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Catweazles Half-Ironman or Chicken challenge
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Maybe......
What will probably happen is that Mrs C will change it for me and I will be beside her watching and nodding approvingly but not listening - she is much better at that type of stuff.........but keep your mobile close at hand tonight in case of a call out
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Had a late night saturday so was very happy to be just marshaling in the clubs 8k on sunday. Saw Ronanmac doing another pb resplendent in his boards AC top, hes come a long way since the Tuam 8k at the start of the year.
Went out for a longer run later in the day, 13k at around 5.15 pace. Its time to start increasing the miles again, I have a 1/2 marathon in Achill in early July. Although it will be very much a c race as Mrs C will be doing it as well with me. I am kinda glad of that as Achill is a real ballbuster of a race anyways.
Today 1300m lunchtime swim. I felt a bit better in the pool today, first time in a long time. Got a small lecture off the gym star swimmer last week to introduce some new drills or programmes or I will struggle with motivation. I think he hit a nerve as lately it is all been just about keeping my milage up
Did an unplanned sign up to a sprint Tri around NUIG in a forthnight, word in the club is that the swim will be quick so I decided I could do with a confidence booster before Athy.
I am going to justify putting this into the schedule as "hopefully" I am going to do the Croi Lough Corrib outing this weekend which is 120k and with a 71k spin last weekend I deserve a sprint outing
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Tuesday Lunchtime easy swim 1000m
Tuesday evening Claregalway 5k
Crap night lashing rain and puddles everywhere. I found this race much harder than last week.
Decided I would follow a club member who was close enough to 20 minutes last week. It was a tight start and I got held up by a runner straight away and lost him almost immediatley. Went through the first kilometre in 3.56, I checked the Garmin shortly around 1.25 and I saw my pace was was 4.21. This threw me as I didnt think I had slowed down at all, I think I had gone out a little too quick again and was slowing down near the end to bring it to 3.56 and didnt pick it up again on the 2nd k. I think I clawed back a little bit of time, not much 2nd k 4.16.
The third k had a killer hill on it, long and steep, legs burning and gasping for breath I was at 4.40 pace going up this, at this stage my old club rival came into view behind me and gave me a big cheery hello. He seemed awful fresh......was he playing mind games with me
Another member who had missed last week also came up beside me. Neither of them went by me at this stage though unlike in Craughwell and Athenry, bastards were waiting . I think I clawed a bit back from 4.40 but not much on the 3rd k, came in at 4.30
4th K and I was wrecked, my usual rival (I think he can safely go in as my arch nemesis at this stage certainly in the 5k series anyways) moved ahead. My head dropped a bit and I was giving up the chase, his mistake was not to push harder from there, another few metres ahead and I would have been dropped altogether. But he was still there just 5 metres ahead 4k = 4.13. The other member had come up beside me for about a minute but dropped off the pace again
There is a nice downhill section in the end at Claregalway on the main road so I was holding out for that. I still didnt think I was going to be able to beat my friend but I didnt want to be too far off last weeks time. I picked it up just before the bend and was surprised by another hill when I turned the corner. Found this tough but knew once up it was downhill all the way, I started to gradually close on him and two others. I was all out at this stage but I was still gaining on them, gave him a quick come on John as I went by him, I hope he didnt think I was being cheeky but I wanted him to push on as well.
Kept going with the head down for the rest of the way, I felt someone motoring along behind me, had a sly glance saw it wasnt the club mate and didnt try to eek out an extra few strides to keep him away and he beat me on the line. I am kinda mad now about that I should have held him off, I admired all the runners who pushed it to the end when i was marshaling on sunday so I should have done it myself. Last k done in 3.58. I have a new pb on the heart rate of 194 - I will be taking on Macanri and Littlebug soon if that HR keeps going up
Position is encouraging 69th today, 97th last week so I am moving up although there was less runners out today with the weather. Loughrea next week and I was listening to horror stories after of a hill similiar to Mount Everest on the 3rd k there so it looks like another slow one0 -
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Kept going with the head down for the rest of the way, I felt someone motoring along behind me, had a sly glance saw it wasnt the club mate and didnt try to eek out an extra few strides to keep him away and he beat me on the line. I am kinda mad now about that I should have held him off, I admired all the runners who pushed it to the end when i was marshaling on sunday so I should have done it myself.
I remember this happening to me at the Craughwell 10, a rake of people went past me at the end. It felt really dispiriting after the effort of the previous 10 miles! I promised myself from then on that I'd put in a spurt at the end of races and thought I was doing so until I saw a photo of the end of last Sunday's race. Not alone was I easing up, I seemed to have been stopping my watch before even crossing the line
. A good way of ensuring PBs, I suppose .
By the way, did you feel much pressure yesterday, it being the home event?!0 -
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By the way, did you feel much pressure yesterday, it being the home event?!
Nah I am a complete blow in, dont know anyone really in the area, any socialising I do is in townand you have the cheek to slag me about the eoin ryan incident??
Touche although this guy was a fine footballer as well and never gave me a sniff of a ball so its personal
Slept it in this morning so did a quick 1000m in the pool and lunchtime easy run of circa 7k
The stars are aligning nicely for me this weekend for a good training schedule, Mrs C is away in Athlone on a hen on saturday and most of my mates are gone for a weekend booze up to London for the darts. Gently broached the subject tonight of heading off early on saturday for a run with the club but secretly I am eyeing up the Burren half marathon. Havent ran this distance in ages but I am more going to do this for a bit of fun than anything else, it will make Achill look like a cakewalk hopefully.
If I come ok out of it, I will have a crack at the Lough Corrib cycle on sunday, by the time Mrs C is back on sunday I hopefully will have most of it done0 -
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that's a fair whack of training for the weekend CW
Ya sundays corrib cycle is very much dependent on how the legs feel the morning after when I wake up, a brief discussion this morning to Mrs C mentioning again the early morning on saturday drew no reaction so I am now officially entered. I am hoping I will treat this as a nice scenic LSR but it might not turn out like that, I tend to get excited during races and pacing goes out the window. Theres a few Gaelforce entrants from the gym running this as well. I will have a recovery week next week. Have been offered another pass if anyone else is interested in climbing mountains in the Burren on saturday, dont know how much she is looking for though
I am getting better at the early mornings now 2 days in a row....1600m swim. Still treading water though, I hope to start doing some open water next week which I hope will refire my swimming mojo.0 -
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Managed to flag down a van for directions and he told me go back and take a right and it was around 5k away. Fair play he saw my crestfallen reaction to that and offered me a lift so I jumped in.
Fair play to him. Not quite the same thing but my mate BB ran out of steam about 16-17M into a 20M training run for the GLR a few months back and had to get a bus back into town. He had no money on him but the busdriver took pity on him given the state he was in and even dropped him back at his car after she finished the route and was bringing the bus back to the depot.0 -
Friday easy 600m in pool
Saturday - Clare Burren Half Marathon
Signed up to this earlier in the week as a fun long slow run in fine weather. Ended up being a great event with a much bigger turnout than I expected.
Settled in around mid pack before the horn and was laughing at the PA announcer in the truck getting very worked up about the whole thing, Europes Rock Classic the Final Countdown had him well lathered up. Some guy said next to me that he was the local priest.
Siren sounded and away we went. It was 9am and the sun was baking down, I love the heat. Took it handy enough the first three miles just keeping it under 10 minute miles.
The turn for off road was around here, I was lucky it was such good weather as no way would the asics have handled it if it was wet. We hit the first mountain around the 4 mile mark, wasnt too bad was getting up it fine, chatting to 2 lads that were doing their first Marathon, now I thought Connemara was a tough one to start out on but this one would have been Connemara on steroids. At the top of the mountain there was a fork in the road I was half tempted to go with them as they were good craic, my previous attempts at chatting to other participants at around the same pace led to much show and bluster of turning off their ipods so they could respond. I like ipods for training but I cant understand why you would use them in mass participation events.......whats the fun.
The downhill off this mountain was gravelly and had to be taken with caution. The next mile or two was along some gravelly road ever so slightly uphill which was gradually sapping the legs. In the distance was the 2nd bigger mountain that I had been warned about, it was a bit like Connemara all over again with people cursing and dreading what was to come. I mentioned to the couple beside me that I was going to run this and not walk whereby a guy in front slowed down and said he would go with me. Nice guy doing his first tri in Athy soon, I might not have made it only for him, had a bad point around the middle and he started pushing on, but I clung on and eventually he had to walk so I kept going. It was great as I had gone out slow I was passing loads of people up this.
The downhill off this was cross country lots of marren grass and stones, so I was a bit chicken **** of hurting myself so I took this nearly slower than when i went uphill. There was a train of slowcoaches with me in the middle of it and the more braver flew down hopping from stone to stone. My hill partner gave me a shout as he went by. Cant seem to upload the garmin but I know at one stage I looked at the watch and I was over 15 minute miles......on a steep downhill :eek:
Finally got down and we got back on the road again, 3 miles left and I was feeling great. There was a big long straight ahead of me and I could see loads of people ahead. Decided I would go hard for the last three, so mile 10 7.40, mile 11 7.35 and a last 7.10. Was flying by people at this stage and near the end i had one more in front that I might catch, I was thinking of the 5k earlier in the week so I went all out with about 200ms to go, gradually reeling him in as he tried to stay ahead.
Of course the PA saw this battle and started shouting "will you look at him, hes legging it, hes bloody legging it, will he do it, will he do it" and I pipped yer man at the line to a big cheer
Finished in just over 2.12 I think, looking back on it if I had gone all out, I dont know if sub 2 would have been on for me. Maybe close i dont know, I doubt I would have made it up the 2nd mountain without walking if I was under 9 minute miles. And I clearly cant run quick on the real off road stuff
But it was the most enjoyable LSR I ever had, certainly I might give this a proper go next year, plenty of water and food at the stops and a great atmosphere in the village. The scenery goes without saying around there.
Hung around after the massage to applaud the first marathon runner in at 3.02, I reckon he was disappointed he didnt break 3 hours, crazy time on that course.
As an aside, decided to go for first open water swim of the year when I got home, Annaghdown Pier has been changed so no ladder, it is now a leap of faith into the water, it was lovely the cold was no bother at all. Did a quick 600m before home for the decking and a well deserved beer0 -
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