Leader Of The (Mid) Pack

Neady83 wrote: »

Catching up on your Clontarf experience WW, wow, so sorry to hear you suffered like that. That is a lesson to us all. Delighted that you've come out the other side in one piece, you've a wise head on you must be all that studying.

Thanks S, DNF is hard to take, but sometimes there's no other way. I remember I used to have a 100% finishing record....
Don't know about wise when it comes to racing still a fair bit to learn there. I've decided to hold off on doing a Masters. For now

The Muppet wrote: »

Sorry to read of the hm exploits J. Some of us are just not designed to race in current conditions . Hope you,re feeling a lot better now. .

Belated congrats on the results too.

Thanks T, great to hear from you. The sooner we're back to "normal" Irish summer weather the better feeling much more recovered now, thankfully. Graduation in December. Hopefully our club XC race won't be on the morning after :eek:

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There were no "very easy miles" on Tuesday. Nothing at all, in fact, until we decided on some parkrun tourism yesterday.

Poolbeg was the venue this time, on another hot and sunny morning. They had great numbers there, among them a large group from St Annes, which included FBOT and Mrs Mc. After an easy paced 3/4 mile warmup, I got back to the start for a few stretches before we headed away. It's an unusual course. You first run out towards Irishtown, then come back past the start/finish and head for the nature reserve. There's a short, but steep enough, two stage climb up to the turnaround point, which is just after half way. Back to the start/finish, and then repeat the original out and back. I deliberately started a long way from the front, and kept it fairly steady with no intention of chasing a time. The only time I raised the effort levels to any great extent was along the finishing straight with 200 to go - I looked good passing my wife, who was watching not far from the finish. Pleasantly surprised with a time of 21:58. ReeReeG from here was running as well, but I didn't spot her at all. Of course, I often forget that most of the newer people reading this have no idea what I look like - there's no photo of me on my Strava. Sure it's nice to have a bit of mystery :pac:

Had a quick chat with M (training for NYC) before we headed home. That's parkrun #99 in the bag. The century will be completed in Porterstown, in two or three weeks time. For that one, I'd like to have a shot at beating my two year old parkrun PB (20:36), which was set in my 50th parkrun, also at Porterstown.

Sun 15/7 - 5.01 miles @7:59/mi

An 8 AM start for me, with the MSBers at Castleknock Gate. With a few of the faster lads having raced the Irish Runner 10 Mile yesterday, this was thankfully a more sedate affair than normal. I felt comfortable with the pace throughout, even heading up the Khyber Road. I could have stayed on for a few more miles with the 8:45 trail runners, but after the week just gone, I might just have made the right decision to go home instead. I'm volunteering at the BHAA race in Irishtown on Wednesday, so maybe I'll see one or two of you there. Thanks for reading. J.

Sun 22/7 - South Dublin 10k, Clondalkin - DNS

TL;DR - Probably the right decision.

Another week of next to no running. I'd planned to do a few miles on Tuesday, but was feeling a niggle when I got home from work, so didn't bother. I volunteered at the BHAA race in Irishtown on Wednesday - not as many around due to the Liberties 4 mile among other things, but those that did turn up enjoyed it, and very few participants went home empty handed

I had an entry for the Sd10k, but my GAA match got moved from Saturday evening to Sunday morning, as a result of the Dubs' trip to Omagh being fixed for Saturday. This meant that there was a direct clash. I hate having to choose between these things - the gift of bilocation would be truly wonderful.

A family birthday party on Friday night, with plenty of food and drink, meant I didn't get a run in before we travelled North on Saturday. Just one beer in Omagh, but more bad food, and the fact that we didn't get home till just after midnight, meant it was far from ideal preparation for any race. So instead of heading to Clondalkin to chase an unlikely PB in hot and humid conditions, I headed out for a few easy miles on my own, before travelling to my GAA match. In so doing, I just about avoided a zero mile week!

Since Clontarf, over two weeks ago now, I've covered 15 miles. This has exacerbated a major problem of mine - eating way too much rubbish. Reasonable mileage was covering up a few sins, but being inactive has brought home just how much cargo I need to shed. In general, the first half of last week went well from a diet point of view, but the second half was disastrous.

Good news! I've decided to run my 100th parkrun on August 4, the venue being my home event, Porterstown. I'm still intending to try for a parkrun PB, so that should give me some more incentive to get rid of a pound or two. In the meantime, I'm planning to go to Marino for the BHAA Dublin Fire Brigade 5k this Sunday. Thanks for reading. J.

Mon 23/7 - Rest

Tue 24/7 - 5.34 miles@8:22/mi

Three clockwise Carpenterstown loops. Faster than I intended or expected.

Wed 25/7 - Rest

Thu 26/7 - 6.35 miles@8:19/mi

I'm definitely going too fast on these runs. I didn't feel any niggles, but still I was glad of the cloud and tree cover when it was available. Slowing down further will be the hardest thing in the coming weeks.

Fri 27/7 - Rest

Sat 28/7 - 3.96 miles@8:58/mi

I ran up to Porterstown for an easy few laps in the drizzle and cooling breeze, before having breakfast and coming back for my volunteering stint. By then, the conditions had deteriorated significantly - wet, windy and cold! In my opinion, it is much easier to run than volunteer on such days. Nice to see racheljev from these parts, who was running with her cousin. I needed another shower to get some heat back into my body when I got home!

Sun 29/7 - BHAA Dublin Fire Brigade 5k, Marino

When I woke up this morning, I was still deliberating about whether I should even travel to this or not. I hadn't registered in advance (I rarely bother for BHAA races) so I wouldn't be like I'd paid a tenner for a DNS. Diet was ok for the first half of this week, but cakes in work on Friday, followed by drinking, meant that even two days later, I was feeling fat and totally unprepared for a 5k race.

Anyway, I eventually decided I'd give it a shot. If nothing else, I'd have a better idea of just how off the pace and out of shape I was. Smaller crowds than previous years for this one, but a good few of my rivals were around, so that would be a help. Warm up (with Paddy P and John Todd) consisted of easy laps around the field at the back of the OBI, with some strides a few minutes before the start. Few words from one of the organisers, and we were ready to go.

The first 200-250m were downhill on the potholed driveway, before we turned left and onto the uphill Malahide Road. I got stuck way behind at the beginning, but once I got out the gate, it was time to start working the arms. Push hard and see how long you last. It may not sound very scientific (and it wasn't!) but I thought it was the best way to approach this one. I made up plenty of places through here, including passing my two teammates, as well as Vanessa S and John, before we turned left at Donnycarney church, onto Collins Avenue. 1k down.

The Collins Avenue section is mostly an uphill drag; not as steep as Malahide Road, but it's much longer, and the wind was against us. I got a bit isolated through here; although I'd cleared a couple of groups in the first k, I was now 50-100m behind a group of three. Not tempted at all to ease off, which is a rarity for me. Pushed hard through 2k (Celtic Park Road junction) and on towards Whitehall Colmcille GAA club grounds (roughly half way). I was gaining on the three ahead, as we finally turned left onto the downhill Gracepark Road.

Here, I lengthened my stride, which was quickly paying dividends as I closed the gap quicker than I expected. Through the 3k mark, and I was right behind them. Look behind to make sure no traffic coming. Look again. Surge. I got rid of two of the three straight away, but Darren D (JDES) stuck with me. One of my aforementioned rivals An Ardee runner was a little bit ahead on the downhill, but I caught and passed him before we turned left onto Griffith Avenue.

Breeze behind us now, and Ardee is hanging in there, even though I imagined he'd fall back fairly quickly. There's only a kilometre to go! At this stage, I'm thinking I could catch a Portmarnock lady up ahead (lead female, as I later found out), who had fallen off the group she was running with, and kept looking behind her. However, coming to the left turn back onto the Malahide Road, and hence uphill again, I was starting to tire, and Ardee caught me just after the bus stop before we turned back into the OBI grounds. I was trying to muster up more energy for a last push, but there wasn't a lot there. Darren passed me back on the uphill part of the driveway, and the 2nd F caught me as well. I did manage to get under 21 minutes (20:52), which was a better than expected outcome, my *best* 5k time this year.

More surprises to follow later! A team prize (second C class) was not unexpected, although I wouldn't normally be our leading scorer. The biggest shock of all came when my name got called out as first M45 :eek:

I honestly had no idea! I wouldn't even think of myself as an age cat contender, and certainly I've never been near it before. Glad I went over so! Thanks for reading. J.