Back to the Future

RedRunner

12/3 - Easy run home from work 8.21miles @8:44

Conditions weren't too bad, drizzly rain , a bit windy in places but I like running in the drizzle, very refreshing. It was an incident filled run home though. First , I nearly got run over by a cyclist. Now I'm not going to rant about cyclists because maybe I was partly to blame. I was running down the quays towards 3Arena and just before you get to it the cycle lane on the river side runs out. At this point there was a runner coming towards me so I was focussing on not running straight into him and since I was going by the arena heading northside I decided to cross the road. No traffic coming against me so started to cross the road but didn't look to my left because a) I wouldn't have expected traffic coming from that direction on that side and b) had passed the end of cycle lane. Of course just as I went to cross over , a cyclists came up beside me , I had to check my stride , he gave out a shout etc. No clash, so no one got hurt. He was on the wrong side of the road though in my opinion, and yes I probably should have looked left just in case!....bloody hell I bored myself half to death typing that.Hope it isn't as bad reading it!.

Anyway off around the 3arena over to the northside , past East Point entrance heading to Clontarf. This is where the second incident of evening happened. Saw a guy attempting to cross the road and it seemed someone was pulling over to pick him up. The car that pulled in must have done so abruptly as it prompted the car behind to beep him as he passed on outside. The guy crossing the road , clearly was upset by the beeping and crossed into the road and launched a boot into the side of the car, while shouting all sorts of expletives. The car proceeded to slow down to a stop and then the guy crossing the road went to the driver who had his window down(only a bit mind you) and gave him more abuse. Talk about bizarre. Clearly this guy is a serious case for anger management! That was a bit more interesting than the last one!

Anyway back to the running. Was happy with the run. Effort was easy but pace a little faster than my usual easy pace which I like to keep around 9min/mile. Noticed a few niggles on left leg. Knee a little sore on occasion, calf a little tight and got a bit of a pain in my foot, just at the base of the toes where the meet the rest of the foot. Came and went quickly but happened a couple of times. Think I'll take tomorrow off , do some bike work and roll the sh1t out of the legs.

Nicely building up to race at work. We have 120 people signed up and they'll have some friends and family running too. With our special t-shirt for the day we'll be hard to miss too!

This will actually be my first ever 5k race proper as I've only ever run that distance in park runs up to now, so really looking forward to it.

HelenAnne

See you there! Sounds like you're getting on great. You're doing your reps with Mick & Dave much faster than me, so we could have a race on our hands on Sunday (a race that you will, no doubt, win - just trying to inject some excitement!)

pistol_75

Good luck with everything on Sunday.

tang1

Best of luck Sunday R.

Ososlo

Have a great race R! Things looking good for you!!
Hope the rest of your crew have a great race too!

FBOT01

HelenAnne wrote: »

See you there! Sounds like you're getting on great. You're doing your reps with Mick & Dave much faster than me, so we could have a race on our hands on Sunday (a race that you will, no doubt, win - just trying to inject some excitement!)

R, I hope you are not going to take this smack talk lying down. The old "your much faster than me" line........right up until she tries to blast you away in the last k. HelenAnne was flying in Ballycotton last weekend so don't be fooled

Best of luck on Sunday (to both you and HelenAnne) and I will be watching closely for the result of the head to head

ENJOY!!

HelenAnne

FBOT01 wrote: »

R, I hope you are not going to take this smack talk lying down. The old "your much faster than me" line........right up until she tries to blast you away in the last k. HelenAnne was flying in Ballycotton last weekend so don't be fooled

Best of luck on Sunday (to both you and HelenAnne) and I will be watching closely for the result of the head to head

ENJOY!!

I myself have been fooled by this kind of line - my friend K (you may know him as the man who often runs St Anne's parkrun with his pet whippet?) bet me actual money I would beat him in Ballycotton, ('I'm so tired, I haven't been training,' he sandbagged ). By mile 7 I was beginning to think I just might, but then at 7.5 miles he passed me (to be fair to him, he did say 'Come on, come with me!), pulled ahead, stayed ahead and beat met by 30 seconds. So it's not over till it's over!

adrian522

Best of luck on Sunday RR.

RedRunner

FBOT01 wrote: »

R, I hope you are not going to take this smack talk lying down. The old "your much faster than me" line........right up until she tries to blast you away in the last k. HelenAnne was flying in Ballycotton last weekend so don't be fooled

Best of luck on Sunday (to both you and HelenAnne) and I will be watching closely for the result of the head to head

ENJOY!!

Oh don't worry M. I'm not falling for that one. Having seen HelenAnne's recent park run times and Ballycotton result I think it's plain to see who'd be the favourite for any head to head.

HelenAnne wrote: »

I myself have been fooled by this kind of line - my friend K (you may know him as the man who often runs St Anne's parkrun with his pet whippet?) bet me actual money I would beat him in Ballycotton, ('I'm so tired, I haven't been training,' he sandbagged ). By mile 7 I was beginning to think I just might, but then at 7.5 miles he passed me (to be fair to him, he did say 'Come on, come with me!), pulled ahead, stayed ahead and beat met by 30 seconds. So it's not over till it's over!

K is a sandbagger supremo! He always downplays his form and always does well!:)

I'll keep an eye out for you Sunday H . If I try and keep up with you and manage get anywhere near you, I'll be guaranteed a decent time.;)

HelenAnne

Best of luck! Enjoy it. hopefully there will be a few of us around the same pace and we will spur each other on.

RedRunner

HelenAnne wrote: »

Best of luck! Enjoy it. hopefully there will be a few of us around the same pace and we will spur each other on.

Thanks. Looking forward to the buzz of race day again. First race since last August! Have a good one too.

RedRunner

13/3 - 30 mins easy on the bike followed by some foam rolling and stretching

14/3 - 3.46 miles @8:35 w/6x20 secs strides

About 200m into the run I felt pain in my left knee. This was the niggle I noticed on Thursday which led me to rest yesterday. It was pretty painful, so much so I nearly was stopping altogether. Managed to warm up it up eventually and it went away. Got through the run and the paces for the strides were;

5:54,6:06,5:57,5:47,5:39,5:38

The knee is slightly worrying for tomorrow. Hopefully a decent warm up will keep it at bay for duration of race. Loads of foam rolling done afterwards.

SamforMayo

What's the race tomorrow? I'm
A bit out of touch!

RedRunner

SamforMayo wrote: »

What's the race tomorrow? I'm
A bit out of touch!

Hi Sam. It's the St Patrick's Festival 5k in Dublin.

SamforMayo

RedRunner wrote: »

Hi Sam. It's the St Patrick's Festival 5k in Dublin.

Oh best of luck in it! Enjoy.

RedRunner

Target was sub 22. Watch says 21.07. Very happy with that. Report later.

Calvin Johnson

Well done RR - great to see you back and approaching your best.

adrian522

Well done, didn't see you today but glad you had a good run!

Wubble Wubble

Well done RR, I saw you away in the distance as we were lining up. No sign of you once the gun went off though !

Murph_D

Wow - great time, R. Well done.

RedRunner

16/3-MSB St Patrick's Festival 5k

Pre Race

This was to be my first proper race since last August and a long layoff with injury. After a patient recovery and slow build up over last few weeks I felt I was in decent nick to give this a go. My 5k PB is 20:30 from last summer off the back of a good marathon training block for London. I felt sub 22 was a good target for this one based on a few weeks half decent training. Training mind you which wasn't really 5k specific just me trying to mix it up a bit and get some miles in the legs again.

Had a bit of a scare yesterday with some knee pain but foam rolled the hell out of the leg yesterday evening and it seemed to do the trick. I think a sports massage would be a good idea soon. I think the quads and ITB need some work as the tightness there might be taking the patella off track a bit.

Apart from all the running preparation for myself I was also organising a charity run for my workplace and we had 100+ runners/walkers there today so had the added pressure of this and the fundraising aspect too but it was all worth it.

A bit of panic earlier as I had to go in early to get my number as I didn't receive it in the post and when I got to DART station realised I forgot my phone which I really needed today so had to leg it home (5mins away) then get a quick lift from OH to the next DART station and just about caught up with the DART. So that was half my warmup done already. Arrived in plenty of time get my number and goody bag before they started getting busy.

The Race

Did a bit of a warmup and some strides and the knee was feeling ok so by the time I line up at the start it wasn't really on my mind so I could concentrate on running the race without distraction. Our work crowd brought some colour to the start line with our fluorescent orange t-shirts, even got a mention from the PA person which was great. Met Helen Anne from on here during my warmup, along with some other clubmates. At the startline spoke briefly with DaveMcMahon , who introduced me to another boardsie but cant remember for the life of me his name and got a great "Good luck" from Marthastew too. Thanks MS! Great run from you today! Spotted AMK but too far away to say hello.

The countdown started and we were off. A little congested as expected and had to sidestep a few people but once we turned the corner the wider road allowed for some spacing out. Felt like I was going a tad fast but lacking some race practice so want sure. Tried not to look at the watch too much during the race but was doing 6:15 pace at this stage so knew I couldn't hold that and brought it back a bit. Despite this I was feeling ok and flet reasonably comfortable, or as comfortable as you can in a 5k race at this stage. In the first mile I must have heard at least fou shout outs for Marthastew just behind me so it dawned on me that I must be going too fast if MS was behind me! That wasn't to last very long as I saw her glide past just before the turn down to Pepper Cannister church. Here I got a great glimpse of MS's race experience as she made sure the guy next to here didn't edge her onto the kerb with some clever use of the arm;)
First mile completed in 6:27

Could I keep this pace going, hardly not!? I've often read on here though that 5k is an eyeballs out kind of race and you should just go out hard and hold it if you can. Not sure that would apply to someone as inexperienced as me but I think I need a few more good training blocks before I could do that from both a mental and physical aspect. I tried to keep the tempo as even as possible without expending too much energy at this stage as I didn't want to end up dying in the last section of the race. Concentrated on running tall and controlling the breathing as much as possible as we went along the canal up towards Leeson bridge and onto Adelaide road. There was a bit of wind in places but don't think it had that much of an impact. Mile 2 completed in 6:55

After hitting 2 miles I knew I just had to hang on. I used the slight downhill back towards the green and leeson st turn to gather myself help pick up the pace a little. As we came off leeson st I felt I just needed to keep it steady at that pace. I knew sub 22 was in the bag and I had an outside chance of getting in the 20s. I knew once I turned onto the finishing straight I could find some kind of kick so I was concentrating at this stage on making it as far as that turn. Mile 3 completed in 6:35

In the last section I was hurting but knew the finish wasn't far away so just kept in going until the turn back into Dawson street and once I saw the finish gantry I picked up the pace and finished very strong in the end. No dry wretching at the end but wasn't far from it. Last bit (.21) was 5:37 pace.

So finished in 21:07 by my watch. My net and gross time are same by results (21:20) and before today I'd have taken that but I'll take my watch time thank you very much!:D

Delighted with that result at this stage in my "Back to the Future" plan. It is a very positive result and something I can work on over the next while. Possibly could have worked harder and might have gone sub 21 but let's save that for another day. It was more important for me to come through this in one piece with something positive to keep me going forward and that mission was accomplished.

Great success also for the work crew too. Everyone enjoyed it and there was a great buzz going. Well done MSB for a great race.


Next up: Not sure. There is a club 1 mile race on Wednesday. Don't often get a chance to do this distance so might give it a lash and see how close to 6:00 I can get !;)

4.86 miles done for the day including warmup/down and weekly total of 28 miles

davemcmahon

Well done today Robbie glad to hear the leg held up.

For the record it was vanderlyle, his log is here

pistol_75

Well done Rob, great comeback. I'd leave the 1 mile race though for now. You have just come through your first race since August and a faster race might just expose any niggles you were feeling before the race.

Recover well and go again

RedRunner

pistol_75 wrote: »

Well done Rob, great comeback. I'd leave the 1 mile race though for now. You have just come through your first race since August and a faster race might just expose any niggles you were feeling before the race.

Recover well and go again

Thanks P. Probably sage advice there. I think there is another one the following week so could defer until then and just keep it easy this week.

HelenAnne

RedRunner wrote: »

Thanks P. Probably sage advice there. I think there is another one the following week so could defer until then and just keep it easy this week.

The mile races are 18th & 25th March, and 8 April. 1st April is the Holland Cup - just under 3 miles, sealed handicap.

Hope to see you at some of them & well done to you & all your work team yesterday.

I was delighted with how yesterday went - got a bit faster every mile, and ended up 8 seconds faster than the same race in 2013, so a new PB (20.15). Fingers crossed for both of us that things keep going this way and nothing else goes wrong with us.

By the way, not sure if you've had any calf problems, or if it's mainly your knee / hamstring, but I got calf sleeves (by CEP, I think?) and have been wearing them racing, and not a calf niggle since! (It could be the placebo effect ).

Well done again & hope there's a great post-race atmosphere in your office today.

RedRunner

HelenAnne wrote: »

The mile races are 18th & 25th March, and 8 April. 1st April is the Holland Cup - just under 3 miles, sealed handicap.

Hope to see you at some of them & well done to you & all your work team yesterday.

I was delighted with how yesterday went - got a bit faster every mile, and ended up 8 seconds faster than the same race in 2013, so a new PB (20.15). Fingers crossed for both of us that things keep going this way and nothing else goes wrong with us.

By the way, not sure if you've had any calf problems, or if it's mainly your knee / hamstring, but I got calf sleeves (by CEP, I think?) and have been wearing them racing, and not a calf niggle since! (It could be the placebo effect ).

Well done again & hope there's a great post-race atmosphere in your office today.

Cool. Thanks Helen, might hold off until the 25th then.

Great run yesterday for you. I had you in my sights for a while but just couldnt keep up. You'll be sub 20 in no time.
Yes, hopefully we can both make more improvements and stay injury free this year. I think I'm going to talk to Mick and Dave about doing some specific training, put a plan together maybe and aim to do some shorter stuff for the summer, maybe even try the graded meets:eek:. Do you think i'd make the D grade in any event?. I think i'd like to try an 800m but never raced it before. Probably should do a time trial and see what I have to do to improve to a decent competitive level.

never really have had any calf issues apart from a little tightness now and again. Mostly hamstrings and knee(normally due to ITB or tight quads)

Runchick

Great running RR brilliant to see you coming back so strong, well deserved PB

HelenAnne

RedRunner wrote: »

Yes, hopefully we can both make more improvements and stay injury free this year. I think I'm going to talk to Mick and Dave about doing some specific training, put a plan together maybe and aim to do some shorter stuff for the summer, maybe even try the graded meets:eek:. Do you think i'd make the D grade in any event?. I think i'd like to try an 800m but never raced it before. Probably should do a time trial and see what I have to do to improve to a decent competitive level.

I don't know anything about the graded meets, sorry, but I bet you'd be well able! People in the club do them, some of the Fit 4 Life Speed trainers did last year - Maria & Orla did. Ask Mick, he'll know. Good plan!

My plan is just to avoid the marathon .

RedRunner

Runchick wrote: »

Great running RR brilliant to see you coming back so strong, well deserved PB

Thanks A. Not a PB though:) but very happy nonetheless. 38 secs to find though so watch this space!

tang1

Well done yesterday R, great running, you'll find those 38secs in no time.