Running in the Real World

Firedance

annapr wrote: »

Wednesday, June 24: 6 x 800m @ 5k pace, with 3 min recoveries

The first session of the plan, which thankfully had been reduced from the original 10 x 800m :eek:

Headed out to St Anne's for this, found a nice quiet corner of football fields. During the warmup, I realised how bloody hot and humid it was and decided I would be very happy with 3 or 4 intervals at 5k pace. A full lap of the football pitches was almost 800m so it was a good spot.

I had a bottle of water with me and fretted about where to leave it to be safe from dogs... figured beside a goal post was not ideal, but would do. Next time I went past it, the bottle was being closely investigated by a nosy crow... I was thirsty enough doing this session that I didn't care if I caught bird flu or some other strange crow disease.

The goals was to do 800m in just under 4 minutes, based on a 5k pace of 5:00/km. Such lovely round numbers to work off.

After about 15 min warmup, i hit the lap button for the first 800m... this one felt fairly comfortable and not too hard. Well it was the first one. Second one was tougher and I was starting to boil. I decided I would do 3 at 5k pace and the last 3 at more like HMP. My breathing was heavy and laboured... it was so humid the air felt thick. Reminded me of DCM 14. It almost started to rain, which I would have welcomed, but not quite. I consciously slowed down for the 4th and 5th, and for the 6th aimed for steady HMP.

Cooled down and got back to the car dripping with sweat... did I mention the humidity? :eek:

Turned out the times weren't bad, even for the slower reps, all but the last one at 5k ish pace:

Rep|Time|Pace
1|3:47|4:44 (7:37)
2|3:52|4:50 (7:46)
3|3:50|4:48 (7:440
4|4:00|5:01 (8:04)
5|3:57|4:57 (7:58)
6|4:21|5:27 (8:46)

Happy with the effort on this, even happier that I didn't have to attempt 10 reps!!

Great session there Anna! Day one tick...

career move

Very nice splits. Well done

annapr

Thursday 25 June: Recovery
3.3 miles in 33:00 mins (for those who like symmetry) @ 10:09
5.23 Km @ 6:18

Creaky recovery run through the soupy afternoon air. Where's this rain they promised us?

The plan mandates a recovery run after the Weds sessions, not longer than 5 miles. This worked nicely with the only time slot I had today. All on footpaths today, no nice grass to run on.

hillsiderunner

annapr wrote: »

Creaky recovery run through the soupy afternoon air. Where's this rain they promised us?

over here

(none of that heat you guys have been complaining about though ...)

tang1

Good luck on both fronts tomorrow Anna, the race and football.

hillsiderunner

You are doing the 5miles, Anna? Good luck!

Dubgal72

Yes, again, best of luck! I'll see you on the bottom of the furze road or thereabouts.

FBOT01

Best of Luck, Anna and of course....ENJOY!! Hopefully, see you in there.


**BTW I posted this earlier but from some reason it is not showing above.

yaboya1

Good luck Anna

Pacing Mule

/waits (im)patiently for news

nop98

Good session, Anna

annapr wrote: »

Such lovely round numbers to work off.

Yep.

Firedance

Pacing Mule wrote: »

/waits (im)patiently for news

A course pb PM, ill let Anna explain, its a thing now apparently:-)

Well done again Anna, hot & tough out there today so kudos to you all for racing - those of us that took the easy option will no doubt pay at a later stage :-)

Pacing Mule

Firedance wrote: »

A course pb PM, ill let Anna explain, its a thing now apparently:-)

Well done again Anna, hot & tough out there today so kudos to you all for racing - those of us that took the easy option will no doubt pay at a later stage :-)

The concept of a course PB makes perfect sense

annapr

Pacing Mule wrote: »

The concept of a course PB makes perfect sense

It's my new favourite thing... 41:28, 12 seconds behind my Terenure PB but a much tougher course and hot!!!

Report to follow some time....

Pacing Mule

annapr wrote: »

It's my new favourite thing... 41:28, 12 seconds behind my Terenure PB but a much tougher course and hot!!!

Report to follow some time....

That goes down as a better performance for sure. There's a lot more than 12 seconds difference in the two IMO.

annapr

Pacing Mule wrote: »

That goes down as a better performance for sure. There's a lot more than 12 seconds difference in the two IMO.

Thanks, that's what Adrian said too, it was bloody tough. I'm happy with that, although of course you always say... Surely you could have found 13 seconds!!!

Ososlo

Great going Anna on the course PB. Looking forward to reading more!

FBOT01

annapr wrote: »

Thanks, that's what Adrian said too, it was bloody tough. I'm happy with that, although of course you always say... Surely you could have found 13 seconds!!!

Don't sweat it, Surely. Good result. Well done. Onwards and upwards!!

Firedance

Pacing Mule wrote: »

That goes down as a better performance for sure. There's a lot more than 12 seconds difference in the two IMO.

+ 1, I think that's the general consensus

aquinn

A course PB, one to rob for sure.
12 seconds is brilliant going in that heat today.

annapr

I love the race series, love running in the park, the crowds, the atmosphere.

I went into this one very relaxed. My 5mile PB is from Terenure only 6 weeks ago, and with a HM and 5k PB in between, as Dubgal would say no need to be greedy. My ultimate aim is to break 40 but I wasn't expecting that today. I would have loved sub 41 or a PB but decided I would see how I felt on the day. Maybe that was a mistake.

Strategy was to go out fast and bank some time for those hills in the last 2 miles.

We arrived in good time, with Aquinn and Bungy. BG promised a big shout out and went off to get a coffee and spectate. Aquinn and I did a cursory warmup, then lined up at the back of the sub-40 wave... A sceptical steward told us we could stay at the back... Cheek of him, A definitely belonged there, even if I was an imposter. :cool: We heard the announcer say the leaders expected to finish in 23 minutes :eek:, then we were off.

First half
I started well, even in that wave there were plenty of slower people to navigate around, but nowhere near as congested as last year. The pace felt good all the way to the bottom of the Khyber, first 3 miles were just under 24 mins, so I was optimistic I had banked enough time to get under 41... even toyed with the idea that sub-40 might be possible...

Second half :eek:
And then we turned the corner and started up the long drag of Military Road. And the wheels came off. I was really feeling the heat and gasping for water... They said there was a water station, where the hell is it? I've become a bit complacent about hills but that didn't last long today... It was a slog and my legs were not obeying me.

Couldn't wait for the S bends and the slight downhill relief, then finally some water... I stopped to drink (bloody cups), then off again and the long drag up Upper Glen Road. At this point, muscle memory of past struggles on this stretch took over and I was willing myself not to walk. Just get around the corner towards Furze rd and you're nearly there. All thoughts of a PB were gone, I didn't have the energy.

I knew Dubgal and Bungy were going to be ahead somewhere and that kept me running, didn't want the shame of walking past them! Passed DG with about a km to go (I think) and she gave me some coaching on the spot: shoulders down, head up, run tall.

This got me as far as BG who was jumping up and down roaring 'only 100 m to go.' She lied. But it gave me the spurt I needed and I picked it up for a strong finish.

Wrecked crossing the line, clock said 42:07, stopped the watch at 41:29, official chip time 41:28.

The announcer called my name right before I crossed the line and I had a moment of panic thinking I was being paged for some emergency... Duh! :P

Aftermath
Found various boardsies and St Anne's park runners afterwards and all agreed it was a tough morning and course. Don't think I heard of any PB's although Mrs Mc and I decided we could definitely claim course PBs!

Adrian reassured me by telling me he was 2 mins slower here than at Terenure last year, so getting within 12 seconds of my Terenure time is not half bad. And my time here last year was 43:37 so it's an improvement.

This felt so much harder than Terenure and I couldn't find any mental strength to revive myself when the legs stopped working.

Put it all down to experience though, at least I didn't walk!! Except at the water station... As Laura said recently that might have been the 12 seconds I needed, then again I mightn't have made it at all without water at that stage.

So... No regrets, hard slog, not a bad result.

Lovely to catch up with everyone afterwards and meet a couple of Dubgal's novices.

And the t shirt is better than last year... And we got a mug!! All good.

The splits tell the story, easy to see where the downhill ended :
Miles: 7:45, 7:51, 8:21, 8:38, 8:34, (6:37)
KM: 4:53, 4:50, 4:59, 4:41, 5:27, 5:19, 5:31, 5:16

annapr

tang1 wrote: »

Good luck on both fronts tomorrow Anna, the race and football.

Thanks B, hope Donegal have a better second half than I did

and good luck to WMeath tomorrow too!

tang1

Well done Anna, its a tough route that, aswell as the heat this morning not ideal racing conditions. Course PB sounds good to me.

Notwork Error

Well done Anna! Sometimes you don't have to run a PB to know you're improving.:)

Bungy Girl

Anna, I think you can call that a good day at the office. The sub 40 is there for the taking sooner rather than later. Marathon first though :eek:

Was I really jumping up and down ? I get waaaaaayyy too excited at these things....:o

chickey2

Well done! I saw you at the start but I was just behind the barrier at the front of the next wave so couldn't talk to you!
Course pb definitely counts!

libelula

Brilliant running Anna, fair play.
I re-ran the whole thing in my head reading your report, it was a day of pain.

On your course pb- I only realised on the drive home that it was a 5 mile pb for me, cos I've never done one before. I was counting 8k races I've done but sure they're not the same :pac:
PB's for everyone!!
>.>.
<.<.

Hannibal Smith

Well done Anna...laughed at the thought you'd been paged for an emergency

spaceylou

Well done Anna, sounds like those hills at the end were tough! The sub 40 is there for the taking soon enough I imagine! Well done again.

laura_ac3

Great going Anna, as NE said just because you don't pb doesn't mean there's no improvement going on, more to come off that time again. Race ya to the sub 40