Ever Decreasing Circles:

BeepBeep67

6 x 800m w/ 2min rec with Slogger in Charlesland - average 2:54 - up 7 secs on average from last week. Felt stronger doing these ones and grew into the session.
11.25k in 55mins.

Slogger Jogger

I reckon your splits are faster again. My gps splits average was 2:53 and you were faster on the last 2. Well done, particularly with the blustery conditions.

BeepBeep67

Just checking the detail I'm getting 830 - 850 for the splits and I was hitting the laps per the track markings, so could be GPS inaccuracy.

BeepBeep67

Was tempted to take a night off tonight, but have the race hanging over me on Sunday, but when I seen Slogger was having a night off I just had to get out .
Easy 10k run from the house, little bit of wind, little of hail, threw in a couple of strides between lamp posts for a mile to keep the boredom at bay.

BeepBeep67

Easy run on my new treadmill this evening.
Just 4 miles @ 7.5mph, day off tomorrow and the Wicklow Senior XC on Sunday - 4 laps of that hill in Avondale OMG!

Slogger Jogger

Nice one. Forgot to say it does tend to move backwards slightly over the course of your run. I have mine on a leftover piece of carpet and that sorted it.

BeepBeep67

Still not 100% going into this as the chest thingy is still lingering, so the plan was to run fairly conservatively and then see what happened.
So this was 4 laps in Avondale with a killer hill on each lap which is like a mini-mountain, the surface was frozen in parts, boggy in parts, uphill, downhill and sideways - so there's not much point in looking at times or splits in this one. I'm guessing there were 30 or so brave souls on the start line and I was part of a depleted Bray Runner's squad of 5, with various injury, work and family commitments keep the rest away.
Got a reasonable start and after a k the race settled into it's shape, felt strongish for the majority of the lap, but the hill was a killer, however I mainly gained ground on the first and that would be telling later on.
Hit lap 2 in 18th place after trading up and down few places and was trying to tag on to Colin Daly, took Cormac O'Ceillaigh on the 'little mountain' and had to drive over the top as he stayed with me.
So hit lap 3 in 17th, passing Cormac and hitting the half way mark perked me up a bit and started to focus on running, Colin was getting away from me, but I could see Billy Porter coming back to me and I caught him about half way around lap 3 and that's how it stayed me in 16th slightly catching Gerry Kinsella but not closing enough to challenge him.

Summary: 9.44k in 40:06 / 1st Bray Runner/ 16th overall

Happy enough overall, but glad it's over.

Slogger Jogger

Nice running. I'm happy to jog Avondale but racing that green avenue scares me

Results up already. here

BeepBeep67

The weather outside is frightful so 2 recovery runs on the treadmill today:

AM: 4 miles in 33:01 - watched most of last week's the panel

PM: 5 miles in 38:47 - started watching 21, will watch the rest Weds morning

BeepBeep67

Squeezed in 6 miles on the treadmill in between meetings - handy for that and now I'm a family man at 6pm and heading shopping.
Still have about 15mins left to watch in 21, need to find some 45min documentaries and I don't ever see myself running 90mins on the treadie.
Have a fan arriving tonight as the last 2 days have been like warm weather training.
Looking forward to finishing early tomorrow and hitting the Morrough.

BeepBeep67

Nice chilly 10k run from Whitegates along the Morrough in 48mins, which was frozen solid, nice to be outside in daylight.

BeepBeep67

6 easy miles on the treadie @ 06:30am :eek: - tips me over the 3,000km mark for the year.
Well Happy Christmas everyone - see you back here on the 26th.

MCOS

extra mince pie for that effort Have a good Christmas bb67 and great running all year

BeepBeep67

Out before lunch today to run off the excesses of yesterday - reckon another 30 miles and I'll be back to square one.
Anyhoo, ran from the house along the new port relief road, due to open in the new year, this will give me a nice cycle path route directly to Morrough in just over 2 miles, stopped at Killoughter and enjoyed the scenery had a stretch and headed back into a headbreeze via the Leitrim river and Whitegates.
16.83km @ 5:03 kmph.

BeepBeep67

Sun Dec 27th

Hit a very breezy/windy/blustery Charlesland for 5 x 1k.
So warm up, plus static and dynamic stretching.
This was a difficult session with the headwind down the home straight which impacted about 150mts of each lap, felt like I was being blown backwards at times, so tried to focus on equal effort. Forgot to hit lap for the first one, but luckly looked at the watch when I hit the button.

1. 3:41 (Max HR 169)
2. 3:43 (Max HR 172)
3. 3:46 (Max HR 173)
4. 3:50 (Max HR 174)
5. 3:49 (Max HR 175)

Slower than planned should have been 3:40, but under difficult conditions I'll bank that one and move on.

WTD - 43.9
MTD - 163.8
YTD - 1886.5

BeepBeep67

Mon Dec 28th

After spending about an hour fixing a limited edition Bakugan Drago Dragonoid I needed some head space - so ran from Whitegates to Killoughter, the return was against a strong breeze but I maintained the pace, just had to work a little harder.

11.5k in 55:06 (4:47pace)

Slogger Jogger

Thats a feat in itself to break that. My eldest tells me its worth around 400 (Bakugan) points. I could see why you needed head space

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Mon Dec 28th

After spending about an hour fixing a limited edition Bakugan Drago Dragonoid I needed some head space - so ran from Whitegates to Killoughter, the return was against a strong breeze but I maintained the pace, just had to work a little harder.

11.5k in 55:06 (4:47pace)

BeepBeep67

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Thats a feat in itself to break that. My eldest tells me its worth around 400 (Bakugan) points. I could see why you needed head space

This one was one of the smaller dimension ones and was worth 520G - so there was nearly tears - but all is well now, he'll live to brawl again .

BeepBeep67

Tues Dec 29th

Nice social run from Annacurragh up Roddenagh Hill with SJ & Donot and a few others, there were a couple of snow flurries which topped off a great run and some icy patches to keep you on your toes or not as my Bambi on ice impersonation showed on one of the corners - followed by a Guinness in the Salty.
Thanks for organising SJ.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21226839

Slogger Jogger

No probs. Just finished getting a mauling in a brawl

BeepBeep67

With the treadful weather outside any thoughts of an afternoon visit to Charlesland were put on hold. So it was hop on treadmill for a session, 5 days to the Wicklow Master XC, so 6 x 400mts @ race pace was on the cards: Warm Up for 2 miles, hopped off and done some stretching and hopped back on for 6 x 0.3Miles (to ensure I got 400 @ 10mph) @ 1% incline with equal time recovery, strangely felt faster than doing the same session the track (must try an calibrate the treadie), finished off with just over a mile of a warm down to clock 6Miles in total.

BeepBeep67

6 miles easy on the treadie early doors, started @ 7.2mph and increased by 0.1 every 0.5 miles to finish @ 8.3mph - 46:45.
Off to see Alvin & the Chipmunks The Squeakquel with the kids at lunch time .

BeepBeep67

The Stats:
Days Run: 311 (85.2%)
Mileage: 1912.1 (49% increase from 2008)
Running Day Average: 6.17
Races: 23

Masters Personal Bests:
5M x 2 - 31:25 (12.2% improvement)
6k x 1 - 22:49 (4.3% improvement)
5k x 2 - 18:22 (5% improvement)
2M x 3 - 11:15 (8.9% improvement)
3k x 2 - 10:37 (4.2% improvement)
1M - 5:19 (no previous masters)
1500m - 4:57 (no previous masters)

The Highlights:
Becoming part of the Boards community.
102 day consecutive streak (June 6th to Sept 15th)
The Bulletin Boards WWR.
Taking 3rd place in a sprint finish in the BHAA mile.
Finishing 3rd O/40 in the Farmleigh 5k

The Lowlights:
DNF at the Pearl iZumi 10k - heel bruising.
Pulling calf at the Leinster Masters XC.
Not getting a 10k race this year.

Summary:
Overall I'll put 2009 down as a successful running year, would have liked to have hit 2k miles an run 24 races, but I was pretty close on both accounts and a few minor injuries prevented that. Improvement in the times have been great but expected and next year I need to be more targetted and focused on hitting my 3k (sub 10:30); 5k (sub 18) and 10k (sub 37:20) targets.
It's been great discovering the ART section of Boards and I've enjoyed the banter, the logs, the challenges and training discussions and along the way I've made a few new friends.
Onwards and upwards I wish everyone a fantastic New Year and I hope you achieve your own personal goals - catch y'all in 2010.

BeepBeep67

4 mile easy recovery run along a chilly but sunny Morrough, might run for 20mins tomorrow ahead of the XC on Sunday.

BeepBeep67

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

4 mile easy recovery run along a chilly but sunny Morrough, might run for 20mins tomorrow ahead of the XC on Sunday.

Cancelled - sounds like 3 days of pints before HM training to me .

BeepBeep67

The roads and paths are like ice rinks around the estate so getting out for a trot was not on the cards. Today was supposed to be a rest day but seeing as the XC is cancelled tomorrow it was an opportunity to get a few miles in. So hopped on the treadmill for 8 miles in 59mins, starting quite handy at 7.4mph (8:07pace) and finishing at 9mph (6:40pace).

BeepBeep67

Sun Jan 3rd

First long run of the year, nice trot along the Morrough and out through Newcastle via some snowy back roads and home along the old N11, bit slow for the k's on the Morrough leading to Newcastle where I was either in sand or picking my way through rocks, good fun though - 25.26k in the bag!

Summary: 25.26k in 1:56:50 (4:48kph)

WTD: 52.7Miles
YTD: 27.1Miles

Peckham

That's an impressive summary of 2009. Particularly in getting out for 311 days of running.

BeepBeep67

Peckham wrote: »

That's an impressive summary of 2009. Particularly in getting out for 311 days of running.

Cheers - I'm hitting Charlesland Tues (10 x 400) and Thurs (6 x 800) 5:30ish if you're around.

Peckham

Thanks, but Greystones was merely a short Christmas visit for me. Back home in north Dublin now.