Sub 5 minute mile

Great stuff. So you're in or near PB shape. Hopefully you nail it next time.

Thanks. Never saw it on the website. So that painful closing 800m was 2:36. Lots of time bled there.

I've popped in to update the log a couple of times only to get side-tracked reading everyone elses. Great to see the place a bit busier although it does effect my productivity a bit.

Dec 6 - Dec 12

As I mentioned the mile race on the Wednesday killed me due to having to hang on after going out too hard. My lungs were shot for a couple of days after. Finished the week with 21 miles including an attempted Interval session on the Monday but I was still goosed. The wind didn't help that night as I struggled through 5x1k w/ 2 minutes jog. Decided not to worry about the splits too much which averaged around 3:30.

Dec 13 - Dec 19

Trying to make up for lost mileage I did an easy 10 mile on the Monday. I was definitely still feeling the combined effects of the race and the Sunday session and then threw this on top. However by Wednesday I was back to feeling more myself and got in a nice Tempo km session 1,2,3,2,1 averaging below 3:40 for each. Got a lot of confidence from this to be able to do it with a tired enough body. The weekend was going to be a busy one with nights out on Friday and Saturday night so I did a paired back session on the Friday, 30 minutes steady which averaged 3:57/km pace. The hangover was worse on Saturday than the Sunday one was and finished the week off with an easy 6km on the Sunday.

Dec 20 - Dec 23

Game face on this week. The only day I could see myself fitting in a 10 mile TT was Thursday the 23rd. So on the Monday I wanted to do a not too testing session that would give me two full days recovery. So what did I do? Well, the logic was not too many Intervals and not too many Reps as I cobbled together a hybrid session. 3x2 min on 1:30 off, 3x300R, 3x2 min on 1:30 off. It equated to 3600m of Interval work (covering just over 600m in around the 2 minutes) and 900m of Repeats. I think I over egged the Christmas pudding here and it should really have been 1 minute intervals as I was a bit too tired after this for my liking and the legs were heavy the following day. The 300s were in around 50s so slightly too hot too. Anyway no time for excuses onto the 10 miler...

Wed Dec 23 - 10 mile TT - abandoned

Woke up/was woken up by the baby in the morning and I knew straight away I wasn't feeling 100% as a result of the effort I needed to actually get up. That feeling you get when you might be about to come down with something. Hopefully not. Trudged around the house before heading for the office. Thoughts of delaying a day entered my head but the following day is Christmas eve and I don't have a back up route planned closer to home. I've the gear with me anyway so decide I'll be at least going for a run of some kind. Jogged out to my start point and tried a few strides. No pep in them and certainly not feeling strong. But I'm here and this run is just supposed to be "a bit of craic" (twisted definition) at the end of the year. It was a target, but well down the list from the shorter distances. No real stalling, off I go.

Mile 1 - 5:55. Had to reign the pace back a bit after the first few hundred metres. Looking for any positive signs at all, I take it as a positive that I actually need to slow down a bit.

Mile 2 - 6:02. Trying to zone in on the pace here but I was hoping I'd feel more comfortable this early into the run. The route is along the main road on a very gentle upward slope into Dunshaughlin village. We'll see what the split is for this mile and decide if I'll be turning for home in the village. The 6:02 is not too bad. I'll give it another mile.

Mile 3 - 5:58. A bit of of a reprieve here. The wind is at my back and towards the end of this mile I find myself being able to ease my effort level back a bit and actually feel comfortable with the pace. Maybe the first 2 miles shook me out of my funk. Lets keep going.

Mile 4 - 6:00. Still feeling okay here. As the watch beeps this is the first point in the entire day that I start to believe that it might actually be on today and what a surprise that would be.

Mile 5 - 6:01. Keeping on pace. This mile started with a bit of an uphill finishing with the road levelling out into the wind. I feel I'm handling it well and was still feeling capable. I'm also at a point where I'm as far as I'm going to get from base so I try to tell myself I'm committed to the full distance now (or so I thought). I knew that the biggest tester lay just ahead though and so did start to pump the legs a little at the end of this mile to get a bit of momentum heading into mile 6 which was mostly uphill and into the breeze.

Mile 6 - 6:07. Uphill for what feels like forever and into the breeze (anyone that's run the Dunshaughlin 10k might know the particular section I'm referring to). I started this mile at a good clip but was prepared to bleed time here. I decided to work a bit harder though than I had been up to here (maybe a bit too much) so as not to lose too much time and get my reward of a steep 200m downhill to finish the mile. But truth be told the hill signed my death warrant and getting to the top of that hill was literally the high point for me. I expected a lot of relief at getting there but it had just emptied me and the steep downhill, while a little relieving, was still more of an effort than I wanted as the mile beeped at 6:07. The split was actually quite good for what this section entailed but it probably was not worth the effort I had put in and how I was feeling told its own story. Only 4 miles left though. Lets see what my pace for mile 7 settles at.

Mile 7 - ... Keeping an eye at the watch I look to see where my pace settles at it as drifts up to 6:20. I try to remain controlled and regain my composure but it sits at 6:20. I'm not pushing really hard at this stage but feeling fatigued. I know I could run another sub 6 mile with effort but that'd write me off completely. I don't think the thought of "only 3 more miles" will be enough to drag me home so I finally see sense and pull the plug. If I push myself into the red zone here to see if I can get the pace back down, and if that results in me blowing up I'll still have 3 miles to trot back to base. I'll definitely get cold and possibly sick. So a more gentle trot ensues as I head back along the main road in lovely sunshine with the pesky breeze is still blowing a bit. Legs are heavy but I'm fairly nonplussed, just concentrating on keeping the shuffle at a level that I don't get cold. Ara, it was a decent workout if anything.

December not quite living up to the highlights of earlier in the year but still been a good year nonetheless. I might pop up my musings and some sort of plan for 2022 over the Christmas.

Happy New Year all.

After December being a little underwhelming performance wise I took my mind off the planning and logging over Christmas. I wasn't going to post back until I had a proper plan for the year... I still don't but that didn't stop me posting my 2022 targets in the main forum. But events have trumped plans slightly.

I got text on January 1st asking if I'd be interested in running the Meath Masters CC. 6k didn't sound too scary so I said I would. Also, the race was to be in Trim this year so unless I was to be out of town I really had no excuse not to go. They were hoping for a good hometown representation. I asked if I was M35 or M40 this year. M35 it is and was expecting I'd be making up a team. I doesn't appear that way. The club seems to have an abundance of talent from over 40 up so I'd likely be running as an individual club member.

Next task, after the recent weather. I definitely had to get spikes this time. Took too long to get the finger out so it was on a flying trip to Navan to discover no one stocks running spikes over there. Well almost non one. Sports Direct had their own brand in odd sizes so I took a pair in desperation on the Thursday before the race. On the Friday I went for an easy 9 k on the road and then donned spikes for the first time in 20 years to do some 200 Reps around a GAA pitch. After a couple of laps I started slipping and sliding everywhere as the the muck because caked on the soles. So the stock spikes wouldn't do the trick. (5mm maybe?) More panicking, but fortunately I work with a guy whose related to the sports shop owner in Dunboyne. A nice dangerous looking set of 12 mm were collected Friday night.

Meath Masters Cross Country

I could hear the tannoy from my house about 45 minutes before my race so knew I'd better go. I made the short jog with my bag on my back down to the Porchfields. I shied away a little from going around doing big introductions with everyone. Everyone knew everyone so I just kind of collected my number and went off for my warm-up, missing a team photo in the process that I'm sure I wasn't missed for. I remembered Sacksian in his log saying how most go out too fast in Cross country races and spend the rest of the race slowing down. I didn't want to do that so I'd an idea of what approach I'd like to take into the race but really didn't trust I had the experience or discipline to pull off a decent cross country race plan. Bit of research into my new clubmates beforehand helped. Trim is well decorated with successful athletes in their masters ranks including a guy who won Meath Novice CC last year. So my plan was to tail him and hope I could keep pace for as long as possible. Unfortunately he was nowhere to be seen around the race start so I picked another club stalwart that I'm sure had won the race a few times, Seán Murphy. He'd run a 2:44 marathon in October so we'd see how that approach went. 4 laps of 1,500.

Lap 1- Not sure of the runner numbers but I'd guess 80-100 were lined up. I lined up right at the outside to avoid traffic, hoping to not get mouthfuls of muck at the start. Seemed to work okay and I was probably just outside the top 10 heading over the first hump before a gentle downhill, a very acute turnaround before heading back up the same hill. 1st km beeped in 3:35. Maybe a little too quick given the conditions I thought but I was feeling nice and controlled so wasn't really fearing the opening pace was going to kill me later. That was the last time I actually looked at my watch as I now focused on the task at hand. Basically try and keep pace with Seán. The rest of the lap was relatively flat but boggy in a few places particularly at the start of each lap.

Lap 2 - At the end of the first lap 2 guys had opened up a bit of a gap on the rest of us. Had no idea who they were but I really just focused on hanging onto the back of the chasing pack which was now 6 including me tucked in behind them all. Down the hill and then back up again. I notice that I seem to weather this section better than those around me as I go past the guy in 7th without extra effort before easing past 6th place. Just before the course levelled out again I'm into 5th place going past a Dunboyne lad. But as the ground flattened and hardened again I found everyone seemed to be moving quicker than me through here. The Dunboyne guy passed me back less than a minute after I'd gone by him. Coming to the end of the 2nd lap the wind is coming at us at about 45 degrees so half cross wind half in our faces. I give a little push to get in behind the 3 guys in front of me. Dunboyne and two teammates which included Seán. The remainder of the chase group have fallen back a little as we end lap 2.

Lap 3 - Onto what is now my favourite section of the course, I pass Dunboyne again on the uphill as I continue tailing my two clubmates. Up to 5th again. Can't understand why I have to work harder again on the following flat section again to keep up. Maybe they all planned that this was the easiest section to put the boot down a little so I just followed suit banking on their experience. Dunboyne is dropped as we enter the windy home stretch for the last time. It's the first time I'm feeling the effort properly here and consider my position. "Hey, not too bad", "if I just keep ahead of whoever is behind me I should get a category medal". I knew there were 3 of us now in it for 3rd place overall but knew the two guys were in older age groups too. So, "do I need to race them here?". Hung on anyway to Seán but I must have lost concentration daydreaming about the position in was in and how tired I was feeling as my other teammate began opening a small gap. This turned out to be a deceptively large gap. He was obviously going for it with a lap to go.

Lap 4 - Hanging with Seán, I kind of don't want to go past him even though I start to feel like I could. Go through my favourite hill section as I run up beside him instead of passing. I know he's a class act and feel like he's done a lot of the work to get me this far. 3rd place is gone maybe 50 m ahead now. We start to lap a couple of athletes here so I back off a wee bit to give him room to avoid a squash going past one. But as we reach the harder flat section again someone shouts encouragement at him telling him there's only 800 m to go. I momentarily forget my respect and put the foot down. Up to 4th and I can sense he's falling further and further back. I'm also starting to close the gap on 3rd. 50 m comes down to about 40 as we get around to the home straight. Another little kick and I'm maybe 30 behind but I can see the finish is probably too close now. If I kill myself trying to catch him, he just has to realise I'm closing in and and bit of a kick will seal it for him. Also, he's in an older age group so do I really need the drama. I ease off again to allow myself to finish in a slightly less messy manner (more graceful 😀 ) than I might otherwise have had. Still f**ked mind you but 4th in 22:20. 2nd in the M35s

km splits were 3:35, 3:39, 3:45, 3:42, 3:53, 3:36. That 5th km in 3:53 stands out as when I maybe could have tried to kick on past Seán. Turns out he was actually slowing with a tight hamstring during the final lap. Still even if I had it's hard to know what I would have had in my legs a 3rd place. Very happy with the outing though. I haven't seen the official results but the gap to the first 2 looked massive as they weren't in my sight anyway on the last lap. I'm happy I'd a sound enough (simple) plan and didn't dare follow them off at the start. Could have been a lot messier.

Thanks everyone.

@Wubble Wubble I won't be racing next weekend. While I don't have an actual plan yet I do want to get some quicker stuff in over the few weeks and am considering a mid distance race. I've had bad luck announcing I'm doing any particular race on a few occasions in the last year so I'll simply see how the next couple of weeks go first.

So I ended up with two gold medals from the Masters XC. The winner of the M35 got DQ'd for not being registered (damn red tape) and while I was right that we didn't have enough M35 runners on the team. The team events were fact an M35-50 and M50+. So I got a team gold as well.

When I got the text about the XC I deliberately delayed getting my booster until after the race. It was the right call.

Monday - 6.5 km easy

Wednesday - 4x300FR, 3x400R

Time for some speed. Busy day with NCT and Booster planned. So I put my wife's car through the NCT in Kells before heading to Navan for the booster. Took advantage of being there to visit Claremont stadium and don my spikes for the second time in 20 years. Also the second time in a week. I'd given them a less than thorough clean with baby wipes in the morning and then went about replacing the spikes trackside. Managed to cut the finger of myself in the process. See aforementioned post about them looking dangerous. I somehow mustered up the courage to soldier on from my little nick and hit the 300s. I might have been a bit too giddy starting off, or perhaps a little tired from the weekend. Target pace was 48s for the 300s. I hit 45, 47, 48, 48. The last two required a bit more effort than I would have liked. The end result was that I wasn't fit for the 3x400s. I settled for 2x400 at a slower than hoped pace. 73, 73 instead of the target 70. I didn't have another one in me I'm sure. Still I was happy enough with the session and I took consolation from the fact I could hit a 45s 300 with my first fast effort which was not absolutely flat out so the spikes must have helped. So there's still a bit of speed hiding in there I hope. Off for the booster. No issues. But woke up Thursday and was very groggy with the usual sore arm and an unusual swelling under my left armpit which was also sore.

Friday - 7.25 km easy. Arm still sore and badly swollen underneath so tried not to bounce along too much.

Sunday - 16 km with 7x(1km Steady, 1km Tempo). Not a high mileage week so crammed a Long run/Session into the last day. The booster effects were finally mostly gone by now so I intended for an average pace of 4:00/km for 15 km. That would involve 1 km stready and then 1 km at Tempo effort. I started to tire around the 10 k mark but got my 3rd wind once I turned in the town for home which made the last 2 Tempo efforts much easier to do (net downhill). Looking back the session wasn't as uniform as I would have liked with the steady pace falling away after a few reps. Not helped by the Tempo pace increasing too. A couple of them started on uphills which probably had me pushing them a bit harder than I should. Finished anyway with 15 km at exactly 4:00 pace. I enjoyed that one.

38 km for the week.

The club asked me last week if I was running the Leinster Masters. I said no. I was auto registered anyway after the county championships so they were onto me again if I was running it, but I wasn't fit to. It was just as well I said no the first time due to the booster shot. I've obviously come to the attention of the club now after last week so I'm going to try to be careful in committing to races that I end up missing. Incidentally, the Meath team picked up a bronze medal I think which means I possibly would have been part of that.

My brother told me I now need to target a gold in the M40, M45 and M50 over the next couple of decades to complete a Masters Slam 😄. I can barely commit to something a month off so that sounds like something that might happen in a parallel universe.

What I have done today though, is register for the Masters 800 Indoor. Off no specific training. What I've been doing the last few weeks on lower mileage has been mostly just to try and consolidate my fitness level. Whatever it is. I increased my pace a little basically on my easy runs.

So not a lot of super fast stuff recently. I only picked the pace back up last week for the first time when I committed to racing it. With zero experience and it being indoors I can forget about pacing myself optimally. I'm banking on it being a less spectacular blow up than my mile race back in December though. Recognising it is a race I'll try and work off others and not concentrate too hard on my pace. What time I might run, I've no idea but I'm trying to get in the unfamiliar race mindset that I shouldn't care. It will be the position that counts most not the time.

Ah. Great stuff. Best of luck with it. Are you logging about it anywhere?

The 300s were with a 300m jog recovery, which took me 2-2:10 minutes each time.

A couple of posts from last year that left a lasting impact on me and even my interest in bothering to race at all. Up until now I've really enjoyed just running against myself and the clock, but was given food for thought that I may actually be able to compete, not just with myself, but with others at a decent level. The seeds were sown then. I'd hoped to try the outdoor Masters which didn't happen unfortunately. But after joining the local club at the end of last year the indoor Masters 800m was in the back of my mind since then. Although, I wasn't specifically training towards it as I sort of ambled into January but it was off a fairly decent 2021 overall I thought.

The day

I was a little nervous as I got my gear together. Still not got club singlet, so I text one of the club members asking if I'd be let run without on. "I don't know tbh but best of luck" were his exact words. Too late anyway, I was an hour from setting off at that point. Left my OH glued to the Australian Open final. Nadal had just won the 3rd set and the baby was asleep upstairs so she was getting to enjoy it in peace for now. Got down to Athlone fairly quickly and warmed up on the outdoor track. It was very breezy and I heard the same comment uttered by at least half a dozen folks about it being great we're not racing outside today. In the changing rooms lots of old acquaintances were exchanging pleasantries with some very identifiable Cork accents along with plenty of Northern ones too. Eaves dropping there were discussions about the 800 starting 15 minutes after the Women so I wasn't rushing for time I thought, until I landed out beside the track and could see all the 800m men warming up in the middle of the arena. I scamper around the side quickly and dump my bag beside a camera man before crossing the track to the infield. Name checks going on. It seemed like the steward was waiting for me as he called my name just as I approached the huddle. I wasn't late of course and there must have been another maybe 10 minutes before the O35s were called to the start. I asked one athlete where the 800 starts and where the break line is. I then ask a second fella, just to be sure. @quick feet approached me around then and introduced himself. His 800 time has been steadily improving since December and he was hopeful he might PB. He said he'd been looking for the Trim singlet, which I wasn't wearing. We wished each other the best of luck and I headed off to the start.

The Race

PB was not in my mind at all. I'd no real idea what shape I was in but convinced myself in the car on the way down that I should be at least able to run under 2:10 if pushed. But the plan was simple (well in fact too simple). I started in lane 6 with one runner outside me as we waited for the gun to go. Off we set and with only only person in front of me to begin with I made sure I didn't catch him on the bend, allowing him to break across in front of me. I didn't get the impression he wanted to lead as the starting pace was so slow and I'd to hold myself back to not pass him on the bend. We were very slow but the guys behind us even slower as we both broke across unchecked. The pace was so comfortable that I could easily check the stadium clock as we went through 200m. 34 seconds. Yep. Slow I thought to myself. Still I sat behind for the next lap too with no one challenging. As we reached halfway I again look at the clock 1:09. Ha, certainly no PB today I thought to myself. So this is actual racing. I feel a nudge on my right shoulder and become aware of the guy behind possibly going to move to the outside. I might get boxed in I think, so I surge a little and then with around 300 m left I'm feeling too fresh and decide maybe I can win this. My simple plan was indeed too simple, as I hadn't accounted for me actually finding myself in this position at this stage. I kicked with 300 to go and went past the front runner. I'm running very hard now and don't really know if I've been followed but assume I have. Through 600 m there was certainly no looking at the clock this time as my ears were pinned back. I feel I can maintain my pace to the end and hold off a challenge at one point making sure I'm hugging the rail. Round the final bend I'm still in the lead but can feel a runner over my right shoulder. I must have drifted out slightly at this point as just as he draws level I get a nudge on my left. I nudge back and strain for the line, thinking I got second. Spoke to the two lads after the race. Really nice guys. The guy who tried to nudge past me thinks I got second too. He must have gone fairly soon after to the results table as he comes back with a silver medal in his hand and offers it to me. "Would you go and s**t" I said to him. Not really though :) It was a nice gesture I thought. 2:12.09 was the official time for second place. I ran 2:12.09 also so not sure how they separated us but I was given 3rd. Didn't make much odds I was only thinking of winning it as I rounded the final bend.

Post Race

I watched quickfeets race. The 040s was much more stacked and faster too. He finished strongly picking a few off I think on the last lap and was close to a PB. The O40s was won in 2:03!

On my own race. It was an unusual but enjoyable experience for me. With a better strategy being the order of the day maybe. Not saying that would have got me the gold though. The other guys can run much quick than 2:12. It might have left me with more questions too though. Who knows. Re-watched the feed on YouTube and checked the splits. First 400 was 1:09 (200s in 34 and 35), the second 400 was 63 (200s in 33 and 30). Very happy with that 30 second final 200 tbh. I'm not sure I could run a final 200 any quicker than regardless of tactics so fair dues to the guys who pipped me. I was thinking that going with 300 to go might have been too soon. I probably tied up a little over the final 50m, so if I was in the race again I might have not moved until 250 to go. But as I said, who knows. Really enjoyed it and it was refreshing to not be so buckled after the run as I was after my 800TT last year. I'll throw a screengrab of the finish below, if only so I can crack the joke my mate made when he saw it. It looked like the two lads were taking me to draw my pension from a Carlow Post Office.