A little bit of everything, just faster

nerraw1111

Results are up. My time is wrong which is a bit of a pisser. I should be in at least third place. I finished ahead of the leading lady in third.

It's only a fun run but pride means I'll send an email and ask for it be corrected lol

EDIT this comes across as very whiney! Meant in a "typical, I sandbag a result and still miss out!"

DogSlySmile

Was that your first hard run after the marathon? Did ya feel any hangover from it or did ya feel like your usual self on race day? (Apart from the dodgy stomach - an Indian before a race? Really!!??:D :rolleyes:)

nerraw1111

DogSlySmile wrote: »

Was that your first hard run after the marathon? Did ya feel any hangover from it or did ya feel like your usual self on race day? (Apart from the dodgy stomach - an Indian before a race? Really!!??:D :rolleyes:)

Yup, very first hard run since the marathon and definitely felt very hungover doing it. I’ve done about 6 runs since DCM, mostly plodding along.

The pace felt very hard on Wednesday from the start and never felt comfortable. I remember looking at the watch think, “WTF, I’ve only done 2km?”

I think I would’ve ran it much quicker a week before the marathon. My 5km split in the 10km time trial 3 weeks out was faster for instance.

Will give the Jingle Bells run a bash in a couple of weeks. It’s a great race, would recommend it.

I’ve order the Daniel’s book so plan is start that next week, with a good crack at the Raheny five mile in January. Like you, I’d hope to keep the LSRs up to a decent amount whilst doing it.

As for the Indian...my stomach is still remembering it 3 days later

nerraw1111

Saturday Park Run...ish

Under estimated the time it would take to get here so missed the start. Ran the course anyway. It's a lovely run, mostly flat with a bit of an uphill drag at some point.

Did about 10km altogether Garmin free.

Monday 1 hour 40 trail run - Inov8 Trailrocs 255

Headed to Three Rock for the first run in the new inov 8 trailrocs 255. First thing to note, they look pretty nifty out of the box. http://www.inov-8.com/New/Global/Product-View-Trailroc-255.html

Similar route to last week but after Three Rock, I headed over to Tibradden and back again.

The route has a great mix of terrain, fire road, forest, mud, hard gravel trails, so perfect testing ground. One of the complaints about some of inov 8 range is the lack of grip on wet rock. Trailroc have some fancy sole whereby it's divided into different parts with different compounds, i.e. grip for rock on the arch.

First impressions is that it's a very good shoe. Lots of wet slippery rock up the boneshaker and the grip was excellent. Easily gripped the wet rock going uphill. On the hard compact gravel trail, it was comfortable running, with enough cushioning to protect against the rock minefield of Tibradden.

On really thick mud, the grip isn't as good and you tend to slip. Although I am comparing them to the amazing grip of the mudrocs. Down the back of fairycastle for a really wet descent and shoes seemed to drain ok. Read reviews that said the shoe is very slow to drain. A bit of messing in the forest with some tight MTB turns and grip was great. Home along the fireroad and shoes were still comfy.

Interestingly, it's described as a long distance shoe in the US and probably built with US trails in mind.

So far so good. Bit pricey but my last inov8 mudrocs were bombproof and were still going strong after almost 2 years before they were thrown out by accident.

nerraw1111

Tuesday 10km run.
This felt like a real slog. Legs were really tired from Monday. Running tights on, some tunes and a fairly uneventful run.

Wednesday 10km ish night time recce of Art O’Neill. Blackhill to Ballinagee Bridge.

Pretty cool night time run/hike across the mountains. Met up with ThisRegard, MiculinMuc and his friend. Parked cars either end of the route.
Getting out of the car to start the route I was feeling very apprehensive. It was dark, windy with sporadic showers. There was quite a few “what the hell are doing out here at this time of night” moments. Getting lost out here would be serious.

Eventually got going and headed off into the darkness. There was a well-worn sloppy trail up Black hill but after a while that disappeared and there was clear path. At the top, we took a bearing to bring us down to a small flat part in the valley. Downhill was fun. The moon was providing a bit of light and after coming down Black Hill you could see the outline Billy Byrne’s gap, basically a gap between two mountains.

We took a bearing, checked GPS (for back up) and we were on track. The views were stunning, just dark intimidating outlines of hills.

The lenser headtorch I was using was very impressive. Even on a low setting, it provided plenty of light and with full beam and focusing, you could see features in the distance.

Bit of a slog up to the gap. On the map it appeared it was possible to reach the gap without have to climb but not sure if that’s possible.

At the top we could the valley ahead. Another fun wet descent. A couple of times you could see the eerie glow of eyes in the distance, before a rabbit or a deer would suddenly take off into the distance.

Eventually hit a stream and followed that to a larger river. We crossed so it was to our right, and continued to follow it till we hit the forest. Very wet at this point, with feet submerged every now and again. Water was very cold.

Followed the forest (with a few are we on the right track moment) until we found the gap into the fireroad and a nice trot back to the car for some hot chocolate and cake.

The route appeared straightforward. We were helped by the bit of a light from the half moon.

Great experience though, all my gear held up well. Despite rain and numerous falls, I was pretty more or less dry at the end of it beside the feet. Wore the trailrocs and they were fantastic, drained very well and the fireroad run was very comfy.

Micilin Muc

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Bit of a slog up to the gap. On the map it appeared it was possible to reach the gap without have to climb but not sure if that’s possible.

If you count the contours on the map, in theory we dropped 20 metres from the flattish section to the start of where we started climbing up to the Gap. If the OSI map is accurate and if we wanted to do less climbing, we should have followed the 540m contour of that flattish section. Not so easy in practice, probably, and not something I thought of until I studied the map afterwards!

nerraw1111 wrote: »

A couple of times you could see the eerie glow of eyes in the distance, before a rabbit or a deer would suddenly take off into the distance.

For the rest of us, we could see the eerie glow of the back of your backpack in the distance It was a very enjoyable run overall!

ThisRegard

Micilin Muc wrote: »

For the rest of us, we could see the eerie glow of the back of your backpack in the distance

Yip, if it wasn't for those reflective flashes he would have disappeared a couple of times down the hill. It wasn't until the deer decided to play chicken with him that we caught up. In my mind of it was no deer though, I saw the scary glowing eyes and its white arse which briefly had me wondering what the hell a wolf was doing out in the Wicklow mountains.

(Note to self, on race night don't leave trail shoes behind and be forced to wear road shoes across the hills)

nerraw1111

Not a lot going on, still taking it easy since DCM but back to a bit of structured training this week. Hopefully the Jack Daniel's book arrives at some stage. Then into 10 - 15km training plan while squeezing in some long runs for the Art O'Neill. I think I'm in good shape for the Art O'Neill given the DCM, so not overly concerned at following a strict plan, particularly given there will be a fair bit of hiking.

Up at Three Rock today for a handy trot around the trails. Very wet up there with lots of little waterfalls around the hill. Was feeling lazy so kept the route short, up boneshaker, onwards to Fairycastle, down by the Dublin mountain way and back home.

Decided to wear headphones for the first time on a hill run. Interesting experience. Sometimes the music added to the landscape, such as M83, other times, it was a bit annoying.

nerraw1111

8km tempo ish

I was supposed to meet a training group but arrived late/wrong location. Ran some laps instead and tried to inject a bit of pace.

Very sluggish to begin with but eventually got a bit of speed going. Avg pace was around 4.12km with last 3km under 4 min pace. first time in almost a month running MP.

Still feeling slow. I thought I'd be ticking off speed sessions with ease following DCM. Ha!

nerraw1111

Night trail run

Originally planned to do some intervals. However, with the potential of ice, it didn’t seem like a good idea to be going full tilt on footpaths in the dark. Great way to end up in the running for the Darwin awards.

So met some of the lads for a trail run around Prince William Seat. Beautiful night sky illuminated by what I believe is called the Beaver Moon, first full moon of November. You could make the vapour trails of passing airplanes overhead it was that bright. Which had me thinking it’s a shame that Art O’Neill isn’t on a full moon night, aka Wolf Moon.

Some nice views of the city, easy running on fireroad and trail. A couple of patches of ice but nice run. Think distance was around 14km.

nerraw1111

15km train run Sunday

Tibradden - Three Rock - Tibradden

Chilly morning. Originally planned to run Glendalough but weather was closing in so went to the close Tibradden.
No matter how often I run Tibradden, the run to the top nearly kills me. No let up in climbing. Calves and achilles were in bits by the time I got to the top. Patches of ice made the trail a bit tricky. Was moving at a decent clip when I heard voices behind me. So obviously I upped the pace. So was half relieved when they eventually went by me and saw it was one of the top hill runners in the country passing me.

Onto Faircastle, down towards the aeriels, down the boneshaker, hanging a left at the bottom and crossing close to the second set of aerials. Very wet hike back up to the fireroad and followed the way I came. The rain started getting heavier so whipped out a rain jacket which turned into to be a sweat-fest.

Despite the weather being miserable yesterday, it was anything but on the hills. Lovely wild quality about it.

Monday 10 miler 4.40 km pace.

Fairly chilled run today. Slowly getting back into higher mileage and midweek medium runs.

Intervals tomorrow - That's the plan anyway. Next target is Raheny five miles and 28.30 minutes. I did 29.59 last year.

nerraw1111

Finally some fast stuff.
8 * 600 metres at around 3.25 km pace.
The battle of the mind recommences.

1st rep – I could run all day at this pace
2nd rep – Seriously, it’s a crying shame no-one was around in my youth to spot my incredible natural talent
3rd – Half way now. Wait, this is only my third? That means five to go.
4th – I’ve gone off far too fast, there’s no way I’m going to finish the session.
5th – Pretty sure the wind has picked up to gale force strength.
6th – Oh sweet jesus.
7th – 7 reps has a nice ring about it - GASP.
8th – Arrrrggghhhh

Quick warm down during which my brain tries to convince me that I ran the reps too slow. Think I got the pace right, the 8th was a bit of an effort. Legs had the nice tired feeling afterwards that comes with a decent session.

nerraw1111

80 minute trail run.

A run up around Fairycastle. Lovely clear evening and the light sprinkling of snow really transformed the terrain. The delicious crunch of snow and ice and the view of the city made for a wonderful 80 minutes or so in the hills.

With the ground frozen, the run up the back of Fairycastle was very dry and completely runnable. The difference between night and day is well, like night and day.

Previous weeks, the feet would be soaked doing this route but last night it was bone dry, well, if you chose your footing wisely/luckily. Snowy trail ahead of me, city lights to the right, and mount doom (some dark hill) to my left. Was a bit chilly on top but nothing too bad. Met a few MTBers also enjoying the darkness. Embrace the darkness, it won't be bright until March!

The minutes flew by and it felt oh so easy compared to 80 minutes slogging around the roads. The perfect tonic to the misery of the budget. Not sure what the distance. If anyone fancies doing the route give me a shout. Mixture of fireroad and trail.

nerraw1111

The Christmas season is in full swig, hick, so the end of last week and Sunday took a battering in terms of running.

Didn’t get out till Monday. Headed to Phoenix Park and donned innov 8 x-talons for 10 miles of muddy trails. The park was stunning yesterday, aided by a beautiful sunset and the presence of deer. A lot of the ground was a surprisingly frosted over and it wasn’t as muddy as I thought it might be.

Plodded around at first and picked up the pace to be running sub 4.30min/km pace for about 5 miles. Slowed down as I got to the hills around the magazine fort.

The x talons were nice and comfy. It was only my third wearing them, the second time I wore them I fecked up my foot, in an unrelated..ish injury. Lots of grip, very light. Feet were a bit sore as there isn’t much protection, so you really feel it if you step on a stone or root awkwardly.

I would recommend running in the park just before sunset, there’s a lovely winter feel off the place.

nerraw1111

Tuesday core
Haven’t done them in a while and felt the burn. Wobbly planks, sweet jesus that feels tight reverse lunges etc. Could feel the effects all day Wednesday.

Wednesday 8 * 600 metres

This session will go down in history, a momentous day. I actually over counted the reps! Joy of joys. About to do the eighth rep, feeling fupped, when the garmin suddenly stopped.
My emotions went from anger at the watch ruining the 8th rep, to “hang on a sec, it seems the session is finished.” I must’ve spent about 3 minutes counting on my fingers the number of times I ran up and down Sandymount. “So I went up, then back, then up again etc” There was no getting away from it. I had ran the 8th rep without knowing it. 3km warm up, 3km warm down.
Reps came in around 3.25min – 3.28 pace. Slight headwind on every second rep.

nerraw1111

Running between beer at the moment.

Nice run in the rain at Hellfire club at weekend. Initial climb is a real leg burner. Some nice trails.

3000 metres time trial track

Thinking of joining a club and this was a session I joined. No watches allowed which threw me. Also had to estimate your time so I put down 10.55. Not too conservative but at same time, not too aggressive that I'd look foolish if I blew up which there was a good chance given no watch.

Off we went and I had no clue what pace I was running at. At a guess 3.30 min/km pace. Round and round we went. Settled into a nice rhythm and places didn't change after initial dash. Started feeling it after 1400 metres. Form was starting to go now. About 1000 to go, 2 lads went past me. Hung on to them for a bit before I fell off. Last lap and some lad goes by me like a train. Upped the pace to hold off the footsteps from behind.

Clocked 10.39 which I'm happy with given first time running track and no watch. Was fupped afterwards. Stomach was tense as fvck. Really enjoyed it though. Nice to be running at speed with others.

KielyUnusual

Alright nerraw,

I take it you were down at Crusaders last night. Was that your first night down there? I joined there only recently and it's a decent club. A good few runners running our sort of distance so there's always some one to run with and some people to aim towards. The 3k time trial was great craic too. I think they do one at the start of each month so should be a good way of guaging progress.

nerraw1111

KielyUnusual wrote: »

Alright nerraw,

I take it you were down at Crusaders last night. Was that your first night down there? I joined there only recently and it's a decent club. A good few runners running our sort of distance so there's always some one to run with and some people to aim towards. The 3k time trial was great craic too. I think they do one at the start of each month so should be a good way of guaging progress.

I was indeed. Second time down, seems like a good club.

Not much to report. Twinged my calf last Saturday, risked the Christmas Goal mile and it was fine. Standing up an hour later and it calf suddenly cramped, sore ever since.

I suspect it’s down to lack of stretching etc. That’s top of the new year resolutions, stretching and foam rolling. Hopefully clears up for Art O’Neill which I’ve seriously undertrained for. No run over 10 miles since the marathon. Convinced myself it’s essentially a 30km run followed by 25km of hiking and running downhill

DogSlySmile

Just saw the results there. Very impressive result mate. Well done.

nerraw1111

Art O'Neill race report.

Background

Farcical lead up to the race. Calf injury during Christmas mile had me limping till New Year. The Monday before the race, I tried a run and managed 5km before calf cramped resulting in a long cold walk home. Yet 4 hours later I was at the race briefing for the ultra run. Had this injury before and it cleared it up overnight. So was hoping the same would happen. Ridiculous thinking but I had race fever. Spent the week doing core exercises three times a day, gave up tea and took magnesium (after googling it may cause/solve calf cramps.) Such was my thinking, I didn't want to risk a run before the race.

The race

Arrived at 8.30pm to check in before heading home again for a later dinner and a snooze. Left trail runners and a bag which I'd pick up at first checkpoint. Getting up at a midnight, I got the WTF are you doing feeling in the pit of my stomach. Arrived at 1am for the longest hour of my life. Got some good tips from some racers re navigation.

Bang on 2am and away we go. Brilliant buzz running out of Dublin castle. The field spread out quite quickly and found myself in a group of 4. The calf was grumbling but so far so good after 7km. A couple of drunks would run alongside/slag us. In no time we were out by Old Bawn and hitting the first hill. Places began to change here quite a bit.

Given my inexperience in races of this nature, my plan was to walk the steep hill leading to stone cross and other steep sections. Most people did the same. Bit surprised to find that my legs were already a bit tired and couldn't get much speed out of them on any of the downhills. Plenty of chat with other racers. Felt a bit rough at around 20kms so necked a second gel which revived me a bit. Found the shortcut/detour to the bridge and passed the majority of walkers here. I was now running on my own and ticking along nicely. The view behind me was amazing, a long line of head torches zig zagging down the hill. Bit of a drag from the bridge to first check point which I power walked. Met Miculin here who was going well in the walk event.

CP 1 TO CP2

I thought I went through transition very fast but somehow spent 10 mins here. All I did was change shoes and bag, drank some lucozade sport and grabbed a cup of chicken soup to a drink on the move. Headed off on to the first mountain section on my own. A bit nervous but sure that was why I was here. However another run caught me here so we ended going into the darkness together. Couldn't believe how dark it was, couldn't see a thing beside the odd head torch. It was plain to see people were tackling this section on v different routes. Terrain was v wet and tough going. Had compass and occasionally checked GPS and we seemed to be bang on. Just as we got to the Billy Byrne Gap we seemed to be going way off despite going straight. Between avoiding holes and peat hags we did a small circle. Bizarre. Eventually topped out and headed downhill and tentatively ran the descent. Occasionally the ground in front would just disappear. Found the stream and started following that. At one stage, the other runner sunk into a hidden hole and let out a roar. I thought that's it, his leg is fvcked. Luckily he was able to walk it off.

Decided to cross the river to the east side but somehow we ended up crossing about 5 rivers/streams. We stayed high up on the east side to try and avoid the short steep climb from river bank. We only saw the forest when we got with in 20 metres of it. Amazingly we hit the forest about 50 metres short of the forest entrance. My hips and groin were sore now but still able to run to checkpoint 2.

CP2 to Finish

We decided to stay together as quite rightly, we deduced the win had slipped from our grasp and we were moving along nicely. Some porridge and a few swigs of redbull and off we ran. I was delighted to find I was still able to run the trails after passing the marathon distance. I wasn't familiar with this section but my partner knew it well. We decided to head west along the ridge. It was v steep and extremely wet. Still we were constantly moving along. The scenery was spectacular. The cloud was blowing across the ground in gusts, it looked like the moon with smoking craters all around.

Once we got to the top, the weather changed to driving rain for a bit with poor visibility. A real slog fest, the peat hags kept coming and coming. Constantly checking compass and it seemed we were going the right way. But after a while, doubt crept in and the GPS stopped working. (Apparently a few GPS stopped stopped working at same location.)

Eventually we found the lake and knew we hadn't far to go. Again the visibility wasn't great and again we started thinking we may be going the wrong way as we saw no other runners and terrain didn't feel right. After 20 mins or so we eventually found we were bang on. We both felt good and ran the remaining 5/6km home. A small slip near the finish had me sitting in a stream but crossed the line just a few mins over 8 hours. Delighted with that. Lovely pints and a full Irish at Glenmalure lodge.

Very sore yesterday but legs seems ok today. Oddly my arms are very sore too. Brilliant event though, a real sense of adventure and great fun. Just brilliant to be out in such wilderness. I'll definitely be back. Food wise I had 4 gels, chicken soup, mars bar, and some porridge.

PaulieC

Sounds like a proper adventure alright. Will definitely look into doing it next year, and make sure plenty of recces are done.

Well done on finishing it.

nerraw1111

5 miles

Handy lunch time run. Legs felt ok, lovely fresh afternoon for it. Odd niggle but all systems for some proper training. Plan to finally invest in a foam roller (any recommendations?) and may sign up to Pilates or yoga? Thoughts? Or is a more running focused core programme better ?

Hopefully make it to out to first IMRA winter league race in Howth on Sunday.

nerraw1111

Thursday 8 miles

Met Krusty and a few others for muddy night trail run. Very sloppy and ridiculous murky weather made for an interesting run. Invigorating stuff. Some nice stretches of uphill.

Howth IMRA

Another new year and another winter league beginning with the "easy" Howth. This race kills me every year. Furious start, elbows rubbing, all aiming to reach the bottleneck. Made it through in around 10th. V sloppy conditions, ankle deep mud and puddles. Working way too hard in the first 10 mins but still keeping up. Bit of relief on the downhills where I made some time. But as soon the trail went up, the legs just weren't there and ppl went by. Dogsly had zoomed by me earlier and was now out of sight.

Another descent and again reeled some people in. Took a corner too tight and ended up in the bush. Helping hand up from another runner and back at it. The main climb was a killer, considered stopping for a rest at one point! Summit came and legs eventually stopped burning. Flat section now before last small climb. Single track from here on in, so bust a gut to nick a place back trail narrowed. Lashed down the descent to get some breathing space and hold my place till finish. A real lung burner.

Happy enough with race. Dogsly was newly 2 mins quicker which is a concern . Legs are also destroyed from the heather!

Jack Daniel's Running Formula arrived on Friday. Ordered it in Nov but somehow selected Andorra as my country from drop down menu. Impressively, someone in Andorra spotted the mistake and sent it to Ireland. So 16 week 10 - 15km training plan from Monday.

DogSlySmile

In fairness, I think that's the first time I've ever finished ahead of you! So far I think the score is nerraw: 7, dogsly: 1

nerraw1111

Monday 16km

5 miles in and suddenly realised I left the keys in the door. A substantially negative split home to find house wasn't ransacked. Handy enough pace. Legs were a bit tired.

Tuesday session 1 week 1 of Jack Daniel's 5-15km plan

Ice put the skids on planned 200/400 reps. Decided on 1 mile reps instead in a muddy park. Not ideal. Crap grip, poor light, low branches, crap route made for crap times. Supposed to do 5 but called it after 3 as it was in danger of been counter productive. Times were a bit off but they all felt very hard with legs really feeling it. No garmin but times were about 15/20 seconds down.

Delighted to finally start a plan.

PaulieC

5 mile PB on the way home ?

nerraw1111

10km easy

Easy run. Legs were a bit tired. 4.40 min km pace for 1st 5km, 2nd half upped pace to sub 4.30s with a last 4.17 km.

Wore icebreaker base layer which was a bit uncomfortable. A bit hot.

Looking at some races to do over summer for the craic. This race looks amazing. http://www.ultraks.com/en/les-parcours/trail/?idContent=8 46km around Matterhorn in August.

Lakelands 50 also looks like fun. Although perhaps too long.

nerraw1111

Thursday 200s and 400s

Pretty good session.

Took myself over to pigeon house road near the south wall for some 200s and 400s. It’s great location for such a session, as the road is dead flat and straight, very quiet and is about 500 metres long.

Session called for 5 or 6 sets of (2 * 200metres with 200 jog recoveries and 1 * 400 with 400 recovery)

Based on a rough VDOT calculation, I picked a time and off I went. First 2 reps were fine with the 400 really taking a bit of an effort.

Usual feelings of ‘the wind has picked up all right’ for the third. But I was still hitting a few seconds under the target of 39 seconds for 200s and 79 for the 400s. I was amazed at how long 200metres felt when tired.

The fourth was ok, was starting to hit 39 but still getting 78s for the 400. The fifth was something I haven’t really experienced before but have heard the phrase ‘swimming in lactic.’ Was like running through porridge. Still nailed the times.

I did hope to do a sixth but ran out of time, although not sure how the last would’ve went.

I think I’ve picked the right vdot based on a guessed current 10km pb of 37mins. I ran 37.15 in a 10km time trial 2 weeks before the marathon.

nerraw1111

Saturday week 1 session 3 JD

Daniel's called for interval pace at: 2 mins - 1 min recovery, 1 min - 30 sec recovery, 30 sec - 30 recovery. Repeat.

I did 5 reps based roughly on 8% of my total weekly mileage.

Plan was to run them at 3.30 pace. First reps all under 3.30 until I hit the wind head on. Second 2 minute was 3.40 followed by 3.33 for the minute.

So slightly cheated and decided to do the long intervals with the wind (or not into it) and shorts ones into it. Basically ran around the corner to avoid worst of it. Really hard work but hit all the intervals under 3.30 with short ones closer to 3.20.

First time doing such a session. Kinda messes with the head. Relief to get to the 30s but then you've only 30 secs till the 2 mins.

Relaxing now with some nice Sierra Nevada pale ales and anchor steam beer.

nerraw1111

Tuesday

Pyramids.

Didn't get a chance to an LSR at weekend as was away. Attended club session which was v tough. The JD plan called for a different session but I think the advantages of doing a session with others vs JD plan is worth it. Not a massive difference. 300, 400, 800, 1200 and back down.

Went out far too fast and was in a heap by the 1200. Dropped down a level and recovered enough to finish. Headless chicken sort of stuff though, no idea of times.