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A Slow Journey to Faster Times
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Good luck tomorrow but don't forget to leave a bit in the tank for next week...you've got a full pack yapping at your heels now
Thanks.
Yes, in horse racing terms tomorrow is my prep run ahead of the Cheltenham Festival next week. Can't wait for the roar when the gun goes in Enniscorthy 0 -
Capital idea, might just steal that idea and do it in Cork...if Dungarvan goes well obviously. I don't even need to tell you what to order for desert, in fact just skip main course and go straight for it
What about going for a TC treble? Starter, mains & dessert. I think I've just put on a pound or two thinking about it. I feel like Homer Simpson. Toblerone Cheesecake....aaaawwwww....(drool).0 -
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63:12 in the Trim 10 Mile this morning. Eased off after 4 miles when I knew the chance of a pb was gone. A good blowout if nothing else which will hopefully bring me on for the big handicap race next week
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Full thoughts to follow in my race report later/tomorrow.0 -
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That's a great result off recent training. You wont be long knocking chunks off that once you get a few consistent weeks behind you.63:12 in the Trim 10 Mile this morning. Eased off after 4 miles when I knew the chance of a pb was gone. A good blowout if nothing else which will hopefully bring me on for the big handicap race next week.
Full thoughts to follow in my race report later/tomorrow.0 -
I decided despite the fact that I'd done little or nothing all week that I'd make the trip down to Trim and give this race a go. Although a pb seemed unlikely, I saw this a best case scenario with a good blowout to bring me on ahead of next week's 10k the worst case.
Pre-Race
As mentioned, due to external circumstances I'd done next to nothing all week bar a few recovery paced miles. You would think that would leave me fresher, but I haven't slept much either. In saying that, I ate and slept well yesterday/last night and was as optimistic as I could be ahead of the race. Got down to Trim in 40 minutes and registered without any problems. Bumped into aero2k before the race. I was hoping at that stage that I might pop into his finish line photo again, but he was looking fit and that seemed improbable. Hung around hogging the radiator in the registration hall for as long as I could because although it looked beautiful out the window, it was very, very cold. I knew that wouldn't be an issue once we started, but I could do without catching frost bite before the start. Headed down to the start line with ten minutes to spare where I met Terry049 who wasn't racing himself, but had come out to support his brother. I also noticed last week's Raheny winner Martin Fagan warming up (he went on to win in 48:23). He's a pretty divisive figure it seems, but I haven't really got an opinion either way and am just looking forward to him running a marathon as I'd be very interested to see what time he could clock based on his shorter stuff.
The Race
Lined up relatively close to the front just beside the 70 minute pacer (there were 4: 60, 70, 80 & 90 minutes). He was chatting to a couple of lads behind him explaining the topography of the course and how he was going to pace it. I listened in as he told them that the stretch between miles 5-7 would be straight into a wind along with a few ups & downs. Other than that the course was pretty flat so there should be no excuses. MC counted us down and we were on our way.
Miles 1-4 (6:04, 6:14, 6:14, 6:20)
Spent the fifty yards coming out of the starting area passing some joggers who had started alongside Martin Fagan & Gary O'Hanlon, but once we were out on the main road I swung right out to the far side and settled into my pace. The wind was behind for the first half mile and I noticed I was going at 5:49 pace. It felt ok so I went with it, knowing it would slow a bit as we turned out of the tailwind. The course took a left just after the Lidl and Martin Fagan was already out on his own about 300m ahead of me. I had been five yards behind him two minutes earlier! As we saw out the mile with the wind now blowing across the pace had slowed to just above six minutes. I was happy with this as I was intending to run pb pace (6:10min/mile) for as long as possible. Six seconds in hand going into Mile 2. Pace stayed pretty steady here. Ten seconds slower than the first mile, but that was due to not having a tailwind to help for some of it. Still two seconds in hand as we moved into Mile 3. I remember thinking at this stage that the field seemed pretty deep. I was moving close to 6:00min/mile pace and I was still in a large group. Normally in these rural races the field has thinned out by this stage. Anyway I continued on clocking an identical mile to the second one which now put me slightly behind target. I thought if I could stay within a reasonable distance of that, I'd have every chance of picking up any lost seconds in the final miles. However, we took a left at Dunderry village towards the end of Mile 4 and hit the headwind the pacer had been talking about. My pace dropped by five seconds almost immediately. It was decision time.
Miles 5-9 (6:29, 6:27, 6:30, 6:30, 6:26)
As I began Mile 5, I could feel my effort levels rising and looked down to see 6:25 showing on the watch. I made the decision there and then to ease off and run the rest of the race relatively comfortably. I knew how much effort it would take to get back to 6:10 and it was too early to start turning on the afterburners. The fact that I had some ground to make up already wouldn't help either. So I ignored the watch for the next half mile until I felt I had got into a nice comfortable rhythm. When I eventually glanced back down I saw I was hovering around 6:30 pace. This was the way it stayed for the next few miles. One thing that bothered me here was some people passing me. I rarely get passed in the second half of races as I normally pace myself pretty well, but here I was allowing a few to go by me without responding. What made it more infuriating was that they were blowing out of their ar*es to pass me, while I was barely breaking sweat. I reminded myself that this conservative approach would pay dividends next week and that paying MKDTH €20 in Enniscorthy would be far more frustrating :pac:. So I let them go, about ten in all over the course of five miles. I vowed to blow back by them in the tenth mile if they were still within range. Another thing I remember when passing the 8 mile sign was thinking "That f*cker Martin Fagan is already finished now. Lucky bast*rd!
Mile 10 (6:01)
I continued for the first 3/4 of this mile at the same pace. There was one guy in a green St Coca's singlet about 30 yards ahead of me. Other than that the rest had gone too far ahead to be caught. I got a shout out from Terry049 here just before we took the final turn. As we passed the '400m to go' sign I decided it was time to use up whatever I had left in the tank. A surge at this stage wasn't going to do me any harm. I moved slightly left to give myself a clear run past the guy in green. Then I put the foot down. Maybe he was slowing down, but I went by him like he was stopped. I suspected I hadn't done enough for sub 63 and the clock confirmed it. However, it wasn't a bad blowout in the end considering the week that was in it and I had also managed to make up around 30 seconds in the final 400 metres, so was happy with that.
Official Time: 63:12
Garmin data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/687616167
Post-Race
I'm normally awful for post race stretching/cool down, but since I hadn't taken a huge amount out of myself I had the presence of mind to go through my normal post training run routine. Just as I was finishing I saw Tom Joad come through the finish about a minute under his pre-race target. He went off to dump his sand bag and then came over for a chat :P. Overpronator was there too having paced TJ around most of the course. We went for a quick cool down jog before heading back into the registration hall where we took advantage of the Bewleys sponsorship. Tea, coffee, soup, rolls, chocolate biscuit cake, rice krispie cakes, bars......the list goes on and on. Enniscorthy has a lot to match up to next week. I'm not sure I've left any room for Toblerone Cheesecake tonight! Anyway, I met aero2k again who got in well under the hour. Makes me wonder how I managed to finish ahead of him in those two races last summer? I spent about an hour ingesting sugary products before eventually going on my way. Maybe it was just bravado in front of his gf, but Overpronator was telling me he plans to target a 63 minute HM in Bohermeen. Martin Fagan was eavesdropping near by and seemed a little worried. He may not turn up for that one
Thoughts
A really good race. Great route, perfect weather and great spread afterwards. As discussed with aero2k post-race, this could be a really fast course if you got a windless day. No complaints. I'd recommend this to anyone.
Now for my own post race musings:
*RAMBLE ALERT*
Ok, this is going to be far longer than normal. Put the kettle on.
Last week I went into the Raheny 5 Mile knowing that I was nowhere near my fitness level of mid 2014 when I ran my pb of 29:58. Yet I managed to beat that time. This week, although my training had again been poor I was quietly confident of doing the same. But I didn't. Why? Well I think when I analyse everything it's pretty simple to work out.
Last year I felt like I only had to turn up at races to run pbs. And in most cases this turned out to be true. However, although I was running times faster than I had ever run before, I'm not sure I was doing myself justice at every distance. I ran three pbs in 13 days last May, but the fact is when I was fresher for races of the same distance later in the year, I absolutely destroyed those times. The only one outstanding was the 5 Mile, because I hadn't raced that distance since Terenure. If I had, I'd probably have gone sub 29. The Vdot values below show how strong/weak my pbs are.
5k - 17:15 (59)
5m - 29:58 (55)
10k - 37:07 (56)
10m - 61:39 (56)
HM - 1:20:17 (58)
Marathon - 2:59:11 (53)
As I already thought before I checked, my 5k & HM times are extremely strong and probably representative of my current ability when fully fit and properly trained. I won't be improving on them without some serious work. Given that those Vdot values are similar, it makes sense that I should be able to match them at the race distances in between in the same circumstances. So that would give me targets of something like: 5m (28:30), 10k (35:50) & 10m (59:00). I definitely feel these are possible. The marathon is my weakest by far and although that race has it's own set of rules, I'm confident I can get that value pretty close too in the right conditions. The long & short of it is that I can't just turn up at races and expect a pb anymore. I will have to work hard and they still won't be guaranteed. Those easy paced maintenance runs which I failed to get in this week are also a lot more important than I gave them credit for. I definitely noticed a difference in how I felt today having missed so many of them last week.
However it's not all doom and gloom. I was given some good advice pre-race today to hold back and save a bit for next week if I felt the pb wasn't on. The reasoning being that I couldn't be expected to produce my best next week with a flat out effort today. So that's what I did and I must say the five miles or so I ran at 6:30 pace were extremely comfortable. Being able to pick it up so much in the last 400m proves this I think. That has to be a positive to take from today, especially considering I ran a 10 mile in Clonakilty eyeballs out last April and came home in 65:02.
Another thing to take into account if you are to believe the above logic is that I was never going to produce my best today after an all out pb effort last Sunday. So to run a comfortable 63:12 (only 93 seconds off my pb) is also pretty encouraging. Roll on next Sunday. I really can't wait for this. Dubgal72 is the outright favourite for the handicap in my opinion, but I'll be doing my very best to beat her (and the field). I can guarantee I won't be holding anything back in Enniscorthy. 0 -
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You have loads of potential to take chunks off those PBs. You ran that 5k PB in the middle of Marathon training. In fact all those PBs where off the back off Marathon training.I decided despite the fact that I'd done little or nothing all week that I'd make the trip down to Trim and give this race a go. Although a pb seemed unlikely, I saw this a best case scenario with a good blowout to bring me on ahead of next week's 10k the worst case.
Pre-Race
As mentioned, due to external circumstances I'd done next to nothing all week bar a few recovery paced miles. You would think that would leave me fresher, but I haven't slept much either. In saying that, I ate and slept well yesterday/last night and was as optimistic as I could be ahead of the race. Got down to Trim in 40 minutes and registered without any problems. Bumped into aero2k before the race. I was hoping at that stage that I might pop into his finish line photo again, but he was looking fit and that seemed improbable. Hung around hogging the radiator in the registration hall for as long as I could because although it looked beautiful out the window, it was very, very cold. I knew that wouldn't be an issue once we started, but I could do without catching frost bite before the start. Headed down to the start line with ten minutes to spare where I met Terry049 who wasn't racing himself, but had come out to support his brother. I also noticed last week's Raheny winner Martin Fagan warming up (he went on to win in 48:23). He's a pretty divisive figure it seems, but I haven't really got an opinion either way and am just looking forward to him running a marathon as I'd be very interested to see what time he could clock based on his shorter stuff.
The Race
Lined up relatively close to the front just beside the 70 minute pacer (there were 4: 60, 70, 80 & 90 minutes). He was chatting to a couple of lads behind him explaining the topography of the course and how he was going to pace it. I listened in as he told them that the stretch between miles 5-7 would be straight into a wind along with a few ups & downs. Other than that the course was pretty flat so there should be no excuses. MC counted us down and we were on our way.
Miles 1-4 (6:04, 6:14, 6:14, 6:20)
Spent the fifty yards coming out of the starting area passing some joggers who had started alongside Martin Fagan & Gary O'Hanlon, but once we were out on the main road I swung right out to the far side and settled into my pace. The wind was behind for the first half mile and I noticed I was going at 5:49 pace. It felt ok so I went with it, knowing it would slow a bit as we turned out of the tailwind. The course took a left just after the Lidl and Martin Fagan was already out on his own about 300m ahead of me. I had been five yards behind him two minutes earlier! As we saw out the mile with the wind now blowing across the pace had slowed to just above six minutes. I was happy with this as I was intending to run pb pace (6:10min/mile) for as long as possible. Six seconds in hand going into Mile 2. Pace stayed pretty steady here. Ten seconds slower than the first mile, but that was due to not having a tailwind to help for some of it. Still two seconds in hand as we moved into Mile 3. I remember thinking at this stage that the field seemed pretty deep. I was moving close to 6:00min/mile pace and I was still in a large group. Normally in these rural races the field has thinned out by this stage. Anyway I continued on clocking an identical mile to the second one which now put me slightly behind target. I thought if I could stay within a reasonable distance of that, I'd have every chance of picking up any lost seconds in the final miles. However, we took a left at Dunderry village towards the end of Mile 4 and hit the headwind the pacer had been talking about. My pace dropped by five seconds almost immediately. It was decision time.
Miles 5-9 (6:29, 6:27, 6:30, 6:30, 6:26)
As I began Mile 5, I could feel my effort levels rising and looked down to see 6:25 showing on the watch. I made the decision there and then to ease off and run the rest of the race relatively comfortably. I knew how much effort it would take to get back to 6:10 and it was too early to start turning on the afterburners. The fact that I had some ground to make up already wouldn't help either. So I ignored the watch for the next half mile until I felt I had got into a nice comfortable rhythm. When I eventually glanced back down I saw I was hovering around 6:30 pace. This was the way it stayed for the next few miles. One thing that bothered me here was some people passing me. I rarely get passed in the second half of races as I normally pace myself pretty well, but here I was allowing a few to go by me without responding. What made it more infuriating was that they were blowing out of their ar*es to pass me, while I was barely breaking sweat. I reminded myself that this conservative approach would pay dividends next week and that paying MKDTH €20 in Enniscorthy would be far more frustrating :pac:. So I let them go, about ten in all over the course of five miles. I vowed to blow back by them in the tenth mile if they were still within range. Another thing I remember when passing the 8 mile sign was thinking "That f*cker Martin Fagan is already finished now. Lucky bast*rd!
Mile 10 (6:01)
I continued for the first 3/4 of this mile at the same pace. There was one guy in a green St Coca's singlet about 30 yards ahead of me. Other than that the rest had gone too far ahead to be caught. I got a shout out from Terry049 here just before we took the final turn. As we passed the '400m to go' sign I decided it was time to use up whatever I had left in the tank. A surge at this stage wasn't going to do me any harm. I moved slightly left to give myself a clear run past the guy in green. Then I put the foot down. Maybe he was slowing down, but I went by him like he was stopped. I suspected I hadn't done enough for sub 63 and the clock confirmed it. However, it wasn't a bad blowout in the end considering the week that was in it and I had also managed to make up around 30 seconds in the final 400 metres, so was happy with that.
Official Time: 63:12
Garmin data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/687616167
Post-Race
I'm normally awful for post race stretching/cool down, but since I hadn't taken a huge amount out of myself I had the presence of mind to go through my normal post training run routine. Just as I was finishing I saw Tom Joad come through the finish about a minute under his pre-race target. He went off to dump his sand bag and then came over for a chat :P. Overpronator was there too having paced TJ around most of the course. We went for a quick cool down jog before heading back into the registration hall where we took advantage of the Bewleys sponsorship. Tea, coffee, soup, rolls, chocolate biscuit cake, rice krispie cakes, bars......the list goes on and on. Enniscorthy has a lot to match up to next week. I'm not sure I've left any room for Toblerone Cheesecake tonight! Anyway, I met aero2k again who got in well under the hour. Makes me wonder how I managed to finish ahead of him in those two races last summer? I spent about an hour ingesting sugary products before eventually going on my way. Maybe it was just bravado in front of his gf, but Overpronator was telling me he plans to target a 63 minute HM in Bohermeen. Martin Fagan was eavesdropping near by and seemed a little worried. He may not turn up for that one
Thoughts
A really good race. Great route, perfect weather and great spread afterwards. As discussed with aero2k post-race, this could be a really fast course if you got a windless day. No complaints. I'd recommend this to anyone.
Now for my own post race musings:
*RAMBLE ALERT*
Ok, this is going to be far longer than normal. Put the kettle on.
Last week I went into the Raheny 5 Mile knowing that I was nowhere near my fitness level of mid 2014 when I ran my pb of 29:58. Yet I managed to beat that time. This week, although my training had again been poor I was quietly confident of doing the same. But I didn't. Why? Well I think when I analyse everything it's pretty simple to work out.
Last year I felt like I only had to turn up at races to run pbs. And in most cases this turned out to be true. However, although I was running times faster than I had ever run before, I'm not sure I was doing myself justice at every distance. I ran three pbs in 13 days last May, but the fact is when I was fresher for races of the same distance later in the year, I absolutely destroyed those times. The only one outstanding was the 5 Mile, because I hadn't raced that distance since Terenure. If I had, I'd probably have gone sub 29. The Vdot values below show how strong/weak my pbs are.
5k - 17:15 (59)
5m - 29:58 (55)
10k - 37:07 (56)
10m - 61:39 (56)
HM - 1:20:17 (58)
Marathon - 2:59:11 (53)
As I already thought before I checked, my 5k & HM times are extremely strong and probably representative of my current ability when fully fit and properly trained. I won't be improving on them without some serious work. Given that those Vdot values are similar, it makes sense that I should be able to match them at the race distances in between in the same circumstances. So that would give me targets of something like: 5m (28:30), 10k (35:50) & 10m (59:00). I definitely feel these are possible. The marathon is my weakest by far and although that race has it's own set of rules, I'm confident I can get that value pretty close too in the right conditions. The long & short of it is that I can't just turn up at races and expect a pb anymore. I will have to work hard and they still won't be guaranteed. Those easy paced maintenance runs which I failed to get in this week are also a lot more important than I gave them credit for. I definitely noticed a difference in how I felt today having missed so many of them last week.
However it's not all doom and gloom. I was given some good advice pre-race today to hold back and save a bit for next week if I felt the pb wasn't on. The reasoning being that I couldn't be expected to produce my best next week with a flat out effort today. So that's what I did and I must say the five miles or so I ran at 6:30 pace were extremely comfortable. Being able to pick it up so much in the last 400m proves this I think. That has to be a positive to take from today, especially considering I ran a 10 mile in Clonakilty eyeballs out last April and came home in 65:02.
Another thing to take into account if you are to believe the above logic is that I was never going to produce my best today after an all out pb effort last Sunday. So to run a comfortable 63:12 (only 93 seconds off my pb) is also pretty encouraging. Roll on next Sunday. I really can't wait for this. Dubgal72 is the outright favourite for the handicap in my opinion, but I'll be doing my very best to beat her (and the field). I can guarantee I won't be holding anything back in Enniscorthy.
If you focused on getting your 5k time down by training specifically for that distance, it would pay huge dividends when you go to tackle longer distances. Krusty and Jebus logs are a good case in point.0 -
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Nice honest report and good analysis following it.
Your in good shape, not every race will be a PB, and you shouldn't expect it to be - took me a few races to come to terms with that - but the general progression is very evident.
Massive things in '15 from you.0 -
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outforarun wrote: »stable door, bolted etc, any encouragement from me won't make any difference now, he's on a mission, I'm surprised he hasn't distributed racing silks.
Enniscorthy 10k
My market:
Dubgal72 (-5mins) - 3/1
barryoneill50 (-3mins) - 10/3
yaboya1 (Scratch) - 7/2
Calvin Johnson (-3mins) - 4/1
adrian522 (-8mins) - 7/1
Pacing Mule (-10mins) - 10/1
MKDTH (-20mins) - 12/1
I will not be taking bets on this as it would be a serious conflict of interest
Somebody else can arrange the racing silks........0 -
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Enniscorthy 10k
My market:
Dubgal72 (-5mins) - 3/1
barryoneill50 (-3mins) - 10/3
yaboya1 (Scratch) - 7/2
Calvin Johnson (-3mins) - 4/1
adrian522 (-8mins) - 7/1
Pacing Mule (-10mins) - 10/1
MKDTH (-20mins) - 12/1
I will not be taking bets on this as it would be a serious conflict of interest
Somebody else can arrange the racing silks........
Lol. Yeah 10/1 does certainly reflect the odds of me getting within 10 min of you 0 -
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Pacing Mule wrote: »Lol. Yeah 10/1 does certainly reflect the odds of me getting within 10 min of you
The 10/1 reflects your odds of finishing 1st of the seven runners (taking the handicaps into account). 0
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