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Eye of the Tiger Beer.
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Higher than usual milage this week, but only because last weekend was a write-off due to snow etc. Everything feels sluggish right now, looking back over the last few months I've not been very consistent so probably reduction in fitness as a result. Also really need to do a race at some stage soon...
The highlight and lowlight were the same thing this week - running a laboured 20:38 at Rivervalley parkrun however through sheer chance nobody faster than me showed up, so I finished first (by nearly a minute!). Led the entire way which didn't really help. New runners were a bit slippy on the path which felt like it was sucking the energy out of me (grasping at straws for excuses here
).
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
19th March|14.3 miles|8:26|Enjoyable two hour jaunt to, from and around Malahide Castle. No sign of calf pain.
20th March|10.1 miles|?|Cru session - calf a bit creaky. Did a tempo on my own from the 5k plan, probably should have just gone with the marathoners who were doing a mixed paced tempo session. 3 x 10 mins off 3 mins jog recovery - 6:47, 6:52, 6:52. Felt slow and it was.
21st March|10.2 miles|8:49|Regular run home
22nd March|3.5 miles|8:25|Runch around St. Stephen's Green with a work colleague. Pace felt very laboured for chatting.
23rd March|9.1 miles|8:31|Regular run home
24th March|8.8 miles|?|To, from and Rivervalley parkrun
25th March|1.2 miles|12:01|Holywell Junior parkrun with the two boys. Great atmosphere on a lovely morning. I went with the 7 year old who mostly talked to me about Minecraft on the way around.
25th March|14.3 miles|8:30 or so, watch died|Went straight from parkrun off around Malahide castle, Portmarnock and along the coast to home. Nice morning to be out and about.
Total: 71.8 miles
Next week: Less miles but similar enough I guess.0 -
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I don't bother tracking shoe milage, I go purely by feel
I promised myself a few times that I'd start tracking the next new pair I get and it never happened. I only bought two pairs of regular runners last year, and had two or three other pairs in rotation, so probably looking at least 6-700 miles on each pair.0 -
K Club 10k race report!!!
So at the club on Tuesday murph_d mentioned that he was popping along to this race, and offered to be my chauffeur! The stars aligned this weekend, as a bunch of regular kid activities were off due to the Easter weekend, and I've been moaning about not doing any races so it suddenly made a load of sense to take up the kind offer and see what the fuss about the spread is all about. The only times I've shown up to a race longer than 5k and not PBed was at DCM 2016 when I dropped miserably out, so this was going to be a voyage of self-discovery... in that I knew I was nowhere near lsat summer's form and sub-39 wasn't remotely possible. Sub-40 was remotely possible, why I decided that I'm not really sure but it became the arbitrary goal anyway. I didn't take things particularly easy this week, though I only did a few miles on Friday. I felt good on the morning and had a good trip over to Kildare with D, even if I neglected my navigator duties and we ended up going in a few directions on the way. We got to the K Club with plenty of time, and registration was quite efficient. The clubhouse was very salubrious. I could get used to all races having such high quality facilities available. We chatted to Adrian and Wubble, did a bit of a warmup, spotting some faster folks like dublin_runner and Catriona McKiernan on the way. After the warmup I popped into the clubhouse for a quick comfort break (I cannot recommend having a warm and classy clubhouse as a post-warmup venue strongly enough) and then met up with the gang somewhere in the crowd. The race start was a little disorganised - despite being only a few metres away from the race announcer person, I couldn't hear a word he was saying, and the field was far wider than the road, and a quick look around suggested I probably wasn't as far up the field as I should be, so I was expecting a bit of a chaotic start.
Revving up (6:36, 6:34)
As expected I got off to a bad start. It was congested and I ended up tripping up a bit and going into somebody's back at one stage. Following the race line or going at goal pace were both mostly impossible without wasting a load of energy. Still, it's a 10k and there's a bit of time to make things up. I didn't panic and tried to slowly make my way through the field, which got easier when we got out of the environs of the golf club. I ran with Adrian for a bit but burned him off, and basically for the next 7km is the story of my race - catching up with a few runners and going past them.
The middle bit (6:30, 6:28)
Having not really studied the course, the km markers were baffling and a little offputting. 7k? 4k? 8k? I figured there was a loop when the same signs started making sense. I was doing ok at getting into little groups, working with them for a bit and then pushing on. I was a bit worried around 5k that I'd blow up as the effort was rising and I wasn't sure when things were going to get really hard, so there was a little bit of fear here.
The fun part (6:26, 6:24 ... 6:30 pace for the last bit)
I'd gone past a few Crusaders on the way, and at the head of a group was one of the women who regularly are way ahead of me on the Irishtown track. I spotted her running style way back (I've seen it from behind a lot!) and made it my business to catch up with her. Once I got up to her I said "hi" and reckoned we might work with each other.... this didn't happen as I eased ahead of her and into a nothingness with nobody around. Up ahead was a be-sunglassed lad who was running well, and I eventually caught up with him, after sheltering behind him for a bit and then cutting ahead of him to give him a bit a bit of relief. We ran beside each other for a bit, but around the turnoff back into the K club he went ahead and I was in his slipstream at best for the rest. Effort levels went pretty much close to max with 1km to go, I was breathing rapidly and working hard enough to feel like it was an end of a race. I wasn't sure where the finish line was really, but I was a bit disappointed at seeing it so well over 40 minutes. Most of the km splits on my watch were at 4:00 or so, though I hadn't been checking at the start or end.
My watch recorded my time as 40:36, however I wasn't sure where to start or finish the race and it wasn't chip timed so I wouldn't be surprised if I lost another 10 seconds or so officially. Strava reckons it was my best 10k (only about 90 seconds slower in reality) and put it at 40:17. There was a general consensus that the race was slightly long measured, though I don't think this had anything to do with not breaking 40 minutes. Overall I'm reasonably pleased with how it went - a slight negative split, a time that honestly reflects where I am right now. The last few 10ks I ran were ran as if my life depended on them. This was not the case today, and I probably could have pushed myself more, especially with some relevant sessions in preparation etc. However I ran smartly enough and I'm happy with the performance and result.
After a cooldown with D., I headed back to the clubhouse to, you know, have a lovely shower before munching down a slightly disappointing though still miles better than nothing spread. If it wasn't for the pretzel I grabbed at the end I would have been slagging it off a bit Overall, a highly recommended race. The venue is fantastic, the course is PB friendly and there was a good crowd to run and eat with. Not bad for a BHAA debut. 0 -
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I've been studying or employed to work with computers for well over 20 years now, but does that stop me from losing an update here? Quite the opposite. Here's two weeks of running:
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
April 2nd|7.2 miles|9:08|Some bank holiday recovery running to and from and around Malahide
April 3rd|8.8 miles|?|The usual trot over to Irishtown for my weekly Crusaders session. I made a total balls of it by misunderstanding the session instructions. Instead of 4 x 400 @ (HM, 10k, 5k) I inserted a recovery lap in between reps for the first two reps. My times were a little all over the place as a result. (1:47, 1:38, 1:30) (1:37, 1:35, 1:36) (1:39, 1:39, 1:35) (1:39, 1:41, 1:35). Not awful, but not great.
April 4th|9.1 miles|8:58|A bloody cold run home. Cast ne'er a clout 'til May be out indeed.
April 5th|10.1 miles|8:17|A decent-er run home
April 8th|16 miles|8:13|A couple of days off, one planned the other not, meant I did a slightly longer than usual long run.
Total: 51.4 miles
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
9th April|4.4 miles|9:01|A poxy kid ridden with chicken pox meant "working from home" but mostly tending to the kid. Got out after dropping the older kid to athletics with Fingallians and did a few laps of some local fields.
10th April|8.6 miles|?|The now usual Tuesday Crusaders track session - 6 x 800s with 75 seconds recovery, an "easy one" according to the coach. 3:02, 3:03, 3:01, 3:03, 3:02, 3:01. Fairly consistent anyway
11th April|9.1 miles|8:53|Nice recovery commute
12th April|11 miles|8:21|A re-emergence of one of my alternative routes home via the outskirts of Malahide. Felt good.
13th April|5.1 miles|9:37|Another day WFH due to poxy chicken pox (the creche wouldn't have him back) so headed over to "the valley" for some trail running in the forest... which was actually a terrible idea as it was full of puddles and mud.
14th April|7 miles|?|20:16 at Rivervalley parkrun, finishing 2nd, volunteered and got a decent snap of me on the facebook page (both feet in the air!) - happy days The time was decent, could have pushed it more but as ever wussed out a bit on the downhills. Great chats with folks afterwards.
15th April|0.7 miles|13:38|Woeful DNS and DNF junior parkruns from the 4 and 7 year olds respectively. The terrible wind and rain might have had something to do with it, though maybe the 7 year old didn't taper enough? Or was avoiding hills on his sessions?
15th April|14.2 miles|8:38|Easy enough 2 hours to, around and from the relatively sheltered confines of Malahide Castle. Pretty sure my pace was a little faster than recorded by the Garmin, due to the faraday cage effect of the trees around Malahide Castle, but whatevs.
Total: 60.4 miles.0 -
In fairness to the kids, Sunday was pretty miserable*. BG Jr was almost a DNF and I had to bribe her with the promise of ice cream :rolleyes:.
Where's 'the valley' (13th April) ? Sounds like a nice place to run when dry.
Good stuff on the parkrun and the weekly mileage!
*I was going to say poxy, but thought better of it
. Hope the patient feeling better now ? 0 -
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Bungy Girl wrote: »Where's 'the valley' (13th April) ? Sounds like a nice place to run when dry.
I'm guilty of letting some Swords terms slip in... "The valley", also known as "the jacko", is the park where Rivervalley parkrun takes place, which is officially called the Ward River Valley Regional park (nobody in real life has ever called it that). The forest I wandered into is the one beside the hill of doom. There are some trails in there, along with a man-made lake and ruin of an old mill (known as "the old mill"). Even when dry it's not an amazing run, it's a bit overgrown and uneven, but it can break up the monotony and it's always fun running and jumping around where you used to go exploring as a kid / drinking as a teenager etc. 0 -
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I'm guilty of letting some Swords terms slip in... "The valley", also known as "the jacko", is the park where Rivervalley parkrun takes place, which is officially called the Ward River Valley Regional park (nobody in real life has ever called it that). The forest I wandered into is the one beside the hill of doom. There are some trails in there, along with a man-made lake and ruin of an old mill (known as "the mill"). Even when dry it's not an amazing run, it's a bit overgrown and uneven, but it can break up the monotony and it's always fun running and jumping around where you used to go exploring as a kid / drinking as a teenager etc.
Why “the jacko”?? Always wondered that when working in DNS but never thought to ask!!0 -
OOnegative wrote: »Why “the jacko”?? Always wondered that when working in DNS but never thought to ask!!
Hah! I've no idea, it predates my (life)time in Swords. We'd probably need The Muppet back around here to figure it out 0 -
I'm guilty of letting some Swords terms slip in... "The valley", also known as "the jacko", is the park where Rivervalley parkrun takes place, which is officially called the Ward River Valley Regional park (nobody in real life has ever called it that). The forest I wandered into is the one beside the hill of doom. There are some trails in there, along with a man-made lake and ruin of an old mill (known as "the old mill"). Even when dry it's not an amazing run, it's a bit overgrown and uneven, but it can break up the monotony and it's always fun running and jumping around where you used to go exploring as a kid / drinking as a teenager etc.
The "forest" in the "Valley" was once quite the envy of early landscape gardeners, in the Capability Brown style of planning. By the mid 1700's Brackenstown House and Gardens, including thousands of specimen trees, lakes and ponds with associated canals, was a must see sight for early European visitors to Ireland. When you enter from the park on the trails mentioned by Singer continue on around by the wall and then descend a very steep clay hillside to the trail below which brings you to the mill. From there head west along the canal and /or stream to the edge of the lake. With a bit of imagination it will take your breath away and particularly so early evening this time of year. You can still trace the gently rising horizontal lines of planted trees and landscaping works. I think it is a real jewel in Ireland and have written to Fingal Co. Council encouraging a public tourist initiative. Fingal CC do well on other similar parks, to their credit but this is probably a deep pockets project.
The Campbell family (Bewleys) were refused planning permission for a resort here in the early Celtic years. And the Jacko
Just an aside folks, but do take a peek when visiting for Parkrun.0 -
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Wow, what have I startedThe "forest" in the "Valley" was once quite the envy of early landscape gardeners, in the Capability Brown style of planning. By the mid 1700's Brackenstown House and Gardens, including thousands of specimen trees, lakes and ponds with associated canals, was a must see sight for early European visitors to Ireland. When you enter from the park on the trails mentioned by Singer continue on around by the wall and then descend a very steep clay hillside to the trail below which brings you to the mill. From there head west along the canal and /or stream to the edge of the lake. With a bit of imagination it will take your breath away and particularly so early evening this time of year. You can still trace the gently rising horizontal lines of planted trees and landscaping works. I think it is a real jewel in Ireland and have written to Fingal Co. Council encouraging a public tourist initiative. Fingal CC do well on other similar parks, to their credit but this is probably a deep pockets project.
The Campbell family (Bewleys) were refused planning permission for a resort here in the early Celtic years. And the Jacko
Just an aside folks, but do take a peek when visiting for Parkrun.
I got to see Brackenstown House close up a couple of years ago, some non-Swords friends were heading out there for some la-di-da party and I gave them a lift. Pretty nice gaff and grounds.
Your passion and knowledge about my local unusual swampy forest that I was so casual about is both unsurprising and delightful denis_bTrue, and probably a little unfair in the broad light of day. Most of us would , quite sensibly, take a more public short cut at night. Must go and revisit it myself!!
I used to cut through the jacko at all hours, as many friends and now wife lived on the other side (I'm from Rivervalley), I figured it was safer than going through the village at pub closing time or whatever. Swords definitely had running water when I was a kid, though there is a picture of myself and my sisters splashing around in the Ward river on a warm summer's day that was published in the (then) Drogheda Independent from 1985 or so... must dig it out!
Sounds like we should do a post-parkrun cooldown in the forest sometime 0 -
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A standard week, if a little short on milage - 3 commutes, club session, parkrun (slightly time constrained and hungover though) and a decent 2 hour longish run. I've got a niggle that's getting a worse - my left quad is sore when doing faster stuff. It started last week or so and got seriously sore at the start of the parkrun to the extent that I considered stopping in the first couple of minutes as it was getting worse. It settled down and stopped aching after a few minutes. I've run these off in the past, so not planning on resting it unless things get really worse.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
23rd April|9.1 miles|9:01|Easy commute
24th April|7.2 miles|?|Cru session - 3 x (4 x 400) off 45, 30, 15 + 2 mins between reps. (1:25, 1:24, 1:24, 1:27), (1:24, 1:26, 1:28, 1:29), (1:26, 1:25, 1:27, 1:29). Honestly really wasn't in the mood when trudging over to Irishtown, but got through it ok. That's the magic of club sessions I guess!
25th April|9.1 miles|8:50|Another easy commute
26th April|9.1 miles|8:41|You know what
28th April|4.8 miles|?|A quite hungover Malahide parkrun. Had to be back straight after so couldn't do my usual 5k jog to and from. I figured that sub-20 would be a decent showing given my state. The sore quad caused a bit of panic at the start but I settled in ok. Sped up towards the end and got an official time of 19:58
29th April|15 miles|7:59|A solid 2 hour Sunday run in the sunshine. Sped up towards the end and felt great throughout.
Total: 54.6 miles
Next week: Similar enough0 -
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An niggletacular week. I ran every day (good) but not entirely comfortably (bad) and I could have ran more (bad) but I ran a 2018 parkrun PB (good). My left quad is still sore during faster stuff, though less so this week. It's on the mend but still a thing. However the leg-lurgy has spread - my right calf/shin is sore when I start running at any pace, and my right ankle feels sore a lot. It's probably all connected, but none of this is bad enough to stop running entirely. It is off-putting though, hence some wussing out on run-commutes and the like this week.
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
30th April|5 miles|9:11|Shortened commute due to general soreness in the right leg
1st May|8.7 miles|?|Regular attendance at the Crubowl. Session was 400, 800, 1200, 1200, 800, 400 off 60, 75, 90, 90, 60 (supposed to be 75 but everybody was too delirious to follow basic instructions I guess). Times were 1:27, 2:57, 4:32, 4:35 (
), 3:00, 1:25.
2nd May|9.1 miles|8:55|Slow commute home
3rd May|8.9 miles|8:16|In hospital in Rathgar for a checkup in the morning, so did my now traditional run back to work on the final few miles of the DCM route. Enjoyed this a lot remembering happy memories from last year's DCM.
3rd May|4 miles|9:03|Partial commute home, felt totally fine but didn't want to push things given the niggles.
4th May|4.3 miles|9:32|A few very easy miles before work, hopped off the Swords Express at The Point and jogged into work.
5th May|9 miles|?|Malahide parkrun in 19:14. After last week's hungover barely-sub-20 I decided on scientifically discovering the exact impact of being horrifically hungover by running a totally not-hungover hard parkrun First km was at PB pace (3:40) but it has a bit of downhill so not a bad thing. I started working a little harder than I should have in the 2nd km, overtaking a few folks. This bit me in the 3rd km, which felt like a 4th km, so I had gone out a little bit too hard and slowed down as a result. 4th km was ok, and I upped the effort up a bit in the last km. It wasn't all-out but pretty close. Happy with the time anyway.
6th May|13.4 miles|8:32|Speaking of hangovers, this was a sweaty sunny hot and hungover longish run. Started off pretty slow but got a bit faster/more sober as the run went on. Totally beautiful run along the Fingal coast and back to Swords via Malahide Castle, listening to my regular partner in long runs Cerys Matthews on BBC Radio 6.
Total: 62.7 miles
April total: 248 miles
Next week: My better half is doing the Irish Runner 1 mile thing on Tuesday, so no Cru session this week - my plans is to do a 5k specific session later on Tuesday evening. Current target is sub-19 at the Bob Heffernan 5k, with a few more 5k sessions in between now and then it might happen. I'm in London from Weds - Fri so I expect to do some tourist running.
I need to decide whether to do the SF Marathon or Half Marathon in late July.
Pros for marathon:
- Why not? It's fun to run marathons! Running across The Golden Gate Bridge etc. would be amazing! Of course I'd run the SF marathon while in SF!
- Excuse to taper and recover while in SF, takes the pressure off running a bit while I'm there.
- Decent training session? Sure I've done 2 marathons this year, 2 more is no bother. It probably won't injure me.
- Travel and races haven't worked out for me so far. May as well do a marathon with not-high expectations.
Pros for HM:
- Could target it and race it all out. This would generally suit DCM training.
- Decent course - hilly at the start, but then a lot of downhill and flat.
- 1:25 pacers! (though that's probably beyond me). Possible PB potential.
- Why ruin myself on yet another marathon that I wouldn't do myself justice on.0 -
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Hah! I've no idea, it predates my (life)time in Swords. We'd probably need The Muppet back around here to figure it out
Just catching up here , I have no idea where the name comes from but I think it referred to the part where we all swam as kids, the deep nearer swords .
Good luck with those niggles B ,0 -
A week short on milage, but the quality stuff didn't suffer. I woke up with a sore throat on Tuesday and could feel a cold coming on. By Wednesday I was feeling the effects and was damn tired for the rest of the week, sleep was awful which didn't help. However the few days with minimal milage coincided with my niggles going away, so maybe it was for the best
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
7th May|5.8 miles|8:38|Bank holiday trot around most of the Fingal 10k course
8th May|10.3 miles|?|With the supposedly targeted 5k around the corner, I decided to do one of the final sessions from Faster Road Running - 2 x (1200, 1000, 800) and I did decreasing recoveries of 3, 2.5 and 2 mins. It would be great to do sub-19 at the 5k, so target times were 4:30, 3:45 and 3:00. Ended up being 4:28, 3:42, 2:57, 4:40 (ouch), 3:45, 2:57. I got off to a slow start on the slow 1200, the shorter recovery between the previous rep hurt, though I did speed up over the course of the rep. Tough but satisfying session. Did it late in the evening though, got out after 9 and was unable to get to sleep until after 1, and had to be up at 5 to catch a plane to London.
9th May|3.9 miles|8:36|A few miles around Shoreditch with a work colleague after work. Faster than I'd have liked!
10th May|4.2 miles|9:07|Out before 7 for some easy miles around Shoreditch
11th May|3.1 miles|10:48|A chatty lunch run with a friend before getting the plane home
12th May|5.8 miles|?|Rivervalley parkrun. Despite the cold hanging around a bit I decided to give Rivervalley a good go, i.e. a sub-20 attempt. Nice sunny morning and some speedy runners out today (including clicker who ran a course PB) helped me finish 5th in 19:55. As always, the course presented its usual challenges, I attacked the start downhill well enough, going through the first km in 3:39. The two kms with the hill of doom were at 4:16, leaving the other two kms at just under 4:00 pace. I lost ground to the two runners behind me on the second downhill and they were closing in rapidly on me, but managed to put a bit of a gap on them once it flattened out. Was near all out at the end, and felt a little unwell at the end, so just jogged home the short way.
13th May|1.2 miles|11:54|Holywell junior parkrun with the 7 year old. At least he finished it this time, though with plenty of moaning.
13th May|15 miles|8:11|Grand long run around Malahide Castle straight from the parkrun. Lovely morning.
Total: 49.6 miles
Next week: 6x1k@5k on Tuesday or Wednesday, might push it a day later than usual to let the auld legs recover a bit from the weekend. Will probably end up pacing Rivervalley parkrun on Saturday, hit me up if you want a 21 minute time (or slower)
Oh and I registered for the SF HM. I'm sure you were all worried sick all week about this. I should probably actually register for Bob Heffernan now that I think about it.0 -
This week included day of rest and a relatively easy weekend as a mini-taper as Bob Heffernan is on this Tuesday. My mid-week session was another 5k session, not sure how much additional fitness it'll give me, and I don't think it acts as a predictor session thanks to relatively generous recoveries, but it was a good one for locking in the 5k pace anyway. Last year I did 5x1k in 3:42, 3:39, 3:43, 3:41, 3:39 but on slightly less recoveries ( https://www.strava.com/activities/1057933811/overview - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=103969102&postcount=869 ). On Tuesday I did 6x1k in 3:44, 3:44, 3:40, 3:41, 3:39, 3:40 - felt like I was getting stronger as it went on, and could have done another rep. Not much between the sessions really, so maybe there's a chance of a PB (18:39 - 3:43 pace). I'll be happy with sub-19 anyway. Almost all of the 5k plan went out the window, but I have been doing plenty of relevant running at the club and parkruns, so we'll so how it goes.
The other fun this week was pacing 21 minutes at Rivervalley parkrun. I showed up a little hungover, and ran it in 21:10, having to slow down to a walk on the hill of doom on the second time up it. Never pacing hungover again
Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
14th May|9.1 miles|8:56|Nice commute home
15th May|8.6 miles|?|Session as above
16th May|9.1 miles|8:38|Felt totally great so went faster than recovery
17th May|3.4 miles|8:44|Just a few miles
19th May|5.6 miles|?|To/from Rivervalley parkrun, 21:10.
20th May|5.7 miles|7:54|Definitely feeling the taper, had to slow myself down A few miles around the Fingal 10k route.
Total: 41.7 miles
Next week: Racing on Tuesday! My better half is away next weekend so any running will need to be squeezed around parenting and watching the Champions League final.0 -
Race report!!!
Bob Heffernan 5k: 18:45.94
If you told me I'd be writing that 3 weeks ago I'd be over the moon. sub-19! Not bad at all. However this wasn't a great race, I think I left a good few seconds on the table, and I could have been writing about a PB had I ran it better.
I took Monday off. I had the car to get out to Johnstownbridge, though that meant driving from the city centre at rush hour. I left St. Stephen's Green at about 17.15 and got out there for about 18.35 or so. I ate a sandwich en-route, after a large enough lunch (tacos and related Mexican grub), I didn't want to try and fit in a dinner before the race, and a sandwich is my pre-training routine on a Tuesday night anyway. I felt a little bloated but not much I could do about it. Not too long after picking up my number and changing, I found murph_d and yaboya1 and chatted for a while in the sunshine before doing a warm-up jog to the start line, which was a long mile away from the hotel on open roads. Once we got to the general start area I got a few strides in with D. My legs felt heavy and my stomach full, so I was clearly ready to race
The crowd started to push down to the start line with a few minutes to go, and after not much delay the race started in semi-chaotic fashion. Despite the wide road, there was plenty of bumping, somebody lost a shoe and I had to skip past a bunch of folks who sprinted out and started to slow already. I felt pretty good though, and checking my watch I was well below PB pace. Way below PB pace. I slowed down a little, but went through the 1st km in 3:34 - whoops. I started to take things a bit easier in the second km, half hopeful I could maintain the pace, but mostly expecting an impending crash as the fast opening km started to catch up with me. I was still passing folks, and went through the second km in 3:40.
Not long after the second km, the world came crashing down around me. I was broken. So many negative thoughts. Just keep jogging. 3:53, though I had given up looking at the watch by then. People were flooding past me. The 4th km was similarly miserable, though I did try to pick things up a little bit. My stomach started giving a bit of jip and I got a semi-stitch. I was working hard despite not moving fast. 3:56.
The last km was a lot better. It was mostly downhill, which helped a lot. What also helped was going over the 4th km marker in 15:00. Sub-4:00 = sub-19. The math was simple and I just had to pick things up to an ok pace to salvage an ok time out of the race. Things were very tough, but there were some glorious downhills - well, Strava reckoned it was net negative 25 foot Strava also reckons the last km was 3:41. Sub-19 was on the clock going over the line which was satisfying. I was very wrecked immediately afterwards - I stumbled over to some grass, and lay down for a bit. A lady runner beside me said "that was warm!" to which I responded with just "fsck". I gobbed up some spit, nearly puked, but settled down after some water and then went looking for the lads. I quickly found yaboya and we caught up, then spotted D. who was hanging out with skyblue who ran excellently and nabbed a great PB. We availed of the spread in the throwback-culchie-disco hall, briefly met davedanon and ultraman, and then split off back to the big smoke.
Gun time: 18:52
Chip time: 18:45 (joint second fastest 5k - 6 seconds off PB from Docklands 5k last year).
So, am I happy? Obviously not - I am happy with the shape I'm in and the overall effort this evening, though I made it very hard for myself with the pointlessly fast start. I was going to do Dunsaughlin next and do a bunch of 10k sessions targeting sub-40, but I am busy that evening and now need another plan. I might look for another a 5k over the next month and see can I get a PB, which looks like I'm not far off. 5ks are so hard 0 -
Ah man can't believe I missed the throwback culchie disco hall. Sickened.
That was a fun report and captured the essence of the 5k very well. They're not easy are they. Very hard to get just right.
One thing is for sure if you go off too quick you'll know all about it soon enough. Well done on the time. Not bad for a distance runner
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