The (Not So) Flying Scotsman

Not really to much to report from my work trip away. Got out for a couple of runs of 4 and 5 miles and had planned a Central Park run for the Saturday morning before I came back but far too much drink on the Friday night put paid to that.

Weekly Update just over 43 miles for the week.

Monday: Faulty wrecked in work so got out for a 2 mile jog around the football pitch at work. A very easy 8.47 per mile.

Tuesday. 7 miles @ 8.13. Couldn't face the club session so left from the club along Conygham Road up Islandbridge through Kilmainham and down onto the Quays past The Brazen Head. Followed the marathon route to the Polo Grounds in the Park and back to the club.

Wednesday Session: 4 x 2km with 3 minute recoveries felt guilty about not doing the session so headed for the Polos 2 km splits 8.07/8.09/8.07 and 7.57 got it done but that's about it.

Thursday: 6.3 @ 8.12 stretch of the legs after session day. House to the Phoenix Park and met up with the real boss who was out walking.

Saturday: Session 8 x 1km with approx 375m recoveries on the Munich Loop splits 4.12/4.08/4.07/4.07/4.03/3.58/3.58/3.44. Good session and strong finish over the last few.

Sunday: 10 miles @ 7.46 normal Sunday 10 mile loop from the club. Felt good on this one.

Giving Judith Chalmers a run for her money and away again next weekend. Get that out the way and get back into normal routine.

C

A touch over 56 miles for the week over 6 days. Two session both of which I ran down to from home bumped up the mileage a bit. A good solid week after the Novice XC

Monday 7 miles @ 8.40 per mile. Down to the Phoenix Park from the house loop around the pitches and home. Took it nice and easy after the Novice and thankful to report no issues after the race. Always somewhat wary of calf/achilles issues after running in spikes all seemed ok though.

Tuesday Session Day: 2 day affect kicked in from the Novice so could feel it in the legs. Running down to the club and warm-up made it 4 miles before the session started. For us that had run the Novice the session was 10 x 400 off 200 recovery at a controlled pace. Pretty much kept to that but snuck in an extra 2 at the end. Fairly tired after the run home.

Wednesday: 6.5 @ 8.23 From work into Malahide and around the Estuary back to Swords. Legs tired from the session but nothing to worry about.

Thursday: Week 2 of the work Pilates class followed by 5 miles at 8.08 glad to get it done and could feel a rest day was needed.

Saturday: Fartlek session on a slighty extended Novice XC loop. 5 Laps of 600 on easy 200; 200 on easy 200; 400 on easy 250. Great session despite the weather. Absolutely drenched by the time I got home. To use a good Scottish expression to describe the day it was dreich and didn't improve much!

Sunday: Touch over 14 miles at 08.05 per mile. Down to the club from the house to meet up with the lads then our normal Sunday loop and home. Plenty of groups out there today. In a contrast to yesterday an unbelievable morning for a run.....the marathoners will be praying for something similar in 2 weeks.

This week will be much of the same and hopefully get around similar mileage.......easy miles down and home to sessions could be an idea way a squeezing a few extra miles to the week. Most likely do the Leinster Novice the day before the marathon as I will be volunteering at the club water station on marathon day.

C

Weekly Update
6 Days 35 Miles a race and marathon volunteering.

Monday: 7 miles @ 8.24 per mile on what has become my go to Monday loop the last few weeks. Down to the Phoenix Park from home with a lap of the football pitches and back. A nice loop but head torch will be required if this is to continue as the Monday loop.

Tuesday: Easy enough session on the road of 8 x 400m with 200m recoveries not at full effort with the Leinster XC at the weekend.
Splits of 95;105;103;104;100;101;95 and 100.

Up and down to training added a few miles.

Wednesday: 5 miles @ 8.50 easy miles prescribed by the coach for Wendesay and Thursday so ran a straight 2.5 miles from the house into the Memorial Park and home.

Thursday: 45 minutes of Pilates then an easy 4.5 miles around the Swords/Malahide Estuary.

Saturday: Leinster Novice XC in Navan on chilly but nice day. Wasn't really sure what to expect here as had never ran the Leinster Novice. A coupe of laps of the course to get a feel for it. Nice up hill start before heading down hill for a stretch then almost running a 'n' shape and back down towards the back end of the course; plenty of twists and turns and a decent climb from the end of the lap to the top of the hill.
Going into these I always think 1. Get off to a decent paced start. 2. Follow the lad in front and 3. Don't get lapped.

Was happy enough with how the run went not really at the standard to be even mid field here. Quick chat to WW afterwards who was also happy with how his run went.

Sunday: A huge 2.2 miles down to the club for 0700 to get the water station for the marathon set up. Tables up water/Lucozade (in cups;sticky mess which we left to the juveniles) read and time for a morning coffee and it was go time. Had a great morning volunteering and managed to spot a good few familiar faces out there. Fairly manic as the pace groups went through and amazing how many people bail into the first table at the water station! Was a great morning and really appreciated the words of thanks from the majority of the runners. Everything cleared up and home by 1300 you would hardly know there had been a marathon on by the time we left. A fairly slick operation to be fair.

Who knows I might he pounding the roads for DCM 19!

Weekly Update
56 miles for the week over 6 days.

Monday: 10.7 @ 8.20. Made use of the bank holiday and the lack of Sunday miles to get bust under 11 done. House/Phoenix Park Loop. Legs a bit tired after the Leinster Novice.

Tuesday: Track session 12 x 300s with 300 recoveries coach took it slighty easy on us after the weekend. Splits
65;62;63;61;59;59;60;59;57;58;58;55

Pushed it a good bit as the session wasn't too long. Ran up and down to training and was tires enough by the time I got home.

Wednesday: 6 miles @ 8.50 a straight 3 miles out and back. Tired so took it easy.

Thursday: 45 minutes Pilates class then just over 6 miles at 7.51. Loop from the club to the main Phoenix Park entrance up the avenue to the Castleknock roundabout down the Ordanance Survey road through the Furry Glen back to the club. Bit quicker than necessary but wasn't really checking the watch as we were just chatting away.

Saturday: Session on the Magazine Hills in the park. Very hard to get going in the near gale force winds! Lap was about 1100m with a 300m recovery.
Splits: 4.25;4.28;4.31;4.38;4.31;4.35;4.32

Hard to get caught up with times owing to the conditions.

Sunday: Long Run 13.3 miles at 08.11 usual Sunday loop of the park with the lads from the club. Felt decent on the run after a decent weeks training.

Main aim for this week is to give the 10k PB a rattle in Clane on Saturday.

Hopefully so; would be nice to get the sub 40 monkey off the back!

skyblue46 wrote: »

I think you'll do more than rattle the 10k PB with the training you have been doing lately.

K Club 10k in April is primed for it if you have not done one before then.

skyblue46 wrote: »

Something I'd like to do too. Not sure when I will race a 10k again though.

One more won't do you any harm! That's one thing I need to do next year.....race more!

What's on your hit list?

skyblue46 wrote: »

Another one to add to the 20 races I have planned! :pac:

A low mileage week of 29 miles over 4 days and a crack at sub 40 for the Clane 10k.

Monday: Easy Monday of 6 miles @ 8.55 per mile. Just a straight 3 miles from the house down past Donore before turning back for home.

Tuesday: Session in miserable weather. Prescribed session was 10 x 800m off 400m recoveries. With the 10k coming up I decided to do 6 at somewhere around planned 10k pace. Splits were
3.11;3.13;3.04;3.06;2.58 and 3.07. Pacing a bit all over the place and it was absolutely miserable. Got the 6 done and got home before the cold set in.
I am never 100% sure what to do race week so have sort of settled on decent efforts of less reps.

Thursday: Took Wednesday off. 45 minutes Pilates followed by just over 4.5 miles @ 8
08 per mile from work. Legs were feeling decent so thought taking Wednesday off was the right thing to do.

Saturday:Clane 10k. Had planned on running this from about mid September time as I wanted to have a rattle at a sub 40 before the end of the year. Had really only had one serious attempt over the summer in Dunshaughlin when I was disappointed to run 40.21; looking back I had talked myself out of this attempt before really starting and was never quite on pace the highlight here was a good natter with Sean on the cool down. The only goal here was 39.59 or below.

Got down nice and early and no issues with number collection etc. Very impressed with the set up at the GAA club. Got a very short Warm up done before heading to the start line with the only other Donore body running it.

Quick scan at the start line and I didn't recognise any familiar faces around. Lined up beside the sub 40 pacer pretty much on the front row.

There was a pretty good course description posted online so knew there was a decent drag then a bit of a hill on the first couple of km before heading out into the country roads. Just the 4 of us with the 40 minute pacer ( who I have to say was excellent; bang on the money pace wise knew the course well and was full of encouragement).

Nothing too much to report in the first 3km. 3.56/3.58/3.56 through the first 3km (taking these from Garmin as had decided not to hit the lap button for the course kms). All good through the first 3km was feeling decent and was happy to be bang on pace. No need to check the watch again and just stuck to the pacer.

KM4 was on very narrow county roads through a small townland with some locals out with jellies. KM5 was back onto a main road into Clane with some gentle undualtions through 5 and 6. Knew there was a decent climb up km 7 ( good instruction from pacer here on racing line and working up the hills also let us know he was banking a little time for the hill up to the 7km point.). Knew if I got through this stretch it was a nett downhill to the finish.
Splits 3.58;3.55;3.55;3.59 bang on again and still feeling good; hill was sharp enough but not overly long it was pretty much just me and the pacer now. He checked in how I was feeling and what my PB was here.

8-Home. Could feel the effort levels growing and had a bit of a wobble somewhere between 7-8km when I got a sharp pain in my calf (actually feels like someone has punched it even today). Bit of cramp like pain but wasn't overly concerned. Just got the head down and got stuck in barring a disaster sub 40 was on. Once we got though 9 km it was a nice downhill to the finish. Just worked as hard as I could here.
Splits 3.55;3.57;3.51 plus a bit for Garmin inaccuracy. Actually put the foot down and finished strong over the last couple of hundred.
Official time of 39.27 really happy with that and makes the last couple of months worthwhile.

Sick pooch at home so didn't get out this morning. Plan is to take it pretty easy this week. Some of the lads are talking about doing the Dublin Intermediate at the start of December I think that might be a step to far. Next focus will probably be the club handicap race on St Stephens Day. Also noticing a few options over Christmas and might give the Clonliffe 5km a lash.

Epic post apologies C.

Thanks D good to get it done. I hope you are recovering well after the marathon. Any thoughts of giving up that football to concentrate on running?

Sheep1978 wrote: »

Great stuff C. well done on the sub 40

Bags of potential there for the running. The recruitment drive will need to start to get you into a club!

Sheep1978 wrote: »

Done with the footie now (I think!!!).

Thanks E delighted with the time.

In terms of your question re pacer. I suppose going into the race you have to be in shape to run the time that you are aiming for although the pacer definitely helped in a few areas.

1. I was bang on pace from the get go; something that I didn't do in Dunshaughlin in the summer
2. Good knowledge of the course and correct line to run on
3. Offered encouragement on the tougher sections.
4. Took my annoying habit of checking my watch too much away from me as I just concentrated on form and following the pace set.

This of course owes a lot to the quality of the pacer as an example on the other end of the scale I ran a 5k last summer and went sub 19 but the sub 20 pacer was ahead of me for the first 3k!

So in short I would say the pacer probably helped a little but at the end of the day you still need to run the time yourself.

C

ariana` wrote: »

Well done C, super run. Can i ask do you think you would have done as well without the pacer?

Outside of the marathon that is the first time I have ran with a pacer. It was quite different in the 10k as there was only really 4 of us shooting for sub 40.

Now is sub 39 possible!

ariana` wrote: »

Thanks C, just a general interest. I don't have much opportunity to run with a pacer as most of my local races are rural events with a couple of hundred runners. I have contemplated asking someone to pace me for 5k/parkrun but the pressure of having them coming along especially to pace me puts the frighteners on me :pac:

Definite aim for next year D! Good solid winter of training coming up hopefully.

Sheep1978 wrote: »

YES

A bit of a meh week this week shade over 30 miles over 4 days and bad news on the pooch front.

Monday: 6 miles @ 8.48 3 miles straight out and back from the house.

Wednesday: Just over 5 miles at 7.55 down into Chapelizod from the house and ran a loop up St Laurence Road down past Ballyfermot College and back to Chapelizod.

Thursday: 45 Minutes Pilates.

Saturday: Session on the Magazine in the Phoenix Park efforts were ran on a km loop with an approximate 375 recovery back to the start. Session was 400/300/200/200/300/400 over the km loop with 200m recoveries. Sting in the tail was 100m with 100m recoveries on the last km. Great session and with the long recovery after the km felt you could push it a bit.

Sunday: Just over 11 miles at 7.55 with some faster miles in the middle. Cut the run short when I spotted the real boss in Chapelizod heading to the Phoenix Park for a walk. Counting that 3 miles as a gentle cool down. Quick hello to Wubble on the North Road.

Was always going to be a pretty low mileage week but was still lower than planned as I just wasn't feeling it at all. The week got off to a pretty crappy start when we had to say goodbye to the dog;it has been a pretty quiet house this week.

Get back on track this week; thinking of getting an indoor debut at NIA Live before the end of the year so will look into that.

And don't tell anyone but I entered Dublin (saw they were doing transfers so stuck my name in the hat).

C