Leader Of The (Mid) Pack

"It's the most wonderful time of the year"

Thu 22/12 - 5 miles@8:18 p/m

Happy with the performance here, even though I felt very heavy after working my way through more goodies during the day. I threw in a couple of strides, although not as many as intended; every time I intended to pick it up, it seemed someone appeared on the path ahead. Even so, I felt good at the end; a bit tired, but no niggles.

Fri 23/12 - Rest

Finished up with work for the holidays at lunchtime, and then I was out for a few friendly socials, coming home at a reasonable hour

Christmas Eve - Porterstown parkrun

At one stage, I had visions of chasing a sub-20 here. However, it was a very windy morning, and between that and Friday afternoon's beverages, I decided that it would be foolish to go after it today.

With this in mind, I started off somewhere in mid division, working my way past people when the gaps opened up; no point in trying to force my way through. I passed a guy on the hill passing Castleknock Celtic's clubhouse on the first lap, and that was more or less it really. With the next group over 100 metres ahead (probably 200-250 by the finish) I ran alone for the second and third laps. 22:11 and a 10th place finish, for what it's worth. I enjoyed the treats afterwards nonetheless, which today included mince pies and (non alcoholic) apple cider. Everyone was in great form, and there was an excellent turnout (76) for the day that was in it.

I've signed up for the Tom Brennan 5k on New Year's Day. In the meantime, I'm still undecided whether to run the Christmas Cracker 5k on Tuesday (chasing a sub-20) or the Fat Turkey Run on Wednesday (for the craic really) or neither. Sure those things will take care of themselves in time; it's Christmas

Thanks for all the help and advice and for reading my fledgling log. Hopefully it'll be more beneficial to me and others in 2017.

Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi mhaise oraibh. Go mbeirimid beo ag an am seo arís!

J.

Time to draw the curtain on my running year....

Fri 30/12 - Rest

New Year's Eve - Porterstown parkrun

As I'm down to run the Tom Brennan 5k next year tomorrow, I decided to start at the back for this one. Looking ahead, after I'd waddled along for a quarter of a mile, I could see it was a very weak lineup, so I decided I'd have a bit of fun. Great to just pass people for the fun of it while making little or no effort On the second lap I was up to fifth, and closing in rapidly on the two lads ahead (yellow top and orange top) much to the horror of today's RD, a clubmate of mine :eek:

Anyway, I could have pushed ahead and got third any time I wanted, but even with the handbrake on, I eased past yellow top. Orange top was practically stopping going up the hill on the last lap, but I just dropped my pace to match his. Keeping the main thing the main thing, and all that

Fourth place in a time of 22:24, after an exercise in discipline more than anything else.

Ag Féachaint Siar/Looking Back

Overall, I'd have to say 2016 was a very good year for me from a running point of view. Although I didn't reach any of my goals (as outlined on another thread), I got new PBs from 5k up to the marathon, and my first year of concentrating on running and being part of a club has been very productive.

My favourite race of the year has to be DCM. Finally having got to run a marathon in my home city for the first time was an incredible experience. I was (still am) so happy that I got over my injury problems to line up, as the challenge of the course and the support we got was absolutely amazing. Other highlights included running the Connemara Half through gale force winds and hailstones in freezing temperatures, but what a beautiful setting to do it! Also a mention for the BHAA track races in Trinity in June. Perfect weather, and a fantastic atmosphere for me to get one of my first modern day experiences of short distance, racing with lads my own standard. Wings For Life gets a mention for the novelty value; even if I was racing it I'd have found the heat and the hills really tough.

In total, I had 57 timed runs in 2016.

5k - 36, mostly Porterstown parkrun. Pb at start of the year was 20:46; this was beaten in my 50th parkrun in May (20:36). Jingle Bells brought another improvement to 20:03.

5 miles - Three attempts on the road and one XC, best was BHAA Dunboyne 35:24, no PB this year.

10k - Three of these. Fingal 10k brought a PB of 43:32, beating my 43:56 from the ARC Mini Marathon 10k going all the way back to 2013.

10 miles - New PB of 1:14:13 in the Brian Boru on Easter Monday. Frank Duffy was six seconds slower.

HM - Four of these, although Clontarf (summer) and Wings For Life were for the craic really. I got a new PB in the Race Series HM (1:37:30).

Marathon - 3:49:01 in DCM. What a day. PB by nearly half an hour.

Other - The aforementioned Trinity races (1000 yards and 2000 metres), plus a paced mile in ALSAA (6:11) and a few XCs.

Ag Dul Chun Cinn/Going Forward

2017 is a year where I'm looking to make a lot more improvements across the board, starting with my first sub 20 tomorrow in the Tom Brennan. XC will dominate between then and the end of January, when I hope to beat a long standing PB in the Raheny 5. I'm planning to run a half marathon in March, and after taking a break for exams in April, I hope to come back strong and train for DCM 2017, provided I stay fit and healthy and all the other supports are in place.

Thanks again for reading. Happy New Year!

J.

Nice one, you too. Conditions will hopefully be favourable anyway. I'll have to up my game considerably from last week to get near you?

scotindublin wrote: »

Well done today J and thanks for the shout out at the start line.

I think I got a fairly benign introduction to XC today; it was very enjoyable and was certainly good to run with lads of a much higher standard than myself.

Good luck with the Leinster XC next weekend.

C

No hassle, always good to give a bit of support, especially to a fellow 2016 Graduate

Today was perfect to start off your XC career. Course wasn't too sticky, dry on the day, no wind. Running with/against stronger athletes can only bring you on, once you don't blow your lights early and spend the rest of the race going backwards; a killer for the old confidence! Raheny 5 is one of my favourites, so much so that I'll be making it 5 in a row on the 29th.

Kennyg71 wrote: »

Well done today. Best luck next week.

Just looked 221 so couple behind you .

Thanks a million, I caught you at the very end then. For your first XC outing, and being far from in the whole of your health, that's an excellent performance. You heading to Dunboyne next week? Strike while the iron is hot

Weekly update....

With my second college semester starting this week, and assignments taking up more of my time than I hoped they would at this stage, mileage was wojus.

Mon 9/1 & Tue 10/1 - Rest

Work, college, home. Except Tuesday we went out for an impromptu pizza after college. Calorific, but very tasty

Wed 11/1 - 4 miles @ 7:41 p/m

I got out for a run tonight. Wow! Double loop with a very windy stretch as I headed west; nippy enough too.

Thu 12/1 - Rest

I had planned a run for this evening, but lack of progress the previous night relating to assignments meant I had to scrap it.

Fri 13/1 - Rest

Sat 14/1 - 5.1 miles approx. including Porterstown parkrun

Cold and frosty morning for a run, as I made my way to the park. I just about had time for a warmup lap; some slippy looking patches meant I would be taking to the grass for a fair bit of it. I had a chat with our female course record holder beforehand. Having beaten her marathon PB by 11 minutes in DCM 2016, she is now training for the Donadea 50, and ran over 100 km last week. It just brought home to me how low my mileage has been since!

As for the parkrun itself....I didn't even bother shedding the layers, which will give you an idea of how seriously I took it. 25:46, if you're asking.

Sun 15/1 - Leinster Masters XC, Dunboyne

Pre Race

After an eye opener of a debut last Sunday, today it would be time to find out how much that race brought me on. I was fresh going into it, if nothing else! Earlier, we were visiting friends of ours, and I was reasonably pleased with my discipline, limiting myself to two cheese sandwiches and one small slice of cake with a coffee, in spite of the myriad of treats on offer

Passport packed and in date, I made the short hop from D15 across the border, getting parking at the train station, although this was filling up quickly even with over an hour to go to the start of my race, at the wonderfully named Cow Park. We were down a few from last week, but even so the mood was positive as we made our way around our warmup lap. A bit different to last week, in that it would be three laps rather than the four in St Anne's.

I had a few lads to aim for; an old classmate from school running for Donore (optimistic), a Tullamore man (who actually lives about a mile from me, and volunteered in the Porterstown parkrun yesterday) and adrian522, who I had a brief chat with before we set off.

Aon

"Tommy twists, Tommy turns, Tommy Burns"

Today certainly looked and felt a lot different to the Dublin Masters, even though a lot of the same guys were running. I pushed myself forward a bit more at the start, and this time it felt like real cross country underfoot, with a lot of clumpy grass and sticky patches. I got a decent start, and managed to catch and pass quite a few early on. A few uphill drags into the breeze, although there was a bit more shelter here. I was following a Tullamore convoy on the first lap, with a Mullingar man and a fella from Drogheda (I think) getting into the mix as well. It was interesting getting a feel for where you were in the S-bend sections, but the wind in your face wasn't so much fun.

adrian522 said (either on his own log or the XC thread) that there were 18 turns per lap; without going back to the map again, I'm inclined to believe him. In a 2k lap, that's an awful lot, although I used them to my advantage on more than one occasion. Some aul fellas had a major dose of twisted blood at the end no doubt!

Dó

I was working hard to keep going into the wind on the start/finish straight, but even so, the Tullamore group were getting away slowly. They would be joined by the aforementioned Tullamore man about a third of the way through the lap. I couldn't hang on to him, although I did try! I was getting plenty of shouts on the way around, which was great to hear, I have to say. Something I'm guilty of a lot is looking around and trying to find people who (even might) give me a shout. So today it was a case of, Eyes Forward! In other words, unless you were virtually directly in my eye line you weren't acknowledged :eek: sorry if I seemed ignorant!

Anyway, by the end of Lap 2, the Tullamore crew had disappeared; if not quite over yonder, far enough ahead that I would need a miracle to catch them. There was still a DDAC guy within range, and behind me I could hear MisterDrak getting a few shouts from the Raheny crowd. He wasn't that close to me coming out of the S-bends though; or was he?

Trí

Last time on the full length of the straight, and I could see the Drogheda man starting to really hurt about 20-30 metres ahead. Trouble was, I was weakening too, and although I often thought I could have a shot at passing him, he'd keep finding a tiny bit more. In addition, MisterDrak seemed to be closing on me as I made my way through the S-bends. Time for a last push as I exited the S bends and headed for the last couple of corners before the home straight. DDAC was slowing again, wasn't he? So I started going through the gears (or trying!) and I made a significant impression as we started to turn. But then, he got faster again as we were on the home straight, and try as I might, I couldn't get the momentum I wanted going through the clumpy grass, and kept thinking MisterDrak was going to catch me for good measure. Well one of two ain't bad I suppose! I crossed the line feeling really tired, but happy that I'd given a decent account of myself.

Time: 27:03
Position: 138/159

So a slightly lower finishing position (percentage wise) than last week, although both were very high quality fields, and I'm a lot happier with how I ran today than I was last week. In spite of conditions being much tougher, I stayed in the game till the end, and I feel much more confident about future races of this type. Sadly I'm not available for the Nats, or Rás na hÉireann, where our club has done very well in recent years.

Special thanks to Annie Get Your Run for the support. I only discovered later on reading her log how much ground she covered; on each lap she was in several spots, and she also found me at the end! Fair play AM, don't know how you do it

Nearly forgot.....on Lap 2, there was a youngish lad near the top of one of the hills on the far side. As I was passing, he gave me a shout of "Come on Wubble Wubble!" Exactly as typed, although most of you who read here will know my real name. I told my wife this afterwards, and it gave her a good laugh Sorry if we've met before kid, can't place you ? If we have, I'm getting old.....you may or may not know that Masters is the new PC name for Veterans :rolleyes: thanks for reading!

J.

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Well done again great report. You looked strong on a tough course although zero mud today.

Lol on the young fella, that was fletch, he's a clubmate of mine and I'd pointed you out to him, he covered almost as much ground as I did for the afternoon (with his nephew).

Thought I might have seen him before all right? A regular runner and volunteer at our nearest and dearest parkrunning neighbours in Hartstown. Last time I was there (in the middle of Storm Desmond!) he was RD before he went off to run the Jingle Bells. Cheers O !

Time to update this log again. I let it go for six days, and it's down to Page 4 already. Shocking :eek:

What might be more shocking for someone out there, is that from Monday to Friday of this week, I didn't even do a stretch, let alone any actual running. Between work, attending college lectures, trying to complete a batch of college assignments which are due for next week, and life in general, I quite honestly hadn't the time or the energy.

So what about the weekend, I hear you say? Read on.....

Sat 21/1 - 3 x 1400m tempo runs + warmup + cooldown

The original script was that I would go to the BHAA XC out in Ballyboden, and use my experience from the Masters races to knock that 5 miler out of the park. As it turned out, I didn't have the time to go over there. Probably not a bad thing actually; on today's evidence, the six day turnaround would have been very difficult to master.

Anyway. 8 of us met the coach at White's Gate, all set for our Saturday morning tempo, setting off for the Munich laps in sub zero temps. My first time doing this type of training run, and it felt like it. I couldn't get any momentum going up the hills, and my legs felt like ton weights. Not particularly sore or anything, the push just wasn't there.

The aim of course is to be consistent with your times. I wasn't. 5:59 for the first, followed by 6:16 and then 6:25 to finish. The coach gave the newbies the option of stopping after two, but I decided to complete it, as I thought it might be good prep for the upcoming BHAA Garda XC. Still and all, I'm glad I got out, and the more of these sessions I can do, the more I should improve. Couple of nice cooldown miles to finish off a decent morning's work.

Sun 22/1 - Club long run(s)

It was still dark as a decent size group, including AMK, assembled at Castleknock Gate for an 8 AM start. I'd a lot more layers on than yesterday, even though it wasn't as cold. We set off between 8:05 and 8:10 for the opening stint, which took us down Chesterfield and then right onto what's left of Wellington Road. Having cleared that building site, we were on our merry way up the Khyber for thankfully the only time today. It's quite a while since I ran that way, and it showed. AMK and two of the other faster lads pushed ahead along here, and they subsequently turned away down the Furze Road while the rest of us headed back to the start. Anyhow, I managed to get to the end of the opening 8k stint intact and just about keeping in touch, although one of our ladies put us all to shame, getting out for this the morning after running a marathon :eek: She went home then, as did the other newbie from yesterday's tempo, while the rest of us met the late (8:45) starters

Different route for this. We headed west along the trail past Farmleigh and over to Knockmaroon Gate, before turning through the Furry Glen and going up this ridiculously steep hill that I've definitely never run up before. Even at this stage, I'd fallen back about half a minute off most of the rest of them. There was a bit of tarmac to run along as we headed downhill alongside the Glen Road, but then AMK and co shot past us, before we turned left and up another steep hill on the trail around the back of St Mary's Hospital. Over towards the Magazine Fort and I had some tarmac to pick up the pace a bit, before heading back onto the trails and through the up and down section over towards the Acres Road. From here I turned right along the road they use in the 10 Mile, before swinging left and back up Chesterfield, by now running alone and feeling a bit wiped out. Thankfully by the time I got back to the car, one or two of the lads were still around. I don't know how far I ran, but it's definitely well into double figures, and my longest run since DCM.

Sitting here typing, I'm definitely thinking I dodged a bullet by not going to the XC yesterday. Racing four weekends in a row, including three XC, could have resulted in a death march scenario. It's probably saying something that only two of us from the club ran both the Dublin and Leinster Masters in addition to the Tom Brennan. The other fella wasn't with us today or yesterday.

I've signed up for the Raheny 5 again. This morning as I lumbered around the PP, I was questioning my sanity in doing so. But maybe this will be the making of me, as I aim to crack a nearly 3 year old PB. Time will tell! In the meantime, I've got an assignment to start finish off.

Best of luck to all running in Raheny. Hopefully I will catch up with some of ye out there. Thanks for reading!
J.

scotindublin wrote: »

We were doing the Munich Hills yesterday aswell, popular spot on Saturday morning.

Hopefully the college stuff goes well this week and I will keep an eye out for you next Sunday in Raheny.

Cheers C, I noticed a fair few other lads around. Tricky enough when the ground was frozen solid coming down the hill, I might have added. Hope your own Raheny training is going well.

Assignments are complete! They have been a pain in the @r$3 welcome distraction as I prepare (!) for a so called goal race. My own fault though, they should have been gone ages ago. C'est la vie.

Murph_D wrote: »

Good stuff J. Haven't been in park in a good while - what's going on with Wellington Rd?

Roadworks were supposed to be complete and the road reopened to traffic on January 9. However on this morning's evidence, they don't seem to have done a whole pile in the last couple of months. Virtually the entire road on the monument side has been dug up, and little or no evidence of resurfacing :rolleyes:
I might also mention (back to the actual running) that I've abandoned my idea of running a HM in March. There's no way realistically that I'm going to get up to the mileage needed in 5/6 weeks; I've suffered through more than one HM where I haven't gone in properly prepared, I can do without another.

Annie get your Run wrote: »

They're making it one way and apparently including a fancy new cycle lane.

This one did make me laugh, I have to say IMHO cyclists have it far better in the PP than anywhere else in Dublin; I used to cycle into town, and found parts of my journey extremely challenging on the good days.

Mon 23/1 & Tue 24/1 - Rest

Work, college and once more throwing my eye over my assignments before I actually submitted them on Tuesday evening! Such a relief getting them out of the way.

Wed 25/1 - 5 miles @8:26 p/m

Trying to get some mileage in the legs before Raheny. I started off with two laps of Tír na nÓg (roughly half a mile) in 4:38 & 4:39 - consistent if nothing else! On leaving the park, I did the usual two laps around the loop, to complete 5 comfortable miles for the evening. Very windy, with a chill in the air too.

Thu 26/1 - 4 miles @7:40 p/m

I actually enjoyed this run around the estates road more than usual. Funny what going in the opposite direction for a change can do! Cold and windy again.

Fri 27/1 - Rest

Sat 28/1 - 5.1 miles inc. Porterstown parkrun - Much Against Everyone's Advice

The above (title of a song and album by Soulwax, aka 2manydjs) came into my head due to my tendency to do things not recommended in any pre race preparation. Last night and this morning added to the list. Up till 3 am playing poker (I won), drinking beer and eating pizza....followed by a trip to my home parkrun 6 hours or so later. Having said that, I thought I minded myself well in the parkrun itself. For the first 3.8k or so I ran with one of the regular lads who usually runs high 22s/low 23s here, before easing back off the throttle even more as a few fellas caught me in the last half mile. I didn't contemplate even trying to race any of these guys or catch the lads ahead, so that was good I suppose. 23:43 on the clock. I even did a bit of foam rolling when I got home :eek:

And so all the Raheny 5 "preparation" is complete. As mentioned previously, I've a very old PB for this distance which needs to go sooner rather than later. Build up for this one hasn't been great; a couple of decent XC outings, but not much else. I'll have to just go for it and see what happens!

scotindublin wrote: »

Good luck tomorrow J looking forward to reading he report!

Unfortunately I am going to have to give it a miss; not feeling any better since Thursday and had to stop on a very slow 4 mile run today and walk home.

Hopefully you smash it!

Thanks C, sorry to see this. Hope you're back in action soon.

Yeah just chilling out with a bit of music here, prefer the early races and timed runs!

Annie get your Run wrote: »

Completely forgot to ask how you got on earlier, you disappeared very quickly! You looked strong coming around the green so hopefully you got the desired result

That's how I roll AM, now you see me, now you don't

---

Sun 29/1 - Raheny 5 - You've Got Fail

Pre Race

It took us about an hour to get from D15 to Raheny (my wife was dropping me off), as the traffic was absolutely desperate from before the Darndale Hilton on the way across. Eventually landed in Raheny about 2:15, and after the customary rest stop, bumped into AMK as I re-emerged onto the road. We got a mile or so warmup done, before I joined the long queue for the bag drop. Eventually got this done about 2:55, so without even time to stretch properly, found my way in among the masses. The Muppet was in here, so I went over and we had a quick chat before the cavalry charge.

Miles 1 & 2

Only when we got going, did I realise just how far back I was. It took me nearly a minute to cross the start line. Even here, there were still loads of people who had no business starting where they did; the hardest part of the first half mile was dodging around them. It kind of suited me in a way as I didn't want to go too hard too early; the first mile was beyond comfortable, and I was passing loads of runners while making little or no effort.

The second mile was a disaster. I was almost down to walking pace at times, as we trundled along the Howth Road section. Normally the wind is my biggest problem here. Today was the fact that for long spells I could barely move.

Loads of people cut the corner onto Sybil Hill Road (as directed by at least one steward?!) while I stayed out on the road, and made it my business to pass all the corner cutters fairly lively, once we got a bit more breathing room on the downhill stretch.

Miles 3 & 4

Still making up lots of places as we made our way to the lowest point of the course on Mount Prospect Avenue, and then up towards the St. Anne's Park entry point just after the 3 mile marker. I was working harder mind, but I still didn't feel that I was anywhere near where I should have been. I'd been following two guys through the field from about 1.5 miles, and eventually got them just we reached the bottom of the avenue. Seconds after this I passed Marthastew, who was kind enough to give me a shout, so I returned the favour

Going up the avenue, I saw AMK on the other side looking strong, followed afterwards by Murph_D. I was still nowhere near the turn as D passed me. I might mention that I didn't look at the watch, but there's no way I should have been that far behind him, regardless of how well or how badly either of us were going.

Anyway, we turned around, and after about 150 metres coming back down the hill, I spotted the two lads I mentioned earlier ahead of me. WTF!!! Obviously they turned through one of the many gaps in the rails. I was absolutely raging, and let them have a piece of my mind as I passed them (again). Quite why people do this is beyond me. Certainly there were no prizes on the line in the middle of the pack!

Mile 5

Still passing a lot more than were passing me, although the drag towards the park exit was taking more out of me than I expected. Shortly after leaving the park, I passed a work colleague and was still feeling fairly strong as we came towards the green. Time for an eyeballs out for the line special. Just as I turned, AGYR gave me a shout, which made me smile but didn't slow me down Right again, and I'm still improving my position. One more corner! This was a massive disappointment however, as I seemed to run out of puff, and about ten people passed me in this short stretch.

36:10 on the clock, with a chip time of 35:17, and a finishing position of 714th.

Analysis

This was actually a course PB, beating my time from last year by 12 seconds. However, it's still over a minute off my nearly three year old actual PB. My race management was shocking. I feel like I overcompensated for my poor starting position (and super slow first 1.75 miles) to the extent that I fell apart on the home straight. Plus, having now run this race five years in a row, you would think I'd have the timings sorted out for travelling across, bag drops etc. All things considered, it feels like I didn't get anywhere near I should have. Still, I managed to have a hot shower and get a coffee in the GAA club, where I very briefly met AGYR, denis b (excellent flapjacks!), BG and others. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for long, as my wife was picking me up amidst the post race traffic mayhem on the Howth Road.

Next

Back to XC it is for me, starting with the BHAA Garda 4 mile in the Phoenix Park next Saturday.

kin9pin wrote: »

Well done J, great report. Not too far off your PB so a good result considering the congestion.
I need to do my report later, but I had pretty much the same experience as you, including mysteriously passing people twice in the park!

Seems to be fairly common unfortunately.

Maybe PB hunting (soft as my current one is) was optimistic given the lack of training lately. Talking to a lad from work afterwards, he's going to train hard for the BHAA K-Club 10k in April. That will be my last race before I take a break for exams. I ran it four years ago, and loved it, although for various reasons I haven't been back since. I'd love to say I could follow one of the 10k training plans closely, but college lectures and actually studying for exams hinder things considerably in that respect.

Quick wrap up before January turns to February....

Mon 30/1 & Tue 31/1 - Rest

Nearest I got to running or anything related was reading up on the reports from Sunday. So many fine performances on the road and on line, well done all!

What it brought home to me was just how poorly I really did at the weekend. I don't feel like I raced at all; not a hint of DOMS today or yesterday. It's been tricky enough not having a real goal race the last while; and even if I did, I'm not sure I could give it the time it deserved at the moment. Good job we don't have more disposable income, or I could have been headed for a Mediterranean disaster in Barcelona :rolleyes:

Overall for January, on the positive side I really enjoyed the Masters XC races, the Leinster Masters in Dunboyne in particular. Testing myself in much higher standard fields (overall) than I'm used to should bring me on in other races eventually. Unfortunately I can't travel to Waterford for the Nats.

On the road, it wasn't so good. I went from blowing my lights in the first kilometre of the Tom Brennan, to minding myself to ridiculous levels in the Raheny 5. I finished ahead of MisterDrak and adrian522 in both Masters races, yet I was 2-3 minutes behind them on the road on Sunday. What does that tell you? I really need to learn how to start getting the best out of myself. Maybe a return to XC, in tough underfoot conditions, will be a step in the right direction.

Go dtí an chéad uair eile....Until the next time....