Once in a Lifetime....for now

Thanks to all for your well wishes.

First things first, it was a fantastically organised race. I've had a suspicion that I'd prefer this to the corporate type events and now it's confirmed! Biscuits, sandwiches, cups of veg soup....exactly what the doctor ordered post run. A huge thanks and congratulations to all in Bohermeen AC.

Bohermeen Spring Half Marathon:

Got down to Bohermeen about an hour before start and was well impressed with the parking arrangements. Roadside parking about a mile from the start but shuttle buses on hand which were more than able to handle the demand. Had a quick chat with Browneyes and jogged down to the start with her. She was hoping to break 2 hours and I had my fingers crossed that she would succeed. Like me she had done the Grads plan and we were both interested to see if the work had paid off.

The Race: Unlike my usual mile by mile race reports this one is going to be much shorter. The reason? Because I had a plan to try run 1:36 which was to be even paced at 4:33 per km. Normally I'd have ups and downs, slow bits and less slow bits but today was different. I actually managed to run a pretty even paced race with a slightly faster finish. Being in between the 1:30 and 1:40 pacers meant for a pretty lonely race and it was only towards the end that I started to reel people in. It's noticeable that in this type of club race there are less of the go out too fast and blow up merchants! Splits per km were 4:37, 27, 32, 30, 27, 30, 31, 30, 29, 24, 31, 32, 30, 33, 30, 27, 28, 22, 18, 16 and 26 secs for the last 0.12km. Net result...a 6 and a half minute PB!! 1:34:12!! Thrilled beyond words both with the time and the way I ran it.

Went back out the road for a cooldown after collecting goodie bag and a nice snazzy long sleeve shirt. I was hoping to meet Browneyes and maybe pace her in for her sub 2 attempt. No such need! I was only a couple of hundred yards out the gate when I met her, looking comfortable and with minutes in hand. More than five minutes inside 2 hours and a PB of more than eight minutes. I also bumped into another novice, Omeceron, who knocked 10 minutes off his 2:05 PB also on the back of the grads plan. Big thanks to Testosterscone for his plan. It has been brilliant. I really don't understand why so many '18 novices and '17 DCM graduates are messing about with other plans. This one is the real deal!

Had the aforementioned soup and sandwiches, a chat with AMK and Browneyes, then off for a few pints in a lovely cosy pub in Skryne. :):)

Safiri wrote: »

No worries at all, being a pain in the ass comes naturally to me:pac:

I thought insistence was more politically correct but yes a pain in the ass is probably more accurate :pac:

scotindublin wrote: »

Class performance Sean all the hard work you have put in has paid off in spades!

Delighted for you as I know how much this one had meant to you.....I must admit to stalking the results to see how you got on!

Enjoy the few pints to celebrate.

C

Oh I will...a few and a few more. Yeah it was an odd one. It was important to me as I felt a few of us were like crash test dummies for the Grads plan. 3 runners with a combined total of 25 minutes of PBs says it all. Success!

Baby75 wrote: »

Well done Sean I hope you have been enjoying the celebratory pints Well deserved

Had a few after the race. Home now, showered and out for a few more tonight. I think I'll watch the highlights of the real Skyblues demolish Kerry again!

denis b wrote: »

Well done Sean. That was one very disciplined and well run race today. Great run and great result.

Thanks Denis. The penny has finally dropped as regards pacing. It's amazing how one pace can feel like a jog at the start and pure torture 90 minutes later!

diego_b wrote: »

Great stuff Sean, big well done to you. Very well paced and a strong finish there.

I'm delighted. Really I can't thank the gang in here enough. All ages, all paces, everyone who contributes here provides little gems of wisdom and inspiration. From people striving to do a 5k in 30 minutes to those who run 50k races there is the connection of wanting to improve. I'd leave too many out if I tried to list them but in all honesty the contributions on Boards are often incredibly motivating.

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Congrats on a very successful day all round

When I throw in the Utd and Ireland results too it turns into a near perfect weekend!

Firstly thanks to all for your very kind words. They are really appreciated.

Well that's the first block of training done of the year and very satisfactorily so. It all went great apart from missing a couple of long runs over Christmas and a couple of sessions during Emma's snowy visit. What have I taken from the training and the race itself? Firstly I love the graduates plan provided by Testosterscone. It ticked all the boxes for me and I really enjoyed my first experiences of sessions. Some were painful of course but I got a real high from getting them done. Secondly I have begun to embrace hurt Hopefully the days of crazy negative splits are gone. They served a good purpose for me and helped build confidence and belief but their time has now passed. This has been helped by the race paces on the calculator on the grads page. I have found it very accurate and it has allowed me set race paces that are achievable while also taking me to my limits and a bit beyond.

Next couple of weeks will be nothing but easy runs. I base this on one easy day for every mile raced. After that I will start on the grads 5/10k plan and aim at a yet to be selected target race that ties in with the plan. I will probably deviate from it slightly to throw in the odd race along the way. I have a softish 10k PB to get rid of and a jelly soft 10 mile time to improve on.

The plan finishes on June 25 so any suggestions for a good 5/10k race on this weekend would be greatly appreciated. I'd prefer if it was a good club run race rather than any of the race series. I've been bitten by the bug that was the feel good mood in Raheny and Bohermeen. A race must have sandwiches and/or cake! :pac: