Tipping Away...

Outside

Hey lads, yep 2:49:49! Tough day at the office for sure, on course for my goal of 2:45 at halfway but wind really knocked me for six. Couldn't keep anywhere near that pace anymore and I was really happy just to make it back. I don't think the weather would've added 5 mins so even in good conditions, I don't think I was on for 2:45. Didn't feel comfortable from the start really, pushed to hard for first half and paid the price. Full report to follow! For now, I'm boarding for Lisbon as I type! Thanks for following!

dintbo

It's still a great time on a tough day. Well done.

tang1

That's a fantastic time Outside, very well done. Enjoy the hols and some liquid recovery.

Outside

The lead up

As per my first post of this log, I felt my running was getting a little stale and although I was enjoying it, I had no real aim for quite a while so looked around these parts for some inspiration. I won't name names because quite simply there are too many but I’ve read through some excellent logs here with some great information. So after all that research I ended trying to choose between two plans, Jack Daniels and P&D. I ended up settling on JD 2Q plan. It seemed pretty easy to follow with two key sessions per week and the rest made up of easy running. I had a pretty hectic wedding/birthday season planned so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stick to anything to rigid. The two key sessions are 1 midweek run, typically 13-17 mi with various different paces surrounded by a few warm-up/cool-down miles and then a weekend long run of between 15-20 mi, also with faster miles thrown right in the middle for fun. Their not fun.

Training couldn’t have gone better really. Towards the end of August I ended up taking a week off due to turning 30 and getting engaged but other than that I didn’t miss a single session. I even pre-empted having to take off a week off at some stage for one reason or another so actually started the plan 1 week early. 18 weeks, 36 sessions. I raced twice so replaced those sessions with a race. Charleville half in 79:11 with 5 weeks to go and then Galway Bay half in 81:46 with 3 weeks to go as a MP session.

My training paces were consistently improving over the course of the plan. Sessions were tricky but with the pace changing so much during the long runs, the sessions flew and felt I was getting stronger each week. Bar a few where I wasn’t feeling good at all, possibly a little sick or just general fatigue but I thought it normal. Initially at the start of the plan back in June my goal was to get some speed back in the legs and push for a sub 2:50 but as the plan progressed, my training paces were indicating a little faster could be possible so about half way through the plan all my sessions were done with MP with a 2:45 goal. They felt OK, tough but manageable most of the time. There were a few sessions where I did miss MP and put it down to a bad day/week. I knew for a 2:45, everything had to go perfectly, I was threading a fine line.

The Big Day
Fast forward to DCM 2015 and things weren’t going so perfect. Weather wasn’t looking good at all. I knew my 2:45 was in trouble. A strong SE wind was blowing. I had planned to try go out a little slow, first half of Dublin is a little hilly then try to push on in the 2nd half and make up time to finish with a negative split, simple! With the SE wind, the first half had the wind mostly behind us for some of the usual slogs up Phoenix Park so I opted to try run even/positive splits and run the first half in 81-82 then battle the wind but use the downhill sections and finish with 2:44:59.

Stayed overnight in Dublin after collecting race pack and got up early o’clock for Porridge and banana at 6am feeling good. Pinned number to GCH vest, pinned gel’s to shorts. I planned on taking 1 gel every 6-7 miles so I bought 4. Got to the start area nice and early so got properly togged out and threw in drop bag for later thinking the next time I see that bag it will be over. I was getting fairly anxious at this stage I might add. Nerves were really creeping in and weather wasn’t helping. Just kept telling myself what-ever happens, happens and I’ve done all I can. Weather is out of my control. About 8:45 I got up near-ish the front but still behind 3hr pacers so had a little crowd to work my way around for the first few miles but I needed this to help control the pace. I was about 3-4 miles in when I realised I wasn’t hitting the lap button on my Garmin to record splits. My head just wasn’t in it. From the very start of most of the reports I read, people complain about how easy it is to go too fast and how easy MP feels for the first few miles but I just never felt comfortable. Can’t put my finger on it. Negative thoughts right from the start, not good! At this stage I told myself to snap out of it and get on with the task at hand. On passing Dublin Zoo and turning onto the straight up through the middle of the Phoenix park I spotted my support crew, parents, in-laws and herself. This gave me a great boost and running up through Phoenix park with the wind to our backs was a joy!
A nice downhill section then after castleknock had us running a good pace comfortably. HR was able to come down a little, going up through the park and right from the beginning I was in or around 180 so dangerous territory this early but I made a conscious decision not to run to HR and run on feel...which in hindsight was still probably telling me slow down. Anyway, for a generally uneventful first half, I passed Dolphins Barn where my support crew was again stationed. I roared out over the noise of the crowd my “THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT!!” and put the head down for the slight incline up Crumlin road, passing 13.1 in 1:22:55. As bad as I’m making this sound so far, my pacing for the 1st half is pretty spot on but I knew my effort levels were way too high and felt like I should be hitting mile 20, not 14. I was still clinging to my 2:45 dream. I honestly can’t remember too much (left this report a bit late) from 14-20 but I remember just having head down into the wind and kept trucking away. No real group at this stage and found myself isolated a nice bit into the wind. Getting to mile 24 was beautiful. I knew 2:45 was out the window, to be honest I thought 3 hrs was out the window the way I was feeling. Legs just would not turn over quick enough. My hip’s were fairly well shot at this stage too so just felt like I was plodding along. I knew the wind was behind us from 24 onwards. No more head on wind, sweet. The 2:45 wristband was laughing at me. I couldn’t work out when I’ll finish, simple math was an insurmountable task. So upped the effort as best as I could, HR reflects this but pace definitely doesn’t. Merrion Square was a sight for sore eyes, legs, hips, feet, arms, pride. Pleasantly surprised I still made it under the 2:50 in an official 2:49:49.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/946930597

I can blame the weather all I want but no way was it worth 5 mins to me. I just didn’t have a good race. Never felt comfortable from the start. I’ve been reading a few bits a pieces since and possibly the taper doesn’t suit me, or the plan, or running in general...ah no, that’s a bit extreme. But something def wasn’t right so just have to rest up for a bit a have a look back after I read a bit more. I think my main problem was my stubbornness. 2:45 was in my head and in reality with the weather the way it was, I shouldn’t been man enough to accept defeat and plan on a 2:47/48 right from the start and not try stay on 2:45 as long as I could. It's a long enough race as it is! By blowing up that early by forcing it, it added on a min or two to my potential on the day resulting in the 2:49. To be honest, if I ran 2:49 on even splits I’d be a lot happier now, the fact I went out too fast seems like such a silly mistake in hindsight.

The positives:

• It’s a new official PB by 7 mins
• Stomach was good, 3 gels during race, breakfast of porridge and banana worked
• Energy levels were spot on for the whole race, never close to running out of fuel
• Lots of lessons learned during this cycle, you can’t beat learning a few things the hard way sometimes

Two full weeks off now to recover and after that, who knows. It’d be a shame to waste all that training now...