Often becomes easy when the easy is often..

Laineyfrecks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355307#Comment_120355307

Ah stop you'll have me all emotional 🙈 the feeling is very mutual 😊

skyblue46

Jaysus this is getting very saccharine!

Seriously though, well done to you both. The Sunday run gang are definitely inspiring each other to better and better performances. It's great to see.

Mr. Guappa

Great stuff C - I love that you put the target out there, went after it and nailed it. I also love the fact that you took strength from the hurt in the closing stages - a great way to frame it and use it as fuel to drive on again. 1:29:xx - well done man, you're giving me great inspiration and belief as to what can be achieved.

ariana`

Nice one Conor! You are proof that dreams become reality when you put in the work and have the belief in yourself. Seriously well done.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356528#Comment_120356528

Ah fair play A, thanks very much. No bother to you. Belief and inner confidence in yourself is so so powerful.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356622#Comment_120356622

Ah thanks so much E 😊

Wubble Wubble

That was a great read C. Nearly as good as the performance. Lots more to come, no doubt.

Murph_D

Fantastic reporting and racing, Conor. I love the way you grew into the race and got more confident as it went on.

Great training opens the door to great results: I'm envious that you got away with 70% of the volume, but the effort-based approach in recent times has been meticulous and deserves the excellent results you've posted here and last month in Raheny. I'm sure this will carry through to the rest of the racing season, all going well, and there are plenty of highlights to come.

As for race execution - awesome really. No panic at any point and a strategy for dealing with any difficulties thrown up on the day. As someone who used to be in and around your (previous) standard, I completely understand how intimidating those pace targets appeared before and during the race, and how great it must feel to have achieved and surpassed the goal.

Simply excellent! 💪

diego_b

That's a great report and race run, very well done to you!

Lazare

Guys, thanks so much for those words, really is lovely to read. It's so good to have this place to share this stuff. Awesome folk.

Comic Book Guy

Cracking race and report C. Lots to take home for anyone reading it . Love the positive vibe before, during and after the race. Glad to see it's already been shortlisted in the 2023 reports thread.

AuldManKing

Lots to take away from that report - the positivity, the approach to the race, the tactics and the training prior to it that you fully believed in, which also helped with the positive vibes.

Superb result and very well deserved.

Lazare

Cheers lads, means a lot to hear that.

tunguska

"Been listening to Dark Side Of The Moon a lot lately, played it loud on my way to Bohermeen this morning. This line from 'The Great Gig in The Sky' stood out to me, has stood out to me, but echoed this morning...."

I'm actually gonna take credit for this. You probably dont remember but one time we were in your car and I popped on a tune, it was "Time" from dark side. And now here we are years later...........truly a cause for celebration. Oh and well done with the sub 90. You're making great progress, it wont be long before you're in a position to break 3 hours for the marathon.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120362738#Comment_120362738

Haha, that's right my man. So good to hear from you.

You can take credit for a lot more than that. I always think of you when I'm in need of inspiration.

Lazare

By the way, I only mentioned this to @coogy earlier today but Time is my standout track on that album..

I don't run to music often, but when I do it's DSoTM, and mostly when it's dark and **** out. The perfect soundtrack. Time, when it kicks in gives me such a rush. Can't help speeding up.

Lazare

@tunguska I might do Dunshaughlin again this Summer if you and Paddy fancy it. Enjoyed that night a lot.

Murph_D

I'm an Us and Them man myself, can still remember the first time I heard it (my older brother had the album, not long after it was released!) Coincidentally I've been looking at a good bit of old Floyd stuff on YouTube lately myself. Timeless.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120364470#Comment_120364470

Magical stuff. I'll almost miss the dark mornings it suits it so much.

This time of year I usually run a local industrial estate, with baldonnel aerodrome to my left. There's something about that album and those surroundings pre dawn that just creates an amazing mood.

Brick in the wall Pt 1 - Happiest days of our lives - brick in the wall part 2 is something else also.

tunguska

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120363359#Comment_120363359

I'd say so. I'm actually running the dunboyne 10k in 2 weeks time so I'll see how that goes before I sign up for dunshaughlin. Although I may need to use a different pseudonym this time round. Burt Reynolds RIP

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120367064#Comment_120367064

Ah brilliant man, so happy to hear you're racing.

I only half hoped Dunshaughlin was a runner. I'll prob see Paddy tomorrow at the Tallaght 5k (Judy is racing it), I'll mention to him. Hopefully it happens.

The Burt Reynolds thing was a big highlight of that night 😄

That girl ticking your name off haha

Best of luck in Dunboyne

Lazare

Pretty relaxed week, down week pretty much. 15 easy miles total, although a stomach bug kept me off the road yesterday.

The plan for the year, from here on in is to target 5k next, 10k after that and then a focus on Amsterdam marathon in Oct.

Next target is the Leixlip 5k, May 19th. I'm thinking Dunshaughlin 10k after that.

The Bohermeen time suggests a 19:22 5k, so I don't think it's too unreasonable to target a sub 19 (eek, I said it).

My reasoning -

@skyblue46 slagged me off recently (rightly) for being a 'fair weather' runner. I tend to drop off mileage during the cold months. I've realised though that it's nothing to do with the weather/temp, but more to do with the light. I'm a morning pre-work runner and I really struggle with the pitch dark mornings. I love them once I'm out in them, it's the getting out into them that's the problem. Maybe I need a colder bed.

I managed that sub 90 off low mileage, and missing days, maxing out at 35mpw. With the bright mornings upon us I feel I can get back up to the mileage levels I was at last Summer. Basically low hanging fruit for improvement.

Also, laying down that ambitious sub90 marker motivated me to achieve it, so there's that.

That sub 90 has filled me with so much confidence in what I think may be possible. Looking also at people like @scotindublin and the journey he has been on to the athlete he is today gives me inner belief that I can also do that, and get to where he is. I'll always be chasing him though.

Onwards

Lazare

Forgot to mention that I'll be following the Grads 5k plan, link:(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LOkLQ_a9NHWe97yaRkfF6ArFmCHmtf9y1tU0LR7uMr8/edit#gid=2059597888)

I'm also coaching my wife to a sub25 for the same race. When I say coaching, I'm getting her to follow the same plan as me but guiding her through it.

She was meant to race Tallaght 5k on Friday but she was a day ahead of me with that stomach bug so missed out. I'll get her to have a lash at parkrun next Sat to get an idea of her pace ranges.

scotindublin

@Lazare thanks for the kind words above, really appreciate it. I think what you can take from my improvement is with a bit of consistency/decent mileage you can achieve a lot from running.

Smashing that 90 barrier in Bohermeen was a fantastic achievement and you have had a super start to the year. I really don't think aiming for a sub 19 5k is a crazy notion at all, you have good endurance in the legs from the 1/2 marathon training so now you just need to work on getting some pace into the legs. Before the 5k attempt def try and knock out some solid parkruns, remind the body what it like to hurt at 5k pace.

You can achieve your goals you are super positive which helps, go out and execute the plan and race.....who knows I may even make the start line for that one myself.

Lazare

Cheers C. Hopefully you do make it.

Good shout on the parkruns, I'll hit a couple for sure.

Murph_D

I'll be expecting a race report. 😉

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120497675#Comment_120497675

One second 😀

Murph_D

I see what you did there.

Lazare

Raheny open mile - race report

'That Murph fella seems to race more than he eats hot dinners' was what I was thinking to myself admiringly when I saw his Strava one random Wednesday evening a few weeks ago.

I messaged him to say as much. The Raheny Winter League. He told me then about the upcoming open mile and invited me to come along. Ideal I thought, a perfect race for the middle of a 5k block.

Myself and D have a friendly best of 3 challenge going on since early Jan, Raheny 5 mile our first duel where I edged it putting me one up.

He suggested we make this our second head to head, so that added to the excitement and fun.

I orchestrated my work day to finish up out around Raheny so sat in the van for a couple of hours out there browsing the phone, made more sense than driving home and having to leave after ten minutes.

Got the gear on then at about 7pm. I've done it many times, but I don't think I'll ever get used to dropping my trousers at the side of the road and momentarily standing in my jocks. Must see if my boss will stump up for a Winnebago.

Headed the 1k or so to the clubhouse to register and bumped into D and M at their car. I missed warming up with them though for the most part but caught up with them with 15 mins or so to go.

A lovely cosy club atmosphere around the start area that I really enjoyed and am not really accustomed to. A few strides to heat things up.

Lined up then just beside D, to the right edge of the starting pack, a few people deep. We wished each other well and I readied myself for the oncoming pain, thoughts that had been banished up until now. Boom goes the klaxon and we're gone.

I've no real clue how to race the mile, I've only ever once ran it, the boards TT. D's advice a few days before was 'Line up, run like f*ck once around the course'. Haha. So with little more than that to go on I ran like f*ck. Was a tad congested for a little bit, had to dodge around a few people on the opening couple of hundred metres, avoiding clipping heels. Found some space then. I knew I had gotten ahead of D but had no idea what was going on behind me. Looked down at the pace and realised I was far too hot, running at 3:10km pace. It was about then that the pain came on, and heavy breathing. I got the pace and effort back to where it should be and just tried to focus, picked a few people off. My plan was to try race the whole thing in the 3:30s (km) for a 5:4x, thought a low 5:40s was doable. This bit is fairly blurry other than a little worry that a car wanting to turn left across me might just go for it. I also remember thinking my HR monitor was coming loose and was looking at landmarks in case it went.

We turned onto All Saints Rd and it was blustery, I was a good 3 or 4 metres behind a girl in front so nowhere to hide. I caught up with her and edged ahead and heard her mutter something to herself. Kilometre beeped 3:34 and that felt good. She caught back up then and I matched her stride, me to her left on the inside. I edged slightly ahead then and I heard that mutter again. We came up to the bend for home then alongside each other and she took it sharp forcing me up onto the kerb, she edged ahead by a metre. I put the boot down then and came alongside her. We raced for a few metres but she smoked me and took off. 200m to go now and I feel I've nothing left after losing that battle and I lose the will momentarily.

I then hear a roar from a lady D had said hello to during the warm up. 'C'MONNNN DENIS'. Then I hear it again from someone else. 'GO ON DENIS'. I glance back and see this bright yellow singlet in my far too close for comfort field of vision. What the hell?? It gives me the kick up the hole I need to push one last ounce of blood through my gills. His fame his enemy. I can almost feel his breath. Boom over the line in 5:50, D on my shoulder in 5:51.

Three more metres and he'd have gotten me. We hugged each other then both collapsed onto the tarmac. What a race. The first real 'race' experience I think I've had tbh, where I wasn't just racing the clock.

A fantastic night that I want more of.

D messaged me today to find out my chosen charity for our challenge and shipped them a €50 donation. Feileacain were such an amazing support to my wife and I when we needed them, and it makes me feel so good that our little bit of fun we had will help someone else in our shoes.

Thank you D for the lovely message you sent them, for last night, and for being an all round deadly guy. 😊

Laineyfrecks

"His fame his enemy" absolutely love this🤣🤣