From minutes to miles

aquinn wrote: »

Nice weekly mileage. Well done, Anna will be furious

I know. Why do you think I run??

Monday - Rest

Tuesday – 45 minutes easy

No watch, did a local loop taking in St. Anne’s that I knew was about 45 minutes. Struggled on this, no energy, legs felt tired, wanted to bail throughout.

Wednesday – Football

Thursday – Pilates/Rest

I was going to run as I had an all-day hen party on Saturday that would leave no opportunity to go that day. By Thursday evening though the legs were sore from a tough pilates class and first football in a few weeks, rest seemed the wiser option.

Friday – 55 minutes Fartlek (5.71 miles total)

Found this challenging, in a heap by the end. By treating it as “fun-play” session with no target times I think I’ve a slightly bad habit of going for hell for leather on the reps, the start of each and the early ones especially making the later stages a struggle. Might need to ease off a touch so I’m not dead on the feet for the last couple. Or is that the point to push myself????? Arrived home looking a sweaty mess and the OH says “ I thought this type of run was supposed to be fun….you don’t look like someone who just had fun”. Recoveries of 1 minute for the 1 min reps and 2 minutes for the 2 & 3 min reps.

8 mins w/u @ 10:34

1 min x 2 (7.44, 7:50)
2 mins x 2 (8:02, 8:04)
3 mins x 4 (8:23, 8:11, 8:13, 8:23)
2 mins x 1 (8:17)
1 min x 2 (7:54, 8:03)

8 mins c/d @ 11:05

Saturday – “Rest”

All day hen with water sports consisting of wakeboarding and stand up paddle boarding meant it wasn’t a very restful day. Cross training though! Plenty of workout for the core and upper body. Followed by lots of drinking, I can only imagine how much sugar was in those cocktails……..

Sunday to Tuesday – Rest

I had planned Sunday as to be honest the legs and body felt like they needed a break. Couple of spots feeling somewhere between tiredness and outright niggle – localised discomfort. By Sunday evening though I had a little tightness in the hamstring near the knee from the water sports, pretty sure it was from using the leg to get the turn on the wakeboard. I didn’t think it was anything serious, just overexertion, but with Docklands 5k on Thursday I figured it was best to err on the side of caution and give it a few days to recover properly.

Wednesday – Football

I was supposed to play in goal so as not to tire out the legs but one of the girls was sick and went in instead…..needs must.

Thursday – Docklands 5k (4.58 miles total)

I had planned an treating this as a target race with a taper, as it happened I was at risk of being overly tapered and sluggish!! The Thursday fartlek didn’t inspire much confidence that I was able to hold those kind of paces for an entire race so the bare minimum was to improve my Bob Heffernan time (26.11) with my recent Raheny 2 mile, on tired legs, indicating on VDOT that 25.30ish was a good aim. The closer to 25 the better or a PB (previously 25:07) for A-goals and under for dreamland.

Did a mile warm up, met BungyGirl and aquinn on marshal duties and as usual felt a bit meh on the warm up. Nice relaxed start, toilet queues not too mental and good organised start area. Lined up a few rows behind the group with the sub 25 pacers. I thought I'd crash and burn if I set out with that target so the plan was to keep them in sight but kind of do my own thing. Grand start, congestion wasn't too bad and I made a conscious effort not to tear off like I did at Bob Heffernan. With the lead up towards the start line the balloons had moved further away but with chip timing I wasn't too concerned. Tried to ease into a steady pace, about 2 minutes in I did wonder if I was actually way too slow for any of my targets. Started to get the legs moving through the gears and got into a good rhythm moving past people when I could. Taking the bridge over the river I made sure to take the shortest line on the road and stuck to the inside. Looking at the watch I could see 7:5x pace throughout so was aware of the fact Raheny had started the same but became tougher to maintain in the second mile. Heading down the quays now and I could see murph_d just ahead. Gave him a little wave with some welcome encouragement in return. I was still doing more of the overtaking and the balloons were still about the same. I had been promised super supporting duties by the fantastic stewards and I could certainly hear aquinn. BG spotted me and gave me a great shout but meanwhile aquinn neglected me. I helpfully made her aware of my presence and got roared at. I knew I would be chided after for wasting my energy but I also knew I'd be bouyed by the interaction. Definitely perked my spirits for a short while and was a a helpful distraction. First mile was 7:53.

On the stretch towards the turn around point the leaders were passing me in the opposite direction, great to see them in full flow in a little pack of three at the front. Seeing the pacers pass me too gave me a good feel of where they were so that was a reality check - in a good way, I definitely hadn't dropped off. The turn was 180 degrees so killed my momentum slightly and as soon as we turned I noticed we were moving into a fairly steady wind. The mental demons started earlier this time, about a third of the way into the second mile "we're not even halfway yet, can you keep this up for longer, you're struggling". The pace dropped fairly dramatically. Having to work harder into the wind, the mindgames, feeling tough. Tried not to let it get to me, I knew I had some extra seconds from the first mile and hoped that when we turned onto the south quays again the wind wouldn't be an issue. The balloons seemed to have pulled away slightly so ignored the watch and just focused on not slowing any more and try to reel in the pacers and I also knew as I approached the super supporters that my distance from the balloons would be appraised (I heard slightly conflicting results of this appraisal after the race!). Some more great cheers to which I could barely manage a grimace by now. The second mile was 8:18.

I tried to do a systems check and used this to reassure myself with thoughts that physically there was no reason why I couldn't keep going at this effort and pick it up, the only thing would be a dislike of things hurting. Heading for the bridge I was ignoring the watch and picked one guy ahead to catch up to, past him and picked someone else. Going over the bridge I was very aware of my breathing, it sounded horrendous. I was on the shoulder of one guy and he looked behind at me a couple of times....oops I was that distracting person. There was a group of guys here that had me boxed in slightly so going around the corner onto the quays I went past them there. I knew my pace had picked up and I was digging into every resource I had to keep at it because I was aware that by now sub 25 was a realistic possibility. I had closed on the pacers and with chip timing and looking at the watch I knew it wasn't completely out of the realms of possibility. The other voices started with "well, getting close would be an achievement, you could use it as the guidance point for the next attempt, even a PB would be good enough, don't worry if you don't get it this time". I ignored those voices and focused on the one saying you can do it, you're really close, just a little bit more. Like a vision one of the pacers had dropped back collecting stragglers which gave me great reassurance. He was trying to get one girl to keep with him (with me clinging on to their wake about 20 metres behind) and she did for a while but then she had to give up. To my horror he started to pull away then and a gap opened. We were past the Samuel Beckett bridge by now and I couldn't quite see where the finish was. It can't be those red lights ahead, that must be something in the port area....oh crap it is, that's miles away.

Mile 3 was 8:03 and I could hear the announcer talking about time on the clock versus chip, the sub 25 group going across the line etc etc. My last look at the watch had confirmed sub 25 was within my grasp and I had been saying to myself to give everything I had to get it, asking myself how much I really wanted it. From that point I just went as hard as my body could let me, couldn't say anything about whether anybody was near me, or if I overtook people. Crossed the line absolutely spent, looked at my watch (24:47) and ended up lying flat on the ground beside the river recovering my breathing. Calves were seized up completely when I stood up, walked to the water, couldn't stomach the look of the non alcoholic beer and cheered home a few other people. Saw the pacer who had dropped back and thanked him for helping to drag me towards the finish even if he didn't realise it at the time!

Got my stuff, did a half mile cool down and grabbed my bike and met the super supporters for a recovery cycle home. Even though the watch had it I couldn't really believe it until I saw the chip time (just in case) - 24:49. Absolutely delighted. This was the end of my current training plan and I had felt that PB's weren't far away but thought this race might be a touch too early for the 5k PB and sub 25. I guess it all went right on the day though. I still laugh when I think this is some people's easy or recovery pace but it was a mental milestone for myself that's been nagging for ages so happy to knock it off and hopefully more to come.

Great race by Crusaders, will definitely be back again. Great price, seamless organisation, good crowd, decent course, super supporting on route (not just from those I knew, although they were a big help) and the pacers definitely helped keep my focus. Will definitely be back!

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Am on a mega catch up, well done, delighted to see all your patience paying off. And more today?! Do tell!

Not as much to tell! Not the time I was hoping for, 54:10 so no pb for me. Disappointed and not at the same time. Will get around to updating log at some stage this week....

And onto week beginning 25/07/16

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - 35 minutes easy (3.3 miles @ 10:37)

Easy loops by work to loosen out the legs after Saturday. Had cycled in beforehand so was well woken up.

Wednesday - 45 minutes very easy (4.19 miles @ 10:45)

No football so a very easy local jaunt with a spin around St. Anne's. I remember very little about this aside from the legs wanted to go slowly, so I did.

Thursday - Rest

Friday - 45 minutes easy (4.28 miles @ 10:33)

I was quite hungover today after a work night. Supposed to run into work but couldn't face it so pushed this until the evening. Thought it would be a struggle but actually felt great, very surprising. New healthy food regime recently started - maybe it was the fact I didn't fill my body full of sugar to compensate for the hangover.

Saturday - 65 minutes (6.45 miles @ 10:13)

Met annapr for this one to do the trails around the Phoenix Park. Really enjoyable, some lovely parts of the park I've never seen before. As usual it flew by with company and the tiredness was less noticeable with the chats. I began to think I'd done something to annoy her as heading for the car she took me up some near vertical trail

Sunday - 35 minutes easy (3.44 miles @ 10:10)

Short route around Raheny before driving to Cork. Legs felt good.

21.66 miles for the week. All easy running to recover from Fingal and to get the mileage back up a bit after the last couple of weeks with races, before starting into the new plan. Some different sessions on it so will be a change but I'm looking forward to it.