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To Connemara and Beyond ...
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Well done Nop! As others have said 1:45 on that course is worth at least a few mins off on a flatter route in less inclement weather. Have to admit to chuckling at the Flatlanders consistently selecting the hilliest races in Ireland
. Dingle sounds like a good choice if you're not put off by the hills (the Strawberry Half in Wexford is very nice too) but if you want to smash that PB there's plenty of choice of flatter (but possibly less scenic) routes. 0 -
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Thank you all for your nice words, I'm obviously delighted with the end-result but the matter which needs a lot of improvement.
I don't really know when my next HM or race will be. I'd like to do the HM distance again, properly, so maybe the race series event in September. Also, maybe the 10k time needs a little sharpening too, and Jr 1 is now addicted to parkrunning and has his PB to be below 24 minutes..
Being in the Flatland at the moment, I ran some easy recovery stuff and the legs seems to have no ill after-effects so we'll be back in business next week.
Anna - my Dutch buddies don't have hills to train on, I think it's a bridge over a motorway or so that they use. I kid you not.
The event on Achill had loads of pacers, not really advertised so I was pleasantly surprised. 1h45, 1h50, 1h55, 2h, 2h10 and 2h20 as well as pacers for 10k. The 1h50s did indeed fall back and if they made it in time, I don't know, I was doubled over at the finishline at that point! 0 -
Funny "deja-vu" moment yesterday.
For some reason I had agreed to go and play bridge in Ballina Co Mayo on Sunday - some team tournament with my local team. We drove up early on Sunday, arrive as usual with about 30 seconds to spare and I sat down immediately and started to play.
Eventually during an early board, I am dummy (meaning my partner plays my cards for me and I just sit and watch) and I have a minute to look around and take in my surroundings. To my fright and surprise right above the table is a painting that looks very much like this:
... which is the view during the Achill HM from about 7-10M where I had died about a thousands slow deaths. :eek:
:cool: 0 -
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It's calling you back, Nop.... It's your destiny....
Hope it didn't put you off the card game !
Ha! Don't say that... I was starting to get over it!
Card game was very business-like. Meet team at 7am. Drive for three hours, system talk in prep. Arrive, sit down, [freak-out at picture]. Count to 13, over and over again (that's what you do in bridge) for about six hours. Listen to team-mate give the winning captain's speech and collect price money. Drive home for three hours. Post-mortem all the boards (our captain is very demanding). Collapse on sofa exhausted... Pfff. It's like running a half-marathon!
Anyway, back to the running.
I clocked up 4 runs since Achill, 3 easy runs (5, 5, 4M or so, all just under 9 min/mi) and one tempo run (5M @ 7:42). I also signed up for the DLR bay 10k on a whim. That's a good short-term goal for now.0 -
Just catching up here. Great effort and great report on the Achill race (again I had some friends down West for it), you did very well despite the pace errors earlier on. Is it wrong to say I'm most envious of your easy/boring/junk pace these daysand Jr 1 is now addicted to parkrunning and has his PB to be below 24 minutes..
He does, does he??? My competitive side is pricking its ears (should be ashamed of myself ...). He'll have knocked minutes off that before I'm back to racing no doubt...0 -
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Right - I have ignored this log for too long. Catch-up from right after the Achill HM - in Singer-style table format. To HSR's delight, nothing but boring easy miles with the odd parkrun thrown in.
Date|Distance/Type|min/mi|min/km|Description
July 7|5M rec|8:51|5:30|5 easy rec miles on the flat lands of Almelo, Netherlands. Legs had been very sore in the few days since Achill but all good since.
July 9|5M easy|8:38|5:22|Back in Eire, some easy miles to wash away the cobwebs from the trip.
July 12|5M tempo|7:42|4:47|Lovely faster run during lunchtime at work. First km was reasonable after which the legs felt they needed a workout.
July 13|4M easy|8:50|5:29|Junk miles.
July 15|5M easy|8:42|5:24|More junk miles.
July 16|<5M incl Shanganagh parkrun|7:43 (parkrun bit)|4:48|The 9yo has decided he likes running parkruns and ran a PB of 23:52 a few weeks ago. Armed with new shoes from the local running shoe specialist, we ran together. He faded during the 4th km but manage to squeeze out a fast last km and PB'd at 23:42. His old man was very proud.
July 18|<6M easy|8:34|5:20|My DCM buddy is back from a long lay-off and we ran the lunchtime loop of Cabinteely Park to both our delight.
July 19|5M v-easy|9:19|5:48|Running easy miles with "sub-2h project".
July 21|4M easy|9:05|5:38|More boring lunch-time miles
July 22|Cycling|||Commute to work per bike. The morning is uphill, in the wind and reminds me why I don't like cycling.
The trip home is fine :cool:
July 23|~5M incl parkrun|7:42 (parkrun bit)|4:47|Per above, the whole family went to the local parkrun. My 7yo also wanted to do the parkrun, so I ran the first loop (1km) with her, 6:30 min/km or so. She then dropped out and would wait for us at the finish-chute with our barcodes. I set off after my 9yo who was again on PB track. I could see him far ahead and put in a decent effort to catch him, but failed!:o He clocked another PB (23:20 this time) and despite recording my "best estimated 2M time" according to Strava, it was not enough for me to catch him after the slow start. Very proud - but also worried that it won't be long before I won't be able to keep up with him. :eek:
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I am a total doofus :P. I know I am quite lucky in where I live, with a lot of very nice routes within running distance, e.g. Killiney Hill, Bray Head, and the edge of the Dublin Mountains (Carrickgollogan, Barnaslingan). But I never realized there were awesome trails to be ran too on those hills.
Sunday afternoon, inspired by the heroics of the novices at the Fingal 10k, and my personal sub-2h HM project (56:30 for his 10k, massive PB!), and the smooth running style of the winning elites, I went for a ~45 minute gallop without much of a plan. Instead of the pain :eek: of Quarry Road, which I initially wanted to run, I took a side-path which turned out to be a trail into Rathmichael Wood. To my surprise it eventually led up to Puck's Castle Road which I have ran many times, but always on the tarmac. This route totally kicked my ass but I loved it all the same :cool:. I had a closer look online later, found a map, and it turns out I can run much further along those trails - my usual hilly routes in the Dublin mountains but not on tarmac.
So I mapped out a nice route using Strava - and I am almost regretting having signed up for the Bay 10k (next Monday) as I have to wait until the next weekend to try it out!
:pac: 0 -
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Update since July 24. Tried to take it easy this week with the upcoming 10k race on Monday.
Date|Distance/Type|min/mi|min/km|Description
July_24|Trails|8:50|5:30|Per above, initial recce of my local hilly trails. I hope they'll feature prominently on this log going forward.
July 26|4M easy|9:06|5:40|Junk miles with "sub-2h". He's full of confidence after a PB at the Fingal 10k, so we might be targeting the PP HM in September for this after all.
July 28|5M easy|9:31|5:55|More very easy miles in the same company.
July 29|Cycle commute|||10 uphill and 10 downhill km's as cross-training.
July 30|~8km incl Shanganagh parkrun|7:29 (parkrun bit)|4:39|Out with my young fella again for a PB attempt at the local parkrun. Lovely run, he was struggling a bit during the 4th km but he made his auld man suffer during the last km, probably the fastest of his running career. We haven't gotten the official time yet but it is very close to his previous time of 23:20 :cool: Best to buy copies of the Evening Herald on Monday, folks, as we were snapped by their photographer who's going around the parkruns.
Right, on Monday, the local classic DLR Bay 10k awaits. I ran my first 10k there (<51m) in 2013 and also in 2014 (48m). I have not ran a 10k in anger since Dunshaughlin 2015 (46:07 - gun time). I have been a bit all over the place since Achill (just easy miles and a couple of tempo runs at the local parkruns, desperately trying to avoid humiliation by the young fella). Since the Bay 10k is a harder course than Dunshaughlin, I'd be delighted to get to roughly the same time, so 46:06 as A goal it is (4:36 min/km [7:25 min/mi]). Ah sure. We'll give it a lash.
Edit: time was 23:21, one second off his PB. He's now more determined than ever to break it next week! Oh man - gimme a break! 0 -
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DLR Bay 10k: 45:26 (PB) 4:32 min/km [7:17 min/km]
Having done the Bay 10k before, I had made a plan:- Don't get caught too far back at the start. You get stuck in a crowd going up the little drag outside Teddy's Ice Cream and you can blow your race in the first km.
- Run the first 5km easy, as it's has a few nasty drags and into the wind.
- Having read Bungy Girl's 5k PB report for inspiration yesterday evening, I was determined to find and stick to a pacer, especialy between the 4 and 7km marks, as that would be uphill, exposed and into the wind.
- Hammer the downhills from 7km onwards.
- Finish strong, despite the nasty little drag about 600m out.
It turns out, I am good at making plans. It also turns out, I am not that good at executing my own plans. The report card reads as follows:- EPIC FAIL. I had made some idiotic arrangement with someone else collecting my race-number and I thought I had plenty of time for a warm-up and some strides, but you can guess it, by the time I entered the starting pen, I was too far back and got caught. This was just plain dumb, easily avoidable mistake.
- FAIL-ISH. Annoyed with the slow first km split, I ran the following kms harder than I wanted to. There are 2 or 3 uphill drags, not too bad but enough to get the breathing going and I was nowhere near as comfortable as I would have liked. Still, I made up for some of the lost time at the start.
- FAIL. The field had spread out and I was a good 20 meters adrift from a group of runners I wanted to follow. I tried to close the gap but couldn't - or at least, not without it all falling apart. A bit unlucky.
- PASS. I love the bit down Albert Road and I never hold back, unlike many other runners. I just don't get it, why lean back and break against gravity as opposed to just let it drag you along, just 2-3 km from the end? My last 4 km splits are all faster than average, albeit not as much as I had hoped for or needed.
- PASS-ISH. There was still a little group ahead of me when we turned back towards the finishline for the last kilometer. I tried to speed up (more to "get it over with" than anything else) but I did hold back a little bit coming past Teddy's. What's a little drag at the start, is a nasty kicker after 9.5km. However, I picked it up again and overtook the entire group bar one lad, I believe. I had planned to do a Singer-style airplane-arms but I had just enough energy left to not keel over.
Finish-time: 45:26, which is a PB by officially 41 seconds (46:07 gun-time in Dunshaughlin 2015, which was ~45:50 chip-time). So, overall verdict is OK :cool:. I actually had a blast, despite pre-race nerves and it not all going to plan.
The race lacks the atmosphere of the race-series, Dunshaughlin or Raheny, but there were plenty of great supporters and I saw lots of friends and acquaintances. A special shout-out to MarthaStew - she's amazing as I saw her 2-3 times at different spots during the race AND she called out at me afterwards inquiring how I had gotten on!
Lastly, I managed to overcome the last hurdle by NOT missing the DART home with my two dorks.
Splits (km and miles):
4:45 :mad:, 4:21, 4:34, 4:31, 4:41, 4:46, 4:27, 4:21, 4:25, 4:22
7:27, 7:12, 7:25, 7:31, 7,01, 7:13, (6:46)0 -
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You will love The Lakes !! Last 3K all downhill, so no holding back and you will cruise to a new PB and into the arms of a lemon muffin
Congrats on this PB, and resisting the temptation to stop at Teddy's for ice-cream on the last stretch
(apparently plenty did :pac::pac:). 0 -
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Bungy Girl wrote: »You will love The Lakes !! Last 3K all downhill, so no holding back and you will cruise to a new PB and into the arms of a lemon muffin
Congrats on this PB, and resisting the temptation to stop at Teddy's for ice-cream on the last stretch (apparently plenty did :pac::pac:). well it is TEDDY's best ice cream ever....! + 1 to The Lakes, a super super race, are you signed up or is BG 'just sayin'?
Well done on the PB N! that's brilliant going on a tough course, happy days 0 -
Well done on the PB, N. You'll have to try again though to see if the plan was a good
Thanks FBOT - good point but I think there was an easy 20-30 seconds lost at the start. Not sure if I can face that race again, but, we'll seeWubble Wubble wrote: »Well done N, that's a great result considering the start you had. Doesn't it always feel great to be whizzing through the field with a strong finish? Sub 45 next time out maybe...
Thanks WW! Well, it didn't quite feel like whizzing by but it felt good at the end anyway!Well done Nop. Sounds as though its a tough course to pb on.
Thank you Denis - can't leave you clock up all the summer PBs on your own Not the worst course TBH, the rep is as usual worse that reality. But there are a few drags alright.Well done on the pb N!
Thank you kindly!Congrats on the pb nop
Thank you kindly, too!Bungy Girl wrote: »You will love The Lakes !! Last 3K all downhill, so no holding back and you will cruise to a new PB and into the arms of a lemon muffin
Congrats on this PB, and resisting the temptation to stop at Teddy's for ice-cream on the last stretch (apparently plenty did :pac::pac:).
You sell it well, BG but unfortunately I have other plans that weekend - the "count to 13" - kind. Are you doing it? Maybe you can save me a lemon muffin?
And thanks - I actually didn't even think of stopping at Teddy's. well it is TEDDY's best ice cream ever....! + 1 to The Lakes, a super super race, are you signed up or is BG 'just sayin'?
Well done on the PB N! that's brilliant going on a tough course, happy days
I think BG is "just saying" - no Lakes 10 for me unfortunately! Thanks FD :cool:0 -
You sell it well, BG but unfortunately I have other plans that weekend - the "count to 13" - kind. Are you doing it? Maybe you can save me a lemon muffin?
And thanks - I actually didn't even think of stopping at Teddy's.
Ah, I misunderstood somewhere. I thought you'd gotten out of the bridge weekend.
Eh, no, that lemon muffin is mine. All mine. :cool:
Apparently loads of runners 'paused' for an ice cream in the last 500m. Fact.0 -
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