Often becomes easy when the easy is often..

Lazare

Le Cheile Leixlip 5k Race Report

I mentioned above about feeling a bit of pressure about this one. Well that seemed to really intensify over the last week or so, culminating in a feeling of absolute dread and fear on the start line waiting for the guy to finish his instructions and set us off.

Sh1tting myself. Absolutely. I don't remember feeling that way at the start of a race before. Pressure is healthy, for sure, but this seemed on another level.

I think the main reason for it was I didn't feel it was just me out there, like it normally is. @scotindublin was pacing me.

C had given up his evening, his time, his Saturday session to come and help me get over the line. That weighed heavily on me. He refused me paying him into the event, shipping back revolut $$ to me. I knew that had I failed at it he wouldn't have been in any way put out, but that didn't matter in my mind.

I was still mostly confident about it last week. Had some negativity creep on Thursday, phantom calf and tendon pain, feelings of doubt. I started visualizing the splits, running the perfect race in my head and put it to bed. The course recce from the previous week helping a lot with that, something I'm going to do in future where possible. An early night on Thursday and a day off work race day had me feeling a lot more positive on Friday morning.

The pressure really started to build though during the day. God I much prefer rolling out of bed and heading to a race. Ruminating all day is torture. I do laundry. That's what keeps my mind occupied. Folding jocks and socks.

MIL arrived up at 5:30 to take over and my wife and I got ready to head down. She was targeting a sub 25. She ran 25:10 for a PB and is disappointed in herself. A year ago she didn't think 27:30 was beatable so I'm extremely proud of her, and content that her disappointment is pretty healthy, if unwarranted.

Arrived there around 6:45pm and registered. Met up then with C, @Laineyfrecks , @skyblue46 and @Wottle for a chat and a warm up. There's a challenging climb at the end of the first Km and I was keen to show it to C. We also checked out the 4th km drag.

C had mentioned weeks back that he wasn't going to pace me to a tight sub 19, he was going to pace me to an 18:50. He figured that gave him, and me, a lot of room for error. We had settled on a rounded off target of 3:45 per km. Even splits after my course recce.

A couple of strides then before lining up a row or two back. Ran back through the crowd to give Judy a kiss and wish her good luck, then came back to line up beside C.

Absolutely bricking it. The announcer read out a few course guidelines then counted down. We're off.

Slight downhill start. No real congestion, we started in the correct position. I'm still feeling that dread and pressure. 150m or so in I tell C that I'm not going to talk. He asks me whether I want him to talk or not, I tell him to talk away. He says he'll just call out the splits. Cool. We communicated with thumbs. There's a tall gangly lad a stride in front of us with his legs splaying all over the place. A real trip hazard. I had this glancing thought hoping he would trip me up so I'd have an exit excuse.

The first km was bang on target at 3:45. This included that sharp incline over the dual carriageway mentioned above, a feature that I thought would be a problem but wasn't.

The second km started with the opposite side of that ramp so was a quick one beeping in at 3:41. I still felt pretty good at this point, shoulder to shoulder with C. It was tough going but I wasn't in physical pain yet. Mentally I was flip flopping though. Fighting to banish negativity. Just hold on to C.

Halfway there and I remember feeling half positive half negative. 'I've half of this done' to 'I've to do all that sh1t all over again?' Brain beginning to boil.

Km 3 beeps 3:48 and I'm suffering. Just hold onto this. I start to drift back from C. He had asked me a few days ago about what I wanted to do in this scenario. I told him to crack on at pace and give me that target. I drifted back by about 10m by the middle of km 4. We turn left for home at the bottom of a drag.

I had ran the course last week and figured this drag was nothing to be worried about. I hadn't allowed for the fact it would arrive at a point of hurt and pain. Lesson. It was torture, grimacing torture. C had mentioned pre race that if we got to the 4k mark at 15 mins or less we would do it. I had a 15 min alert on my watch from during the week and left it on there for this reason. It beeped about 30m before the 4km mark. Deflating. That km beeped 3:51.

I know the last km is a fast one. Crest the railway bridge and downhill towards the finish. A sharp left turn into a grassy section before another sharp left onto the track for a clockwise circuit to the gantry.

A km to go and C is still 10m or so ahead. I turned onto the grassy bit and found enough of a bite to overtake a lad. Onto the track then. I glanced at the clock and remember seeing it, but don't remember now what it read, don't think it registered then either. Dig deep, one foot in front of the other. Have no idea of the time, haven't looked at my watch. Was pretty sure based on the gap between C and I that I was on for about 19:05ish. I was happy.

About 200m to go and C stalls for me. We bend around the track and I pick it up with a kick, running it in together. Can't believe what I'm seeing on the clock as I turn to see it.

Over the line in 18:47 for a 50 second PB. 3:43 for the km.

Can't begin to explain how happy I am, how relieved I am. How flabbergasted I am that I achieved it. 30 hours later and I'm still on a high.

I absolutely, without doubt would not have done it without C. Not only his expert on the money pacing, but his support throughout this block. He says 'you did all the work' but that's nonsense, I'm without doubt not getting over that line in sub 19 without him.

Muchas gracias amigo.

scotindublin

An absolutely cracking achievement C and delighted to play a part in it. You committed to a big target early on and you absolutely smashed it out of the park.

You hid your nerves well at the start and executed a brilliant race even with the dodgy pacing on the 2nd km.

Be proud of what you achieved on Friday and build on that going forward.

An absolute belter of a finish line picture, hard to believe there was nobody else in the shot.

C

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120623002#Comment_120623002

Nothing dodgy at all about that second km. It was a fast downhill one and we needed that in the bank for the 4th.

Wottle

Totally forgot about that hill on the flyover in the 1st k 😅

I agree with @scotindublin you hid your nerves well, if anything you looked a bit giddy and up for it.

Massive well done!

Roll on Dunshaughlin, might follow you around 😅

Lazare

Thanks D 😊

Mr. Guappa

Well done C, that's an absolute belter of a race. You could have let that race drift away from you a few times but you just kept digging in. You're going from strength to strength.

Love the photo and the report is brilliant too.

I always like to research a route as best I can too... it helps knowing what's to come and is just one less unknown to contend with.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120624978#Comment_120624978

Ah cheers A, thanks so much.

Yep, running the route a week out helped immensely. Something I'm definitely going to do in future where possible.

Murph_D

Yep, big fan of the 'reccie' myself. Fabulous stuff here, from the racer and the pacer. I've done a bit of pacing myself, and every gig is definitely different, as you try to figure out what will work with each runner. Lots of prep here from both parties - exemplary! Congrats all round.

Lazare

Cheers D 👊

I'll be enjoying this one for a while.

Laineyfrecks

Sorry haven't been on here much at all. I'm absolutely thrilled for you, was great to be there with you for the buzz. You are really going from strength to strength through hard work, it's great to see😊

Judy put in a great run too, she should be very proud also🤗

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120639713#Comment_120639713

Ah thanks a mill E. Was great fun celebrating with you guys. Thanks a mill also re Judy, you're the soundest.

Dubh Geannain

Great pic. Congrats on the massive PB.

Sandwell

Enjoyed that report immensely. It reminded me of the time I (successfully, just about) paced a friend to a sub 20. Well done to you both.

Lazare

Ah thanks so much lads.

Have an even better version of that pic to post up. I'll do so a little later on.

Lazare

So in case you didn't know, the bould @coogy is a gifted caricature artist.

I really love that pic posted above, love the fact it's only the two of us in it and the nailed on time on the clock, exact time C said he would pace me to.

The only thing I felt letting it down was me not returning the high 5.

I half jokingly said it to K, asked him would he make it happen.

The legend that he is, he actually did.

Behold..

Kellygirl

Only catching up here. What a brilliant race and I love the caricature. My one that Coogy did after DCM 2018 is on our kitchen wall! Huge congrats.

Lazare

Thanks a mill K 👍

I'm gonna frame my one too.

Judy said to me, not joking, 'you should frame that as it might be the fastest you ever run a 5k'

Haha, goway oura dat with that defeatist attitude.

ariana`

Fair play on that PB - sub 19 Conor, you knocked it out of the park!

Brilliant picture... I feel honoured to have one hanging in my house too :-)

Judy said to me, not joking, 'you should frame that as it might be the fastest you ever run a 5k'

😂😂😂

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120656691#Comment_120656691

Thanks so much E.

Yep, K has a gift. 😊

Lazare

So Dunshaughlin is next up, on the horizon. A couple of months back my plan was to intensely target it as soon as Leixlip was out of the way. It's pretty much the same sort of training, so really just a continuum, with maybe some McMillan workouts peppered in there. Two sessions a week and a long run.

Haven't mentioned this in the log yet, but have so elsewhere, I'm taking on the Hanson advanced method for Amsterdam. The more I read about it, including reading over the boards thread I've realised that I need to, as one wise oul boards owl said, keep the main thing the main thing.

It took me a good eight days to fully recover from that Leixlip effort, before I could do anything nippy. I think I would be putting Amsterdam on the line by going full throttle at Dunshaughlin then a few days later beginning the Hanson block.

Toyed with the idea of just keeping everything aerobic until the block but compromised a little and decided to do 1x session a week, and a long run.

It might affect my chances of a sub 40 at Dunshaughlin but I'm not concerned. I'm going to go for it anyway. Keeping the main thing the main thing.

After reading a post by @shotgunmcos (sorely missed around here) in the Hanson thread warning another poster about racing the Dublin half, and what that would do to mess up the plan, I'm seriously considering not racing at all during the block. Had planned on Tullamore half, but I'll have a good look at the calendar and give it consideration. If it fits I'll do it. Sitting down this week to work all that out.

Onwards.

Sandwell

Probably wise to start the block as fresh as possible, although the first two weeks are quite easy so there is a bit of leeway.

Regarding racing, I wouldn't worry about it too much. I raced a ten mile around week 6 and then Tullamore in August and it didn't seem to have any negative impact on the outcome. Just drop the Thursday tempo before the race weekend and maybe the Tuesday session afterwards too.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120681408#Comment_120681408

Cheers for that man. That's proper horses mouth advice 👌

Wottle

Hi Lazare, how you feeling about Dunshaughlin?

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120721786#Comment_120721786

Hey D, I'm feeling excited about it.

A very different feeling to how I felt the day before Leixlip. I've no nerves or apprehension like then.

I'm going to have a fair whack at sub 40 but I'm not going to be too put out if I fall short.

I'm going to be using it to zone in on a target for Amsterdam. That decision needs making before my first Hanson's Thurs tempo in 2x weeks.

Generally feeling relaxed and excited for it. Purely because it's not a goal race though.

How are you feeling about it?

Wottle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120722149#Comment_120722149

Super stuff!

I'll give the sub 40 a go too but think I'd have preferred it to be 2 weeks ago.

I'll keep an eye out for you on the start line, best of luck.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120722607#Comment_120722607

You too man. Hopefully the thunderstorms don't materialise. 😊

Murph_D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120680394#Comment_120680394

I think you'd be OK going full tilt at Dunshaughlin. Remember Hanson Day 1 is Thursday, not Monday, and week one is all easy anyway. No session til the Tuesday of week 2. Good luck on all fronts.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120724220#Comment_120724220

Cheers D, I really meant going full throttle with sessions in the build up, wanted a couple of easyish weeks before Hanson.

I'll certainly give the race a fair oul crack though 😊

Lazare

Dunshaughlin 10k - sub 40 shot

I got a welcome message from @Lambay island the night before offering his pacing services. D is on the road to injury recovery and was planning on running it at 40 min pace and was sound enough to get in touch. Arrived in Dunshaughlin about an hour before the start and parked up. Fantastic pre race organisation with ample parking and direction. Great buzz around the place. Bumped into @AuldManKing in the hall and had a good chat about our race plans. @Wottle too. Met up then with D for a warm up, hoped to meet with @Laineyfrecks too but she had a couple of difficulties with her Google maps.

The weather seemed perfect when we got there but by the time we got up to the start line after warming up you could really feel the mugginess in the air.

Was anxious to see E before the start and wish her good luck, D and I were scanning everyone looking for her and eventually she appeared. She had some pre race doubts and uncertainty so I was raging a little that I didn't get a chance to jog about the place and help her with that. Didn't matter, she ran a cracking race, 5 secs outside her PB, which is PB shape imo.

A bit of strategy talk with D, similar to C at Leixlip I told him to crack on if I faded, and that I wouldn't do much talking.

Gun and we're off.

First km is downhill, so a few seconds faster than goal pace wasn't anything to be concerned about. D knows the course well so was keeping the race line excellently, well, moreso further into things when it thinned out, now with the congestion he was just making sure we were getting into good position for the turns.

Km 1 beeps 3:56 and it's feeling pretty comfortable effort wise.

Kms 2, 3 and 4 beep in at 3:59, 3:55 and 4:01 and it's beginning to feel hot. Plenty of fears and doubts now about whether I can hold on. Am keeping shoulder to shoulder with D though.

Km 5 is 3:59, through 5k in 19:50 for my 4th fastest 5k. Have to throw a cup of water over my head at the first water station. I heard D say something to me as I veered to grab a cup and thought (when it was too late) that he said 'grab one for me' and I spent the next while feeling bad about it, but too flat out to ask him. Offered him one at the next station and he said no. Turned out he was asking me did I want him to veer and grab it for me. Soundness.

Km 6 is 3:56, it's tough going but we're motoring along really well, still shoulder to shoulder.

Km 7 beeps in 4:02. I don't mind these + splits too much as I know we've plenty banked at this stage, and it's not wildly out.

D had been briefing me on what was to come in Km 8, the toughest section of the course, a hilly one. He had shown me his splits from previous the night before and that one being the slowest, we run it in 4:09. No biggie, we're still on target and the next one is a fast one.

I go through the 5 mile marker in 32:23, 30 seconds faster than my Raheny PB. More on that below.

D asks me how I'm doing, I'm breathing heavy but I feel strong enough to get it done, I tell him 'let's bring this home'.

We come upon a bit of congestion, D moves right and I inject a small bit of pace to go around left. I suddenly get a sharp warning of cramp in the left calf.

Fooook. I immediately pull back a touch on the pace and D pulls ahead. Running 4:05ish pace now on what should be the fastest km. Can't believe it. Absolutely sh1tting myself now of going any faster. Another few sporadic warning shots in the calfs. Poxy thing is I know I have it in the lungs at this point, I just can't risk DNF. You can keep going with the warning shots, but when it comes on full bang it's game over, or at best hopping in for a 45 min +.

Km 9 is 4:02 which sucks.

D is yelling back encouragement telling me to kick but I'm too afraid to just yet. All I can think of now is getting over the line before it comes on full. I hit 400m to go and feel now I can risk it so I kick.

Km 10 is 3:54 but it's not enough. Go over the line is 40:03 chip. Agonisingly close.

It's still a pretty nice PB at almost 3 minutes, but there's something ever so slightly disappointing about it. 4 bleedin seconds. Lots of what ifs.

The cramping is a little worrying, have never experienced it before <marathon distance. Maybe I was simply racing 10k at my 5 mile pace. Felt well hydrated. Who knows. Calfs completely locked up as soon as I tried to jog a cool down. Frightened the life out of poor E with my yelp 😃

One thing I took away from it though was the fact I felt pretty strong aerobically during that last mile. I'm confident that had the calf issue not occurred I would have dipped well under it. Unfinished business.

D went over the line bang on time and was absolutely magnificent as a pacer, such a sound bloke too. I owe him a lot of thanks for the stellar job.

Kellygirl

Well done C. Frustrating about the cramping.

Lambay island

Well done .. you ran superbly and really hung in well when the cramp hit. Didn't really realise at time how tight it was for u and I wouldn't have been roaring at ya 😁. As I mentioned, maybe going out 10 seconds a km slower in first 3km may have kept the wolves at bay a bit longer. Hard to know as its a tricky one with terrain In latter stages to neg spilt..On the plus side, you now know you are well capable of going under 40. You have had a great year so far and your only going to get stronger with the Hanson plan. Great stuff and pleasure to be a tiny part of it!

bzzn87

Well done 👍️

ariana`

Ah didn't realise about the calf, that's an awful shame. I had a calf tighten on me a couple of months back, just on a training run but it's a scary feeling and I can imagine the alarm bells ringing and your mind whirling mid race, especially when your target was well within your grasp, bit of a nightmare combination really.. Any tightness since, would you get a physio to check it out sometime? Do you roll it - a sliotar is the businss, one of the kids ones to start off with maybe 😅 Fair play all the same, you'll go well under 40 next time, no bother to you, you're on a roll.

Laineyfrecks

Another inspiring performance C, always thrilled to be there! Sub 40 is defo there, absolutely no doubt🤗

Lazare

Thanks so much guys, lovely words as always.

@ariana` Thanks E, no real tightness since. I don't do any rolling at all, will add a bit in, fair play. Hadn't really considered a physio for it. It's something I'll definitely need to get a handle on before Amsterdam.

AuldManKing

The cramping shows you were right on the limit - the humid conditions played a part too,, no doubt.

You're in great shape right now - a 3min PB on a 10k is an amazing chunk of change - those few seconds will keep you motivated for the next 10k :)

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771290#Comment_120771290

Cheers for that A, great chatting to you that night.

Lazare

So I've just completed the third week of Hanson advanced. The serious logging starts now 😊

The first couple of weeks was all easy stuff, there was a speed session on the Tue last week but I skipped it. Dunshaughlin was still too present in the legs and was a good sub for it anyway. I also missed a couple of days last week, Fri and Sat due to being away for work and having a little too much fun with alcohol.

Anyway, into week 3 and the real stuff begins. Was looking forward a lot to the first of the famous Thursday tempos. A 'tempo' in Hanson language is goal marathon pace. Not current fitness MP, goal MP. I struggled with this concept for a while, goal MP 16 weeks out?? Then it clicked with me. The idea being that you should be able to comfortably hold your goal MP for six miles, and gradually that comfortable distance will increase. You get a body feel for that pace from the get go, and you have that feedback every single Thursday, allowing you to really zone in on a target.

So I needed to nail down a target in time for it. I settled on 3:05. 7:03/4:23 pace.

Monday June 26th - 6m easy. 5:41km pace, 133bpm. HR a touch higher than I would like here. Want to keep these <130 in future.

Tuesday June 27th - First of the speed sessions, 8x 600, 400m recs. Guide for these is to run them between 5k and 10k pace. Struggled to hit pace on them, slow end of that range for 3 of them and outside the range for the other 5. No concern though, for a couple of reasons. I always struggle to hit pace on this type of session, particularly early morning. Also, it's one session.

Thursday June 29th - 6m Tempo. Was excited for this, got a good night's sleep in advance. Warmed up for 3k, a little break then set off on it. Felt pretty comfortable. Felt like marathon effort. Ran it bang on pace at 4:23 average. We won't count chickens just yet though, let's see how the 8 and 10 milers feel.

Friday June 30th - 7m easy. 5:41km, 128bpm.

Saturday July 1st - 6m easy. Rounded up to 10k. 5:41km, 131bpm.

Sunday July 2nd - 10m Long run. Sundays, while always a decent distance are either easy or long. Long means goal +40secs a mile, 25 secs a km. Target for this was 4:45km/7:40ish. My wife is away this weekend, so my MIL kindly gave me a dig out and took the kids to let me run (yesterday too). I set off from just beside Tymon Park in the direction of Templeogue, intending to join the Terenure segment of the DCM route. I quickly realised I was heading pretty much downhill for the first half. Haha, dread. Felt so good though, really strong. Held the pace pretty well. 4:48 average, 147bpm.

A little niggly discomfort in my right hip, felt midweek, and after today's run. Something to keep an eye on.

A few inches shy of 47 miles for the week and feeling really good.

Loving this plan.

Onwards.

chabsey

If only my own tempo session went as well. Hit pace for half of the 10k then fell off a cliff (not literally although at least then I would have sped up). One thing I don't understand about my Garmin workout setup - I had it on my watch for an acceptable pace range - I noticed it slipping towards the 'too slow' end of things but it only slightly went off the scale and out of acceptable range. Yet my next two laps were appallingly slow, way slower than the range on my watch which I just don't get. The watch never showed me slowing down that much. If it was just one lap / KM I'd say it was a GPS anomaly, but it was two. Anyway - I was indeed too slow but hadn't thought I failed that badly.

Rest of the week not great either, today's long run and yesterday's run were both cut short as a result of whatever pox I currently have. Sort throat, coughing a lot etc. Probably shouldn't have run at all today if I was an intelligent person.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120796721#Comment_120796721

Chalk this week off, you're sick. You can't really take too much from your performances because of that. Maybe just run easy or rest and recover from that dose. We're early doors. Plenty of time.

Lazare

Watched the full 2019 Amsterdam marathon on Youtube on Friday night. Looks like such a great course, cannot wait for it.

chabsey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120796826#Comment_120796826

Ran it last year, it is indeed a good course, very flat and starting / ending in the Olympic stadium is great.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120796964#Comment_120796964

How did you get on?

What's the target this year?

chabsey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120796967#Comment_120796967

Total mess last year but I had runners anaemia without knowing it. Blew up at about 10km, also hadn't trained properly. Last year's target was 3:10, this year I still deciding - somewhere between 3 - 3:10 I think. Depends on how the next tempo run goes :)

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120796985#Comment_120796985

We're in the same boat so. If you're Dublin based and you fancy meeting up for the odd one let me know.

Lazare

Also, forgot to mention, I'm going to run all sessions in the Pro 3s from here on out. Ran the tempo and today in them.

Looking at the Endorphin Elites for the race.

chabsey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120797458#Comment_120797458

Ran the intervals today (all sessions in VF next %2) - missed all paces but crucially not by too much (3 seconds more or less) but two mitigating factors: still ill and the route I chose cause I thought it was flat turned out to have about a 2 - 3% gradient so I'm slightly hopeful it wasn't a total waste.

Murph_D

How are you lads choosing your pace targets for those speed sessions? I remember having some debate with my fellow Hansonites when I was using the method.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120803764#Comment_120803764

I was similar, faster than goal pace for the first, 7 & 8 secs out on the next two and a couple of seconds out on the last two.

Effort felt spot on.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120806214#Comment_120806214

For this morning I was aiming for a touch faster than 10k.

I set the watch up for between 5 and 10k.

Just as I was typing this I've realised I ran next week's workout (5x 1k) this morn by mistake. Jaysis 😃