cold by the time I got back. Grumble, recession, grumble. 7.25 Miles in 51 mins, @7:06/mile

Plane-spotting and bloody sandwiches. As a spotty 15 year old, I never dreamed that my life would take me on such exciting adventures. Running really changes a person.

subway gone in the londis? ah bummer that was handy for lunch at the weekend.


how do u run to baldonnel airport as something I should explore.

Krusty_Clown

average_runner wrote: »

subway gone in the londis? ah bummer that was handy for lunch at the weekend.
how do u run to baldonnel airport as something I should explore.

Yep, replaced with a standard sandwich counter. Sure, it's better than no sandwich counter, but would you run six miles for it?!

The roads around Baldonnel are pretty nasty if you're on-foot. Lots of bends, poor visibility and the cars and lorries hurtle along the roads, which is why I don't frequent them too often. Maybe better at weekends. You can get there from Newcastle, or from the new Ring Road (opposite the entrance to the Corkagh Park fish ponds), but without the planes, it's mostly crap!

antomagoo

There I was Thursday sitting at the desk looking out the window, stressed out, when I see someone running past on the road outside. An unusual enough site. Thought to myself, lucky b@stard I would love to be out running now. Were you wearing headphones? Your taking your life in your hands running on those bends alright.

average_runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

average_runner wrote: »

subway gone in the londis? ah bummer that was handy for lunch at the weekend.
how do u run to baldonnel airport as something I should explore.

Yep, replaced with a standard sandwich counter. Sure, it's better than no sandwich counter, but would you run six miles for it?!

The roads around Baldonnel are pretty nasty if you're on-foot. Lots of bends, poor visibility and the cars and lorries hurtle along the roads, which is why I don't frequent them too often. Maybe better at weekends. You can get there from Newcastle, or from the new Ring Road (opposite the entrance to the Corkagh Park fish ponds), but without the planes, it's mostly crap!

that's means village cafe is only place for sandwich or fry up. all sit in. There is a sub way in londis in fonthill though.

Krusty_Clown

antomagoo wrote: »

There I was Thursday sitting at the desk looking out the window, stressed out, when I see someone running past on the road outside. An unusual enough site. Thought to myself, lucky b@stard I would love to be out running now. Were you wearing headphones? Your taking your life in your hands running on those bends alright.

Yep, that could've been me. I would've been wearing headphones alright, but they're over-ear rather than 'in-ear', and listening to 'talkies' rather than music, so I can hear everything around me, but yeah, still not a good idea..

average_runner wrote:

that's means village cafe is only place for sandwich or fry up. all sit in. There is a sub way in londis in fonthill though.

Yep, that's where I went instead. 7 Mile round-trip. Sandwich was cold and soggy by the time I got back to work. My place of work is moving pretty soon though. No more Clondalkin runs for me. The office is moving to within 6 miles from home, which means a perfect running commute to and from work most days (or a short cycle if I want to do a session or longer run at lunch-time. Plus the hills near where I live (and Ticknock) will be within reach for a lunch-time run, so happy days. Will make the road to London marathon 2013 that much more convenient.

Krusty_Clown

Yesterday: 6 mile recovery run
Had to drop the budding footballer off, so headed to Cabinteely Park for an easy recovery run. Cabinteely Park will be my new Corkagh Park when my office moves in a couple of weeks, so I wanted to see what it was like for a 6 mile recovery run, and also to check out any potential shortcuts for my future run-mute. I'm going to miss Corkagh Park. You can easily find 5-6 miles without ever doubling back on yourself and it's flat. Very flat. Cabinteely Park on the other hand is made up of rolling hills. Not so bad if you're just running the perimeter, but if you are running within the green areas.. constant hills. It does have benefits though. Working toilets.. With TP. Wouldn't get that in Corkagh. Very good drainage (because of aforementioned hills). But it's also almost two miles from work, so more concrete and less grass. Still, it's a pretty park, good soft grass. Can't be whingeing. Finished up with 30 minutes core and weights.

Summary: 6.37 in 49 mins, @7:45/mile

Krusty_Clown

You'll never guess what happened... again.. No, I didn't get lost this time, but did end up with another old lad's prize. I had my misgivings about doing this race after my previous Kilomarathon experience, but given the choice between this and the eco race (which sounded fantastic by all accounts), I opted for the race with hills and no laps. Thankfully, the decision really paid off.

The plan was simple. Run the entire distance at marathon pace. Based on my latest VDOT, that'd be around 6:09/mile. We set off around a wet grassy GAA pitch, and for a brief moment, I delighted in holding the lead, until Gary O'Hanlon, TRR, Peter M. and a few other runners took their rightful place in front. I was in around 9th position, with a pack forming just ahead. Into the head-wind it was so tempting to go join them, but they were running sub 6 minute mile, which wasn't part of the plan. Thankfully I looked back, and Rory M. was just behind me, so he joined me and we had a chat about target paces. His was 6:20/mile for my 6:09, so not entirely compatible. Still, we chatted for a mile or two before he decided to drop back. After another mile he was just 20 metres back, so he caught up with me again, and altogether we ran the first 5/6 miles together enjoying a bit of banter.

The hills just seemed to go on and on. After 5 miles we finally hit a down-hill and made-up for some lost time, running a 5:42. We passed one of the leading runners who was unhappily walking back to the start, after fecking up his knee. Not the kind of way you want to gain places in a race. After around 6 miles we hit a water station, and Rory pulled up for bit, so I was on my own from that point onwards. On long straights, I could see TRR and Peter M. in the distance, always around .75 of a mile ahead. At these times, it was good to know that I was still going the right way, but the race was very well marshaled and the roads were well marked, if you kept an eye out for the identifying yellow paint. One junction had no marshall, but thankfully, I saw the familiar yellow paint on the road, and turned left (a turn which Mithril unfortunately managed to miss), in what I hoped was the right direction. I looked back after a few minutes and could see Rory in the distance, so if I had gone wrong, I had likely led him astray. Quite relieved to see marshals and another water station ahead.

Average pace was down to 6:07/mile, so I tried to slow down, particularly on the hills and drags that just didn't seem to end, but failed miserably. I'll have to pay a little more attention on marathon day, so the pace doesn't sneak away from me (particularly until the 22 mile mark), but with just 16 miles, the pace was manageable. I passed another unfortunate lead runner, limping to the finish, so another casualty. Promoted again by injury, this time to 5th place. The run in to the finish was pretty uneventful. I hit the wet grass of the GAA pitch once more, and arriving at the finish line, I threw in a few one-armed windmills, in honour of TRR and his protegée who all had a blinder today. I finished in 5th place, in 1:38:42 (watch time) and thankfully, I'm really, really old, so picked up the old codgers prize (kind of like a pat on the head for being 'still able to run at your age!'). The prize structure was very unusual, with just a prize for the first male (Gary O'Hanlon) and first M40 (me) and female equivalents. No 2nd place, no M50 prize. I nearly felt guilty as I skipped out of the place, with envelope in hand.

Best thing about the day? After a two mile warm-down with TRR, I was fairly sure that when I uploaded today's runs to Garmin Connect I was going to have to head out and do another mile, to bring my weekly total to 80 miles (yes, I am that guy), but joy of joys, my calendar read 80.07 miles. A Carlsberg ending!

Summary: 19.56 miles, including 16.13 miles @6:07/mile

RacoonQueen

Well done KC. No end to the legendary runs these days. Expecting great things in DCM and London.

wrstan

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Cabinteely Park will be my new Corkagh Park when my office moves in a couple of weeks

Kilbogget park is pretty much accross the road from Cabinteely, combining both makes for a really pleasant, decent length run, and the pedestrian flyover over the N11 adds a nice little roundy hill!

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Now I'm no plane-spotter, but I still find it an impressive sight to have these massive compositions of aluminium and steel touching down alongside you with the grace of a butterfly.

I dunno what planes land in Baldonnell, but I have never been in one that touched down with the grace of a butterfly!

Krusty_Clown

wrstan wrote: »

I dunno what planes land in Baldonnell, but I have never been in one that touched down with the grace of a butterfly!

Ahh but from the outside looking in, they're quite graceful. It's not the same experience as when you are squished into the rattling blue and yellow plastic cage of an under-fuelled Ryanair jet.

Today: 1 hour easy
Post race recovery is going a lot better these days. I'm putting it down to a few things:

• I don't watch my pace on the Garmin anymore. I just run at comfortable easy pace. A day or so after a hard session, the pace naturally picks up all by itself. I reckon when you try to force a pace that's not comfortable, you prolong the amount of recovery time needed.
• Less beer/dehydration: Not sure I like this one, but I can only work from the evidence presented, and that is that I am recovering significantly quicker and find general motion far more comfortable
• Kinvara 3 shoes: After a tough session, I reckon I am approx 50% more mobile than I would have been in my old mizunos
• Compression calf guards: Picked up a set of these and stick them on after a run, purely for recovery.

So I'm not sure which of the above is working (hopefully not the beer one!) but these days I can negotiate the stairs without using the banister like a crutch, and for the first time in a few months am jogging up stairs again. I just hope it's not the beer thing...

Summary: 8.42 miles in 62 mins, @7:26/mile

ecoli

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Post race recovery is going a lot better these days. I'm putting it down to a few things:

• I don't watch my pace on the Garmin anymore. I just run at comfortable easy pace. A day or so after a hard session, the pace naturally picks up all by itself. I reckon when you try to force a pace that's not comfortable, you prolong the amount of recovery time needed.
• Less beer/dehydration: Not sure I like this one, but I can only work from the evidence presented, and that is that I am recovering significantly quicker and find general motion far more comfortable

These two things really stand out alright to me as the reasons for recovery. I think the first is common sense but it takes runners years to learn (including myself)

From experience the more I run with quicker runners the slower their post race/ session runs tend to be. I think the main thing about this the old saying hard days hard and easy days easy if yout truly push yourself on hard days you need to take it very handy to recover, adapt and improve

Also regarding the beer I guess the question is how quickly do you really need to recover after a race :P

Abhainn

Great going old man. 16 x 6:07 m/miles just seem like an universe away now for me.

Oh big day for me on the 29th, I'll be one year older. Fancy a good beer to help me celebrate after the race?

Slogger Jogger

Great running KC.

Krusty_Clown

Abhainn wrote: »

Great going old man. 16 x 6:07 m/miles just seem like an universe away now for me.

Oh big day for me on the 29th, I'll be one year older. Fancy a good beer to help me celebrate after the race?

Haha Joe. Funny guy. I'd say you could do 16 x 6:07 next weekend, if you took it easy between now and then. I take it you won't be fit for XC this weekend? I would fancy many good beers to celebrate your birthday after the race. May even bring a bottle of PB beer in with me.. Just in case.

TRR

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Haha Joe. Funny guy. I'd say you could do 16 x 6:07 next weekend, if you took it easy between now and then. I take it you won't be fit for XC this weekend? I would fancy many good beers to celebrate your birthday after the race. May even bring a bottle of PB beer in with me.. Just in case.

I hope to join you two to celebrate joe's 51st birthday. I look forward to hearing stories about the war and the electrification of Ireland.

TRR

TRR wrote: »

I hope to join you two to celebrate joe's 51st birthday. I look forward to hearing stories about the war and the electrification of Ireland.

Ps bring a bottle of PB beer for Joe so I can take it from him

Krusty_Clown

Today: 6 Miles with strides

Bit of a logistic dilemma this week. Mileage is cut back 70 miles in total, with an 18 mile and a 22 mile session, plus an XC race on Sunday. Planning on a session tomorrow, 22 mile run on Friday night and the race on Sunday. Only one day between each of 'em, but what can you do? Doesn't really leave any room for any other runs either, apart from a few 5 and 6 mile runs (never thought I'd be complaining that I wasn't doing enough miles!). So today was just 6 miles with strides along the canal.

Summary: 6 miles, 42 mins, 6:59/mile

Krusty_Clown

TRR wrote: »

Ps bring a bottle of PB beer for Joe so I can take it from him

I'm sure I could rustle up a bottle of Coors Light for the young lady. No need to deprive the old fella of a real beer.

Krusty_Clown

Today: Ugh!

Haven't had a training disaster in a while, so maybe it was on the cards. I was all psyched up. Wearing my 'session' gear. Well hydrated. Big bowl of porridge for brekkie. No meetings to interrupt the two hour session. Garmin fully charged. Fast runners on. Thunderbirds are go. Pissing rain. Doesn't matter... I'm invincible. Half way into my 5 mile pre-tempo easy run, stomach cramps. Game over. Hobble back to work. So instead of a hard 18 mile session, I managed a 5.5 mile recovery type run. What an anti-climax.

So now it looks like session tomorrow, easy runs on Friday and Saturday, XC on Sunday, followed by 22 mile easy run. :eek:

Top tip: If someone offers you what looks like a half cooked apple pie, that tastes like a half-cooked apple pie, it probably is a half-cooked apple pie, and should probably be avoided.

Summary: 5.5 miles

theboyblunder

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Today: Ugh!

Haven't had a training disaster in a while, so maybe it was on the cards. I was all psyched up. Wearing my 'session' gear. Well hydrated. Big bowl of porridge for brekkie. No meetings to interrupt the two hour session. Garmin fully charged. Fast runners on. Thunderbirds are go. Pissing rain. Doesn't matter... I'm invincible. Half way into my 5 mile pre-tempo easy run, stomach cramps. Game over. Hobble back to work. So instead of a hard 18 mile session, I managed a 5.5 mile recovery type run. What an anti-climax.

So now it looks like session tomorrow, easy runs on Friday and Saturday, XC on Sunday, followed by 22 mile easy run. :eek:

Top tip: If someone offers you what looks like a half cooked apple pie, that tastes like a half-cooked apple pie, it probably is a half-cooked apple pie, and should probably be avoided.

Summary: 5.5 miles

Good post. Ive have a few of those recently and now carry emergency jacks roll on all runs.

Are you doing the 22 on the same day as the XC?

LarMan

Hey Krusty

Todays Fit magazine supplement from todays Indo has a photograph of the Kilomarathon race last weekend and you are in it. Gotta love that fame

Krusty_Clown

theboyblunder wrote: »

Good post. Ive have a few of those recently and now carry emergency jacks roll on all runs.
Are you doing the 22 on the same day as the XC?

98% of the time, I also carry emergency supplies, but for some reason this time, I didn't. I'll be carrying them today! Yes, less than an ideal plan to run both the XC race and the 22 mile, but aren't you supposed to have your last good blow-out three weeks before your goal marathon?! I think Tunguska did this recently, so I'll drop him a line and see how it went. The alternative strategy is to do 10 miles easy after the XC race, and then try and fit in 4 x 1M @ Tempo, to replicate the session that I swapped out for the Kilomarathon. Sounds tough too. I guess I can wait and see how I feel after the race.

LarMan wrote:

Todays Fit magazine supplement from todays Indo has a photograph of the Kilomarathon race last weekend and you are in it. Gotta love that fame

Cool. I hope it's from the start, where I was leading the race for about 3 seconds. Take a phone snap and send it to me, will you?

Krusty_Clown

Today: JD Plan A: 18 miles with 2 x 3 miles @Tempo

I was all psyched up...again. Wearing my second fastest set of 'session' gear. Still well hydrated. Another big bowl of porridge. No meetings. Fast runners on. Cloak of invincibility... Intact. Bog roll... check...

Having failed this session yesterday, I had built up a bit of trepidation over it. I don't know why. It's not nearly as difficult as the two sessions I did with the guys in Tallaght and distinctly easier than the half marathon I ran recently. I guess it's just the fact that I was on my own, and it was the middle of a work day, and my stomach still wasn't in great shape (the tears of a clown ). The extra day probably worked to my advantage, as I had an additional recovery day from Sunday's pmp run and the weather had greatly improved since yesterday.

Results:
5 Miles easy: Target pace: 7:16. Actual pace: 7:06
3 Miles tempo: Target pace: 5:50. Actual pace: 5:45
5 Miles easy: Target pace: 7:16. Actual pace: 7:06
3 Miles tempo: Target pace: 5:50. Actual pace: 5:44
2 Miles warm-down: Actual pace: 7:13

The whole thing went a lot easier than I had anticipated. First 5 miles were piss easy. First tempo was difficult for the first mile, but after that I cruised along. The second 5 miles just felt slow. Thankfully I had set the watch to alert me any time the pace dropped below 7 min/mile, which kept things easy. I got quite thirsty towards the end of it. I had taken just 300ml of water/nuun with me for the run, which wasn't really enough for this kind of session. I did have an emergency gel, but I figure you're better off not taking on carbs during these sessions unless you absolutely need them, and with a dicky tummy, it probably wasn't a good idea anyway. Second tempo started hard again (slight head-wind) until I started cruising again. Last mile was a little tougher, but glad to get it done. It's a really fantastic loop for tempo runs around Adamstown. I'm going to miss Clondalkin. It's done a lot for my running over the last two years.

Summary: 18 miles in 2:00, @6:38/mile

Killerz

Hey Krusty,

Some savage training there, fair play on exceeding those targets. Bit of a novice question here, but what average HRs are you hitting in both the tempo bits and the easy bits, and how does that relate to your max. I'm just curious for my own training and target zones for marathons and marathon training.

Apologies if its too personal and you dont want to reveal your maxes to some rivals that may be viewing the page

Also, what steps will you be taking to shield yourself from the severe october heat that is bound to be present for your upcoming marathon? :rolleyes:

Krusty_Clown

Killerz wrote: »

Hey Krusty,

Some savage training there, fair play on exceeding those targets. Bit of a novice question here, but what average HRs are you hitting in both the tempo bits and the easy bits, and how does that relate to your max. I'm just curious for my own training and target zones for marathons and marathon training.

Apologies if its too personal and you dont want to reveal your maxes to some rivals that may be viewing the page

Also, what steps will you be taking to shield yourself from the severe october heat that is bound to be present for your upcoming marathon? :rolleyes:

Hi Killerz, the easy answer is that I don't really know. The battery in my HRM died around two months ago, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that my HR is probably:
Easy: 125-132 bpm
Tempo: 145 - 160 bpm
Marathon pace: 150 - 160 bpm
As near as I can make out, my max HR is somewhere between 175 and 178bpm. Resting HR is 38.

I'm following a Jack Daniels plan at the moment, where the pace for your runs is determined by your VDOT. You can calculate your VDOT and associated training paces on this page. I was never one for training by HR, as my HR (which tends towards the lower end of the spectrum) never correlated to anything that was in the training plans/books.

All my rivals are so old, they're either deceased or don't know how to use computers, so my secrets are safe.

Killerz

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Hi Killerz, the easy answer is that I don't really know. The battery in my HRM died around two months ago, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that my HR is probably:
Easy: 125-132 bpm
Tempo: 145 - 160 bpm
Marathon pace: 150 - 160 bpm
As near as I can make out, my max HR is somewhere between 175 and 178bpm. Resting HR is 38.

I'm following a Jack Daniels plan at the moment, where the pace for your runs is determined by your VDOT. You can calculate your VDOT and associated training paces on this page. I was never one for training by HR, as my HR (which tends towards the lower end of the spectrum) never correlated to anything that was in the training plans/books.

All my rivals are so old, they're either deceased or don't know how to use computers, so my secrets are safe.

Sounds cool, cheers for that.... Better start watching your rear-view mirrors, with that knowledge I'm gonna catch ya! Hmmm, may have to wait for you to get a bit older first.....

BeepBeep67

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Today:

Top tip: If someone offers you what looks like a half cooked apple pie, that tastes like a half-cooked apple pie, it probably is a half-cooked apple pie, and should probably be avoided.

Had one two of those moments on Tuesday evening for my LSR: Top Tip don't choose the last couple of scoops of Moroccan lamb and couscous for a late lunch when your planning a 15. Although I was able to call in a tangible benefit of doing those runs! in my two fields!

Krusty_Clown

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Had one two of those moments on Tuesday evening for my LSR: Top Tip don't choose the last couple of scoops of Moroccan lamb and couscous for a late lunch when your planning a 15. Although I was able to call in a tangible benefit of doing those runs! in my two fields!

Wait a second, wait a second. A few laps around my park, and suddenly they're your fields? Well, I suppose if you marked your territory a few times... Meh, you can keep 'em.

BeepBeep67

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Wait a second, wait a second. A few laps around my park, and suddenly they're your fields? Well, I suppose if you marked your territory a few times... Meh, you can keep 'em.

Ahem - remind me how long you've been running in them

Krusty_Clown

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Ahem - remind me how long you've been running in them

Well, since 2007. But it's not about longevity. It's about proximity.