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BQ or Bust!
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Sun 20 July
Dublin Race Series: Fingal 10k
Having raced only one 10k previously, the Aware 10k in the Phoenix Park back in 2012, breaking the old PB wasn’t going to be a big deal. Last month’s Irish Runner 5 Mile time suggested a target of 46:04, and based on some gentle goading from FBOT01 I raised my "gold" time goal to 45:59. That would be a huge bonus, but in reality I'd be happy with anything under 46:53, the McMillan "equivalent" for a sub-3:40 marathon.
Training has been going well so I was confident of hitting the fast end of this range. Didn’t have the ideal preparation with a last-minute invitation from my brother to go to The National’s gig in the Iveagh Gardens last night – that replaced my plans to put the feet up, although I spurned the offer of a backstage pass and, with apologies to the Vintners Association lobby around these parts, I stayed away from the beer too.:pac: So I was feeling good when I got up at 7am for the usual pre-race breakfast of porridge, bagel with honey, and coffee.
With plenty of time on my hands I drove up to Swords early and drove around for a quick "reccie" of the course. It looked flat enough, as expected, bar a couple of drags around the middle and one towards the end. I parked at Airside and hooked up with my good friend BK, who is training for his first marathon. B was faster than me the last time we hooked up at the Terenure 5 mile. This would be his first 10k, and he agreed to stick with me and have a tilt at the 46 mins.
Arriving at the start line about 10 mins before the off I was struck by the congestion, everyone packed into the narrow Main St. I didn’t notice any corralling in place, so we just squeezed into a spot somewhere around the middle, not that we had much choice given the congestion. The race was soon off and the first kilometer was spent at what felt like a slow shuffle through the crowd. I’d thought during the reccie that it would thin out fairly quickly on the N1 section, but this wasn’t really the case so I concentrated on running a good line through all those roundabouts I remember so well from the driving lessons all those years ago. Despite the slow start the pace was back on track by the time we turned off the NI around the 4k mark for the next section, alsong narrow country roads north of the village.
Conditions felt very warm, and I was glad of the first water stop, throwing most of it over my head. A bit of a drag here so I was happy enough to go through the 5k mark at about 23:09, knowing there was some downhill road ahead. B was going well at this point too (and why wouldn't he, letting me do all the work, what with it being his first 10k and all that
). Things started to feel a good bit tougher (as of course they should) entering the last third, however, and I noticed the pace slipping a bit. Somewhere in the eighth kilometer a local Civil Defence unit had a fire engine out to douse the field with a nice cooling spray, prompting several wisecracks about water charges.
The respite picked us up for a short while to the 8km mark, where I noticed B starting to flag a little. Approaching the village again, the course wound around a couple of corners and I started my now familiar gag reflex about 1500m from the finish. By the 9k mark the dry retching was refusing to die down, especially as we were now running uphill and into what felt like a fresh enough breeze. B was falling away and with a final word of encouragement I pulled away - I knew there was little point in looking at the watch at this stage and just tried to keep it together and finish as strongly as possible. At the crest of the hill, a welcome downhill section followed and the line came into view at last. Still burping away, I found a little bit of speed and just kept it together through the line before doubling up for a final gag just past the finish.
With all this stress I had forgotten to stop the watch but I’d be happy at this stage to be anywhere in the target range. Picked up the goodie bag in the very attractive finish area beside Swords Castle, where I bumped into RedRunner and yaboya1 who’d both posted some seriously impressive times. Still wasn’t sure of my own time - B thought he’d stopped his watch at 46 on the button so there was brief hope of the sub-46 before the text came through with the chip time of 46:28. (B is even more blind than I am and couldn’t see the smaller digits on his watch beside that big 46!)
Splits
Km 1-10
4:49 4:26 4:23 4:44 4:47 4:46 4:37 4:41 4:49 4:26
Miles 1-6(.2)
7:28 7:09 7:36 7:45 7:25 7:52 (1:13)
Average HR: 138 (60%) [This doesn't look right to me tbh, my HR is typically much higher than this during a race, although things did feel very comfortable during the first half]
Previous PB: 50:51
Target: 45:59
Actual: 46:28
Verdict: That'll do nicely, given the conditions.
WTD: 30 miles (48 km)
MTD: 116 miles (187 km)
YTD: 595 miles (957 km)0 -
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Fri 25 July
Rest. Well I did 500m in the pool. And 30k on the bike.
Sat 26 July
Rest. Sore "upper leg" after that bike session. Accompanied Mrs D to St. Anne's parkrun and watched Mark Kirwan break the course record by 40 seconds or so. Impressive. Nice guy too, thanked all the volunteers.
Sun 27 July
LSR 14 miles @ 9:42 (22.4km @ 6:02).
LSR in the Phoenix Park with a friend - followed the new HM route mostly (had to improvise around Farmleigh). Chatted all the way around and this seemed to go by in a flash. Lots of people in 2012, 2013 and 2014 Race Series shirts out there today, even more than usual.
Another good week, everything is still working. Passed 1,000km for the YTD today, which means something to people like me who are metric at heart.
|Miles|Km
WTD|34|55
MTD|151|242
YTD|629|1,012
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Fri 25 July
Rest. Well I did 500m in the pool. And 30k on the bike.
Sat 26 July
Rest. Sore "upper leg" after that bike session. Accompanied Mrs D to St. Anne's parkrun and watched Mark Kirwan break the course record by 40 seconds or so. Impressive. Nice guy too, thanked all the volunteers.
Sun 27 July
LSR 14 miles @ 9:42 (22.4km @ 6:02).
LSR in the Phoenix Park with a friend - followed the new HM route mostly (had to improvise around Farmleigh). Chatted all the way around and this seemed to go by in a flash. Lots of people in 2012, 2013 and 2014 Race Series shirts out there today, even more than usual.
Another good week, everything is still working. Passed 1,000km for the YTD today, which means something to people like me who are metric at heart.
|Miles|Km
WTD|34|55
MTD|151|242
YTD|629|1,012
Particularly when it was also his wedding day!
Another good week notched up D. Good stuff.0 -
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Mon 28 July
Rest.
Tue 29 July
Easy 7 miles @ 9:20 (11.3k @ 5:37).
This run included a lap and a half of Santry Park, where I unexpectedly bumped into a neighbour, running (fast) with a couple of others. If I'd done another lap, he'd have lapped me.
Weds 30 July
Pyramid session: 4/3/2/1 miles at MP, with 3-4 mins jog recovery. Total with 2 mi wu/cd: 15.1 miles (24.3 km)
Hadn't done this session before (last year at this stage of the plan I'd just done the Frank Duffy and skipped it). I thought it looked easy enough on paper. I was wrong.
4m rep: 33:47 (8:27 avg.)
3m rep: 24:42 (8:14 avg.)
2m rep: 16:35 (8:18 avg.)
1m rep: 08:11 (8:11 avg.)
Tot: 83:15 (8:20 avg.)
This one took me out the South side of Dublin Bay to Monkstown. Another first - never got further than Blackrock Park before. Screwed up the first rep - half way through I glanced at the watch and somehow came to the conclusion that I was going way too fast, so I slowed way down. Too late, I realised I was looking at the wrong number.
Put the foot down but it was too late. Managed to make the pace for the rest of the reps but I really needed the jog recoveries, and the last mile was really tough, felt like the end of a race. Was annoyed about messing up the first rep - should have been paying more attention, and should have felt the slow pace sooner. So much for dialling in to MP. But early days yet and overall this was a good workout and I was rightly knackered after it - thought I'd never get home.
|Miles|Km
WTD|22|36
MTD|173|278
YTD|651|1,047
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Mon 4 Aug
4.3 mi @ 9:28 (6.9k @ 5:53)
Don't usually run on Mondays but I'm finding it hard to get the mileage in and don't feel like doubling up.
Tue 5 Aug
7.8 mi @ 8:04 avg (12.5k @ 5:01)
I've been toying with the idea of joining a club for a good while now and have always come up with an excuse to leave it for another week. But tonight I decided to head over to Crusaders and try out their track session. I was given a very friendly welcome by one of the coaches, Don I think, who took my details. There were lots of people standing around chatting and others warming up on the infield so I did a few slow laps before the session was called and everyone did some warm up drills and a few strides. I then joined the marathon training group, probably about 20 people, which took off without any briefing in the outer lanes. I had no idea what the session was supposed to be and just followed along. The group soon fractured into several clusters but none of them seemed to be at my pace and I did most of the session by myself at about 10k pace, managing to get lapped at least twice, possibly three times by the faster couple of groups (mind you I lapped the slowest group a couple of times myself). I think it was supposed to be some sort of progression run - either way there was no stopping so it was a pretty good workout and I was working hard. After 40 mins or so everyone stopped and I had a brief chat with one of the other guys about the weekend Saturday run and headed home, not quite sure what had just happened.
WTD: 12 mi (19 km)
MTD: 36 mi (58 km)
YTD: 692 mi (1,114 km)
Hey Murph. Welcome to Crusaders.
I am probably to blame for taking off at the front of the marathon group training last night. The marathon coach usually explains the session at the start but he's on holidays and I just assumed everybody knew the session.
Last night's session was a 40 min pyramid fartlek: 3 mins, 4, 6, 8, 6, 4, 3 @ 10k to half marathon pace with 1 min easy in between.
There's a Google Group for the distance runners with the plans for Berlin and Dublin laid out so people know what's on.
It's a great club where you'll find a range of sessions and paces and people to run with whether you're training for 800m or a marathon at all sorts of paces.
I'll try and look out for you the next time.0 -
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