Once in a Lifetime....for now

Week ending 6/15/18 Week 6 Grads 5/10k plan.

Monday 30th: Plan and actual was 30 mins @ recovery pace. 3 miles @ 9:54 all on the grass football pitches of the local park.

Tuesday 1st: Again more very easy miles. The 60 planned minutes got me another 6.2 miles in the bag. Took it very easy with the BHAA race scheduled for the following evening.

Wednesday 2nd: My first BHAA race, the Bristol Myers Squibb 5k. I wasn't sure what to expect from this but had decided to try for a PB of a few seconds by doing as close as I could to 4:06 per km to hit 20:30 or thereabouts. The day at work was mad busy however and I was on my feet all day. Wasn't feeling great or very optimistic beforehand. I met Damo for a bit of a warm up and then headed to the start while Damo ran back to drop off the gear

The race itself was a bit of a weird experience. I've gotten very good at ignoring the charge off the line and just settling into my own pace. Sure enough I was caught in a stampede and it felt like half the field ran past me as I trundled along. After about 500 metres I looked at the watch to see if I needed to pick up the pace....3:35 pace! ****, slow down!! Just before the first Km I looked ahead and could see Damo about 50 metres ahead. Cool, that's about what he should be gaining every km....watch beeps, first Km 3:53! Decision time....slow down more or bite the bullet, God knows when I might get the chance again. Felt very comfortable so decided to stick with it. The next 2 Kms were 3:56 and 3:54. My mind was in overdrive working out how much I could slow down 'when', not if, the fatigue really kicked in. At this point I noticed Damos group was no further ahead, perhaps even a bit closer. I kept at it with the watch showing a nearly constant 3:55 pace. I was passing lots of runners at this point and actually reeled in Damos group quite quickly. This Km clocked in at 3:52. I sat in behind the 4/5 lads and decided I'd try stay there until the end. Was as comfortable as I could ever hope to be at that pace. Tucked in nicely for about 500 metres until Damo noticed me and encouraged a fast finish. In that second comfortable became hanging on. It felt like I was slowing badly but there must have been something left as I later saw the last k was 3:38. I crossed the line 1 place and one second behind Damo and stopped the watch 19:23!!! A 1:24 PB. Sub 20! I was flabbergasted and thrilled all at once!!! In fairness Damo was thrilled for me. I said it before and I'll say it again he's a great young fella.

Had a great spread after, some gorgeous noodles, raw veg and Ramen broth. It was a brilliantly organised race, top drawer. Gun time ended up being 19:25 so I'll take that. 3rd in the male O50s, not a prize but also something beyond I ever believed I could do.

Thursday 3rd: So one of the 'rewards' of a big PB are shiny new slightly faster training paces! As a result my 30 minute recovery run came to 3.4 miles @ 9:12

Friday 4th: Another very easy run of about an hour. 7.2 miles @9:08

Saturday 5th: Plan had this as a session day of threshold intervals but I decided to do Poppintree Parkrun at threshold instead. The scary bit was that my new threshold is nearly 10 secs a km faster than the old one!! I jogged up and as I entered the park I saw Wubble jogging along. Continued a warmup in his excellent company. Set out on pace and pretty much kept it at 4:10 as planned all the way. However with some of the tight bends the course ended up short on Garmin so my 20:23 was actually a 4:06 pace. It felt harder than I expected maybe because it was too fast, maybe because of Wednesday's exertions or maybe because of a few beers the night before! :rolleyes:
Wubble finished shortly afterwards in his best time for a while. I think we'll be sharing the same stretches of Tarmac very soon!!

Sunday 6th: Oh wow what a morning. I was in the Phoenix Park at about 7:45 and it was beautifully mild. 2 idyllic laps of the park later I had 13.4 miles added to the weeks tally at an 8:49 per mile average.

So that was the week that was, an ambition achieved so thrilled to bits!

Weekly Miles: 46.9
Monthly Miles: 43.9
YTD Miles: 802

AuldManKing wrote: »

Super work. Great improvement in the PB.

Ah it was a fast flat course. :pac: Dare I say it but you missed a trick there by heading to places rural!

Week 7 Grads 5-10k Plan

Monday 7th: I had to go down to Mullingar to see if my youngest got a run for the Meath minors in the first game of the Leinster championship against Westmeath. He is only back training after a hamstring injury. He came on in the last 10 mins of an easy enough win and kicked a good free just before the end. The next game gives me a conflict of interest as Meath play the Boys in Blue in the second group game! :eek:
As for my recovery run that day.....it was a really nice 5 miler at a gentle 9:13 pace out and back a stretch of the Royal Canal....rural style!

Tuesday 8th: Another of my twice weekly very easy 60 minutes approx runs. Local roads, meh day, 6.9 miles @9:09

Wednesday 9th: Session day. 10*90 secs VO2 max with 2 mins jogged recovery. I was a bit afraid of this one because of new faster training paces and it was a session similar to this that I found the most difficult of the sessions on the HM plan. Target pace was 5:54 to 6:01 per mile. I didn't settle into the pace at all and the first 3 reps were 6:20, 6:08 and 6:04. After that I had a bit of a chat with myself and finished out with 5:53, 5:58, 5:54, 6:01, 5:58, 6:01 and 5:58. Happy enough by the end of it. Total miles including extended warm up and a cooldown came to 9.7m

Thursday 10th: A 70 minute very easy run around the locality again. 6.5 miles @ 9:09

Friday 11th: A messy evening run. Left Ballyboden at 4pm across the M50 to get an hour run in the Phoenix Park before going to the airport to collect someone at 7. Turned out the M50 resembled a carpark and I didn't get to the Hole in the Wall until 5.30. Got the hour done, 7.5 miles @ 9:02 Passed MurphD and could only spare the time for a wave, very bad mannered of me. Apologies

Saturday 12th: Session day. 30 mins tempo. New tempo is 7:02 - 7:13 per mile. I really enjoyed this but it's amazing how much faster it feels and harder to do when running alone compared to a Parkrun or a race. Average pace for the 30 mins was 6:59 per mile. Total incl w/u and c/d was 8.8m

Sunday 13th: Long run day. 14.3 miles @ 8:42. A lovely afternoon for a run and I went on a few roads I hadn't run on before. Headed down to Ballybough before getting on to the Royal Canal way passing by Croker, Phibsboro, Broombridge, Ashtown and up to the M50 aquaduct. Turned and came back through Cardifsbridge Park and Tolka Valley Park. Warm but really pleasant and great to see all the families and kids using the Canal walkway.

So it's half way in the plan and the Sunday runs will begin to shorten by 5/10 mins a week until the mini taper. I have shelved plans to do the beach race in Sandymount on Tuesday and will do the Bob Heffernan and Dunboyne 5 mile over the next few weeks.

I have a visit to a physio tomorrow to check out some niggles I have had both from pre running days and from the past year of training. Left hamstring and right Achilles being the primary concerns.

Weekly Miles: 58.9
Monthly Miles: 102.8
YTD Miles: 862

scotindublin wrote: »

Hopefully all goes well at the Physio; finding that rolling and doing eccentric heel drops is helping with my achilles.

Go with the advice of your physio though.......a nice (!!) calf massage and some dry needling maybe!

My young lad had dry needling on a hamstring....I've sworn never to do it. He hated it!! Haha