3:30 or bust!

belcarra

Wednesday 22nd Apr - 5.6km IMRA Run - Bray Head
First Leinster League meeting this evening in Bray. I was half thinking of wimping out of it but after consideration I remembered the worse the conditions quite often the better fun these races are!

After a 830m warm-up/run to the start line 177 people were gathered waiting for the off. I started about 1/3 of the way back and at about 85% effort. There was a bit of walking through the narrower and steeper parts but this being my first time back on the IMRA runs this year I was happy enough with that. Weather was pretty bad but not quite the biblical flooding predicted by Met Eireann. I had expected to be poorer on the uphills and better on the downhills but this worked in exactly the opposite way! I was passed by lots of people on the downhill sections which surprised me. I guess I wasn't going flat out and didn't quite trust the conditions but I still thought I'd be a fair bit better.
Anyways, the finish line was the same place as the start line this year so no running the promenade thankfully. Last time I did this event was 2009 and it was my IMRA debut in runners. After that race I bought the Salomons which I was still wearing tonight. 2009 I was 154% of the winner and tonight I was 139%, so I guess there is improvement there.

Hoping to do most of these races through the Summer and expect to see an improvement in performance which should aid strength in the legs.

Went for a 3.65km cool down afterwards to bring total distance to 10.1km for the evening.

Month|No. of Runs|Kms Run
January|29/31|405.7
February|24/29|365.6
March|22/31|310.0
April|17/25|226.2
Total|91/115|1,341.2

slowsteady

belcarra wrote: »

Last time I did this event was 2009 and it was my IMRA debut in runners.

And before that you used to be - barefoot?

belcarra

I'm assuming that was a wry comment but in case there's any doubt I'm all against this barefoot running fad!!
No, that was my debut in IMRA races. I was in runners for that race, but I was doing so much sliding round coming down the mountain I made sure I bought a pair of mountain runners before my next race.

slowsteady

belcarra wrote: »

I'm assuming that was a wry comment but in case there's any doubt I'm all against this barefoot running fad!!
No, that was my debut in IMRA races. I was in runners for that race, but I was doing so much sliding round coming down the mountain I made sure I bought a pair of mountain runners before my next race.

Wry indeed:)

Never tried off-road running, have enough knee trouble without leaving tarmac. Funnily enough I think the downhill would bother me much more than the climbing part of the races.

belcarra

slowsteady wrote: »

Never tried off-road running, have enough knee trouble without leaving tarmac. Funnily enough I think the downhill would bother me much more than the climbing part of the races.

Ya, if the knees are bad then I don't think the mountain running would help them too much alright!
My own knees were feeling Wed's race during and after it and I generally don't have any issues. I'd be expecting my performances to improve a fair bit over the next 3 or 4 races until I get full confidence back on the downhills...probably lost 3 mins that way the last day!:o

belcarra

Thursday 23rd Apr - 9.0km Recovery Run
Nice easy recovery run where I managed to maintain about 5:50/km pace. Nothing else to report really!

Friday 24th Apr - 27.3km LSR with 13km MP (4:55/km)
This was an important training run in my build-up to Cork. My previous LSR with MP miles was cut short from 11km to 7km @ MP due to sore muscles and fatigue from racing a couple of days earlier. I was feeling much better for this run but still had some slight aches that I knew I'd have to keep an eye on throughout the run.

I had arranged to meet Philip @ Hazelhatch in order to run the banks of the Grand Canal for a change. I knew some of this patch would be muddy but was promised a decent chunk of tarred and trail path that should allow faster running. We started in the direction of Dublin along the unknown terrain. Immediately I wasn't too impressed: muddy paths with plenty of flooded ground/puddles! At this stage I changed my autolap to 2km. This was to allow for a little progression run experiment... the idea was to run 2km @ 5:30 pace, then the next 2km @5:25, and so on where we would eventually arrive at 4:55pace in time for the faster MP miles. This worked to a degree...we had a steady-ish progression but were guilty of going too fast at certain times.

We continued on about 5km before we reached the Newcastle-Lucan Road. Once we crossed here it was onto a lovely track which I think continues in as far as Inchicore but we only went 800m before turning back the way we came.

By 11.5km we were back at Hazelhatch and continued on out towards Ardclough and beyond. This was the start of the faster running and straightaway we settled into a pace between 4:50 and 4:58. After a stretch of about 1.5km we arrived on a perfect path/road surface which lasted most of the way until we turned around at the 19km mark. Back towards Hazelhatch once more where we then retuned to the cars @ the train station after a total of 27.3km.

Faster stuff was quite tough from the off and the last 3km were very tough. My breathing was never too heavy but the legs were still a litle jaded from tougher faster runs recently. However, I think it's just a matter of the body having to understand that the days of slow long runs are a thing of the past and that faster tougher runs are here for the next 6 weeks at least!! Hopefully the next MP run will be a little easier...
MP section data:


Split:|1|2|3|4|5|6|7
Pace|4:56|4:53|4:55|5:01|4:53|4:55|4:55
Av HR|159|155|151|157|156|156|159
Max HR|151|152|149|153|153|153|157|

Month|No. of Runs|Kms Run
January|29/31|405.7
February|24/29|365.6
March|22/31|310.0
April|19/27|262.5
Total|93/117|1,377.5

belcarra

Saturday 28th Apr - 8.0km Recovery Run
Easy Recovery Run to get the legs moving again after yesterday's tough LSR @ MP. Kept it to close to 6:00/km and it seemed to improve the legs quite a bit.

Sunday 29th Apr - Rest Day
Took it handy with no running and went to Croker for yet another Mayo failure:mad:

Monday 30th Apr - 7.0km Easy Run with 3 x 800m intervals
Went for a short run this evening before settling down to watch the Manc Monday match. Decided to throw in a few intervals but wasn't feeling too confident as my stomach was a bit troublesome. First interval started well but as I got closer to the end of it I started to feel it more than I expected. Finished in 3'12" for a 3:58/km pace.

A 2:30 recovery and then into the second interval where I was into a strongish breeze. This was tougher for longer but managed 3'13" for 4:01/km pace.

The third interval had me struggling most of the way through so I had decided to call it quits when I reached the end of this one. Struggled around again to record a 3'13" again. By this stage I just fell into a very slow paced recovery jog. HR took longer than normal to come back down though so I think there was something else at play to make the session feel a bit tougher. Hopefully just a temporary thing though...

Month|No. of Runs|Kms Run

January|29/31|405.7
February|24/29|365.6
March|22/31|310.0
April|21/30|277.5
Total|93/117|1,392.5

So, 21/30 days in April and at only 277km my lowest month so far. Most of that reason though was related to recovery after Connemara so that's fair enough. May should hopefully see a return to February levels.

Woddle

The pace for those 800s look very familiar, someone planning a sub 20 attempt

belcarra

Woddle wrote: »

The pace for those 800s look very familiar, someone planning a sub 20 attempt

Absolutely 100%!!
PB has been whittled down to 20:33 now so Docklands 5k will be pushing out the boat to try and 'get into the elusive teens' for want of a better phrase!:p

Woddle

Are you tempted by the Leixlip 5k this Saturday, appears to be a few boardsies looking at sub 20

Marthastew

belcarra wrote: »

to try and 'get into the elusive teens':p

digger? RQ? Surely one of you can turn this into a smutty discussion?:D

Brianderunner

Marthastew wrote: »

digger? RQ? Surely one of you can turn this into a smutty discussion?:D

There's one thing i said to Digger and Claralara after the Donore 5k last year thats very relevant here but i won't be repeating it on a message board

My goal for this year is to get into the under 17's Sub 16 may be my lifetime limit!!

belcarra

Woddle wrote: »

Are you tempted by the Leixlip 5k this Saturday, appears to be a few boardsies looking at sub 20

I'm off in Westport for a stag party special endurance training this weekend.

belcarra

Tuesday 1st May - 19.0km MSR
Absolutely rotten weather out there tonight but I still had to do a 19km MSR regardless . I decided I'd be best of doing mile laps of my local park rather than hitting the footpaths and getting covered in water from passing cars. Even so, the pathway in the park was flooded over in 3 places so even that wasn't straightforward! Surprisingly given all that weather the kms ticked off nice and quickly and before I knew it I was returning back to the warmth and dryness of my apt!

Garmin connect appears to be playing up again so I will add the link whenever it returns...:rolleyes:

Month|No. of Runs|Kms Run

January|29/31|405.7
February|24/29|365.6
March|22/31|310.0
April|21/30|277.5
May|1/1|19.0
Total|94/118|1,411.5

belcarra

Wednesday 2nd May - 9.5km IMRA Run - Three Rock/Ticknock
Lovely conditions for my second IMRA run of the year. Started with a 1km warm-up. At the start I found myself well down the field just before the off. I didn't bother trying to make any ground further up in the field as i figured these are primarily for training and a bit of fun so why not try passing lots of people instead of worrying about being passed?

First section was up the path for about 800m until we got out onto the road section. This was very tight for passing so only made up a few positions but once we got out on the broader road I made about 10 positions to the masts for the first passing.

We turned left and down the boneshaker for another 1km or so. This was good craic but I was passed my a few people here even though I passed one or two more myself. We hung a right at the bottom and after a brief flattish section we were back climbing probably the steepest climb of the day. Again I made about 3-5 positions on the climb before we reached the top and were back out onto open road.

This section was downhill for about 2km which I covered in 4:37/km pace. Again I passed about 10 people on this section without being passed myself. We then turned uphill towards the fairy castle. This section wasn't too bad but was just slippery enough that it was easier to walk up it. Once on top it was a rough but enjoyable run back down to the masts before we were repeating our opening 2km in reverse direction. The 0.65km on tarred road was covered in 3:26 pace which I'm pretty sure is as fast as I've ever gone, albeit wuth a substantial downhill behind me!

Finished the race in 60:23 which was just about good enough to get me a top-100 place (97th). %time was 137%. It was a different route last time I did Three Rock but back then I finished in 158% so a big improvement there. Finished with a 500m jog back to my car for 11.0km overall for the evening.

Thursday 3rd May - 8.0km Recovery Run
Very easy 8km easy run this evening. Felt last nights run beginning to rear it's head towards the very end of the run. Other than that - fine. Kept it to 5:57/km pace.

Garmin Connect still acting up on my account so I've had to download .tcx files through Training Centre and then re-import them manually into GC...what a pain!!:rolleyes:


Month|No. of Runs|Kms Run

January|29/31|405.7
February|24/29|365.6
March|22/31|310.0
April|21/30|277.5
May|3/3|38.0

Total|96/120|1,430.5

belcarra

Friday 4th May - 31.4km LSR with 15.0km at MP
Met Philip in the Phoenix Park for the LSR. Plan was similar to the last LSR but with 16km building up the pace to MP and then the last 16km @ MP.
The first half went fine and we covered 16.4km in an average of 5:20/km.
A quick drink of water and we were away again for the faster kms.
MP section data:
Split:|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8
Pace|4:58|4:49|4:54|4:56|4:48|5:00|4:59|4:57
Av HR|145|149|150|151|150|151|156|156
Max HR|151|153|154|155|153|153|159|158

The last split was only 1km rather than 2km as I was spent after 15km. As per previous long runs once the HR goes up past 155bpm I'm in the deep red and simply can't sustain it. The good news however is that I managed an extra 3km today before the real tough part started to creep in. Hopefully with a few more LSRs and a HM on Wednesday this upward trend of my treshold will continue to climb.

When we got back to the cars Philips had been broken into via the samll triangular window in the back seat area...laptop and wallet nicked!! Those bloody scumbags get everywhere!:mad:

Saturday 5th May - 2.0km Jog to and from 5 a side in Westport
At a stag in Westport for the weekend and on the Sat afternoon we had a game of 5 a side so I took the opportunity to jog there and back just to rack up a couple more kms for the total!!

Sunday 6th May - Rest Day.
Knackered! That is all!!

Monday 7th May - 11.2km Easy Run
Easy run to get the legs back in action. Took it handy in order to save them somewhat for Dundalk on Wednesday evening.

Month|No. of Runs|Kms Run

January|29/31|405.7
February|24/29|365.6
March|22/31|310.0
April|21/30|277.5
May|6/7|82.6
Total|99/124|1,475.1

ultraman1

belcarra wrote: »

[B The good news however is that I managed an extra 3km today....Hopefully with a few more LSRs .....2.0km Jog ... I took the opportunity to jog .... Rest Day.[/B]
Knackered! ... Easy Run[/URL][/B]
Easy run... Took it handy..[/LEFT]

htfu:D

belcarra

Tuesday 8th May - Rest Day
Took Ultraman's advice tonight where he suggested I 'Have To Further Unwind' after my tough weekend so another Rest Day for me!:D

Wednesday 9th May - Dundalk Half Marathon.
I had to forego my weekly IMRA run this evening to do the Dundalk HM. This was to be my main tester for Cork as regards pace. Aim was to do 4:30/km pace the whole way around, half because it was a nice round number and half because it coincides with a 3:21 Marathon via number crunching in McMillan.

Philip joined me for this race and we met up with Pconn half an hour before the start who had kindly picked up our race packs during the week - The kindness of strangers! Both Pconn and Philip were looking at tackling 1:30 today although PConn did show signs of a dodgy cough that was about to rear it's head later in the race.

The race started about 5 mins late and I found myself about 5 rows back from the front. The first couple of kms were very easy in amongst the Town and the small crowd who had gathered to cheer. I found myself doing 4:12 for the first km and then repeated the same thing for the second!!:rolleyes: I managed to slow down to my target pace for the third km though and remained floating around this pace for most of the remainder of the race.

The two lap course was tough mentally which resulted in me finding kms3-10 some of the longest I have raced. There were no real hills but a few small inclines which combined with the breeze made some sections tougher than others. I made sure I pushed on over the easier parts and tried maintaining effort on the tougher parts. Every now and then I slipped in behind the shelter of fellow runners where I needed a little break. For about 4km I was running in a quartet with the 3rd female and a blind guy and his aid. Fair play to the blind guy, he was really cruising it along even though there were some dodgy bollards and kerbs to catch him out but he was guided well by the aid.

The closing few kms saw me almost pass Pconn as he had stopped for a few secs ahead of me. I wasn't sure if I should pass on by and say nothing or if I should give him a gee up and get him to join me for the run-in. My quandry passed however as he took off again just before I was in touching distance of him and then managed to maintain a gap of about 15 secs on me all the way to the finish line. Great running in tough circumstances considering his ill health!

For my first time racing I was closing in on the finish but didn't quite know where it was! I wasn't sure if we had to do another lap of the 500m block we did earlier so wasn't quite sure when to hammer it home! Eventually I saw the clock way off in the distance down a street we hadn't been on heretofore. As I legged it there appeared out of nowhere and taking up most of the available road that weird fat guy who cycles a trike festooned in Irish colours in first gear!:rolleyes: I just about managed to get by him but any chance of a sprint over the last 50m was gone (Although it would only have been worth a couple of seconds at that stage!). Finished up in 1:35:30 for a PB by 4:50. The Av pace for the entire run was bang on 4:30/km which I was very happy with. Pconn was just ahead of me over the line and Philip was home in 1:28:13 or so. Gary O'Hanlon destroyed the field within the first km and won easily in the end. Very good course (albeit with a couple of dodgy spots), great value and no queue for the FIVE massage tables available at the end. I'm pretty sure I'll be back again next year!!

Month|No. of Runs|Kms Run

January|29/31|405.7
February|24/29|365.6
March|22/31|310.0
April|21/30|277.5
May|7/9|104.4

Total|100/126|1,497.9

irfrm

Well done on the PB, very consistent splits, your in good shape
for CCM, 3:29 well with in your reach.

menoscemo

Great stuff! That's a big improvement and showa the training is paying off. Well done Phillip too.

Woddle

Super time and should make for a good battle at sportsworld if you're recovered enough. I may be using you again as the wind breaker
Any target in mind?

slowsteady

Well done, always good when a target is achieved according to plan. Looking good to do the same in Cork.

belcarra

Woddle wrote: »

Super time and should make for a good battle at sportsworld if you're recovered enough. I may be using you again as the wind breaker
Any target in mind?

I just saw that I did it last year in 38:57 as my first race back from a couple of years away from running. I think I'll be looking towards 33:xx for this Sunday (4:14/km or 6:48/m).
What's your goal?

Let's both hope for a calm day anyways!:rolleyes:

Woddle

belcarra wrote: »

I just saw that I did it last year in 38:57 as my first race back from a couple of years away from running. I think I'll be looking towards 33:xx for this Sunday (4:14/km or 6:48/m).
What's your goal?

Let's both hope for a calm day anyways!:rolleyes:

Similar to yourself, I had started back in April of last year and Sportsworld was also my first race back, I ran 38:30 and I'll be hoping to dip under 33 on Sunday. Should be fun

pconn062

Well done belcarra, that's a great run and a great confidence booster for the marathon. I didn't realise you were that close to me at the end, the last few miles killed me but you ran very consistently throughout. Great run by your friend Philip as well, he was too easy on himself with his 1.30 target, great run.

Marthastew

Fantastic result, you must be delighted:) Your plan is really coming together nicely. Let me know when you're taking up coaching and I'll be happy to be your first student.

Well done to Philip also, that great result might make the disaster with his car being broken into seem a little less annoying.

outforarun

Cracking time. That gives you a 3:21 according to McMillan. Must be a huge boost to your confidence. On a scale of 1 to 10 where is that confidence at the moment?

belcarra

Marthastew wrote: »

Fantastic result, you must be delighted:) Your plan is really coming together nicely. Let me know when you're taking up coaching and I'll be happy to be your first student.

Well done to Philip also, that great result might make the disaster with his car being broken into seem a little less annoying.

Cheers O, Happy enough with the time alright...of course I could be greedy and say I wish i went sub 1:35:cool: but this really does leave me on/ahead of plan.
Sure you are doing great with your own self-coaching as well! I think the pair of us will give P&D a run for their money soon!!;)

belcarra

outforarun wrote: »

Cracking time. That gives you a 3:21 according to McMillan. Must be a huge boost to your confidence. On a scale of 1 to 10 where is that confidence at the moment?

Thanks!
Things appear on track for the 3:30 alright...I wouldn't be looking too far past that marker this time round as McMillan can be a little optimistic about predicted Marathon times, but the 8-9mins buffer does give me the confidence that I can do it. (Although I have a mate who has a PB of 3:25:xx so that could be on my mind if things are going well at 20 miles...!)
I suppose I'm taking an Uber confident approach in that there is no room for thoughts of failure in my mind so I'd have to answer 10 for the scale.
I really think my log title has helped enormously in that regard!

belcarra

Adding my HM time from Wed night and my K Club 10km:
Distance:|Pre-2011 PB:|End-2011 PB(2012 PBs in Bold):|2011 Improvement:|End 2012 target:
2m|N/A|13:22|N/A|12:50
3m|N/A|20:27|N/A|20:30
5km|24:19|20:33|3:21|19:59
8km|38:17|34:00|2:11|34:49
5 Mile|38:19|36:40|1:39|34:59
10km|47:55|43:16|3:30|42:59
10 Mile|01:22:16|01:17:17|4:59|01:14:59
½ Marathon|01:44:31|01:35:30|4:11|01:37:29
15 Mile|02:25:35|02:25:35|0:00|01:59:59
¾ Marathon|N/A|02:39:45|N/A|02:34:59
Marathon| 04:21:40|03:51:30|30:10|03:29:59
50km|N/A| N/A|04:43:58|04:44:59
39.3 Mile|N/A|N/A|06:37:53|06:20:00


Hopefully I'll have to update this table again after Sunday's 5 miler...