Chapter 2 - Finding Nemo

Not my usual happy go lucky self this week. lol. Rough rough week of constant night waking and tired/stressed/niggly heads in the Swashbuckler household but what can you do I guess.

Monday-Easy 7M @ 8.05min/mile. The start of what has been an extremely draining week. The run itself was fine. Physically (running wise) I've felt great this week. Felt in really good shape. No niggles or anything like that. It's the fatigue and tiredness that has been the issue and not from the running.

Tuesday - 5x3mins @ 5.50min/mile Off 75s. 5x30s Hard Off 60s.
Part of me considered not doing the session but I knew in my heart I'd regret it if I didn't. To be honest this wasn't one of those days where I wasn't able for a session. I was just feeling a tad sorry for myself.lol. Effort levels were definitely higher but that was in no small part to the gusting wind. Very hard to judge the effort levels on this one as you'll see from a couple of the splits.
Summary of the session. First 3mins was as hard as the first set of an interval session usually is for me.
Next couple were fine but I could definitely feel the tiredness. The last two had a small section of headwind and a pretty long section of tailwind hence the faster splits.
The 30s would normally be my favourite part of this but I just wanted to be done with the session to be honest. Just one of those days.

Paces for the 3min splits were: 5.53/5.46/5.55/5.34/5.41.
Paces for the 30s splits were: 4.54/4.53/4.51/4.54/5.11. Legs didnt have much by the last 30s.
Total mileage for the session was 7.09 miles.

Wedensday and Thursday - Easy 5M. Took in some sections of the Limerick Half route which was great. Got a feel for the bumps and drags on the Dooradoyle/Raheen side. I'm already very familiar with the Ennis Road side so I have a good feel for the route which is not something I can say very often.

Friday - Rest.

Saturday - Plan is to do a 20min shakeout/recovery.

Sunday - Race day.

So there you have it. It is what it is. One of those weeks where you're just fed up and wrecked and absolutely nothing to do with the running. Spoke with coach earlier in the week about babies and race tactics. haha. Nice to see another running Dad on the scene. Plan is to start off at roughly 6.20 pace and see from there. This one is hard to gauge for me. I haven't ran a half since May last year. My pb of 1:31:35 is from years ago. I was really looking forward to the challenge. Right now I'm a little less bright eyed and bushy tailed. Hopefully I get some sort of sleep the next couple of days and I get to have a good crack at this. Either way no excuses. We all have to balance life with our running. Weather looks like it could be in or around 15 degrees. I'll have to invest in some shades Roll on Sunday.

Thanks everyone. I've probably learned not to judge how you feel until you get moving on race day. Just a tough week. Absolutely draining but i'll suck it up. Thanks for the advice. Key thing seems to be stay controlled in the first few miles so I'll take that on board (was also the advice from L).

healy1835 wrote:

Best of luck tomorrow mate. A great time is there for the taking, play it by ear as the man says, see how the 6:20's feel for a few miles and then make your decision. Run well.

Cheers all. Sneaky fecker Healy. What a run!

Marathon runners are badass lunatics. Yes that's how I've chosen to open my Great Limerick Half race report. Coz that's the major takeaway I have from yesterday. How on earth do ye badass lunatics do that for 26.2 miles. The half felt like a whole different ballgame entirely. A completely different feeling to the 10k. In hindsight, the best worst feeling I've had if that makes any sense.

Anyway I'm rambling. I've had time to reflect. Usually I'd be straight on with my race report but between finishing the race (yes I did finish), getting the legs massaged out, trying to find wife and baba, finding them, watch her video of me waddling to the finish line (yes waddle. I told coach we need to do some work on my running technique haha), home to shower, into town followed by the most wonderful family day of sun, drinks, food and walks. My favorite weekend in Limerick bar none and I'm living here since 2005. We even got to hear bellx1 do there sound check while sitting in the sun by the river outside the Curragower. Beautiful. Anyway I continue to ramble.

It's been well documented how crappy my sleep was all week (since November) so I woke Sunday morning off the back of what I now call a decent night's sleep. Only woke at 3am and 5am so not so bad. Got up at 6.45, took baba downstairs, had brekkie (one diuralyte, two weetabix, wholegrain bagel with mashed banana). Listened to some music and relaxed. Not Disney this time. I've learned the hard way not to listen to Frozen before a race unless you want 'let it go' repeating through your head for the entirety of the race. I'll be honest I was a little nervous. I haven't raced a half since May last year and that was run with no real target. PB is from Charleville years ago 1.31.35 or something like that. So slight fear of the unknown. Words of encouragement and advice from Coach, AMK and a few others on here definitely helped. The consensus bar none was conservative first few miles and see from there. In hindsight very solid advice and not what I would've done without the advice so thanks everyone. I said goodbye to the missus and baba and collected my buddy at 9.30 and drove into town. Parked up, stripped and off we went. Great encouragement from passers by even on the way to the start line. Got to the start line around 10am and headed out for warmup. Headed out the first mile of the route and back. Felt good. Some short strides. All good. Cut the warmup slightly short to support the marathon leaders coming through. Martin Doody came through halfway around 1.12ish. Ouch. They actually had the road split for the marathon and half marathon which was very good considering some of the faster marathon crowd would be coming through as we were starting. Headed back up to the start line. Met some people I knew. Lots of good lucks and how are you feeling. The usual. Haha.
Had to listen to a few speeches before we got going. Not to be mean but I just want to run. Let us loose please! . Haha. Bob Geldof gave us some words of encouragement and counted us down. Off we went. I had positioned myself about 8 rows from the front. I was ahead of the 1.30 pacer so I figured that was fair position. Had to do a decent amount of zig zagging but was ademant to stick to pace and ignore around me. 6.20 was the target and I was happy to see that exact pace after 800m. By now I had cleared the worst of the crowd and was in a nice open stretch of runners. Around here a lad i know from work and Limerick Ac came up beside me. He's the lad I had marked off in Adare. Sound fella and we're at similar level right now so we exchanged targets for the day and paired up for a bit. Delighted to have someone to work with. Mile 1 clocked 6.17. Good man Paul. You listened.
Mile 2 had a drag by Old Crescent rugby but nothing major. Actually I was surprised I really didn't feel the drags in the first few miles. Probably due to the handy pace and working with a group. Still going handy. Pace felt pretty handy as I was foretold by Wubble. Spot on with the advice lads. Still working with Limerick AC buddy.
Mike 2 clocked 6.19. Still following advice. Haha.
Mile 3 brings you up into Dooradoyle. I know these roads like the back of my hand. Here we passed another Limerick Ac lad running the marathon. This was the lad the worked with me in Ennis so I was seriously rooting for him to do well. He was on target for sub 3 but had already cramped. Gave him as much encouragement as I could and pushed on. Mile 4 and 5 loop around and back down Rossbrien road. On mile 4 Limerick Ac buddy had pushed on and I left him off. I was judging how I felt and the pace was getting a little tougher partly due to heat and partly due to a quicker mile 4.
Mile 3, 4 and 5 clocked at 6.17, 6.08, 6.13. The quicker mile was partly due to familiarity with the route and the great support we got in the housing estates. No biggie. I felt it a bit and knew I didn't want to go near that pace yet. Not due to advice but just knowing what was coming plus the heat was picking up a bit. The downside was limerick Ac guy was gone and I was a little isolated. If this was a 10k I'd have pushed with him but it just felt to soon. So I held and isolated myself. Worth it in the end.
Mile 6 was back up Rossbrien road. Some lads had come back to me. Tried opening a chat with one of them as he was bang on 6.15 pace. He had very little to say in return. Haha. So I let him be. He continued to go backwards. On my own again. Mile 6 clocked at 6.12 and it was now what I would consider hot. In fairness there were plenty of water stations and the only one I skipped was the last one on mile 12. I knew we were heading back into town. After the big drag at the start of mile 7 it's all flat into town and I knew the support would be a boost. Mile 7 and 8 are pretty much through the city. A great feeling running through the main streets. All traffic closed and great support from everyone. A real boost.
Mile 7 and 8 clocked at 6.18 and 6.09. 6.18 was a little slower coz of that fecker of a pull past lidl.
So by now I felt like I thought I should. Working for sure but not flat out. Legs tiring a small bit. What I hadn't accounted for was the mental hit you take when you head away from the city and into the deadest part of the route. North circular road is just a drain mentally. Coming from all that cheering to what feels like nothingness. No offense to the residents but the support here was sparse to say the least. It was here I had to constantly repeat positive reinforcements in my head. You've felt a lot worse than this before Paul. You're doing great. Fair play Paul you're brilliant. Haha. Funnily enough the Yes campaign posters really helped. I just kept seeing Yes Yes Yes. All positive reinforcements. By now had taken the mentality of picking off people to keep me going. It was roasting at this stage so whatever works you do it. I had caught up with a lad i had my eye on for a couple of miles. He was much more chatty. He was targeting 82. He wasn't local so I explained to him what was ahead and to keep going coz we had a nice downhill respite coming on the Ennis road. Unfortunately he didn't want to hang with the pace. I had eased upped the pace a small bit by now. So he dropped off. I wished him well.
I was surprised at how many people I was passing. I had caught back up with Limerick Ac guy. He was finding it tough. I told him to stick worth me and we'll work together. Had a bit of of banter with a couple of marathon lads. They thought we were running the marathon and heading towards 2.30. I laughed at that. Nah lads we're running the half. Why do you think we're looking so fresh. Wished them well and pushed on. It's now a mental battle. Very warm but can't honestly say it affected my running too much. Maybe it did and I didn't realise it. Limerick Ac guy couldn't stay with me so I had to leave him behind. Pity coz I was now isolated again.
Mile 9 and 10 were 6.17 and 6.15. We're now at the business end.
Mile 11 in a way is a bit of respite as it's flat followed by downhill to the Gaa grounds. But the downside is on the opposite side of the road you see all the lads ahead of you coming back up towards their last mile. Mentally tough. But it's how you deal with these mental challenges that separates the lads who push on from the lads who fall apart. I knew mile 11 would be decent given the downhill section. Mile 11 clocked at 6.10. The next mile was going to be horrible. I knew that. Two big drags, sun beating down, legs just screaming, lungs working hard. Focus Paul. No way you're quitting now. Just hang in there and then it's flat to the line for the last mile. Passed more people but this was just really tough. That hill back up past the Gaa grounds was horrible. On the plus side you now get the slight mental boost of seeing everyone on the opposite side struggling with you. I made it to the top of the hill and knew then I wasn't gonna quit on myself. That was it. The worst of it was done.
Mile 12 clocked at a really tough and hard earned 6.22.
I had read during the week that for the latter stages of the half just pick someone ahead of you and focus on catching them. Then pick the next and so on. And that's what I did. Now the support was building again. Keep going Paul. Well done legs. I know you're hurting but it'll be all over soon. Keep working with me. Haha. Might sound strange but I talk to my body like it's a separate person when I run, telling the legs that they're doing great and thanking the lungs for hanging in there and promising the brain I'll load up with chocolate later. Haha.
I passed a lot of people on the last mile but by now I was really hanging on for dear life. The last few hundred meters of limerick run can be very confusing. They have what looks like a bunch of finishing lines but knowing from experience you have to pass through these and the line is on O'Connell st. I approached the final turn shoulder to shoulder with my last target. To be honest I didn't feel like I had much left to muster a battle but stubbornness got the better of me and I just couldn't leave it be. So one final "sprint" and he had no response. Both legs gave a quick shot of cramp as I approached the line but all OK. Mile 13 clocked at 6.04 and the 0.12 clocked at 5.41 pace (40s).
Official time 1:21:43.
I was buckled. Put the arm around the medic and he sat me down. Haha. I was fine. Just legs like jelly. Sat for 2 mins, Thanked them and headed up towards the massage tent. Much to my delight there was no queue so I had a lovely calf massage which helped a lot. Headed up to collect my medal. Met a few people I knew and checked how they got on. Lots of pbs. My Ennis partner ran 2.58 and stopped twice with cramp. Delighted he got his sub 3 and there's more in him for definite. Happy days. Finally managed to locate wife and baba and she was delighted. Watched my waddle video, laughed at how wrecked I was. We hung around for a while before heading home for shower and post race Riverfest craic.

So there you have it (sorry for the giant essay). I'd like to say it's a massive pb but I have to be honest with myself, it was a soft pb and from years ago. So for me, this is now my baseline for the half and I'll be attacking that pb in Charleville. I expect HBS to be in sub 1:20 shape by then so we can work together . Absutely delighted with that run. Sure, delighted with the time but more importantly I proved a few things to myself. The 5ks and 10ks are a lot more forgiving. To run a half or full on the edge of where you're at takes balls coz you pretty much don't find out until it's too late that you're f*cked. Haha. With a 5k you will get warning signs quickly and you can ease back a bit. Similar with the 10k. The half is a different beast and don't even get me started on the full. Much respect to you marathon lads and ladies. So I'm happy I ran to my edge. Racing the half takes a lot of skill.
Another pleasing aspect is I'm aligning up my times across the distances which tells me I'm getting much stronger as a runner. We can all run fast 5ks but the real skill seems to be doing it across the spectrum of distances.
So to sum up, a great day at the running office. I think that was my best run so far. Better than Ennis, Adare, anything previous. Tough as hell but looking back I loved it and hated it. Only runners understand what that means. My wife still looks at me weird when I say that.

The tracker tells me I passed 55 people which is quite high compared to the top 30. The positioning on the website seems wrong. It has me finishing behind the guy I passed at the end. Not sure what's going on there but who cares really. So I finished 31st which ain't bad considering the standard! Had a good laugh seeing the comments on the Limerick thread when I disappeared off the tracker. Yes lads I did finish and I have the video to prove it. Haha. It was fun to see me (amongst others) being one of the runners tracked on Boards. I'm so used to following others.

Next up is a week of easy followed by a 5k block and trying to get that 5k pb in line with where I'm at. I have a 5k in Shanagolden in a few weeks but that's more of a baseline than anything. I'll have done no specific 5k stuff for that. Looking forward to a downweek. I think it's been 24weeks solid since me and coach started working together. My god some difference in my running in that time. And all with a new baby, promotion at work and very little sleep! Haha. Who knows what I might achieve when I start sleeping again. Coz I will start sleeping again? Right?

Thanks to everyone for the support and advice. It genuinely helped.

Says a lot about the length of that report that Boards cut it halfway. Haha