Speed or distance?

My last race was the Duhallow 10 mile less than a week before the first lockdown one month shy of two years ago. May as well use the excuse of my first race back (parkruns don't count) to lift the dust covers on this log.

Haven't been doing much running in the last while. Got an Achilles injury last July that never fully healed. Thus running totals over the last five months are Sep/Oct/Nov - approx 50km p/m and Dec/Jan - approx 100km p/m. Indoor and outdoor cycling over the same period averaged at approx 400km p/m (cycling didn't aggravate the Achilles).

Dungarvan 10 2022

The goals for this were quite modest - 1. Don't get injured. 2. Come in sub 80 if possible. 3. Try and better my 2020 result of 1.18.08

Arrived in Dungarvan after 2 and a bit hours of driving at shortly after 10am. Felt stiff as a board from the drive and the effects of the interval sessions from training on the previous Friday were suddenly noticeable. Garmin told me I still had 8 hours to recover when actually I had less than one 😂. The plan was simple - if the pace was comfortable enough then stick with the 80min pacers until the sharp left turn after halfway. Then utilise the downhill after the turn and try to press on as much as possible for home. Also find a couple of big lads to hide behind for the bit into the wind!

After a few stiff, half-hearted drills I lined up a little behind the 80min pacers. Said hello to a few lads I knew and wished @Treviso good luck as he passed by with the look of a man on a mission. This was the tightest crowd I've been in for two years. It felt a bit surreal and I was one of the few wearing a mask for the start as stipulated by the organisers (probably doesn't make much difference outdoors but anyways).

And we were off. Space was tight and the crowd were moving slowly but that suited me fine. There was no particular rush. The pacer balloons were ripped away by the wind before the first bend. First km clocked in at 5.04 but as we reached the roundabout onto the Youghal road there was a bit more space and average pace had picked up to about 4.53. Out onto the Youghal road and we got a sideways blast of wind from the right which reminded me to pick out some targets to hide behind and duly selected a couple. Took the sharp right hand turn at approx 3k and nearly slipped. Quite a bit of mud on the road - probably some construction going on. Still running very comfortably with no issues. Things got a little dicey at the water stop with people cutting across to get the tetra paks. With that bit of confusion I lost my two shelter guys. Had a quick look around and realised I was now the shelter. Tbh I didn't feel any effect from any wind. Possibly because this section of road had high hedges or just the still relatively tight crowd. Here I spotted the 80min pacer with his balloon string dangling forlornly behind him and settled in close behind. There was a couple of St Catherine's AC runners just behind me and from the constant chatter going on one was obviously pacing the other. He was all reassurance - "you're grand, we're doing fine, relax your shoulders, keep it going". Listening to her ragged breathing I didn't share his confidence but it did make me think that my breathing was silent, I was feeling very comfortable, legs felt fine and since we were approaching half way perhaps I should be suffering more so I pushed on from the 8k mark (slightly ahead of schedule) and squeezed through a few gaps to find a bit of space.

I took advantage of the downhill and got a bit of a buzz by passing quite a few runners here. However as the gradient increased slightly my purple patch died a death. It had only lasted about 2k. Not long after I could hear a familiar conversation behind and it was the St Catherine's pacer and pacee again. Again the pacer was full of reassurance to his pacee. We were approaching the left hand turn back onto the main road and he was assuring his pacee that the road after the turn was flat - "sure look at it, it's flat". I looked myself and, no, there was definitely a drag which I remembered anyway from running it before. It dawned on me that the pacer was using a pacing methodology of gaslighting. Surely that couldn't work? They sailed past me. Maybe it does!

The last two miles were a bit unpleasant. In addition to the aforementioned drag was added some rain/drizzle whipped along by the wind which had made a reappearance (again from the side). My lack of training was starting to show as I was getting overtaken quite a bit now. And I had no real interest in responding. Time was leaking, average pace was increasing and quads were tightening. The nine mile marker was very shy - taking a long time to make an appearance. Even though we'd run through the finish gantry earlier I hadn't taken much notice of it - something I regretted now as I wondered where the finish was. Surely it's just up here after this turn - nope. Ah, it must be after this turn - still nope. Finally there it was - maybe a couple of hundred metres away. A sprint finish, over the line and the alphaflys take a few more steps on their own before coming to a stop. 

Chip Time 1.18.38

So goals 1 and 2 achieved and 30 seconds off goal 3. Time was nothing to write home about (so why the log? 😜) but what made me really happy was that the Achilles showed no negative reaction and even felt quite a bit better after the run than it had before. Motion is lotion I guess. I had run a very easy 10 mile a couple of weeks prior to Dungarvan and had to stop and walk at mile 9 due to increasing Achilles pain so I was really delighted to get through a harder session with no sign of any ill effect. This gives me confidence to resume longer training runs now.

One of the downsides of continuing covid issues is not being able to eat all the calories just expended in sandwiches and cakes at the post event food stop while exchanging race post mortems with familiar faces. Leaving Dungarvan on the Youghal road there were still runners coming in to the finish over two hours after the start. While it's difficult to say anything without sounding patronising I do admire those that go out and run knowing that they're going to be really slow. I think it takes a certain amount of grit that I know I don't have.

Onto Adare next where I hope to be a bit more aggressive with pacing and another 10 mile in Mallow to follow. Goal races are for later in the year. For now it's just about getting some base miles in and experiencing a few races again and take it from there. 

7 - 13th Feb

Tue 8th Feb

5.2k Club Training 4x1000 intervals (4.18, 4.28, 4.26, 4.28) I scoffed at my watch when it told me I needed 70 hours recovery after Dungarvan as I felt I hadn't really gone that hard but tbh I felt it a bit still in the legs for this effort.

4k Very easy assisting with the club C25k group. 7.22m/km avg. Time on feet really. HR: 129avg, 166max

Thu 10th Feb

10.1k Easy run 6.23m/km avg 65min. This was meant to be a 45 min run but I got lost. Strange how at the start of the run the pace seemed way too easy and at the end it felt like marathon pace. HR: 133avg, 147max

5.66k 5.58m/km avg 33min. Assisting again at the club C25k. Wet and cold. Time on feet again. HR: 131avg, 166max

Fri 11th Feb

3.5k Club Training Intervals 3x150 (29,26,27) and 3x110 (21,21,20) Enjoyed these short punchy intervals. 

Sat 12th Feb

9.3k 50 mins alternating 9min easy and one minute hard. I quite enjoyed this twist on the easy run. Took in the parkrun as part of it although I'm not sure what the person I was chatting to thought when I suddenly took off at speed when my watch beeped. 😳 Did a poor job of keeping the easy segments easy. HR: 152avg, 170max

37.9k for the week

21 - 27th Feb

Mon 21st Feb

6.7k 6.06m/km avg for this. Started off a little on the faster side of easy on a windy day. Pace got a little slower as elevation climbed and got slower again on the third mile straight into the wind. HR: 139avg, 150max

Tue 22nd Feb

11.2k First session for the Hanson's plan with 12x400 with 50-100% recovery (?,1.59, 1.57, 1.58, 1.58, 1.55, 1.55, 1.55, 1.56, 2.00, 1.58, 1.57) These were actually somewhere between 430 -450 metre intervals as I was using the 4th (outer) lane on the club microtrack. Goofed on my watch for the first by forgetting to press the lap button. Lost focus on lap 10 but reasonably happy that the reps were consistent. Definitely a bit flagged by the end. Probably need to practice the pacing a bit better as most of the reps were about 4 or 5 seconds slower per km than current 5k pace. Although that pace was set while wearing the alphas so maybe it's actually on target.......?? Dunno! Will have to read the chapter and check those pace charts again.

5.1k Not flagged enough to help out with the club C25k. Another 36min plod at 7min/km avg for week 7. Just another week to go on this. HR: 129avg, 141max

Thu 24th Feb

11.9k Helping out again at the club C25k but did a few miles in advance and kept plodding around with the group. A bit faster this time with 5.18min/km avg for just over an hour. Only a week in to the Hansen plan and already I'm switching sessions around. This was in lieu of the Sunday easy run as I'll be racing on Sunday which will make it my "tempo" run for this week. HR:146avg, 157max

Fri 25th Feb

6.5k easy on the track. 5.42min/km avg on the outside lane as my clubmates did their intervals on the inner lanes. Having the clubmates there makes it less monotonous and the track is that bit softer. However the Achilles was pinging more loudly than it has in a while and I was considering canning the session early. Kept going however. Sometimes that's the worst choice. HR:137avg, 145max

Sat 26th 

8.4k easy including parkrun. Was contemplating pulling out the alphas for this for maximum cushion as mindful of the Achilles. However the thought of wearing them at a slow parkrun might just look a bit too ridiculous so stayed with the ghosts instead and added an ankle support. Plodded around for 50 min at 5min/km average. All went fine and successfully achieved my slowest parkrun time for the last few years. HR: 138avg, 144max

Off to Adare tomorrow.

50k for the week so far.

Adare 10K

I woke up briefly before 7 and felt a pain in my ankle - the good one! Aw, ffs! It was significant enough to consider whether it would be wiser to cancel. I deferred the decision to later and snoozed on. When I got up proper it felt quite a bit better - enough to throw on an ankle support and trust the cushioning in the alphas to solve the problem.

I was casually flaffing about all morning doing nothing of consequence and feeding this stray cat that was proving a bit fussy that it was only after I left the house and checked google maps that I realised I was late for the race. Very late! I definitely wasn't going to get to Adare for 12.30 which was when the race office closed. And I still had to collect my number!

Google maps was showing a significant backlog of traffic coming into Adare and we got caught in that. I jumped out of the car about a km and a half or so from the race office and jogged in. Staff had just locked up (it was now 12.50) and without word of complaint re-opened to give myself and two other late-comers their numbers. Fair play, they were very sound! Now, just a jog over to the start line. It was an unusual warmup and heart rate was duly elevated but I wouldn't recommend it as a method.

Made the start line and nudged in about 8 or 9 rows back with a few minutes to spare.

Saw an old cycling clubmate, N, at the start and caught up to him just after the start and, with a grin, casually enquired "So, sub-40 today?". He laughed; "No way, sub 45 would be just fine". I kept with him for a couple of minutes but glanced at my watch to see a pace of 3.50 which was way too hot for me so I backed off and, pretty soon, he was off up the road.

My A goal for this race was sub 45 so anything 44.xx. A 5k of 21.27 last month suggested this was quite possible. B goal was a 45.xx time and C goal was to beat my official 10K PB of 46:14 from 2019 which I considered soft. I set a target average pace of 4.29 which, if I could keep to it, would bring me home in 44.50. 

The first km, after the fast start, came in at 4.17. This was faster than my 5k pace and not sustainable. I eased back a bit and shortly after it felt like the whole race passed me by. Just swarms of runners zipping past and I was left on my own. I guess this is what happens when you start a little too close to the front. The tail end of the passing group had coalesced about 30m ahead but I didn't think it worth it to try to bridge the gap. No point burning matches this early. Second km came in a lot slower at 4.35 as were hitting a drag but average was still about 4.27. The pattern of the race was slight uphills, relatively short, following by slight downhills, also short and this continued for the full course. Uphill kms were thus a bit slower with time regained slightly on the downhills. Kms 3,4 and 5 came in 4.34, 4.42 and 4.35 and halfway was reached in 22.44 which I reckoned was too slow for a PB.

I switched my target to trying to catch N, who had remained a fairly constant 150-200m up the road still within sight. He seemed though to be edging closer after every drag. I checked the time as he turned a bend. I turned 19 seconds later. Another few drags later and, I wasn't imagining it, he was definitely getting closer. The water station loomed ahead. I figured I'd skip it and save some time. This worked and I was almost on N's heels now and we came to a right bend which, for some reason, he took very wide. I saw my chance and took the inside line and drew level. A few quick words and I was away - straight into the worst wind I recall in a race. 

The field is a bit strung out and the runners nearest to me are relatively small and don't offer much shelter. There's a Bunratty AC runner up ahead that looks fairly blocky and could be useful but I figure it's a bit of a gamble to try to bridge the gap. He's just that little bit too far ahead. Everyone seems to be struggling somewhat with the wind. I slowly overtake the runners in front of me and immediately feel them lining up behind me. The unfortunate bit of this section is that it just appears long and straight so there's no relief from the wind for quite a while. I check my watch and the average pace has crept out to about 4.34. I try to do the mental maths to figure out what time that would give but can't do it. Any spare glucose and oxygen is going to my legs and not my brain. I catch the lap alert for 8km - 4.44 and figure a PB is deffo gone now 'cos most of that km was downhill. I can see the sharp left before the end up ahead. That will take me out of the wind. The trouble is in trying to reach it. It's like trying to battle some invisible force shield. Eventually we turn the corner. The ninth km seems to go quickly enough (even though it turns out to be my slowest at 4.49) because at about 9.5k we could hear the noise from the finish. There's a group beside me pushing their friend Seanie home. "C'mon Seanie, let's make it sub 45". This gets my attention although I can't figure how it's possible and I lengthen my stride and latch on to them as they make a push for the finish. The finish gantry comes into view surprisingly quickly and although Seanie and myself are flagging we make it over the line. Stopped the watch at 46.09 but thought I might get back a few seconds in the chip time as I reckoned I'd started the watch a little early. Instead I got an added second to bring it to 46.10 and a 4 second PB.

The more distance I put between this race the better I feel about it. At the time I was a tad disappointed not to get at least the B goal but a PB is a PB all the same no matter how soft it had previously been. Conditions were good bar the wind, very mild, sunny and no rain and the organisers and marshals were great. I'll have another crack at it next year if I can snap up a ticket quickly enough.

Hanson Half-Marathon plan - Week 3 of 16

Changing back to imperial from metric as most races from here on are the longer runs - 10 mile, half-marathon etc

Feb 28th - Mar 6th

Mon 28th

4 mile very easy. Did this on laps of a local grass sportsground to give the ankles/Achilles a bit of a break. Didn't care about pace and just wanted to keep HR low. Average pace worked out at 10.45/mi with an average HR of 130bpm, max 139bpm. Enjoyed this run watching the sun go down even if the grass was waterlogged in places.

Tue 1st Mar

21 mile cycle. Just too nice not to get out on the bike. Turbo is ok but can't beat the road especially when the sky is blue and the sun is shining.

Intervals 8x600 @5k pace. Hmmm... this didn't really work out as it should. Paces turned out to be slower than 5k pace and just slightly faster than 10k pace. Possibly still some leftovers in the legs from Sunday's race. Disappointing.

Afterwards did 3.49mi averaging 11.46/mi helping out with the C25k group. Even at that snail's pace I was feeling fairly wrecked and pretty glad when it was over.

Wed 2nd Mar

Rest day for running

26 mile cycle. After the crap weather we've been having for the last while I got out again today. Somewhat cloudier and cooler than the previous day. Still, great to get out.

Thu 3rd Mar

1.47 mi averaging 8.01/mile. Kept it short and sweet for the last C25K night.

5.31 mile at 9.15/mi - Had to borrow a watch after I'd misplaced my own. The display made no sense to me so tried to run easy by feel. Misjudged it and ran a bit too fast.

Fri 4th Mar

6.68 mi - 3m Tempo @HM pace with warm up and cooldown. HM miles came in at (7.42,7.18,7.31) over slightly undulating terrain. It felt like pretty hard going although HR didn't get up that high at (147,157,159). While the pace was tough but still manageable for 3 miles I'm not confident I could maintain it for 13.1 miles. Wore the alphaflys for this.

Sat 5th Mar

4.6 miles including parkrun. Mostly easy easy running.

Sun 6th Mar

110k cycle around Dingle. No running as fairly bushed after that.

35 miles for the week

Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 5 of 16

Mar 14th - Mar 20th

Mon 14th

4 mile easy. Did this again on the local grass sports ground where the perimeter grass track is on a hill. Average 10.45/mile with HR avg of 132. Nice sunny day and was starting to get some sweat on the forehead by the end. Could spring finally have arrived?

Tue 15th

Intervals day! Looking through the plan I decided this week was a good candidate to jump forward a week so today was 4x1200 @ 5K pace. I've been struggling to get the intervals right over the last few weeks so decided instead to just program it into the watch. That way I don't have to be counting laps and the watch would alert me if I was off pace. This worked out very well and the result was much more consistent than previous weeks. A fore-shortened warm up and generous cooldown brought this in at 11.29 miles.

Wed 16th

Rest day.

Thu 17th

4mi Tempo was on the plan. However I had a race on Sunday. Normally the advice on the plan if racing is to swap out the long run for the tempo. However the long run was 12 miles which I thought might be a bit too much prior to the race so settled instead for an easy, hilly 8 miles (if that's not an oxymoron). Averaged 9.26/mile and avg HR of 138bpm. I quite enjoy these hilly runs which is just as well as it's mainly hilly around me and I'm spoiled for choice regarding hills!

Fri 18th

6mi easy today and opted to keep it hilly (which was front loaded to the start) which was then followed by quite a bit of downhill. A bit windy out and average pace of 9.25/mile with 138bpm again the avg HR.

Sat 18th

Another 6mi easy was on the plan but I had a busy day and my right ankle was complaining a little louder than usual about the two previous hilly runs. This all helped to decide on a micro taper instead ahead of the race the following day.

Sun 20th

Race - Mallow 10 - Report to follow.

Just very slightly shy of 40 miles for the week.

It's just that it's so much easier to run 10 mile than face into running 16km 🤪

Mind you I still use kms for the bike. A 100k ride just seems more satisfying than a 62 mile one. 😆

Thanks @Murph_D . Good advice especially as I tend towards injury when I chase speed. For these speed sessions at the start I used my most recent hard parkrun and then adjusted using tinman's calculator with my race results to find the appropriate pace to aim for as I haven't raced any 5ks up until this week since I started the block.

I think there's been quite a few reasons for not quite hitting the paces - inexperience at intervals, inexperience on track, shoe choice, they're f**ing hard 😆 etc. Letting the watch do the thinking and tracking definitely helps and I'm not as concerned about "nailing" the speed sessions as much as getting the tempo sessions right. The book appears to suggest that the tempo and strength workouts will tell whether the goal time is achievable or not and I'm as happy going a bit slower on the speed sessions if it lessens injury risk especially if the tempo sessions are on point.

Kerry Roads 5K

Result: Somewhere between 21:08 - 21:11 | "Chip Time" - 21:43

When I first saw this race advertised I just thought "elite race" for a bunch of sub 16 min 5K runners. However, after asking one of those elite runners he said that I should enter. At club training earlier in the week the club secretary tells me that since our club is the only one that entered a senior men's team we are guaranteed team gold if we finish the race. First competition entered, first goal medal. My competitive career may have already peaked and I hadn't even run the race yet. 😄

It was a beautiful morning in Castleisland where the An Riocht club were holding the event. I hadn't been to their track before and wasn't actually sure where it was. I had gotten rough directions and quickly saw a bunch of multi-coloured runners down a side street so made it off. Plenty parking so parked up and got my number. Met one of my club team who said he'd no idea about the race until he got a WhatsApp message the night before and he was after doing a 17 mile run the day before.

I'm feeling nervous and do a few warmup drills and a bit of a warmup jog. The start time approaches and we all line up. I realise I'd forgot to reset my watch to kms and we're off. It's a fast downhill start. My watch says I'm going at 5.50/mile pace so I ease it back and the top end of the field drifts away while the rest settle into our respective positions. The 1k sign comes up fairly quickly and a quick glance at the watch shows 4 minutes on the nose. Just after the 1k mark I'm overtaken by one of the An Riocht senior women. I try and react for a few seconds but she drifts ahead. The course seems to have a faint downhill gradient and we press on. A time check at the 2k mark shows 8.17 so still going reasonably ok. Shortly after this I catch the An Riocht woman that passed me and regain my place. Either before or after the 3k mark I catch and pass a couple of An Riocht juveniles. 

3k comes in an 12:40 and I decide to stop looking at the watch and just race the rest. There's quite a nice downhill on this section and ahead of me are a St Brendan's man and one of my own club's junior runners. I target the St Brendan's runner but the gap to both remains the same. Just at the 4k mark I catch a Star of the Laune senior man who has a nice running style but has clearly run out of puff. We are about to get payback for all the apparent downhill on the course as there's now a hill between us and the finish. The St Brendan's runner isn't slowing and has now passed our junior female who is slowing up on the hill. Eventually the road levels out and we turn for the finish. The St Brendan's runner has kept consistent and I'm not going to catch him but I'm closing fast on our junior runner. I'm right behind her as we approach the entrance to the An Riocht track where the race is finishing. I actually don't like overtaking kids just before the finish (it feels kinda mean at parkrun) and I'm having a dilemma here. Then I think that a PB might perhaps be possible. While I'm juggling this in my head she settles the matter by putting in a spurt and I'm not catching her now. I think I saw 21:08 on the clock when I passed the line. Strava says 21:11. The official results come out the following day and show 21:43. Those obviously got messed up somehow. I'm not too bothered. It was still my 3rd fastest 5k time and there will be more opportunities to race the distance on fast courses over the summer.

Took the opportunity post-race to introduce myself to @diego_b from these parts who was wearing the sunglasses from his avatar and had a good race himself even finding time to do a bit of vi-guiding mid race. Pro level stuff!! 😀

Hanson Half-Marathon plan for Cork - Week 7 of 16

Mar 28th - Apr 3rd

Mon 28th

6mi easy around the local sports fields. 9.46/mile with 136 avg HR. Back on this grassy track this week. While I find it boring and it's set against a small hill so every lap needs to negotiate that climb it does seem softer on the legs/ankles so I think I'll stick with it for the Monday runs. Lovely day all the same.

Tue 29th 

Intervals with 5x1k @5k pace with 50-100% recovery. These came in at 4.09, 4.10, 4.22, 4.17 and 4.22. Pushed off too fast on the first rep and paid for it on the latter reps. Just another couple of weeks of these speed sessions thank God. 3 miles warmup and cool down brought it to just over 11 miles for the session.

Wed 30th

Rest day. Since I hadn't taken the rest day last week this was eagerly awaited. As anyone familiar with the Hanson's plans knows, the idea is to introduce cumulative fatigue and, for me, that is showing itself between this week and last.

Thu 31st

12mi long run. Swapped out the tempo for the long run due to the race on Sunday. 9.21/mile, avg HR of 141 with about 850 feet of elevation. I'm wondering if that's a little too fast. Hanson's gives a bit of latitude on easy pacing saying to keep it between 1m 30s and 2m 30s slower than goal pace. It doesn't say anything about elevation though. 

Fri 1st

6mi easy. Time got away from me a bit and it was very late before I got out for this so running by street lights. 9.13/mile with avg HR of 138. Probably a little too fast on the flat really.

Sat 2nd

6mi easy. A leisurely 6.5 miles around Muckross Lake @ 10.14/mile with avg HR of 132. Met a friend on her bike on the way around and spent half the run chatting to her which kept the pace honest. I was debating whether to drop this for a bit of a micro taper ahead of the race on Sunday but I've probably butchered the plan enough already to drop more days from the plan.

Sun 3rd

Cobh 10 Mile. Report up next.

Just over 52 miles for the week.